#tav: hemlock

[asstariontrash]

Tav Tag!

Inspired by @inaconstantstateofchange's entry -- big thanks to them for gently motivating me and also to @triumphingmybest for the very cool template!

I want to draw my Tav & talk about them more on this blog, but I wanted to introduce them properly first. Meet Hemlock, my godless Oathbreaker paladin who's nevertheless trying his best all the time:

I've been using #tav/astarion and #tav: hemlock on this blog to tag things that especially remind me of them, so if you're interested in more Hemlock vibes, give that a peek.

You can find a blank Tav Tag template here!

I am very shy but very eager to perceive other people's characters. Tagging @beaubambabey & @jellymellydraws in the softest, lowest-pressure way imaginable, and YOU, if you're reading this and would like to talk about your Tav too!

(also please behold my redemption Durge under the cut, because this was getting long:)

I drew Century already over here! Their tag is #durge: century. It was important to me that they be Very Pathetic At All Times; never more than 30 seconds away from dissolving into tears.

Hemlock is also a mess and also about two steps away from a nervous breakdown for most of the game, but at least he hides it better. He's just starting to crack, whereas Century has already been smashed to smithereens, you feel? (Astarion gets his teeth into both of them, for better or worse...)

I just really like characters who're in the midst of a faith/personal identity crisis, it fuels me.

#bg3 tav #bg3 durge #bg3 ocs #bg3 oc #I should really start tagging my tav stuff properly I'm very normal about them #on paper Hem has a negative character arc but the whole Oathbreaker thing is actually really good for him I promise #I play fast and loose with both Hem's and Century's pronouns #I realized halfway through Hem's game that I accidentally made the most stereotypical half-elf #I realized this when my partner disguised himself as s generic half-elf and I went ''hey wait a minute'' and then realized #IN MY DEFENSE Hem does not think of themself as subvertive at all and so wouldn't go out of their way to look especially striking #they have a prominent scar + markings on their face and their hair has a bit of red in it #but in this angle/in this light it's hard to see #I can & will justify my prettyboy paladin's prettyboy-ness #bg3 spoilers #tav: hemlock #durge: century

[foxxology]

Hemlock picked up: [ Prayer of Forgiveness ]

Hemlock can recognize his own handwriting...

#foxx art time #oc hemlock #dark urge hemlock #dark urge #baldurs gate 3 spoilers #baldurs gate fanart #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #tav bg3 #bg3 tav #bg3 fanart #bg3 dark urge #dark urge spoilers #baldurs gate astarion #astarion

[hiirenvirna]

random assortment of gay stuff 👍

#i have sooooo many thoughts about them but everything i draw is silly #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #wyll ravengard #bg3 tav #hemlock

[vicinea]

jokes on you — these dumbasses called each other troglodytes approximately two (2) seconds before any of this! 👍

#rolan #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #bg3 #bg3 rolan #holy rolan empire #rolan x tav #bg3 oc #bg3 gifs #bg3 edit #hemlock my beloved

[huitunkuutti]

"You always said how you loved dogs I don't know if I count, but I'm trying my best When I'm howling and barking these songs"

It's my dear friend @rairikka's birthday!!! Their tav Hemlock is such an amazing character and I have been meaning to draw them for a long time. Happy birthday pal!! Love you!

#rairikka #art #digital art #tiefling #bg3 #tav #dog #skull #hemlock

[hoh-art]

"What would happen if our Tavs meet"

This.

Precious Rhidyl @sweetmage , Elorin @dude-wheres-my-ankheg and Hemlock @gothic-ivory as well as Val'dran are on adventures. They're not going super great xD

(Val'dran appears as if he's the sensible one here. He's not.)

#drow tav #bg3 tav #bg3 durge #tav troupe #val'dran #elorin #rhidyl #hemlock #meme drawing #hoh-art #hohart

[sweetmage]

Click for full res! 🍄

Finished artwork of @gothic-ivory 's lovely murder boy, Hemlock 💖 Thank you so much for commissioning me ✨️

#others oc: hemlock #durge #dark urge #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 tav #jun art

[leatherhead]

Burnt lips is a small price to pay for a smooch from the wife~

#baldur's gate 3 #Karlach #tav #karlach x tav #my screenshots #my ocs #hemlock #bg3 spoilers

[sketchyelvenasss]

9, 15, and 21 for everyone sound fun! (Though 13 and 14 for any Durge are also fun, if you feel like it? :))

Thank you for the ask! Sorry for the wait I had to mull over a few things :3

9) What is your OC’s greatest wish/dream/goals?

Honestly Rexander is looking forward to when he and Astarion can retire from the nomadic life they continued after they had saved the world. Not that he’s tired of looking for a way to cure Astarion’s vamprism-- that’s his main goal, but I thought that was an easy answer. It is a promise he intends to keep. He would just like to find it before he is too old so he can enjoy a quiet, slow life with him.

