tykobrian

[tykobrian]

In Luna's light the lonely victor stands

And I pray she holds my soul

[tykobrian]

Descent into Avernus and Why You Should Read It.

(Or, like, at least skim!)

Descent into Avernus is the D&D 5E module describing the events that took place just before the timeline of Baldur's Gate 3 picks up — including more information and context for the ordeals undergone by the tiefling refugees.

The module is described as "complimentary [sic.] to the story of Baldur's Gate III", and the studio itself made a point to note that they "worked with Adam Lee, one of the lead writers of Descent Into Avernus, when crafting the story of Baldur's Gate III."¹

The section I would most strongly recommend taking a look at concerns the city and citizens of Baldur's Gate itself, the "Baldur's Gate Gazetteer", spanning from pages 158 to 215.

Included here are things like:

A stat block and bio for Nine-Fingers Keene (although, sadly, nothing on just what she has going on with Jaheira–).

Further information on Dukes Ravengard and Stelmane.

A full map of the city, and subsequent sections giving details of each region.

A section on Ramazith's Tower, and its current master, Lorroakan.

Details on a variety of named and well-described businesses.

Further clarifying information on exactly what is going on with Wyll's new horns.

I'll work on making some individual posts in the coming days delving into these aspects and more, but if you'd rather not wait around for that for all your worldbuilding and storytelling needs, go forth with my blessing, and this handy guide² to an accessible copy:

[Keyword Search Terms: "Descent Into Avernus" + "Anyflip"]

¹ Christian Hoffer. "Dungeons & Dragons Clarifies Relationship Between Descent Into Avernus and Baldur's Gate III". June 2019. comicbook.com.

² I tried to include the link with the original attempt at this post, but the Tumblr tag index did not like that. I hope this alternative suffices.

[tykobrian]

Hey there! I just read your post about how M%stra didn’t smell or taste of literally anything during their times together with Gale and it got me thinking… Had Gale literally never experienced a loving physical touch AT ALL during their relationship that LASTED DECADES??

Hiiiii!! 😘 Thanks for the ask!

(also TW for anyone for Mystra talk ahead bc theres a lot of strong feelings about her for good reason)

So, I thiiiiiink so. Yeah. (Poor Gale). I'm not sure if its ever actually fully confirmed or if I'm mixing up fanon and canon, but I'm actually fairly positive Mystra only 'made love' to Gale in the astral form; the way the gods do - as he puts it when showing you the same.

Theres a couple things, I think, that confirm this. During his romance you can tease that hes 'out of practice' with kissing. Which I guess could be because he'd been in isolation for a year but I took to mean that he literally hasn't kissed anyone in 10 years. Also, generally the line about making love the 'way the gods do' heavily implying that that is just what they do, that is how they make love. That is all he has know the last 10+ years. That is where he is most comfortable right now in terms of 'lovemaking'. I dont know if (after becoming a god) Mystra ever took a 'human' form again.

Theres a couple other notes - like the line when talking to Elminster (her feet are far too delicate - that Gale delivers with such wonderful snark) that imply she general stays in her realm and either sends messengers to do her bidding or brings people into her domain to speak with them directly. (Which again, would mean no, she never got sweaty or messy or kissed sloppy style like we mere mortals like to do). When going to the Stormshore Tabernacle she channels her magic to invite Gale back to her domain - and I think all this leads to the idea of her just generally not wanting to 'lower' herself to the mortal plain and actually preferring to stay in her realm.

He also talks a few times about spending time in her realm, and we know he wasnt there the entire time he was her chosen, so I think he would go be with her and learn from her and then go back to the mortal plains to go about his business.

Lastly, there is a dialogue Gale and Halsin share (Galemancers help me here - I know I read it here but cant for the life of me find it anywhere (and my search history is crazy trying to find it)) - where Halsin asks Gale if Mystra ever took any different shapes when making love - and Gale says no because she preferred far more 'abstract' ways of making love. (Someone please let me know the exact quote because its driving me crazy).

Reading a bit more about Mystra, I dont even know if she would necessarily even consider what they did 'making love' herself. (I know when they talk in Act3 she calls him her 'lover' but that could be her using a term Gale could connect with). Gale mentions her eyes have no feeling after meeting her again and given the general relationship history between Gods and mortals I fully get the impression it was more of a spiritual/astral connection than ever an actual physical one. If anything, I would go as far as to say I dont think they ever 'had sex' in the way mortals would consider it but just connected in the weave (with all the pleasures it would bring, which I'm sure was very very intense for Gale).

