#faithbreaker

[petitecreme]

The Burning

This years #Screamtober comic, thank you for reading!

[frentique]

[kernelscorner]

Cover Reveal News Round-Up, Including Books By John Green, Hannah Kaner, And Mark Lawrence

[lemongrace]

Eluein heard the beastly wail just as loudly as she did on the day she devoured the creature for its mana, absorbing its essence for herself. Now, she could feel it gnaw on her very being, desperate to get out. Somehow, it was still alive– or perhaps just stirred to life by the sudden influx of energy. A dull fog obscured her vision as the thoughts of the creature started to blur with her own– when it reached out its talons, so did she claw at her neck.

[...] It burst out from her all at once, tearing the skin and fracturing the bone - a malformed wing formed by the excess of the energy she stole, enacting the slain creature’s revenge. Blood and the arcane essence flowed alike, trickling down from the fissures splitting the body.

[...] Then, she heard its shrieks no more, deafened by the rhythmic buzz of Arcane so loud it had drowned out all of her thoughts. All but one - slay Duskborn. The sole goal and command even this broken, aching body needed to heed. Slowly, she rose, grasping Faithbreaker with the right hand - her head snapped back in a bird-like motion, peering towards Eledorn. Regardless of what just happened, she still intended to keep her word - she would have his head, one way or another.

Illustration for the conclusion of an RP plot I was a part of for the last few months! 💙 My character had an awful time and suffered a major ego death, but for me it was a blast.

[fearforthestorm]

the thing they don't tell you about being raised in a high-demand religion is that everyone who you grew up with at some point will either have a faithbreak or they will continue to stay. and both of those are kind of the hardest thing ever to watch someone you cared about go through.

[musee-de-muse]

The Great Lie

DWC November 2024

Day 2: Eternal/Deceit

OC: Calinirra, Man'ari Eredar

@daily-writing-challenge

A beautiful lie is still that – a lie.

And one might think that after years unknowable... that the shame of once having believed in such a beautiful lie would fade – and it does!

Or so I had thought.

One can adapt to anything, with time – one can forget hearth and home, and grow accustomed to chaos, and hate and destruction. It was all for a greater purpose, after all. We were a chosen people, were we not? So adept in our craft, that we should be considered to serve alongside one such as Sargeras in his laborious duty.

And our most respected elders – the wisest among us, the most revered? They saw the wisdom in it – or at least two-thirds of them did, and that was enough for most of us, in the end... or rather, in the beginning. They told us that the Prophet was a fool – he didn't see what was right before us. Opportunity does not knock twice. His cowardice would only hold us back - such were the reassurances.

How could we not embrace what was to come?

But millennia of victory meant nothing, now. All that life lost. All those planets desecrated. All those souls consumed, or twisted, or sent to the Nether, or the Shadowlands... all those planets full of peoples slain, or converted or consumed – for what, now?

I don't know what I feel. I am a demon – that much is true, and always will be. And while that's not quite what we were told would happen to us... the vast swathes of time I've spent as what I am? Have not always been terrible. I delighted in what I became, in time – that is the very nature of what I became. How could I not indulge in destruction - would you reprimand a fire for burning?

But now... after a time unknowable in the Nether – after countless worlds have been sundered – the grand Crusade was over. Their leader gone, the lies proven false. The cost sunk – one would have thought.

But opportunity does not knock twice, so when the Alliance came calling... well, my work in the Legion had begun to chafe, with my loss of rank, and subsequent re-assignment. Little more than an attack dog for another, my skills wasted and my power chained – why wouldn't I trade that hateful existence on another's leash for some sort of fresh start... any fresh start?

It had all been a grand, eternal lie – and in the end, I didn't even have the power, or the clout I once held... so why not? I'm a creature of chaos, and opportunity, after all – and wouldn't it be a bit... funny?

Wouldn't it be a gas – to walk among them, to watch them whisper feverishly, and quiver with repressed fear, or loathing... or a little something else... and be able to do nothing about it? To know that their precious Alliance had welcomed her – she, one of the Legion's elite – to roam their cobbled streets. She, who - with the very blades at her hips – had perhaps even taken the lives of friends and loved ones of the very people in this city. I - who so excelled at my craft as to become a Faithbreaker of such skill and renown that even when I 'stepped on the wrong hoof'... they hadn't killed me – I'd been, instead, assigned to the ill-fated “Damned Cohort” to suffer.

I answered to a cruel master with this assignment, and became little more than a tool for the Legion... an attack dog on a short leash; I became a part of a squad of those who had earned the ire of their betters, and were now forced to take the harshest of assignments. And if permanent death met them during as much? So be it.

