#and I felt like talking about them—especially Khazrae

[chimerabytes]

Imperius tries So Hard to act like he doesnt have a crush on Inari. Like, theyre so cute it makes him mad. Almost triggering the whole cuteness aggression thing but like. Not nearly as violent. Just like, hes so grumpy wumpy. And this cutesy little fox spirit dude who HAPPENS to be a Nephalem, nevermind that Nephalem havent appeared for thousands of years before the appearance of them in Diablo 3.....

(read more bcs this got long OOPS. sorry)

and like, this big gruff archangel of valor, holy fury and righteous wrath is in Such Disbelief that this, THIS ditzy, clumsy little buffoon is a Nephalem!!!

Also nevermind the fact that as they grow into their powers, Inari's strength begins to rival that of Imperius himself. And he spends so much time fervently denying he has any goodwill about Inari, that when he finally has to confront the fact that yes, he is extremely infatuated with them, he just like. Mentally having an episode about it.

Meanwhile Inari is clueless about any of this, still thinking that Imperius doesn't really like them. And theyre not here to challenge him because, from what Tyrael has told of him, Imperius is extremely resistant to change and difficult to convince him of something he so stoutly disagrees with.

They work tirelessly with the other angels and archangels of the Heavens, repairing the arch and relieving the angels of the corruption caused by the demons. They work to calm the Khazra, to make amends with them, and to help relieve the pains felt throughout the rest of Sanctuary.

Inari, in the beginning, was seen as a bad omen, a bringer of death, cursed even, due to their unique talents. But now? They're seen as a bringer of goodwill, although most are still very wary of them because of skepticism and all of that are still very rampant. Because when you were saved by someone who has such amazing powers to quell restless undead... It all seems like an unbelievable daydream, right?

Imperius takes so long to be convinced that having Inari around is a good thing. He's suspicious of them - Nephalem have both angelic and demonic blood in them, and hes so sure that some point Inari is going to suddenly... Turn around, and become a demon.

Its very unlikely to happen though.

By the time he confronts his attraction to them, Imperius is still convinced he's falling for a demon. He's so sure that its almost like Inarius and Lilith all over again. And he admittedly still harbors some sour feelings over their whole matrimony, and especially for his brother in arms, Inarius. He misses him dearly, but even if he perished he would never admit that.

Inari is very prickly towards him at first, as when they first met in Act 4, Tyrael had to physically restrain Inari from attacking the already weakened Imperius.

After Act 5, a few months pass, and Inari and Imperius are on talking terms. Inari's mellowed down after absorbing the powers granted by the soul of their deceased mentor, as well as being empowered by confronting the tormenting shades that Diablo tried to use to scare them away from fighting him.

Inari is much kinder, but is rather closed off and stern when they meet with the archangel of valor again. Almost wondering "Is he going to go off on me again?"

But that never comes. Just a cool, but detached and cold, conversation. This conversation comes after Imperius had witnessed Inari be injured months previously in the confrontation against Malthael. They almost failed, had it not been some sort of divine intervention that allowed them to grasp the upper edge and defeat the hallowed husk that was once the archangel of wisdom.

Imperius decides he's going to watch over Inari, in a literal sense. Tracking their every move, making sure they don't leave his sight... Although that means having to be around Tyrael. The feelings towards one another are still bitter. They don't get along too well. Inari usually has to be the middle person and get them to separate.

He initially justifies this by wanting to ensure that if they do fall to evil, he will strike them down the moment it happens. Inari doesn't think much of it; but the actual reasoning is far different.

Imperius has been watching them, from the beginning of Act 4 to after Act 5. And he has to admit that hes curious about them. Despite all their hardships, Inari is still a gentle person. They hold no ill will towards anyone offput by them and their talents.

Speaking of their abilities...

Initially, Imperius was disgusted by Inari's abilities to divine with the dead, to qualm their souls, and to dispel them if they harbored unkindness towards the living. They comfort those in their final moments, and send them to the afterlife. Most people see Necromancers as nuisances at best, at worst creepy, terrifying or just horrible to be around. Inari still has their ill-fated reputation of being cursed to be around, despite all that they've done to assist the people of Sanctuary and repelling continuous undead and demonic barrages from destroying cities.

