#oc: nym the abyssal tiefling

[changeling-fae]

So I finally finished Nym’s feral demon form. She’s the granddaughter of Graz’zt with a spark of divinity from Eilistraee and some Bhaalspawn essence mixed in.

Which is what happens when she has an abyssal cambion mother who slept with a Bhaalspawn and stole some of his er, essence and recycled it into herself and then later chose to get knocked up by a divine soul sorcerer drow of Eilistraee.

Long story short is it makes for an interesting kid with internal forces that doesn’t play nice with each other. The abyssal forces got enhanced by the Bhaalspawn essence and so when she’s really pissed off or at the edges of death, instead of a slayer form, she has this.

She’s normally 5’0” in height but gains 9 inches in her transformation. The transformation is incredibly painful each time. She regrows her wings (she cuts them off frequently), her legs snap and bend to become digitigrade, she grows an extra finger, her tail extends longer, and obviously her face becomes canine/gator like.

Her body is full of venom with different functions; bite causes neurosis, claws cause necrotic, and tail causes paralyses (which is the worst one to be hit with because then that means she’s planning on extending your suffering).

She’s basically completely feral in mind, just wants to hunt and kill in this form and speech isn’t possible (yet).

While she did do some serial killings as Durge, she really leaned into Gortash’s plan to stoke fear in the city folk, so she’d often let loose in the city in this form to cause panic and terror and then disappear into thin air each time.

When she’s hunting, she makes a sound that’s like a cross between her natural laugh, a coyote cackle, and fox chatter. She can also make a trilling sound like the dilophosaurus in Jurassic Park.

At some point she’s going to make a deal with Raphael because he promised her he could help her control her form and she’s tired of not having control of it (can’t recognize friend from foe).

Raphael sees so much potential in her (plus him canonically being into Tav/Durge). Sure she’s of demonic descent and he’s of devil, but that’s why her allegiance would be all the sweeter. They knew each other before her memory loss too (which will be a separate post) and here’s a snippet of his thoughts on her:

“He could see her soul; touched by two gods and the Abyss itself. Light and darkness and chaos. He wondered if this is what it would have been like to witness the primordial process of creation. Perhaps this is why he sensed so much potential in her. She just needed a steady hand to guide her in the right direction.”

At some point, if I have the gumption for it, I’ll try and draw his ascended form next to her feral form. We’ll see, he’s so pointy, lol.

[changeling-fae]

I actually have over 100 pics I just saved of Nym but I’ll subject y’all to only 10 atm, lol.

[changeling-fae]

1, 14, & 21 (not Nemo, haha!) for the Dark Urge askmeme! also any other numbers you desperately want an excuse to share ^^

I’ll post for both my Durge’s, Nym and Casira.

And also I apologize for its length. It’s a chonker.

Nym:

1. What circumstances led to your Dark Urge becoming their class/subclass?

Nym’s an abyssal tiefling (granddaughter to Graz’zt) and her bio-father (not Bhaal) was a divine soul sorcerer to Eilistraee, so normally she’d be a a divine soul sorcerer but I have her as a wild magic sorcerer because her abyssal blood and her spark of divinity doesn’t play nice with each other. It’s a constant war inside of her.

She’s a bhaalspawn because her abyssal cambion mother basically at one point had sex with a bhaalspawn, and I headcanon that succubi/incubi steal the essence of people they sleep with and their bodies then corrupt it with whoever they knock up/get knocked up by. I know technically cambions aren’t succubi/incubi but being the daughter of Graz’zt, I’m giving her some leeway. So she stole the sperm/essence of a bhaalspawn and for funsies, mixed it in with the child of the divine soul sorcerer man she was currently tricking/banging. So Nym has three parentages technically.

But yeah, she’s mechanically a wild magic sorcerer because her particular concoction of existence doesn’t play nice with each other.

She’s multiclass bard because she loves music and her day job when not doing stuff with the cult (which she was already trying to pull away from) is entertainment. Only time she ever feels at peace.

14. How good of a liar is your Dark Urge? How do they feel about lying?

Nym is an excellent liar and feels nothing when she does it. She’s not a habitual liar, she only does it when she feels she needs to to protect herself, but she has no qualms about doing so. I think if she has to do it around someone she cares about, is the only time she feels some guilt. Or at least, discomfort.

