#ehehehe this post can fit so much lore in it . :3

[archivestarlyht]

hmm staring at that last meme (#1 for sol, fox, vivi, and lex, and maybe also... 4 and 5 for whoever you're feeling)

Baldur's Gate 3 Companion!Tav Ask List

1. Where can your Tav be recruited? Are they first encountered on the Nautiloid, or in the Nautiloid crash region? Or are they not recruitable until a later act?

fox:  recruited on the nautiloid,  being assailed by imps.  relieved when you help him,  though clearly still wary due to your shared condition as infected.  laments that any of you can turn on each other or become mind flayers at any moment,  but asks to join you.  if you say no,  he tries to argue.  he can be found again at the druid grove,  where he approaches and asks if you've seen sense and have changed your mind,  since he's clearly resourceful enough to have survived the crash (even though he's confident it's just luck).  will try to appeal to your companions if you refuse to recruit him a second time,  and eventually gives up.

vivi:  encountered in the druid grove.  she stops the player outside of where they can find kagha,  where you can find her not-politely cursing the de facto first druid's name for her behavior towards arabella.  tells you that if you save the child she'll reward her yourself.  after you visit nettie you can mention that you're going to look for halsin and she volunteers to join you temporarily.  she only volunteers to join the party permanently after you save halsin and the druid grove.

lex:  encountered just outside of blighted village.  nervously stops you and tells you about the goblin presence.  can be mentioned that he tried to find some shelter in the grove while he tries to get his bearings on the way to baldur's gate,  but that he was turned away as an outsider.  you can send him to your camp and after a long rest he asks to help you in return even though you already have a far better wizard in your party.  if you do not offer to send him to your camp outside of the blighted village,  he dejectedly leaves without a fuss.  if you do not accept his help after the long rest,  he asks if you would prefer he leave you,  and apologizes for causing any trouble.

sol'rys:  can be recruited in the crash region,  being attacked by intellect devourers.  he is still clearly suspicious of you if you help him and needs to be convinced to put away his longbow (and might initiate a fight if you're not successful),  though visibly shocked when it's obvious that neither of you are illithid thralls.  does not apologize for turning on you or almost turning on you.  immediately turns to business that you need a cure as soon as possible and it would be foolish to turn someone as useful as himself away.  if you refuse to recuit him,  he laughs and tells you that you won't survive without him,  and that he'll find a cure himself (insight:  he is terrified).

4. What sort of general actions raise or lower their approval?  

answered here.

5.  Are there any instances where your Tav can permanently leave the party,  depending on player character actions?

fox:  no.  he stays with you as a matter of survival.  fox will stick with someone he thinks is morally reprehensible if his survival depends on it.

vivi:  semi-related,  vivi would not join the party as a companion if you attack the grove.  for obvious reasons as a druid.  if you do recruit her and betray jaheira  +  everyone else at last light by handing isobel over to marcus,  she would rather take her chances by returning to the grove alone.  lets you know with disgust that she thought you were better than this,  and doesn't want to hear any explanation that you did it to stick to your cover as a true soul,  or that you didn't have a choice.

lex:  if your approval is low enough,  and this is essentially reserved for characters who lean into cruel choices,  he excuses himself when you get to baldur's gate,  after you take your first long rest when arriving in the city.  alexius does not make it clear that any single choice led to this,  he will not tell you.  you can encounter him in sorcerous sundries speaking to the librarian,  and an insight check reveals that he doesn't seem thrilled to see you despite how respectful he is.

sol'rys:  possibly.  if your approval is low enough and you take the astral-touched tadpole,  it's definitely the last straw for him.  taking illithid tadpoles without an attempt to convince him that it's fine (if you do it.  he cannot be convinced to take any.) is the quickest,  most reliable way to tank his approval of you.  taking more parasites,  trusting an illithid,  and indicating you want to become one is his limit.  expresses particular disappointment with you if he's romanced,  and leaves you  +  the party with no chance of reconciliation.  makes it extremely clear that he thinks you're a fool and that the illithid is playing you,  and  that he wants no part of it. 