But over time, he becomes intrigued by their abilities. Their gentleness, in dealing with all manners of death, and Inari's resilience and pride in making sure that the restless can finally be laid to rest, and those in their final moments are given grace and comfort. He sees angels and demon alike regard Inari with the same kindness they gift others, and he just can't seem to figure it out!

Their kindness begins to penetrate his stone-cold attitude, and makes him feel all warm and fuzzy when he sees them. But of course, its just because its so hot, right? Or maybe hes feeling ill and needs to rest? And definitely, surely not because he's in love or anything! The archangel of valor has rarely, if ever been interested in love, and he has rarely thought about it himself.

But there's something about Inari that he cant shake away...

(I headcanon Imperius as gay demiromantic / demisexual.)

[parasite-core]

You've been visited by the random OC question fairy! :D ~☆

What influences your character's morality more - their own moral code, or the moral code of the people around them?

Thank you for the ask 😊 I’ll throw in pretty much all my characters into the mix for this one because I love thinking about their morality or lack there of.

Umbrolus: Umber’s moral code is very simple because of his sheltered upbringing. You’re either nice or mean, and either bad or good. You can be mean and good, or nice and bad, but if you’re bad you have to be stopped, and are fair game to be fought against. If you’re good he can work with you and maybe even be friends, even if you’re not always nice (see: Celeste sometimes). If you hurt Kleio, you’re automatically bad. Or his other friends, but Kleio especially. And it is very hard to move from that category in his mind, he holds a grudge. He does tend to look to Kleio for moral guidance to a certain extent because he’s aware he doesn’t really know what’s socially correct in many situations, so he tends to trust their judgement on if someone should be labeled good or bad.

Kaius “Hawke” River: Kaius doesn’t so much care about morality as he does debts. You do something to hurt him or his family, and he’ll hold a grudge and seek vengeance. You do something to help him or his family, and he’ll owe you. Do something to protect his daughter and he’ll lay down his life for you. The closest thing to morality for him outside of that is that he has a soft spot for young people who made bad choices because of their situation in life but who can still turn their lives around. He very much believes in people ability to recreate themselves and to become better, especially young people, and he highly encourages it. As far as who affects his morality...just himself, and maybe his daughter. He’ll definitely try to put a little more effort into doing the ‘right’ thing if she’s around. Usually. Unless he’s teaching her to lie and steal. ‘Because those are useful skills in the real world.’

Roland Terrasold: Roland is pretty set in his ways about his morality, he follows his moral code, which is based on the teaching of Sarenrae, and changing his stance on moral questions is anywhere from difficult to impossible. He believes in redemption, and the ability for anyone who truly wishes to better themselves to do so. He believes a second chance should be offered to those who sincerely seek to atone. He also believes those who do evil gleefully and who can and will never seek to be better deserve to be destroyed before they can do further harm. He believes in protecting the weak and defenseless, and in seeking out evil and corruption and stopping it before it can spread and fester and do more harm. He’s opposed to excessive and gleeful violence, preferring to subdue an enemy or kill them in the most quick and merciful what possible, even if the enemy in question is a particularly vile person. He doesn’t believe in an eye for an eye, vengeance begets more vengeance and doing excessive harm just leads to you being more okay with violence it doesn’t solve any problems or help anyone to be sadistic or take joy in killing. This might have a lot to do with the sort of person his extremely sadistic ex Ashton was. Also due to Valoria’s teachings after Sarenrae’s death, Roland also believes that the use of necromancy is not necessarily evil by default, if used on willing volunteers and towards noble ends.

Kiyo Alvara: Kiyo is extremely set in their way about their morality. Like Roland, they believe in doing the least amount of excessive harm, although unlike Roland they don’t have any qualms about revenge. They don’t believe in harming someone who’s helpless, even if the person in question was a vile person. Although they might make an exception if Rolth Lamm were helpless in front of them. I don’t know if they’d feel bad about it afterwards. That’s pretty personal. They believe in honesty unless a secret or lie is vital to someone’s safety, or the safety of Korvosa as a whole (ie they have no problem with keeping Blackjack’s identity secret since that’s vital to keeping Korvosa safe). They are slow to trust again when their trust has been betrayed, they’ve lived for so long and seen so few people change their innate nature, that it takes a lot for them to believe someone’s changed their ways.

