#xan love

[novaeverse]

Trick-or-Treat!

Lae’zel and Shadowheart take Xan go go trick-or-treating in Waterdeep! They visit Gale and Zinmaris too.

Gale is a cat tressym. Tara is a wizard. Zinmaris is a pirate. Shadowheart is a werewolf. Lae’zel is a red dragon. Xan is Orpheus.

[outersyourwilds]

Doodle of my hearthian oc, Marble ::)

I'm still figuring out their lore, along with the colours of their clothes but I wanted to share em anyway bc I love them...

Fun Marble fact, they have sound-colour synesthesia/chromesthesia!

[iicaru2]

potentially unpopular opinion, but my favorite ending for lae’zel (romanced or not) is asking her to stay in faerûn. the first ending i ever got for her was the sick ass dragon ending, but i didn’t feel good about it when i got to the epilogue. i kept thinking about that scene she has in act 3 (post-vlaakith showing up in camp to yell at her like an abusive mother) where you can ask her about her own needs and wants vs. her pledging herself to different people’s causes. vlaakith, then orpheus.

she approves when you ask, and says something along the lines of “there will come a time when i can think of myself beyond the lich-queen (...) but that time won’t come until the prince of the comet is set free.” she’s been living her entire life following orders and dedicating every bit of herself to the cause she believes in. lae’zel does just about everything in the name of someone else, because that’s what she was taught. she was raised a loyal soldier, and she doesn’t quite know what she is without that purpose in her life. she’s a lot like shadowheart in this regard.

but if you convince her to stay in faerûn after defeating the netherbrain— i know this quote because i saved it as i love it very much— she says: “mother gith battled for liberty - but it was only here, with you, that i learned what it meant to be free. yes - i will stay. my destiny is for neither vlaakith nor orpheus to decree. it is mine.”

and orpheus acts like everything he did was for nothing after that, which is kind of dumb. voss is obviously still going to fight for githyanki liberation (he has a letter about this in the epilogue), and you can see several of them taking to the skies afterwards. the githyanki people will be liberated, but it doesn’t have to be lae’zel who spends the rest of her life doing it for him. she’s found friends here. family.

she’s made a life of her own, and it’s unfair to ask her to throw that away for a war she didn’t start. like, for fuck’s sake, she’s twenty-two. she’s the youngest of the origins, and honestly, after seeing so much content of her throughout my several campaigns, it makes sense. lae’zel is the way she is because not only is she very young, she was also raised a soldier in a cutthroat environment. she’s never known any different, not until the pc and the tadfools party comes along to turn her worldview upsidedown.

if you ask her to stay, she seems so happy in the epilogue. plus, if you happened to steal an egg from the crèche and have exceptional approval with her, you can ask if the egg has hatched yet, and it leads to my favorite line of hers in the game: “so it has. i call him Xan. ‘freedom.’ tonight, he is safe among people i proudly call friends. what a wonder he is. he will be a fine warrior, if he chooses. or a poet, or an explorer, or a scholar. i was afforded a destiny of my own choosing. when he comes of age, it is only right i give Xan the same.”

she’s happy, and free, having adventures of her own all over faerûn with people she trusts. she’s raising her adoptive son and giving him the childhood she was never allowed to have. it’s such a great ending for her and i love her so fucking much.

[acerikus]

Isat deconstructs and shuts down a lot of frustrating tropes and annoying fandom quirks but one I don't feel gets talked about much is the classic fanon trope of 'character has a canon favourite food. this is their personality now, also they will never be seen cooking or eating anything else ever again'.

Food is such an important part of isat, and Siffrin has a very obvious favourite food! His reaction to first seeing bonnie offer malanga fritters is even pretty similar to what people kinda end up reducing characters once they know their favourite food - the wild, cartoonish excitement that they don't really express at and other point - but the way things are handled from there REALLY stops them being reduced to a caricature for it by fans.

