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firebastardextraordinaire · 2 months ago

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OOOH OC FUN FACTS!! Thanks to darling @lilarus for tagging me! i tagggg @lucien-lachance @loderlied @theladygrim @cheesychickenwings and @ray-elgatodormido

I think I’m going to astonish everyone by choosing Vinari over Jura for this lmao (if only bc all of you already know so much about Jura lol)

So naturally some of you already know that Vinvin is my main character for my original work Fallacy of the Damned but she’s also been supplanted as one of my official dnd/forgotten realms blorbos too!

So onto the fun facts about Faerunian Vinari/Dirge! I'm putting it under a readmore bc holy shit this is long af and kinda got out of hand bc i've only ever really talked to Ari about Faerunian Vinari i think lmao

- Vinari (chosen name for a while) was born Dirge to a human sorceror/cleric of Myrkul and the heir to the Drow Bhaalist Clan of the Vidrus, both sects who lived in Waterdeep (well the Vidrus lived in the UpperDark under Waterdeep technically) and thus Dirge Vidrus was raised in both Myrkul and Bhaal’s churches (with a hint of Lolth too. Lolth begrudgingly shares the Vidrus the Bhaal but only because she kinda likes the funky little upjumped human. They’ve bonded over a mutual love of death and murder and apparently breeding horrific and evil monster children)

- Dirge’s official classes are Shadow Sorcerer (which she got from dad, who got one of Myrkul’s evil hugs full of necrotic energy that nearly fucking killed him but apparently did not affect his ability to have children. Or maybe it DID but Myrkul was like, yknow what I’ll allow it this time bc he needs more worshippers anyway and Gods can be freaks when it comes to their clerics breeding habits) and Phantom Rogue (which is a subclass that many rogues can pick up from a variety of ways from sleeping in graveyards or training in/by death god cults or by liches.) in Dirge’s case, the phantom subclass cane naturally as a result of being a shadow sorceror AND being raised by the clergy of TWO gods of death. (I’d def recommend looking at these two 5e classes because they are literally SO fun) she also has a couple levels in warlock, but not because she made a pact with a patron, but because she IS her own patron. (Since in 5e you can have a powerful undead as a patron, I see no reason she can’t be her OWN patron once her magic gets powerful enough) she’s a pact of the blade warlock and her pact weapon is a dagger, which I’m about to talk about next!

- her dagger was created by and given to her by Myrkul himself. Because Myrkulites are followers of the god of the dead and don’t fear dying themselves, and consider getting one of their God’s necrosis filled hugs that are almost certain to kill them, and if they survive horribly fuck them up for life to be the highest honor, i think they definitely have a bunch of different rituals and just other kind of stupid shit that will easily kill them that they do for clout, honor, and as rites of passage. One of which being getting one of Myrkul’s evil hugs. ANOTHER is going through one of the thousands of portals to Hades and the realm of the dead to try and meet Myrkul in person. Generally speaking, this is not the wisest thing to do considering the realm of the dead is not a very friendly or safe place to be if youre alive, especially when you consider the fact that to even GET there, you have to go swimming through the Water of Forgetfulness, which drain people (living and dead) of both memory and emotions the longer they're exposed to it. Vinari passed the series of saving throws to keep her memories. She didn't do so well on the saving throws to keep her emotions, but she did make it there and back with her mind (and body) in tact, and Myrkul was both mildly impressed and amused by the fact she'd acomplished this that he gave her the dagger that serves as both her pact weapon (and thus arcane focus) and her main instrument of murder.

it has a LOT of very VERY unfriendly effects, which isn't exactly surprising considering it was made by the god of the dead for an assassin. The main ones being dealing extra necrotic damage on sneak attacks, critical hits, and attacks made while obscured but the super NASTY effect it has is that wounds inflicted by it can't be healed with magic, in fact, healing magic will inflict necrotic damage INSTEAD of healing, so they have to be allowed to heal naturally, unless a mage casts Remove Curse. .....and if they don't cast remove curse with a level 7 spell slot or higher, THEY get hit with a second, counter curse! and have to roll a constitution saving throw against some necrotic damage lol.

and the thing is that the dagger is a long, thin, and slender blade designed for slipping into weak spots in armor and piercing vital organs or severing important arteries, aka meant for fast and quick assassinations. Which means that assuming the victim survives the initial attack, they're probably not going to survive for VERY LONG afterwards without immediate help from a cleric, who better hope that A. pass their arcana check to realize the wounds are cursed and that trying to heal them without removing the curse will only kill the poor bastard faster! and then B. pass a SECOND arcana check to realize that its a very POWERFUL curse and if they don't cast an appropriately powerful remove curse spell and try to go cheap with it, it's not going to end well for THEM either! and then C. better hope that they're actually POWERFUL ENOUGH to cast the spell with the high enough level spell slot needed to avoid the counter curse!

