#auspex talks

[auspexsims]

break time!

taking a break from posting decades for a while to prep 1920's/1930's copperdale - building lots, creating citizens/a new cast, and a new era of life for my burnt out little seamstress.

ive been experimenting with how i present this story and the characters' relationships and personalities, how i can be clearer, and what is most fun and authentic for me to create - thank you all for the recent uptick in love, reblogs, reactions, and comments <3 i am always open to feedback.

in the meantime, i'll post the rest of gen 1 of my much more casual and colorful occult legacy which covers gen 2's child and teen years <3 it will be nice for me to have it around again. it will be tagged in case you're not up for it.

[crownedinmarigolds]

Hello everyone! With help from @auspex, we are putting together the first Tumblr of Darkness Secret Santa event! This event is where artists may come together, submit their World of Darkness OCs, and we can all draw and exchange gifts with one another! Just a little fun to remind one another that we're a great community!

How to Participate: There is indeed a limited amount of time to sign up to make sure everyone has a fair chance! Applications are open 11.04.2024 and will be kept open until Monday 11.11.2024. - You will be submitting your World of Darkness original characters and link their reference materials so that another artist may draw them! Please make sure you have a link that someone may have open access to. This can be a Google Drive folder, your art tag on a social media, etc.  If you make a Google Drive, make sure your Secret Santa does not have to request access and spoil the surprise. In short, just make sure it's easy for your future gifter to look through! Please don't make it a treasure hunt to find out info on your character just to make things easier. When the applications close, we will then put all participants' names into a randomizer to assign everyone their Secret Santa! Auspex and I will make sure to notify you all as soon as possible as well as provide the reference links so that you can have as much time needed to get the artwork finished. You may go as crazy or mild as you like, but just be aware that artists of ALL skill levels are invited to join! Do not be deterred if you feel like you can't draw - that is the devil talking! Every work of art you make is amazing and any gift with heart behind it is wonderful. - For this year, we asks that the gifts remain art-only. Any medium is fine (digital or traditional) but writing, playlists, mood boards, or anything else won't be accepted. Those things are great, and maybe in the future that could be another exchange, but for simplicity's sake - keep it to art, please. If you want to add mood boards or playlists or write ups as little bonuses to your art - that is entirely up to you! - Please remember these works of art are gifts. This exchange is a community event where everyone is free to participate and share in the spirit of giving during this holiday season. Do not feel bad if you feel like you are not drawing as "well" as somebody else, and please do not make others feel bad if you feel like they're not reaching your standards. This is meant to be fun and for everyone who wants to try! We plan to notify everyone within the next day or two after closing applications, and you will have until 12.20.2024 to draw and submit your works back to Auspex and I so that we may send them to their intended recipient! If you know the person you have and would like to share early, we understand, but please if you would keep it off of Tumblr until the event is concluded just so everyone can be surprised! Once the event is over, have at it and post away! - Please respect the time and effort everyone is putting in! If you feel like something has come up and you won't be able to finish or participate after applying - that is fine. Just let us know as early as possible so that we can either inform your gift recipient or take you off the list.

You will find the application here: https://forms.gle/9VTyd4FsyENwjR4B6

For any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me (crownedinmarigolds) either on Tumblr or through my email - ladyofsilks@gmail.com. You may also reach out to auspex on Tumblr as well in case I'm unavailable! Thank you all for being a community I love and and I hope we have lots of fun trying this out!

Please reblog so all of the community may see and get to join in!

[gorbalsvampire]

TALK ABOUT HORNT VAMPIRES, PLEASE!!!

This is about the Compulsion thing, isn't it?

OK. Compulsions are born out of the Hunger - they are a consequence of Messy Criticals - but they are also evidence that the Beast isn't about the Blood and only the Blood and nothing but the Blood. The basic Compulsions "form the core of the vampiric personality" and they are Hunger, Harm, Paranoia... and Domination.

Vampires want control. It's how they stay safe, it's how they stay fed, it's one of their core drives. Of course they're going to lean on one of the cores of the human personality to establish that control, and they're going to Discipline their prey - what a choice of terms for the vampiric power set! - to maintain it.

We can talk about the raw power of the Lasombra - they're stronger than you, they can break your mind to their whim, and if you will insist on struggling, the deprivation of sight and movement and the critical but not lethal pain offered by various iterations of Obetneblivion.

We can talk about the horror that is Auspex and a mental Discipline. Tremere, Malkavians, Tzimisce and especially Toreador can read your desires off the back of your head and compel you to fulfil them and, in the latter case, you won't even necessarily know you're being played. Everything will feel... natural. For all that I love the overt hypno-kink potential of the Tremere in particular (it's wired into their relationships with each other, either part bound to enable Dominate or reliant on it because they can't bind), it's the Toreador who I find most horrifying and alluring here. My Ravnos and Setite characters wish they were that good.

We can even talk about meat crimes, if you want, but the rest of Vampire fandom on Tumblr has kinda got that part down already.

Let's go deeper, though, and get into the Compulsions of specific clans.

Judgment. Look, I don't want to spell this out for you, it seems too obvious. Transgress, and a Banu Haqim can't help themselves. They are responsible for you, you awful brat, and you keep on baiting them like this. It's a dangerous dance, working your lover's levers like this, but if you're into punishment you're going to get bitten.

Rebellion. Feral Impulses. I'm loading two Anarch pillar clans together because what unites the Brujah and the Gangrel, for our purposes, is their brattiness, the urgency and spite of their desire. The Gangrel one even goes so far as to mention that clothes are constricting: there's an exhibitionist thing waiting to get out here.

Morbidity. Don't even start me on the snuff movies. That's easy street. The Hecata can kill and resurrect something more abstract - like the desires of the jaded and the weary. When nothing excites you any more, when you feel like pleasure has lost its edge, here's a sadistic fucker with a bite that'll give you some perspective on yourself. A dangerous game, especially for mortals, but - OK, now we can talk about the snuff movies.

Transgression. What's a Minister without a boundary to kick down and slither over? You say vampires don't fuck and half the Setites have their kit off just to spite you. This is to say nothing of religious adulation, the stereotype of the serpent queen adored by pliant, presenting bodies. I actually find this one a bit tired - I'd like to see a Minister who's more of the World and the Devil than the Flesh.

Delusion - the Malkavian sensory overload, writhing in the embrace of imaginary lovers and less able to resist further... stimulus. You don't need to touch a Malkavian to set them off. But you know what I really think of, when I think about Malkavians? Power. She's beauty. She's grace. There's pain writ on her face. She carries such a terrible burden but with you, beloved, little one, with you she can let go. Unmask, and bask in the sensations she spent all night repressing. Why was Malakai so close to brother Saulot and brother Set? They both wanted to help her release. Set just wanted her to do it in public.

Cryptophilia - what does your Nosferatu lover want? What do you want? They're not going to be happy until they've turned over the deepest stone in your soul, put you in your space and found the tick you didn't even know you tocked. You lucky monsterfucker. You're going to be here a while.

Tempting Fate. Oh, Ravnos. You always want what you can't have. You just have to kiss the diva while you're taking off her necklace. You just have to make sure the Seneschal's secretary really wants to come and find you a second time. And a third. And... look, Ravnos have trouble with the word no and they can make you have trouble with it too.

Affective Empathy. Was there ever a clan so cursed as the Salubri? Ever a Kindred so driven to share, to ease, to comfort? The Salubri sex worker. The Salubri surrogate. The Salubri who cares for you so much. Won't you find solace with them? Please? Please? There's a desperate selfishness to their kindness that feels deliciously complex.

Obsession. Covetousness. The Toreador admire your beauty for itself. The Tzimisce admire it because it's theirs. They want to transform you, enshrine you, possess you absolutely. Hope you like being spoiled. Hope you like feeling beholden to the object of your Desire in a way the others will never understand. Only you appreciate it truly. Spoil it. Cradle it. Never let it go.

Perfectionism. Ruthlessness. I wasn't expecting the Tremere and the Lasombra to have so much in common, but both of them want to do the thing right. Again. Again. Again. Until it's perfect. Critically, it's them doing the thing - for all that they like giving commands, their Compulsion finds them wanting to fulfil them, to exceed them even, and Lasombra aren't the aloof hands-off kind of domme. Leave that to the Ventrue. They're going to work you over.

Arrogance. Basic as ever, the Ventrue love being the boss, but there's a catch. The order has to be given without supernatural aid. So this Compulsion forces the Ventrue to cultivate loyalty, respect, obligation, love and lust like a human, just so they can feel more like a good vampire. This is how you crack open the dignitas and get under their skin. This has a lot more potential than you'd think. If the Ventrue doesn't understand the limitations, at first, the poor bastard could be grinding his fangs night after night wondering why the cold instruction of Compel or the deliberate cruelty of Entrance isn't doing it for him. What does the Beast want that its powers do not provide?