21. What are 2-3 songs that your Durge would relate to?

Paint It, Black by Ciara - Nym feels so much darkness and bitterness and she doesn’t want to.

Big God by Florence and the Machine - Definitely one of her main songs, not just for lyrics but the dancing in the music video. She secretly worships Eilistraee as her father did but she’s so conflicted and desperate for some form of salvation but also laments and despairs against the gods.

Death Wish by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - My girl has got bad depression and she’s definitely the girl in this song’s scenario. The lines “Who’s gonna save you, who’s left to pray to? What’s the difference in a breakdown and a breakthrough?” fits her like a glove.

Bonus question for her:

2. Did your Durge have any romantic and/or sexual relationships prior to their illithid adventure? If yes, who was it with and what was it like? If no, how did they feel about being single?

Ok so Nym has a very complicated and messy relationship to both sex and romance. She’s had a few romantic partners, whom she usually breaks up with because she feels she’s a danger to them and/or she feels they deserve someone without her baggage.

She was in a relationship with one of my Tav’s, Cillian Baker, and he was her last serious romantic relationship before she broke up with him.

She’s rather hyper-sexual but uses it as way of self-harm tbh. She’s a CSA survivor and her relationship with sex is rather unhealthy. She likes sex in the moment but afterward deals with extreme self-loathing. She also tends to choose dangerous or questionable men for ONS because sometimes she wants an excuse to murder someone, always a toss-up.

Right before the game, going on for several months, she actually had a relationship with Raphael at the Devil’s Den. It wasn’t sexual or romantic; she originally came to his presence because a woman she was close to and had feelings for liked to party (using it as a coping method herself) and they ended up in the DD.

Nym clocked him for a devil right away and he knew she was Durge and found her a novelty/would be a yummy soul but more an idle interest. She was worried her friend would get in trouble around him (I’m picturing him catering intimate sinful little parties for him to find souls in).

They slowly danced around each other over the course of months, and came to play lanceboard as a regular occurrence. Eventually her friend basically met someone and got clean and while Nym was happy for her, she’s just so damn lonely. I’ll probably post a separate post on her and Raphael’s relationship because it’s long but basically she comes back to the DD and resumes their game nights.

He finds her amusing and they have a weirdass connection that can’t quite be described. At some point they do get into a tiff, she got too close to his little spark of humanity on accident and it made him lash out.

She doesn’t show up for a number of weeks and he doesn’t think much of it and then oh, would you look at that, she’s one of the abducted and has some memory loss. That’s when his interest spikes immensely and then the ingame stuff. She feels a connection to him but doesn’t know why and it pisses her off, lol.

Ok, now onto my second Durge:

Casira:

1. What circumstances led to your Dark Urge becoming their class/subclass?

Casira is a cleric of Selûne (light domain). How that happened is basically, the Bhaal cultists used the corpse of an aasimar of Selûne (one of Aylin’s sisters) in a profane ritual that used Bhaal’s blood to fill the empty vessel. Created a baby bhaalspawn but that tiny spark of Selûne remained.

She grew up conflicted, raised in the cult but never feeling right. Selûne tried to reach her a few times in her life but it was too dangerous/Sceleritas Fel was always watching and it put Casira in danger.

Her cleric powers really only came forward once Casira was abducted and no memory because Selûne took that as her chance to influence her.

14. How good of a liar is your Dark Urge? How do they feel about lying?

Not that good, tbh. She’s fairly honest and upfront if you ask her questions. She finds lying difficult to understand and doesn’t like doing it. It gets her into a lot of trouble.

21. What are 2-3 songs that your Durge would relate to?

Eva by Nightwish - Definitely her in both lyrics and vibes.

The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives - “I shine only with the light you gave me” is very her.

Fake Wings by Kajiura Yuki - The solemn/melancholy tone fits her.

Bonus question for her:

25. How does your Durge feel about Sceleritas Fel?

Terrified. Even without the memory loss, she was terrified of him. He was put in her life because he/Bhaal could sense Selûne on the sidelines. If she didn’t do the murders and rituals enough times or ever showed reluctance, she was severely punished and Bhaal would overtake her body and control her (where the really nasty Durge lines happen, like necrophilia, etc). So she learned that to keep her body in her control, she had to do the serial killing.

His “naughty naughty” was usually a precursor to her punishments so when she got that dream in the third act she was so terrified of falling asleep for weeks.

