More doodles of my mindflayer oc voxalis (vox for short) they're a bard and he's evil but in a girlypop way

Here's another secret santa piece I can finally show off! Some DnD ocs enjoying a peaceful morning.

Bonus untinted version below; I actually still like how the original colors came out.

This weeks

Totally Good illithid

is.... Nihiloor!!

The ultimate embodiment of a Pet Parent, they work for Xanthar's thieves' guild by having Far Too Many intellect devourers.

Yall gonna have to stop me from making a Rain World x DnD crossover with the illithid iterators. At this point I've had the idea for a couple of weeks.

BALDUR'S GATE 3 (2023) dev. Larian Studios

The Emperor each time Tav does something stupid.

Look me dead in the eyes and tell me that this wasn't exactly how the Emperor talks to you about it.

thats not an intellect devourer....

"Sometimes I felt almost like we were dancing our way towards something deeper..."

i felt SO bad during my first campaign cuz personally i really like the emperor but my tav lotus??? forget it. they're an asshole to everyone. the way the rejection was handled made me laugh tho. i can't remember the dialogue fully but the emperor was just like "oh. yes. of course. forget i said anything." like NOOO dude im sorry </3

weird old mindflayer design with embarrasingly small rat tails on its face vs modern gigachad mindflayer whose hugelarge tentacles don't even fully fit on screen

More voxalis!

some goofy warm-up doodles from today

I am sorry to my silly little people on here who came for Rain World and got illithids instead. I won't be stopping.

You got illithi'd.

My Baldur’s Gate 3 hot take is that debates about whether or not Emperor Balduran is trustworthy or or not are a waste of time because a great deal of the point of the character — narratively and gameplay-wise — is that he’s an extension of you. YOU interpret and decide on his personality, nature, and choices the same way you do with your Tav.

If you want him to genuinely be the flawed and odd-thinking but ultimately noble and heroic “token good Mind Flayer” that he presents himself as, then he will be like that simply because you treat him as being such. He’ll be trustworthy and dependable, totally truthful about only wanting what’s best for Baldur’s Gate and about wanting to free the Illithids from Elder Brain control and make ceremorphosis a consensual choice, while also being open to compromise in the name of forging bonds. He’ll be the unlikely hero who, with you by his side, uses the Stones to destroy the Absolute and save his beloved city.

If you want him to be and treat him like a backstabbing, manipulative liar and potentially dangerous monster who is at best disconnected from basic reality, at worst a murderous narcissist trying to bend you to his will, then he’ll act like it. His interactions with be tense, snappish, and uncomfortable. He’ll threaten you, make unreasonable demands, never compromise, and try to assert control over the party while making clear that your alliance is one of convenience and necessity. And ultimately, he’ll either betray you and defect to the Absolute’s side because he can’t control you or, at your urging, hijack things and use the Absolute to take over the world.

His past is designed to be interpreted in massively different manners depending on what kind of person you want him to be. He killed Ansur either out of justified self defense because Ansur wouldn’t admit that Balduran was still himself beneath the changed form, or because Ansur was trying to stop his evil plans. He dominated Stelmane’s mind because she was a bad person and he wanted to turn the Knights of the Shield into something good, or because he’s an evil manipulator who dominates those he can’t charm. He withheld information from you because he was being cautious and wasn’t sure if you were going to be an ally (like your party members), or because he was manipulating you by making himself seem more sympathetic. He never freed Orpheus and doesn’t want to free him because as an Illithid he rightfully fears a Githyanki Prince and that freeing Orpheus will allow the Netherbrain to control him again, or because he’s an malevolent bastard who knows that Orpheus would ruin his plans. It’s up to you to decide.

He can change tune on a dime, make self-contradictory choices and statements, abruptly do things just because of something you decided to say because you wanted to see what would happen. Just like you do as a player, because he’s as much your PC as Tav. It’s why you get to customize the form he appears in your dreams with. The Emperor is good or evil or whatever depending on what you WANT or MAKE him to be.