#very gay for Karlach specifically

[ourg0dsal]

I think the fact that I went into Baldur's Gate 3 with every intention of romancing Shadowheart to then immediately drop everything and run the second I recruited Karlach into my party, says a lot about my real life taste in woman.

[visenyaism]

which bg3 companion do you think would be the worst school teacher?

let’s get it on the board:

10. Unquestionably Astarion. he has no patience, is extremely prickly, is always looking out for himself first, hates children, and is bad at planning. he would not want to be a teacher or attempt to do it unless convinced through some kind of elaborate network of trickery or excessive bribery. he’s just not built for it.

9. Minthara. I debated whether to put her or Astarion last because I think that he would be worse at the job but she would probably end up causing more harm. I know she is running fascist panopticon classroom management at all times. type of person to leave the blinds shut at all times so it’s like an evil cave classroom with occasional nasty fluorescents. no one likes it in there.

8. Shadowheart. I don’t have a ton to say here I just don’t think her heart is in it. 

7. Minsc. enthusiasm can get you very very far.

6. Karlach. very very sweet and everyone loves her but also kind of scattered and goes on one billion tangents. could actually convince adolescents to enjoy gym class. 

5. Halsin. I think he would be pretty good at it but I also think a job that requires you to commit to having a routine would be terrible for him so he definitely wouldn’t stick around

4. Lae’zel. Hear me out she is extremely brusque and not always great with people, but the way that she is so straightforward and honest about her intentions, her goals, and what she’s trying to do to get everyone there would earn her a lot of respect very quickly. The people love a good clear consistent routine.

3. Jaheira. wins the award for most gay kids eating in her room at lunch. easily. never has a lesson plan but somehow her kids are always doing the best out of everyone in the building. takes no shit.

2. Gale. D1 yapper just like me for real. canonically IS a teacher. sometimes get stuck on tangents or forgets that students do not want to sit and listen to lectures for as long as he does. me personally I don’t think threatening to blow yourself up would be effective classroom management but male teachers simply get away with five times as much as they should

1. Wyll. One of the highest compliments I can give to another human being is that they would be an excellent specifically middle school teacher and I really think Wyll has the personality for it. he is so patient and warm and kind to others and unwaveringly principled AND extremely self-sacrificing so you know that admin love him. no one knows how he does it.

[animentality]

I feel the reason why we don’t see a lot of people in the fandom who loudly hate durgetash or durgetash shippers (compared to the very loud backlash against people who, for example, headcanon Asterian as a doting father family man or etc) is that I think the Durgetash delusion is just kind of. Easy to understand? In general. Even for people who dont like or ship it. Like even though it’s very much a delusion built out of random scraps of game lore and notes and character animations, I feel like those scraps are so generically Compelling that it’s easy can see how people actually got here, way more than other obviously delusional ships in other fandoms. Or even in this one. Like you can’t really explain from anything in game why you think Asterian would make a good father (no offense to anyone on that grind 😭). But you can point to the prayer for forgiveness and Gortash’s unique animations when talking to Durge specifically, and recognise at LEAST what got people started, if not the fanon that followed.

Ironically this could ALSO be delusional on my part lol like maybe I’m just not seeing it somehow, but genuinely I have not noticed anywhere near the amount of discourse over Durgetash as I would expect from a similar ship in literally any other fandom. So I have just been trying to think about why! Is the delusion ultimately that sympathetic or are we just so in our own bubble that people don’t even know?

(Especially when Gortash himself is so very hated by most normal players for VERY correct reasons. Like he is SO hate-able. And I do see tons of posts of people saying they don’t get why people like him, but never to the level of what I would consider discourse. My Karlach-loving ass sure hated him until I played Durge and paid more attention to him and learned to enjoy him more from that funny gay villain angle, while still maintaining that Karlach and the Gondians and every refugee in the outer city deserve to beat him into a pulp ultimately - but I feel thats a common origin story for durgetashers lol)

You missed the outcry over the Franc letter being edited, huh?

We had a good couple of days of "Gortash isn't bisexual" discourse.

It's the most rowdy I've ever seen the fandom.

But you're correct in that Astarion fans will always be louder.

Gortash is evil and he's harder to woobify.

Doesn't mean we won't do it, though.

As for the general reason for Durgetash not being as intense as other ships, well.

How many people really play the Dark Urge?

Not many, I'd warrant. How many people care about Gortash at all?

Not many.

Now how many ship those two together....a good number, but it's still a small population, compared to the Astarion, Gale, Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Karlach fans out there.

So it's just smaller, is all.

We try not to elbow each other too much, or we'll crowd crush in the broom closet of the hospital we're all crammed in, as Astarion fans are brought into Emergency Care after a night down in the discourse mines.

[featherwurm]

OC SMASH OR PASS

Rules: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).

Tagged by @baronmpontmercy Thank you I love to be included :3

Since she's all over my blog at the moment let's make it about Tav (Zatavia!)

Name: Zatavia "Tav" Felix

Age: 45

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: So Very Bisexual

Propaganda For:

Strong, gentle hands well calloused and very dexterous from monk training and work.

Deep, clear voice (she's Voice 6 if you wonder, this is very important to me.)

Highly flexible.

Thoughtful, funny, kind, willing to go along with bullshit.

High WIZ and clever. Takes her monk background seriously.

Playful and energetic.

Loves sex, attention, affection, and shares them all extensively.

Generally tries to do the right things, but recognizes her fallibility.

Believes that violence is a suitable answer to the right question.

Propaganda Against:

Believes that violence is a suitable answer to the right question.

Staring at you.

Staring at you.

Staring at you.

Penniless wandering monk.

Never stays in one place for long.

Low INT and blunt as a sack of hammers.

Big jock who needs constant physical engagement.

Does poorly in crowds and when overstimulated.

Her 'little black book' reads like the monster manual.

(Her relationship with Karlach is contentedly monogamous, but you can assume this is pre-BG3 events.)