God, I'm thinking about the erotic potential of Clan Ventrue now. Eff Emm Ell.

And Duskborn? You're mostly human anyway. Most of you are walking around with a thrill in your very veins! It hits like vitae, just about, but with no consequences. You gorgeous little snack packs. You have something the old thiccos want, and can't admit to taking. Isn't that delicious? Isn't that almost power? Isn't that how you get your Mawla sugar daddy? Isn't it fun to look these "real Kindred" over and realise that their Hunger is your Dominance? Who really has the power in this room: is it really the person giving all the orders?

[charmedcleric]

Get to know your tav!

I was tagged by the lovely @auspex-author Thank you so much for the tag!

Her name is Athena and she is my war domain cleric of eilistraee. Her character sheet is here and this post is very long so I’ll put most of it under the cut! Once I start talking about my tavs I literally can’t stop, also I talk about her relationship with rolan a little bit so that’s why he’s tagged <3

What is your tav’s….

favorite weapon?

- Athena’s favourite weapon is a longsword you find in act 1 called the Phalar Aluve

style of combat?

- She is usually in the frontline swinging her singing sword while casting spirit guardians. She also loves ambushing, as it’s a great way to get advantage over others

most prized possession?

- Athena has two lockets that she wears 24/7. One locket was a gift to her from her mother. The other locket belonged to her sister. Athena’s mother had a tradition to get each of her children a matching locket with a photo of the family in it to remind them that no matter what happens they are with them all the time. As Athena’s parents and sister had passed away she had both the lockets on her at all times to feel close to her family

deepest desire?

- To have a family of her own. She was orphaned at the age of 14 and became her little sisters full time carer. 4 years later her sister got very ill, so Athena became a cleric to help look after and heal her.

Her healing magic helped her sister stay alive for 5 years until her sister Rose succumbed to her illness and passed away. Athena felt empty as she now had no family left and she felt as if she had failed as a cleric. She would love nothing more than to have a family to call her own, yet it’s one of the things she fears most as she doesn’t want to let anyone else down

guilty pleasure?

- Athena’s guilty pleasure is gossiping, she knows she shouldn’t but she loves listening in on others business. Her, astarion and shadowheart basically have a gossiping club at this point where they tell each other all the juicy stuff

best-kept secret?

- That she is a sword dancer of eilistraee. A sword dancer is a specialized priestess (cleric) of Eilistraee. Athena had been a follower of eilistraee since she was little but once her sister died leaving her to be the last in her family, she felt as if the only thing she had left was her religion. She decided that she wanted to become a sword dancer. As she already lived on the surface becoming a sword dancer was slightly easier as to become one you must spend at least a month on the surface dancing each moonlit night for eilistraee and you had to witness dawn at least once.

She also went and offered her services at the Promenade of the Dark Maiden, she wasn’t there for long before she was taken by the nautiloid.

greatest strength?

- Her dedication, when she puts her mind to something or she wants something she will get it

fatal flaw?

- She blames herself a bit to much and she shuts down while doing it. This is seen when rolan yelled at her in the shadow lands and even after saving the tieflings from moonrise she still wasn’t herself and became very quiet for some time although she didn’t let that stop her from her task of infiltrating moonrise towers

favorite smell?

- She loves the smell of freshly baked bread, it reminds her of home when her mother would bake bread for the family in the mornings

*bit of post game lore of Athena x rolan hehe* when Rolan found this out he always made sure that there was bread being freshly baked in the kitchen each morning, nothing made him happier than seeing the smile on Athena’s face each and every morning. Of course when Athena would ask him if he was doing it for her and if he would ask them to also make some of her other fav bakery goods, he would of course deny what she said and tell her to not be greedy lmao

favorite spell or cantrip?

- She loves AOE spells such as glyph of warding and flame strike

pet peeve?

- She hates lying, she can usually see through people when it comes to lying and she makes sure that they know she isn’t happy especially if it’s someone she considers a friend or someone she has more intimate feelings for

bad habit?

- When she is nervous or stewing over something she plays with her hair and pulls out strands of her hair. The only companion that called her out on it was karlach, but as this was a habit Athena wasn’t actually aware she was doing she dismissed karlach’s worry

She was then called out by rolan which made her kinda pull back, shocked he would notice something like that (she thought he hated her) she was now well aware she was doing it and actively tries to avoid doing it. She also went and apologized to karlach for dismissing her worry

hidden talent?

- She is really good at lock picking , she likes to joke that she could give astarion a run for his money which he doesn’t agree with of course. She never lets him forget about when he was struggling to open a chest and after like 100 goes Athena had a go and immediately lock-picked it lmao (based on when astarion failed lock-picking like 20 times and then when i got Athena to have a go she got a NAT 20 lol)

leisure activity?

- Painting/drawing and singing. Before she became a cleric she would paint and sell her artwork on the city streets of waterdeep that’s how she made money to keep her and her sister alive. Now whenever she gets a free chance she will sit down and draw/paint landscapes until the sun goes down. And while she is painting she will be singing or humming along to one of her favourite songs

favorite drink?

- She loves a plain cup of coffee, she has a lot on her mind and she feels coffee helps her to relax, although some people might beg to differ

comfort food?

- Her comfort food is her mums homemade soup, whenever she has the time and ingredients she will make it as it reminds her of home and brings her immense comfort

favorite person(s)?

- Athena has multiple favourite people and all for different reasons. Her most favourite person though would have to be rolan. Even though they had a rocky relationship when they first met, Athena was nothing but nice to rolan, she admired the love he had for his family (a value she thinks is very important). They ended up getting together after the fall of the absolute.

After the fall of the brain, Athena went to rolan to catch up and to tell him that she was going back to waterdeep and well Rolan kinda lost it and confessed his feelings for her right then and there.

-Jaheira is another one of her favourite people. Athena views jaheria as a mother figure and was on the verge of tears when Jaheira first started calling her cub. Anyone around could see that Jaheira was very important to Athena and that she was the mother figure Athena wished she still had in her life

*more Athena x Rolan lore cause I’m obsessed with them lol* when Rolan was thinking of asking Athena to marry him, he went and asked Jaheira for her blessing as he knew the importance of their relationship

favored display of affection (platonic and/or romantic)?

- platonic: she loves hugs, especially giving them,

-romantic: hugs, hand holding and kisses on the cheek

fondest childhood memory?

- Playing at the local park with her family just before her parents passed away, it was one of the last times as a family and the last time she truly felt carefree and happy

free-response! Is there anything else about your Tav you'd like to share?

- She LOVES reading, once she opens a book it’s all over, you’ve lost her lol you won’t hear from her until she’s finished said book (that’s mainly cause she actually struggles to read and takes forever to finish) it’s one thing that she missed most while traveling to baldur’s gate as she had no time to just sit down and read for hours

Tagging: @esolean @lanabenikosdoormat @commander-krios @orangekittyenergy and anyone else who’d like to do it! I love reading about people’s tavs

[ryttu3k]

"Cool, WoD now lets you generate character sheets! Let's see what they have for Tzimisce!"

"I don't know what I fucking expected."

Anyway here is a prior post on why V5 Tzimisce annoy the living shit out of me, some thoughts on the Tzimisce as a clan of contrasts, some ranting about the importance of Auspex (in my last reply), and, if you're as annoyed as I am on how the Tzimisce have been handled, my V5 homebrew that re-replaces Dominate with Auspex and talks about the importance of being the Clan of Shapers, V5.

*Standard disclaimer that if you like V5 Tzimisce, that's absolutely fine, you do you, but I'm distinctly disgruntled about how they took everything I loved about the clan and just. Ditched it.

[valeriefauxnom]

Accidental Minor Plot Holes/Misnomers!

Dragalia in general was surprisingly astute to its tangled mass of lore, but they were not perfect. Every so often, there were little tidbits that on closer thought/lore diving, make no sense with later information!

Take, for instance, the launch wyrmprint "King's Countenance", which intersects both well and poorly with later details on him and his kids:

Its description relays, starting in its 3rd stage:

Now, the king sits and ponders his future. He knows that if he continues on his current path, he will have to pay with his life. And yet, there is no hesitation whatsoever on his visage. For the king had eight promising children who had learned much from watching him fight to support the kingdom. Any of them was more than worthy to take the reins of the country's future.

