#one is Wyllach

[bharv]

I ship Wyllach, very much so, but I also extremely love how Theo Solomon is so into the ship and Sam Beart is so completely dedicated to making Karlach a she/they sapphic butch at every turn

[artistictea]

People who reblog my very clearly wyllach art just to say that they don't like the ship are weak as hell btw

[iicaru2]

i may be wrong but regardless i think its silly that, out of the origins, i’m fairly certain the two most good-aligned characters (karlach and wyll) are the ones that cuss the most— with an honorary mention to lae’zel’s various gith curses. karlach drops f-bombs left and right and wyll arguably says the word “shit” more times than most other characters in the game. i like to think wyll’s increase in cursing (esp towards/about mizora) is in part due to spending so much time around karlach. i adore them both

[elminster-big-naturals]

karlach and wyll sheepishly going to tav for help because they were making out and got hornlocked like a pair of unruly goats

[rainbow-femme]

Of all the companion pairings, I hadn’t expected Wyll/Karlach being my favorite but I just love the dynamic

Because obviously you’ve got the whole thing of him wanting to kill her because he thought she was evil and then realized she was also a victim and was willing to be turned into a demon because he wasn’t willing to sacrifice an innocent person for himself, and her then being willing to stand up to the devils who want her dead on his behalf

But I also feel like as far as a relationship dynamic they would be a Prince Charming/damsel thing except they both think they’re the Prince Charming and the other is the damsel

Wyll lamenting how his endlessly kind wife who only wants to live a simple life where she is treated equally kindly was tricked, sold, had her heart replaced with an infernal engine that keeps her trapped in basically hell, and was forced to be the first line of attack for the devil who did this to her. Meanwhile behind him Karlach is looking at a locked metal gate and just decides to open it by bending the bars with her bare hands, melting the iron as she does because she has flames inside of her body

Karlach talking about her poor husband Wyll who gave up a comfortable life as the son of a duke to be entered into a devil’s pact and made into a homeless hero who would always protect people but never really get to exist as his own person outside of his pact and his folk hero perception. Meanwhile Wyll is eldritch blasting a demon in the face behind her with an entirely casual and unbothered look on his face

They fix Karlach to the point where she can leave Avernus and Wyll goes to his family and friends to prepare them for meeting her, telling them that she can be very sensitive and has gone through some rough times and grew up on the streets so she’s going to be more rough around the edges than they’re used to and it would probably upset her to come back home only to be made fun of, so please be kind. And in walks his 7 foot tall wife who is as wide as the door with her big giant muscles, battle ax strapped to her back, slapping Duke Ravengard on the shoulder and asking “How the hell are ya?”

Karlach goes to her old Baldur’s Gate friends and says she wants them to meet her husband but he’s the son of nobility and spent a long time living in that more polished world so he talks very formal and polite and isn’t really used to how they talk and interact so please don’t make fun of him if you think he speaks funny. And in walks the Blade of the Frontiers with a suspicious amount of not quite dried blood on his pants

They both think they’re the “They said no pickles” part of the relationship but actually if they asked for no pickles and were given pickles they would make eye contact with the person who did it while using their biggest two handed weapon to scrape the pickles off onto the floor

[normal-thoughts-official]

here is the thing

when i started playing bg3, i didn't expect wyll to be so devoted to karlach. her devotion to him is a given; the guy risked his life to save her when they had literally just met. of course he matters so much to her

but wyll matched that same devotion right back, as if she had been the one to save him, even though karlach never really got the chance to do anything of that magnitude back for him

but then i think about it

mizora's punishment plays directly into wyll's worst trauma. to be suddenly branded as demonic, so people will always look at him and see that first. like his father did. like the whole city, everyone who ever knew him, did. no amount of good deeds will ever be enough to compensate for his association with evil; his soul will burn in hell and he will not be welcome anywhere because he's a greedy warlock who made his choice. i don't know if that is actually true, but he certainly thinks it to be, if anything, from his assumption that the people of the grove (whose lives he had just saved, and who had known him for at least a few days as nothing but a kind hero who looked out for them) would be unable to look past his appearance and wouldn't want him near them

and mind, mizora clearly wants wyll to stay isolated. why else would she forbid him from explaining the circumstances of his pact? what could she possibly gain from that, other than making sure he can never dispel the notion that he made a deal with the devil simply for power?