Tagging @fullyfunctionalminiaturebeehive @joasakura and @bardusgate

[beebundt]

“Nine People you want to know better” tag game

omg i can't remember the last time ive played one of these tag games thank you @demekii for the tag!! i hope you enjoy boy and the heron, it was fun watch for sure 🫶 🫶 also ive been watching analog horror video essays lately as well so i totally feel your struggle LOLLL😭

Last Song: my song on loop for the week has been Killing Eve by Benét. i rlly like this artist

Favorite Color: give it up for my primary color gang ⁉ specifically these. i will use these colors at every opportunity it's so yummy to me. plus a green bc im learning my affection for green this past year

Last Movie/TV Show: i rewatched arcane.... i can't wait until season 2, i really love the art direction of that show. also rewatched howl's moving castle, most beautiful film of all time my beloved.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: sweet, savory, then spicy. im not a big fan of super spicy but a little is fine! and i always love having a little sweet drink or smth

Relationship status: do you think miss karlach/laezel baldur gate 3 will crush me like a soda can if i ask nicely enough

Last thing I googled: Orin The Red wiki page.......... ive been playing my durge playthru on bg3 lately and getting rlly fixated on the sibling relationship between durge & orin and just reading too many wikis than necessary .....

Current Obsession: my favorite thing is just watching 1-4 hour long essays on things ive never heard abt or dont haven't thought abt super in depth before. ever since i watched this one random video essay on Brave (the disney movie) that perfectly summed up what was bothering me in that movie that id never put into words like 3-4 years ago, ive been chasing that high ever since. did you know learning is so fun (*if the video essay is actually well researched and good). outside of that i love watching charborg twitch vods while im drawing or playing smth

Last Book: i have trouble focusing on reading books sometimes bc ive had bad experiences with them in the past....... 🧍‍♂️ i ache to be a book girlie. but i have to push myself to read more in order to find good books. however smth i WANT to read is the locked tomb series

Looking forwards to: playing a oneshot this coming february with my dnd group where ill be playing a mean pretty twink. guys i have to come up with an insult list of things he might say ahead of time, imagine that being ur homework. also i joined a lgbt club ? that i didn't know my college had so very intrigued with whatever may happen with that in the future. what does an lgbt club even do. crime ? gay ?

dw abt doing this if you don't want to 🫶 tagging kind moots/ppl i would love 2 get to know more. blinks cutely @myagletismissing @notskeleton @66dataa @rascheln @vasirah @kornyo @dreadfutures @shouty-y @rennybu @rnangopantsu

[catgirlsp0ck]

the bg3 companions and what i think their favorite judas priest album/song is (including lyrics that i think fit each character and also this is not including halsin, minthara or durge sorry lol)

Wyll

i think wyll would like the album sin after sin. some of the songs are pretty romantic and i think he would really enjoy them. his favorites from this album i think would be last rose of summer and i think he definitely listened to here come the tears for a while after he was cast out from baldur's gate. here's an excerpt from last rose of summer that i think wyll would like: "I give you this, the last rose of summer / A token of my unyielding love / So when the winter's mantle stills the earth / And all around seems dead and cold / This rose reminds you of a time when all was warm and living" and here's a lyric from here come the tears that i think wyll would've resonated with: "Looks like it'll always be the same / No one here to comfort me / Here come the tears / All alone, no one cares /So much to give to you all out there" i think wyll would've liked this line in particular because im sure he didn't have time as the blade of frontiers to have the fairytale romance he wanted bc he was traveling and saving people and didn't make time for himself or for love. and another lyric from the here come the tears, for when he does find a love of his own (whether that be your tav, or an origin character): "Take me now, in your arms / Let me rest, safe from harm"

Astarion

defenders of the faith would be his favorite and he would joke and say it's bc of all the songs about gay sex (jawbreaker, love bites, eat me alive lol) but he also just really likes the song night comes down, which i feel like would be a perfect song for astarion. here's an excerpt of some lyrics from the song: "In the last rays of the setting sun / And the past days, yeah, that's where our memories run / And all of those times, still race through my mind / I'm shattered inside to find / When the night comes down / I'm here all alone / When the night comes down / There's nowhere to go"

Karlach

karlach would like the album painkiller. i feel like she would love the fast pace of the album and you know she would absolutely pull out the air drums or air guitar which would be so fun to do for this album. her favorite song would probably be either hell patrol or leather rebel ! here's a line from leather rebel that i think is a little on the nose for karlach lol: "Leather rebel / With a burning heart" and also earlier in the song: "Like a renegade / All alone I walk through fire / 'Til I crash and blaze / I'm living on the edge"

Lae'zel

honestly i think lae'zel has probably never listened to music before the whole tadpole situation. idk gith lore but i feel like they would probably see music as a waste of time unless it's some song about vlaakith but for the purpose of this list, im ignoring all that and saying she would like the album ram it down (which i am very biased for bc it's my favorite album lol). i think she'd like the songs hard as iron and blood red skies. here's a lyric from hard as iron that i think she'd like: "As I destroy, last thing you'll hear me cry, is victory, is victory / I'm blazing on to glory / There's thunder in my veins / And nothing stands before me / Forever I'll remain / Hard as iron / Sharp as steel / Stop for no man / You better beg and kneel" and from blood red skies, she'd probably like these lyrics: "I will stand, I will fight / You'll never take me alive / I'll stand my ground / I won't go down / You won't break me / You won't make me / You won't take me / Under blood red skies"

Gale

a little unconventional for gale but i think he would like a few songs from screaming for vengeance. specifically (take these) chains, fever, prisoner of your eyes and pain and pleasure. pain and pleasure, (take these) chains and prisoner of your eyes make me think of gale's relationship with mystra. for example, from pain and pleasure: "Do what you wanna do / Oh what you put me through / How I suffer for your love" and from prisoner of your eyes: "Love is blind / And love deceives you / You came along and captured me / Now I'm a prisoner of your eyes / Trapped in time / I cannot leave you / I'm just a prisoner of your eyes / As each day goes by / I've given up completely / I've locked myself inside your heart / And thrown away the key / Only time will tell / If I can live without you / Can you see into the future / Will you ever set me free" and the song fever is perfect for when you are romancing him. the beginning of the song perfectly describes gale as he was stuck in his tower with just tara for company: "I'd spend my days alone / I used to stay at home / Lost in seclusion there. / Like I was in a cell / A captured heart as well" and the later half of the song is perfect for describing his romance with tav or an origin character: "Then one night as I walked / I heard your body talk / I saw a shooting star / In some magnetic trance / Our beating hearts would dance / And crash down from afar. / Oh how strange fate is / Never dreamed of this. / So destiny has brought us / Oh so close together / We were like angels in the night / Living the dream / At last I'll be with you forever. / And all at once it feels so right."

