Another Thing About Yurena's Horns Decorations/jewelry, Since It's All From Gortash. For A Long Time

Oh no this isn't writer's block, I have an entire detailed alternate ending story with detailed dialogue and plot points that have been edited into being cohesive. However this is my bedtime story in which I mentally act it out until I inevitably fall asleep, acting as though I'm falling asleep in my MC's love interest's arms. I exclusively think of this story between the hours of midnight and 4am

"My favorite trope is enemies to lovers!" "Mine is opposites attract!" Okay well mine is their love invokes religious guilt. If the ship can't be visualized to Take Me to Church, I don't want it. Give me the "pure saviour" falling in love with a sinner, worshipping said sinner's every move and accepting their damnation. I want to see the favorite of one god being entirely enamoured by their god's enemy's favorite. I want Character A to pray for forgiveness over their love, I want them to be tortured by their feelings that go against their beliefs

"What's on your mind?" Oh nothing just that Durge knew their feelings for Gortash were wrong in Bhaal's eyes but all they could do was ask for forgiveness. It wasn't the admiration that was wrong, the connection with another person, but rather that Gortash is the Chosen of Bane. "Forgive me, Father, for I cannot help but admire the Chosen of your sworn foe: Enver Gortash."

These two are all I think about anymore. They make me sick. I love them

So 12 hours ago I had my first tattoo session, and the artist was phenomenal. He was making sure I was as comfortable as possible, and kept asking if I needed a break or if I was lightheaded. Clear vibe of having dealt with first timers before who struggle with the process (very understandable, needles stabbing a couple layers of skin is not easy for most)

But the whole session I was just playing Pokémon TCG on my phone. No fucks given about the needle pushing ink into my wrist, I was busy being annoyed at that one Wormadam card that kept doing 70+ damage to my poor pals

Anyways here's the tattoos I think they look awesome

Blog Info & Rules

About Me

Nobody, otherwise known as N

genderfluid . she/he/it

lesbian . taken

adult

Blog Info

I post primarily about Baldur's Gate 3, mostly Durgetash but about my various Tav and Durge characters in general. I may post about my DnD character(s) in the future

Most of what I post is "small content" (headcanons, dialogue snippets, random thoughts, etc). On occasion I post longer content, whether it be fanfic snippets, character dives, or whatever else

Occasionally I post content about my personal life, either interactions I have with people or, rarely, about my DID

At the end of this post is a link to each of my BG3 characters. Not all of them have posts, I'm working on them

Blog Rules

My messages and ask box are always open. Feel free to ask about my characters and stories, I love talking about them. Please keep my ask box related to my posts

On the note of my characters, feel free to write about or draw my characters if you're inspired to. Just tag me in posts about them so I can see :)

Respect my privacy, I don't share much about myself on public platforms. To those who know me in personal life, please let me maintain online anonymity

My BG3 Characters

. Yurena . Echo . Orion . Venera . Mori . Carys . Tis .

Okay so I've posted about my main Tav, now to post about my main Durge who I've done 2 playthroughs with the same character and will probably do more, and any time I post about my Durgetash stories/AUs she's the Durge in question unless I state otherwise. Due to being Durge I don't have much for her backstory since.. it's kinda right there, but I currently have two AUs for her and a third I'm working on. Without further ado, here's her "canon" storyline (in which I do say fuck actual canon 🫶)

Yurena

The one difference to the canon Durge backstory is that she did love Gortash, truly and while knowing her god - her father - disapproved. She never meant to fall for Gortash, but after meeting a few times and having written several letters back and forth, it was hard not to. The two of them began having visits outside of work, getting to know each other better than they knew themselves. Yurena admired Gortash for his brain above all else, for his ability to invent and plan and even his artistic side - something she eventually began to pick up on. They grew to trust each other completely, to genuinely want to rule together - Yurena would comment on how Gortash's death could be so beautiful but she preferred him alive, and Gortash was more than willing to share his bed throne with her

