#oc: roiben

[1000punks]

get to know me :0

tagged by @treshmind !

three ships: let me be completely self-indulgent and say bloodfire (festé x astarion), lost in the fire (festé x mördren), and roimyth (roiben x @song-writer-melo-wrath 's mythos)

first ship: the first one where i remember hiding and reading it obsessively was link x dark link; but the very earliest one (in hindsight) was goliath x elisa because i'm old

last song: talons - bloc party

last movie: scream 2

currently reading: love in the big city - park sang young

currently watching: dexter (with my husband), given. (with my boyfriend), 6teen and let's play wind waker (by myself)

currently eating: last meal: homemade air-fried fries and chicken soup

currently craving: in general? seafood (i live in a lamdlocked area :))) ) specific: takoyaki, scallops, salmon and mussels

i'm tagging: @bloodlessdarling @cardboardshield @illbeflyingaround

@selkiewizard @oathweave @pyrekite

@myers-meadow @neckromantics @kirahlene

and! last but not least @adevilyoudo

i want to get to know all of you better! ❤️🤍❤️

[meluiloth]

First Art Fight Attack!

Art Fight has begun and I'm so excited!! I've just shared my first ever attack, which I'm over the moon about (I hope I did justice to @otherwolves' character Roiben!) and I'm working on more right now!

I'll post an entire compilation of my Art Fight works at the end of the month, but if you want to look at them, you all know where to find me!

(In fact, I might end up making a side blog for non-Lord of the Rings related art soon)

[otherwolves]

A sketch of Roiben, my oldest OC ☺️

[atwistedtalehq]

**CHARACTER NAME:** lord roiben of the court of termites

**CHARACTER FACECLAIM:** luke eisner 

**CHARACTER AGE/DOB (if from enchanted forest, general age okay):** 

**CHARACTER PRONOUNS/GENDER IDENTITY/SEXUALITY ETC:** he/him | he guesses cis male? the mortal concept of gender is next to meaningless to him. he’s… knight gender? is probably what he would say if pressed. | theoretically pansexual but mostly just kaye-sexual. 

**CHARACTER FANDOM:** the broader holly black universe

**OC OR CANON:**  canon

**WHICH LAND ARE THEY FROM (examples: earth, enchanted forest, wonderland, monsterland [frankenstein, dracula, vamps etc], neverland):** earth but also not earth - from fey lands. 

**CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY:**

born into the seelie court, roiben was close with his younger sister ethine and didn’t want for much or bear much unhappiness outside of the typical fey chaos found in any court. 

all he ever wanted was to be a knight, particularly to silarial as she came to the throne after her mother murdered her father. he shaped himself into a weapon she might wish to wield. 

deeply romanticizing courtly love and the classic Ye Olde version of chivalry, he was over the moon when she bestowed him with her favor and he was allowed to become her knight. 

eventually she takes him to her bed too and he’s like ‘i’m in love i’ll never feel this devotion for anyone else i would literally take the stars out of the sky for you’ and silarial’s like ‘you just keep doing what you’re good at champ’ 

so silarial has a sister who took the unseelie throne, nicnevin. to end hostilities between the seelie and unseelie courts, they decide to do a lil knight swap as a show of good faith. roiben is sent to the night court, and nicnevin’s knight nephamael is sent to the light court (that man’s a real freak but it’s Fine we don’t have to talk abt it)

this isn’t supposed to last forever (theoretically) or at least that’s the impression that roiben is under. or at least hoping for, waiting for the day his true lady might recall him to her side. 

nicnevin’s like ‘mmm, a fresh pretty little knight with Morals and an unbroken spirit who would rather be anywhere else. tasty.’

with the use of his real full name (which allows anyone, fey or mortal to control the name bearer, the reason fey don’t give their full names or real names) she proceeds to have him do horrible horrible things like a big sad meat puppet. both carrying out her ‘justice’ or retaining her honor, or just for her amusement and whims. 

this guy has killed or tortured… so many fey against his will. he gained a rep for being unpredictable (“as likely to kill you as to spare you”) to non-gentry fey because internally he was always trying to look for loopholes in the wording of the direct orders nicnevin might give him, so he could be gentler than he was ordered to be. or at least try to be more merciful and end someone’s life more quickly, rather than allow them to suffer.