Shadowheart

i think shadowheart would like the album nostradamus (an album which i think is pretty divisive with judas priest fans, a lot of people hate it and some ppl love it. i just listened to it for the first time for this post lmfao. i was trying to find lyrics that would be good for shart and found one in this album so i listened to it for the first time, i liked it :P ). while she can't relate to the whole album of course (bc its about nostradamus lol),, there are definitely a few lyrics that shadowheart would resonate with. particularly in the songs exiled, hope and new beginnings. from the song exiled: "I'm banished in exile / To meet their demand / Rejected messiah / They don't understand / I'm searching for something / That's lost in my heart / God knows I'm a sinner / I'm falling apart / If this is my destiny / I've got to believe / The passion inside me / Has left me to bleed" and from the song hope: "I see your light on the wings of a dove / Lifting me up as the dark clouds retreat / Courage transcends and you make me complete / Hope in my heart with the advent of spring / I am reborn with the love that you bring" these lyrics make me think of when dame aylin helps shadowheart with her past and her future after leaving shar behind. and then, these lyrics from the song new beginnings: "A new beginning has arrived / At the crossroads of my life / This new love keeps me alive" now, tbh i haven't romanced shadowheart (YET) but these lyrics make me think of shadowheart after choosing between becoming a dark justiciar for shar or rejecting that and leaving shar behind (the crossroads mentioned in the lyrics) and her love for tav or an origin character helping to keep her going after the tough decisions she had to make and knowing that her love will be standing with her as she navigates that future for herself.

[chipped-chimera]

So, I'm a Lesbian I guess.

So uh, life update. I came out to my Mum, so I figured I'd do so here too.

I've done a bunch of self reflection, healing. I reached out to my ex and we had a good conversation and I think that just made everything even clearer for me.

So yeah, this is me saying I'm not bisexual. I'm lesbian. And I probably always was.

More context below the cut if you want it (it's long). But anyway, here's to finally feeling like I'm finding the real 'me' in all this rubble.

❤️🧡🤍💖💜

I thought I was bisexual for ages. The fact I even got to think that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for my ex, who identified that way and I felt in a safe enough environment to express it. In the past two months I went through some self reflection, and talked to my ex for the first time in 2 years. It was good, and it's too complicated to explain easily but at least on my end I was getting a double dosage of the comphet juice between just regular expectations and the undiagnosed autism (also jesus christ, being a teenager in 2005-2010 that environment was just fucked up for anyone who might be trying to come to terms with not being straight). Kids in my school were more accepting, but also in the same breath using 'Gay' as an insult).

We were both undiagnosed neurodiverse people and maybe it was just the first time we'd encountered someone who just actually understood for once. Who saw who we were and were okay with that. The 10 year relationship, put in that context makes a lot of sense. So I don't blame him for how it ended. If anything I thanked him for breaking it off, because I was in such a goddamn state after being used by the Australian government (see Robodebt) there was no way in hell I had the mental tools or even brain space to realise anything about myself because I was too busy just trying to fucking survive. I would have lived and died in that relationship simply because at least it was safe, and stable. But it wasn't genuine.

Past two years since that relationship ended were fucking rough. For most of this year I kind of just turned into myself I guess, but I was letting it happen because after finding out about the high comorbidity of chronic health conditions with Autism and how it's likely related to long-term compound stress from masking for so long, I really asked myself when was the last time I just let myself 'rest'? Didn't do anything I didn't want to do or feel compelled to do because of some social contract or guilt?

I couldn't come up with an answer.

So I rested. And I think that's basically given me the strength now to finally 'wake up'. I dunno. That's how it feels. I only recently noticed my thoughts about women were structurally very different than the ones about men (and yeah it's goddamn fuckin' embarassing to say but uh thanks Larian specifically for giving me a female love interest tailored to my exact preference which FINALLY connected some dusty neuron in the back of my head or something. It was Karlach. MY GODDAMN GAY AWAKENING WAS KARLACH, ffs) and the more I examined it, the more everything became clear. I was hesitant to remove the bi label from myself, wondering if this was just a really extreme 'bi-cycle' swing but the more and more I thought about it, went through memories in my life, how I could never see myself with someone else it was always characters together and really it was the relationship and intimacy between them, regardless of gender that I was appreciating.

I thought I was grey ace but after going 'huh these thoughts are kind of different' and realising that yeah, I could imagine myself with a woman - it wasn't some weird other shit I'd told myself like it was just visceral self hatred or something, placing myself with a guy it was literally I did not want to be with a guy - it became obvious. So fucking, embarrassingly obvious.

I'm not sure where things will go from here. I am incredibly socially isolated in real life. My best friend is my Mum. I don't have a social circle at all outside of online spaces. I'm 30 and that's a fucking weird age to be thrown out into the world essentially experiencing goddamn delayed idk mental puberty because you suppressed it that hard. I haven't used a dating app in my LIFE. I'm still kind of scared of being hurt by others and I'm aware it's not entirely logical, but I just feel fragile. I'm also still picking up the pieces of my life.

