#zephyr flymm

[thenugking]

more Zephyr - sorry, this idea is FASCINATING to me, but - 3, 7, 11, 26, 27?

3. What would their character quest be titled? Why?

Oh man I fucking hate thinking up titles ahgghjkl. Something with Pirate (their job) or Ranger (their class) in it maybe.

7. Describe their arc. How would a player help resolve it? What choices can be made? Can your Tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one?

I don’t think Zephyr has a path where they become More Evil, I think their bad ending is just that they don’t change at all. They continue to not really trust people, to lash out whenever there’s a problem, to look out for themself above all others. They dump a player they’re romancing because hey, this was fun, but it’s time to move on now. They might not even turn up to the reunion, and just send an impersonal letter saying it was nice working with you.

To get their good ending, I think you have to challenge them to do better, to look out for people, to let people look out for them. Most importantly, you have to show them love and support and maybe even forgiveness when that’s pretty difficult to do. Early game Zephyr is abrasive, being suspicious of other companions for keeping secrets while being unwilling to share much about their own life. 

I don’t think it comes out until Act 3, when you meet Gortash at his coronation, that the two of them are siblings, that he tadpoled Zephyr a week or so before the others and sent them off with the Emperor (appearing to them in the form of their Dream Visitor) to retrieve the astral prism. So you discover Zephyr knew all along that Gortash was involved, that the tadpoles weren’t transforming people but instead forcing them to hear and obey the Absolute, and that the cult wanted the astral prism. And I mean, this isn’t as bad as some of the other things your companions are keeping from you, but Zephyr lets it continue for way too long, refuses to apologise, and starts attacking you for blaming them for their family’s bullshit. And if you try to show sympathy, doubles down harder to try to push you away. To pull them onto a lighter path, you have to… not be okay with them doing this, and probably point out that they’re being cruel right now, but that you understand why, and you’re willing to put this behind you if they’ll try better in future. They’d shrug you off at the time, but during the next long rest, pull you into a cutscene to apologise, thank you for sticking by them and admit that they’re not good at dealing with kindness, and promise to try better in future.

…I don’t know how the Gortash plot resolves with Zephyr there (I’m still not sure how it does in their own game yet). Maybe you get an extra option to spare Gortash, but where that goes, I’m really not sure. I don’t think killing or allying with him effects Zephyr’s personality/arc a great deal, but they’re going to be Uneasy and somewhat guilty if you ally with him. I think if you kill him while on their good arc, they lash out before apologising and telling you they don’t blame you and stumbling through a request for emotional support. On the bad arc, they're more likely to just withdraw.

11. What is your Tav’s go-to comfort food?

Zephyr’s been scavenging a whole lot more food than I usually do--I enjoy buying my party little treats, but Zephyr thinks it’s a waste of money to get anything from a trader when there’s so many barrels of potatoes we could be looting. Until one of the traders had salmon pie, which they immediately grabbed up. Sooo I think that’s the answer.

26. Give us one of your Tav’s secrets! 

I don’t know if it’s as much a secret as a thing they refuse to acknowledge about themself, but they want to be treated kindly and gently, and not have to be the Tough, Independent One all the time. (They’re totally Better and Happier as the Tough, Independent One than the scared kid trying their best to appease their parents so clearly they don’t need to change that!!)

27. What is the worst thing they’ve ever done/said to someone they love?

As a kid, there was a lot of ratting out their brothers/throwing them under the bus to their parents, culminating in betraying their oldest brother while he was escaping so… maybe that. Though in fairness, they were an abused kid at the time, and they’ve also done plenty of shit to people as an adult who refuses to admit they need to fix themself.

The major shitty thing they’re doing in the game that I’m rotating round in my head is romancing Karlach without telling her hey, the guy who sold you into slavery is my brother. I hope they’ll feel guilty enough to tell her before they actually have sex, but it’s not impossible we’re going to be reaching the coronation before it comes up.

Anyway, Karlach reacts badly to the fact that Zephyr’s been keeping this from her, and Zephyr tells her that, whatever, you’re actually just like him for blaming them for something shitty their family did. So. That was a pretty horrible thing to say.

