#but i got so attached to associating Baldwin as a King Vulture that i can't see him as anything else!

[birdyverdie]

i love harpy eagles! you mentioned you'd imabine Baldwin as one? and if not, what bird would he be? :}

Hi hi Coffee!! Heehee this series is honestly super fun to make! Baldwin really left me scratching my head I'll be honest! Characterizing and analyzing the character's personal traits, mixing it with game play, and then transferring it to a bird form is definitely a challenge! A fun one though, so I am not complaining. So Baldwin, our favorite self-exiled king. His leprosy makes it hard to interact with others and he left his kingdom to fight til his inevitable premature death. Due to his leprosy, he's most likely going blind, thus his low accuracy. He's a tanky damage dealer, with the highest base damage output and HP of the game, with low disease resist, but a pretty average blight resist. Now I don't know all the birds in the world, so I tend to look aesthetically first and then deep dive for features, and for Baldwin I thought a large white bird would fit him. I summarized the options down and ended up with two interesting choices. I'm incredibly biased for one though, and I think that's what I would assign to him, however there's a huge flaw in the logic so I'll maybe talk about the other in a separate reblog (this ended up really long). King Baldwin, The King Vulture.

Now hear me out! I know vultures are very disease resistant and have weak neck muscles and that's why they eat carrion, but the other factors of this bird make it so cool and fitting that I thought it should at least be a contender! King Vultures are part of the New World vulture classification, which means that they're a part of the species of vultures that doesn't depend on sight to find carcasses to feed on. However, compared to other new world vultures, their sense of sight AND smell are fairly poor, so they follow other vultures to lead them to carrion. I sorta associated it to how mechanically, you need the Leper to have some sort of accuracy buff, or else you'll just keep missing. The main problem with this association is the fact that King Vultures are not aggressive at all, in fact, they tend to shy away from any confrontation. Which doesn't match Baldwin at all. To contrast that though, is how out of all the new world vultures, the King Vulture's beak is the strongest and thus if present, other vultures let King Vultures tear at the carcass before feeding on the remains. (Kinda why you always place the Leper at the front.) Another reason why I chose the King Vulture is because of its history. The ancient Mayans believed that the King Vulture was a messenger of the gods, and therefore made him a King. The mythology of this bird is varied across cultures though, since the Mayans believed that vultures are powerful by taking in disease as a sacrifice for humanity, whereas other cultures like the Greeks, or Christian religions, believed them to be evil and therefore their choice of diet and baldheadedness is a punishment from the gods. (I recommend you to read this excerpt I found while researching because I found the cultural distinction to be awesome.) Some other key factors is the general association of leprosy and disease, I thought that since these birds have such a strong association with disease, that symbolically it rather fits. Also, these birds are fairly slow and stationary most of the time, as they spend most of their day perching, which relates to his in-game slow speed and refusal to move backwards. Aesthetically I think it fits him too! The bald head for his disfigured face, the yellow caruncle for his mask, the huge size to mirror his high HP, and the white feathers for his cloak!

#darkest dungeon #darkest dungeon baldwin #dd baldwin #The other bird I was thinking of was a gyrfalcon #but i got so attached to associating Baldwin as a King Vulture that i can't see him as anything else! #this bird responds