#so I currently have the two durges one of which was my main game

[mokeonn]

I need to bombard yall with my new bg3 characters bc I recently got back into the game and started a new tactician and honor mode save

[lillotte17]

I just woke up, so good morning, let me see if I can string any words together in a coherent pattern. This has actually been on my mind for weeks. Slowly driving me insane.

200 years. Two. Hundred. Years. 2 HUNDRED years.

That amount of time is literally incomprehensible to us in terms of personal memories and trauma. We can barely remember anything collectively as a species for that amount of time without losing bits and pieces of it. It is more than 2/3 of the time that Astarion has been alive. Well, "alive."

I am currently in my mid thirties, it would be like if I had died when I was 7 or 8 years old and then had to try and remember everything about my personality and my family and my morality from that time period. I do remember it, of course, but a lot of it is pretty vague. A lot of things that I know happened, or that I know I did, I remember because there are other people in my life who knew me then. Astarion wasn't a child, of course, but time still has it's way with things, and there is no one in his life he knew from before he became a vampire, with the possible exception of Cazador, and he's hardly a reliable source of information. Trauma also damages memories, and he has spent more that 2/3 of his life being constantly starved and beaten, and abused in pretty much every possible way a person can be.

The main point being that it is simply not possible to make any firm assumptions about the kind of person Astarion was before he was turned. Maybe he was a horrible, power-hungry, back room dealing, lying, racist, POS trash-man who deserved what he got when that group of thugs jumped him. Maybe he was kind underneath all his bluster, and had a strong sense of justice, and he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most likely, he was something in between. But we can't know. And Astarion probably doesn't really know anymore either.

(I firmly believe that Cazador chose him specifically to be a spawn, and possibly even orchestrated the attack on Astarion. They might not even have really been Gur. Astarion would only have Cazador to rely on for confirmation about what really happened to him that night, and having a culture of people who hunt monsters and were likely already targeting Cazador himself be the same group that murdered Astarion seems pretty mmmm convenient.)

And for all that he is a chaos gremlin, prickly rat-bastard, dumpster fire of a man, it is honestly pretty astounding (and rewarding imo) just how much growth he can have over the course of the game, which is only a few months, tops. (assuming, of course, that you are playing a good aligned Tav/Durge) But even before that, after the first night he tries to bite you, he is the one who immediately promises that he's not going to feed from innocents, with no prompting at all from the player. He doesn't ask to keep feeding from your PC, and he only drinks from you if you offer it. (unless you direct him to in a fight, I guess, lol) That feels huge to me. He has been STARVING for 200 years. Part of being a vampire is that he's always kind of starving, but he doesn't want to be a slave to that hunger any more than he wants to be a slave to anything or anyone else.

I'm not saying that he's secretly a good man deep down, but even from the start, the potential for him to be better was already there. Which is AMAZING because, as I said earlier: TWO HUNDRED YEARS.

Like, imagine that you know absolutely nothing about yourself except misery and torture and losing things, and it fucks you up, and you KNOW it's fucked you up, and you are terrified that one wrong move could send you back to the place that you just escaped from, and you still say, "I'm still not going to attack the innocent people around me for no reason, though. Sure, I might laugh if they manage to get themselves killed in an amusing way, but it's not going to be my fault."

[lynnlovesthestars]

The Vault.- Work in Progress page.

Hi, welcome to my work in progress page, where I'll update with the status of the current pieces I'm writing, and to give a sneak peak on what's coming up.

When im mentioning OC, im always referring to my oc @wisterialynn

Status: I (Idea), W (Writing), E (Editing), B (Beta reading), T (To post), P (or strikethroughed, posted)

Genre: DDDNE (Dead dove), A (Angst), F (fluff), S (Smut), H (Hurt no comfort), C (hurt with comfort)

It includes requests

Astarion:

Untitled (Astarion x reader), where reader gets gravely injured and Astarion doesn't like it. W C F

Pretending pt. 3 (Astarion x reader) After a night of cuddles, waking up in an empty bed feels oddly wrong. W C F

Pretending pt. 4 (Astarion x reader) the shadowcurse is way more dangerous than what it seems H W

