#if you see them all defying bhaal you're not imagining it

[maegalkarven]

Out of curiosity what happens to all of your dark urges post-game?

This is going to be LONG, so i'm putting it under the "read more".

Thanks so much for asking and giving me an opportunity to rant about my boys! (they're all masc, yeah. All kind of trans. I am not projecting anything. Also I lied just now)

As of now I have 3 (4 counting Morgan) developed till post-game Durges.

Morgan is my first playthrough and maybe shouldn't be counted, but he and Astarion leave for Underdark. Morgan is a drow bard btw and his story is the messiest bullshit ever bc at that point I was still figuring BG3 out.

Now to the fun part! (June, Levi and Nemo). Mind what all 3 of them are romantically involved with Gortash and it plays its part.

So let's start with my favorite druid asshole Levi. He visually appears to be a tiefling. 6 ft tall handsome young man with one blazing green eye, one eye pitch-black (later an implant of the eye of the devil he took for himself), wavy ginger hair, freckles EVERYWHERE and a very arrogant attitude. His horns have been broken by Sarevok when he was around adolescence.

Levi has 2 versions of how his live goes after the end credits. Basically his good (canon) ending and his bad ending.

Bad ending is where Gortash dies, Levi goes the whole "I am god" way, takes the Crown of Karsus for himself and erases Bhaal from the existence of the universe, successfully taking his domain, his aspect and his place. It's a lonely life of godhood for him and the one where he loses himself.

His good ending branches depending if Noah (his son) exists.

If Noah indeed exists, Levi has a whole ass husband and a son waiting for him at home (in Baldur's Gate) and a whole new playground of the city. He transforms part of the city into the garden and creates the new circle of druids with Kagha as the achdruid. But inevitably fuck off to hells to fight not his battle bc he can and he loves fighting.

Levi is set on a long ass quest conquering Hells bc: 1) it's fun. 2) His homie needs Mizora dead. 3) His other homie needs Zariel dead.

If Noah wasn't born, his path goes almost the same way (considering Hells), but it's the main focus of his, and the main goal. In that version he wants all of Mephisto's wonders for himself and operates from the House of Hope what he and Gortash live in (while planning evil things for evil reasons, yeah. "If heavens are out of reach, we will make Hells ours" kind of an attitude.)

Basically for Levi it's either godhood but the path of loneliness or a lot of shenanigans in hells with his two best friends (Wyll and Karlach) and the wicked partnership with Gortash. Watch him successfully balance out THAT dynamic mix.

Then there's Nemo. Nemo is non-amnesiac Durge who got very weak after his sister's attack. Looks like a half-drow (ppl keep calling him half-breed and he hates it. He is a pureblood bhaalspawn, damn it!) Looks like a golden child with sun-warmed skin, golden eyes and hair and A LONG ASS SCAR ORIN LEFT OVER HIS PERFECT FACE. THANKS FOR NOTHING, SISTER. Short (5 ft). The only 'off' thing about him is what his sclera is black.

He is also the mastermind behind the successful creation and management of the current cult of Bhaal in BG as it is. Nemo's misadventures are featured in the series of oneshots called "Empty Prayers".

He has only a good ending because I said so, and this is where he kills Orin and himself in a double suicide act, robbing Bhaal of the chosen and a child. Bhaal throws a fit, Withers plays a savior.

EVERYONE is angry at Nemo, Orin is left with no memory of who she is or what the fuck is going on.

No one is happy 2.0.

His post-game ending is where he is a shadow over the BG, a leader of the newly established assassins' guild into which he drags his lover and partner in crime Astarion.

Nemo is a man who transfers the cult of Bhaal into something else and earns money for it. It is easy, because most of the cultists only knew him as a leader and several of them were raised by him.

He basically lowers his expectations and chills, having joint-custody over the city underground with Ninefingers.

Gortash manages to stay arcduke in that one, but ba-a-a-arely. No one is happy, even Gortash, because it's such a mediocre win it's embarrassing. He will manage to pull Nemo into some heist-like bullshit very soon, that with him and his very useful guild of trained cutthroats who are loyal to Nemo and Nemo alone.

The last one - June. My least fav child bc I am v conflicted with how he just branched into 2 separate entities. @ June come on. He has either grey hair and silver eyes (selunite!June) or black-blue hair and light-blue eyes (cambion!June). Either way his skin is greyish-blue with freckles, his horns are grey as some ash can be. He is 5 ft 5.

June is either tiefling priest of Selune or cambion grandchild of Mephisto. I consider both of the versions like alt. of the same person.

In his good (canon) ending June leaves for Underdark with Gortash and Astarion to conquer it and seek all the netherise artifacts left there.

Ex priest of Selûne June does it in some quest of "salvation", cambion June does it because he's the forbidden knowledge seeking bastard (Mephisto raised him, ok). Both versions of June defy Bhaal, though for different reasons.