Aerika is constantly striving to balance his faith, love and worldly wants. A feat that has become far more complicated post the events of the game. He is happily married, but still wants to continue his expeditions to the underdark, but also wants to pursue the magical study he had largely sidelined after becoming a cleric. After a couple years Aerika does take far fewer trips to the underdark to spend more time with Gale because he does understand, even with Gale’s magic, the disparity between their lifespans. (even so he doesn't for a moment regret showing Gale he desired him the mortal man--not a deity made from him)

It is never good to wish to reverse time, but Orville can’t help himself.. Act 2 Astarion admits that he met and lured Orville’s mother to Cazador. That revelation really hurt, but Orville chose--after a lot of tears and self reflection-- to forgive him because at that point he did love him. Then Act 3 they learn everything-- that somewhere in that mass of 7,000 spawn was his mother. He wishes he could undo the pain she went through and those years she suffered down here in the dark. If he could he would have trade places with her.

15) Has your OC ever fallen in love before who their intended love interest is, or is the intended love interest their first love?

I wouldn’t call what Rex and Gortesh had love. A mutual attraction from a thirst for power and desire to display dominance? Rex really was a different person than who he became. (I work with the idea that Orin pm gave him a lobotomy when she deposed him)

Aerika wanted to get married once before. There was a young(25) tiefling named Dhymos that would volunteer to help clean the temple a couple times a week. They got to know each other well after the tiefling accidentally bumped into Aerika as he rounded a corner and dumped water all over him romcom style. For several years they were partners that Aerika took more seriously than Dhymos did. Not to paint Dhymos as a bad guy, it was just a lack of communication on both their parts, and Aerika’s long absences didn’t help matters either. When Aerika proposed, Dhymos turned him down as politely as possible.

Orville’s first love is Astarion. That is probably why it is so hard, and why despite everything he doesn’t want to let those feelings go. If he could give that up and just be mad at the elf it would be so much easier, but he can’t. He wants to forgive and love him. But feelings are complicated and are not so easily reconciled.

21) Any embarrassing secrets your OC demands you take to the grave but you will share anyway?

Not sure how much of a secret it is, but Rexander is embarrassed that he’s ticklish. It’s a weird sensation for him. So he’d rather others not now about it. Astarion takes too much advantage as it is after he found out.

Aerika is a cleric, but he’s never felt like his devotion demanded chastity. He’s not quick to tell the story that he and Dhymos were nearly caught screwing in the temple garden. It started out as a late evening date after Aerika had been gone for several months. Then they got a little carried away. Abstinence makes the fond grow harder…(something like that right? :3)

Orville is a pretty open book if he’s comfortable with someone so he doesn’t really have secrets. Though one time he did get fleeced by a woman that caught him pickpocketing. She told him he was handsome and offered to buy him a drink. Next thing he knows he wakes up in only his small clothes tied to a bed by all four posts. Wasn’t till the innkeeper came to clean the room the next day he was found.

Durge questions: Hermon Hemlock

13 + 14) Does your OC have a good relationship with their parents or no? What about any siblings, do they have any and is their relationship good?

Short answer, yes(13). I do not have a deep understanding of DnD lore so don’t mind me if my headcanons break rules or are weird in context.

Longer answer: Hermon was raised alongside Orin by Sarevok. Sarevok is more like a parental figure for him and he desires to please him as much as he wants to sever Bhaal and please himself. The relationship with his father is more like that of a god and a chosen, but Hemlock is very happy with that arrangement.

Despite everything I would say Hemlock and Orin have a good relationship. A rivalry for sure, but there is no hatred between them. Hemlock madly respects her coup. If not for some bad luck she would have completely succeeded. Orin may be slighted by Hemlock being favored since birth, but they were always competing. She would be lying if she said she didn’t watch him and take cues from his work. Hemlock honorably accepts her duel and gives her a satisfying end.

As far as murder siblings go… its a pretty good relationship XD

#thank you for the ask! #I hope this isn’t too long #maybe one day I’ll create Dhymos’ face just to show off #yes I purposefully used Rex to refer to his old self there #sorry if I ramble my speaking style and writing style are very different lol #bg3 #my ocs #aerika dyrr #rexander #orville tav #hermon hemlock

[topbanana-art]

Tav Party

Featuring from left to right

Foxglove - Mine

Hemlock -@kroovv

Orla -@ ABelmontGame

Ashes -@rbillustration

Euphoria -@zombieoctopus

Circe -@holleydoodles

#baldur's gate oc #baldur's gate 3 #oc art #digital sketch #character art #bg3 tav #art #digital art

[honey-tongued-devil]

The brightest star

|without the lil hearts and in high quality here|

If the link doesn't work, just search on x/twitter @honey_tongued_ Consider following me both here and on Twitter to support me and stay updated on the upcoming parts of the drawing (three).