I've confirmed a C-PTSD diagnosis with my psychologist, which explains why all the CBT tools I'd learned over the years just stopped working (CBT doesn't always gel well with PTSD or Autism) so that's probably going to inform treatment going forward. My intense fatigue issues are probably caused by having to carry all this fucking trauma and suppression of myself. As I said to my Mum, it's like I'm just 'Tired from being alive' at this point. I'm really, really fucking hoping it's not Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME. The new medication I'm on seems to be keeping me going past the 4hr mark though, so we might be onto the right medication mix (I do not appreciate the 7:30pm crash, like clockwork, where instead of feeling unfocused and tired like before I now feel jacked up as hell like I'm waiting for someone to punch me however :V)

I don't know where this is going. Or where I'm going. All I know is 'I'm going'. When the breakup first happened, when I hauled myself out of the Mental Health ward and back to my parents home where I had to figure out what the fuck to do after any kind of certainty of my future had been completely obliterated - I saw a lot of snakes. I'm kind of vaugely pagan, if I'm honest. I don't know how to put it. I am very scientific but I also don't think we know all the answers.

My ancestors were likely heavily Celtic, likely some Viking and Pictish influence as both family lines go back to Scotland and Ireland. I know through my reading that natural signs were important to them, so I start noticing when I see multiple occurrences, especially in odd places (I'll be real, I just remembered earlier in this relationship when I was more into pagan shit I saw a lot of Moths. Yeah. Yeah I feel like smashing my face into my desk about that. No I never figured it out then EITHER). I know quite a few things about snakes. Snakes are an animal that is both used as a symbol for medicine, but also classed as 'evil', especially in the modern christian context.

They are considered symbols of rejuvenation, of immortality, much like the Phoenix, they are constantly reborn through the shedding of their skin. Shedding is critical to a snake, because if it does not shed it's skin, it will die. This is a legitimate concern for zookeepers with snakes that have scars - they often struggle to shed completely, and they have to soak the snake's skin in water so they can cast off the skin.

So it's shed or die.

I have struggled to let go of things. Of everything that was done to me, but I knew it had to be let go. And today I have shed a lot of that shit. I am crying on and off but this is probably the first time it's easy. It's not physically painful, like knives in my throat, or something I have to shove down and keep contained for fear of being rejected. It's happy crying.

Because that skin being shed - it wasn't mine either. I needed rest, I needed to soak in that goddamn water dish so I could get through all the scar tissue. So it's probably the strongest image I have in my mind of everything. Of who I am. My entire life.

If you're going through difficult shit in life, all I can say is - you're strong. You're strong as fuck. Strength isn't being able to get into a physical fight, or being super confident around people - it's enduring life and the chaos thrown at you. It's being able to be broken down and rebuild, just like the snake casts off skin for their new selves. You will endure things and be stronger for it, than those who have lived all their lives without any pain whatsoever.

But it could be better, I know. It doesn't justify the pain. But please listen to yourself. Listen to your body. If you need to be selfish? Be fucking selfish! Don't want to do that thing? Don't do it! If you know it is costing you, if it is adding to that scar tissue - stop. Take the time you need to reset, to regain your breath. Ask yourself who you are doing this for. Ask what skin you are wearing and whether that is something you want to keep. Shed it. Let go.

It will hurt, but this is just the beginning. Change feels like a broken bone. But it will heal.

[wetcatspellcaster]

💧✨🪐❄️🌊 for the bg3 writers ask!

💧Is there a ship you wouldn’t write yourself, but love reading?

Raphael/Tav. I feel like if I was writing it wouldn't touch on any themes/story motifs I didn't cover in Pieces, so there's no point. But I love Raphael/Tav fic so much :')

✨Which is your favourite platonic BG3 dynamic and why?

Tbh, Karlach's hero worship interaction with Jaheira is really cute, like not to be basic media literacy on this one but I really like that it's between two extremely badass women - rather than say, Wyll and Jaheira. it's both platonic and very gay of them. I also like it as a bright spot in Karlach's own storyline.

🪐Who’s your favourite non-companion character, and why?

(answered here!)

❄️Which BG3 companion is your most/least favourite to write?

Favourite is Astarion :') kept those POV chapters for a reason :')

I find a lot of companions difficult, but Lae'zel is my current struggle! I think her voice is easier to pin down than it used to be (I imagine the Devora that lives inside my brain) but I think clarifying her motivations when she's a side character, and not simply reducing her to being 2-dimensional, is something that's hard to do in an ensemble piece!

🌊What moment in the game had the strongest emotional impact on you?

Time for some basic bitch answers! But 1. Aylin being freed and transforming, and 2. anything Karlach related - those are the places where I cried. Karlach's storyline had a big impact bc any time the videogame narrative of 'work = progress' is ruptured it hits me hard. Tbh, I ended up sending Karlach and Wyll to Avernus simply to stop the wrenching, full body sobs that were coming out of my fucking chest.

In Rosalie's story specifically, it was the Orpheus decision before the endgame. I was sat there literally realising she would make herself a mindflayer in a heartbeat, for all the wrong reasons.

bg3 fic asks!

[bleedingheart-s]

🎫 gush pass because I'm curious about your BG3 ocs 🔍👀

BWEHDHFLAKFHFJDU HIIIII KUROH 🩵 THANK YOU FOR THE ASK AND THE EXCUSE TO GUSH ABOUT MY BABIES I WAS LITERALLY ROTATING TJEM EARLIER

some of them are with characters other than gale who i don't self ship with (yet- i'm tempted to self ship with pretty much every other companion too bless my polyamorous heart)

this ended up being so long i'm putting it under a read more

nox- fighter. dumbass (affectionate). Tries their best. Very reluctant leader. Absolutely no sense of direction (Astarion regularly asks why they all let Nox hold the map... it's currently upside down in their hands). Tiefs don't usually come in a green flavor so Nox is sort of shunned even within tief circles. They're also big so they inevitably attract attention- that's why they hate leading. Their biological parents abandoned them, and they were raised by humans (who loved them dearly). Misses the farm they grew up on. Just wants a quiet life and a couple of kids. Favorite color: blue, specifically the sort of soft light glowing blue of the Weave because its usually coming from Gale. They're SOOO protective. Them and Karlach are besties. Has more tattoos than shown.