Little bump (Astarion x reader), dadstarion headcanon T F

request (Astarion x A Tav who rides a very large wyvern, with them having a bond similar to Daenerys and Drogon or Daemon and Caraxes from GOT/HOTD??) W

request (Could I ask for a Astarion x Durge!Tav I've done 2 Durge playthoughs and wish , which ever companion you romance has a reaction when Durge rejects to be bhasls chosen and gets killed but brought back to life by withers [...]) E

Untitled (Astarion x reader) teaching magic to Astarion F I

Bloodshift (Astarion x oc):

Untitled (Astarion x OC) Dddne, oc has gone through some harsh things for the past 4 years, and he has doubtful ways of coping. DDDNE, H, I

Untitled (Astarion x OC) where oc has a gift for Astarion, but he didn't think it through, featuring the couple rings you find in the graveyard near moonrise towers. C W

Untitled. (Astarion x OC) modern au, where Astarion has had a crush on oc for a long time, but does the wrong thing and almost fucks it up. W C

Untitled (Astarion x OC) college au, Artist !oc and best friend! art model! Astarion C W

Rooftops (Astarion x OC). What if they met after the fall of the netherbrain? C T

Nightmares. (Astarion x OC), study of their nightmares and their backgrounds, written in parallel. T C

Untitled. (Astarion x OC), where one can't hide anymore that they have to be caught in the middle of compromising moments, ft. oc background mentions S T

Untitled (Astarion x OC) Guardian angel au. I

Untitled (Astarion x OC) Background study of OC's trauma, ft smut. S E

Untitled (Astarion x OC) study of oc trauma, ft. hurt comfort. C W

Untitled (Astarion x OC) Miniseries walking through their relationship and rewriting scenes from the main game based on how oc would react. I

Holidays (Astarion x OC), for the holiday challenge on ao3, where the two lovers confront the fact that they have lost a lot since the last moment of peace they had. (W C

Karlach:

Untitled (Karlach x reader) finally you get to touch Karlach how she deserves. Inspired by the dialogue in act one- which is bugged in my run so i can do it over n over again) S W

Letters (Karlach x Dammon) title is self explanatory. F W

Untitled (Karlach x ??) Karlach has a twitter gossip account in anon and plays matchmaker. Modern au, socmed au, (Current plan for next milestone to recruit one reader's oc?) I

Wyll:

masquerade (Wyll x reader) meeting at a masquerade and falling in love I

Gale:

Untitled (Gale x reader). The netherbrain has been defeated and only the gods know if you'll survive the fall. W C

Untitled (Gale x reader), you are low on magic items, so you look for alternatives to help your wizard crush. W S

this kiss https://youtu.be/d-QO55xmS5A?si=8Zup_Dgz0iroNNgt W F

Jaheira:

Untitled (Jaheira x reader) sequel of dinner is served. S I

Shadowheart:

Untitled. (Shadowheart x reader) there's only one goddess in the shar temple until you kneel betweet her legs and the Lady of Loss is forgotten. S W

Laezel:

Shattered. (Lae'zel x reader). Vlaakith broke her heart, and it's you that has to pick up the pieces. C W

Halsin:

tbt

Minsc:

tbt

Other:

request (Could I request headcanons for Harleep, Astarion, Gale, Wyll, Halsin, Dammon, Rolan, and Zevlor with kind and patient gn s/o? This is quite self-indulgent of me because I have been told I'm too nice & so patient so I'm curious how they would react XD) W

request (Could you do a separate scenario thing with the companions(Astarion, Gale, Wyll, Halsin, Karlach, Shadowheart, and Lae’zel) The scenario I was thinking of is Tav who’s married to the companions(separate) is arguing with their child in another room about Uno.) W

[maegalkarven]

Out of curiosity what happens to all of your dark urges post-game?

This is going to be LONG, so i'm putting it under the "read more".

Thanks so much for asking and giving me an opportunity to rant about my boys! (they're all masc, yeah. All kind of trans. I am not projecting anything. Also I lied just now)

As of now I have 3 (4 counting Morgan) developed till post-game Durges.

Morgan is my first playthrough and maybe shouldn't be counted, but he and Astarion leave for Underdark. Morgan is a drow bard btw and his story is the messiest bullshit ever bc at that point I was still figuring BG3 out.