On the bright side, this works well with the details that Aurelius, when heading to the Binding Ruins, knew he was playing with fire and chose to anyways in the hopes of helping Nedrick, whom he had newly discovered was alive and not-still-quite-so-well:

...But on the flipside, well...

I'm a royal fam major when it comes to Dragalia lore, and even I, uh, would not be so bold as to claim that Aurelius has 'eight capable children' to take the throne. Leonidas, Phares, Chelle, even Valyx, sure. Beren, whom has been locked in the dungeons since being an infant???? Emile??????????? Zethia, who has forsworn the throne herself to be the Auspex? Whoops.

And it's not as if Aurelius has blindingly rose-colored goggles on, either. He's Concerned enough about Emile to not only appoint Magnus in the hopes of teaching him some better morals, but also granted him the authority to outright kill Emile if he gets entirely out of hand in several worlds.

So, yeah, there's one incongruency. Speaking of kings, though, let's wind back the clock to the OG King of Alberia!

This one's pretty small and easy to explain. To put it briefly, his replica in The Blood That Binds shapeshifts into a dragon he should not have been able to: Brunhilda.

Why? Because she never pacted with Alberius in the first place!

Speaking of which, there's several more hmms in Mym's life. Her dragon story starts out with this narration:

One tiny little problem- Greatwyrms never, ever, are hatchlings. Later lore stated that all Greatwyrms are sterile and do not follow most other natural life cycles even for dragons. They also have a nice little auto reincarnation feature as primordial forces, though they do not keep memory between incarnations.

This is likely just a case of writers unintentionally bumping into each other with much later lore for Mids' and Mym's words here, as this info drops in ch.24 vs the base game with Brunhilda's story, but still technically a contradiction!

It also creates a new odd timeline. Greatwyrm ages are ambiguous, but we do have several rough ideas/implications:

-Jupiter is the youngest (Mym address him as a brat and otherwise younger than her)

-Brunhilda is the second-youngest (she's generally treated by the others dragons as a younger one too)

-Zodiark likely eldest

-Mids is under 1k years old, since he did not experience events with Ilia and does not remember them

However, Brunhilda's story again puts things in a major bind. Her story has her lying in fields for 'centuries' and then holing herself in a volcano for 'ages more' so much so that the land itself shifted until Alberius came. Alberius, of course, was 300 years ago. This leaves surprisingly little time to put her as definitively younger than Midgardsormr, who is canonically under 1k.

On the flip side, it partially explains her exact moody nature- she's hardly talked to anyone in her centuries and has largely been asleep for them, making her much less experienced in contrast to other dragons who have not made indications of sleeping for centuries. In essence- she's acting younger than her apparent age would suggest, because she's spent a majority of those years asleep!

Another little error comes with Luca and Sarisse, specifically which is the elder. The vast majority of the time, Luca is addressed as the elder. But in Luca's lines...

...Despite Luca's description correctly ID'ing him as the elder in that same base version!

Last but not least, another minor error funnily occurs in Cassandra's story, where Elisanne, despite speaking correctly in the first story, incorrectly labels the castle of Sol Alberia as 'The Halidom':

We never actually got a name for the castle, if it has one. It just is the castle in Sol Alberia, the royal capital. However, it definitely isn't the Halidom, as this scene takes place in the royal castle for Aurelius' marriage, which, again, is made all the funnier by Elisanne recognizing that this was not the Halidom earlier:

Now, I don't know the original text, but these last two might well just be a translation error. That being said, how it was written and published makes them contradicting!

So...yeah! That's been my Dragalia Lore Contradictions post, brought to you by too much memory devoted to this game!

[fanworldbuildingfun]

Recently I have landed on a lovely Auspex series by Lithuva on A03 and now, rent free, in my head a Desmond who runs an Assassin Bureau lives. Except he did not set out to create one. Or realizes he is running one

To spice things a bit, I’m sending Desmond to AC1 era

Let’s assume Desmond shall not, immediately, realize where he is, nor shall he go to search for any big city. And when he does, he is just… Too tired after everything that went on in the last few months to even actively want to. Instead, he just wanders. Tries to get a lay of the land. Indulges the desire to get up as high as he can to learn the map of the location

And then, when he is more or less satisfied that he knows the immediate area he is in (because I’m going to just go and assume that the “Syncronization makes you avare of points of interest” is a valid, Isu-derived offshoot of Isu Knowledge), Desmond heads for the nearest settlement where he sees flecks of gold

Now, apparently 1100s have been a bad time for the region when it came to earthquakes. As in, they were so bad there have been entire cities destroyed in landslides, and entire fortresses collapsed. We are talking 7+ on Magnitude scale ~ every decade from 1138 to 1170. How is it relevant? Rebuilding takes time, and bigger cities would obviously get more attention first

So when Desmond reaches that golden speck? It’s a small settlement that is partially abandoned, and the only remaining people are those who could not afford to move away. So… Desmond sticks around. Hunts for his food. Helps to clear everything up, relying on whatever memories he has from his ancestors that dealt with architecture. There isn’t much, and most of it is surface-level (none of them got involved in more than approval / supply review / labor review/ costs), but even that helps. He can eyball the damages and estimate how much it may cost to repair, and that alone is a good starting point of for the settlement

But till someone can be called in, he helps

Helps moving rubble. Helps taking apart the houses that look beyond saving. Helps do what fixes can be done without outside help. Desmond’s climbing skills and Eagle vision help here. Slowly, he becomes just one of the people of the settlement. When he’s not helping on fixes, he somehow ends up entertaining kids with stories. Then it shifts to teaching, because some stories require further explanations of concepts Desmond did not realize were common in 21st century, but not in 12th.

It’s not conventional by any means, but for this time? It works just fine. He pulls on Altaїr’s memories of lessons at Masyaf. He pulls on Ezio’s memories of being tutored as a child. And it’s all applicable so even if some of the adults grumbled at the start, they eventually stopped. Some even joined in on the lessons

At some point, Desmond gets a house of his own. It wasn’t really meant to be his. It was an old inn building that was one of the more damaged ones, and the owner left it almost a generation ago, now. So Desmond slowly worked on it till everyone just… Accepted it as his and there was that. They all are a tight knit bunch at this point

But then, the Crusades reignite. And suddenly the out-of-the way settlement is no longer out-of-the-way, because trading routes shift to avoid the fighting

The settlement becomes busy. Desmond’s barely finished inn becomes busy. And security becomes an issue

…It wasn’t an unknown that Desmond has been trained. But it has been a backburner knowledge that the settlement now had to face because suddenly, they had to pick up more self-defense skills - after the overall higher level of literacy came to bite them in the butt. When the traders discovered most of the settlers could read/write (and in several languages at that!), the settlement became a hub from which messages would be sent. And then some of the younger people that weren’t interested in tending to their parents’ land (and anyway, they had siblings to do that) became couriers or scribes

Somehow, that became Desmond’s problem

He had all of a year, less even, to enjoy being an inn owner before he had to delegate that – because he got dragged into coordinating the mail, arranging protection for the settlement, dealing with obstinate merchants… There was no time to actually, you know, run the inn

It all came to a peak when a harried young man arrived to the settlement, and Desmond pegged on him as one of the Brotherhood novices. One that had clearly run into some amount of trouble – the kind that was likely to follow him. So he just… Shoos him in with his messengers and makes sure that, when the trouble comes, finding the novice among them is night impossible. He does not acknowledge it. He does not present himself as an Assassin

That doesn’t mean his action aren’t noted. By the novice or the settlement.

[anarchswild]

Let's see if I can actually summarize what happened in the Clanswap Oneshot.

The night begins with Tammy King (Malkavian) and Reid Thomel (Tremere). Tammy's sire believes that he is a Ventrue, and gets enough results that the clan treats him as such, if not as a bit of a joke. Tammy is seen less favorably as she is a Malkavian with face-blindness trying to live up to being a Ventrue and is failing enough she thinks she's a Caitiff. Reid was embraced and taught Lure of Flames to cause problems, but he managed to lay low enough that when his city flipped from Anarch to Camarilla, they shipped him off to New York's Chantry. He only really was taught basic kindred knowledge and how to master his Thaumaturgy so that he didn't become a problem, so he figured out Auspex and Dominate on his own and isn't very good at them.

Tammy's sire sends her with instructions to meet up with a ghoul to gain information that could change the course of the war with the Sabbat. Reid's mentor instructs him to keep Tammy safe on this mission. The two meet up at the New York Public Library, where they have the worst first impression known to man. Reid botches on the aura read and thinks Tammy is out to get him, Tammy can't quite tell that Reid is who he says he is, and neither trust each other. Winter Chills, a Ventrue who is personally trying to make Tammy's unlife hell, makes her first appearance and does manage to confirm Reid's identity.

