#also idk anything about real dnd lore so i make everything up so

[lil--nuggett]

Hey guys, so if you know Baldur's Gate 3 this is an AU for that with Hardenshipping but it's really fucked up. I will explain why it's fucked up below the cut.

Maxie is a High Half-Elf Warlock (his patron is Groudon), and Archie's a Human Fighter <3

Also I just realized this is the first time you have seen me draw Archie seriously lmao my bad guys I'll try to draw him again soon

I took a ton of inspiration for various things for these designs, including Guile for Archie's armor bc I love Guile sm!!

(More info and our dumb AU lore under here - No BG3 Spoilers I promise <3)

I'm going to tell you this now... this gets really fucking crazy and honest to god I know I'm going to have a hard time explaining this. It WILL be quite long and I WILL be yapping.

This AU is really just something we did on impulse and it's really fun to mess around with, so I'm hoping you all will enjoy the concept as well :)

I'll try to explain it simply as I can. I thank you in advance to all who sit here and read this ily sm if you read it all <3333

Anyways, okay so imagine how one could do a bg3 AU for these two fuckers...

And throw it right out the window because you'll never guess how me and my friend have done it.

The Backstory:

This all started when my friend decided to play BG3 for the first time, and he jokingly said to me "Should I make Maxie our main character??" and I replied "I you want, but I won't force you" and thus BG3 Maxie was created, and his misadventures began.

Now your probably wondering (if you've played the game) what about the guardian?? Who did we make the guardian?? Well, we made Archie the guardian. However, I did not know just how wild this idea would get within the next few days.

So, eventually we realized how crazy the BG3 lore actually is (it's a like fucking DnD campaign idk how we didn't realize this beforehand), and so, we jokingly started our own "AU Lore" that ties in with the BG3 Lore.

If you really want to know, I have an entire note in my notes app dedicated to keeping track of what happens. It is very long.

The Parasite:

Now, if you've played the game or know anything about it, you know about the Mindflayer parasites. Well, one fateful day, me and my friend joked that the Parasite in Maxie's head was this little freak who looks like Archie.

The two have no correlation other than looks, its completely coincidence and it's not a mimic situation. The Parasite "Archie" does nothing but talk nonsense to Maxie all the time, and initially the bit was that he only talked about Fortnite. All because I made the joke that the dream realm in game looked like a fortnite update. By now, that bit has fallen off (thank god), replaced by just general nonsense and lies.

Also he fucking looks like this:

Weird little freak. This is just one of his talk sprites I have, this is just his neutral expression.

So basically it's:

- Maxie was supposed to be on a Geology research trip, but instead he got dragged into the Parasite issue with the rest of the companions. He really just wants to get home to Archie.

I am the one who handles everything for Maxie in this AU, I do his voice, I handle his lore, etc.

- Parasite Archie is this 1 foot tall, neco arc-esque version of Archie that sits on Maxie's shoulder and tells him nonsensical things. He also says Maxie's name wrong, he says Maxie's full first name and pronounces it as "Maximilliam" instead of the "N" at the end. For Maxie it's like handling a toddler but the toddler fights back, doesn't shut up, and threatens your life. He also has a ton of his own lore that my friend continously adds on to, so I can make another post with just the parasite's part of things.

My friend handles everything with the Parasite himself, comes up with the lore, does the voice, etc. I simply keep track of it.

- The "dream visitor" version of Archie is not real either. It's linked to the Parasite in ways that if I get into it, I will spoil a good chunk of the game. Sorry. Just know you can consider this and Parasite Archie kind of as one in the same almost.

- The REAL Archie is still at home, completely unaware of what's happening, while Maxie is fighting for his life. He does miss him, though, and hopes he gets home soon. He and Maxie are only boyfriends, they haven't gotten married yet. (They also haven't been through their rivalry yet, as this all takes place before that happens.)

Sorry for the convoluted yap sesh, I just have more art planned for this stupid AU and- God I cannot possibly just post this shit with no context. Like, I'd have to explain it eventually so I might as well do it now beforehand yk 😭😭

I might do separate posts with our HCs and some silly conversations that have happened between Parasite Archie and Maxie if you guys would want that :)

Also, I do have all of the sessions from where my friend plays the game recorded and I'll be sure to post some clips of what Parasite Archie sounds like eventually, possibly with snippets of my shitty Maxie voice in there as well. You'll get to see the talk sprites in action with that, too.