ledi- paladin. She's smaller than your average aasimar and she has a bit of a complex over it. She WILL puff up her wings to appear bigger (it barely works.) She's sort of cold at the beginning, but she opens up as the story goes on. Her eyes are haloed by wings because she was rendered permanently blind in a fight (kind of like Kanan in Star Wars Rebels) (details pending). This changed her, she ended up switching her paladin oath from Devotion to Vengeance. She has a bit of a rage streak at the start of the game. Looks up to Aylin like a big sister. Hates Shadowheart. (I haven't gotten to act 2 with her yet but I think Ledi would want to kill her for what happens at the end.) Falls in love with Wyll and learns a lot from him. Won't touch alcohol. Likes having her hair played with. Preens when she's bored. Has a very... interesting dynamic with Raphael.

freya- ranger. Left her family behind as a teenager. Used to spending a lot of time alone in nature. mean lesbian. Hits it off with Lae'zel almost immediately, and they admire each other greatly (and in a very gay way). Takes no shit. If looks could kill, she'd have murdered a continent. Just wants to go back to her neck of forest and 'live in fucking peace'. Has a 'oh no he's hot' moment when she first meets Halsin after rescuing him. Completely self sufficient, she doesn't like relying on others (trust issues much? /j). Ends up making good friends with Jaheira and Minsc. Can drink half of Faerûn under a table. If you can make her do it, she snorts when she laughs. Only Karlach has so far. Minsc has gotten close.

livia- my s/i. Lore bard. Uhhh idk what to say about her 😭

i also have two new ocs i haven't managed to talk about yet!

sethe- resisting durge. tiefling, wildshaping druid. Has difficulty controlling their wildshape, so they're liable to turn into a pure white direwolf with eyes so blue they glow at any given point. Honestly prefers being in wildshape. She bonds with Halsin over this. They struggle greatly with allowing anyone to get close to them due to their urge, so Halsin is the only person in their memory to do so. Won't admit it, but she likes being scratched behind the ears while in wildshape. Better at showing positive emotions in wildshape as well (tail wagging, playful behavior.) doesn't like being hot (ironic for a tiefling)- and she will pant even in her bipedal form if she is. Admires Karlach and wishes they could be more like her. Likes rain.

anne- regular tav. sort of an s/i but not quite. human, storm sorcerer. Naive, a bleeding heart, refuses to think the worst in any situation- which causes contention with Lae'zel, Astarion and Shadowheart in the beginning. Fiercely loyal and will back up her friends to the bitter end. She was raised a noble, so she's poised and very charismatic. Knew Wyll before he took his contract with Mizora and honestly missed him after he disappeared. Her positive and supportive attitude wears on Astarion, and eventually he falls for her. Becomes great friends with Gale. She's braver than she looks but she'll be crying about it. Very homesick. Worries about her family constantly. Has a little brother. Likes spicy food. Smells vaguely of ozone due to her proficiency with lightning magic. Kinda looks like Anne Hathaway, hence the name.

[ex-textura]

well a little later than i expected but NO MATTER hello friend tav info dump you say I'm so sorry for the novel this is about to become

I mean you do already know of Vic, half orc eldritch knight with a martyr complex the size of the city. Grew up in Baldur's Gate, genuinely a really nice childhood he's got two younger siblings and lovely parents and I'm not positive in what way he got his soldier background but the boy is always a soldier of some kind (maybe a Fist? it's hand wavy). He was a whopping 21 when he got scooped up by the nautaloid and decidedly does not want to be a main character but shit keeps happening and Vic is gonna die protecting his friends or Vic is never gonna die

He's always been real into magic but didn't think of himself of the Wizardy Type growing up, and then the local wizard took the time to teach him magic and there was a very good reason he had a very big crush on Gale. It was Gale who pushed him onto the eldritch knight track specifically and Vic might not get the finer points of all the theory and technical jargon but that's fine he has a genuinely very good teacher

and then y'know. Wyll happened. and godsdamnit Wyll you were supposed to be the Unattainable Paragon of Justice and way too good for me but then he was just a guy with a determination to protect people as strong as Vic's own and this way of talking that sounded like he was constantly half a step away from writing an epic and maybe there was a bit too much wine at the grove party that led to a lot more self-confidence than Vic ever has but that kinda. happened. (the psuedo-breakup with Gale after the fact was not fun for anyone involved but ??? was that actually anything Gale there had been absolutely no conversation about it, they do eventually get back to actual good friend and there's the moment of Gale telling him "For the sake of absolute transparency, I may have slept with Astarion" and Vic choking on his dinner but they're friends again)

Karlach is the bestie from the very start. In their first little heart-to-heart by the fire there did have to be the "hey, so you know I'm like. really gay, right?" conversation, but from that point on she is constantly giving him enthusiastic thumbs up over Wyll's shoulder and the teasing is relentless. She clocked his formal training the first time they fought together and the soldier nickname is Incredibly fitting, they fight very well together and are both very physical people which is unfortunate before Dammon manages to cool the engine down. (Wyll has a "secret" scoreboard in the back of one of his books of the number of times Vic has forgotten, punched Karlach's shoulder, and burned himself. An additional category was started for "bad enough that Shadowheart had to heal it") She fully died in Grymforge, like got knocked down and then pushed into lava, and he had to pay Withers to bring her back and that was. not a good day at all, when she was back and mostly focused again Vic just preemptively called Shadowheart over so he could give Karlach a (very very quick) actual hug

he just wanted the tadpole out So Bad, bad enough he ended up with a magical eye for the troubles. Vic never touched the tadpole powers, figuring if he couldn't manage with his own sword and magic it wasn't worth doing anyway. The boy is decidedly in favor of relying on your own abilities, having seen far too many cases of the gods or others granting powers get petty, use them as leverage, strip them away on a whim, etc. fuck the gods, tbh, very glad we stopped Gale from becoming one or making one even more powerful

had to break his little sister out of the Iron Throne along with his future father-in-law and the only mind flayer he respects, because his little brother is unfortunately a very talented artificer and the job at the foundry seemed so good at the time. another No Good Very Bad Day, they got out of that place by the skin of their teeth and Vic is decidedly afraid of deep water now

