fave Gortash line [and devnote] ever btw. this specific side of him is just so. chefs kiss to me.

the mock-friendliness. the threat. the sadism. the twisted, almost immature sense of humour.

the terrifyingly intelligent tyrant in his late forties with a black hole where his heart should be. with the emotional intelligence of a ten year old.

Everyone spare a moment of silence for my naive ass who, upon rolling a Dark Urge bard for my second playthrough ever, saw Alfira arrive in camp and thought, “Wow, this game has class-specific content?? That’s so cool!”

There are plenty of parallels to be drawn between Astarion and the Dark Urge, but this is one of my favorites :)

this has probably been done to death but every time i look at astarion i just see dennis reynolds

bonus:

One day I'll draw REAL fanart. Just not today-

not enough people are into shadowheart/nocturne and it makes me feel insane. like what do you MEAN shadowheart used to beat up people who deadnamed nocturne. what do you MEAN shadowheart would frequently have her memories wiped, but nocturne could get her to remember nocturne in a matter of HOURS if not minutes, and would write on her diary about how happy it'd make her to see the expression on shadowheart's face when she remembered? what do you MEAN that if you give shadowheart the noblestalk, a mushroom so rare and potent there is only ONE of them in the entire game, she doesn't remember her parents or the day with the wolves or the mother superior's name but just nocturne? what do you MEAN nocturne was the one who did shadowheart's hair, and she kept at it until her arms were sore, and even without remembering that at all shadowheart still kept the same canonically hard to redo hairstyle? did shadowheart even like night orchids before their hideout, or did they become her favorite flowers because they were there? were they even actually her favorite flowers, or did she just mix up her attachment to nocturne with attachment to the flowers after forgetting her? hello? hello? can anybody hear me????

Durgetash/Durgestarion parallels. They're both trying to be charming. They both manipulate people. They both yearn for power. But while Astarion can be guided to a humbler, better life for him and Durge, Gortash just can't. He is a tyrant to his core. He cannot give up his bitterness. He cannot end the cycle of abuse because he doesn't want to. With my current Durge, I do think that he and Gortash cared about each other, albeit in a very fucked up way, but it's just... ugh.

Durge goes from Bhaal's loyal spawn, his perfect machine of murder and Gortash's lapdog, to being someone worth fighting for. To being someone who makes Astarion a better person. A real "He can make me worse" to "We can make each other better" pipeline.

Also: Cucking Gortash, but that's neither here nor there.

i relate to orin because i too sometimes want to bash my sister’s head in for her questionable choices in men :)

Oh I have a whole huge Act 1 divergence planned to address this! Tbh I think Wyll only knows Gortash’s name not face — he says he only knows Gortash as a nobody his father brushed off, so I don’t think he’d necessarily recognise him, especially in the post-tadpole state. Especially if Gortash introduces himself as a Flymm. Who’s that? Karlach though would definitely try to beat his ass on sight, but Wyll already thinks she’s evil anyway so it checks out. And if Gortash thinks she’s attacking him specifically, well, the others will just gaslight him into thinking he’s being conceited and dramatic, because why would the devil be after him and not the Blade of Frontiers? (Just like they all brush off Durge if you try to tell them something is wrong.)

But if Karlach escapes their confrontation, she can become the opposing “origin character” and a foil to him who does all the goody-two-shoes stuff Gort never would (including rescuing Gale from the wall and Waukeen’s Rest, because Florrick would absolutely recognise him). This allows the timeline not to be totally crapsack while opening the door for heaps of Gortash/Karlach drama when they eventually have no choice but to work together.

But yeah there’s no way he’s getting to Act 2 without someone telling him who he is… but the wild thing is no one except Ketheric actually knows Gortash is behind the Absolute plot, so they’d still just think he’s an important if shitty noble. It’s actually less suspect than Ketheric recognising Durge, who is as far as anyone knows just some rando. So I’d spend Act 2 torturing him with Raphael fuckery instead.

Essentially I want him scared and confused and riddled with motivation to try to grasp at power. Just like he was when he first turned to Bane. But BG3 is all about the chance for redemption so… if you give Gortash the chance that Durge got, give him all the friends Durge had, would he choose to be better too?

Like I said. I’m obsessed with the plot bunny but the actual writing is hard 😭

I have this “Orin oopsie brainstabs Gortash instead of Durge so Gort is the amnesiac who wakes up on the nautiloid” fic in my head and I genuinely have about 75% of it mapped out and I’m kind of obsessed with the idea but I’d still have to y’know… write it all.

Why can’t it just blink into existence from my daydreams? This is so annoying

I have this “Orin oopsie brainstabs Gortash instead of Durge so Gort is the amnesiac who wakes up on the nautiloid” fic in my head and I genuinely have about 75% of it mapped out and I’m kind of obsessed with the idea but I’d still have to y’know… write it all.

Why can’t it just blink into existence from my daydreams? This is so annoying

So I finally played killing Gortash to the end, and having Durge wear his ex-boyfriend’s clothes to go kill the brain so he wouldn’t be scared felt like evil doomed lovers relationship goals tbh

ok but what profession could your durge reasonably hold once the tadpole is dealt with

Due to unforeseen circumstances I lost all 6 of my save files right when patch 6 came out so I had to start from scratch earlier this month to finally see the new ending cinematics. I am definitely late to the party but I finally finished a redemption/spawn run this afternoon and maybe I’m just sleep deprived but Astarion’s sweet relaxed smile watching Durge sleep and then the way they just hand-held their way into the epilogue party together melted my soul to butter and it is living rent free in my head…

I mean… Durge is finally sleeping peacefully and Astarion is finally safe. My beloved semi-reluctant mass murderers got better, guys! No more nightmares for the nightmare lovers ever again. I am absolutely 100% normal and okay about this😭

The Sorrow Festival, Erin Slaughter

You know, I could totally get behind like 80% of Shar’s philosophy if she just wasn’t such a bitch about it. If loss is the key to happiness how about you lose the attitude??

Astarion x Dark Urge commission 🩸