To anyone who might be concerned, his name is Archibald Widogast. Professor Widogast’s only son, that he’s raising on his own, with the occasional help of his adventurer friends and a revolving door of nannies (it’s Essek. Of course it’s Essek).
Essek was relieved when he saw how human his son looked. He would have loved him no matter what of course, but being too obviously half-drow would have put a target on his back for the rest of his life. Currently, Archi looks half elven, with his white hair and pointy ears.
As a toddler, Archibald had troubles recognising Essek, since the man was oftenly switching disguises. It led to an equally terrifying and comic event when one day he left kindergarten with the wrong pink skinned tiefling. Essek panicked when he realized his little Starlight wasn’t there and called the entire Mighty Nein Team to retrieve his baby. The pink tiefling, after realizing he wasn’t the kid she was supposed to babysit, bought him ice cream and walked him back to the kindergarden, deeply embarrassed.
Essek was hurt by the fact that at 3 years old his own son was unable to distinguish him from a stranger. Since then he started wearing a distinctive sign with each of his disguises, so that no more mistakes could happen.
Little Archi has very light and sensitive skin, which means long exposure under direct sun will give him bad sunburns and nausea. His eyes are also sensitive : while he has a pretty decent dark vision, high luminosity is uncomfortable for him. His aunty Veth gifted him a pair of special glasses to handle the sun, especially in summer.
Archibald is quite shy, and since he doesn't like to play outside, he has trouble making friends with other children.
He’s a very smart boy, Caleb used to take him to work when he was a baby, and he has sat through most of his courses since then. At ten, some of Caleb’s students used to sneak him sweets in exchange for a little help on their papers.
He’s also very quiet, loves to read, and is often found napping on a library bench, surrounded by books of various subjects.
If at first Essek wanted to only talk in common and zemnian around Archi, fearing that speaking undercommon would mark him as suspicious, he gradually regretted not teaching him more of his mother tongue when he was a baby. Once Archibald got old enough, Essek started introducing undercommon at home. As an adult, Archibald speaks both zemnian and undercommon, but with a thick accent in the later.
Astrid and Eadwulf know about little Archi, they even met him a couple of times, usually when Caleb took him to his lectures. Once Eawulf gave him a candy, which put every adult in the room on high alert : nothing happened, it was just regular candy.
Archibald knows he has an uncle called Verin living far away, from whom he receives toys from time to time. Usually picture books about astronomy, and cool rocks he lines up on his window frame.
The poor kid would suffer so much during summer vacations at auntie Jester and uncle Fjord’s house in Nicodranas-
but listen: shadowgast children, with a drow and a ginger for parents, that’s going to require levels of SPF magic the world has not seen before
Something something Essek being his own martyr in his own homemade hell, something something Lux embrassing him through pain in all universes no matter if he wants it or not
Something something fantasy catholic guilt
I’ve been suddenly hit with inspiration so here’s an Essek Thelyss Pieta
In honor of the anniversary of the most unhinged shadowgast era, I present you the Timeloop-babygast-execution Au, where two mad lads run away from home (secret military underground bunker) and try their hands at murdering criminals (Caleb, their own father) and piss off a powerful dunamancer (Essek, their other father) enought to set up a timeloop none of them can escape (until they sit down and talk about their feelings/misunderstandings).
Many thanks to the amazing @flappingduster for joining in this madness, and lending her babygast
YES ! That was amazing op !!!
Hi fellow shadowgast lover ! I need your take on this : what if ann older, distinguished and grizzled Essek (like, around 500 years old or something) was sent back in time against his will / to stop some nefarious threat, and met a young Caleb ? Obviously he wouldn't want to alter the timeline, but the temptation to protect his beloved from all the pain he will go through ? The drama ? What would be Caleb's reaction to meeting a powerful Kryn wizard ? Critical Role fandom, I need your wisdom.
I was going to have a cohesive response but my brain IMMEDIATELY went on “Essek gets back to the time Caleb was in the Sanatorium, disguises himself and he’s actually the one that breaks him free of the Feeblemind” (I know it’s not confirmed but I’ve always thought that the whole sanatorium business was Caleb being Feebleminded - it’s basically impossible breaking free of a Feeblemind after it takes hold without some sort of external help)and I’m… I’m having feelings about Essek seeing Caleb again after centuries but not being able to do anything about it I’m–Maybe he protected him, from a distance, in the years before Caleb met Nott. Essek is determined and focused enough to know he cannot afford to mess up the timeline, but watching over him isn’t that, right?