all in all, it is definitely not a weapon that one would want wielded against them lmao

- MOVING ON, Vin's story in Faerun is actually split into two parts. The first taking place during the Time of Troubles, where she's running around as a mercenary by day and assassin by night, and she ends up Joining Midnight and Kelemvor's party to go rescue Mystra from Bane (though naturally none of them have any idea thats what theyre even DOING until they get there) and Even though Kel's got his bit of sexism going on at the beginning (in that he didn't want midnight going at all to begin with either) it's actually Cyric who vouches for Vinari's skills and convinces Kelemvor to let her go too because Cyric and Vinari were casually hanging out and doing merc work together before meeting Kelemvor. Pretty much no one finds out/knows for sure that Vin's a fucking BHAALIST until book two and three. Cyric gets it confirmed by Bane in book two, and he outes her to the party in book three.

But to make a long story short, when Cyric (well not him actually, his sentient sword) kills Bhaal in the third book, Midnight teleported the party away from the ensuing blast from the death of the god. Well, MOST of the party. Unfortunately for Vin, she was on the OTHER side of Bhaal from the party watching the fighting go down because she's stuck between a rock and a hard place here because she likes the party and doesnt want them to die, but at the same time, the god of murder is one of the LAST gods you ever want to betray (or them think you betrayed them)

so yeah, Vinari does NOT get teleported to safety with everyone else, and she very nearly gets blown to fucking smithereens when Bhaal dies. but she doesn't! (though she doesn't know its because in his final moments Bhaal did some quick spellwork to shield her from the majority of the blast because he needs her alive for one of his MANY contingency plans) but even though she doesn't die, she's fucking nearly dead for almost the rest of book because while the rest of the party is dealing with myrkul's shit, she's fucking floating down the winding river. which is now polluted with Bhaal's blood and divine essence. which means she's taking a veryyyyy long bath soaking in and absorbing the fucking god of death's divine power! So by the time she recovers enough to pull her sorry ass out of the fucking river, she's very much NOT the same person that she was before she nearly got blown to pieces.

so yeah she ends up hightailing it to the closest divine staircase to try and figure out what all has happened while she was microdosing being dead, and gets there right in time to see Midnight and Cyrics chat with Ao about the tablets and becoming gods.

remember that Cyric is the one who (supposedly) killed Bhaal, whose divine essence Vin has spent the last two to three weeks soaking in.

I'm sure you can guess exactly what happens next. and if not ill tell you anyway. Vinari promptly fucking kills cyric right in front of the God of Gods. By throwing her dagger with perfect aim and lodging it right in Cyric's throat from fifty feet away.

Of course, Ao LET her do this bc he's well aware of the fact that she's upjumped on Bhaal's divine essence and he wanted to see if she'd prove herself a worthy successor to him, and which in immediately killing Cyric on sight, she did.

Of course, Ao just immediately revives Cyric bc he DOES still intend to make him a god, its just instead of getting all the dead three's portfolios, he's losing death to Vinari.

so yeah, Vinari becomes the new god of Death! Also she starts going by Dirge again when she becomes a god and ends up sticking with it. Speaking of her godhood, it lasts about 10 years because i'm one of the "actually bg2 revived bhaal just fine and according to his plan, he was just incredibly antisocial and didn't bother telling anyone he was back in action again for another 100 years" truthers, and of course as soon as Bhaal was alive again and walking into his old, now Dirge's throne room, she was more than happy to see him and give him all his power back (which is EXACTLY what he thought she'd do and why the last thing he did before dying was ensuring that SHE didn't) So now Bhaal is the god of murder again, and Dirge, now just a rank 0 quasideity, heads back to Faerun to start renacting his will so he can regain more of his power faster.

Which leads to Dirge being around and causing trouble in bg3, but this is already long enough so i won't go into that lmao.