Now, there is a bad ending for June too, which is highly tied to how he treats the situation with Gortash and how much has the tadparty affected him. If he has failed to develop enough ties with the team, June agrees with everything the man says - Gortash dies at the Netherbrain Blast - June becomes the new Chosen of Bane.

Which strangely fits both versions of June, because selunite!June DID pray to Bane, he just never answered.

And cambion!June is a little too alike Bane's own son (a hybrid of a god and fiend who Bhaal probably was going to use the same way Bane used his son) and in a dire need of a plan to out-do Mephisto.

If June does have close ties with his team and they affect his decision-making, then he's a little more smart about it, tadpoles Gortash, and that derails everything to Gortash joining the team and all hells breaking loose (to the good end. I promise)

There's also Callisto, but Callisto didn't live further than the escape from the nautiloid. I will play them after I break my pc's mind and re-merge it gently, after which BG3 (hopefully) will run on my pc without any third parties involved. But Callisto is a half-drow priest of Tiamat. My baby said FUCK toxic father, I want to be adopted by a toxic mother instead. Their main long goal is freeing Tiamat from her prison in Hell.

#dark urge: levi #dark urge: nemo #dark urge: june #dark urge: morgan #dark urge: callisto #srsly thank you SO MUCH for asking. You have no idea how much fun i had writing all of this #if you see them all defying bhaal you're not imagining it #they all defy bhaal for different reasons bc i said so #maybe callisto won't...but that would make their evil mum angry...so they probably will #callisto will unleash tiamat on the world and will be PROUD of that #bane is going to get an evil wife and that's a THREAT

[spacebarbarianweird]

ASTARION X IMMORTAL NECROMANCER I AM ACTUALLY BEGGING. SINCE THEYRE BOTH IMMORTAL AND HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE DEAD I THINK IT WOULD BE FUN!!!!!!!

Astarion x Necromancer!Durge

Masterlist

Headcanons

You don't want to remember the past.

Whatever it was, it was only blood and gore in honor of Bhaal.

You don't want to do anything about it. It's not you anymore.

You have the right to be someone else, not your father's creation.

Just as Astarion has the right not to be an evil creature of the night.

You give up the profane gift of Bhaal, and he takes away your life.

The last thing you remember is Astarion's scream. 

You awake, reborn and free.

Immortal. The champion of Jergal.

Astarion kneels beside you, his face red with tears. He says nothing, just embraces you, rocking you in his arms.

Years ago, Astarion prayed. He begged for mercy.

That someone would save him, that someone would help him.

Maybe Bhaal heard him after all and helped him in his own twisted way?

Sent him you?

You were both made for death and pain. Vampires are innately evil. Bhaalspawns are the chaos unleashed.

Two spawns. Two killers. Two doomed beings.

You have made your choice. Your path to the light is not a matter of morality or saving the world.

Your path to the light is the pursuit of freedom.

Astarion's freedom is to defy his master.

Your freedom is to defy Bhaal.

You leave Baldur's Gate hand in hand. Immortal and free.

Mostly you are being adventurers, but sometimes, usually after a century, you settle down together, trying to be normal people.

You don't know who you are, what you like, or what you want.

Astarion is constantly trying to help you relax, to give you something you have never had.

You do the same for him.

Your necromantic abilities have stayed with you, and you use them in your work as an adventurer.

In the end, you're an odd couple. Two anti-heroes. If you need to rescue a kidnapped princess, you don't expect a vampire and a necromancer to help you in that endeavor.

You both have nightmares.

Astarion remembers his past and you see horrible shades of past murders and wake up screaming and scratching your skin.

Sometimes the nightmares are so horrible that you run off into the forest reckless and wild, and Astarion has to search for you, risking his own life in the sunlight.

Of course, it's hard to live in harmony with each other. Sometimes you just piss each other off. Maybe once every two or three centuries.

Then you break up and drift apart.

Sooner or later (usually after a century or two) one of you gets lonely.

But how do you find an ancient vampire who is so good at pretending to be something he isn't?

How do you find Champion of the god of death?

You hire monster hunters to go in search of Astarion.

He hires spies.

You both tell them crazy stories. About how you're both dangerous and cruel, and that monster hunters shouldn't do anything stupid, but should let the clients deal with the targets.

The hunters expect bloodshed from you.

But instead, you throw yourselves into each other's arms like young lovers.

You start anew, as tender and passionate as you were at the beginning of your relationship, and give each other several more centuries of happy life together.

