#and him knowing abt the tadpoles isn't him being an arrogant know it all it's just him letting the character know what's at stake | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

entering--hyperspace · 7 months

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Emperor and Págos dynamic rambling

I being a sort of "My Tav's core romance is with the emperor" vibe that Normal baldurs gate players really dont like

Anyway. I feel like i've gone through all stages of grief and have temporarily arrived at acceptance for this brief period of time, lets get it.

I'm going to ramble abt Págos individually. and their dynamic as that progresses.

Págos may not initially be aware that he's a dragon, but he sure does act like one. He cannot shake the core of who he is, personality shaped by being the truth of his origins.

He is Stubborn, he sees the world in hard rights and wrongs but not in the sense of morality but rather what he deems to make sense. And yet he carries with him the patience of a being that can live for centuries, a sort of stillness to conflict. Inherently intense but not negatively so. Half of who he is, half of what it took for when he became tired of war and conquest. And he is also alien to it, in his life he was always both the mighty and the meek, and with his lost memories in the present he can sense something missing about himself and his relations to others but isn't able to fully grasp it.

So. The dream visitor. Of course he does not trust him, why would he? It is obvious to him, he knows war, he knows tactics and manipulation, he knows when he is being lied to. And yet, the sincerity is what gives him pause, the half truths, the small slips of the mask.

Their conversations are tip toeing on ice, smiles even though they are both aware a game is being played. So after the initial first icebreaker conversations, they start treating each visit like a game of chess. Embrace the power of the tadpoles, the confidence it isn't needed, why follow the instructions when the person giving them is obviously wearing a mask.

I think the emperor initially found him frustrating, and vice versa, but there was a realization that they were equally matched and what was frustration became begrudging Admiration. Dare I say another shared trait was loneliness. As much as they both needed an ally, the dream visitor needed a friend though he would probably think he was above such sentiment. Págos was surrounded by people he was growing closer to, but at the same time no one was able to engage him quite like his mysterious ally could.

Págos got him to reveal more of his true feelings than he would like to admit. And then the climax of it all: the dream visitor a mindflayer. And more surprising: Págos did not care. I mean, he cared for an explanation, but he does not hold the same knowledge of mindflayers, its not above him of there being a possibility that in the evilness of their faction, one could be good. The same way chromatic dragons and their followers were infamous for their own "evil" ambitions, while he decided to break free of it.

I think their thin friendship grew into an actual one after more truths were revealed. Págos valued his opinion more than he did beforehand, and The Emperor was willing to briefly put aside his own arrogance for the one person who could actually challenge him. You need me, I need you.

It was only natural it would evolve into something further, I think it was only elevated by the way Págos treated him as an individual rather than a presumptuous idea of what a mindflayer is, not out of sympathy really, but more out of like, facts. I think the idea of them being equally matched in the "games" they play with each other is kinda attractive to him (the emperor). Someone who could match him move for move.

For Págos…

But what is more tempting to a dragon than gold and glory? Devotion to a cause. to a person, to a feeling.

I do want to clarify that Págos do grow to care deeply about him, I just meant like, to Págos it was much less complicated on his part. I feel like the emperor had a whole thing he had to process before he came to the conclusion he was growing fond of Págos, whereas Págos that's just simply what it was. There was no questioning it.

Anyway, Ough. The wyrm trials, the "there is no war in ba sing se" moment. Págos has almost always been able to tell when he was lying, and it became even more obvious after sharing their minds together that one night, he can read him so much easier. So of course he knew he was lying again

And so the reveal of Ansur, the reveal of his past life as Balduran, and Págos' memories flooding back about who HE is.

The only reason Págos and the emperor were not aware of the fact he's a dragon is because the emperor didn't Dig for his memories, he merely studied what was given and there in the moment.