(nicnevin loved this btw. it’s her Thing that she enjoys watching him attempt to be defiant and unhappily do her bidding against his will. she’s kind of a freak too tbh she liked debasing and humiliating him any way she could) 

this continued for a few months until roiben was attacked by who he thought was seelie aligned fey in unseelie territory (new jersey), and kaye, who he Thought was a human girl who happened to have The Sight (ability to see the fey and through their enchantments and glamors), happened upon him in the woods and pulled out an arrow from his chest that was bespelled in such a way that he couldn’t pull it out himself. 

in the course of all that, she gets his full real name from him as part of the ‘three questions’ he awarded her for saving him. 

lots of stuff happens for kaye here, but for roiben he goes back to court and nicnevin is like ‘aha i heard there’s a cute lil mortal girl who helped you… what a shame if something happened to her :) actually :) go get her for the Tithe she’d be a good sacrifice :) :)’ 

(The Tithe is an every-seven-years “willing” mortal sacrifice by the unseelie court, the court does the sacrifice and the non-gentry unaffiliated fey within the court’s boundaries pledge themselves to the court for seven more years. the seelie court has one of these too but it involves less blood and murder.) 

kaye is brought to the court for the tithe! she’s under the impression this is an elaborate ruse (and it is but also She Got Lied To About Who The Ruse Was Ruse-ing) and she’s not actually going to die but surprise they actually mean to kill her! oops! 

she uses his full name to order him to get her out of there after he basically begged her to and roiben essentially raw killing machine’s their way outta there, it’s Brutal, he kills nicnevin to kick it all off 

oops kaye is actually one of the fey! roiben does some Assuming that she knew she was fey and a changeling this entire time (she did not, she found out LIKE FOUR DAYS AGO) and he’s all hurt and huffy about that

roiben has to hide out at kaye’s mortal grandma’s house and they find out that the tithe not going through has Consequences (mortals getting fucking Eaten or dancing to death because there’s no one to make the solitary fey…. Not play with humans too much) 

they go back down into the unseelie court after kaye’s friend dies by kelpie drowning to get things back in order (kaye’s other mortal friend is still stuck down there being enchanted and dommed by nephamael, who took over when nicnevin died) 

in true gay villain fashion, nephamael is like ‘ahahehehe i hoped you’d come back’ and reveals that he heard kaye use roiben’s name but he sucks at giving orders in the Just Correctly Worded Way nicnevin had and kaye gets away 

iron and most metals in general are poison to fey, she pries the lil shoe tacks out of her doc martins (resourceful queen) and sleight of hand drops them into his wine. nephamael is Dead as shit but here comes the seelie court “just in time” to take over. 

instead, roiben is very over all of this bullshit and feels like silarial used him as much as nicnevin did so he’s like “actually i’ll be in charge. solitary fey what’s up pledge to me instead and you can do all the mortal eating you want forever from sundown to sun up on samhain”

roiben and kaye smooching here. he loves her, she literally gave him his life back and he’s just Some Guy to her, not Unseelie King or A Knight and he’s all about that. who knew that the courtly feudal system might be something one might want to find love outside of! WHO KNEW! 

okay so they have to wait to coronate him officially until the winter solstice, and of course, silarial doesn’t want that because she had plans to rule both courts that got ruined by the other stuff, she’s like ‘aw baby just come back home i know you miss me, kisses :(‘ 

also his sister is mad at him for not just coming back to the seelie court :( 

he’s falling deeper into the ‘fuck i have to become this harsher person to rule this court but has this cruelty been inside me this whole time… am i a terrible person….is there even a home for me to go home to anymore because i’m Ruined and twisted now’ you know. ptsd and trauma shit. 

after his coronation, some asshole fey manipulates kaye into trying to formally declare herself to roiben, which he did NOT want her to do because it puts her in more danger. 

he’s a Moron so instead of explaining this he sends her on an impossible quest that she must complete before being accepted, which is to find a fey who lies. which… they physically can’t. 

kaye is off Doing Shit and roiben and silarial come to some sort of agreement- instead of fighting a full-out war with lots of casualties, they’ll just have a straightforward 1V1 duel. he beats the champion she chooses, she’ll let it go and they can have seven years of peace, and roiben’s sister on the seelie throne. 

during this lil meeting at the seelie court roiben spots kaye glamoured among the queen’s attendants (she’s doing something let her be she’s valid) and is like What The Fuck 

silarial is like USE HIS REAL NAME KAYE AND MAKE HIM DO WHAT I WANT and kaye’s a clever girl and uses a Fake name but it only buys them time to get the fuck outta there. or like, for kaye to get out of there with roiben’s sister as a hostage. listen, she’s got good reasons to be kinda pissy with roiben right now

stuff sure is Happening with kaye but roiben shows up for the duel on hart’s island (real place!) knowing none of that and she completes her quest (SHE is the fey who can lie) so she can tell roiben the Deets, namely that silarial is going to name roiben’s sister as her champion, so roiben won’t duel her and silarial will win 

instead he still duels her, but instead of killing her upon winning he’s like ‘since you’d die and you were supposed to get the crown, who do you name as your successor?’ 