Sai Gwenn: Her morality is extremely black and white, and extremely influenced by Hayden. There are good people and bad people, and the bad people need to be taken care of before they can harm the good people. Failing to get rid of a bad person is itself bad, because it enables bad people to harm more good people. Sometimes good people are in a bad situation which makes them have to do bad things, and those people should be given a second chance to be good in better circumstances. Who is good and who is bad is entirely based on Sai’s perception of them. Her morality is a little fucked up honestly. She’d forgive an assassin despite trying to kill her and her friends because she was conditioned into her position her entire life, but was so angry at a gargoyle for harming her friend that she polymorphed it into a bug and kept it in a jar until her friend was healed, then released it into the wild to inevitably live a short and terrified life trapped in the body of an insect with the mind of an intelligent creature.

Lucien Anasia: Part of me wants to say Lucien doesn’t have a moral code since he decides so much on the flip of a coin due to his worship of luck. But he does have some moral qualms. He believes in helping people suffering in front of him. He believes in sharing, and trying to help people to feel happy, and in leaving people’s lives a little brighter. He wouldn’t feel comfortable doing excessive harm to people, although that’s exactly what his cursed starknife does.

Haruki Himura: Haruki’s morality has been shaken to the core recently. He used to follow the teachings of the Nameless Father, but since being turned into a drow and the Nameless Father turned His back on him, Haruki’s been unmoored. Without something to believe in, he’s pendulum swung in the opposite direction, being willing to assassinate people he doesn’t like, violently slaughter creatures with his crystalline curse, and all around give into his anger and desire to make others hurt the way he currently is. He draws the line at harming innocents. He does harm to those who did harm first. Random civilians deserve to be able to just live their lives.

Khazrae Kulata: Khazrae is an erinyes devil, and as such she doesn’t have much in the way of a moral code. She gets her morality 90% from Maxwell and 10% from the rest of the Shadow Slayers. Her morality typically boils down to ‘if I do this will Maxwell be upset I did’. She sincerely likes the party and she owes them an eternal debt for how they saved her from a millennia of torment, so despite very much being an evil creature by nature, she does sincerely want to do right by them. However since she doesn’t always have a firm grasp on human morality, she does make the wrong call on occasion and does something evil without thinking it’ll be a big deal to everyone else, such as when she helped Claudia to kill a helpless prisoner to help another devil get revenge.

Eccardian Drovenge: Eccardian’s morality is a bit grey at the moment. He spent much of his life manipulated and possessed by his infernal father Mammon, so now that he’s finally free he’s feeling out how he actually feels about things without a literal devil whispering in his ear. He takes a lot of cues from Erik on how to be a better person, and considering whether Erik would be disappointed in a choice does go into his decision making. He’s okay with grave robbing and is gleeful about getting revenge on those who have harmed him. He has no qualms about killing to remove a threat to him and his organization. However he’s not going out of his way to do harm anymore, and is actually trying to funnel his resources into doing good for the city and the country as a whole, to help make things better for tieflings like him and ‘lesser’ citizens as a whole.

Chammady Drovenge: Chammady is a pragmatist. Her morality centers her family—which in this case means her brother and the Shadow Slayers—and anyone outside of them is fair game. She took the lessons of both nobility and the thieves’ guild to heart, and is willing to do what has to be done to protect herself and hers. She is skilled at the double talk of nobility, and the necessary manipulations to navigate politics. She’s good at making others underestimate her, playing the role of vapid noblewoman and leaning into people’s expectations and biases, although she’s done that less since becoming mayor as now she has a position of true power, where a different sort of face is both expected and necessary. Like her brother, she has no qualms about killing those who might obstruct her goals or harm her inner circle. She is fiercely protective of her inner circle.