Soooo yeah, I'm pretty sure Gale hasnt felt actual physical touch until you first pull him out of the portal. 😭 Hence why I think he is so happy to love Tav however they look AND why he loves their M U S K so much. 🫠🙃

Also, I tried to keep this really based on in-game conversation. Because A) I'm still not yet very well versed on Forgotten Realms lore. B) From my basic understanding BG3 was a liiiitle loose with some of the timelines and blurred some of the history a touch. Please anyone correct me if I'm way off base with any lore! 🙏

[tykobrian]

me when i meet the person who created webp files

[tykobrian]

you ever feel like you were born with something rotten inside you and if people get close enough they’re gonna find out

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

There’s no such thing as work-life balance for neurodivergent & chronically ill people.

This is because everything in my life requires work:

maintaining friendships

keeping up with my hygiene

managing bills

making money

remembering my basic needs

sleeping regularly

outputting creatively

All requires some aspect of work for me.

And when everything in your life requires work, your balance goes out the window.

If you're neurodivergent and overwhelmed — I see you.

If you're chronically ill and overwhelmed — I see you.

You're not dysfunctional.

You're not incapable.

You're doing your best.

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

Companions' Wishes

Wyll:

Shadowheart:

Gale:

Karlach:

Astarion:

Lae'zel:

I just thought these were cool insights on the characters.

(Haven't checked if Lae'zel's options change if she visits the Creche first, but it is too late for that )

Edit: If you are wondering where this is, you should investigate the basement of the apothecary in the Blighted Village.

[tykobrian]

Evil or redemption, I can’t get over the idea that Gortash was the first person Durge ever loved and it inevitably triggers the demise of the Dead Three.

Just based on how Bhaal treats redemption Durge, it seems likely he made Durge kill anyone he had soft feelings for. It started with his foster family when he came of age, and it probably never stopped. In an almost Pavlovian way, Durge eventually must have felt revulsion, anger at himself for caring about anyone and letting them live. Bhaal had him well-trained. But then Enver Gortash came along.

He saw Durge— he liked Durge, and Durge clearly liked him back. Normally Durge would have killed him for that without Bhaal even having to tell him to, but he couldn’t, and Bhaal knew he couldn’t. Not this time. Gortash was protected. He was the Chosen of Bane; he was necessary for the Absolute hoax to succeed so Durge could usurp it and end the world. Cue the overwhelming guilt and shame from Durge that gave us the miserable ‘prayer for forgiveness.’

Sarevok says Durge got cocky and that’s why he didn’t see Orin’s betrayal coming. I think he got distracted. He was really happy, for the first time since the Urge awoke, but the source of his happiness was also something he had to struggle with constantly. A knife to the brain was probably a fitting punishment for loving someone other than daddy, something other than murder and fear and blood.

But then Durge gets a second chance. He’s literally taken apart and put back together again, born anew out of his own ashes. With absolutely nothing in his head, Bhaal has the perfect chance to rebuild his Chosen exactly as he wishes from an utter tabula rasa… and yet. And yet.

Durge does it again. His body may remember—the body always does—but he doesn’t, and he lets himself fall in love again. He just can’t help himself. And this time, without the fear and obligation and guilt conditioned into him over decades, he doesn’t even try to escape it. Instead, he fights to overcome what his body is telling him, what Sceleritas is trying to remind him of, just to hold onto this precious thing he’s found.

He was crafted from Bhaal’s own gore to be the perfect, heartless murder machine, but even a god can’t stamp out a mortal’s propensity for love. And it’s such a tiny thing. Such a petty, common emotion. It shouldn’t matter.

But it does. There’s no way around it. The murder god’s favourite bespoke weapon will fall in love again and again and again, even across a thousand different universes.

And so it all unravels.