--

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#spacebarbarian headcanon #astarion #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 astarion #astarion romance #bg3 #astarion bg3 #astarion headcanon #astarion headcanons #astarion x reader #durge spoilers #astarion x durge #bg3 durge #durge #dark urge #durgestarion #durge x astarion

[animentality]

Maybe a hot take, but I think Durge is the real protagonist of BG3. Like... I'm sorry, everyone love their Tavs, but from a narrative point of view, it doesn't have fucking sense. It's just another guy (gender neutral) in a The Choosen One situation. I've read this story before, hundreds of times. But Durge's recepción (or disgrace)... now that has juice! That makes sense on a narrative level. You started it, you end it, one way or another.

Anyway, I'm never (with my +500 hours) going to play a Tav run. Ever. Origins only, mostly Durge. Durge and Durgetash are waaaaay better, sorry not sorry.

You are spitting nothing but facts, anon.

You wanna know what the HONEST to GOD fundamental problem is with the writing of Baldur's Gate 3?

It's that it spreads itself so thin, desperately attempting to write an open sandbox sort of world in which ANY kind of character can fit in...that it ends up being this hollow nothing.

IMAGINE if the Dark Urge WAS the default protagonist. It WOULD'VE BEEN an amazing story, if it had been given the focus it deserved, instead of just blankly repeating the SAME dialogue you'd get as a Tav and as an origin.

The idea of a former villain turned amnesiac, and going on an adventure, learning about themselves from the perspective of an outsider and seeing firsthand the horror they've wrought? It's like a fucking Zuko arc, except finding out you were the Big Bad all along could've been written even better than that...

We could've had that blank, nothing slate that Tavs start out as...and then find out, that it has thematic significance, because WE CHOOSE who we become, after a childhood/adulthood of being unable to make our own choices, and being forced into the role of the villain before the game even starts.

It's a MUCH BETTER WAY to give people a blank slate to work with, for the fun of roleplaying, but ALSO asserting a particular theme. Which is, the gravity of your choices, big and small. To do good or to embrace evil.

YOU KNOW. How Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 did being a Bhaalspawn.

IT'S ALSO A REALLY GREAT WAY to DO an RPG because yes, you slightly infringe upon the freedom of the customizable characters a person can make, but in exchange, you actually tell a fucking story where choices are the main theme.

INSTEAD. Because they were so dedicated to Tavs and the variety of ways you could play as a Tav...they completely undersell and underutilize what could've been a really amazing character.

You can literally choose to DIE for your friends in the end...and then what?

Withers brings you back in five seconds, no one has any real reaction to you doing that, except saying good job buddy :)

And then you're basically a Tav.

And ALSO. I want to say this, because it's been bothering me.

The Dark Urge has Tav syndrome too.

They have TWO notes in the entire game that we have to read into to try and glean a greater depth to their character other than murder hobo.

And that's it. They're a blank slate too.

If the Dark Urge was the protagonist, we might've been able to look into who they were before, outside of just laughably evil flesh eating monster.

They might've had real fucking depth, instead of just tidbits.

I and my fellow Dark Urge/ Durgetash enjoyers have to do the fucking work for them and write in stuff that isn't actually there. The Dark Urge as a protagonist could've been really meaningful. We could've seen inklings that they had misgivings about being Bhaal's Chosen. We could've seen scars of resistance, where they tried to defy Bhaal, but were punished with death, disintegration by the loving hands of your own father and flesh. We could've had betrayal, redemption, loyalty to one's blood family vs one's found family.

But we don't get that, because it's taking too much time away from Tavs.

Sometimes I really wish the Dark Urge wasn't even an option. They gave me this thing, and I thought wow this is the only way to play the game...and then I look and see, ah. But the potential for greatness could drive me absolutely insane.

And it has.

Durgetash is the product of my frustration with the game's characterization of the Dark Urge.

And I know I'm pissing off the salty BG3 fans who love their Tavs and all, and think the Dark Urge is lame, and god FORBID a protagonist have a character, can't have that in an RPG, but I can't find it in myself to care.

I'm built different than the rest of y'all. I don't just feed on content, I analyze its nutrients. I calculate how good for me it actually is.

And BG3 has wonderful mechanics.

But the story has so many problems, from beginning to rotten end.

And it is what it is. I still enjoyed myself playing it.

But the story isn't good for anything except allowing you to create a far more compelling story on your own, in fanfic or in original work inspired by it.

And I guess if that's all they wanted, then fine.

But goddamnit, I'm gonna complain anyway! Divinity 2 did it fucking better.