[elftwink]

mhm okay here are some random brainstorms about this possible human sorcerer’s backstory (his name is reef atm)

he is 17 years old (im flexible on this but i think it’s very fun to play either very young or very old characters and also i’m the youngest player by about 5 years i think so Give Me This it will make the dynamic more #realistic. if all else fails he can be 23)

he’s spent the majority of his life sailing (i still have to talk to my dm but i’m thinking a merchant ship or a ship of discovery would make the most sense), as both his parents are sailors and they don’t really have A House outside of their ship. for a long time it was like. the only life he knew

he started like working on the ship when he was pretty young because one. it’s so fucking boring if you aren’t Doing Anything on a boat and two they mostly accepted his help although for a long time he just cleaned a lot of stuff which in his opinion was still better than Doing Nothing

when he was like. 15 he got a job on a bigger ship with another crew member. his parents were sad to see him go but they aren’t really worried about him and they still see him every once in awhile when their schedules match up

it’s a running joke that his family likes burnt food; at night when the sailors would exchange stories he’d be told that an ancestor of his gave a hand to a phoenix and now his whole family line just really likes to burn food. the story is different every time and embellished constantly and it’s not that reef disbelieves it because maybe they’re all a little superstitious but it’s like. a joke. they do it to poke fun at him.

(once when he was very young and ashore he just stuck both of his hands into a fire. he got yelled at for it and he hands were COVERED in burns and he’s never been able to explain why he did it. it’s been chalked up to him being ten years old but he still gets the urge to do it when he sees fire and he can’t explain that)

when he’s sixteen, almost seventeen his powers manifest in full for the first time during a very bad storm. no one could see anything or here anyone over the storm and he was so freaked out that he just like snapped and went mantle of flame

anyway. no one died in the storm and the rain kept the deck from catching fire but it’s still clear to everyone that he doesn’t have control over this and practically no one knows what to do about it

there’s no bad blood— he’s been a good worker for his whole life but reef’s only sort of an idiot and he knows a ship, on the ocean isn’t like. a great place for uncontrollable fire magic, so when he’s seventeen he leaves to try and find anyone who can teach him more and works odd jobs and travels a lot 

he’s not the sharpest tool in the drawer but he’s honest and hardworking and charming in a weird sort of way. like when u talk to him ur like. oh. this is my child now. im adopting him

he pretty much considers himself an adult. he’s informed his parents about his plan but did so by leaving a letter for them with his captain and has not spoken to them and they are probably not super duper happy with him but he’s An Adult Now And He Can Do What He Wants

he’s like. 17. he’s going to join an adventuring party the second one will have him

he conceptualizes his magic less like a part of him and more like he’s being possessed. not in a mean way necessarily but he has trouble with control because it feels so at odds to literally his entire previous lifestyle that he has trouble accepting that it’s him. especially because it can still fucking burn him i mean what the fuck is that

he’s bi that’s not important i just love him. anyway 

[synchronmurmurs]

this may be a very silly question but i am not a writer even though lately I really want to make an OC, I’ve been making bullet points in my phone notes app on different ideas and stuff and having so much fun! do you have any suggestions on how to properly organise stuff about your OCs? do you keep it all in one document or should i make a blog or idk! this is so new n exciting for me but I am utterly confused with how to go about it haha!

Ahhh nonnie, welcome to the OC making train!!

....I say, as if I’m not, all things considered, pretty new to it myself. I’ve always had a couple, but it wasn’t until I started writing DMC that I actively devoted time toward making more, and making something out of them...

BUT ANYWAY. I don’t think there’s any real way to go about it nonnie, you kind of just do what’s best for you? I don’t know what sort of OC you’re making, but if they have a specialised interest, research into that will obviously get you far. I have folders and pinterest boards for all of mine too, containing things like picrews, aesthetics, outfits, prompts. Anything that reminds me of that particular OC I guess. And since Punchy is amassing a bunch of AUs, I also have pics pertaining to those on her board too.

I do also have gdoc folders for each of them, but they’re definitely not organised, and really only contain the works I’ve written for them. Lore and worldbuilding exists mostly in my head, which... is honestly pretty dangerous because I’m so prone to forgetting, but there’s a very long and very detailed OC sorta... survey that you can fill out that covers everything from appearance, to lifestyle, to job, to family and friends, and almost everything in between. It takes some work completing (I’ve only gotten halfway into for Punchy before I gave up 🤣 it’s just so long), but there are definitely things of this sort of nature you can look into to keep all your OC info lined up. I think there are even some DnD sites that have templates you can utilise for this? I’m not sure of the specifics on that, but I’ve definitely seen at least one be used for a general OC before.

You can definitely make a blog too, or even use an existing/main tumblr and just tag posts with your OCs name or something to that effect. I admit I tend to go to pinterest for this kind of thing, but there are defs resources here on tumblr for aesthetics too. Even those “tag your OC” posts that I reblog are good for building OCs sometimes, and there are a bunch of those here.