silarial’s like UH THAT’S NOT HOW THAT WORKS and roiben’s like i mean. we agreed if i won she’d get the crown but if she dies then… she has to name someone… 

silarial is like okay fuck this duel the seelie court’s fighters would win in an actual war anyway and roiben is like i was hoping you’d say that! :) i brought all the exiled fey from nyc with me! :) interesting! :) 

then she’s like FINE I’M GONNA KILL YOUR STUPID LITTLE GIRLFRIEND and roiben’s sister is like actually. i’m done with every aspect of this bullshit. and kills silarial herself with her dueling sword. 

she gives roiben the seelie crown, like ‘take this I Guess, i kinda hate your ass now for making all of this come to pass when you could have just come home and everything would be normal’ 

so now he’s playing a balancing act of ruling both courts, which together become the termite court. it’s a pain in the ass but he’s not too bad at it, even if he kinda has a distaste for the courtier style of wheeling and dealing that being fey royalty and dealing with the royalty of other fey courts tends to entail. 

he’s a stand-up guy though, and when you give him good reason to trust you at your word he’s got your fucking back. 

OKAY NOW THE RELEVANT TO CURRENT STORY STUFF- storybrooke has been this weird twilight zone ass repellant spot to the fey for a hot second, since they could Feel something happening there but obviously couldn’t get in. and the longer storybrooke was around, the longer fey lands got kinda… weird-funky where they were close together. which is saying something because being on “fey lands” already makes time and weather super funky strange. 

now that storybrooke’s curse is broken and people can enter the town, they’ve decided to check this out and see just what this strange interference is. 

OOC INFORMATION: 

MUN NAME/ALIAS: jesse

MUN AGE: 30

MUN PRONOUNS: he/him

[databunny]

I finally sat down and designed all of Aniu’s brothers. Please appreciate these children of mine

[theifwerelost]

So, I wanted to do some new redesign, and decided to come back to super glamorous Ashrel Lavellan (who belongs to @otherwolves) and gave her a full outfit redesign. I’m a bit excited because it’s my first full comic style ‘concept art’, and also because I have no idea if I got the inspirations right and if she would even wear it. 

Included some of my process sketches and bust close-up.

[wehavekookies]

Roiben Surana. Commission for @otherwolves plus additional portrait of the character, because he was so nice to paint :]

[Commission Info]

Cheers <3

[miqodi]

               8 Mun Questions Tag                                                        

Last movie I watched: Fate of the Furious (not my pick)

Last song I listened to: Glass Animals - The Other Side of Paradise

Last book I read: Mogworld (For like the 100th time)

Last thing I ate: Braised beef and mushrooms over steamed rice with spinach.

Where would you want to time travel to?: Most people would want to either go back in time or far in the future but I just want to time travel to where I have concrete financial security and an excess of free time.

Fictional character I would hang out with for a day: I would honestly pick one of my friend’s OCs (either Z or Flynt to be honest) because I am... I fuckin nerd. Alternatively it would be Roiben from Tithe by Holly Black.

If I could be anywhere right now, where would I be?: Possibly Perth Australia (visiting my nerd friends), or honestly just a really nice porch swing at my own house (one of those ‘if I could justify this purchase I would’ sort of things). I’m tired and boring today. Shush.

Tagged by:@meandering-mind

Tagging: @gatheredfates @zarconen-maquesh @siyoh-mari @setheron @fyuha @emregbelthen

[amondrawsart]

Drew some long chibis of my ocs.

Top -> bottom

Nemu | Den | Roiben

[1000punks]

wip wednesday

i'm posting this unprompted, as a treat >.>

this is a ficlet/study for an upcoming fic, Profanity.

pairing: ascended!Astarion x named!Durge (non-binary OC)

warnings: 18+. nsft. mdni. minor gore. hurt/no comfort. smut. they hate each other. this is a toxic relationship.

word count: 1,558

summary: It's been ten years since the events of the Netherbrain Crisis, and Roiben's subsequent disappearance. Nobody knows that he prowls the streets of Baldur's Gate once more, besides three very important men. One locked him in purgatory, one has claimed his soul, and one has denounced him altogether. Who's favour will he compete for?

in game captures by me, uwu

"Why are you still touching me?" he hissed. "I don't want you."

"I don't believe that," Roiben retorted against the shell of Astarion's ear. "Your body is reacting just the way it always has." The drow's palm found the front of the elf's trousers. He was stronger, even against the Ascendant. Even with the collar chaining his other self firmly inside.