The more you go through the snack areas, the more each and every snack starts to lose its novelty. Depending on how many loops you've done by that point, that probably starts to become pretty clear for the average player - malanga fritters aren't till the end of the third floor, you've had plenty of times to get used to this game and how siffrin's mindset is affected when they repeat things too much.

I think I even found myself actively avoiding picking malanga fritters too much when picking their third floor snack - just because it felt too cruel to have THAT repeat too much, for something they hold so dearly, something that is later shown to be one of the few things they have left from their culture - end up so tainted for them like that.

And they DO get tired of it! They start to notice the little details that feel wrong to them - bonnie didn't get the correct ingredients, or the recipe they're using is wrong - where are the chillis? They tried so hard but these aren't perfect. They can't help but notice now even if they feel bad about it. And as it goes further they barely taste like... Anything at all to him. He just can't appreciate his favourite food any more.

And that has a wonderful side effect on the fandom - he may have a favourite food, but this traumatised enby needs VARIETY. When people DO depict him eating fritters it's usually a sad moment, a realisation that the loops took away the joy he felt towards something that was once so dear. People depict him enjoying a variety of foods instead - things that never even showed up in the game, even!!!!

It's kinda counteracted w bonnie too - we know their three favourite foods and I think I still see them depicted eating pineapple most, but it never really gets reduced to a one-note thing. I think them being the team chef is what solidifies that in the writing too - they love cooking and baking all kinds of things! They love vegetables and they love sourcing fresh ingredients, too. There's still so much variety with them!

There's definitely still some annoying fandom things that still ended up happening despite the game pretty firmly avoiding them (like the nuclearisation of found family - there's STILL people who unironically try to make odile a mom, or who try to shove nonexistent sibling dynamics onto siffrin and loop then scream that it's gross to ship them because of it), but the one-note favourite food trope just... Really doesn't exist in this fandom. This one was airtight and I love it.

[jude-jespernumber1glazer]

Inej and Kaz r like the angel and devil between ur shoulders appearing every time when u think whether or not u should make a bad decision

[vikdec4i]

more lackadaisy textposts!!!

alt version with viktor bc i think they'd have funny interactions lowkey

[irlnorthshaw]

SUPAYURI LOVERS UNITE!!!

this might be my best edit ever… yall dont even play with me

[sovonight]

keep close

[benzodolli3]

[somehowmags]

here's the thing alright wyll is perfect for a single parent romance novel. like him and lily aurora ravengard are absolutely destroying at the daddy daughter dance. he's showing up to the pta bake sale with the best brownies in town. they're having tea parties together with all of her stuffed animals. it's great they're adorable. the problem is absolutely fucking nobody else in this party is ready to be not the stepparent but the parent who stepped up. karlach? would love being a cool auntie. astarion? weird uncle. shadowheart? rediscovering life post shar. lae'zel? maybe if she was raising xan but also she's busy doing hot girl shit like killing vlaakith. gale? malewifing it up but ultimately just happy to be here. halsin? cool uncle. minthara? double income no kids bisexual aunt who shows up on candlenights to unleash the gift reckoning. do you see my fucking problem. how am i supposed to romance novel in these conditions.

[bloodydifficult]

Start with the big goal.

[eliteseven]

NLS Series Post-Canon Lore

And now, in a (long) post that absolutely no one asked for, here's my vision for the future in the NLS universe (which may never make it to writing, but it was damn fun to outline lol):

The year is 1515 DR, set around 23 years after game events:

We start with someone familiar:

Jen(evelle) Hallowleaf-Tavyndír

Race: Half Elf/ Age: 20/ Class: Ranger

Parents: Shadowheart & Serena Hallowleaf-Tavyndír (via selune's... special artifact)

Witty, curious, skeptical of everything, and far too outspoken and sassy for her own good, is Shadowheart jr. Jen. Her familiarity with animals as well as her prowess with a bow entice her towards the life of a ranger. Growing up in the cottage with her family and yet so close to the city, she's been socialized and aches for adventure. Unfortunately, as she comes of age and considers undergoing her Selûnite rite of passage, she learns that she is Shar's latest favored toy- just another to snatch from Selûne’s grasp. Constantly in danger because of it, she begins to question her faith entirely, growing jaded at the mere mention of a god or goddess. She seeks to carve out her own fate, without their meddling hands in her affairs, impossible as that is for her.

