#Astara rambles

[moodboards-or-cheese]

Seeing as I was already making flashcards for my PSAT prep class, here’s a picture of the front of a card, ft. my horrid handwriting

[vihola]

I’ve told you about the Kallig kids, now get ready for the Kallig grandkids.

Astara doesn’t have children of her own, but she accidentally adopts a Mirialan girl and a Twi’lek boy.

Razali, who goes by Razzle, is orphaned when she is very little, but neighbors take her in. Unfortunately, when the neighbors fall on hard times, they become resentful of her ― they could do without an additional mouth to feed. So they put her to work. She is running errands in a junk shop and being treated very poorly when Astara finds her. Astara likes Razzle and dislikes child labor, so she takes Razzle away after having a brief conversation with the girl’s guardians (most of what she says to them should be censored). She wants to find a family or at least a decent orphanage for this kid, but Razzle ends up staying with her forever.

Kaae lives with a mother who never wanted him in the first place, she just tolerates him. He spends most of his time on the streets, feeling more at home there. He hates asking his mother for anything because every time she just looks at him like his very existence is an inconvenience. So he learns to steal what he needs at a young age and he does it well. One day he tries to steal from Astara, but she is too amused by his rather clever attempt to get angry. She laughs it off, buys him a meal, and talks to him. Kaae’s mother is only glad to get him off her hands when Astara shows up on her doorstep.

[nightingaletrash]

Y'know what's funny? The fact that Astrid decided that Daenethys could be entrusted with important tasks when generations of matrons and speakers decided otherwise

[dnd-homebrew5e]

Hey there! I’m thinking about multiclassing bloodhunter into warlock but I’m still kind of iffy on multiclassing... does it make my character weaker than the rest of the party, since I’m splitting levels between the classes? That’s mostly what I’m worried about. I was wondering if you could answer that and maybe inform me about some pros of multiclassing? I’m really excited for this character but I don’t know much about D&D mechanics :( any help would be appreciated! Thanks for your time!

I personally enjoy multiclassing because I feel a lot of the stuff characters would normally receive at levels 18, 19, and 20 are usually pretty boring and anticlimactic. Taking a little from something else doesn’t make you weaker because your player level stays the same. My character Eridonis is a Warlock 13/Bard 1 and it gave him more cantrips, two spell slots since he has Pact Magic, and four Bard spells. I took Cure Wounds and Healing Word because if I use it with my Pact Magic I immediately cast it as a 5th level spell. My character Astara right now is Fighter 5/Revised Ranger 1 and I plan on going into many more levels down that path with her. 

With Warlocks I would take 2 or 3 levels in because of being able to have 2 Eldritch Invocations as a 2nd level Warlock or a Pact Boon at 3rd level depending which one you go for is pretty sweet. I don’t know exactly how Blood Hunters work. Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast Eldritch Invocation because no matter how much you level in any class your cantrips go as you level as a player. Say you were a Blood Hunter 9 and took 2 levels in Warlock. You would get the 3 beams that they get for their Eldritch Blast at level 11 because you would still be playing a level 11 character.

This went on so much longer than I expected and hope this helped you in any way through all this rambling. 

[vihola]

So, you got that ask about Relu and Merkara's relationships with their crews recently, and in one of the posts you linked you said you wanted to talk about Ashara and Merkara's relationships post story. Please do??? I'd love to hear about that! ���

Everything goes wrong when Merkara ascends to the Dark Council. She has no interest in fixing the Empire, but she has a long list of people to hunt down. She disappears for days and comes back smelling of blood and death. Ashara doesn’t know how to deal with this, her helplessness turns into fury. She confronts Merkara with righteous anger in her eyes and reminds her of all the plans they had. 

Merkara says “I don’t owe the Empire anything. Let it burn for all I care.” Ashara responds “All those people you’re killing ― they’re a symptom of the problem, not the cause. They had the power to hurt you because the system allowed it. You can kill them, but others will come in their place, and they will keep causing the same suffering that you had to go through. It’s not going to end just because it’s over for you. Don’t you see? If you refuse to fix the problem, you become part of it.” 

Merkara doesn’t look ashamed ― Ashara has never seen and will never see this expression on her Master’s face. But she seems thoughtful. She disappears again, she’s not heard from for weeks this time. When she comes back, she starts talking about finding more allies in the Republic as if nothing happened. As if Ashara didn’t get to see her with burning yellow eyes and blood-stained hands.

Cautiously, Ashara joins the discussion. She wasn’t important enough in the Jedi Order to have strong connections there, but she knows of some Jedi who might be willing to break rules for peace. She is the one to approach them. If she manages to convince them, they talk to Merkara next, but Ashara gets to make first impressions and represent their cause. 

Ashara wants to believe in something so badly. She meets more potential allies and talks with infectious enthusiasm, rambling like a girl in love. She grows so confident that she suggests contacting the Barsen’thor ― she met him once, before he was important. He patiently listens to her, but his face is dark with skepticism and disapproval. Still, he concedes: “Maybe I will talk to your Master, if only to see what kind of a Sith can inspire such loyalty.” His words sting. Ashara tells herself that she’s not doing it for Merkara, she’s doing it because it’s right. But then she returns to Imperial space and catches herself lingering for words of praise, for an approving glance, for a brilliant smile. She feels warmth spreading inside her in response to little bits of validation. 

Merkara knows that Ashara will be there to slap her on the wrist. If Merkara gets too drunk on power to see straight, Ashara won’t be afraid to confront her about it. It’s a strangely comforting thought. Ashara pretends to be a perfect Sith apprentice in public and becomes entangled with the Imperial ways, but she still has the strength and clarity to say ���No, this wrong.” “No, I will not allow it.” “No, how dare you?”

Together they consider so many possibilities of how the major galactic events might develop. But the threat of Zakuul is hidden out there, they never see it coming. When Merkara disappears during a confrontation with the Eternal Fleet, Ashara feels so lost. She steps out of her Master’s shadow and is immediately blinded by the light. To her horror, she realizes that her life has become intertwined with Merkara’s to the point where she doesn’t even know who she is on her own. So she struggles to find herself. When she hears that Merkara might be alive, she doesn’t go searching. 

Merkara doesn’t need Ashara this time. There are other people looking for her and they eventually succeed. Ashara hears the news and crushes the urge to travel halfway across the galaxy to see her Master. Former Master, she corrects herself. Former Master who might not forgive Ashara for giving up on her, might not understand her reasoning. And it’s alright, or so Ashara tells herself when she tastes bitterness on the tip of her tongue. She has learned to be important on her own, to make fully independent decisions, to stop expecting precious little bits of attention in exchange for her achievements. 

But when Merkara stands in front of her, beckoning, Ashara can’t help herself. She didn’t have much of a choice so many years ago on Taris. She can choose now, and she sighs with relief when Merkara’s arms come around her. Ashara has come full circle. Ashara has come home.

[nightingaletrash]

Messing with timelines again, as I always do. I’m moving the DB questline to take place after Glenumbra, mostly cuz I want Maggie, who’s survived Faolchu and Angof, to experience her first death in the Artorius fight in front of her family because I’m a cruel, cruel person. And because she was getting a bit big for her boots and I wanted her first death to have an impact. And dying in front of her found-family in that final fight was definitely one of the most meaningful situations I could come up with.

Also Maggie cuts her hair after Mirabelle’s death because they were basically twins and that death was so hard on her, Maggie tries to distance herself from it as a way of coping. Plus she looks cute af with a bob :D