#dnd qalaari

[zellk]

A small Qalaari doodle to explore some fits options for when we were "invited" (held hostage) in the manor of a Vampire Lady (who happened to be the grandmother of one of our group member :^)c delicious drama ensued... for multiple sessions...)

I ended up going for the left one as it was closer to Qalaa's comfort zone. The right one was more planned for if we ever managed to get to "the ball scene™ " but sadly we kicked ass too early for that and managed to escape/

(I say escape but we, somehow, managed to kill the elder vampire lady... it was... a difficult fight.)

[zellkabellk]

Dreaming & musing about making a “setting pack” with art and infos and stuff about DnD Qalaari’s tribe... so that people / GMs can add them in their setting if they ever need a place deep in the woods that acts as 1) a druids meeting place and 2) a haven for ‘monsters’ like lycans & stuff where they can find a safe space to learn how to harness and tame their capabilities...

[zellk]

Some more drawings on my babygirl Qalaari in DnD !

[zellk]

Rough WIPs / doodles for DnD Qalaari ! We haven't started our campaign yet but I’m taking that time to try to figure out how she might look a little ! I’m not quite There™ yet in terms of showing how heavy and massive she is and feels (I really want her to feel like a draft horse... but with horns, because minotaur >:^) ) Her minotaur design is mainly based on 1) her Charr design from GW2 and 2) an animal called a takin ! They’re big & extremely cute goats that live around the Himalayas. I’m playing her as a Path of the Beast Barbarian - but she doesn't like raging so... it’ll be a tug of war between my and my DM to force me to use my full kit in fights >8^D Last picture is a little drawing of her and @ependasketchpad​ ‘s super cool tough lady, Tarja ! They’re taking a bit of a rest and down time so that Qalaa can engrave Tarja’s tusks 😊

[zellk]

Forgot to share here.... old doodles of when I finally came around to finding a design I like for Qalaari's mom !!

[zellk]

Last session, my minotaur Qalaari has been polymorphed mid-fight (and mid-rage) into a wee bunny by a hag.

[zellk]

Qalaari is Going Through It... this dungeon/campaign is, so far, really challenging her beliefs and making it hard for her to avoid using violence / finding a peaceful solution to things ;;;;;;;; It's taking its toll on her.

[zellk]

I'm in love with Aamira ❤️❤️🙏 can you give us more info about her? Some fun and maybe not so fun facts about her?

Hi Anon ! Thank you for your kind words and for your interest \o/ Aamira's side of the family is the one that Qalaa got her "Beast Curse" from. It's a bloodline hereditary curse that boosts the strength of those in good health (like Qalaari) and eats away at those that have a weak constitution... like Aamira. "Weak" members of the family are usually cast aside or cast out. Aamira ; while still quite young, 16 or so ; ran away from all of this to try to live her life following only her will and enjoy as much of it as possible. Even without the curse Aamira would have had a weak health, but think of it as her Beast basically making her immunodeficient and weaker and weaker as the years go by.

She managed to make a little life for herself in a small unremarkable place close to one of the older forest of the region. There she developed close ties with two siblings, Temhos & Olgha. Both of them members of a tribe that lives deep deep withing the old woods who come to visit the village semi frequently to trade goods and buy things to carry back where they live. Both siblings tried to court Aamira (after months of good relationship), and, eventually, Aamira chose Temhos. For two or three years things were pretty idyllic fro all of them. But then Aamira started talking about wanting a child... Temhos tried to reason with her that with her health it was really fucking dangerous for her to try and that her chances of not making it through were too high for his tastes... Aamira pretended to listen but actually didn't and things got really bad when Temhos found out she was pregnant. They argued, Aamira's health took a downside, Temhos took care of her until she got better again (and Aamira, with her rose-tinted delusional glasses, thought it meant he'd stay). When Aamira was around 7 month pregnant Temhos ran away (very very far away). It broke her heart but not her (by now frantic) determination to see her pregnancy though. She (somehow) found her away again to Temhos' village where she was taken in by Olgha (who was very confused, then very angry (at both Aamira & Temhos), then very panicked). Qalaari was born in this village. Olgha became her surrogate parent to help Aamira raise her (she was still in love with Aamira, but knew that her heart, broken as it was, would still never be hers... I think Aamira knew Olgha's feelings too and could only just be very thankful she still helped her raise Qalaari, despite how painful it must have been for her.) Aamira was very loving with her daughter, but her (now very bad) health and broken heart left her with long dissociative episodes, on top of moments where she wouldn't even managed to get out of bed. That's when Olgha would take care of Qalaari most (frustrated and heartbroken as she was over the whole situation, Olgha genuinely loves Qalaari like her own daughter.) 12 years after, the Beast finally eroded all of what Aamira was (she was still young... probably around 32 or 34 years old ??) and she passed away. Also, how Aamira survived giving birth is nothing short of a miracle. Most likely due to her will of titanium to meet and raise her daughter... Eventually the Beast got the best of her, but she managed to hold on for 12 more years !!

[zellk]

My question is about Qalaa! She’s got an amazing design in every iteration so I wanted to ask what were your main inspirations for her? Also could you tell us a bit more about her story?