"I don't. You disgust me. You left me. You…" his voice twisted into an angered groan when Roiben shoved him back against the wall, but he hadn't yielded yet. Astarion snapped forward like a whip, biting into the drow's shoulder. Roiben was unmoved, and pressed into the hurt.

"There you are…" he purred. "My vicious pet. Bite me, just like I deserve, that's it." His free hand slid up Astarion's back, and the elf flinched away from the touch, gnawing. It was blissful, especially after all this time. He writhed in Roiben's arms, fisting the back of his shirt. Roiben drew him closer, palming over his crotch slowly but firmly. "I know you missed this, Astarion. I know you," he murmured, feeling the twitch of the pointy ear back against his lips. "I know you," the drow repeated adamantly.

"No…" he growled into Roiben's shoulder, but he wrapped his arms around his waist all the same. The fangs went deeper, and Roiben could feel the flesh tear when the pale elf pulled at him. He couldn't help but moan at that, pushing his fingernails into Astarion's back.

"Yes. I know you crave to use me again. To bite. To mark. To climb into my lap and have me chase the pain away. And I'm here now. Make me kneel and submit. Use me." He pulled his hand away, and Astarion let his jaw slacken in surprise. Roiben was quick, catching the elf's chin in the same hand and forcing him to meet his gaze. "I'm here, even if you say that you don't want me."

"I don't," Astarion hissed again, reaching up and wrenching the drow's hand away. Roiben laughed out loud, taking a step back.

"Walk away, then. If you can." Astarion scowled at him as the drow crossed his arms. He scowled back, jerking his chin to the side. His eyes narrowed when Astarion hesitated. "Astarion, there's no need to be afraid, I'm - "

"Do not presume to tell me how I feel, you glorified pit fiend," he spat, but Roiben calmly held up a hand.

"I'm not. I said there isn't a reason to be afraid of me. You know me better than anyone," he muttered acidly. After a moment, he added, "Don't presume to put words in my mouth, Astarion."

"It's Lord," he warned, starting toward the drow.

"What?" Roiben wrinkled his nose.

"It's Lord Acunín, now. It's…" he deflated slightly, gripping Roiben's jaw now and looking down his nose at him. "It's…" Roiben watched the apple of his throat bob as he swallowed. Astarion looked up and down the dark alley before he whispered, "Why were you gone so godsdamned long? Why did you leave?"

"I don't have time to explain, not now. Not here. Maybe after I take you to bed." He didn't react when Astarion slapped him, besides sighing. "Hurt me as much as you like. I'm coming home with you." The drow looked directly into his eyes and smiled wryly before sauntering off.

"Tell me, Lord… Does she touch you like this?" He purred against Astarion's ear. The drow's hands were on his pale chest, fingers twitching as he moved them over the elf's nipples. He flinched, if only subtly, and pulled hard at the hank of rope around the drow's neck.

"Nobody is allowed to touch me like this." His words were harsh, contrasted by his velvet tone. Roiben only ever heard him speak like this when they were alone, in the dark. He recalled the moment, all those years ago, when Astarion had breathed his name against the back of his neck. His final night with a beating heart. The twitching was getting harder to control as he thought of all his blood stained on his lover's lips. The Lord straddled his lap, noticing his shaking immediately. "What is wrong with you? Are you that pent-up?" Astarion gave a derisive snort.

Roiben opened his eyes. He could feel the roiling in his stomach, the way his spine was primed to crack and give way. "In a manner of speaking. The collar is… special. It prevents the other taking over." Astarion hummed, intrigued, and slipped a thin finger under it. Roiben tilted his head back, looking up and shuddering. All for him. "You can't take it off. Only one person can do that, and he isn't in the room with us." He reached up, catching the Ascendant's wrist.

"And who is that? Who's made you their little pet?" Roiben laughed softly. The jealousy was glaringly obvious. "Tell me."

"I can't. Interesting that you're so worked up, however. It's a good look for you, Lord Acunín." He choked, moaning out in satisfaction when he saw how tightly the rope was wound in Astarion's fist. He tore at the pale elf's trousers, pushing one hand down the front of them. "That's it…" he gritted out, "Hurt me. Hurt me while I pleasure you, lordling." Roiben reclined slowly in the overstuffed chair, gripping the elf's length. Astarion groaned softly, resting his free hand on the drow's shoulder. He was hesitating again, and the drow glanced down. The pale elf was circling the bite wound he had left earlier with the tip of his thumb.

"You want to be hurt? Won't your new master be angry?" He asked innocently. Roiben only laughed again, mirthlessly.

