#darkweaving

[ligmabhaals]

you alone can make my song take flight.

commissioned baldur's gate 3 / phantom of the opera crossover by @infernaldaydreams, absolute legend. i couldn't get this out of my head and she spun it into reality so stunningly.

there's something about the dynamic of the dark urge turning away from their history, away from the path of the absolute with gortash, and towards the path of redemption and humanity with gale that lights up all the sensors in my brain. something about the parallels of ambition, and the choices in front of us. something about the way that this game doesn't just permit you agency, but is about agency, running through every warp and weft. it's just so special to me.

+ bonus gale frame!:

my grumpy wet wifeguy, bless u for this one, lex. i like to think az'zael and gortash forgot about him for a minute while they were fighting lol. just left him there, like, hang on, we got some shit to duke out real quick. he's so cranky. i love him. this whole commission prompt may or may not have sprang from me just wanting to see him disheveled and soaking wet, i'll never tell.

[gub]

More Darkweave! i was giggling and kicking my feet the whole time btw LOL

[swindlefingrs]

Gale bringing Durge home to meet his mom and she's trying to get to know this person that makes their son so happy

"so what does your father do?" and how does Durge even break it to his mother who's been worried about him after breaking up with the goddess of magic, losing all his powers, and secluding himself for a year

here he is bringing home the literal child of the god of murder

Morena is never letting Gale out of her sight again

[justmebeing--me]

Once again inspired by @dekujinsart

Moreau has Donna's powers!

[animentality]

👀 hey, hey, I have a thing for you to think about. Fuck the canon for a minute. Who is your Gortash crack ship with?

I am a fanatic, anon.

I only ship Gortash with the Dark Urge. I have no side ships. I know no other loyalties.

I ship nothing else in Baldur's Gate.

I am the world's most dedicated solo shipper, and I know this makes me utterly depraved...

[rookscranny]

amaranth, my beloved

[rowandekarios]

if all of gale’s ship names end with “-weave” then. then uh. him and rowan are called shadow weave and that’s unfortunate but also hilarious

[boo-moved]

Komi and Gale should have a ship name

[starlightcleric]

Tagged by @dragonologist-phd to make some of my characters in this picrew! Thanks, it's really cozy!

Decided to do some characters who haven't gotten very much attention in a while, so here's Hazel the orlan fighter from Pillars of Eternity and Ruby the halfling rogue from my brother and my's game of Solasta: Crown of the Magister!

Tagging (no pressure): @orime-stories, @shimmer-like-agirl, @queen-scribbles, @haledamage, and whoever else wants to!

[spellshite]

[ligmabhaals]

headcanon that when gale invites durge out to the clearing that night with intimate intent, durge originally asks to stay grounded and corporeal for it but as gale goes to remove their shirt they freeze and remember how scarred and marred their torso is, from [redacted]'s experimentation, like, there's no way she tidied up and healed up all the scars, right? and it burns that they don't even remember. what could they have done to deserve this.

but gale wants to reassure them, and they want him to know them, even if they don't remember. so they let their arms up and slowly, as the shirt pulls off, gale's face falls, and durge is mortified, wrenching their eyes closed in shame and resigned sorrow that this isn't going to happen anymore. and then they feel their hand against gale's chest, where he's taken it and put it against the scar that the orb deepens every day, and his other hand on their sternum where the thickest part of their scar is, and they look up at him and see that he understands, that his face isn't showing disappointment, it's empathy. and he tells them that they already forgave him his past, that they get the grace to just be what they are today too,

but if you're not comfortable,

and maybe that's enough for durge, maybe that's all it takes for them to cut him off with their hands and mouth and relief and gratitude, or maybe it's a different gratitude that has them laying side by side for hours, holding each other, silent promises to buy themselves more time.

but. maybe durge still wants it so bad, and just can't reckon with their own body, how distracting and demoralizing it would be to have to feel their past with every touch and shift when all they want is to just have this night. so gale offers his hand, glowing, and tells durge that they are beautiful in any form, to him, but that their body isn't what makes them them. and maybe the greatest gift he can give durge in that moment is to just be energy for a night, any night, until they decide they're ready otherwise.

and after durge's redemption, or rejection, however you'd like to look at it; living as humans or gods, durge may eventually come to terms with their scars, indifferent to them or maybe they're a source of pride and strength, after the fact. if they ascend with gale, maybe they heal them, or maybe leave them deliberately, as a reminder. but i think they never forget the grace that gale gave them that night. of forgiveness, and of agency.

[gub]

My oath of vengeance paladin Tav, Durge (a temp name) and Gale! I call their pairing 'Darkweave' <3

[swindlefingrs]

The Astral Plane is beautiful. Saga tells Gale so. She thanks him for the experience, for sharing this time with her as they float in the translucent sea together. He slips his learned, delicate hands into hers, calloused and broad, and squeezes. They tell each other that they are enough, as they are.

She loses his gaze to the shifting colors of the Astral Plane and makes a promise to herself.