But here have some pictures of her mortal forms before and after becoming a god. She chooses to take the form of a human in the after because being a half drow is REALLY inconvenient to getting around places lmao

#oc: vinari vidrus #oc: dirge #also fun fact Bane refers to Dirge as 'Bhaal's beloved little blood stain' at one point and its just too bad that i dont think she was ther #to hear it because she would've immediately had big puppy eyes like BELOVED??? BELOVED BY LORD BHAAL?? WHAT???#although bane was absolutely 100% saying it derogatory lmao

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rukafais · 2 years ago

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Because I love and agree with your opinions, if you would like to share I am very interested in your thoughts on Vhaeraun

Honestly I think Eilistraee eating up all the page space as the designated 'good goddess' and therefore having to be burdened with the implicit responsibility of having ~all good drow~ really fucked up any page space Vhaeraun could have gotten, which is a huge shame because like, Eilistraee and Vhaeraun are siblings/twins.

There's a massive gap there that both of them could fill based off existing lore and the way Lolth runs her cults; both of them promote community and equality (well, at least when Eilistraee isn't being used for Matriarchy 2: This Time It's Good and Vhaeraun isn't WELL WE MUST CONQUER THE SURFACE AND TAKE SLAVES because he got designated evil twin at birth) and they both could portray different, neglected sides of what it means to be family (Vhaeraun as male parenthood that is often devalued in Lolth cults; Eilistraee being an older sister figure and guardian who protects her siblings rather than perpetuates the cycle of abuse laid down by a parent).

But yknow instead we get The Good One and also The Bad One who gets no lore so like sure alright.

But yeah I really like Vhaeraun, I wish they'd do more with him and actually make him more compatible/synergistic with stuff. Really needs a polish. I think there's some really good potential for the idea of a very active god who is a god of secrets and concealments and shadow, someone who can actively hide you from Lolth's surveillance so any dire secrets you have can stay with you and you can protect your privacy and protect the ones you love. (Also I love his mood ring hair....it's cute....)

#rukamemes

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birbycakes · 3 months ago

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TONS OF RAMBLING ABOUT MY BG3 MC UNDER THE READ MORE AKFNVAFV

Actually after rambling about how your BG3 Tav has a lot of space still for characterization... it does give a lot to work with for fanfic ideas of Dirzafay and her LI (she romances almost everyone in different realities because I love the BG3 companion SO MUCH) I feel like one major thing would be like. Them talking with her and realizing they don't actually know all that much about her? She's always asking about THEM, who they are and about their life, but she hardly ever talks about herself.

And I think Dirz would just shrug with a self depreciating laugh because her life is quite boring compared to everyone else... sure she's Eilistraee's chosen. But she's been so sheltered by her fellow Sword Dancers. She rarely goes on adventures, and the few she has she wasn't allowed to do much. Especially after one stint where she gave herself up to Lolth-Sworn Drow to protect a group of Deep Gnomes and some of her same fellow rookie Sword Dancers. And she was beaten, humiliated, and had her hair cut short just to rub dirt in the wound before she could be rescued by her senior Sword Dancers. And came Very, Very close to getting sacrificed to Lolth. Which was a total shame to her (as well as her seniors who were supposed to be looking out for her, instead they let their Goddess's CHOSEN get taken by the Lolth-Sworn), so she really very much doesn't like talking about it. Especially to her new friends who see her as a leader figure. Which she is THRILLED about. I think she was thriving as the de-facto team leader. She'd wanna avoid talking about how boring her life is so they stay impressed with her.

I think she'd be far more interested in telling about her mother and father if asked about her past- since they were the main character + Valen Shadowbreath from the NWN expansions. So they are very interesting in their own right. But her mother and father's legacies is what also causes her seniors to be overprotective of her since her mother and father are both dead, and died quite tragically while Dirz was still a child. They cared deeply for Brizae and feel it's their responsibility to make sure her daughter doesn't end up like her. And they don't realize how it's making Dirz feel inferior and useless and like she's wasting Eilistraee's gifts. As well as being a disappointment to Brizae's legacy. She admires her mother but also resents her. And misses her and her father so, so much. Lots of complicated feelings there.

Dirz also has it kinda bad when it comes to her identity, what with being a drow AND a tiefling. Tieflings rarely recognize she's one of them and assume she's a drow, drow tend to clock her as a half-drow even tho she's technically full drow AND full tiefling. She's her own race entirely, really. And humans and other races, it's a toss up but no matter what she's usually treated badly or at least with a healthy dose of suspicion because Tiefs and Drow both have negative reps. Drow moreso but, yknow.