Now to the fun part! (June, Levi and Nemo). Mind what all 3 of them are romantically involved with Gortash and it plays its part.

So let's start with my favorite druid asshole Levi. He visually appears to be a tiefling. 6 ft tall handsome young man with one blazing green eye, one eye pitch-black (later an implant of the eye of the devil he took for himself), wavy ginger hair, freckles EVERYWHERE and a very arrogant attitude. His horns have been broken by Sarevok when he was around adolescence.

Levi has 2 versions of how his live goes after the end credits. Basically his good (canon) ending and his bad ending.

Bad ending is where Gortash dies, Levi goes the whole "I am god" way, takes the Crown of Karsus for himself and erases Bhaal from the existence of the universe, successfully taking his domain, his aspect and his place. It's a lonely life of godhood for him and the one where he loses himself.

His good ending branches depending if Noah (his son) exists.

If Noah indeed exists, Levi has a whole ass husband and a son waiting for him at home (in Baldur's Gate) and a whole new playground of the city. He transforms part of the city into the garden and creates the new circle of druids with Kagha as the achdruid. But inevitably fuck off to hells to fight not his battle bc he can and he loves fighting.

Levi is set on a long ass quest conquering Hells bc: 1) it's fun. 2) His homie needs Mizora dead. 3) His other homie needs Zariel dead.

If Noah wasn't born, his path goes almost the same way (considering Hells), but it's the main focus of his, and the main goal. In that version he wants all of Mephisto's wonders for himself and operates from the House of Hope what he and Gortash live in (while planning evil things for evil reasons, yeah. "If heavens are out of reach, we will make Hells ours" kind of an attitude.)

Basically for Levi it's either godhood but the path of loneliness or a lot of shenanigans in hells with his two best friends (Wyll and Karlach) and the wicked partnership with Gortash. Watch him successfully balance out THAT dynamic mix.

Then there's Nemo. Nemo is non-amnesiac Durge who got very weak after his sister's attack. Looks like a half-drow (ppl keep calling him half-breed and he hates it. He is a pureblood bhaalspawn, damn it!) Looks like a golden child with sun-warmed skin, golden eyes and hair and A LONG ASS SCAR ORIN LEFT OVER HIS PERFECT FACE. THANKS FOR NOTHING, SISTER. Short (5 ft). The only 'off' thing about him is what his sclera is black.

He is also the mastermind behind the successful creation and management of the current cult of Bhaal in BG as it is. Nemo's misadventures are featured in the series of oneshots called "Empty Prayers".

He has only a good ending because I said so, and this is where he kills Orin and himself in a double suicide act, robbing Bhaal of the chosen and a child. Bhaal throws a fit, Withers plays a savior.

EVERYONE is angry at Nemo, Orin is left with no memory of who she is or what the fuck is going on.

No one is happy 2.0.

His post-game ending is where he is a shadow over the BG, a leader of the newly established assassins' guild into which he drags his lover and partner in crime Astarion.

Nemo is a man who transfers the cult of Bhaal into something else and earns money for it. It is easy, because most of the cultists only knew him as a leader and several of them were raised by him.

He basically lowers his expectations and chills, having joint-custody over the city underground with Ninefingers.

Gortash manages to stay arcduke in that one, but ba-a-a-arely. No one is happy, even Gortash, because it's such a mediocre win it's embarrassing. He will manage to pull Nemo into some heist-like bullshit very soon, that with him and his very useful guild of trained cutthroats who are loyal to Nemo and Nemo alone.

The last one - June. My least fav child bc I am v conflicted with how he just branched into 2 separate entities. @ June come on. He has either grey hair and silver eyes (selunite!June) or black-blue hair and light-blue eyes (cambion!June). Either way his skin is greyish-blue with freckles, his horns are grey as some ash can be. He is 5 ft 5.

June is either tiefling priest of Selune or cambion grandchild of Mephisto. I consider both of the versions like alt. of the same person.

In his good (canon) ending June leaves for Underdark with Gortash and Astarion to conquer it and seek all the netherise artifacts left there.