The duo's first stop is Hell's Kitchen, where the ghoul lives. This is Brujah territory however, so they run into Jackie and Malachi (1) on the way. Jackie makes them collect money in order to get through the territory without issue, and they instead find Sigrun standing over the dead body of the guy they're looking for. Reid's aura reading clues him in that she wasn't the murderer, and Tammy's Animalism lets her figure out where the culprit was hiding. They retrieve the money, pass it on to Jackie, and continue.

At the ghoul's apartment, it is revealed that she has gone missing. The two pick the lock to her door, find the apartment in chaos, and decide to check her mail downstairs to see if there's anything that could point them in the right direction. What they find in all the envelopes is a business card inviting her to the Lakehouse, the club run by the Toreador Primogen where people have been entering and never returning from.

The two make the choice to cut through Central Park to the north side of Manhattan, convincing the Gangrel Scumfuck and Milly (2) to let them through and then sneaking their way past a werewolf that snuck into the city. Apparently there's a Cairn somewhere in the park.

At the Lakehouse, they discover that there's a spell of sorts that makes it where if you are not in possession of an invitation, you cannot approach the building. The pair have multiple of the cards from the ghoul's mail and use those to sneak into the establishment. The Lakehouse, run by Dawn Sierra, a normal kindred just like you and me, consists of a restaurant for humans, a kitchen where ghouls work, a large bar room full of kindred, and a myriad maze of art galleries made by kindred. Tammy runs into a acquaintance of hers, Mary (Tzimisce), who is a member of the Sabbat. Reid makes his way to the bar room full of kindred, accidentally tipping off to one of the artists on the way (3) that he wasn't technically invited. In the room he sees kindred of all sects milling about, talking about art, and eating refreshments that were not at all vaguely implied to be human meat and blood. He resists the desire to partake in the refreshments, and manages to keep Tammy from doing the same when they meet up. It was like the Land of the Lotus Eaters. As they separate again to find info on where their ghoul may be, a Gargoyle (Lucifer) appears to get rid of Reid. No one else in the room seems to notice. He lost him in the maze of galleries, Tammy found Mary again to ask more questions about the strange place, and Reid connected with the leader of the city's Anarchs, Godfrey (Nagaraja), who also had figured out that something was strange and snuck into the Lakehouse without an invitation. He had been there long enough, however, to begin to lose himself in the enchantment of the place.

The plan had become for Reid to sneak into the kitchen and pretend to be a ghoul, the mistake had already been made once that night, while Tammy found herself unable to follow. So she checked out the bathroom as suggested by Godfrey, discovering there were no mirrors there whatsoever. Reid entered the restaurant to discover kine standing completely still, was brought into the kitchen to find human meat being prepared, and in the very back of the room were mirrors filled with the likenesses of ghouls surrounding a pillar with a single, beating heart. Reid recognized, through the teachings from Father Michael, that the heart belonged to a demon. All he had to do was destroy it. Sensing this, the mirror demon appeared and tried to bargain. A better life for Reid, where everything would be just as he'd love for it to be. Perhaps back to San Diego, or to Atlanta, or why not Portland? Reid, a simple man, did not fall for the temptations and instead set the heart ablaze in an inferno. Tammy and Reid were able to escape the burning building and rescue their ghoul target, though they had to convince a hungry Nagaraja not to try and eat her.

The ghoul revealed that she had been working deep cover in the Sabbat, getting close to the leader, Saria (Ravnos). She had written down where exactly and when a party would be occurring that very night, which the Camarilla would be able to ambush. All they needed to do was find where she had hidden it. In the Liberty Island museum underneath the Constitution display. As the ghoul left to recover from her trance at the Lakehouse, she was taken out by a sniper. Winter Chills. Winter had heard the gist of the information and was planning to take all the credit for Tammy's mission. It became a race for Tammy and Reid to ride on Tammy's ghoul (Trevor)'s fishing boat out to the island to beat Winter. Unfortunately for them she beat them, but they were the only ones who knew exactly where it was. She was so far ahead of them however that she was found searching the vicinity of the letter next to a passed out guard (4). As they confronted her and Reid made a mad dash for the letter, an orb of darkness fell on the room as the Sabbat attacked. Reid lucked into finding the letter's hiding spot in the darkness. They were up against Emmanuel Roche (Lasombra), Huginn and Munnin (still Gangrel), and Lazarus Frost (Tzimisce). Reid caused Roche to frenzy from using Theft of Vitae, but Tammy was able to calm the frenzy. Roche had no idea why they were even there, and a group of Nosferatu stole the letter from Reid in that chaos. They all separated as the police arrived to investigate the break-in.

Reid and Tammy's goal became to track down and follow the Nosferatu who had stolen the letter. The rats' boat fled into the sewer, so the fledglings had to enter through the subway. Two stops along the line, they exited into one of the secret warren entrances, having to fight off a group of Nosferatu who were instructed not to let anyone else down that night. Reid intimidated them all with his flame and they snuck down to where the Primogen awaited. They arrived just as Liam Cross (Nosferatu) was being handed the letter, with only Reid noticing the small figure (5) whispering into his ear. Pulling the Tremere Regent card and calling out the mysterious figure behind him, Reid and Tammy were able to convince Liam to hand over the letter. But it was too easy, and Tammy especially couldn't shake that something strange was happening. The two followed where the figure had left, discovering a trap door leading deeper into the warrens.

At the end of the tunnel was a lone room full of security screens, showing everywhere in the city and following the forces of the Camarilla, Sabbat, and Anarchs as they prepared for war that night. At the chair was the small figure Reid had seen. They, Malachi, revealed that he was one of the original 4th gen Niktuku who had been given a shroud from Caine himself that suppressed their clan flaw. They had been plotting for weeks, playing all sides in the city, aiming for everyone to kill each other in that single fight. Realizing that everyone was walking into a trap and that only they knew it, Reid told Tammy to run and warn her sire while he would remain behind and buy time. While she ran, Reid blasted the Niktuku with flames. As she had almost escaped and he had almost burned the creature to a crisp, the Niktuku used Temporis to turn back time to the beginning of the combat. Despite the second chance it had given itself, Reid was still able to hold it off for Tammy to escape, though by a much thinner margin. As the Niktuku reached to destroy the emergency elevator Tammy escaped through with one of the Nosferatu, Reid was able to completely immolate it, though left on death's door himself. Tammy was able to get the warning to their sires, who left the Sabbat and Anarchs to fight amongst themselves and reduce their ranks.

The Camarilla had won the night, Zacharias and Father Michael had taken all the credit, Reid and Tammy were told they could never speak of what they did that night, but they were rescued from the rubble and officially treated as neonates from that point forward.

[voloslobotomyservice]

thank you @necroticyuzu for the tag! 💫 and thank you everyone who participated in my poll! I love talking about my little Tavs and I can’t stop making them so I’m always down to be tagged in these sorta things!

no pressure tags: @beesht @grandmother-goblin @auspex-author (yk I’m always down for Shior lore)

Name: Saoirse Nic’Phaid

Gender: female

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: mostly straight (but she’s working on defining it)

OTHER

Family: A complicated conversation. Older human father who’s unable to work, younger wood elf mother who abandons the family often, and an older brother Arthur who was tragically murdered five years before the events of BG3 took place.

Birthplace: Lower City of Baldur’s Gate.

Job: Criminal, I suppose? She doesn’t really have a traditional job. Instead, she’s spent most of her life stealing and then selling items to make a living. It even brought in more money than Arthur was making when he was alive and working.

Phobia: Thalassaphobia. She never learned how to swim.

Guilty Pleasure: Hooking up with problematic men. They oh-so-bad but oh-so-good in bed. Her own ex-boyfriend was a member of the Zhentarim, after all.

MORALS

Alignment: Neutral Evil - rather selfish in her actions, yet will help others who are similar her.

Sins: Theft. Lots of it. Jealousy, coveting what others may have knowing she could never have it. Will usually say whatever pops in her head without thinking it through first, which gets her in trouble. Can be very self-centered in different situations (ex. she refused to take poison from Nettie at the Grove after she didn’t help the party cure their tadpole)

Virtues: Loyal to those she loves, almost to a fault. When able to, very much a “steal from the rich to give to the poor” type. Believes honesty is the best policy (unless your life is at risk, then lying to save yourself is acceptable). Family is also very important to her, especially her father, and she tried to make sure he had well over a years worth of gold before going on the run.

THIS OR THAT

Introvert/Extrovert/Ambivert - Likes to be social but also enjoys time to herself. Tries to keep a healthy balance of both.