[protosymphonette]

I would like to hear more about the happy smiler symbolism,,, preddy pls :)

ehehehe starts jumping up and down and clapping. ok ^_^

1 maroon & olive

i chose 2 colors because i do what i want. red is commonly associated with like... death murder killing blood danger. so i chose a more dark & muted maroon to reflect his more... low-key? apathetic? idgaf nature while still acknowledging his violent tendencies. i wanted it to sort of be the color of dried blood? i thought other red-associated feelings like love, passion (insert children's hospital color theory post here) also fit since he is constantly bagging hoes with his nonchalant & unsettling & creepy swag. olive is much of the same, as a muted & frankly sort of grimy green color. olive is also very much associated with the military and while happy smiler certainly is no bootlicker he's definitely very militant

2 desert mistletoe

for both flora and fauna i wanted to choose something that was native to the american southeast. mistletoe is a very stereotypical christmas/joyful/romantic plant and i thought the irony was funny given happy smiler's whole deadpan-ness. but also hints at normal person under bulletproof vest shell. the fact that mistletoe is a parasitic plant also had a lot to do with it... happy smiler is a very opportunistic guy and will do pretty much anything to make sure that he is the one who knocks comes out the fortunate party. including riding someone else's coattails for a bit. parasite yup. and also desert mistletoe is a very cool and appetizing plant.

3 vulture

specifically a turkey vulture. they're the only vultures native fully to the american southeast and also i like their cool heads. vultures are awesome btw kind of a tangent but they rule. anyway sort of related to the mistletoe; vultures are scavengers. they're huge and imposing with their large wingspan and spooky black feathers and bald heads. but at the end of the day they feed almost exclusively on carrion. that's not to say they're pacifists... they're just happy to not give themselves extra work by eating things that are already dead. do you get it. happy smiler may seem like a guy who loves to killing but he's really not. maybe he wants to seem that way maybe he'd like to be brutal and maim and kill but he's not like that. he likes to seem scary because it steers obvious trouble away from him and makes him feel cool and tough. do u get it

4 cleaver

okay this one requires some happy smiler lore; he was born near klamath where his family hunted geckos for a living & sold their meat and hide and they used the simple lowly cleaver to kill butcher & skin said geckos. so partly i chose cleaver because of that but ALSO it's a pretty versatile thing. in the game it's obviously a melee weapon but also a cleaver can be used in the kitchen for anything from splitting bone and meat to crushing garlic or chopping vegetables. he's good at cooking (metagaming fact i gave him decently high survival skill solely so i could reap the benefits of dine and dash perk) so that's sort of an extra layer.

5 'till my head falls off - tmbg

i'm gonna keep it 100. i had no idea what song to do for him. i toiled over it for actual days. i think what i settled on is a pretty decent pick, though- references his persistence, substance abuse, forgetfulness... and who could forget the head trauma evident in the very title of the song. i've long associated this song with "general vague courier 6 feelings" so it fits pretty well for him... also it's one of my favorite tmbg songs :D so that's a plus. to be honest i don't really listen to many bands that i'd describe as "happy smiler music" so that's probably why this was so hard for me. lol

6 resentment

this one was also pretty hard. though admittedly not as difficult as the song. most of the time i think happy smiler doles out general feelings of apathy and idgaf-ness but that's sort of boring. i imagine for the first leg of his journey (the "finding benny" part) he was fueled entirely by feelings of rage & vengefulness, which tbf is to be expected from a dude who was shot in the head (twice). i think he resents that checked-suited cunt so much because he fucked with basically the one thing that happy smiler gives any of a shit about (at least at the beginning): himself. and i thought the lighter would be a good symbol for his hatred towards benny- it being pretty much the last thing he saw, the only concrete evidence of The Shootening even occuring until he gets to the strip, and the inherently destructive nature of fire. or whatever. happy smiler gaslights himself into thinking he's winning the idgaf war but at the core of his being he was never even a player. i guess you could say the game was rigged from th(gets sniped)

IF U READ THIS FAR. thank you. i know my ramblings are probably incomprehensible. and thank YOU anon for enabling me... <3