so it makes sense that that, more even than the non-consensual body modification, was the punishment. to put his warlock status on display, so that people would immediately be offput by him - and even if they aren't, he will be sure they are

his own father couldn't stand to look at him, and that was back when he had just lost an eye

but the first thing karlach tells him is this:

"Thank you for seeing me for who I really am. And... I think I can see you for who you really are, too. A hero"

obviously, it's common sense for her to see him like this after he just saved her life at great, and at the time unknown, personal cost. but it would also have been common sense for his father to know that the son he himself raised and who's nothing if not a paragon of kindness and duty wouldn't just decide to sell his soul for power out of the blue one fine day. or that, if he keeps trying to say something but can't, then there might be more to the story. for fuck's sake, he lost an eye. and yet, ulder didn't. wyll's association with the demonic was enough to dispel everything about his personhood, his values, and his actions. and now said association was branded, quite literally, on his forehead

and karlach's suffered so much at the hands of devils. just like with the other tieflings, he expects her to be unsettled by him, at the very least

but then she says that she looks at him and sees only a hero. the man who saved her. the man who cared enough to listen and do what was right. the man who sacrificed something for her, who had to make a choice no one should have to make

he had saved an entire city when he first made the pact, and yet not one soul in it was able to see that. see him

but karlach did

karlach does

and not only that. not only is she the first person in perhaps his whole life to put more weight to wyll's personhood and actions than to mizora's; but she knew he needed to hear that. she says it like someone who's trying to offer a comfort in a hopeless situation, which is exactly what she's doing. she knows that he is afraid of being rejected

and of course she does

she is the one who comes closest to fully understanding him.

can you imagine being wyll and seeing karlach's story play out in dizzyingly rapid succession in your mind? had a pretty good, happy life, then in the span of one day everything changed when she was associated with the demonic. she lost everything and everyone she ever had. from then on, she only knew one thing: to fight. no rest and no friends and no breaks, just endless, senseless fighting. her body was changed against her will. she hadn't been touched in a positive way in ten years. even fucking mizora was there

that's his story, too

sure, he might not have been literally unable to touch people, but neither was karlach when she was in hell. he's been completely alone except for mizora for the last seven years, at least in the ways that matter. nothing in his life was constant, except for the fighting and the humiliation at a devil's hand. and the loneliness

of course he thinks it's a trick. it hits too close to home

and of course he can't help but listen anyway. because wyll is nothing if not compassionate, and he's just watched a tldr of his own pain inflicted on someone else

so when karlach says that she still sees him as himself first?

he is reminded that she gets it

for the first time in seven years, he is not alone, and he is understood

of course he would do anything to keep her in his life, just as she would

in a way, she did save him, too.

(slightly late meta submission for @thekindredcollective's wyllstravaganza2024, day 19: bond)

[ladyofrosefire]

Wyll and Karlach's Bucket List on Returning From Avernus

Bathe

Sleep in a real bed

Eat a meal that isn't a ration pack or something dubious taken from a cambion

Hug every single one of their friends

Visit Ulder

Check on the tieflings they met at the Grove

Go swimming

Go dancing

Find a house a little ways outside the city

Acquire a few goats

Make snow angels

Kiss a lot

And other things

Get a ring

Make a reservation at The Singing Lute

[perilegs]

it's a good day to be alive

[constantvariations]

I get why people say Wyll/Karlach is enemies-to-lovers but it's missing too many of its signatures for me to agree

By nature, E-t-L's are slow burn. A good chunk of the story waits for one party to discover they're on the wrong side/both parties to realize they have more in common with each other than their factions, then a whole other chunk is dedicated to them learning how to trust each other. The higher the stakes in the story, the slower the burn

Yet everything between Wyll and Karlach is revealed and resolved in a single conversation. There are no lasting consequences of that initial animosity. Both are too good to hold grudges and all the fault lies firmly in hands not their own. Karlach trusts Wyll instantly and he her. Their friendship is so immediate that it's easy to forget that we met Karlach with the intent to kill her

