#oc: nym the drow'ri

[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.

[aeoniumgarnet]

A little thing I did a while ago featuring @adsurgitvagus  Mau and @changeling-fae Nym, after we realised all our drow-adjacent characters play lute. We tentatively called them Drowsy Moon 🌙

[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.