[tykobrian]

if you play video games long enough you see the fandoms treat black characters the same way over and over and over again (wyll ravengard, felix iresso, preston garvey, vivienne de fer, etc etc etc)

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

The thing I find most depressing about these chat ai things is when people say they’re so real and like. They just aren’t at all? And it doesn’t make me feel judgemental it just makes me profoundly sad that people maybe only read the most surface level parts of interaction with another human being, they don’t relish the strange rhythms or quirks of human fallibility. Or, even sadder, they’re so removed from genuine human connection that they’ve forgotten what it’s like.

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

I just don't think ketheric was actively hostile toward aylin for two reasons:

1) he would need to be careful to not push isobel entirely away from him.

2) aylin is the daughter of his goddess. maybe his feelings on selûne were already cooling, but I still don't think he'd risk her wrath on something like this.

I think he primarily would have been manipulative and not in ways isobel and aylin would always notice. trying to get isobel to cancel plans with aylin, reminding isobel of all the ways aylin is different from her (he probably had a field day with The Month Aylin Went For A Walk), and also just being extra needy in a way that preys on isobel's love for him. like he's not mustache twirling villaining this, he's going to ask her to come place flowers on her mother's grave on a night he knows aylin is coming. shit like that!!!!

I also think it's important that he's not winning. isobel and aylin's relationship was strong and not thwarted by him. he did not succeed in keeping them apart. nothing he did made isobel doubt her choices. she probably just thought he didn't understand and was looking out for her—not until she wakes up in that tomb does her entire view of him shatter. only then does she finally run from him. and it's her mother-in-law (!!!!!) who keeps her safe from him from then on!!!!! letting her survive the shadowlands and protecting her as much as she can.

anyway,

something something act II is a family drama and I'm never getting over it

[tykobrian]

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

swimming lessons

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

There's a bunch of adhd advice out there that's like "people with adhd tend to work better under deadlines due to the anxiety so here are ways to artificially induce a stress response in order to get you to get work done" and it's like well what if I don't want to be stressed out all the time in order to function

[tykobrian]

Minthara Spoilers cause holy shit!!!!

but

I sometime wonder if it is lost on folks just how crazy it is that Minthara is a living female drow of Baenre house.... like.....

Baenre has been first house of Menzoberranzan since way before Drizzt was born. What is a first house? Well, there are 10 "top" houses... and in order to be top house every house above you has to stop existing.... once house Oblodra (blood merchent bitches house) almost toppled them - when magic stopped working and they could use their mindflayer like mind power to win.... but even then house Baenre won.

And just how these houses stop existing is specific, the whole house must be wiped out with no 'witnesses' of who done it. If one house fails to finish an attack they start, they are the ones destroyed.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you Female decedents of a house are also struggling for power, 'first daughter' is as important as first house, second only to Matron Mother or ruler of that house.... now house Baenre doesn't want for daughters- but the fact that Minthara is 1)alive 2)not a priestess of loth 3)a fighter tells me a ton. She has dodged assassination from in and out of her family, was most likely denied the chance to be a priestess (cause they already had older daughters taking up that work) and told to be useful in combat- and turned into the baddest bitch around just to survive...

She is basically impossible to impress. You could roll up a lothsworn drow lady noble of another any other house.... you still will be nothing compared to her back home. God forbid your Tav be a boy drow, or some lesser race... she is above you, of that she knows.

like it's NUTS- i only just got to the reveal that she is from Baenre house.... and it tells me so much....

again no shame for those that play without knowledge of forgotten relms.... but that is such a huge name drop that tells you so much about her... that she even stands before you, that she even seemingly joins you..... NUTs.

[tykobrian]

I love the fact that even if you "fail" during romantic interactions, it doesn't cost you anything. Like I was terrified to fail Gale's magic lesson, bc why would be romance you. But, he is actually really sweet if you fumble the magical lesson.

Same with Lae'zel, if you lose the fight with her, I was so convinced she would toss you to the curb. But she doesn't, she realizes how much she wants to protect you.

Also if you turn down any of their romantic reactions they don't disapprove. Like they might be a little miffed or snippy about being spurned, but not bad. But their approval doesn't go down! (I have only tested this in act 1, I can't bring myself to romance 2 people in act 2).

Maybe it was just my overreactive former gifted kid nonsense, but I was waiting for the romances to flop when I failed the challenges, or their approval to tank once I said no to being romantically involved with them. I was happily surprised that I got to maintain the relationships I wanted even if I mildly disappointed them.

[tykobrian]

passages that make you whisper "oh my god"