haedshaker

[haedshaker]

I'm gonna dive into the inbox now, but how about 👀 a BG3 specific starter call? The overview for that verse is right here. TL;DR — He's a member of the Parliament of Peers who's narrowly avoided being tadpoled by holing up in his estate. Has secretly allied with the Harpers to investigate what's up with everyone getting tadpoled. Can be contacted via sending stone in Acts 1-2, then in person in Act 3.

#STARTER CALL.

[haedshaker]

Rough outline, going based more on atmosphere than geography, I'd say: the Nie clan governs the Bashan Do Province, the Wen clan governs East Wai, the Jin clan governs Ausa, the Jiang clan controls Joi Chang, and the Lan clan controls Fengnao. West Wai is in the hands of the emperor.

I will probably shuffle these in the future, but they make the most sense to me right now.

#OOC / HOLLY. #I can't say *any* of these regions are a good geographic parallel #for Yunmeng or Qinghe or Qishan or anywhere else #so I had to go based on the few vibes we have #I was really torn between Fengnao and Bashan Do for the Nie but #Bashan Do claims to have been founded by a great general and is responsible for a lot of the border defense against Shou Lung #East Wai owes their power to the emperor and has been a longtime supporter of the throne. deeply involved in imperial politics #Ausa is the berth of the imperial navy and the wealthiest region with a chokehold on trade #Fengnao is the most independent of the provinces in a way that doesn't feel very Lan but we can handwave that #they're more remote; more forests and hills; and are the least populous which I think we can make work with the Lan clan's monastic slant #Joi Chang . . . is the only province left to give to the Jiang clan sdklgh #there's plains and rivers and coastlands. sizable navy. said to be closely allied with Ausa to monopolize sea trade #but obvs that's. a bit squiggly when we insert the Jiang and Jin clans skdfjhgljkdhf #I mean we're cannibalizing the Kara-Tur lore for our own purposes anyway so it doesn't matter #we can say whatever we want / whatever works

[haedshaker]

[steeples fingers] T'u Lung broke from Shou Lung about 426 years ago. In MDZS, Wen Mao pioneered the bloodline-based system we see in the present about 400 years ago. T'u Lung has an emperor, but the power actually rests in the 6 provincial governors who often just ignore him. In MDZS, we have no evidence of an emperor; all the power is in the hands of cultivation clans, especially the great four, who do whatever they want.

The sourcebook does give us a little info about the clans in power in T'u Lung's provinces, but: 1. None of the Kara-Tur lore looks like it's been touched since 1E. 2. There's a century of history that's been developed since this sourcebook came out, meaning there's a century of history it doesn't account for. 3. What information we do have is quite threadbare, intended for DMs and their players to add to / alter as needed for their campaigns.

So I feel justified doing almost whatever I need to make it work for Huaisang.

#OOC / HOLLY.

[haedshaker]

seeing the ATLA resurgence like "I could give Huaisang an ATLA verse . . ."

#OOC / HOLLY. #I have no thoughts beyond him being from a prominent Earth Kingdom family #with a long earthbending tradition; they tend to have a lot of earthbenders in their line #except Huaisang who couldn't move a pebble if he kicked it

[haedshaker]

I really should've been in bed an hour or two ago but sdglkjh It looks like we don't have overly detailed info on T'u Lung + what we do have is being narrated / recorded by someone in-universe. That means you can claim something is narrator bias or inaccurate or whatever. Double the wiggle room. End result is Imma plonk the basics of the MDZS setting into T'u Lung and no one can say I'm wrong.

#OOC / HOLLY. #will flesh this out properly when I'm not sleepy

[haedshaker]

I was gonna write tonight to make up for my absence, but now I'm too deep in this lore dive and I can't get out

#OOC / HOLLY. #I'm about to put an unnecessary amount of effort into this AU #time to grab some source books

[haedshaker]

Love looking through this material going "I bet this was first implemented in 80s and 90s" and finding I'm right

#OOC / HOLLY. #the wuxia influence is obvious #that was roughly the era of the golden age of Hong Kong cinema #kung fu films consequently became real popular in America [and other countries but these sourcebooks were published in the states afaik] #it's obvious that inspired the whole Kara-Tur section of the lore #what's also funny is The Way has clear Star Wars influence to me #and guess what? looks like that stuff was first implemented after the og trilogy came out SKLJDGH #ofc I don't need to point out the wuxia influence on Star Wars

[haedshaker]

Oh Huaisang has to be from T'u Lung. Not really in his BG3 verse but if I made a more generalized DND verse.

#OOC / HOLLY. #BG3 it makes the most sense for him to be from Baldur's Gate #. . . altho maybe I could make it work #I'm not changing anything yet but I'll chew on it #anyway the big question is class #given the obvious influences beyond the monk class [i.e. ki = qi] that seems the clear choice #but I'm also tempted to say fuck it and plunk cultivators in there #if we were playing DND that might make things sticky #but we're not it's tumblr rp we can handwave it #. . . not that it matters for Huaisang you don't want to take him into a fight #just leave him home pls #idk he could make it as a rogue or bard perhaps

[haedshaker]

BG3 refuses to continue acting as my dollmaker; it keeps crashing.

#OOC / HOLLY. #fair tbh I should actually be productive sdkjgh

[haedshaker]

and now JGY + LXC, both a little more inspired by the manhua. same hair because, again, I refuse to download more hairstyle mods sdlkgh

#OOC / HOLLY. #I also refuse to download more head presets rn so

[haedshaker]

sorting the cc options for JGY based on whether they'd make me wanna give him my entire life savings at a glance

#OOC / HOLLY. #the thing about JGY is he could scam me and I could know he was scamming me and I would LET HIM

[haedshaker]

as close as I'm gonna get to NMJ without hunting for even more hair mods, with bonus CQL-esque mustache sdlkjgh

#OOC / HOLLY. #I have an obscene amount of hair mods #I need y'all to know I told my best friend I was making him #and they said to make Meng Yao his guardian #I need more overlap between my MDZS and BG3 mutuals so y'all understand the damage that did to me dslkgh #speaking of I'm gonna attempt JGY and LXC now bye

[haedshaker]

. . . I really shouldn't let myself get distracted but what if I made NMJ in BG3

#OOC / HOLLY. #just real quick . . . I could pull it off I think . . . #this is gonna spiral into me making JGY + LXC + FHM + NZH + XYZ + probably too many others SDKLJHGKJ #once again BG3 has become just an expensive dollmaker to me

[haedshaker]

did I need to make icons of Huaisang in BG3 and gather caps so I can icon them? yes, actually. it's good for my mental health.

#OOC / HOLLY. #SDLKJFHG I haven't started iconing yet #but I was looking at caps as I sort his folder on my computer #and yeah I did good. I really did.

[haedshaker]

Lemme do a lil once over of my pages real quick to make sure everything's up to date

#OOC / HOLLY. #I don't think I've done that in a bit

[haedshaker]

I’ve been logged into Aylin so long it throws me for a loop to open the app and see Huaisang’s dash lmao

#OOC / HOLLY. #MOBILE.

[haedshaker]

I have a solid BG3 verse up, but what if I went whole hog translating him to this setting?

#OOC / HOLLY. #MOBILE. #I MIGHT JUST . . . #but later when I’m off my phone #and can have 3947394739 tabs open