This is definitely how CR season 3 will ends. I’m calling it.
---
[zzaap]
“Oh hi Schatz ! You’re back early !”
“The moon is haunted.”
“What ?”
“The moon is haunted, Caleb.”
---
To all the people who asked what was written on Caleb’s book :
“Kryn courting : so you’ve decided to date a drow, what to expect in a relationship”
I did not expect to get hurt by my own anonymous ask… @kurosmind has a galaxy brain. First time interacting with a fandom, and I’m already spreading angst…I’m so, so sorry, this scene just popped up in my brain and wouldn’t let me be
Hi fellow shadowgast lover ! I need your take on this : what if ann older, distinguished and grizzled Essek (like, around 500 years old or something) was sent back in time against his will / to stop some nefarious threat, and met a young Caleb ? Obviously he wouldn't want to alter the timeline, but the temptation to protect his beloved from all the pain he will go through ? The drama ? What would be Caleb's reaction to meeting a powerful Kryn wizard ? Critical Role fandom, I need your wisdom.
I was going to have a cohesive response but my brain IMMEDIATELY went on "Essek gets back to the time Caleb was in the Sanatorium, disguises himself and he's actually the one that breaks him free of the Feeblemind" (I know it's not confirmed but I've always thought that the whole sanatorium business was Caleb being Feebleminded - it's basically impossible breaking free of a Feeblemind after it takes hold without some sort of external help)and I'm... I'm having feelings about Essek seeing Caleb again after centuries but not being able to do anything about it I'm--Maybe he protected him, from a distance, in the years before Caleb met Nott. Essek is determined and focused enough to know he cannot afford to mess up the timeline, but watching over him isn't that, right?
!! please send me the link once it’s finished, op !!
I don’t know if anyone else had this idea before (…probably) but I would LOVE to see a fic about Essek’s fake burial.
Listen, picture Verin, heartbroken, very confused about these outsiders who showed up unannounced at his brother’s funerals, claiming to be his friends (”Essek do not have friends !”), and insisting on helping him empty out his tower.
First stage : polite confusion
Second stage : passive aggressive doubts from Verin
Third stage : Verin is convinced these people are huge liars and are trying to loot his dead brother’s precious belongings.
Final stage : Verin starts throwing stuff at the Mighty Nein. Chaos ensues. They end up teleporting with Verin in the Clay’s kitchen in front of a very surprised Essek, in his lounging clothes, busy drinking tea and drawing hearts around Caleb’s name in his spell book.
Essek just wanted to get some of his stuff back.
To all the people who had this brilliant idea
follow up from this :
https://anne-o-nyme.tumblr.com/post/658319203995156480/but-whos-that-charming-fellow-who-flirted-with
I’m so sorry for all the angst from last week, here’s some fluffy old wizards in love
a/n: so uh, my hand slipped. i saw this post about time-traveling essek helping bren and i just... it all kinda wrote itself. @kurosmind i hope you enjoy this little ficlet and the pain this concept has cause me, bc i just love it so much.
he figures it out accidentally. late at night in the library, frumpkin nestled in her basket nearby, Dancing Lights illuminating his scrawling. he should be sleeping; a group of far-too-green adventurers came by to pester him today and he's exhausted.
but then he scribbles a formula and stops.
a memory flashes. a mess of red hair; sobs upon his chest. a room full of ash; his mantle heavy with disintegrated secrets.
he tucks away the writings hastily. no. he promised he wouldn't, and there's never a promise to caleb he's ever broken, not even now, hundreds of years later.
he won't use the spell.
it's been years. another adventuring party has come and gone; this one included a halfing who giddily hugged him, rambling about her great-grandmother's wild stories. she's not the first one he's met; there are many out in the world who come to him with echos of the mighty nein. if only the rest of them could see the ripple they've created...
he finds that spell when he's looking for something else. it brings him pause. he feels a great weight in his bones these days, an aching, ever-present coldness. soon he will be the final grave in the grove, he knows, buried by clarabelle clay or perhaps one of her children.
he looks at the portrait by his bedside, small and fading. he gives frumpkin an absentminded pat.
he gathers the components, letting them sit on the kitchen table for days, gathering courage.
what does he have to lose? he knows he can't alter anything, but if only he could see him-- see them, all of them-- one more time...
it would be worth it.
it will be worth it.
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