But not anymore. Now... the attack dog was free – and had no idea what that actually meant, as her new 'home' was the one place she'd been trying to destroy for years beyond counting.

[thecurlyginger]

Meet My Tav!

@evocationwriter tagged me so I dug up the ol' save file on the computer and am bringing forth my second (and favorite) Tav!

Name: Emmeline Hayworth

Age: 29

Race: Human

Description: The daughter of a gentleman, Emmeline has delicate features that are misplaced for the battlefield. With her freckled fair skin, strawberry blonde hair, high cheekbones, and long neck, one would think she belongs in a drawing room, sipping tea. However, under her armor are scars and muscles that would send even the most devote goblin running. Warhammer at the ready, her impeccable posture and form leave destruction and more than a few awed party members in its wake.

Class: Oath of Vengeance Paladin

Alignment: Neutral Good

Deity: Unknown 👀

Favorite Spells: Branding Smite and Compelled Duel

Armor Act 1: Scale Mail of Vengeance

Armor Act 2: Flawed Helldusk Armor

Armor Act 3: Same as above but with Viconia's Walking Fortress Shield!

Favorite Dye: Black and Furnace Red (like her soul lol)

Weapons Act 1: Faithbreaker Warhammer

Weapons Act 2/3: Blood of Lathander

Buffs: When she got The Tharchiate Codex Blessing... ohhh lawdy life was good

Love Interest: In the game, Karlach. However, in my fanfic I wrote based off this Tav, Gale (did you like that shameless plug?)

Favorite NPC: Does Scratch count? He's the only one in camp who didn't ask her questions about her past, so she had mad respect for him. Plus he kept her on her toes when she did her morning workout by expecting her to throw his ball while planking and doing pushups.

Favorite Enemy: Fightable - Gortash bc it avenged Karlach. Just general enemy as in person she hates - Mystra

Favorite Battle: The portal battle in act 2 outside the Last Light Inn. Tons of enemies for her to get out her frustrations with after learning that Karlach can't be saved/Gale has to detonate the orb.

Favorite Dialogue: "Aww...Was that Gale's granddad?" - Karlach (this makes me laugh every time)

Decision About the Absolute: Stole the Orphic Hammer, freed Orpheus but he had to turn into a mind flayer (*sigh* sorry bud). Destroyed the Netherbrain/Absolute! Gale will return the crown to Mystra. In gameplay, Emmeline and Karlach went to Avernus. In my story... well, you'll have to read to find out! 😉

Tagging @swing-the-serenade @hyperfixationstation128!

[elder-moth]

Sharing my latest BG3 character because... I want to.

Faithwarden Vari Losgail (She/They)

Half-elf circle of the land druid

I decided to make a druid after finding out about the faithwarden/faithbreaker side quest and I'm REALLY enjoying it so far. I'm lvl 4 and haven't even met Karlach, gone to the temple, or dealt with Auntie Ethel's plot yet.

I've got so much to do and baby I am CAPABLE.

Time to save the world and look good doing it.

Also I'm absolutely going to make my character in the final game a half-orc Druid so stay tuned.

[luimnigh]

Midnight Suns, despite being a superhero game, has been good about giving it's characters realistic body proportions.

It's nothing amazing, but there's appreciable physical differences between different characters, women with appreciable muscles, older women who actually look older...

However.

The snatched waist on the Faithbreaker armour for the feminine Hunter is making me question where their organs have gone.

[bonusactionrage]

Get to know my Tav

Mogrum Anir || He/Him || 29 || Harbinger Aasimar|| Paladin of Bhaal Oath of Conquest/ Berserker Barbarian / DARK URGE

Tagged by @primal-savagery

uhhh hello no one follows me yet so this is mostly for me lmao but its good to finally get some intros for him

What is your Tav’s…

favorite weapon: FaithBreaker

style of combat: MOG SMASH hitting you with a hammer hitting you with a hammer hitting you with a hammer

most prized possession: Any letters or journals he was able to recover from his past. As much as he wants to change he is fascinated with trying to get back all his memories

deepest desire: To be truly loved. More to being worthy of love and a happy life

guilty pleasure: He really likes romance novels. He has a tattered book with only a few chapters still hanging onto the threads but will reread them constantly if he has no others to read

best-kept secret: he really misses having a butler. He misses having someone follow him around just to tend to his needs. He just really likes being spoiled

greatest strength: Extremely strong willed. If he has a task he will complete it whether it kills him or not

fatal flaw: Relies on his strength too much. will be overpowered intellectually every time.