Freed Orpheus because fuck the emperor that's an entire race enslaved by this litch, and then it is only by the stubbornness of his friends chipping away at that martyr complex this whole time that he realized turning into a mind flayer himself might. not be the immediate best answer (but also no fucking way is Karlach going to do it either)

It was So Much he's just a baby boy, he never wanted to be the protagonist, but now he's gotta go maybe kill the archdevil of Avernus with his two favorite people in what is the weirdest fucking honeymoon ever (it doesn't count wyll insists constantly we are not married yet, he knows it doesn't count)

i'll stop now (with This One......) because god that was in fact a novel but [holds him up like simba] baby boy. baby.

VIC!!!! IT'S VIC!!! MY HALF-ORC LOVE ITS HIM!!! Ugh I'm not even gonna pretend to be normal about him I'm sorry.

He's so goddamn cute with Wyll they're so beautiful together. I want. To see more. Of them. And him. Bleese.

Oh my god I love his dynamic with Karlach. I can just picture them rolling around like siblings and being the absolute best bros. Just. The wholesome-est trio with them and Wyll honestly.

IN THE LAVA OF ALL THINGS?! God that's like. Painfully poetic in a way. I hate it but of all the things to kill Karlach. God. I'm so glad he had Withers. And that he could give her all the hugs and shoulder punches in the world once she got fixed.

HIS LITTLER SISTER WAS ON THE IRON THRONE?! Man, fuck you Gortash. Where is she now? Is she safe? Did they have a big heartfelt reunion? does she love Wyll?

How's he doing in Avernus?? Did he get to come up for the reunion?

WHEN ARE THEY GETTING MARRIED?!

[invinciblerodent]

Hey! Agree that erasure sucks big time. As a lesbian, I very often see that devs make every character in a game bi, with no lesbian rep at all. That puts me in a difficult situation when I want to respect bi people but also want to have rep of my own. :(

Though I admit, I can kind of read a bit of a tongue-in-cheek comment into this message (which could just be me feeling defensive in general over this topic, I'm fully aware that I am and definitely mean no ill will towards you), but I'll take you at face value on this and assume you meant no ill will either lol.

Honestly, I'll definitely always agree that there need to be more canonically queer characters and experiences portrayed of every orientation and gender, only I'd definitely argue that bisexuality specifically is kind of in a unique position where it's... it's so often used purely as a game mechanic that, despite its theoretical existence in a narrative, it can often, and to many players, not even be interpretable as any sort of real representation either. Especially with how many games, past and present, kind of conceal their characters' queerness behind the players' intentions to seek it out (basically treating them as "straight until proven gay"), which often implies monosexuality (at the lack of a better term) in the text regardless of the existence of another mechanic, even if the character could technically be considered bisexual.

There is a very clear difference in my mind (and in the minds of -as far as I can tell- the majority of other bisexual players) between characters being canonically bi, and them being mechanically bi, in that in that the latter case, you can often play and engage with, or even romance characters without ever needing to acknowledge them as anything other than monosexual (again, lacking a better concise term) in a way that happens to coincide with your PC's sexuality. They can be seen as gay if you're the same sex, and as straight if you're not. But in BG3 specifically, even though the dialogue with the player themselves doesn't really seem to address the companions' sexuality head-on (you can't, like, walk up to Wyll and ask him "so, hey man, what's, like, your.... whole deal, or whatever?", you have to listen to him and connect the dots), it IS really nice, and a nice change of pace that this is not a thing. That no queer content is hidden behind "the gay button", that you aren't limited to being exposed to their queerness while in a romance with them, and that you cannot, literally cannot, play the game in a way that would make the world less queer, or make it seem like the characters are merely adapting to the gender of the player character.

Because they all hit on-, or express attraction to at least a few others regardless of gender, without it immediately implying anything beyond them all just... being attracted to people of different genders.

I watched this slightly older video essay by verilybitchie just a little while ago that went into this exact thing in a lot more detail, and I honestly recommend it to everyone. Since the video is two years old now, she of course doesn't address BG3 specifically (I'd love to hear her thoughts on it though! the end note where she talks about how excited she is for what might be coming next really warmed my heart!), but otherwise it's a good runthrough of my thoughts and experiences on- and with the issue as well.

(And, to be honest.... as a side note, romancing a bi character is.... still respectful, if you play your own character as monosexual? Like I do that all the time too, so that part of your message... kind of confused me?

Like... the only way romancing, say, Karlach for example as a woman can be considered in any way disrespectful to us bi people, is if you play that in an angle that erases her bisexuality, simply because she happens to be in a same-sex romance in your game. But that's less an issue of representation in the game itself imo, and more just... this strictly theoretical player themselves being at least a little bit biphobic and erasing her sexuality based on the gender of her partner, even if that isn't their intention.)

[collegeoflore]

What is Xarrai and Ieriyn's speech like? Do they have distinct accents? Or any other notable ways of speaking, like using particular phrases, slang, or terms of endearment?