But then Orin came along, and everything fell apart. Yurena woke up on a mind flayer ship, having no memories yet her emotions remembered something. So she made her way along the Sword Coast, traveling alongside Astarion, Shadowheart, and Wyll. While at camp at one point, majority of the companions (Wyll, Karlach, Gale, Shadowheart) convinced Yurena to help the grove (Astarion didn't want to, Lae'zel was focused on the crèche and didn't care). After helping the tieflings, while at the party, Astarion approached Yurena. The two ended up talking, during which Yurena said she believed she'd had a lover before and she wanted to figure out who it was

Fast forward to the party chasing Ketheric into the illithid colony, watching as the Chosen Three talk, and Yurena can't stop staring at Gortash. Can't shake the feeling that she knew him, that he was important. She doesn't say anything about it until they're in Baldur's Gate, and she's standing face to face with someone unafraid to call her "nearest and dearest". At this point Yurena has to explain to Gortash her amnesia, and has to pretend like she can't see behind the unbothered mask of his, like the light in his eyes doesn't seem to dim as he hears that. Still he offers to work together, to rule together, and Yurena accepts the offer more than willingly. There's just one person left in the way; Orin. Yurena is able to deal with her easily, only to be greeted by her father. Yet when Bhaal says she will be his Slayer, that she must kill every living thing, Yurena can't imagine it. There are some people she's too fond of to kill, and she rejects her fate

After this there are two main routes Yurena's story can take. The first one and the one I talk about a bit more often follows canon for a bit longer, until the Netherbrain is defeated. After the story is said and done, Yurena has nowhere to go and stays in her Lower City camp with Withers. She finds as much about her past as possible, including countless letters between herself and Gortash. Knowing he's an important piece of her past, knowing she had once loved him, she works on convincing Withers to bring him back - saying that if he were to come back he'd have no reason to worship Bane anymore, that the two of them could live out their lives as nobodies. Just travelers, seeing the sights of Faerûn, maybe even doing some good. And it works, Gortash is brought back free of his Chosen title. He's hesitant at first, since he wasn't exactly consulted about this, but sees his second chance with Yurena and decides to accept it. This post ending AU is the two of them learning to live free of the influence of Bhaal or Bane, finding out who they can be when they can be anyone, and loving themselves and each other.

The second and actually original storyline begins with Yurena convincing Bhaal that total global murder isn't the way to go, as it means in the future there can be no murder. She remains his Chosen and the leader of the Bhaalists. After this things continue essentially the same until it diverts from canon during the Netherbrain encounter - Gortash tries to interrupt, but Yurena doesn't let him take the Netherstones, telling him she's made progress and will finish this. Once the Netherbrain is destroyed, Yurena ensures Gortash is able to remain the Archduke. She becomes known as his blade, a guard that is never more than a few feet away from him. The companions all go their separate ways, and Yurena stays living with Gortash in Baldur's Gate. They rule the city together, and though it's nothing like the grand plan they once had, they're alive and together - and plotting new plans to rule the whole of Faerûn, but more cautious now

When it comes to the companions, Yurena struggled connecting with most of them. Astarion was the only one she really got along with, sometimes Shadowheart could be included, but that was about it. Lae'zel thought her needlessly violent, Wyll and Karlach saw there was a barely contained evil that Yurena seemed all too ready to accept, and Gale really did try to be friendly but even he was put off by Yurena at times. Yurena mostly traveled with Astarion, Shadowheart and Wyll, and in her universe(s) Wyll was the one encouraging Shadowheart to be better while Yurena and Astarion made each other worse in many ways. In the universe where Yurena is killed by her father then revived, none of the companions hear from her after the celebration at the end of everything - it's after that reunion that Gortash is brought back and the two slip away. In the other universe, where Yurena and Gortash rule Baldur's Gate, well to be honest I'm still writing this one and haven't decided yet lol. We'll see where the story takes itself!

Nothing is more fun than revisiting characters and stories from a while ago. Even if it's only been a few months since my last update to the stories, writing and sharing that writing with my friends is awesome

Also I love coming up with entirely new parts of the world, fleshing out the universes I made by giving them unrelated moving parts to other stories happening. Maybe characters from the A focus will someday meet the ones from the B or C focus. Maybe there's a single character tying them all together. It's so fun especially when other people are influencing the story

This post is just a segue into potentially sharing excerpts from my writing here, though I'm not sure how well the excerpts will work without the 7 years of lore explained as context lmao

As a writer whose default is dialogue, kudos right back to writers who use more description and such. Y'all put so much detail into your works and I love it, wish I could explain what I visualize as well as you guys do

kudos to writers with dialogue-heavy works, I got mad respect for y'all. love using dialogue as a tool, but my default settings are non-verbal (dialogue) and non-stop yapping (description).