Which usually puts her directly at odds with:

-----------------------------------------------

Aelios ...Thorm? (...Selûne?)

Race: Half Elf /(Aasimar?) / Age: 20/ Class: Divine Soul Sorcerer

Parents: Dame Aylin & Isobel Thorm

He's Isobel and Aylin's golden boy 🙄 Born a little before Jen, and perhaps the bane of her existence. Named for Aylin, his very birth was fabled. He's a peacock like Aylin, literally favored by the gods, and he knows it. However!!! His special Selûnite magic is wild and unpredictable.

Aylin expected something resembling a paladin, like herself- in fact, one might even say she's disappointed. She wanted to train her offspring to be just like her. And physically, he’s a late bloomer. But his magic? These powers he has- they go far beyond what he could've inherited from Isobel in terms of power. His relationship to Jen is unique; they piss each other off royally, but she's also the only one who understands the pressure of being "Selune's chosen". Eventually, their chemistry bubbles over into a steamy relationship. Shadowheart is miserable about it. It's a great time.

And then: alllll his cocky bravado comes crashing down in the incident. After nearly razing a whole block of the lower city to ashes, in what should've been a simple skirmish, Aylin takes him away for several years, for Selûne’s divine intervention. It nearly destroys him, but it humbles him, too. He and Jen get a tearful goodbye, and he's off.

No one knows just what he endures during this time, or what rituals he undergoes, but he comes back...tranquil. Physically hardened. Changed. He has wings! His once relationship with Jen is but a faint memory now. It’s almost…Sharran, the way he returns with such a blank slate. It makes Jen and the others question the purity of Selûne’s practices, and her intentions, to boot. It’s eerie and something is definitely not right. But he, Aylin, and Isobel are ready and willing to help Jen and her family take out the remaining Sharran cloisters, and he's too powerful to go without.

Shadowheart is, needless to say, absolutely thrilled about this. She wants to enjoy her wife in peace and her entire world is just dominated by Selûne, Aylin, Isobel, wings, feathers…gods, so many feathers. And Serena's just really tired lol. (She should be older by now, remember?)

And ik what you're thinking!!! It's getting very elfy up in here. It is!

And so I present you with:

----------------------------------------

Zera Cliffgate-Ravengard

Race: Asmodeus Tiefling/ Age: 28/ Class: Oath of the Crown Paladin/ Oathbreaker

Parents: (unknown)- Guardians: Wyll Ravengard & Karlach Cliffgate

A refugee from Elturgard mixed in with the other tiefling refugee children, Zera was orphaned prior to reaching the Druid's Grove. There, Wyll met and taught her some survival skills before he was hauled off by the Tadfools. Following some of the other tieflings to the city, Zera is able to put her street urchin skills to work and make a small racket for herself in the years after the grand battle with the Netherbrain. Accustomed to hardship and with a growing frame to match, Zera even begins her own street-fighting ring. ...And so, when the kind Grand Duke and his even kinder partner hear about the literal child standing trial, they intervene. ...And fall in love with her fiery spirit.

Growing up in High Hall, Zera is an outcast, not unlike Wyll and Karlach. Worse than them, she struggles to make a space for herself amongst the nobility; she was an urchin and refugee all her life. Stealing, lying, cheating- they’ve all saved her life at one point or another. She doesn't adjust well, but loves when Wyll and Karlach take her out for training. Naturally, as an asmodeus Tiefling, fire is her best friend. Her happiest days are the ones in which they leave the city- she adores getting to go see Jen.