Organized/Disorganized - in some aspects of her life, at least. When it comes to her money, she’s very organized.

Close Minded/Open Minded - No defining reason. She just is.

Calm/Anxious/Restless - Being on the run for a crime she may (or may not) have committed, she is constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure she and her companions are safe (but mostly her).

Disagreeable/Agreeable - That is, if you see eye to eye with her.

Cautious/Reckless/In Between - After the loss of her brother, she was very reckless in her crimes and overall behavior, but she has calmed down a bit. She will still do risky things for the fun of it, though.

Patient/Impatient/In Between - Do not test her.

Outspoken/Reserved - Almost too outspoken for her own good.

Leader/Follower/Flexible - Because she’s very headstrong, she easily fell into the leader position of the party.

Empathetic/Unemphathetic - To those that are like her: who’ve struggled, who understand how hard life can be. Won’t listen to the sob story of some upper class elitist.

Optimistic/Pessimistic/Realist

Traditional/Modern/In Between

Hardworking/Lazy - But hardworking in the way that she’s taking from others… yeah I don’t like to think about the logistics of it too much.

RELATIONSHIPS

OTP: Don’t hate me. But. Saoirse is absolutely crushing on Aradin, despite how much of an ass he is. She thinks she can fix him. Maybe she can.

Other Ships: Hooks up with Rugan after rescuing him from the gnolls, which leads to an interesting throuple dynamic when they’re all in Baldur’s Gate.

BroTP: Surprisingly, she and Lae’zel get along swimmingly. Maybe it’s because they have similar personalities. She and Astarion also gossip about the drama between their camp companions, as well as tease each other over their romantic pursuits. Also apparently she and Shadowheart get along very well!

NoTP: Gale annoys her, but she also sees him as a powerful ally and a good companion. Thoroughly rejects any of his advances.

[naazaif327]

I looooove that we got the Ventrue overlap between our two coteries for NYbN, not just because of the endlessly juicy drama of Rafferty’s two childer and the tension of that soon-to-come meeting, but also because of the two different flavours of Ventrue that we’ve gotten to see with Fuego and Khalida.

I like to categorise Khalida as a Dominate Ventrue and Fuego as a Presence Ventrue, though this is not simply based on the mechanics alone as both of them make ample use of both disciplines. The Ventrue compulsion is arrogance, a desire for power and obedience, and more than most other clans new Ventrue are very often chosen for already displaying an aptitude for this desire. But how they go about achieving this is what differentiates them.

Khalida is a dominator. She has a specific vision of what she wants from the world, and she will (somewhat ruthlessly) shape the people around her in order to get it. She uses The Forgetful Mind and Mesmerize flippantly, rewriting the world in her vision. She is measured and calculated, arguably much more so than Fuego, but that does not stop her from using her abilities as she sees fit, even going so far as to Dominate Simone, a much older and more powerful kindred, into giving her what she wants, despite the danger. She even uses Presence the same way, as a cudgel to command those around her. She uses Awe on mortals the same way she uses Mesmerize, to have them do her bidding. I think this is deeply informative of who she was as a mortal, and why Rafferty chose her in the first place; you get the sense that she was equally as cutthroat as a highend art dealer, taking what she wanted whenever she wanted it regardless of the consequences, an endless ambition for power that made her shine to her future sire.

Fuego is a manipulator. Aabria described it best during ep 3 of Club Auspex, in that she has a soft command of power over those around her that she’s slowly learning to make use of. She isn’t a Queen on a throne making demands, she understands that (unlike Khalida) she doesn’t have guidance or actual political power in this world yet. And so she watches, looks for the soft, vulnerable parts of the people around her, and quietly molds them into what she wants them to be. We talk a lot about that delicious moment in episode 3 with Rey and the businessman, but look at it again: both in luring that man to the alleyway and in asking Rey to kill him, she doesn’t even use Presence or Dominate, she doesn’t need to. She already knows what buttons to push, what poisonously honeyed words to whisper in someone’s ear to get what she wants out of them. Even her use of Dominate reflects this. She doesn’t try to push beyond her means, force someone to kill themselves (I doubt she knows that wouldn’t work yet, but even if it did its just not her style), she just nudges them in the direction she wants. Sit. Stay still. Give me the gun. Its quiet and simple, and lethally effective.

Ironically I think the two of them would have a lot to learn from each other if daddy dearest doesn’t succeed at pinning them against one another. Simone is right that Khalida sometimes uses her disciplines as a crutch, one that might get her killed if she continues to wield it so openly against other kindred; she could stand to learn from Margot’s more subtle manipulation tactics. But outside of her disciplines, Fuego is a deeply impulsive individual, taking risks and making big in-the-moment emotional decisions because of her desires (killing the security guards, trying to dominate the skull, dancing with Riktor in front of Consuela, etc) that could seriously get her hurt or worse if she doesn’t learn. Khalida’s cool, cold, slightly detached and measured outlook could help Fuego’s survival chance quite a lot. But this is just speculation of what’s to come, and I’m deeply excited to see how it all transpires.

[eric-the-bmo]

Now I’m curious to hear about your VtM character! Impulse Embraces are always really fun (and I’m noticing very Malk-like)

[barrels into the room] MAN OH MAN I HOPE YOU'RE READY TO HEAR ABOUT LEO WEST, THE NUMBER ONE MALKAVIAN OF MY HEART

[tiny pixel leo was made by @ slimejunior btw]

(It's so cool you wanna hear about him- this is my first time in a vtm chronicle, and while i'm not the best at roleplaying, i've been having a blast with the story. I'm sorry btw, this turned into a very long post- I jumped at the chance to ramble about almost everything I can about him- however, since my fellow players follow me here, I'm keeping quiet about certain parts of his character and past.)

Anyway! Leo West is an amnesiac(?) conspiracy theorist and Anarch Malkavian, and is for an on-going chronicle taking place in San Jose- us players have decided to name it Blood and Silicon (there's actually a blog dedicated to it that's run by one of the players).

Leo's a quiet and inquisitive man who's earnest and stubborn, and refuses to talk to the coterie about his issues (but really, none of the other members do that either). He knows very little about vampire society, as his sire refused to tell him anything before sending him away, and has been repeatedly described as a blank slate and full of potential- mostly due to his "newness" to Kindred unlife. He's probably being manipulated by at least 2 people at this point.

He's got Auspex and Obfuscate, and is (unintentionally) built as a stealth character. He also has the Sandman predator type- it's how his sire hunts, and he would prefer victims who wouldn't struggle, anyway.

With his occasional visions, it seems he's got connections to the Cobweb- additionally, since no one's explained to him what the Beast is (and his takes on the guise of his sire's voice), Leo is currently convinced his Beast is actually his sire just talking to him.

While I described him as an amnesiac earlier, he hasn't completely forgotten everything.

However, my main form of communication is infodumping (/hj), so allow me to ramble below, even though I can't fit everything about him in here:

Leo was a hopeless romantic born on May 26, 1994, raised in Chicago and brought up as a Christian. He stopped believing in that faith sometime in high school; something Definitely happened during that time in his life, since it was also when he broke his nose and started smoking (but hey, if I don't know what happened, then he doesn't either /lh). He did eventually quit cigarettes in college, where he graduated and was a librarian for a while; he helped run the DnD sessions the library would hold every month :-)

In 2019, he met a man named Jeremiah: his future sire. J is a man I could make an entire post about- but tbh this isn't about him, so I'll give only the bare amount of information needed.

Jeremiah is a bartender who moved to Chicago from San Jose, and at some point in the first year of knowing Leo, he ended up blood-bonding him for reasons unknown. Leo, who was completely unaware that he was now Jeremiah's ghoul, experienced the symptoms of the bond and assumed he was in love- which surely was a whole thing for him, because at this point in Leo's life he had just come to the conclusion he would never fall in love, since he's never had the best luck in that part of his life. The two of them entered a relationship (or at least it seemed that way to Leo), and of course given the dynamic/power imbalance here- as well as Jeremiah in general- it wasn't a very good one.

(Amy, Leo's sister, kinda picked up some bad vibes from her brother's partner, and very much dislikes him.)

During their almost-three years together while Leo served as his ghoul, Jeremiah used Dominate a lot on him, erasing his memories of anything that could be seen as Masquerade-breaching- meaning that Leo has no idea what he did for him.

Mr. West noticed his gaps in memory, of course, and with the help(?) of one of his more common library patrons, Chris, he fell down into a bit of a conspiracy rabbit hole to try and figure out what was happening to him. Sometime around this point he picked up his smoking habit again.