favorite smell: Ink and mechanical grease(gortash) and vanilla or winter spices

favorite spell or cantrip: Compel duel or Command. Its 'fight me or get on the floor'

pet peeve: High pitched sounds or songs. Its why the bards put the Urge on edge

bad habit: nail biter (especially gross considering how much blood is under his nails)

hidden talent: King of staring contests. Benefits of having no pupils and a high discomfort tolerance

leisure activity: he does alot of writing in a journal during the first few acts. Mostly just his thoughts and any memories hes had. His pages are often full of doodles and scribbles

favorite drink: Spiced wine or ciders. Especially anything warm with wintry spices

comfort food: Rare steak and fresh bread to sop up all the juice

favorite person: Gortash, unfortunately for everyone else. He adores that terrible rat man.

favored display of affection (platonic and/or romantic): platonic-

fondest childhood memory: He doesn't have much memory of his childhood post tadpoling but it would probably be his 7th birthday. Its the last time he can remember his mother. Her sitting next to him at the table, a small homemade cake on a cracked plate. her smiling down at him and singing him happy birthday

[crossdressingdeath]

*cracks knuckles* alright, character development asks for your boy: 6, 8, 11, 19, 29, 30. -@veilkeeper

(The character development asks)

6: What companion are you platonically close with? In my first run Kyvir was closest to Gale (I don't know what I did with him, but his approval skyrocketed so fast) but I'm currently going back and forth between him and Wyll in terms of story. The dynamic of the monster and the monster hunter is sososososo good, and the idea of Kyvir's closest friend learning he's Bhaalspawn and responding with "Well, that explains a lot" and everything after refusing Bhaal where Wyll's just incredibly proud of you... good shit. Also, daddy issues gang. But also the angst of Kyvir's best friend learning what he did in the past and barely being able to look at him, Gale's dialogue at the inauguration is so much... I genuinely haven't decided, I'm gonna go through their dialogue more carefully this run. Maybe it starts as Gale and then switches to Wyll in act 3 just from Gale taking the whole Absolutist thing so incredibly badly and then getting kidnapped before they can hash that out...? I don't know, much to think about. (I also considered Karlach but the whole Gortash thing was just. too much angst. tone it down like 5%.)

8: Who are they suspicious of? I don't know if suspicious is the right word, but he's the most distrustful of Wyll at first. Both because he can't believe anyone is as perfect as Wyll appears to be and because for some reason monster hunters get his hackles up. It would've been Astarion or Lae'zel if it wasn't for Astarion failing so hard at pretending he's not a vampire that Kyvir didn't even notice he was trying to hide it (he fully just thought Astarion was sensitive about it and so didn't bring it up) and both him and Lae'zel being really quite up-front about how they're not the greatest people. Shadowheart a little bit because she's so obviously lying her ass off before admitting she worships Shar, but also she's really obvious so he's not that worried. He's also suspicious of Jaheira when she first joins up because the Urge doesn't like her and this is a little before he realizes what's actually going on with that; he would have been distrustful of Minsc too, but Jaheira vouched for him and by that point Kyvir trusted her to at least not stab him in the back for no reason, so that was fine.

11: Weapon of choice? In this run mostly warhammers (specifically Faithbreaker and Ketheric's warhammer), and Nyrulna in act 3 (glowing trident go brrrrrrrrr), but since I intend to reclass him as a bard he won't be able to do that anymore. So that kind of remains to be seen. (Definitely giving him Orin's sword in act 3, though.)

19: How do you think they'll meet they're end? I remain convinced that redeemed Durge is fully immortal because Jergal won't let them die, so... what end? More seriously, if he does die it'll be in a dramatic battle against a grand force, the sort of fight that the bards will sing of for a thousand years! ...Or possibly he'll get stabbed in a back alley because he can't not be a little shit even when he really, really shouldn't. But probably Astarion and Halsin won't let that happen.

29: Does your Tav want to utilize the tadpole powers or not? Kyvir's head is quite messed up enough as it is, thank you very much. He is not touching the tadpole powers. Also, even aside from the "Hey, I don't need more brain damage" situation the Emperor's non-illithid disguise is juuuuuuuuust off-model enough (thanks to all the brain damage keeping the Emperor from getting a good look in his head) that it sets off some alarm bells for him so he was never going to trust the guy enough to start messing with the tadpoles anyway.

30: What's your favorite thing about your Tav? ...Hm. My favourite thing? Well, it's a bit basic, but I love the "pretending to care while not caring at all can get you far in life, but watch out" thing he's got going on. Enough of his life pre-amnesia stuck with him that he doesn't want to get near anyone, but his companions are all such messes that he can't not. In general I'm having a lot of fun playing with Kyvir's memories and how much he remembers the lessons they taught him even with the memories themselves gone, but mostly my favourite thing right now is the "defrosting ice king but no one realizes because he's really good at pretending to be super friendly" bit he's pulling off throughout most of the story by virtue of being one of the only members of this party with decent charisma, at least in act one. ...Also all the Durgetash posting he's inspiring but that's only partially related to him.