"Stop teasing, Astarion. You know you're putty in my hands, it's as simple as tha- Aah…" The humour and desire muddled his tone when Astarion pushed his thumb into the wound, up to the knuckle. Roiben let his lips peel back from his teeth in a guttural snarl; and Astarion pushed deeper. "You know you can go harder," he hissed, pushing his face into the elf's neck, taking him in hand and working his length slowly.

"I don't want to, you little freak," the elf snapped back. He almost sounded like his old self; and Roiben jumped at the opportunity to lick slowly over his neck, finishing at his ear and sighing against it. "I don't want…" Astarion started.

"What? What don't you want, lordling? Tell me," he breathed. "Tell me, and I'll do whatever you ask of me." The elf's hand, still wrapped in the rope, came to rest at the back of his neck. The coarseness of it made Roiben shudder, and he longed to have his skin rubbed raw.

"I don't want you to finish in your smallclothes," came Astarion's answer, rocking his hips slowly to the drow's hand. Trying to be subtle, it seemed.

"What do you want?" Roiben slipped his hand from the elf's trousers and gripped his hips tightly instead. He felt the defeated rush of breath against the base of his neck before the elf straightened up, scowling down at him. Roiben slid one hand up his back and stretched up, keeping eye contact when he brushed his lips over Astarion's. He let go when the elf recoiled, eyebrows knitting as he searched the pale man's features.

Astarion's movements were slow, but sure. First, he withdrew his thumb from the now-weeping wound at the drow's shoulder. Then, he leaned down, pushing his thumb into Roiben's mouth. "'Chase the pain away'," he scoffed. "All you've done up to this point is cause me pain. You think being with you now magically put an end to it? You can't that daft. I'm above selling myself so cheaply."

"Are you?" Roiben murmured, pushing the elf backward until both men were standing up. He yanked at the slipknot around his neck and ducked out of it before unbuttoning his shirt. He glanced at Astarion as he shrugged out of it and tossed it aside. "I'm not," he whispered, getting to his knees. The pale elf was staring at him incredulously, and Roiben waited for him to take the bait. The elf stepped forward cautiously, bending down and swallowing thickly as he gripped the drow firmly by the throat. Then he chanced a kiss. Roiben allowed it for a moment before standing and guiding the elf down to his back on the large bed, kissing him back furiously. He felt his other form shiver within, wanting to split, to tear; but fought it down as he bit softly down Astarion's neck. One of his thighs pushed between the elf's, and he held himself up on hand and knees. The moment ended when Astarion bit, deliciously painful, into his bottom lip, leaving it dripping and bloody.

"I hate you," Astarion muttered. "I hate you for leaving. For becoming a pitiful excuse of a spawn. For coming crawling back to me."

"I know you do. You don't have to forgive me." Roiben breathed; and he shuddered as he fought to stay in control. "You don't have to like me. Just tell me what you want." He planted one hand next to the elf's shoulder, gripping the bedclothes tightly.

"I want you to make me remember why I loved you at all," the pale elf smirked dangerously. "Do your worst."

[otherwolves]

Please tell the people more about Roiben 🤲

Oh sure! Roiben is my oldest OC; he was originally my Warden from Dragon Age: Origins, so I've been developing his character on and off since 2010.

Some facts about him: -his magic naturally leans towards entropy, but he's skilled in all schools of magic (including blood magic) -he's a dog person -he's 6'4" -bisexual, also aromantic -despite being a mage, he favours martial combat, and is particularly deadly with a greatsword

As a character, he's kind of like a force of nature; an unstoppable force or immovable object. A bit overpowered, to be honest. Anyway, thank you for taking an interest in him! I'm very flattered any time someone finds my OCs interesting ☺️

[1000punks]

RULES: post 5 songs that you associate with your oc's, and 4 outfits they would wear/their style

(i didn't get tagged but saw this floating around)

for Festé:

Drowning - Radio Company

Forever Ain't Long - Radio Company

Big Iron - Marty Robbins

Cherry Wine - Hozier

Hey Man, Nice Shot - Filter

for Roiben:

The Killing Moon - Echo and the Bunnymen

Sacred - Depeche Mode

Crimewave - Crystal Castles, HEALTH

Marduk - Heilung

Engin Miskunn - Hatari

i'm tagging: @kirahlene @treshmind @song-writer-melo-wrath and @promtease

if you see this and want to partake too, go nuts!!