[As a result of J's actions, Leo no longer trusts his memory and carries around a notebook; It's also one of the reasons he avoids eye contact a lot, since that's necessary for Dominate.]

Eventually he must've figured things out, or perhaps his curiosity got the better of him- but somehow, on September 16, 2021, Leo stumbled upon something that resulted in his untimely death at 27 years old.

Jeremiah Embraced him that night, although it's unknown whether he did it because he still needed Leo's servitude, or if he genuinely cared about his ghoul (and I am unsure which one is worse).

The rest of the events of his Embrace are a bit tricky to talk about- I can't go into much detail without giving much away- but with all the stress and trauma of what happened, his clan bane manifested as Dissociation; in tandem/addition to this, Leo's brain blocked off parts of itself, resulting in even more memory loss.

In fact, after Sept 16, there's about an entire month and a half of missing time for Leo, and he doesn't remember any of it (this was originally due to a misunderstanding of the game's timeline, but is now a part of the Lore).

Anyway, even though I can't go into specifics of what happened to Leo during this moment of his unlife, I can offer you this sort-of-meme about it:

[At some point during this time J informed him of blood bonds, which was kind of a jerk move, considering his childe was having a bad mental moment already.]

It's been stated by Leo that Jeremiah sent him away to San Jose, and the fledgling currently has his coat- which implies J gave it to him as a gift, or at least let him take it with. His relationship with his sire right now is... complicated.

Anyway, Leo spent about a week in San Jose before meeting [aka getting kidnapped by] a Kindred named Harrison, who introduced him to the rest of the coterie. Currently, they're all a bit secretive, and Leo occasionally leads them into trouble (like lowkey breaching the Masquerade, and almost getting caught by a gang).

Throughout Blood and Silicon, Leo's been learning about Kindred unlife, and has additionally requested an informant to look into Jeremiah. (He's got a bit of a fixation on his sire- in his eyes, his investigation to figure out what's going has not ended, and it seems Jeremiah has many secrets..)

In the most recent session, the coterie has been gifted territory as a reward for doing a quest for Harrison. Meanwhile, something's going on with Leo, because vampires can't get headaches, can they?

I'm very excited to see where this leads...

[thank you for asking, this was fun to ramble about him <3]

[auspexsims]

13 and 20! love, agentoctosims

hehe hi 👯‍♀️

13. from basic planning to a finished post, how long does that take you?

really hard to tell! tldr, MAYBE 2-3 hours if i dont need to make custom poses or build a set and just need to shoot a quick conversation. lately its a lot more (5+) because im in photoshop editing the lighting and expressions on some scenes, and in blender creating some poses from scratch.

overall, my ‘basic planning’ stage is the toughest to quantify. i do a lot of research as part of either planning out story beats/timeline, writing dialogue, or building accurate sets.

20. choose your favourite shot from your story so far

choosing a few from the past few weeks for different reasons:

luca and olivia on their way to brindleton - im proud of this one purely for how successful i think the post-processing is LOL! + sneak peek at what i started with :') movie magic

theo and olivia at her wedding - i think the colors are exactly my style and i think the private familial intimacy of it is exactly what i wanted to communicate. its a moment within olivia’s story where the pov switches ever so briefly to her father’s, and we feel that she is beloved.

i edited this particular shot and laurie's expression so carefully. i think it's the perfect subtle quirking of the features that indicates to you that someone is teasing and about to smile.

[thetavolution]

BG3 Tav Backstory Bash by Kelandrin

This is a challenge to help people flesh out their Tav’s backstory by exploring their past. It is organized into four sections with seven prompts. You can treat this as a monthly challenge or a general project. You can write headcanons, fics, or share art based on the prompts! You can interpret the prompts however you want. If you want to share use the tag #bg3backstorybash

I was tagged by NO ONE. I am unstoppable.

Tagging (no pressure!): @tavsboots @whenwindwhispers @himbo-hunter-hadrian @vatyrie-avaris @durgeteriormotives @fainlin @auspex-author

INGRID SULLENBERGER

Deep Gnome — Druid (Circle of the Spores)

Baby:

Parents

Calvin "Sully" Sullenberger: He's an artificer and he works for the Ironhand Gnomes. He doesn't feel that strongly about their mission statement though. He's more self-serving than that. He believes in it, just not enough to die for the cause himself. He prioritizes his own skin first. He loves the fact his current wife hates his ex wife. He enjoys being fought over, even if it hurts his kids in the long run.

Greta Bloodstone: She's Ingrid turned up to 11. She's far more timid and scared, and she gives into her fears. She's the reason Ingrid refuses to let her fear win. She's seen what a doormat it made of her mother. She's a bard who often sings about other people's accolades, except for her own daughter's.

Anna Sullenberger: She's Ingrid's step-mother and Sully's second wife. She never behaved like an actual parent to Ingrid, but she's here on a technicality. Anna is a forest gnome and she hates living in the Underdark. She's convinced she'll change Sully's mind about leaving someday. She tries to use the fact the kids both left as an excuse to move to Baldur's Gate. She's just as self-serving as Sully, she's just more open about it. Anna is a wizard who focuses on illusion.

Birth

Ingrid was born in Silverdale, a deep gnome settlement in the Underdark. It's largely hidden away which is partially why it's still standing.

Greta had a midwife while having Ingrid and it was a traumatic birth. Both survived, but Greta decided she would not have any more children. She felt it would be too dangerous for her. It was a source of contention between her and Sully.

First word / Tantrum / When they first walked / First sickness

Her first word was "Ada." Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that's the gnomish word for dad. That would have been her first word, just for the man to mostly reject her.

Her first tantrum would have been over a lack of attention, most likely.

She started walking at around 10 months old.

Her first sickness was a cold. She was a baby and miserable, but it wasn't life threatening.

Childhood:

Friends

She didn't have a ton of friends growing up, but she did have some. They send letters to one another.

Bimpnottin Cobblegem (she/they): I saw the name Bimpnottin and decided I needed to have someone in Ingrid's life named this. Bimpnottin is a sweetheart, but naive. They've never left their hometown of Silverdale. Bimpnottin also talks very loudly almost all of the time. She comes from a long line of cobblers and she kept up the tradition.

Gerbo Ironfoot (he/him): He was another childhood friend. He was the kid who talked the others into doing stuff. He wasn't a bad kid, just a little rebellious. He's a fisherman these days and he's married to Orla, a tailor, and they have two kids, Roondar and Dimble.

Umber Rivers (they/them): I'll talk about them in a minute. They weren't a friend in the traditional sense. They were a druid water genasi and the reason Ingrid became a druid.

Siblings

Ingrid has one younger half-brother, Sebastian. His other is a forest gnome and so he looks like a forest gnome. No one immediately pegs them as siblings because of it. I'm still fleshing him out. He is either an artificer, like his father, or a wizard who focuses on transmutation.

Getting into trouble

She rarely got into trouble as a kid. Or, at least, for anything she actually did. Anna was hard on her and would get upset with her over small things, like how she cleaned dishes or something of that nature.

Birthday

I've been waffling on exactly when, partially because I keep forgetting the calendar months in DnD/BG3. I'm officially going on record as making it 22 Alturiak. In her original story, she was born on February 22nd.

She would celebrate as a kid, but they would be small occasions with just close friends and her brother.

Games / Learning something new

She played the same games as many other deep gnome children. She did spend a lot of time alone, so she learned to entertain herself a lot.

She likes to learn. As a kid, she would get excited when she had a chance to learn something new. As a baby, she was a lot more afraid of things. It wasn't until she got older that she deliberately started fighting her fears.

Trauma

Oh boy, her parents did a number on her. Her dad was more excited to have two women fight over him than take care of his kids. He allowed Anna to treat the kids as pawns.

She was neglected a lot as a kid. Her parents were way more into their own drama than the kids.

She and Sebastian were pitted against each other. They have no ill will toward each other, but they never had a chance to grow close. Maybe one day they'll change that.

Teenager:

First love

Her first crush was her schoolmate, Alston Garnet (he/him). He was a deep gnome fighter. She didn't know that much about him because it was a pretty innocent teen crush.

I like to use songs as reference points and my first immediate thought was I'm In A Perfect Relationship from Central Park. It's the perfect sum up of how she and Alston felt about each other.

They both think it's really funny now that they're adults. They aren't close, but do consider each other friends.

Alston is now in a relationship with a deep gnome ranger, Orryn Filchbatter (he/him).

Rebellion / Running away

Her fondest memory comes from the one time she ran away. She was probably around 13, just barely a teen. She left home and traveled the Underdark alone when she was discovered by a druid. The druid guided her home and kept her safe. It left a huge impression on her and it's why she's a druid.

