hooting and hollering clapping and cheering etc
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LTB Tav Tuesdays: Zafraia Zital, the Banished Bandit
My second Tav is, canonically, the accidental nemesis of my first. Her name is a loose/googly translation of the Basque "azafraia zital" or "vile saffron," a hat-tip to Malcolm Reynolds' nemesis from "Firefly." Her nickname "Zaf" is also an acronym for "zen as fuck", which is how she coolly goes through life and conducts her smuggly-swashbuckly business. It's also another hat-tip, this time to a favorite phrase my one-time IRL business partner used often. Zaf's quickie bio reads like a mashup of Mol, Nine-Fingers Keene, and Captain Grisly—though I swear I came up with it on my own years before I heard of BG3. Regardless it goes like this (again with my homebrew place-names):
"Zafraia is a cynical and calculating criminal smuggler with a suppressed thrill-seeking streak. Born 29 years ago in the Naransi city of Enancia to poor immigrants from further south, she grew up a streetwise urchin on the deadly docksides of Blackwharf. Zaf sharpened her senses to survive, soon leading a gang of semi-feral adolescents who stole and fenced anything valuable, doing that so effectively that adult criminals and authorities teamed up to stop them. As her comrades and relatives were arrested or killed one by one, Zaf stole a smuggler's skiff and escaped north to Caranacia. There she balanced smuggling with intrigue, joining the Equiposium for lucrative and dangerous espionage work."
"Zaf evaded laws, gangs, and guilds by liaising with powerful nobles, but after one such affair with a lord's daughter exploded in a public duel against a fellow Equiposian, she was banished from the City of Fortune. Going straight to lie low, Zaf became a freelance navigator in Orangeport, striking deals with local merchants as an envoy to all points East: towns, tribes, and trading posts along the arid Marakeen shore. Zaf has made three voyages in six years (sponsored by a former paramour), but lack of supplies kept her from going far. She’s recruiting a new crew for her fourth and latest voyage as captain of the ship Leverage, seeking great riches beyond the southeastern horizon, dangers be damned."
I first played Zaf in 5e as a swashbuckler rogue for an 8th-level one-shot (that became a four-shot) in 2020 for my brother's homebrew world, and then brought her to Faerun in 2023 for a 3rd-level heist via "Keys from the Golden Vault." In my own homebrew campaign, she's a potential rival or ally in an as-yet unplayed setting—but placing her there was wildly inspiring for many, many chapters of worldbuilding [sidenote: "Worldbuilding Wednesdays" will be a thing here; check back tomorrow!].
In BG3, I played her solo run as a Thief, always in muddy-red-dyed gear. Hers was my second run (and first "neutral/evil" run after Cannor's "neutral/good" run) littered with selfish actions and regrettable mistakes (staking vampires, abandoning wizards, beheading tieflings, sacrificing warlocks, humiliating paladins, and seducing cambions). To her, love is a trap for suckers and sex is a useful tool. She toyed with her companions' feelings but committed to none of them, and sneered at Withers when he tried to mock her for it. She relished toppling the Zhents, intimidating the Guild, and outwitting both Chosen to rule the Gate from the shadows.
A much less ruthless Zaf was one of Cannor's hirelings in his 4th run, and is in my current multiplayer run, where she's romancing Karlach after being rejected by Astarion, but she's always been sort of the anti-Cannor—saying and doing what he won't—and I love her for that.
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sorn is so sexy. as if its my fault
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