[1000punks]

mask and midnight for festé, roiben, and janus?

mask: Does your OC wear a mask, literally or figuratively? What goes on beneath it? Is there anyone in their life who gets to see who they are under the mask?

for festé i think their mask really is the calm stoicism, and the tendency because of past experiences to keep people at arm's reach. they seem warm but it doesn't quite reach their eyes, as it were. inside, it's a lot of constant rationalization for things that do actually hurt them. for example, the post-araj confession with astarion? hurt. being called a complication in that way? hurt. but for fear of upsetting him, they kept it to themself. to a certain extent, the two people they don't feel like they have to fully hide from are astarion and mordren - but even then, they're not the first person to admit to being hurt or vulnerable in any regard.

for roiben, the mask is vengeance and anger. his way of dealing with the whole of faerûn's problems was to kill (almost) everyone. he can't quantify empathy even though he really wants to, deep down. the only people he felt empathetic towards (to an extent) are gale, astarion, shadowheart, and lae'zel. all of them were easily swayed and corrupted, however. >.> along with that, the first person he loved(? if you can call it that) was astarion. something something everything i touch turns to ashes, something something self-fulfilling prophecy, and here we are. roiben does actually love astarion, but because he's so emotionally immature, he would rather bring him down to his level than rise up and admit it. in his case, i don't think anyone is allowed to see behind the mask. yet. <.<

in janus' case? their mask is their kindness (a lot like festé but with a healthy amount of "nobody is allowed to know how tragic my backstory really was" a la halsin). to compare, i think janus is a lot more mature (debatable because ... *) about their kindness, and doesn't deal with it by keeping people at arm's reach, per se, but truly cares about making sure nobody is suffering in any way (and not being mean just for the sake of being mean). let me take your pain away, i'll do anything i can do for you! i can see them sharing this vulnerability with gale around the same time he shares with them about the extent of emotional damage he's suffered from the orb and mystra. after letting gale's story breathe for a few days, of course. *node context: janus is a functioning alcoholic but their use has significantly lessened since 1. losing their memories and 2. since they've been on the road to baldur's gate.

midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

in festé's case, it's the future. they're really tense about the fact that they are in love with someone who is immortal, when they aren't. the fact that they'll die and leave someone behind, best case scenario. not only that but the first person to love them for exactly who they are? hoo boy. they have to try not to think about it by focusing on a project in front of them. one, as i've explored in bonding., is sharpening their weapons, but i think others would be going for walks, moving around, cooking, gardening; things that keep them busy and require skill and effort for sure. it's hard to sneak away from your vampire elf husband though, so imagine astarion finding them in the kitchen baking bread and calmly guiding them back to bed with gentle admonishment.

roiben? the fact (well, he believes it's a fact) that he'll never be able to just... rest. it feels like everywhere he turns there's some sort of expectation on him whether from the gods above, below, or the earthly sort. he balked when thinking about how astarion wanted to keep him forever. he balked when he thought of serving bhaal for the rest of his life. he'll balk when he's fucking resurrected from purgatory and i think the both of those things are the reason he chose the ending that he did, after the netherbrain crisis. it's easier to become a mindless bhaalspawn than it is to continue contending with big emotional decisions. gods help this stupid murderer. i think out of the tri-soul, roiben would be the most likely to have an ophelia moment and just go... float in a body of water for a while. or see someone for pleasures of the flesh. anything to not think. i think nightmares are an absolute given though, given all the people he's choked the life out of. what if there's some small chance he'll have to answer for his misdeeds? naughty naughty

janus is more of the classic ptsd, night terrors, body sweats regarding their past. but they have nothing to connect it to due to the dark urge. because of the memory loss, i don't see them connecting the dots entirely until way late in the game. apart from that, i think they're anxious about being emotionally close to someone, especially someone like gale who is all about talking and connecting on a really deep level. i imagine them making coffee in the middle of the night and watching the fire. maybe astarion wakes up early from trance and goes to sit with them in a comfortable silence. or, later on, they move over to gale's bedroll/tent and curl up with him. hard cut to gale waking up to their arm tightly wrapped around him and/or half crushed under their weight. hahah questions are from this ask post

[1000punks]

bonding. ˡᵒʳᵉ//moonlight sonata & the tri-soul dossier.

this song is very important to Festé's backstory, and let me tell you why. (pathfinder/d&d canon lore to follow!) ⇘⇘⇘⇘⇘⇘⇘

okay! so in our pathfinder campaign i've talked about the bits of the time loop fandango that led to what we players lovingly call the Edhest Crisis which, the gist of it is that a very powerful sorceress obtained the means (by way of magic, obviously) to manipulate time itself. this threw the world (Edhest) into an infinite timeloop/simulation situation. wherein; everyone who was in the world was shoved into a simulation-version of Edhest while in reality-Edhest their very life forces were being sapped. so, now that you have that context....