Ex priest of Selûne June does it in some quest of "salvation", cambion June does it because he's the forbidden knowledge seeking bastard (Mephisto raised him, ok). Both versions of June defy Bhaal, though for different reasons.

Now, there is a bad ending for June too, which is highly tied to how he treats the situation with Gortash and how much has the tadparty affected him. If he has failed to develop enough ties with the team, June agrees with everything the man says - Gortash dies at the Netherbrain Blast - June becomes the new Chosen of Bane.

Which strangely fits both versions of June, because selunite!June DID pray to Bane, he just never answered.

And cambion!June is a little too alike Bane's own son (a hybrid of a god and fiend who Bhaal probably was going to use the same way Bane used his son) and in a dire need of a plan to out-do Mephisto.

If June does have close ties with his team and they affect his decision-making, then he's a little more smart about it, tadpoles Gortash, and that derails everything to Gortash joining the team and all hells breaking loose (to the good end. I promise)

There's also Callisto, but Callisto didn't live further than the escape from the nautiloid. I will play them after I break my pc's mind and re-merge it gently, after which BG3 (hopefully) will run on my pc without any third parties involved. But Callisto is a half-drow priest of Tiamat. My baby said FUCK toxic father, I want to be adopted by a toxic mother instead. Their main long goal is freeing Tiamat from her prison in Hell.

[robbie-roo]

still on my video game brain mode

bg3 act 3 spoilers

my baldurs gate main playthrough has been stuck at that fucking fight in the tailors shop for like three days- not because the fight is hard no I win every time but my game ALWAYS CRASHES >:( idk what it is about that specific fight but the last time I was at least able to save right before I went in to fight instead of forgetting and losing like an hour of game play

I haven't even started a durge run yet I gotta see this through with my drow monk first but I also can't decide what I want my durge to be I'm thinking maybe a lolth half elf drow because playing as a drow is so fun (my current drow is a selune drow) but half orcs and dragon born look fun too so I can't decide

I also have two other playthroughs one where I'm a druid tiefling which I think I'm gonna turn into a multiclass something since we get so many druids in later game and the other playthrough I'm a githyanki but that one I've reserved to only play when I'm drunk or high because it always leads me down weird roads

that's how I accidentily got mayrina killed in my first run lmao I was high as fuck and threw a poison bottle at her on accident

anyways this game has taken over my entire life <3

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars Toys Prove That the Legends Expanded Universe Isn’t Dead

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Disney’s 2012 acquisition of the Star Wars franchise obviously proved consequential, especially after it redefined the Skywalker Saga with a Sequel Trilogy, two standalone films, a successful live-action series, and an array of animated shows. Yet, one sore point (of many) for longtime fans has been the company’s erasure of decades’ worth of beloved Expanded Universe Star Wars novels, comic books, and video games, which were relegated to the non-canon label Legends. However, said erasure doesn’t mean the old canon is gone completely, as exemplified this week by Hasbro, which is dedicating a whole new wave of action figures to the Legends Expanded Universe.

Hasbro has revealed an intriguing quartet for its 6” scaled Star Wars: The Black Series line: Jaxxon, Darth Maul (Sith Apprentice), Carnor Jax, and Luke Skywalker (Heir to the Empire)—each character—or character iteration—hails from the Legends lore that Disney unceremoniously scrapped. Indeed, the fact that an action figure is finally (after decades of niche fan demand) being made for Jaxxon, the space-traveling bunny smuggled from Marvel’s Star Wars comics of the late-1970s/early-1980s, is indicative of a reemergence of the Legends lore.

Moreover, Hasbro’s choices—notably approved by Disney—do not seem random. Rather, they seem complementary to the return of other blasts from the pasts, including Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Wars: Droids, and Star Wars: Ewoks to the Disney+ library as well as the debut of Clone Wars bounty hunter Durge to the Disney canon.

Why are these choices significant? Because they reflect a growing trend for the franchise—specifically in the aftermath of The Mandalorian season 2, which further embraced forgotten Legends story elements, such as the Dark Troopers.