[changeling-fae]

He’s so freaking big in his cambion form. I’ll probably get better lighted pics later. I remember in EA wondering if Larian was going to add any kind of special tip to the end of the tail since he lacks the tief barbs and the answer is a resounding no. I know the new Haarlep animation shows it better but I do find it funny and kinda like that Raphael’s tail is just a noodle, lol.

[changeling-fae]

Thanks to @int9 my baby girl is back! 😭💖

She looks amazing and now time to try and get through the full game with her before spring semester starts. 🥹🤞

[changeling-fae]

4. What would your Dark Urge consider to be their greatest flaw? Is this accurate?

5.What opinion does your Dark Urge have about the Go

6. How does your Dark Urge react to waking up with memory loss?

Thanks! Starting with Nym.

4. Her temper and forever burning rage she feels that she tries to keep suppressed but is always simmering underneath the surface. I’d say yes and no to accuracy, it’s a pretty big flaw but I think her greatest flaw is she has a hard time dealing with the grey inside of herself. She sees her own failings as very black and white and struggles with the idea that it’s ok to not be perfect morally.

She doesn’t see herself as redeemable and believes her bio-father (the Bhaal essence is an added feature during conception) would be ashamed of her were he still alive (he wouldn’t be, he was a drow, he understood struggling against a fucked up environment).

5. Oh boy, very complicated. She kinda loathes them but her father was a devout follower of Eilistraee and he passed on his divine spark to her (which doesn’t play well with the abyssal/Bhaal side).

She can feel Eilistraee’s presence within her but at the same time she’s so so bitter and angry and feels abandonment that Eilistraee didn’t help her when she had been kidnapped and tortured for years in a noble’s basement after her father died when she was a child.

It was her cambion mother’s influence that had rescued her (I’m going with power up puberty with her abyssal side, first time she transformed) and she’s so bitter about it because she hates her mother.

She hates Bhaal too just on principle. Like, the cult found her after she escaped her captivity but she hates that she became a willing monster for him.

She hates that the gods play with mortals like they’re toys and she hates that they often have no choice but to play along.

Her close connection to her father is the only reason she still tries to practice her faith (in secret), because he must have found the purpose, right?

6. Lol, pissed off and frustrated. She hasn’t lost all her memories, she remembers the point of when she escaped the noble at 14 and everything back from there (her memories are important to her characterization) but the cult stuff and everything she’s been up to since is a mystery, other than some snippets here and there.

She can sense that she’s not normal, and she’s aware she’s got a beast inside her, but there’s an ominous dread at not remembering what she’s been up to in the meantime. It haunts the back of her mind and has her on edge.

And now for Casira:

4. That she’s spiritually weak. Since Selûne has swept in to take advantage of her memory loss, Casira feels all those dark urges but has the mentality of a Selûne cleric, so is in a constant state of “wtf is wrong with me”.

The loss of control of her body just makes her think she’s got weak willpower, if she tried harder, she could control herself.

Is it her greatest flaw? Nope, it’s low self esteem and low confidence in herself. It’s not her fault she’s got a freaky nasty father-god that’s constantly trying to take her over for gross shenanigans. But she doesn’t have any confidence in herself and that doesn’t help her predicament.

5. That little leftover influence in her body of Selûne from her previous life (new soul though) really messed up Bhaal’s plans and she is a devout follower of the Lady of Silver. Even before the memory loss she felt drawn to Selûne and secretly prayed to her for guidance (a light to help those lost in the dark).

Unlike Nym, I don’t think she bucks at the idea of gods playing with mortals. She sees Selûne and a few other gods as genuinely benevolent and she understands why people follow gods, both good and bad. She just wants peace in herself.

6. Scared, confused, and worried. She’s afraid of why she’s got all these violent urges and is extra concerned that she seems to be the only tadpole inflicted with them. These aren’t normal feelings for a cleric of Selûne to be feeling (Selûne really just drops the manual on her with no explanation, lol).

[changeling-fae]

I'm gonna be boring and ask you the same back xD, for whichever OCs you want to answer them for!

Eros: 3

Philia: 2

Storge: 5

Agape: 5

Ludus: 2

Pragma: 2

Philautia: 1

Thanks for the ask! I'll answer for Nym!

From this ask meme.

Eros: 3 How do they feel about public displays of romantic affection? Does it make them uncomfortable? How do they feel if a romantic partner kisses them in public?