Not to mention the Tieflings at the Druid's grove were probably the FIRST Tiefs she ever met besides her father. And getting treated like *just* a Drow and feared by them probably SUCKED... poor girl. Like imagine you finally meet another Tief and they call you an under-elf and try to attack you so you have no choice but to intimidate them to get them to back down. She probably realized on her journey to Baldur's Gate that being nice didn't work (hardly anyone knows of Eilistraee and even then how can they trust her?) and she had to put on a Lolth-Sworn intimidating facade to get people to back down so they don't start a fight. Rough. At least Zevlor was much kinder. I feel like he'd feel really bad if she told him she was actually both drow and a tiefling... Like. Wow you're so brave to be open about being a DROW. I'll make sure to let the other TIEFLINGS, who you arent, know that you are SAFE. And she's just like "um actually Im a tiefling as well... ahaha my mom was a drow my dad was a tiefling I know it's kinda hard to tell... ahaha. ha." And then getting a double whammy from the druids of being a Drow, who by default is not to be trusted, and a Tiefling, who they are currently having problems with. and THEN get clocked as a Lolth-Sworn by Kagha and have to say she's a follower of Eilistraee... except this time that was a DISAPPOINTMENT. Holy fuck now that I'm really thinking about poor Dirz could NOT win in that Druid Grove, at least socially ToT

Anyways back to my original Thoughts. I just really like the idea of her chosen LI being like oh shit here I am dumping all my history and problems onto you, and you've changed my life for the better and have practically healed me of my regrets and past mistakes and helped me get on the right track to move on to a better chapter in my life... and when it comes down do it, I don't know barely anything about your past. What shaped you into the amazing person you are. YOUR struggles you've gone through, are going through. I need to make an effort to show the same interest in you that you've shown in me during our journey. And her being like UM. DO I HAVE TO. And then it's the shoe on the other foot since they were like that with her at first LOL. "I remember a certain someone wanting every little detail about MY past and who I am the very day we met..." and she's just like. Ahaha... oops... you got me there....

#BG3 #Dirzafay Hun'lyl

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rukafais · 9 months ago

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Adding onto this because there's several other descriptions in other novels and I happen to have them on hand for my own purposes (they are sparse, but do exist, and go into a little more detail):

The drow line parted and between the warriors passed a female, dressed in fine black robes adorned with spider-shaped charms and elaborate designs. Even Doum’wielle, who had no experience with drow culture other than the teachings of her father, could not miss the significance. This was a priestess of the goddess Lolth, and one of great power.

Between those ranks, on a floating translucent disk that shined purple and blue, sat a woman bedecked in grand robes, laced and bejeweled with intricate designs of spiders and webs. A five-snake scourge rested across her lap, the serpent heads alive and writhing and clearly aware of the scene before them.

(both passages also from Night of the Hunter)

There's also Malice's description from Homeland of her fancy ceremonial robe:

Vierna and Maya backed away from the altar. Vierna fought to hold her scowl and Maya bit back an amused chuckle, as Matron Malice and Briza entered the room. The matron mother wore her greatest ceremonial robe, black and weblike, clinging and floating about her all at once, and Briza carried a sacred coffer.

Generally when there are ornate fashion descriptions that are Menozberranzan-related it tends to be the robes of high-ranking drow (priestesses generally). It seems to me that there is a fairly common thread of description for priestess robes, that the dresses are both elaborately decorated and meant to evoke an ethereal, otherworldly feeling (and also highly decorated in spider and web imagery, which seems to be something expected of the priestesses, which makes sense cause yknow. Lolth)

Compare and contrast Gromph's archmage robe from Siege of Darkness:

"The mighty Baenre closed his eyes and whispered a word, and his piwafwi cloak and other unremarkable attire transformed. Now he looked the part of his prestigious station. His flowing robe showed many pockets and was emblazoned with sigils and runes of power. As with the House structures, faerie fire highlighted these runes, though the archmage could darken the runes with a thought, and his robe would be more concealing than the finest of piwafwis."

Methil's robe:

"the illithid, who seemed to glide rather than walk, his feet hidden under his long, heavy robes." - Siege of Darkness

"On Matron Baenre’s right stood another of Jarlaxle’s least favorite beings, the illithid, Methil El-Viddenvelp, the octopus-headed advisor to Matron Baenre. He wore, as always, his unremarkable, rich crimson robe, its sleeves long so that the creature could keep its scrawny, three-clawed hands tucked from sight." - Starless Night

And also from Starless Night, K'yorl's outfit, which is specifically said to be unfitting for a matron mother because it's so plain:

"She was scrawny and small, shorter than even Triel and appearing much weaker. Her black robes were unremarkable, and she wore no other visible equipment—certainly not the attire befitting a matron mother. But this drow, K’yorl Odran, was indeed a matron mother, leader of Oblodra, the third house of Menzoberranzan."

This also doesn't go into things like House-specific fashion (the xorlarrin nobility wearing robes that conceal obvious gender markers and conceal the face) but there is clearly some kind of standard there.