[petitecreme]

Nihil est nisi ultio

For this year's Screamtober, Thank you for reading!

[spellshite]

Get to know my Tav Durge!

I'll spam these until I made one for all my current Tavs&Durges!

Hrodak | He/Him | 20s? | Bhaalspawn Half-Orc | Berserker Barbarian | Haunted One

What is your Tav’s…

favourite weapon(s): Everburn Blade, Faithbreaker, Merrengon Halberds, and anything that slashes or smashes

style of combat: brute force

most prized possession: Astarion Everburn Blade

deepest desire: nothing that can be said freely

guilty pleasure: getting drunk on whatever drink scavenged, since he hasn't found any more dwarf meat or suspicious meat to eat

best-kept secret: that he fantasised many times about how he'd kill each one of his companions

greatest strength: he stronk

fatal flaw: the Dark Urge, resolving problems through violence

favourite smell: fresh blood

favourite spell or cantrip: Speak with Dead (doesn't know anything else)

pet peeve: being bothered while he's eating/drinking, provocations, and anyone who tries to put their hands on his things. Nice/good-hearted people annoy him but he doesn't know why.

bad habit: collecting viscera, body parts, bones and other "revolting" findings

hidden talent: surprisingly nice with animals

leisure activity: training, trying to get in his boyfriend's pants again

favourite drink: Balor Ale, but anything alcoholic will do

comfort food: roast pork (or any meat)

favourite person: Astarion and Gale, but Lae'zel is okay too

favoured display of affection (platonic and/or romantic): he doesn't know what affection is. But if you feel he's a bit overprotective of you or seems to care about what you have to say, then maybe he might like you in some way.

fondest childhood memory: memories are all messed up and he's not sure of what he remembers. Has a very vague memory of him playing in a field with someone or something but nothing much.

[wormdogg]

Lead Me Out On Faith

Blind my eyes, and lead me out on faithBreak free of these shackles they all seem fakeTake me away, in the dawn of a new dayShaken hearts, turned outward, we can’t repayI gave my all, but my faith in GodLooking back, it all seemed so oddThe shadows of darkness began to shapeListless lives we can’t begin to changeAs time moves on, and people start to growThe scars of life we suffer soon begin to…

[lemongrace]

Tarellia's eyes slowly lose their moonlit glow. She looks so deeply into those eyes in her last moments, looking for any shred of something to empathise with within Eluein. Anything that she might understand. The look of shock and horror upon her face is two-fold. First, the release as Faithbreaker is pulled from her chest, pulled from her very heart. And second, the understanding, the realisation that there is nothing within those eyes that she could ever truly understand, that she could truly empathise with. Tarellia belongs to @audreyofcrows! thanks for letting me illustrate this RP moment! <3

[fearforthestorm]

i'm having a weird day and a lot of weird feelings about church stuff (read: being raised mormon and leaving and watching everyone I care about stay) so i'm gonna talk about it a little bit under the cut ↓

i'm in my 20s. my immediate younger sister (who was probably the one I was the closest to) turns 19 in september. she's leaving for her mission at the end of october. one of her friends, who was one of my closest friends at church because the two of us were the only queer people in young womens, had her farewell talk last sunday and is having an open house tonight before she leaves.

it's going to be a year and a half before I see my friend again and I'm scared to death that the person who comes back won't be the same person I cared about. I'm scared that the person she is after that and the person I'll be after that won't have anything to share anymore. and it's even more terrifying to think about that with my sister. there's already so much distance between us but I love her and I want her to have a place in my life no matter what our differences are. I just don't know if I can pretend hard enough for it to bridge that distance.

I don't think I'm ever going to be the kind of exmo who tries to send people "proof" that their church is false and evil. that's cruel, and it provably doesn't work, and quite honestly, leaving the church hurts really bad and I don't want the people I care about to have go through the utter fucking devastation and loss that is a faithbreak. but staying doesn't hurt less. staying means continuing to comply with and believe in cruel and bigoted values and contribute to a culture of sameness. staying means denying queer people and people of color and disabled people the right to exist without assimilation, denying the validity of cultures and traditions that dare to exist outside of the white christian american way of life.

it's scary. it's scary and painful and I know I have said before that the only thing harder than leaving is watching the people who you love stay. you can't drag them out and you can't go back. you just have to pretend hard enough to bridge the gap until it stretches too far. and either you lose them or they lose everything. there is no win condition. there is no happy ending. no eternal glory, no taking back the hurt and the anger and the grief. i wish to god (the god I don't believe in, the god whose name is pencilled across everything broken in my life) that there was.