I would like to write or draw something post-canon, where the TAV talks to Gale and mentions where they have decided to stay, how they divide their daytime hours, with Astarion unable to go outside, and nighttime hours, where the TAV (Hemlock at least, mine) returns to duty and rests, while Astarion either goes out or stays with her, listening to stories about how the city was during the day, never getting tired of that tale.

For now, though, I fill my gaps by drawing very soft contact, Hem and Astarion deeply in love, and dressed as little as possible.

Little bonus: as you've seen in all the drawings, I always and only color the TAV's hair. There are two reasons for this. The first is that I have red hair, and it's my entire personality, as well as my identifying feature. The second is that I like the idea of Astarion with short, white hair, in a way that romantically resembles the moon, and the person with whom he'll spend eternity having long, messy, red hair, warmly reminiscent of the sun.

#astarion ancunin #astarion #astarion x tav #astarion ancunin x tav #astarion x reader #astarion ancunin x reader #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion and tav #bg3 astarion #astarion bg3 #baldur's gate 3 astarion #astarion x mc #astarion x f!tav #astarion x female tav #bg3 x reader #bg3 fanart #bg3 tav #bg3 astarion x tav #bg3 astarion x reader #baldur’s gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate astarion #baldur's gate astarion #bg3 tav x astarion #astarion x original female character #astarion x oc #my tav #bg3 art #baldurs gate tav

[asstariontrash]

random OC ask: what is the most unique thing about your OC? what is the most mundane thing about them?

how do they feel about those two aspects?

Ty for the ask!!

Hemlock (he/they paladin) is visibly divine. They were born with three very-pale marks on their forehead — they look like someone touched them with their index/middle/ring fingers and that touch left a mark. But the thing is, no god has claimed them ever since. They've had no direct contact with any deity (prior to the game) and their Oath wasn't sworn to any god in particular, but they still have all this radiant power, so someone must like them... it's sort of a "hey what do you want from me???" situation that only gets weirder once their Oath is broken.

Hem's most mundane trait is that they're a back sleeper lol. Can't fall asleep on their side or stomach. Spooning is hard.

Century (any pronouns cleric) is so so weird — but if we ignore all of the usual Durge amnesia weirdness, his most unusual trait is that he has a lot of vocal tics. It's like a verbal muscle memory — a lot of times it's just nonsensical mutterings but sometimes it's upsetting stuff, even after he shakes off the Urge. He's conscious of it and really doesn't want to be the party face because of this. Sometimes he ends up as the face anyway.

Century's most mundane trait is that he's bad at math. Numbers just go in one ear and straight out the other. And dates? This poor person has no idea what year it is much less the month and day of the week. He has so many other problems that this ranks very low on the Things To Improve list.

If you're curious what these two look like, you can see them here!

#tav: hemlock #durge: century #asked and answered! #this was a fun one :D #Hem's birthmark is 100% inspired by Riddlemaster of Hed #one of my favorite fantasy books #I really like godless paladins as a concept #like they're just so Convicted that they manifest these powers #but there are so many “Paladins of [God]” in bg3 that Hem feels a bit weird about it #especially since Astarion begged every god for power and got nothing whereas Hem just.... believed hard enough. #and also Gale got fucked over by his god #Hem's got some imposter syndrome tied up in it that's fun for me to play with

[kroovv]

YOUR TAV IS SO FREAKIN BEAUTIFUL AND HANDSOME LIKE BROO-😩😩

Lowkey falling in lo-

Thank yooouuu Hemlock is actually my durge aka spicy tav

[wetcatspellcaster]

If it’s not [REDACTED] material you plan on covering further on in Pieces, would you mind talking about why Hemlock is so jealous of Rosalie? It seems like every time she’s “on screen” she’s making some sort of jab at Rosie concerning either Astarion/Rosalie’s past relationship, or Astarion and Hemlocks (insinuated?) carnal activities, but hardly anyone ever comments on it. Like poor Hemmie practically spat the fact Astarion comes to her bed in Rosalie’s face during Chapter 12 in front of Shadowheart but no one acknowledges that she’s constantly trying to make Rose upset with this info. Is it just the power of the Ascendant that Hemlock is drawn to and makes her wish she was on Rosalie’s level (in Astarion’s eyes), or is it the bond between vampire and spawn that makes her act like this?

Hey anon! Thank you for the question! I'll try to answer you as best I can without spoilers :)

Firstly, the reason no one ever comments on Hemlock's behaviour or the buckwild things she says is because.... they all find it kind of cringe :') In my mind, by this point in the timeline, this party and Tav have encountered Gortash, Orin, Cazador, Raphael, Mizora, the Emperor's bullshit... not to mention any villains Rose encountered in her post game life, and in Avernus. They've had their fair share of villain speeches! They're used to it! They feel like water off a duck's back at this point! It's easier to simply not acknowledge it, than engage.