(And here’s where we get Zephyr’s in-game “being pulled to a lighter arc”. Once she’s processed things a bit, Karlach comes to find them and tell them that, hey, what you said was Deeply Shitty and wasn’t okay but look--I’m dying, and I want to make the most of my time left, I don’t have the time to hold grudges against people I care about, and who I know care about me and aren’t actually like their shitty evil bastard of a brother. I’m willing to forget it if you are. Zephyr… is aware they don’t necessarily deserve forgiveness for all that. But if Karlach still actually wants to be with them… They don’t want to hurt her further by pulling back again, even if they don’t quite know what to do with forgiveness.)

[thenugking]

FLYMM? Oh boy I am excited for this one - 21, 22, 24?

21. Describe a defining moment from their past, which makes them who they are today! 

I mean I was thinking of going with the time their brother disappeared out of their life and their parents were suddenly a lot happier and they suddenly had a lot more money for a while. But I don’t know if that was defining as much as a few days of happiness over proper meals and not having to deal with Enver being a dickhead today, turning into an increasing feeling of unease the longer he was gone.

The biggest defining moment for Zephyr came several years later, when their other brother woke them up in the night and told them he was taking some money he’d hidden away and leaving, because he wasn’t sticking around to let their parents sell him like they did Enver. Here’s all the places he hides money and food that their parents don’t know about, and he suggests Zephyr use them too and get out as soon as they’re old enough, and he promises to write to check up on them but they can’t tell their parents where he is. Zephyr, who was 12 at the time, freaked out about losing their favourite brother too, and yelled for their parents to wake up and stop him. Their brother told them being a snitch wasn’t going to make their parents love them any more when there was no one else to get at, and booked it out of the house. He didn’t write any letters back after that.

It’s the biggest regret of Zephyr’s life, and also the moment that they finally stopped repressing all their concerns about their parents and suspicions of what happened to Enver, and realised that no, there isn’t anything they can do to be good enough for these people. That if there’s another debt, they’re not going to make themself helpful enough or kind enough or smart enough or quiet enough that their parents will value them as much as their own safety and comfort. It’s the moment they decided to stop trying to appease other people, while also unfortunately cementing for them that fucking up out of fear will lose you the people you care about forever.

22. How is your Tav’s relationship with their family? Their parents? 

NOT GOOD. Zephyr was the baby of the family, and growing up was the favourite, as much as Sally and Dravo had one (causing resentment from both their brothers). Once they were the only kid left, all the abuse was focused on them. They left home when they were 14, signing on to work on a ship and get the fuck out of Baldur’s Gate. They’ve come back to the city several times since, but always avoided going anywhere near the family home.

They had a bad relationship with Gortash growing up (he was… never a nice person, but certainly made worse by Sally and Dravo treating every sign of neurodivergence or normal kid fuckups as a sign that he was a monster, and took out his problems on the smaller, younger kid). Zephyr’s relationship with their oldest brother was better, though still pretty volatile, since a bunch of kids in an abusive home are never going to have great coping strategies or conflict resolution skills. By present day, Zephyr is repressing their past as much as they can (that’s the same as Letting Go and Moving On, right?) but misses both their brothers and desperately hopes they’re both safe.

Then their old associate Nine Fingers gives them the heads up that she’s been looking into the local arms dealer who’s suddenly causing the Guild a whole lot of trouble and she’s pretty sure he’s Enver Flymm, and it would benefit both of them if Zephyr would go and have a talk with him and find out what’s up. Zephyr had a whole complex mix of emotions on finding one of their brothers again. But they were pretty sure the reunion was going well, up until the moment Gortash had a steel watcher grab them while he rammed a tadpole in their eye and told them it was far too late to try and make amends (for, yknow, not stopping their parents being abusive monsters when Zephyr was an eight year old).

24. What does your Tav consider to be their own biggest character flaw?

Zephyr acknowledges that they’re selfish. If asked, they would immediately go on the attack about it (that part is totally Not a character flaw!!) because fuck you, what’s wrong with keeping themself safe and happy when no one else cares enough to?? But they’d admit, to themself at least, that it’s deeply selfish of them to, say, not tell Karlach some things that she really deserves to know, just because they’re deeply enjoying spending time with her and they don’t want her to learn the truth and immediately start hating them. Zephyr’s had a lot of experience with allies turning on them on hearing about past fuck ups/things that were not in fact their fault, which is definitely down to the fact that they fundamentally can’t be good enough for people, and not because of the “immediately going on the attack whenever they get scared” thing.