#with him and durge too you could argue that withers does as well

[fuadaka]

something unique, i think, about shadowheart and her religious trauma is that she seeks out a different religion to heal from it

gale remains with mystra, whether or not the orb remains in his chest, but he’s certainly not as passionate about her. even if he ascends to be like her, he’s arrogant—and a little sad, i wager. in becoming his own deity he can’t really replace the hunger in his heart for the divine.

lae’zel can either die as a result of her devotion or live as part of the revolution. if she remains in faerûn, she still feels like she lacks a sort of purpose in not being able to free the others who were manipulated like her. but still—she has an unspoken hunger in her heart for the divine.

shadowheart, meanwhile, nourishes that hunger. she’s always struggled with who she is, but in finding a new faith, she finds herself. wyll can break his pact and become a ranger, but shadowheart wants to remain a cleric. she wants a community like before, warm and loving and guiding. she wants to remain a healer. she wants to travel and do what she feels is right by what she believes in.

she speaks with the dead throne in yurgir’s lair, and her mentor viconia, and reads that book about another brainwashed sharran, and realizes that shar’s promise is false—the lady of loss was just a human who wanted control over others. it was a cult, not a creed.

as a muslim convert specifically, shadowheart’s journey really resonated with me. the sharran dark justiciars reminded me of crusaders, trying to take what wasn’t theirs through bloody battles. they vilified selûnite worship and executed anyone who practiced it. they indoctrinated shadowheart with fale propaganda. selûnite clerics’ appearances are markedly different—the style of your hair changes, and some even wear a long, white, modest robe. and sometimes you end up being the only one who chooses this new life. your dearest friends may not join you immediately, or ever.

and one could say, what about ketheric thorm? the answer lies in dame aylin, whom shadowheart can save. despite all of dame aylin’s years of suffering, she never lost hope in her mother. whereas ketheric chose different religions based on who could offer him a better present life (in power and prestige), shadowheart chose what would be the best for her residence in the city of judgement.

that can be the power of faith.

[wild-magic-oops]

Did god!Gale really forget about Tav/Durge until Withers's party? My headcanon about the topic:

I've got thoughts about god!Gale again and yes, he has changed since ascension in a predictably negative godly way, however the fact that he seemingly had forgotten about Tav/Durge doesn't exactly align with what else I see in the epilogue. And this is not me trying to make this ending better bc I like it btw. It just bothers me that things don't match and I like to headcanon about it, so kindly ignore if you don't agree.

1: Gale's reaction to breaking up with him/refusing ascension is quite telling about his feelings imo. He's visibly sad and disappointed about this outcome and still seems to genuinely love Tav/Durge. And his is not the kind of reaction you get from someone who just forgot their lover existed for months.

2: In his godhood path Gale combats his insecurities with ascension but predictably, that doesn't fix them. So he's still very much insecure about power and self-worth, particularly when others find him lacking. And now it hurts extra much because he sees himself as an improved version of what he was before. And when even that is not enough...

3: He still ascends Tav/Durge and personally, I don't buy that he does it just because he promised. I doubt making a new god is considered something to be done lightly. But moreover, being the god of ambition, making more competition for himself just bc of a promise mortal!Gale made is not productive and imo he realizes that very well. Perhaps he wants an ally, which is definitely more believable. But that still makes him forgetting all about Tav/Durge unlikely.

4: His excuse for not contacting Tav/Durge is that time works differently in Elysium and then not 2 minutes later he says that there are already shrines built for him and a big temple in the making. There's no way he didn't realize how much time has passed in the mortal realm.

Ofc you can argue that it was just a handy excuse and that he thinks a mortal is too stupid to see through it. And while he definitely has a bit of a condescending attitude going on now, it doesn't go that far imo. Personally I have another headcanon:

god!Gale postponed meeting Tav/Durge because he was afraid that he would still not be enough for them, especially after realizing he couldn't topple Mystra. That was certainly a bruise to the ego. So he stalled, built his reputation and power a bit, so when he finally meet his lover again, he would have actual things to brag about, and not just the ascension itself. A Tav/Durge who pushed Gale on his godhood path is one that had made Gale feel unworthy about his previous state (or rather - reinforced his feelings about it), so Gale has enough reasons/doubts to believe that maybe he still would not be enough in their eyes.

The thing about ambition is that nothing's ever enough, there always needs to be more more MORE MORE. And that combined with Gale's unresolved issues imo could explain why he didn't seek out Tav/Durge before Withers's invitation.

[daemon-in-my-head]

Full disclosure a lot of my worries stem from the own narrative I've crafted using the shadow sorc origins and divine fuckery.

My durge, for all intents and purposes, is a created shadow sorcerer. Essentially, he was """"born"""" (or whatever u wanna call Bhaals fuckery) a divine soul sorcerer, cuz yk, basically a sentient avatar of a god, but ended up stuck in the shadow fell for a prolonged period (whole ass century lol) and doing what it does best the shadow curse got to him and corrupted his sorcery. Now so far, that's fairly normal for shadow sorcs and their origins. But the point where I absolutely massacre my sources again is Durge's defiance of daddy dearest, aka giving up the divine spark and essence. He can't get rid of Bhaals rotting flesh, seeing how he still has a body (obviously suffering from the taint but thats not too important for this argument) so basically everything else got back where it belongs and he becomes just a guy (with a very weird body).

Now, generally speaking divine heritage makes you immune to certain afflictions. Namely an innate resistance against magic and lesser curses, all that shit. But he gave that up. And yk, for most that wouldn't rly have a significant impact, but if you've been exposed to a curse which ended up corrupting your entire being and the worst of it turns out to be kept at bay exclusively thanks to your heritage, well congratulations doing the right thing just really fucked you over and you didn't even realise it.

Or in other words, my guy is actively dying now that Bhaals divine intervention is gone. Or, well, turning more and more into a shade and essentially loosing not only his purpose but his entire existence as a physical being. So shadow sorcs being created as well as born is kind of important to me personally. As well as a twisted relationship with a plane that blessed you with great powers but also fucked up your life and can attempt to try nd drag you back to it whenever it feels like it.

Yes you could argue Withers is doing Withers things but personally I decided he takes a backseat cuz that's what that guy is good at and there would've still been an interruption in the divine 'protection' for lack of better term. Just a short one yes but long enough for the curse to grab a proper hold. So eitherway, he's fucked. Esp now that that Mr 'yay self obliteration' finally got a reason to try and not get killed again. Thought he did well, ended up getting sucker punched by the consequences.