JANUS

Who was the first person in the simulation? janus! Colloquially (and sometimes, only) known as "Two-Face" (just, by their nature in general), janus is a charlatan rogue (half-elf dhampir) who landed in Edhest and is trying their hand at toppling the local thieves' guild to establish their own. when i made them, i had two fictional characters in mind that they were a "blend" of: daario naharis and jack sparrow. honestly that is kind of cringey to me now but i made them ten years ago! i'll let past me live for that! janus' backstory, that they're aware of anyway, is growing up as an outlander in a local "camp" (i'm sure you can guess what kind) for dhampirs - dhampirs in this society are hated by most other humanoid races. they escaped that life and now they're a small time thief and big time loudmouth charlatan.

so, they ended up infiltrating the local thieves' guild, and one of the right hand people (named Borisu, an undine witch) to the leader (the sorceress in question, although it wasn't yet clear at that time) defected from the guild to join their party. the sorceress took that rather personally, and began to target them. with the help of a god, their party, and some new allies along the way, they began to forge an assault on the sorceress. the god in question (his name was Lhosdir) was a former adventurer that apotheosized to godhood through you know, heroic actions (not unlike the awe and pomp & circumstance with Balduran in baldur's gate). Lhosdir ended up making janus king of his city in his own stead once they and their party got some hero points breaking up the local corrupt government and putting a stop to the illegal human trafficking ring.

that was, until they discovered a deeper, more evil plot! :D Lhosdir got captured by the sorceress, who merged her consciousness with his before everyone's eyes in the middle of an abandoned clearing in the forest. essentially she corrupted him! this is where the song comes in: every. damn. time. something pivotal happened in this campaign, our DM would play this song. this is one of the first times i remember her ever playing this song. :)) there would be many more times after that! janus' motivation after this was to save the man he loved and the god he was now devoted to. the full weight of knowledge of the simulation, and the sorceress' actions, were unknown at this point. but she was, quite literally, just getting started.

i don't really have good ending notes here besides the fact that irl, the campaign party split up so it ended :')

ROIBEN

next we have roiben: a drow assassin, who's lore can only be pieced together with scraps of parchment and hearsay (i.e. i haven't decided on it yet ahahah) in a different campaign (with a different DM!) entirely, he was involved in a conflict with a man only known as the Quartermaster, and was well on his way to forming a guild of adventurers to defeat him. unfortunately, one of his allies (another drow) turned on him and poisoned him, killing him!

all i can really say with roiben is that he has vile relationships with almost everybody in his life due to most of his life being spent in the underdark. (isn't that nearly always the case with drow? sheesh) if someone had ever shown him an ounce of kindness, he would have been surprised and paid it back in full - but nobody ever has! :))

roiben is around 85, quite young for a drow in consideration that they live for up to 400 years (according to the wealth of FR lore). in human years, he'd be about 17.

his introduction into edhest was falling quite literally out of the sky into a tavern. he, at the time, had an inkling that he had never been in this land before, the world was unfamiliar to him, and had little to no conscious memory of his time before this day. then he started having flashbacks. memories that weren't his began to flood his mind at seemingly random intervals, and he wanted desperately to make sense of things and piece them together. unbeknownst to him, the memories were ones that janus had made. all he inherited was a lifetime of trauma and even more amnesia. his timeline, in canon, happens before the events of baldur's gate 3, but not too long before. imo, this is the reason he embraces his urges so easily in baldur's gate. it gives him a sense of purpose, and killing is easy to carry out when you lack the skills to make personal relationships.

the sessions i played him were quite short-lived due to irl stuff, but his crowning achievement in terms of lore was being the first of the tri-soul to meet mordren! mordren is one of the characters that is also really essential to this story, but we'll get more into him later. roiben and co. ran across the tiefling in a mountainside hideout, but they didn't really stop to chat. this was one of the other times moonlight sonata started playing, mysteriously. i wonder if that has anything to do with anything at all. /s :)

FESTÉ

lastly, we have festé, the gods' (apparently) least favourite princess, the them that really ties it all together in the end. festé is a mephistopheles tiefling sometimes ranger, sometimes rogue. you've met them! probably.

what can i say about them? a lot of stuff i've made mention of in this post, this post, this fic chapter and in their tag on my blog in general. their life in edhest takes place after the events in baldur's gate 3, and i can't get into why yet, because the reasons will become clear later in bonding. winks and cries

in edhest, they were part of the group that effectively halted the sorceress and the-who-knows-how-much-time-has-passed-potentially-hundreds-of-years of corruption with the land, the simulation, and life in general. one of their companions, jeinko, was the first to mention that something didn't seem quite right with their surroundings. a simple comment, even: "you can hear the birdsong, right? i don't know about you, but i've never seen a bird in this forest."