(Rose talks about the social energy it takes to interact with evil people in another fic I've written, she's just like "more than anything, it's exhausting to act like I value their opinions and pretend I care".)

Hemlock also thinks her and Rosalie are fighting over an Ascended Astarion... they're not. Rose doesn't want Ascended Astarion. So when Hemlock's like, "yeah, did I mention we fucked", Rose is just like "...and? you and every other person in that house. happy for you, i guess?" Like yes, it does sting a little in the sense that it shows how much Astarion has changed... but it's kind of missing the real mark? And most of Rose's friends know her well enough to know that, but especially Shadowheart, who walked round that awful dungeon with her.

That being said, Rose is more petty with Hemlock when they're alone and no one's there to judge her, but that's more because of the Feeblemind than anything.

As for Hemlock's motivations, it's unfortunately a mixture of all of the things you list above. Astarion's spawn are all people he recruited post-Ascendency, so all of them buy into his spiel to some extent. Hemlock, in particular, is a person who was already evil-aligned before she became a vampire. She was promised a lot of power and a position of supposed equals (where have we heard that before?) I do think, if she doesn't have feelings for Astarion, or may now have started to reach a point where some of the sheen of this hot, all-powerful vampire man has been tarnished, she does at least want the peak ascendency romance: the glamour, the debauchery, and the power that comes with it (she is, essentially, a Tav that picks all the pro-evil plan lines in the dialogue tree and means it).

Instead, she's forced to live a circumscribed and domesticated life, because of some girl she's never met, who Astarion waxes lyrical about whenever he has a free moment to pause for breath. In Chapter 13, I reveal that all the spawn have to live according to Rose's dictate of 'no harm' - notice that Astarion enforces that perfectly on all the people he can literally command, meanwhile he is the only person with freedom in that situation, and he can act however he likes and keeps 'messing it up uwu'. He thinks he's being 'good' and doing vampirism 'well', but what it actually is is just hypocrisy, and a way to continue to exercise power over those he controls, to some extent. Hemlock is someone who actually wants to be an evil vampire, or even a Cazador, and can't, because she's not given the free will with which to do so.

So Hemlock has this mixture of 'I am actually in love with this man and want what he promised me'; or 'I was in love with this fantasy and now I'm facing the reality, after having sold my soul, and even if I hate it here now I'm trapped, I want to find any way to salvage this so I've got to continue pretending he's right'; 'I fucking hate this woman who I'm constantly compared to and can never live up to, even though, to my mind, she sounds fucking stupid'; ....AND then there's the bond between vampire and servant. Hemlock tells Rose that she's already under orders not to displease Astarion - I fully believe that order has been in place for a long time. This Astarion words commands and orders in a way that means the spawn have the illusion of cooperation and free choice, which basically means he makes the spawn complicit in their own oppression. He'll say something like "because you've upset me, you should go to the dungeon cells and starve yourself and not move, while you think about what you've done" - that's still, to all intents and purposes, an order (especially when you're already under orders not to displease him).

Hemlock says a lot of what she says to Rosalie because it's easier to hate the woman who 'ruined her life' and 'prevents Astarion from reaching his full potential', rather than examine anything too closely and realise she's ruined her life herself. If she stops buying into the vampirism she chose, she's fucked bc it's not like she can leave it, so better to hate anything else but being a spawn.

It's just also unfortunate, that she thinks the way to hurt Rose is to brag about sleeping with Astarion. But then, the only version of Astarion Hemlock has ever known is obsessed with sex, so why wouldn't she think the woman who loves him wouldn't be as well?

I hope that makes sense! Sorry, this ended up being very long!

#asks #anons #wip: pieces still stuck in your teeth #I'm not sure if Hemlock feels like a consistently written character but tbh she just has the same cognitive dissonance as an act 1 astarion #so like... spawn 'how dare you try to save me. i dont want to be saved' syndrome. only she hasn't admitted any of what she has is trauma. #but this is then coupled with the fact that she's evil aligned. so it's hard to want to give her free will when part of her baggage is: #'but what if i want to commit atrocities :(((((((' #hemlock tag

[slothquisitor]

@blackestnight's druid, Hemlock. I did my best to try and capture a bit of a smirk! She was so fun to draw, thank you!

I'm still taking Tav/Durge requests here.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 tav #she's so pretty #also her crystal healing will probably kill you #which is fucking cool #slothquisitordraws #for other people!

[hoh-art]

More squad memery thingy with @gothic-ivory @sweetmage and @dude-wheres-my-ankheg 's fantabulous friends

Everything will be going great :D

#hoh-art #hohart #bg3 fanart #tavs #hemlock #rhidyl #elorin #val'dran #(one of the tavs is in fact a durge guess which one)