The druid who took care of her was Umber Rivers, a nonbinary water genasi who identified with the Circle of Land (Coast). As a kid, Ingrid fantasized about Umber raising her instead of her parents.

Reckless behavior

She wasn't really a reckless kid. She would sometimes get pulled into things by friends (Gerbo specifically) or her parents. This is when she started to experiment with drugs to treat her anxiety. She eventually found the right mix. It only counts as reckless behavior because she had no guidance while doing it as a teenager.

Peer pressure

She would sometimes give into peer pressure. It was never when it came to hurting other people though. Every time she gave into peer pressure, it was usually just stupid teen shenanigans or trying a drink or drug she shouldn't.

Taking responsibility

She was good at taking responsibility for her actions as a teen. Sometimes a little too much where she'd be held responsible for stuff that wasn't even her fault.

She was often treated like an adult by her parents. Parentification led to her taking responsibility for stuff her parents did, too. It didn't help her anxiety.

Adulthood:

Their “first time”

Donella Underhill (she/her) was her first real relationship and the person she shared her first time with. Donella was a deep gnome cleric, but she focused on becoming a merchant. Donella still lives in Silverdale and sells potions. If someone ever goes to Silverdale, they could encounter her as a potion seller.

The first time was awkward, but they learned a lot from each other.

Ingrid and Donella no longer talk.

Serious relationships

Depends on the universe/AU! In BG3/DnD, her first serious relationship was with Donella. They were young and it didn't end well. Neither of them knew how to navigate relationships and Ingrid didn't know how to set boundaries of any kind.

They have no ill will toward each other, but also have no interest in reconnecting. When they first broke up, there was a lot of raw feelings that turned into "hatred" for each other. Once it subsided, they took a much more nuanced view of the failed relationship.

Donella is now married to another deep gnome named Caramip Sparklegem.

Work

She's a druid, but she also works and makes money as a tattoo artist.

In her original universe, she's a human and a tattooist. It's not the career people expect of her. She loves tattoos and she loves drawing, so it made sense.

Leaving home

She was still a teen when she officially left home for good. She figured if she could take care of herself, she could hit the bricks. She wasn't kicked out, she just didn't want to be around her parents anymore.

Aging

She's a deep gnome so she could live to 350 to 500 years. And that's assuming some DnD shenanigans don't prolong or shorten her life somehow.

Most deep gnomes are expected to ease into adult life by 40 and she's only 28.

Staring a family/found family

Minty, Laura, and Bex are her found family. If you have to compare them to anything, I would say sisters or cousins. In BG3, she also considers her companions found family.

Eventually, she might like to settle down and have children with someone. This could be biological or adopted children. She does fear she'll have a similar birth experience as her mother though.

[gorbalsvampire]

Building Koldun in V5

So a while back I was in the 'tism hole over Tzimisce koldun, and talking a big game about rebuilding Koldunism as a series of Rituals for non-Sorcery Disciplines. I pulled a bunch of names from the WW Wiki, assigned them to parent powers and started writing situational modifiers. But I also looked at the Paradox Wiki to see what had made the jump to V5, and... there's a lot more of the old Tzim-Tzim flavour in Blood Sorcery than I'd initially realised.

The thing is, Blood Sorcery is a messy Discipline, with its powers representing (at least) three magical traditions and spread out across (at least) five rulebooks. So... I went through everything I could access and picked out the Rituals with the right vibes, plus powers at each level to serve as the baseline. And then I started making full character builds because, er. I have brain problems?

Blood Sorcery

L1 - Koldunic Sorcery Beelzebeatit, Clinging of the Insect, Coax the Garden, Craft Bloodstone, Douse the Fear, Enrich the Blood, Herd Ward, Letter Ward

L2 - Scour Secrets [Protean: Visceral Absorbtion] [Dominate: Ancestral Dominion] As Fog on Water, Calling the Aura’s Remnants, Depths of Nightmare, Elemental Grasp, Tiamat Glistens, Viscera Garden

L3 - Transitive Bond Communal Vigour, Elemental Shelter, Essence of Air, Eyes of the Past, Firewalkerm, Galvanic Ruination, Herd Ward (Major), One With The Blade, Seeing with the Sky’s Eyes, Seeking Tiamat, Soul of the Homunculus, The Unseen Change

L4 - Blood Aegis Compel the Inanimate, Defence of the Sacred Haven, Feast of Ashes, Guided Memory, Land’s Sustenance, Rending the Sweet Earth, Riding the Earth’s Veins

L5 - Reclamation of Vitae Dominion, Elemental Attack, Fisher King, Heart of Stone, Transferring the Soul

The parent powers I've selected are mostly concerned with acquiring knowledge (the scrying effect of Koldunic Sorcery and the speed-reading capacity of Scour Secrets), moving into management of Retainers and Herd at the higher levels.

Other Disciplines

Dominate: Compel, Cloud Memory, Domitor’s Favour, Ancestral Dominion Protean: Eyes of the Beast, Feral Weapons, Earth Meld, Visceral Absorption, One with the Land Animalism: Bond Famulus, Animal Messenger, Messenger’s Command, Animal Succulence Fortitude: Resilience, Enduring Beasts Auspex: Sense the Unseen, Unerring Pursuit [Reveal Temperament], Eyes of Beasts

You're not going to get all of these and Blood Sorcery, but I wanted to showcase a few potential pathways. Dominate is there for the Old Clan vibe, building up Retainers and Mawla once the utility powers are out of the way.

Protean powers are more in the vein of touching ground than meat crimes, but you can totally sub in Vicissitude for Feral Weapons and Horrid Form for Visceral Absorption if you want to be basic. ;)

With Animalism and Fortitude I've tried to build into another "retainer" concept with the Famulus powers, kind of a witch's familiar that evokes the Mephistophelean Minx ritual from before.

And finally, Auspex. For the old-fashioned true-Tzimisce stans out there, we have perceptions extended into the spiritual and bestial, tying into Animalism to observe as well as instruct through the Famulus. You could also take a swarm approach here, if you wanted (for example) a chattering rookery as spies for the Koldun.

Recommended Loresheet: Veins of the Earth.

Predator Type: If ancilla, Osiris will allow Blood Sorcery 3 at character creation (if you can twist your ST's arm into letting you take the first one despite Not Being A Tremere, which I think is reasonable: it's not like there were Tzimisce rules when the V5 core was written). If neonate, Osiris is still the most efficient from an XP standpoint, but the 10 XP for Koldunic Sorcery and a Ritual are within easy reach for any Predator Type.

The house considers Montero to be flavourful for an aloof scholar and scryer whose Retainers do the boring bits for them. I've been wanting to make that Predator Type work since I first saw it and it just hits right for a Tzimisce.

Complete Builds

First up, the Refugee. This neonate character has a lot of flexibility, isn't bad in a fight (six dice Brawl pool with a Rouse, and Aggravated damage - you could always shift the 4 dots into Strength if you wanted more combat focus, or chuck Feral Weapons for Vicissitude if you wanted some classic meat crimes in there).

I've built them as dependent on a sponsor, an elder of their chosen sect who's taken them in: perhaps they were a street kid with potential, or perhaps they're a recent defector from the Sabbat who left without much more than the clothes they stood up in.

And now, a playable ancilla, the Lady of the Scene! This concept eschews broad Disciplines in favour of deeper Koldunism and a more developed Famulus; they're a leader, not a fighter. They've been around for a while, building a community around themself and embedding themselves into the city at large. They're not exactly famous, but it's known that they can intercede on your behalf and get things done. If you have a problem nobody else can help with, the witch is there...

We've got some classic vampire weaknesses: the invitation thing works for an old-fashioned Tzimisce (this one's much more Old Clan in feeling, without even the potential for Vicissitude) and holy water ties nicely to selecting water as their Koldunic element (I see this character having a scrying pool in their basement). There's some post-Sabbat baggage in the form of the Shunned flaw, and Stigmata feels like an appropriate "hide in plain sight" choice for a character who could well be a cult leader. In fact, if we look closely at the sheet, I went more specific with this one without meaning to... I engineered this with the Santa Muerte cult in mind, and that's the concept I'd lean into if and when I personally got to play this one.

This is the first time I've shared something like this, but I really hope people like it, and it makes sense, because I love building premades and I could very easily do more of these. Maybe even by request? If you've got a concept you want me to put some numbers behind, get in my askbox. Otherwise I'm gonna start blurting about the Redemption coterie - unless people REALLY hate the focus on sheets and numbers and want me to go away and stop talking.