Bonus question: What do their voices sound like?

i typed half of a answer for this earlier but the draft didn’t save LMAO let me try again

ieriyn is very much a prim proper noble boy early on. it’s just so ingrained in him to speak like a proper noble when addressing unfamiliar people that it’s just natural for him. his formality does slip from time to time (when he’s panicking or upset for example) but generally he’s pretty stuffy in his speech until like mid of act 1. he starts to loosen up after defending the grove, and by the time they get to the shadow-cursed lands he’s way more relaxed. this also coincides with him starting to be willing to tell jokes and get cheeky with people. :3 the first time karlach hears him say fuck she’s soooo proud of him and he’s just looking at her like “…did u think i had never said fuck before????” (she did) (so did wyll tho). some of his slang is like very specifically athkatlan which tends to throw people off, but it’s not all that unusual or anything. he’s not a huge terms of endearment boy except for with gale, but idk what ones he uses most often yet. also he has like. the quintessential transmasc gay boy voice. the exact intersection of “been on t for a few years” and “i really like men.” :)

xarrai has two distinct modes of speaking. it’s either the flowery and dramatic (and generally pretty posh) Bard Mode or it’s something more relaxed. think like, casting vicious mockery vs just insulting someone. there’s definitely a lot of variance in there (matching the style of someone’s speech is helpful when you’re manipulating them after all lol) but those are the general vibes. when they’re not trying to schmooze with the upper city elite they curse like a sailor and have no qualms about saying something uncouth as long as it will be funny (or sexy. depending.) their accent is very distinctly baldurian, though they’re able to bend it a little to sound more like they’re from the upper city or the lower city if they need to. however, every now and then you can catch a hint of smth Not Baldurian to their accent as a little holdout from growing up in mulmaster. the fr wiki tells me the language they speak in mulmaster is meant to be a baltic language so i suppose that’s how the accent would lean? i’m not sure tbh. it’s def smth that only comes out in little ways - some spell incantations they pronounce weirdly maybe. just a little something they can’t shake no matter how hard they try. their accent was definitely stronger when they first returned to baldur’s gate, but it’s 95% gone now. xar is similar to astarion in that they’ll throw a “darling” or “dear” or “sweetheart” out to just about anyone; they’re fairly liberal with their terms of endearment lol. they and astarion definitely competed for who could come up with the worst/stupidest terms of endearment early on (which drove the party crazy.) the only significant term of endearment that’s exclusively for astarion (and they only started using it for him around act 3) is “dearheart.” :3 he’s the first and only person they ever use it with. in terms of general sound, i think the in game voice i have for them (voice 6) is spot on tbh i’m kinda obsessed with it

[neraiutsuze]

i would just like to say my bg3 run has put my little hopeless tiefling bard through the wildest few days

first she got unexpectedly and intensely hit on by lae'zel despite seemingly pissing her off at every point by being too nice

while reeling from that, that night a hot lady appeared to her in her dreams and told her how special she was

after spending a day clearing out an evil swamp karlach comes over and in no uncertain terms makes it clear she also would like to get it on if not for The Fires

reeling from that she and the others kill a hag and gale decides it's a great time to come clean about his shall we say ill-fated romantic escapades and his little orb problem

trying to sleep on that issue, karlach brings up cooling off and a very tired ryse, inspired by how we used water barrels to fight the fire in the rest house, attempts to just throw a water barrel at her. ...and is just about strong enough to pick it up and still walk but her little scrawny lute-playing arms are too weak to throw it, so ends up shamefacedly putting it at her feet and shooting it with an arrow instead. it still sort of works and she manages a kiss. and karlach specifically is like btw if you also want to get it on with the hot alien lady i am fine with that, have fun.

sure enough, later that same night, lae'zel absolutely wrecks shop on her

and in the morning astarion goes full gay best friend and demands to know all about it

this game

[thedragonagelesbian]

Find the word

thank you @the-eldritch-it-gay for the generous open invitation to do this challenge with the words hurt, soft, sleep, fire, and skin

Hurt

What a picture-perfect set-up Astarion had had, so close he could already taste the sweat on Cyrus’ body, all he had had to do was finish the first job and move on to the next. Let his hands wander, find what made that lethargic pulse skitter, what made that freckled skin blush and bruise. Cyrus would’ve let him. After that little display with the priest of Loviatar, listening to him roar to be hurt harder, Astarion had never been more sure of that.

Soft

“Eat the berry, ivaebhin.”

Cyrus’ Elvish was an underdeveloped muscle even in his more lucid moments, but the melody of the word in Halsin’s baritone was so charming that he crushed the goodberry without further protest. Its firm skin yielded to the soft flesh beneath in a squirt of thick, syrupy sweetness, like honey, leading Cyrus to wonder if the flavor was specific to Halsin’s tastes. It dripped warm and slow down his throat, underneath his sternum, and into his stomach, where it took root, flowering and unfurling and filling.

Sleep

Cyrus was just about to trance. It always came easier in Karlach’s arms— the hum of the infernal engine against his chest, cocooned in its warmth and the sturdiness of her arms, catching the faint traces of her talking to herself in her sleep on the edges of his not-quite-unconsciousness. It should’ve come particularly easy that night, with his emotions already burnt out of him. The heavy absence behind his eyes and his sternum demanded respite, and though Cyrus often fought against what his body thought was best for him, he was pretty sure he needed to listen to it tonight.

Fire

“And what about Halsin?” Shadowheart asked.

Cyrus glanced over at the other elf, who was studying the sigils that would have once again bound the Nightsong with that deep consternation that had been plaguing him since arriving in Baldur’s Gate. He had weathered the encounter best of all, cloaked in the semblance of the very same elementals that Lorroakan had set upon them. “What about him?”

“I mean he has a big heart, massive arms, and can set himself on fire. Kind of ticks all your boxes, doesn’t he?”

Skin

Cyrus listed, tempted, so terribly tempted, to lean forward. To rest his head on Karlach's shoulder and breathe in the slight acrid sweetness of her body, skin and ducts and all. Everything turned to vapor with her. He could just let the day disappear, weightless and immaterial and…

Aaaaand i'm gonna do a similar 'if you see this & want to do it, consider yourself tagged by me!!' for the words............ scar, stain, cold, dear, and heart.

[sailorgundam308]

Maybe I should shut my mouth already, but this is my little space to vent and digress with stuff I need to keep bottled up elsewhere.

