#so he's obviously accustomed to travelling to Cania

[not-poignant]

Re-reading Palmarosa (don't @ me about how many times I've re-read) and all the stuff that's come up in the last two chapters has been there for a long time!!! When did you know the heist was coming?

sakljfsaf I'm not going to @ you about how many times you've reread anon because rereaders make the world go round :D

And yeah, there's been hints for a long time! Honestly I knew pretty quickly that this was coming (there's also a few other things that are coming as well and a couple of those also have foreshadowing).

So I'd say I knew about Raphael going to Mephistar probably within about 2-3 days of starting to write this story, and actually before I finished my playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3. Raphael being the son of Mephistopheles is canon, and I quickly tried to see if that becomes like anything in the game beyond a reference (it doesn't) and after some research realised what a huge goldmine that was for plot ideas.

It's also canon that Raphael doesn't have a good relationship with his father, or has a more trauma-based relationship with his father, which makes sense, because Mephistopheles is a calculated sadistic asshat who believes that freezing people to death between glaciers over centuries is genuinely a good way to spend one's time.

I actually was a little frustrated with myself once I realised it was going to take more than 10 chapters to finally get to this point. Initially I was aiming for chapter 7-9, but I needed more established between Raphael and Astarion, and I needed Astarion to start getting a lot more curious about what's happening, because Astarion is basically a cat and if you pique his curiosity, he'll want to know stuff! Even when it's bad for him!

I kind of knew this fic would come across as 'just a PWP contract fic' but I really always wanted it to be very epic in scope, and a longer story similar to Stuck on the Puzzle or The Beast that Chose Its Own Bridle. Something that starts with intimacy between two characters, and then folds out into a much broader world.

But I also wanted it to be a surprise for the people who weren't looking for it! A lot of folks who even have played and finished BG3 playthroughs never find out that Mephistopheles is Raphael's father, and if they do, they have no idea who he is even if they've played some DND (you really have to have played very specific campaigns, or played previous BG3 video games etc. to have any idea).

That's made the build up and the foreshadowing really fun to do, because people are coming in with wildly different DND knowledge (some - absolutely zero, don't even play the game, some - only the game, some - only DND but nothing to do with Ba'ator, some - DND and Ba'ator).

This is actually a huge reason why I say the story isn't canon compliant, because it literally can't be. There's too many moving parts and a lot of Forbidden Realms isn't even canon compliant with itself. And I love that, and that gives me room for movement. FR is about creativity within structure, and that structure can be what FR and Larian gives us, and even then we'd already be picking and choosing what works for us because those two things aren't fully lore compatible. There's a lot of good threads about how Larian was quite selective in how they built up their version of Faerun. And I love that.

But also, same. :D

Anyway, so the TL;DR is I knew juuuust about from the beginning! Not from the first few chapters, but I'd say definitely by the time I started chapter 2!

#asks and answers #palmarosa #thespectaclesofthor #pia on worldbuilding #i was always very curious about the fact that #raphael had a lot of portals to elsewhere in Faerun #and then a portal that specifically goes to Mephistar #i guess that's the second reference to who his father is in the game actually #so he's obviously accustomed to travelling to Cania #and needing to have quick access #and digging deeper into Raphael and the hierarchy of devils #led me into a really rich vista for plot ideas #which also had me depart a lot from utilising most of the companions #i will say that so far absolutely NO ONE has guessed who the first companion we meet will be #though folks have suggested Gale because of the Waterdeep visit #and Karlach because of being in Avernus #Karlach is closer to who we'll meet #but it's neither of them