Honestly, there’s no wrong way for you to do it. 😌 Just as long as you’re having fun with it! Good luck 🍀✨

[mercuryislove]

Which of your characters did you create first? Is that character significantly different now compared to when you first created them?

okay i wrote this at like 3am last night when i couldn't sleep and it makes absolutely no sense but i figured if there was anyone on this earth that would appreciate it, it might be you lol

It's kind of funny you should ask this because the last few days I've been reading the stuff I was writing when I first picked it back up this time last year and like. shit's changed a lot lol

Of like. the stuff I'm writing now uh TECHNICALLY Yixing came first because when I was first toying with the idea of running a dnd campaign of my own, I started coming up with some npcs just to like. get some inspiration I guess? (I'm pretty sure I've talked about this before...) So I didn't really have any ideas about a setting or a plot or anything but I had two very specific characters, and one of them was like. a classic drifter/outlaw type character. And his two defining features were that he had really long black hair and was covered head to toe in tattoos. And uh. Only one of those stuck lol (though in my dnd campaign he still does have the tats! And they are plot relevant lol) OH also it stands to say that in my campaign Yixing is a MONK WITH A GUN because he was originally a gunslinger but I didn't really like any of the way the gunslinger homebrew options worked, and a lot of them were basically monk adjacent so I turned him into a monk and made his fucking monastic weapon a GUN.

Also the other npc I made was a really bonkers woman that lives in the woods and thinks the world is about to end at any moment and is extremely magically adept and eats a whole lot of shrooms lmao. idk if she'll actually show up in the campaign but she has a character sheet ready just in case

anyway. Yes Yixing is WAY different. He still has the yeehaw flair but he was originally intended to be shady and self-serving and standoffish and the kind of person who will play all sides but still find a way to come out on top. (he is still like that in my campaign..... he's like a quadruple agent lmao SPOILER for my dnd campaign that nobody cares about: he CLAIMS to be working for Anwei but he's actually working for Ciaran who knows he's also working for Anwei but he's actually double-crossing them both AND someone else that he's working for because he has his own side hustle and honestly he may or may not end up being the actual Big Bad of the campaign. I don't know yet. I hope my sister isn't reading this lol) anyway again, in the context of my novel he's now only a little bit self-serving and he will probably complain if he's super inconvenienced by helping out other people but he's still going to do it. He's a GOOD PERSON and even though I still have an extremely detailed outline of the idea I had where the plot is basically the same but he's a real shithead instead, I can't bring myself to really entertain the idea because I like him being nice. :( the whole point is that he's been through hell and back and has had a really shitty life but still finds a way to be kind and to see the good in people in spite of it all!!!! I get like. really passionate about this. Like truly agonizing about it to no one but myself. I'm the one writing the damn thing I can do whatever I want so why do I care so much about an alternate reality where Yixing is a real bastard??? I do not know.

ANYWAY AGAIN. (now here is where we really lose the thread of the original question lol) This all goes back to dnd lol because as someone that is a hard atheist, it's like. tough for me to get into the whole uhhh god thing in fantasy settings (but in this case I'm talking dnd). Like they EXIST FOR REAL in the context of the game so when your cleric or paladin prays, someone is really listening. And I was like... hm. What if I want to write a campaign where they just aren't there? (and some of my friends said I couldn't because that's breaking the rules which is stupid.. I do what I want!!!) Or that they had otherwise abandoned humanity? So then because I played final fantasy x too much in my formative years, I had the idea of “what if the gods got really fucking mad about people forsaking religion and punished them?” which turned into “what if the gods just DIED suddenly and the world fell apart in the wake?” which turned into “what if the gods realized they sucked at their jobs and that humanity was unintentionally destroying itself so they made a pact to start over but when they tried to do just that, they accidentally killed themselves?” and that is........... mostly the so-called lore now (but there is definitely more but I can't say at this time because spoilers lol) uh. I forgot where I was going with this. OH. How the characters changed. WELL. Anwei has probably changed the least lol. She is still kind of mean and weird and thinks of herself and the others like her as Far Superior to everyone else, but she's no longer downright evil. At one point she was intended to be the villain!!! but I changed my mind because I love fellow mean lesbians so much. Also it was kind of uhh. low stakes with her as a villain/antagonist. She's a little shady and definitely still very manipulative and she gets mean when jealous but not like in her first iterations.... she does still sort of try to get yixing killed though lmao

Oh also Ciaran was the last of the three that I came up with lol which is funny considering he's like. such a big deal. The only reason he exists at all is because I wanted to come up with a real Corruption Arc kind of Guy because I am a big fan of those. Also I wanted the Big Bad in my campaign to be related somehow to the Big Good. And like. what better way to do that than siblings! And then I needed a way to make my Very Cool New npc connected to both of them somehow to make the whole uhhh revolver ocelot style mind games work so I sat down and was like. well. time to tell a tragic love story lol. soooooooooo uh Thank you dnd for inspiring me to write a trilogy of novels because I wanted to do a SINGLE basic worldbuilding exercise for my dnd campaign (that even now has only had uh. four sessions ever) while I was sad and lonely last summer.

I totally went off the rails with this question and I am sorry for that :( also I could write a thousand essays about how much I love Yixing and also how many versions of him there are in my mind lol he's like that one oc that everyone has that they find a way to put in everything always. he is my alternate universe oc. very versatile