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #dark urge

[rinwellisathing]

You're Awful, I Love You: Part 34

Hey, look at that, a sex scene for part 34. There's an internet culture joke in there somewhere. Enver Gortash/Trans Male Tiefling Durge

The two shifted slightly back onto the bed, now fully in the center, the springs groaning in protest at more motion than they were probably used to in quite a long time. The hurried, careless removal of clothing, all tossed haphazardly aside, rips and tears from claws and the metal gauntlets could be repaired later, this was a celebration overdue after all the two chosen had accomplished today. Sentry pushed Enver down on the bed, straddling his stomach. “I have something I kind of really want to try out...See, other than you and some...well, some friends... most of my partners aren't very...lively...if you get my meaning, there are things they can't manage. Rigor mortis reeks havoc on the jaw, you know.” “You need only ask, my dread executioner.” Gortash smirked, the idea of Sentry's back arched in pleasure, lips parted and eyes closed tightly, that cute gap between his front teeth visible between those plush lips as he cried out, impaling himself on a cold, hard shaft, body likely splattered in blood from the rapidly cooling partner beneath him was quite an image. He felt himself growing hard even just imagining it. “You say you love me, but you're still a Banite and I know your nature is to conquer...so...could you defy that nature long enough for me to use your face as my personal throne?” Sentry purred teasingly, giving him such an innocent, questioning look that Gortash almost laughed out loud to see such an expression on Bhaal's own chosen killer.

“I think I could for this privilege” Gortash nodded, running his hands down Sentry's hips and thighs. “Besides, what is a tyrant to a god?” He squeezed Sentry's scarred, powerful thighs, gauntlet claws digging in, drawing small pin pricks of bright red blood. “A god, you really think I'm...?” Sentry seemed taken aback for a moment, pausing mid motion. “You are Bhaal's flesh given life, dear Sentry. I'm merely stating a fact.” Gortash explained, rubbing those firm thighs gently as Sentry slowly repositioned himself, moving them to either side of Enver's head.

“Well, yes, I suppose...but I never thought of it that way is all...” Sentry's expression was puzzled, perhaps a bit troubled. “You'll understand better when you're worshipped properly as one.” The Tyrant offered, gently reaching up, hands gripping Sentry's firm, round ass and pulling him down fully onto his face, spreading him just enough to run his tongue up over that tight, puckered hole between those sculpted cheeks. Sentry's face flushed brightly, the sensation was phenomenal, and only improved when one hand moved to grip the base of his tail, massaging gently. He moaned, arching his back and rolling his hips as his partner's tongue teased at both holes in turn. The vague, half formed idea that with the muscles of his thighs he could probably crush his lover caused Sentry to shudder with delight at the possibility, his slick juices coating Enver's chin and dripping down to his chest. Sentry's eyes were closed, head tossed back in pleasure, so he didn't notice immediately that the door was open and standing in the doorway was quite an audience. The orcish woman from the war table was trying to hide the obvious interest in her eyes as she fought not to look at Sentry's lean muscled body and heavy scarring. The portly figure in robes seemed somewhere between disgusted and amused by the scene playing out. Sceleritas was somewhere between apologetic and mortified as he tried to squeeze past the large figures. All this, Sentry finally noticed when the sound of someone clearing their throat came from the back of the group. He paused, opening his eyes and smirking a bit, not ceasing the motion of his hips.

Ketheric Thorm pushed through the group, glaring daggers at Sentry and Enver. It looked like it was taking every ounce of restraint the necromancer had not to draw his weapon right here and now and kill the two. Sentry's taunting smirk never faltered, though, even as he scooted back, kneeling on the pillows, allowing Enver to see that they had an audience as well. To his credit, the Tyrant also seemed more amused than anything, no shame crossing his face, simply an expression Sentry found rather dashing. “Well, you DID offer us a room for the night.” Sentry explained, grinning widely. “A GUEST room. Not my personal quarters, boy.” Ketheric's tone was cold, even, measured. “In our defense, General Thorm, we were not given a guide, and this room hardly stands out. Look at it, the dust makes it look unoccupied.” Enver slowly got to his feet, nonchalantly claiming his clothing from the floor and beginning to dress as if nothing had happened. “You can't blame us for entering a seemingly random bedroom.” “The door was open anyway. You should really make sure it's locked.” Sentry added flippantly as he, too, rose to collect his clothing and redress. Being with Enver awakened things in Sentry, he no longer felt anxious when he felt eyes on his body. Enver accepted him, Enver loved him. They were equals and together they were powerful. No one could judge him, harm him, or reduce him to 'Vereena the Breeder' ever again no matter what story his body told. So he stood proudly for a moment, giving an exaggerated stretch, allowing the general and his little entourage to take in the view. He finally began to redress and followed as Enver walked to the door. The Tyrant stood nearly chest to chest with The Necromancer, offering a small smirk before easing past him out the door. Sentry followed silently behind his lover, making sure to 'accidentally' bump into Ketheric on his way out. “Sorry, old man. Used to moving in that clunky paladin armor, you understand.” He patted Ketheric's shoulder with abject condescention, earning a cold glare.

#baldurs gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 #oc #tiefling #durge #dark urge #writing #fanfic #durgetash #gortash x durge #lord enver gortash #enver gortash #ketheric thorm