When Ansur possesses him its stated in the game he quite literally Forces himself into your mind, he searches through every inch of it. And I think at first he is too distracted by Balduran's presence. It's not until he gets to the part where he calls Págos Balduran's "thrall" that he hesitates. He searches deeper, and it makes him Angrier.

Him digging deeper into Págos' mind causes Págos to remember. His mother, his clan in its entirety, his nature as a white dragon, But Págos doesn't get to swallow this until later. Ansur gets angrier. He accuses Balduran of replacing him with another Dragon, of making a dragon his thrall, it disgusts him further. And before anyone can get answers the fight begins as it does in game.

The afterwards conversation feels like more of a confrontation, pointed sharp questions. "Why did you keep this from me" "why did you never speak of him" "Why did you kill him" Págos' emotions slipping through due to the revelations about himself also. Ansur was his friend, and yet the emperor probably knew him better than he did. And yet there is that one inexplicable truth. Ansur inspired him to break free of the oath, and it was Ansur's oath that killed him. The cruel irony of it all.

The emperor answers this less defensive than he does in game. I feel like he is a little more sincere in this canon with the fact that he and Págos are...something.

And Págos cannot deny his logic. Its true he was an adventurer, ansur was never mentioned and he never asked, it's true Págos knows what survival can do to someone. He's seen it, he has lived it, he has been the hand that twisted back the knife many times. "You would have done the same." A statement the emperor knows is true. But it's the withholding of more information that angers Págos, rightfully of course. And then the final sting of, "Will you kill me too?" Because Págos cannot devote himself to something that will once again lead him to a cliff's edge, not again.

I think the emperor is more vulnerable there, he tells him how he still mourns his previous companions, he tells him how much he lost, and he tells him of course not, Págos is different, he Trusts him, it was for his own survival, a last resort. At the same time, he is trying to do and say anything that will keep Págos at his side, because just this once he found an ally,a partner that accepts him as he is (and is powerful at that) the idea of losing that…he would avoid it by any means necessary.

#págos #bg3 tav #bg3 emperor #thats all im tagging this as bc this is legit just shit abt my tav

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cannibalisticskittles · 6 months

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i am almost certainly not going to do full runs with these bc they'd pretty much all be good or neutral aligned and so there wouldn't be much variation throughout the playthrough but i've been tossing around ideas for other tavs

was thinking abt a halfling paladin for a wyllmance but now i'm wondering if maybe i like the idea of him being a half-orc better; not sure! either way, he is v sweet and... does not really know how to interact with people beyond the limits of his oath

a really arrogant halfling... wizard? maybe multi-classed to bard/warlock? not sure. not exactly optimized especially if she's multi-classed to wizard, but she's not here to be optimized, she's here to do whatever the hell she wants. might save the tieflings but might skip the tiefling/goblin entirely; she'd love the praise of saving people but also doesn't want to sprout tentacles, so she might just. skip past them. unsure abt romances but thinking lae'zel.

symon, amity's father. like 1 level of wizard, 1 level of warlock, and 10 levels of artificer with a mod. also not optimized but he lives his life according to his whims, not optimization. might also skip the tiefling/goblin conflict -- not deliberately, but uh, he doesn't always. think. about the long-reaching consequences of things. he Did Not mean for the tieflings to get slaughtered, he was just so focused on studying the tadpole situation that he... Did Not Think about anything else. whoops. he probably wouldn't romance any of the origin characters EXCEPT maybe gale -- but symon is so blase about everything all the time and isn't super interested in traditional wizardry so while they Might get along, i think he'd end up rubbing gale the wrong way lmao. however. something with halsin is Possible. it would almost certainly not end well since symon doesn't usually... do love. or even fleeting attachments. but it would start.

and then i kind of wanted to do a self-insert bard run with a lae'zel romance and just eat all my shitty dice rolls lmao

the idea of a dark urge who embraces their urges/an evil run might forever be Too Much for me so i don't even have ideas for what that'd look like rn

#bg3 blogging

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