#elaris is having fun in this au

[skeleton-in-a-hoodie]

In the 'Nef gets robotisied early and quits the Rangers' au, Elaris 100% knows he's not actually a robot made by the late Dr Nefarious.

I don't know if she figured it out really quickly or just saw him and instantly knew he was lying, but she knows.

Which means she gets to watch Nefarious barely holding this ruse together, whilst the other Rangers are like why did Nef make him this way?

Some of the Rangers are really suspicious of this asshole robot, and she's just waiting for Nef to blow his cover or for someone else to figure it out so she can drag them into the cupboard and gossip

[wlwaerith]

i don't have her timeline 100% pinned down, but i thought i'd share some of my ideas about elarys as she is in her canon. her durge au is fun but the canon i made for her, in which she's still connected to the antagonists (primarily through ketheric & myrkul) is more fun for me.

she's born to a wood elf mother and a human father shortly before the curse is unleashed by ketheric's dark justiciars. they abandon her to flee for baldur's gate, and she "dies" to the curse as barely more than an infant.

except we know that nothing really dies while the curse takes hold, so she lies there dormant, rotting, cursed, warped. she looks like a corruption of a half-elven child, but she's something entirely other now, with one tiny foot in the grave and the other in the shadowfell. a necromantic thing.

this is where i'm playing fast and loose with the timeline, but i think myrkul gets his claws in the shadow-cursed lands a while before he picks his chosen (read: steals shar's from her). when he establishes a presence there, something interferes with elarys.

about 30-40 years before the events of the game, the infant elarys wakes up as myrkul begins establishing a foothold in the shadow-cursed lands. somehow, his presence undoes the physical manifestations of the curse, even though she remains corrupted. being undead, he can't create(?) spawn as bhaal can, but in this abandoned child he sees an opportunity and directs a small band of his clerics to find her. once they do, they retreat to a sanctuary just outside of baldur's gate. she was raised within the church.

as she aged, she was his original first choice for a chosen. he never spoke to her, but he did speak to the priest the clerics had given her to. but elarys proved a poor fit for his chosen, far more fascinated by alchemy, necromancy (for which she had little innate skill), and her cursed blood that gave her access to a rare and frightening type of magic: shadows.

elarys may not be interested in tracking down her mother (for her father is surely dead), but she is interested in magic and science. she throws herself into a passion project that turns into an obsession, which is achieving necromancy and complete resurrection like her own through alchemy rather than increasingly rare spells. the offering satisfies myrkul, but he loses interest in her and eventually finds ketheric instead.

in the meantime, elarys has encountered an ancient rogue mindflayer who calls himself the architect (hi da girlies). he has managed to extend his lifespan far beyond the normal range for an illithid through research of his own, and now seeks a way to permanently liberate himself & others like him from the influence of elder brains. so he strikes a deal with elarys: she helps him with his research and lures victims for him to feed on, and he grants her more magic for her repertoire, as it may aid her research.

so, they set up a clinic in the lower city. she gains a favourable reputation very fast; the most efficient healer in the city for the lowest price with the highest survival rate. it's not long before the well-to-do of the upper city are calling upon her for visits when they need healing. but that's also when the disappearances start in the lower city.

a string of disappearances coinciding with a string of grizzly murders begins to sew fear in the city. all roads lead to moonrise towers, it seems, for it's not long before a white-scaled dragonborn with blood on his breath and bhaal's amulet around his neck tracks her down and makes her an offer she can't refuse: how would she like to help his colleague in a special laboratory? except he phrases it as though he's useless and needs assistance. elarys, who has always loved having her ego stroked, is quick to accept.

to moonrise towers they go, where they meet the other two. she and enver don't get along at first, given that they're both two massive egos making a name for themselves in the modern sciences suddenly having to share space, but ketheric likes her almost immediately. maybe it's because he knows a fellow undead (or, undead in the way he is) when he sees one. maybe it's because he can feel that she's been touched by myrkul as well. or maybe, just by virtue of being a young half-elf woman, she reminds hm just enough of his isobel.

there's also a myrkul-shar divine custody battle going on here. but that's not important babygirl don't worry about it

[protonpowered]

Whilst Witts and Nefarious do go on to date each other, I just realised that they both have Elaris as their second choice

Au where It's all fun and games until they start (almost literally) fighting over her

[protonpowered]

Gonna talk about an au of mine because it's self indulgent and i want to treat myself

(Night)Club owner Nefarious

Was once a galactic ranger but instead of trying to atomise a city and the Rangers, nefarious tells qwark to go fuck himself, resigns and heads off-planet to go and have some well deserved fun and respite after all the unappreciated work he gave the Rangers

Anyway he somehow eventually ends up with a third-hand star/battle cruiser, probably the Leviathan from UYA, and thinks:

"Damn, this is a fine ship, but what the hell do I do with a beast like this, WAIT I KNOW, I always wanted a club I'll just turn it into one big club! I'm a genius!"

So he turns the Leviathan into one big nightclub/party boat/pleasure cruiser, hires Lawrence to manage the finances and play bass when they perform, and eventually it becomes the number one clubbing spot in all Solana, forever touring the galaxy. No Rangers allowed, except Elaris, she's alright.

I just want there to be one dimension out there where Nef is having actual fun with his life and not getting kicked about by the galaxy

But mostly I like to imagine him singing Hot In The City to an adoring crowd. I told you, this is a self-indulgent au 💚