Hi there ! Thank you so much for your kind words about my babygirl ;A; !!! Everything started circa 2014 when I started to play Wakfu again with @shuuzaar and decided to make a red-skinned osamodas. She also now exists in multiple universes (a minotaur or tiefling in DnD, a demon/oni, a dragon, etc etc).

It wasn't a very conscious & willed thing but since I put a lot of 'myself' into her (more than all my other OCs, who have more... handpicked bits) so her build started to grow towards the larger / bigger side naturally. I'm definitely not as big, nor tall as her though (I am short and she's like, 209cm tall or sth).

Her general themes / traits are : A kind, soft & gentle soul in a body that is 'made' for killing / hurting easily because of it's size and strength. Feeling inadequate / dysphoria / struggling to accept her body because it doesn't fit what she likes (petite and feminine girls). Struggle to control flares of emotions & physical strength. And being very, oh so very gay about girls and feminine people (this is a very important part ok).

In time I've been slowly collecting pictures of athletes and people that make me think of her and trying to refine how she looks in my head ! Though, like many of my characters, the specifics tends to change depending on how I feel on the moment... sometimes I want her nose a bit more like this or like that... don't be surprised if her gallery isn't the most consistent in terms of facial features :,^)

One thing that definitely DID inspire me for her though are the marks on her body ! They are inspired from scarifications of the Chambri tribe in Papua New Guinea https://bodyartforms.com/blog/sepik-river-scarification.asp)

As for her story, well, my current DnD group where I play her has given me a lot of opportunities to flesh it out a little more >:^D I'll try to keep it short.

Qalaari was born from an unplanned pregnancy. Her mother, Aamira Molandine, was someone with a very weak health due to a blood curse running in her family (more on that later) ; but despite her health she decided to keep the child and see the pregnancy through. Her father, Temhos Croquelune, is a member of a tribe of "beast folk" (this is tweaked and adapted to fit in various universes when I can) and, while enamoured with Aamira, was really not ready to have a child, and to potentially have to raise it alone should Aamira die while giving birth. After yet another argument with her about getting an abortion for her sake and the sake of them both, Temhos ran away during the night and never came back.

~6 month pregnant Aamira found refuge in the Croquelune tribe under Temhos' sister roof, Olgha (who also had a crush on Aamira & both her and her brother tried to court her). The travel took a heavy toll on Aamira's already weak health and yet she somehow miraculously survived the delivery of her (very) big and healthy baby girl Qalaari. Qalaari was raised in a very loving home by Aamira and Olgha, but developped a big resentment towards her blood father, especially since after giving birth, Aamira remained a very sickly person with a broken heart. Aamira died when Qalaari was 13, which kind of forever scared her and worsened her struggles to control her emotions.

Remember the Cursed Blood thing ? Well basically, it's a curse that either 1) eats you alive if your body is too weak to handle it (Aamira's case, which is why she had a weak health from the beginning) OR 2) enhances the physical potential of your body, but tends to make you lose control and become little more than a beast (Qalaari's case). So yeah... she's trying to get better but she has a lot of healing to do with her inner child and that's not easy... especially with the layers of self hatred the cycles of her life are bringing in :^) !

EDIT : I FORGOT TO ADD that Qalaari is currently exiled from the Croquelune tribe. The circle scar on her clavicle is the mark of the exiled, who are sent away from the tribe for 3 years before they can come back. The practice exists to try and get people to grow 'outside of the community' before coming back in it as a slightly different person. The once-exiled people are reintegrated in the tribe when they return if possible. Olgha, Qalaari's aunt-in-law and adoptive parent, has a mark like this! This exile is definitely not the best solution ever but it's been done for so long in the tribe that it's hard to yknow... challenge the system of it.

Anyway if you've read to this point, thank you for listening to me fail miserably to keep this short... Qalaari is one of my dearest OC, so it's really hard not to gush about her in a 3 hours TED Talk everytime...

Thank you for this kind ask ! Hope you'll have a good day :> !

[zellkabellk]

I remember seeing a tweet where someone was asking "If one of your DnD OC could meet and/or travel with Bell's Hells, how would it be ?" And I've been obsessively thinking about Qalaari or Spriggan or Rena & Lana or Latù meeting them....

[zellkabellk]

Thinking back to DnD Qalaari (it's been a while since we've been able to play but !!! maybe next week !!!!) and... I've decided early on that, while she knows how to speak 3 languages, it wouldn't make any sense that she'd now how to write / read (her culture is very oral, and she personally never was in a position that necessitated her to interact with written aspects of it) and it's been ???? really fun ??? My whole table collectively often forgets that she can't read so it always leads to funny situations : "Maybe Qalaari could go climb up and read [thing] aloud to us ?" "Ah... hm... I'm sorry but... hm..." "Ah, right." It also makes everything more complicated but for now never in a way that was just frustrating 🙏 (Though I think I'm the only one at the table that knows draconic so.... rip to ever reading THAT shit... Qalaa is slowly deciphering a cookbook thanks to her groupmates but for now she mostly goes with the pictures and the numbers (she knows numbers) mkfdsjhks

[zellk]

I might start a small DnD campaign soon (good old simple door>monster>treasure format) and I took this as an opportunity to play my big babygirl Qalaari ;o; Im SO so happy to get to dust her off of the shelves and throw her out there... (Imma try Barbarian of the Beast ! Cant wait to transform into fucked up shit >8^)c )

[zellk]

Inktober Week 2 !