She's ambivalent. She's personally and extremely private person but she's had to maintain a flirty persona for years, both as an entertainer and as a way to lure her victims as Durge. She sees PDA as more an act you perform rather than something inherently felt. If a partner were to kiss her in public she'd roll with it. Anything more than that and she'll assume they're about to perform for someone as a message (envy, territory, etc).

Philia: 2 Does your OC find it easy to make friends? Or are there barriers to them doing so? If so then are these due to issues of inclination, communication, or something else entirely?

She finds making friends exceedingly difficult. As a child she easily could but after her years of extreme trauma and then life as Durge, she finds genuine connections almost impossible. Before her abduction she was incredibly lonely (and why she kept going back to the Devil's Den despite knowing Raphael just wanted her soul but hey if he ate it she wouldn't have to exist anymore). She felt she couldn't get close to the average person because it would put them in danger, from either herself or from Orin and Bhaal cultists. She's very loyal to the people she does bond with though.

Storge: 5 Is your OC able to love without necessarily needing or expecting reciprocation or reward? Or are all their relationships to some extent transactional? Have they ever loved another person unconditionally, whether a child or another adult?

She never expects anything from those she loves. She does believe that everyone expects something from her though, like she sees herself as a tool more than anything. She can become what people expect or what she assumes they expect. I'd say she definitely sees her body as separate from herself.

She loved her bio father unconditionally (not Bhaal but her drow father, she has like three parents technically). She loved him so much that after his death in front of her (by goblins) and the immediate trauma that happened afterward when she was sold by his debt collector, that she can only remember his as perfect. So much so that she wouldn't want her soul to go to Eilistraee like his did because she's so ashamed at the monster she's become and thinks he would be ashamed (even though he spent centuries as an assassin for his house originally).

Agape: 5 Does your OC find it easy to empathise with their enemies? Or do they see it as important to dehumanise them in order to combat them with sufficient determination?

Lol, not at all. She has a very black and white way of thinking. You're either her enemy, her ally, or a rando (likely a victim). She struggles with grey, especially within herself. She's forgiving to the people she cares for or people trying to change their fate, but if they're her enemy? No empathy, no sympathy, and often no mercy.

Ludus: 2 Is your OC particularly skilled at flirting? Have they had to practice this or does it just happen naturally?

Yes, very good. It's a mix of both practice (she started young for survival) and also natural (she's the granddaughter of Graz'zt). It was one of her most common methods of hunting for victims to kill as Durge. She also just sleeps with a lot of people because she does like sex but also it's her biggest method of self-harm (she targets dangerous people to have an excuse to hurt back if she feels like it, like flipping a coin).

Pragma: 2 What is the biggest challenge that your OC has had to overcome in a long-term relationship or friendship? What helped them get through this?

Letting people in, trusting others that they actually do care about her. Astarion was a big help with that as a lover since they have similar trauma points and grew together, and her companions she'd die for. Her relationship with Raphael is the most complicated (and how) and they just somehow make it work, albeit very messily.

Philautia: 1 Does your OC have a healthy sense of their own worth and value? Or do they see themselves as failing to live up to their original potential? Perhaps they are convinced of their own sinful or inadequate nature?

Nope, not at all. As I said, she sees herself as a tool and sees her body as separate from herself as a whole. She has so much self loathing and disgust for herself and basically doesn't believe she can ever be good or "pure". She mourns the loss of her innocence so deeply and she's so so bitter about it. Raphael calls her "little lamb" and despite the power dynamic nature of it, she likes it because she feels she can pretend she never lost her innocence. Here's two blurbs, from his and her perspective.

[changeling-fae]

Nym’s old hair is gone (alas), so have to improvise. She’s still cute though. She’s technically not finished in terms of modding (her tail tip floof and her hooves) but did add the gradient color mod for her arms and it looks good.

[changeling-fae]

random OC ask: what is the most unique thing about your OC? what is the most mundane thing about them?

how do they feel about those two aspects?

Thanks for the asks! I found this one a bit challenging which is always a treat. <3

Nym:

Her most unique thing is probably her convoluted conception/lineage. The granddaughter of Graz'zt through a cambion mother who stole Bhaal essence and combined it with her reproduction with a divine soul sorcerer of Eilistraee drow man. So she's got ridiculously powerful blood as a strange little godling of chaos, evil, and good divinity.