The aforementioned characters—save for Jaxxon and the black-clad Heir to the Empire Luke—had been turned into 3 ¾” scale action figures in the years before 2012, and Hasbro has since sporadically released other Legends characters in the Black Series (Grand Admiral Thrawn, Jaina Solo, Darth Revan, Darth Nihilus, Tartakovsky Clone Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi et al). Yet, the act of dedicating an entire wave of the Black Series—Star Wars’ de facto current main action figure line—reveals a mainstream popularity for these characters that extends well beyond the realm of elegiac fanboys. And perhaps an interest in bringing more Legends elements to the Disney canon.

“I’ve been a fan of Star Wars comic books since the 1980s, so the very idea of having action figures based on Star Wars comics publishing is mind-blowing in the very best way,” said Jennifer Heddle, executive editor of Lucasfilm Publishing, in a statement on StarWars.com. “Seeing these figures takes me right back to memories of sitting on my bedroom floor, paging through the latest Star Wars comic, hardly able to believe I was reading original adventures about my favorite characters. Publishing’s ability to create those kinds of memories is a driving force behind what I do, and to have Lucasfilm acknowledge that legacy in this way is absolutely thrilling.”

In a divergence from Jaxxon’s classic cartoonish appearance in Marvel Comics or IDW’s current canon-adjacent Star Wars Adventures series, his debut figure is rendered in a quasi-realistic style, as if to emulate how he would appear in live-action form, a curious choice that leaves one to ponder if such a thing is destined to occur. (Don’t bet on it it.)

It’s no secret that Thrawn, who returned to canon as a villain in the acclaimed animated series Star Wars Rebels, now has live-action prospects glistening after being prominently name-dropped in a season 2 episode of The Mandalorian. It now appears that the evil azure admiral of Timothy Zahn’s classic novel trilogy will manifest in person for the upcoming spinoff series centered on Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano. Moreover, the inclusion of Luke Skywalker from Heir to the Empire is pertinent to this point, since he comes with Thrawn’s pet ysalamiri, a lizard-like creature that the villain kept with him at all times in the story—usually draped around his neck—because it has an innate property that nullifies a Jedi’s Force abilities. The existing Black Series Thrawn figure—which was recently reissued—was notably missing his pet (a 2017 SDCC exclusive deluxe version included his ysalamiri statues seen on Rebels). It’s possible this is all stage-setting for a future Thrawn live-action storyline.

Read more

TV

Could Durge’s Star Wars Return Lead to a Role in The Mandalorian or Book of Boba Fett?

By Joseph Baxter

Books

Star Wars: Great Legends Stories You Should Read

By Megan Crouse and 1 other

The shirtless version of Darth Maul is a nice post-Disney callback to Dark Horse’s 2000 comic series, Star Wars: Darth Maul, which showcased the double-blader’s time under the tutelage of Darth Sidious before the events of The Phantom Menace. This rendition of Maul, whose Legends lore resurrection was adapted by the Disney canon via animated shows Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and live-action movie Solo: A Star Wars Story, has always been popular, showcasing the fuller extent of his intricate body tattoos. It had already inspired multiple action figures in the 3 ¾” line.

Similarly, the inclusion of Carnor Jax revives the once-popular villain from Dark Horse’s 1997 miniseries, Star Wars: Crimson Empire. The character, who survived the destruction of the Second Death Star, is a would-be Sith lord who rose through the ranks of the crimson-clothed Royal Guards and was vying to fill the power vacuum left in the wake of the Emperor’s demise. The imperious endeavor would thrust him into a conflict with fellow former guardsman Kir Kanos, who eventually defected to the Rebels.  

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After the tumult that followed the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Disney has been doing some serious soul searching about its $4 billion investment, and as The Mandalorian has proven, a back-to-basics ethos is something that fans, young and old, can embrace. Likewise, the arena of toys has always been the franchise’s most reliable popularity metric ever since the 1977 marketing milestone in which kids were sold a piece of cardboard containing an “Early Bird” certificate for unproduced action figures from that year’s surprise biggest box office hit. It will be interesting to see if this Legends Expanded Universe wave of Star Wars’ Black Series figures proves indicative of the franchise’s live-action direction.

The post Star Wars Toys Prove That the Legends Expanded Universe Isn’t Dead appeared first on Den of Geek.

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