BG3 brought me back to fandom spaces after more than a decade and, while I know this could be just a generation gap thing, there are stuff I keep reading about or that sms throws at me randomly that is pretty annoying and even disheartening. Lots of younger/new people are engaging with the Forgotten Realms lore for the first time and it’s awesome. But I forgot how impassioned and intolerant fierce parts of fandoms can be.

It rubs me the wrong way how people in general tend to simplify things in order to either justify themselves or feel secure in regards to the world - which is a terrifyingly complex, irrational and nuanced thing we have absolutely no control over. Over the years I’ve surrounded myself with people that are fine with not knowing everything, not understanding all that’s going on, and who are okay with admitting there are things we’ll never grasp, points of view we’ll never have the authority to speak from. But the internet isn’t my bubble.

In regards to BG3 fandom - but I’d risk this is valid for a lot of places in and outside fandoms - there’s a lot of simplifying, flattening and denial of other experiences. The diehard straight folks at BG3 Reddit freak out because characters are pan, BG3 steam incels freak out because the women are “ugly”, BG3 tumblr users freak out (ironically) also because characters are pan, but in reverse. It’s a bit too much, especially when a lot of the fuel for divide is our own headcanons (which, let’s remind ourselves, can’t be wrong or right cause they exist for our personal entertainment and fantasy). Not to mention the game canon itself purposefully leaves a lot to be inputted by the player so we can head-customize our experiences. It’s the magic of rpg.

Still, there are these heated discussions that I can’t help but see stemming from simplification and labeling of things. This is shit that imo should not be happening still. I’ve mentioned here before how I dislike that people bat an eye on a character and, for example, decide what sexual orientation they should have. Generalizing, Shadowheart is straight because she is pretty and petite. Karlach is a lesbian because she is muscular and curses. Astarion is gay because he is slender and flamboyant - and so on. Mind you, they could very well be - but that is not the point. The point is passing judgement onto people based off appearance or demeanor alone.

Outside BG3 this reads as our daily encounters with ideas like: fat people are lazy, immigrants are uneducated (or less educated), hot girls are dumb, being slender is a desirable feminine trait, being muscular is a desirable masculine trait, poc are poor(er). Do some of these prove to be true on a case by case basis? Yes. Do some of these prove to be false on a case by case basis? Also yes. The fact is that some of these ideas are entrenched into the way people view the world. And that includes me and you. Even if you and I personally don’t do this, it doesn’t change the fact that a vast majority of people still do - and many of them unknowingly.

So when a niche community divides itself further to pass judgement onto fictional aspects of a game that is intentionally left so open to interpretation, to the point it creates feuds, it’s quite disheartening. It’s can’t be helped, perhaps, but it just plain sucks.

What specifically prompted me to write this, despite it being a ongoing feeling for a while, was the discussion around Halsin’s status of survivor/his backstory. And, again, there is a bias there that some people might not even realize. Astarion is the ideal victim in this regard, because he is the portrayal of fragility and attractiveness mixed in the right measure so his trauma can elicit sympathy and a sense of protection in many of us. Whereas Halsin isn’t necessarily the face of a traumatic experience for many. Not only physically (buff guy gets attacked?), but these two relate their experiences to us players differently, and act differently towards their trauma. It made me think again of the flattening of characters. This one can be a victim because “look at his face”. But this one? Not so much. It comes across as dismissing the “non-ideal” impersonation of that type of trauma.

Risking some oversharing, it’s the type of attitude that is putting me off from and isolating me within certain fan spaces - because my personal experiences are not quintessential “enough” for some, and my interpretations aren’t either. I’m in the lgbtqia spectrum but I’m not quite the “right kind of queer” (or, as some put it, fake queer, which is hilarious if nothing else). At least, my interpretation and depiction of queerness and gender within my favorite characters is not the one that is welcome in the spaces I tried to reach out to.

Far from me from claiming the epitome of trauma, but I’ve had my fair share. And I assume a lot of people have, too. So a little empathy or sympathy goes a long way, in reminding us our views (on headcanons) do not mean others’ are invalid.

How nice would it be that, instead of blurting out our first impressions because they are ‘easy’, we’d take a minute to just check if we’re saying what we’re saying out of an over simplistic view of things? Or, better yet, sometimes we don’t need to get out of our way to invalidate someone else’s experience. It’s mostly headcanon after all. Unless an idiot is going ‘round shouting nazi, racist, xenophobic, homophobic or misogynistic shit, there’s usually a way to turn around and leave them be (otherwise, fuck em up please and thank you.)

[wardenmages]

just read an au [link] of Astarion getting pulled into Thedas by a fade rift and brought to Skyhold and I want to write the whole brainworm crew getting launched into The Other Dark Fantasy Nightmare Show(tm)

Gale would be insufferable and I love it already. can you imagine him and Solas. him Solas and Dorian? Leliana is taking bets one which one kills another first. then on the other hand Gale and Vivienne having a normal conversation about magic and sharing info on the weave vs the fade

also just all of them and the inquisition's emotional support fade spirit Cole providing free awkward therapy. I specifically think he and Shadowheart would be a fun dynamic

Halsin would be so happy once he found some dalish elves to hang out with. just. so happy. oh my god

Lae'zel and Iron Bull. she beats him at arm wrestling and he is ready to get down on one knee and propose. I think Bull would also get along really well with Karlach and Wyll, and Krem definitely doesn't make distressed bisexual noises about either of them

Sera is also very, very gay about Karlach and trying to be normal about it but alas she is still Sera and like. tries to flirt by hanging upside down off of something and shooting an arrow to impress her. and it works

I think it's obvious that Astarion and Dorian would get along, but also, Astarion and Leliana. she'd try to recruit him as an agent SO FAST. also they hang out late at night and drink wine and talk about religious trauma and being used & abused by people they unfortunately trusted. also also, fashion & embroidery

Wyll and Josephine??? he is literally the prince charming archetype she has dreamed about her entire life and she's just so unendingly kind and warm and loving and they both deserve something that they don't have to sacrifice to the rest of the world brb gonna cry abt them