and he was right, there were no birds in the forest, just simulated birdsong. then he punched a tree in half (he was a monk) and that was pretty much it, the tree went up i was gonna say like a christmas tree but like a vegas show, like it glitched. and then we all lived in mortal fear of jeinko, the catfolk monk who punched through the simulation for the rest of our days, amen

the jig was up, the only issue now was figuring out the way to stop it. but before all of that, came mordren.

mordren is special: he's a tiefling sorcerer who is unaffected by this particular brand of time magic. he had been doing research for years on how to halt the progression of the sorceress' agenda, and the magic that went along with it. all of his research (and a spell that could potentially break the timeloop and the simulation itself) was in an unassuming cave in a cliff face of the mountains. and one day, a thief found it and stole it. :) he carved what he remembered of the spell into his face, and went about rebuilding his wealth of research from scratch. he has never found the culprit. many years of meeting the same people who do not remember him (as well as his own special backstory) had turned him into a recluse.

festé and mordren met through a comedy of errors. being that, after a long battle one night, festé happened to bathe in the wrong waterfall in front of the wrong cliff, and almost ended up losing their life due to the right sorcerer. this was another time that moonlight sonata played. :)) long story short, mordren ended up joining the party for a time, until another time jump happened and he disappeared.

the next time festé heard of him, a mysterious sorcerer was holding an arguably more mysterious contest for groups of adventurers to guess his true name - as it had been lost to time. festé didn't remember him or his name until they made eye contact. so romantic

this was the last time moonlight sonata played, because the gang was back together, and the only thing on their schedule was to take down the sorceress. cue a very matrix-esque scene

of all of them busting out in the real world. borisu and jeinko didn't make it, unfortunately. :(

anyway, the sorceress was finally defeated, and the timeloop was effectively broken! after five years irl of trying to finish this campaign

LASTLY...

another interesting bit of context regarding mordren and festé is that mordren. remembers. everything. every time they've met, every kiss, every touch, every wayward glance, every soft whisper of his name. every. timeline. and when a time jump happens, there's no use for the vessel body anymore. he's seen festé keel over and be a dead lump every time he meets them again. it's only a matter of time, really. nobody can really predict it, but it's as sure as death taxes!

OKAY... SO WHAT IS THE POINT?

why did i give you all of this context? well, now that the wedding chapter of bonding. is out, you might start to notice funky passages like this one:

Festé could hear the music before they reached the far end of the aisle. It was a slow melody, one that could easily be mistaken for a dirge. It had a hypnotic, dream-like quality about it that the tiefling could have sworn was familiar, but only just. They grasped for a moment, trying to recall where they had heard it first, but the moment of realization didn't come. The melody reached a small peak, climbing an octave as Festé started up the aisle. They closed their eyes as it climbed back down slowly, getting lost for a moment in a memory they had no idea of the source. They imagined themself walking into a clearing, one they had never seen before in their life. Their eyes snapped open and they shook their head. Wyll pulled at their arm gently, and smiled.

seems a little out of place, doesn't it?

well, i'll leave that for you to decipher. happy hunting! ♡

[1000punks]

oh also: roiben & co. are fully levelled already and i respecced shadowheart into an "i don't care if you broke your elbow oath" paladin so we're a very very martial party now

mostly i just want to learn paladin mechanics because i've never played one

roiben (embrace urge) ranger 6, rogue 4, fighter 2

astarion (a!a) ranger 6, rogue 4, fighter 2

gale wizard (necromancy) 12

shadowheart (DJ) paladin 12

lae'zel 6 fighter 4 barbarian (she hasn't been out in a couple long rests)

crown of karsus -> raph

ketheric, orin -> dead

me -> crying due to shart's DJ ending, no spoilers though

[1000punks]

call it divine justice or wtv but i let the absolute pop gorty's brain like a water balloon and let me tell you 😩💦💦💦 h o t

girlboss, honestly

anyway! i'm at 102 hours or so and at the "battle your way up the citadel" portion with the old crew (sorry i'm biased, i love the way astarion, shadowheart and gale work together)

shadowheart as a paladin? gale as a necromancer with mystic carrion's staff? fuggetaboutit

also, i bought the city out of circle of death, dethrone, and disintegrate scrolls (for crowd control!) and i brought as many gunpowder barrels as a paladin and two ranger/rogue/fighters can carry

the best part? the spectator at the top of the citadel didn't even get a chance to attack, and that's great because i hate fighting spectators 🗣️🗣️🗣️