The next morning Saga packs a small tote bag. Bread, cheese, cider. The rest of lunch she can find along the way. She knows Gale doesn't move fast or well over rough ground, so she picks a trail flat enough for her purpose.

Gale only pitches well-mannered fits twice, but she tells him to be patient. It'll be worth it.

It is.

The astonished look on his face as they crest this trail makes her feel less guilty about the stitch in his side that he digs his fist into.

The rushing waterfall is thunderous from their cliff-side vantage point. Cold spray glitters in the air, catching the suns rays and breaking them into a thousand colors.

"This is beautiful," Gale says between wheezes.

Saga takes his hand and leads him a few feet further up the trail to a perfect spot to overlook the valley. She sets out a simple meal of what she brought and what she gathered on the way: salmon berries, miner's lettuce, violets, honeycomb.

She drizzles the honey and violets over the pot of soft cheese. They dip torn pieces of bread into it. Salty. Sweet. Herbaceous.

"I had imagined that wooing a ranger would come with it's own particular set of challenges, but if your goal was to get me alone, there are much easier ways of doing that rathet than asking me to scale a mountain," Gale teases as he pops a berry into his mouth. He squints as the tartness hits his tongue, and relaxes as the sweetness blooms after.

Saga sucks her teeth, brushing off his chiding. Instead she scoots closer to him, draping one arm around his waist and pointing out to the river below with her other hand. She revels in the feeling of him leaning against her. His breath on her cheek.

From where they sit she points out the stories that she can see written in the damp earth, broken twigs, dead grass, moss, and climbing vines.

“Elk cross there every other tenday."

Gale recites the binomial nomenclature for elk, Saga corrects him.

“Red elk, not Marsh Elk. Those are further south."

Gale corrects himself and recites the binomial for red elk.

“A hunter has taught her daughter how to hunt those elk. Just as her mother taught her. There's their blind.”

Saga points to a cluster of rushes next to an old oak tree.

“The scat from the herd fertilizes the water and those berry bushes.”

Eel grass languidly sways in the river's current. Glinting silver fish dart between the thick, green blades of the eel grass.

“These... berries?” Gale hesitates with a handful of yellow and orange salmon berries.

“Those berries.” She snatches one from his palm and bites down until it bursts tart and sweet in her mouth.

She nods southerly, “Look at the entrance to the cave. The bear sow had her tenth cub this spring. She brought down an elk recently. See the bones?”

“These leaves?” Saga plucks a handful of spade-shaped leaves from the bush nearby. She rolls them between her calloused fingers and breathes in their scent, before placing them under Gale’s nose. It smells like mossy pepper and golden melon. Interesting.

She cups the leaves in her palm, “Water,” she commands in a tone that is sweet for her.

With just a flick of his wrist, the leaves float in a pool of cool, clear water. She claps her hands together, rubbing them vigorously before revealing that her palms covered in milky suds.

“Soap.”

“Ah! For washing up! How fascinating,” Gale drags his fingers through the suds, rubbing them between his fingertips, testing the viscosity.

Saga takes a deep breath. Words aren't as easy for her as they are for Gale, “The Astral Plane is wonderful. You showed me that. Just don’t... don't forget about this plane, yeah? It’s just as magical. In its way.”

“So I'm learning," he chirps. “Turns out? Some of my favorite people are here. Somehow you keep finding new ways of teaching me that.”

Gale's smile is bright, earnest. It cauterizes a rotten part of her urges.

“With all that being said, can you promise me something?” he sidles up to her.

She scowls. Promises are heavy things.

“Can you promise me that you'll bring me on another one of your highly educational field trips of the famed Material Plane? I mean the view, the ecology lesson, the meal? The company?” He softens his voice to a whisper shared between the two of them, “I can't wait to see more of it.”

Saga smirks. She tips his pretty head back with only a finger under his chin. His kisses are berry-sweet, honey-sticky, and plentiful.

"A promise easily kept."

[dndtreasury]

Darkweave

[glowfangarts]

Fishing up more old art! My main greyseer, Vykstyrn Darkweaver with his fur-babies and one of the first sketches I made of him

Check out my Deviantart as well! https://www.deviantart.com/glowfang12

[nightspires]

i was just thinking this evening and there were SO MANY fantasy books that i loved as a teenager. like the wind singer trilogy by william nicholson, the chronicles of ancient darkness by michelle paver, the darren shan books, the darkweaver legacy series!!! narnia, ofc. the wizard series that Shall Not Be Named. the stravaganza books! the black magician trilogy. the eragon books.

man. and nowadays i really struggle to find fantasy i want to read bc so much of it seems to be super dense and not as fun or whimsical as the stuff i read when i was a kid.

like, i love contemporary adult fantasy novels like the shades of magic series, the jade city series, the poppy war series. i enjoyed six of crows a lot too, although that is YA. but i don't read anywhere near as much fantasy as i did when i was younger. and that makes me sad!!!!!

anyway. all to say. if you have fantasy book recs that aren't super dense (no tolkien pls) please send them my way!!!!!