Hope this helps for anyone looking to piece together drow fashion a bit more :)b

(Also, additional bonus: it's very rare for FR drow to wear 'scandalous' clothing:

The dark elves of Menzoberranzan, particularly the lowly males, normally donned quiet, practical clothes, dark-hued robes adorned with spiders or webs, or plain black jerkins beneath supple chain mail armor, and almost always, both male and female drow wore camouflaging piwafwis, dark cloaks that could hide them from the probing eyes of their many enemies.

So generally you can assume the trend is to cover up rather than to bare yourself, for a number of practical reasons.)

Drow Fashion 🕷️✨

Extremely rare description of drow haute couture:

It seemed just another day for Matron Mother Quenthel Baenre as she went to her evening prayers. Her magnificent black robes, laced like flowing spiderwebs, swirled around her as she regally moved along the center aisle, passing the inferior priestesses at the many side altars of the Baenre House Chapel. The slightest breeze could send the spidery ends of that robe drifting upward and outward, blurring the form of the matron mother, giving her the appearance of etherealness and otherworldliness. (R. A. Salvatore, Night of the Hunter)

Now I wonder how many other incredible examples of drow fashion can be hidden under "wondrous robes", "ornate robes" and similarly non-descriptive labels typically used in novels... *sigh*

For some reason, I imagine that luxury gowns of drow matron mothers might resemble some designs of Iris van Herpen, but with a spidery touch.

For more of my drow lore ramblings, feel free to check my pinned post 🕷️

#i have like all the ebooks and the power of control+f so why not #there's a couple more descriptions in the Menzoberranzan gray box set books also

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antirealisation · 8 years ago

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I feel like rambling about my childhood. :T This is obviously not The Only Childhood that I remember, but it’s pretty central? And definitely feels the most detailed, but also Ace and Thomas spent some time trying to write stories in this world, so maybe if I was pressed to think about those other childhoods more, I’d get more details from them. Still, at least right now, it feels like the Default that all others are just variations of. But yknow, ask me again in a different aspect.

So, fantasy world, on the verge of rapid industrialization. Two sentient species -- the vast majority are these furries shapeshifters, each with a specific animal that they can shift into and out of to varying degrees. People who can shift to be indistinguishable from their species are super incredibly rare, probably more like mythical figures than anything that actually happens. More often you get the “human with fuckin cat ears and a tail, can grow claws and teeth on command, and actually probably can never get rid of the ears or tail unless they’re pretty good at it” sort. The second species are these kinda velociraptor-looking guys who basically just live on this one island on the corner of the map, not super relevant but they’re there.

The country I lived in was this aristocracy ruled by five houses, each connected to and ostensibly descended from one of our five gods. I belonged to one of them. Weirdly, not the one descended from Zethos (god of the Sun, time, and change; a sha-shifter, which btw were real animals on that world; aka, y’know, Set), but rather Theras (goddess of life, more “life always finds a way” than “life and love and goodness uwu”; an arachnid-shifter (sorta had domain over all of em? and sometimes insects); also probably Lolth). Which, with gods like that, you’d think that we’d be some grimdark Evil Kingdom shit, and maybe we could be narrated that way, but that’s definitely not what it felt like.

Some cultural things: There were definite Opinions about what different kinds of animal-shifters are or should be like. Sorta on the surface, at least, there was a definite valuing of who is just “better” in general (in that particular culture, at that particular time, yadda yadda). Insect-shifters at the top (Theras ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), then some particularly charismatic mammals and reptiles, birds, reptiles in general, and then misc mammals like, I dunno, rodents. (Shifters of aquatic animals don’t actually exist.) THEN at the very bottom, people without an animal to shift to at all, such as this guy here. 😎👍👍

Another piece of the hierarchy is that, so, magic exists, right? Not just the shapeshifting but your standard “I cast magic missile” stuff. However, it’s all given by one god or another; you as an individual aren’t drawing from magic in the air or anything, but are specifically blessed with X powers by X god. Obviously, being blessed is a good thing. So, the better you are at magic -- including how wide your range of shifting appearances is -- the more valued. So like, one of my sisters was a small mammal of some sort (feline?) (uuugh this is the sister whose name keeps changing and who I don’t seem to even remember at all half the time, whatever), but could still shift incredibly well, so she was “okay.” A non-shifter who wasn’t particularly great at the magic thing in general, however, lead to questions about the faithfulness of the entire family and even talk about curses, so, y’know, that’s why nobody was too fond of me.

#wow the tense for this is all over the place #past shit

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