And then there's the source of their quarrel. Wyll was led to believe Karlach's a devil seeking destruction and Karlach was just trying to go home. The thing that sets them against each other isn't their own beliefs or loyalties or anything deep seated and personal, it's the chain of command, something they're both eager to be rid of by the time we meet them. While it gives them something in common, it leaves them with nothing to unpack or overcome together

Compare that to the king of E-t-L's, Zutara of Avatar the Last Airbender. Zuko spent most of the show's runtime trying to capture the Avatar to guarantee the Fire Nation's total conquest, something Katara wants to prevent at all costs. When the two are stuck together by happenstance, they lash out at each other only to bond over their lost mothers. Then Zuko betrays her, something Katara does not forget and does not forgive until he proves himself much, much later. Afterwards, they support each other, watch over the others together, and make a damn good team against Azula. Perfect, should have been canon, fuck Bryke

Honestly, I think Wyllach is just Faerûn's version of a meet-cute

[fallen-goldfishcracker]

It requires Wyll keeping his pact (which I hate) but listen in an half-ideal world the Blade of Avernus involves Wyll getting up to 11th level so he can cast Investiture of Flame and give Karlach a hug for ten minutes. He casts it every day just so he can hold her hand. listen to me. I'm right. (and then they break his pact and kill mizora and zariel and fix her engine and go home to their fancy tailor boyfriend in Baldur's Gate and then be happy forever. the end.)

[deer-watcher]

Bringing Wyll along to find & recruit Karlach so I can kickstart their slowburn enemies-to-lovers storyline 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

[karlachismylife]

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFGdQKJY/

Us?

🥺

👉👈

Oh my god absolutely. You don't have to ask me to start a fire twice bb, I can do it with my beer in the other hand too so you don't have to wait 🥰😘💅🏼

[forcedhesitation]

Man.

there's just something about the love between a woman whose impending death is inevitable and a man who's an immortal undead...

[stranger-queers]

The natural enemies -> reluctant acknowledgement of understanding each other on a deeper level than most others -> fierce allies helping each other try to escape their pasts -> falling in love pipeline is so evident in both wyll x karlach and (selunite) Shadowheart x Halsin romances and I am living for it

[optiwashere]

Just read through all of your prompt fills so far and WE 👏 ARE 👏 FEASTING 👏 they are so SO GOOD

Could I perhaps ask for a kisses 17 Karlach/Wyll and a touching 11 for Minthara/Lae'zel? 🫶

Thank you so much! The prompts were a fun way to break a little bit of my writer's block, and I love that you've enjoyed them 💜

At some point, I'll collect these into a fic on AO3 so they don't just disappear into a tag that might rot into nothingness.

---

Kisses 17 (kisses as a promise)~ CW for end of game Karlach stuff in general

Flames.

The first thing she remembered of the Hells was the heat. All-encompassing, permanent. Even if she couldn't be hurt by it, the presence of fire and inescapable pressure demanded acknowledgment.

The flames were the first to touch her on that little dock. Surrounded by friends who had to watch this happen.

Worst of all, Wyll knelt before her and stared at her. She almost wanted to laugh, because she swore she saw his emotions plain on both eyes.

"Remember me, yeah? All my best mates," she panted through the pounding in her chest. All of 'em... and you. "Not this part, though. Nah, fuck that. Everything before. All the good times."

The others watched from a distance. Wyll remained in front of her.

Go the fuck away. Don't want you to see this.

"What part of calling myself the Blade of Avernus didn't you understand?" Wyll said. He laid a hand on her shoulder.

She could hear the skin burning but he didn't move. "Come off it. Stop. Let me. Go. It was a good run."

"Karlach, I promise we'll figure this out. If we have to march to the heart of Zariel's armies together, we will."

We?

Wyll leaned forward and the flames around her singed his hair. "I promise. You won't be alone, and I won't let you forget that."

Just as Karlach started to speak, ready to tell Wyll to shove off and let her die in peace, his lips were on hers. Even as the claws of Avernus pulled her down as their prize, Wyll kissed her.

And when she opened her eyes again, heart pounding for a different reason, she wasn't alone at all.

[swordmaid]

currently making an inspo board in pinterest with those raunchy romance novel covers bc I wanna draw hag romance in that style heheh 🤭