Feeling pressured to live up to her title as the Duke's kin (she doesn't refer to Wyll and "mom" or "dad"- they’re a lot like her friends in that regard)- she takes up an oath of the crown. It's simple; she protects Wyll and Karlach, honors the family name, and gains respect from her judgmental noble peers. All she has to do is: 1. Keep her promises. 2. Follow the law, and especially: never evade arrest if she breaks the law.

When she learns of an internal assassination plot against Wyll, and some shifty forces framing her, unfortunately, she ends up doing both to save him and Karlach. As if she wasn't shunned before...it’s too much.

A terrified oathbreaker on the run, with very worried parental figures, she takes solace in the company of her friends as she seeks to redeem her name and uncover the truth.

....And maybe a little more? 🥵

...And what group would be complete without its resident bard?

--------------------------------------------

Xan of Crèche Y'llek

Race: Githyanki/ Age: 23/ Class: Bard

Parents: Unknown- Guardian: Lae'zel of Crèche K'liir

Xan, the hatchling, is not so little anymore. Since he came out of that egg, Lae'zel's been teaching him to defend himself. She's taught him to wield every blade, survive any situation, best any opponent, and after all that?

...The boy realizes he's a performer through and through. 😅 he’s everything Lae isn’t. He favors a life or violin to a blade. It can be...challenging, for Lae, at times. But he's damn talented and she's so proud. He has aspirations to write about the Tadfools journey to make it big, but realizes he might need to tell his own story, in order to find success. Harkening back to what Lae said about Xan, he could've been a poet, an explorer, a warrior...it's his right to choose what he'll become, and she's all the happier for it.

...Even if his music drowns out the ever calming sound of her sharpening her blades.

....Now they're ready for adventures :) ofc it's all tentative for now and subject to change.

[acerikus]

Organic blind playthroughs of undertale untainted by backseating are one of the most magical things to come out of it tbh. Yesssss, you go and kill that monster bc you don't know the mechanics yet. Wooooo, you're excited that you levelled up hell yeah! Awesome, you're shocked and devastated that you killed Toriel after she was so nice and didn't know a way around it.

The joy on people's faces when they redo the game later for pacifist is so so good. So many interactions they didn't see! So many different ways things could've gone - but in a positive way! Neutral is such an awesome introduction to undertale if you started with neutral we shall have a summer wedding

[onegroovyrose]

Save me mage trio dragonfable save me….

[vikdec4i]

my take on viktor and elsa (that nobody asked for)

i truly think, from the bottom of my heart, they were nothing more than just really really great friends. or at least, two people who understood each other beyond surface level

when i said previously a couple posts back that i don’t see viktor as a romance guy, i truly mean it!! and i believe it to be the same with elsa

if i were to see people speculating they had a romantic background, an angel lost its wings 😭

maybe in the near future they confirm such speculations whatever?? but i think we all need to dial back and understand individuals beyond gender and sexuality— because yes

MEN AND WOMEN CAN BE FRIENDS!!! SURPRISE!!!!!

in volume 2 when ivy brought rocky to elsa to get treated for his massive wounds, i hc that elsa saw a lot of her and viktor in ivy and rocky— WALK WITH ME FOR SECOND

you have the person who grew up in violence (ivy and viktor) and another person trying to keep their head up high amongst all the melancholy (elsa and rocky)

viktor and elsa knew each other from way back during the war and to the business they had with lackadaisy. until well… atlas’ passing, which changed everything

i think there’s such a meaningful bond between two people who’s clearly suffering from PTSD (which is a hell of a torture alone) and wanting to escape all the noise… but they just never can. because it’s all they’ve known their whole lives

but anyways....

IM ON MY KNEES PRAYING THAT THEY DON’T RUIN THEIR ALREADY DEEP CONNECTION W ONE ANOTHER WITH CHEESY ROMANCE JUST TO ALIGN WITH HETERONORMATIVE SOCIETAL STANDARDS

[irlnorthshaw]

nothing entertains me more than tiger serving el matador a well deserved sass 👅👅