Her most mundane thing is she spends a portion of everyday tending to her body. She's got extreme scar tissue (both old and fresh) on her shoulder blades that cause her pain frequently that she has to tend to every morning with a salve to help with stiffness. She's also a dancer and acrobat and tries to keep herself limber. She was trained as an assassin but she has genuine enjoyment in performance arts and that means keeping her body in shape through cardiovascular and flexibility exercises and resistance training. And then of course rest so as not to damage anything.

How she feels about these two aspects is she loathes her abyssal blood (specifically about her mother), has contempt for Bhaal (though it's hard to differentiate her violent urges being from him or her demonic influence; it's both through amplifying each other), and has very complicated feelings around the spark of Eilistraeen divinity passed on from her father. The spark of divinity and her abyssal blood are constantly at war inside her so anytime she uses magic, it hurts her to some degree.

Pain is just a part of her life and she's learned to cope with it (both healthily and unhealthily depending on the cope).

Flint:

His most unique thing is being a tiefling born in the hells and being a former spy of Glasya who has survived being a prisoner of war in Zariel's domain for over a decade.

His most mundane thing is he likes to smoke a tobacco pipe and knit. The smoking is a vice but he finds comfort in the smell (my grandpa was a pipe smoker, smells so much better than cigarette smoke), and he finds knitting meditative.

He's a very... in the moment kind of person. His history doesn't cause him much pain or anything, just how the chips fell. If anything he's proud about his ability to not crack after the literal hell he endured and lived through.

Being on the MP means he has much easier access to tobacco pipe goods (not an expensive import like in the hells markets), he totally bought from Arron immediately when he saw it and had the best smoke of his life after a decade of imprisonment. And again, knitting is just meditative for him.

Trinket:

Most unique thing is being the daughter of an archfey but technically a tiefling because her mortal mother was tricked by a night hag.

Her most mundane thing is she plays fantasy solitaire with herself often. Or plays against herself in lanceboard, just to keep her mind sharp.

Her thoughts on these aspects are pretty straightforward. Her father is her patron to help her get out of the night hag's contract and while she's naturally clever, she's had to work her whole life to keep ahead of both the marks she's forced to deceive and to survive the hag's hagspawn son who was holding her reigns before her abduction. So she's a survivor first and foremost and keeps her mind sharp for adaptability.

Jen:

Most unique thing about him is he's draconic sorcerer half-drow part of a prophecy which he's actively rejecting.

Most mundane thing is he's very knowledgeable about wool quality as a resource.

How he feels about those aspects is he's spent over two decades running from the prophecy he overheard about how he has to destroy himself to save the world, something he very much doesn't want to do. And with the wool quality thing, he feels nostalgic and melancholic mostly, given that he was born and raised on a sheep farm before he ran away. He'll judge the quality of wool with both a hidden pride and feelings regret towards his mother (and sisters), who he never said goodbye to.

Ellywick:

Most unique thing about her is she's a drow adopted and raised by gnomes in Baldur's Gate (deep gnome father and forest gnome mother) who has made a career in underdark cartography.

Most mundane thing about her is she loves to read, draw, and cook. Just does really well in domestic settings and is a real homebody, despite her hands on approach to underdark exploration.

How she feels about these aspects is she's very happy and proud of her family and is very close to both her immediate family and her extended family (she has so many cousins and nieces and nephews). No one in her family treats her any differently for being adopted or drow (her father found her abandoned in the underdark and brought her home) and they're all supportive of her career, which she initially started to help with designing maps to show the safe routes for her family's frequent expeditions for their jewelry shop in the city.

Her family is the most important thing in her life.

Maeve:

Most unique thing about her is she's fey-like creature that can naturally shrink to the size of a thumb thanks to her mother being a feylost mortal who had been stuck and pregnant in the feywild for a number of years (not that she knows this, she never knew her mother).

Most mundane thing about her is she likes to whistle to herself. She can carry complex tunes and can be caught whistling little ditties to herself.

How she feels about these aspects is a sort of "it is what it is" attitude to her abilities. It was harder on her sense of self as an orphan child on the streets but it also gave her an edge once she started thieving for survival pretty early. Now it's just who she is.

As far as the whistling, it's like someone who crackles their knuckles a lot, doesn't really notice or pay much attention unless given a reason to.