[charmedcleric]

BG3 Tav Backstory Bash by Kelandrin

This is a challenge to help people flesh out their Tav’s backstory by exploring their past. It is organized into four sections with seven prompts. You can treat this as a monthly challenge or a general project. You can write headcanons, fics, or share art based on the prompts! You can interpret the prompts however you want. If you want to share use the tag #bg3backstorybash

I was tagged by @lemonsrosesandlavender , thank you so much <3

Tagging (no pressure of course): @auspex-author @lolthslover @fistfuloftarenths @orangekittyenergy @darkurgetrash and anyone else who would like to do it cause it’s v fun ✨

Athena

This was honestly so fun! I could talk about Athena forever. I also talk more about athena and rolans life together andddd it’s very long so it’s all under the cut lmao oops

Baby:

Parents

- Athena’s parents were Thomas Knight and Elerra Knight (née. Kenafin). Her father Thomas was a human Wizard/Paladin of Mystra (boooooo) who worked for the Waterdeep City Guard and her mother Elerra was a drow cleric of Eilistraee who worked as a healer at the local house of healing.

Birth

- She was born in Waterdeep at the families cottage. Her parents treated her birth as if they had been blessed by the gods themselves (as they should lol) they had been trying to have a baby for a while and were starting to lose hope until Elerra finally fell pregnant with Athena.

First word / Tantrum / When they first walked / First sickness

- Athena’s first word was ma. She didn’t really have tantrums often, and if she did they didn’t last for very long. She was 15 months old when she first started to walk and her first sickness was a common cold.

Childhood:

Friends

- Athena had a couple of friends growing up, as a half-drow she didn’t really feel like she belonged anywhere, some people knew she was half drow and treated her different, others didn’t know what she was but they still treated her with caution. Her best friends consisted of Tyler, a tiefling, and Ari who was a high half-elf.

Siblings

- She had one sibling, a sister called rose. There was a 10 year age gap between them. Her sister rose was actually adopted and was a tiefling. Her parents were struggling to conceive yet again so they decided to adopt instead.

Getting into trouble

- Athena had terrible anxiety growing up so she never really did anything to get into trouble.

Birthday

- Her birthday is Alturiak 20th

Games / Learning something new

- She loved a good game of hide and seek, she was very good at hiding so she always won when she played with her parents and friends.

- Athena loves learning and takes it very seriously, when she puts her mind to something she is determined. Growing up she loved lanceboard and even though she wasn’t good at it to begin with, she stuck it out and learned how to play, it took many hours with her mothers help but she got there in the end

Trauma

- Her family being what they were, were judged by some of the public. She grew up hearing people call her mother an under elf, deep elf etc. her mother always tried to ignore it but Athena could she the heartbreak on her mothers face. If it wasn’t for her father, Athena would have grown up to not trust humans as most of the comments made about her mother were from humans.

Teenager:

First love

- Athena’s first love was her friend Tyler. She loved him very much and he loved her as well. Athena wanted to have something more with him but she also didn’t want to ruin what they already had so they just stayed friends

Rebellion / Running away

- Due to the situation Athena was in she never really had time to rebel. After her parents died and her sister became ill she had to grow up real fast and was essentially a mother figure for Rose. Athena had to work, cook and heal all day, everyday. She barely had any time to herself so there was definitely no time to rebel or run away

Reckless behavior

- When her sister had fallen deathly ill, Athena started to pickpocket/steal food and supplies as she now didn’t have much time to make a living to support the two of them. She did still work but it was very rare.

Peer pressure

- Although no one was pressuring her she still pushed herself. She would push herself so hard to heal her sister that some days it took all her energy and she would fall asleep on the floor next to her sisters bed.

Taking responsibility

- She spent most of her teenage years taking responsibility, between healing her sister, earning a living to be able to feed herself and her sister, She never had time for herself and always had to put her sister first. Athena developed a bad habit that when she eats she tends to eat very fast due to always needing to aid rose. Most of the time when she would sit down to eat, rose would start coughing and need urgent care, so eating fast became a bad habit of hers, one she is still working on today.

Adulthood:

Their “first time”

- Athena’s first time was one she wishes she could forget. At 23 years of age athena had her first time with a man she met at the Yawning portal. It was soon after her sister had died and Athena was not taking it well and she wanted a distraction. She ended up getting drunk and have sex with the first man that showed a slight interest in her. Soon after she started to regret it and when she arrived home she curled up in a ball on her bed and started crying wishing her mum was there to talk to. This experience tainted sex for her for a long time after. The next time she had sex was with rolan after the fall of the absolute, she had filled rolan in beforehand about her experience and rolan made sure that she was showed the up most care and love during their first time together

Serious relationships

- Athena’s first serious relationship is with rolan. Although they had their differences when they first met Athena quite liked rolan, she loved how caring he was for his siblings, how determined he was and she found him very attractive. For a spell she thought he hated her but it was the complete opposite.

After Cal and lia were saved from moonrise, rolan found Athena sitting by the waters edge at last light, where he decided to apologize to her. The two ended up talking for a bit and ended up sharing a kiss, Athena thought rolan would regret it come morning but if he did he never showed it.

They didn’t really discuss their feelings till after the fall of the netherbrain. Athena wasn’t sure what she wanted to do now that the absolute was no more, so she decided to go and talk to rolan just to catch up and to see his reaction to her maybe going back to Waterdeep.

They were having a nice conversation when she briefly mentioned going back to Waterdeep, this made rolan drop his drink and turn to her like umm why???? She explained that she didn’t have anything here or anyone needing her to stay so she might as well go back home. Rolan then said something along the lines of “you’re so selfish you know that yes? You are just going to up and leave when the man who cares and loves you the most is standing right in front of you?” When she goes to reply he cuts her off and basically begs her not to leave. Basically rolan finally tells her he is in love with her and has been for a while and he has a meltdown about it. very dramatic, very much rolan lol

- Her first serious platonic relationship would be shadowheart, although she knew shadowheart was lying to her about something she knew that there was probably a good reason for doing so. The two grew close and are still good friends long after the fall of the absolute. Another platonic relationship dear to Athena is Jaheira, I talk about them more in this post. Jaheira is very much a mother figure for Athena.

Work

- Before she was a cleric she was painter, she had to take a break from painting due to obvious reasons. After the fall of the absolute she takes up painting again and sells them in the lower city, all the money she makes from them is then donated to the local orphanage/s.

She tends to paint a lot of landscapes so when rolan first showed her the balconies of the tower she told him about how much she would love to paint this view. When she had finally moved in to ramazith’s tower rolan pulled her to one of the balconies and surprised her with a new easel, paints and a lot of canvases. She was on the brink of tears, she couldn’t have asked for a more caring partner. Most nights rolan will join her outside and will read one of his many books while she paints.

She still was a cleric of course and offered her aid wherever she could. Rolan cleaned out one of the rooms in sorcerous sundries and made it Athena’s office where she could manage all the paperwork for her patients. She was a call out cleric meaning she would go to the patients house instead of them coming into the sundries. She also helped out around sorcerous sundries. Whether that was scroll sorting or working the counter, she loved helping where she could, especially if it made rolans life slightly easier (the less stressed and busy rolan was, the more time they got together)

Leaving home

- Athena left her family home when she was 24 years old, after falling into a deep depression after her sister died she decided that enough was enough. Athena felt that the only thing she had left was her religion so she decided she wanted to become a sword dancer of eilistraee, after she did this she made her way to the promenade of the dark maiden. She helped and lived there for about a year.

Aging

- She doesn’t really like to talk about aging, from losing her family very young she would rather just live in the now instead of thinking about death, she’s had to much of that in her life. When she starts getting older she spends more time painting and hanging out in the tower with rolan.

Finding your place

- Athena feels she has found her place after the fall of the absolute. She is finally living with rolan (they end up getting married 2 years later), cal and lia, she has amazing friends which she still sees and keeps in touch with. She finally feels happy and feels that life is going her way for once.

Staring a family/found family

- Athena and rolan don’t end up having any children. She realises that she has been looking after people her whole life and she wants a chance to just live and have a somewhat calm life. Rolan, Cal and Lia are her found family along with Jaheira and her friends. Although they don’t have any children of their own, athena ends up adopting Yenna but its more of a sister than mother relationship for Yenna. Their family also consists of grub (yennas cat), two other cats they adopted and scratch.

[pathogenic]

🌻🌻🌻

Since we were talking VtM, hey, did you know that the Vampire the Masquerade V5 core book is like oddly filled with misprints? My version in particular doesn't separate Level 2 and Level 3 Auspex powers so I accidentally gave my Caitiff an ability they shouldn't have by accident.

There are other misprints, but that is the one that always sends me because we were so confused as to why that happened until I opened my book and Saw It.