You know what I'm going to yap about my main BG3 characters. This post is about my main Tav character, where I'll talk about her backstory, how her main story (in game story) differs from canon, and her two potential endings, as well as her relationship with each of the companions (minus Minsc and Minthara because I didn't get either during this run) and a couple other fun facts. Note that I'm not too fluent in DnD lore and don't care if this isn't canon, this is my fan character to have fun with. Actual post under the cut

Without further ado, introducing:

Echo

She's a Seldarine drow, a Death Domain cleric of Mystra, and romancer of Gale. Her backstory is that she's the third of four children from parents that escaped the Underdark and swore themselves to Eilistraee - she has three brothers, two older and one younger. She grew up worshipping Eilistraee, and in her late teenage years began to worship Mystra as well. The village she lived in was attacked around the time she would enter young adulthood, and she prayed to both her goddesses for help. Mystra granted her wings to escape (Echo was able to save youngest brother too, the only other surviving family member she has), and from that day on Echo devoted herself to Mystra. Echo and her brother traveled Faerûn, with her protecting him from everything that came their way. That changed when she was abducted by the mind flayer ship, and had the parasite put in her

Echo now travels with Gale, Wyll and Karlach. As soon as she began befriending Gale, she felt connected to him - his devotion to Mystra, his understanding of her, called to Echo. The longer they traveled together, though, the more she realized this was a different side to her goddess. This wasn't the goddess she loved so dearly, the one who had crafted her wings to guide her to safety. The Mystra she heard of was... awful to Gale. Echo's faith told her Gale must be wrong, but her trust in her companion and her reason told her otherwise

Echo's story ends one of two ways, and it all depends on if Gale becomes a god or not. Either way she turns away from Mystra, her conscience not letting her be devoted to a goddess who could use someone she loves. As a punishment for abandoning her faith, Mystra takes back the gifted wings, but doesn't stop there - she takes Echo's sight as well, allowing her to only "see" the Weave. Wherever magic gathers, Echo can see it, though it's dependent on how much magic is there. An item or person that has strong magic can be seen more clearly, though it's only ever as a soft purple light

Now, should Gale ascend to godhood, Echo devotes herself to him as his first cleric. She wanders Faerûn in search of her brother, and helps those who need it. While she is often alone, she is content. However should Gale remain mortal, Echo will opt to remain with him. She still does what she can to search for her brother, asking many an adventurer to keep an eye out for him and help him find her if they can. With her lover remaining mortal, she returns her devotion to Eilistraee (whom she never forgot but did set aside), becoming a cleric of hers instead

No matter if she wanders Faerûn or stays with Gale, Echo misses her brother dearly. She's prepared to spend the rest of her life searching for him, refusing to give up hope to reunite with her sole family member. Echo wants to see who her brother has become, she believes he's capable enough to survive on his own. When they meet again, she's eager to hear of his adventures

Fun fact; in her timeline, the Emperor bases his form of her brother. While not identical, he hopes to remind Echo enough of her brother that she would listen to him. He even tries to mirror the familial connection to manipulate her

Echo's friends with most of her travel companions. She's dating Gale, and considers Wyll and Karlach as her best friends, admiring them for their actions and their friendship. Echo considers all her companions as her friends, except for Astarion - as much as she tried to get along with him, the two were just fundamentally too different to be proper friends. Still, Echo did everything she could to help all of her companions, believing each of them is inherently deserving of her help

(also her eyes are meant to be purple pre Mystra's curse but I didn't think of that in character creation and never felt like fixing it)

Fun fact everyone when I found out there's no way to save him I stopped playing that run for a week and made a new save because I hated it that much

I do refuse to acknowledge the death of Gortash. I shall feign that his demise be but a Mandela effect.