TW: BLOOD

Imagine being best friends with durge- BUT also realizing trauma is not forever and be free to love your vampire husband

My Tavs!

I've been lurking on BG3 tumblr for a while, but I wanted to finally make a proper post showing off my characters! I've got a couple of campaigns going on, and I'm always looking to make new characters and explore different playstyles and think of fun lore. It's been so awesome to connect with other members of the community too, namely @basketobread's gorgeous mind and OC's, creator our best girl Lunara!

Without further ado, here is my first Tav Tal'riia!

I had originally named her Karliah after the legendary archer of the nightingales in Skyrim, but then got annoyed that her name was too similar to Karlach's, so I changed it. I usually run rogues or clerics in my irl dnd campaigns, so again she was originally a rogue but then quickly realized Astarion was a rogue too so.... to make more sense having him in my party all the time, I changed her class to ranger and holy hell was that sick as FUCK. I made her strong type at first so she gives off femme himbo vibes (lovable loser rizz) because GOD I missed like half of the content in my first run.

She is a Seladrine Drow Ranger!! Honestly haven't thought much of her personal lore because I just went for what I thought sounded super awesome to me off rip. I don't have any pictures of her in scene, because I just didn't think to take more tbh and I wasn't super proud of many of my choices and the things I missed in my excitement to finish the game asap to then.... start my next run!

Which brings us to my next two OC's, a re-run of Tal'riia's story and my first Durge Muerta! I... ended up deleting my first campaign and ran a whole do-over, since like I said, I felt increasingly dumb as time went on and after consuming more and more bg3 content online, I realized just how much I had missed in my first campaign.... SO brings us to a re-realized Tal'riia with a different skillset and playstyle. I went for sorcerer/tempest cleric, because I had heard how strong that build was, and with the cheats ring I got from the basket equipment mod, I had a lot of fun playing around. I've got a couple pics of her here:

Tal'riia 2: Electric Boogaloo Seladrine Drow Sorcerer/Tempest Cleric (I'll post more pics of her when I get back to her story!)

Of course had to also start my first Durge Run, which I chose to go a good route (I'm too nice even in rp to go full evil, but idk, I might try it soon!) and I decided to run an eldrich fighter Durge because I feel fighter makes more sense of a chosen of Bhaal than a sorcerer? But idk that's just me. Here's Muerta!

I actually have such an unhealthy obsession with her Muerta Half Wood-Elf Eldrich Knight Fighter (Yes the lightning jabber build) Heart of gold, little murder-y at times, but ultimately does resist her Urges. What's a little murder between friends!! Red rum is my drink of choice at a bar! POV: Durge is also casually your bff. Honestly pretty normal. Just don't meet the parents...... or the sister.

I'll share my next campaign in a separate post here. This campaign I'm running based on my dnd character I'm playing in an irl campaign with friends! I made our whole party in the character selection screen, but only moved forward with my character because.... there's only so many unfinished adventures I can have lol.

Tell me about your tav(s)?

i only have 1 (official) tav even though i actually played the game with 3 differents tavs (1 of them being a durge) they just never felt right like kaius did <3. but yea . i have some info on kaius here but i need to update it badly.

(also you just opened pandora's box here ... oh boy)

but i will basically put his whole deal under the read more

spoilers for a lot of end game stuff

so fuck canon basically. kaius was born and raised in athkatla and yknow. athkatla + sorcerers arent really bffs unless youre rich (which they werent) so he was constantly being hidden by his parents. he was fine unless he used his magic, but since he's a draconic sorcerer and has visible scales so guards and the cowled wizards were always keeping an extra eye on him due to his appearance giving away his aptitude to magic. this + being a tiefling didnt help either, so he got in a lot of trouble for no reason, simply bc he is. and his parents worrying too much about him to the point where they were sheltering him. he basically got fed up and bored of his life, there was only so much (secret) reading he could do in order to improve his skills. always stuck inside for the sake of protection, so he went and found others like him in order to actually study and learn magic. and this went on for years basically until this illegal magic ring got found out and it was all man to himself. so he had to run without saying goodbye with nothing but the clothes on his back.

on his travels he came across a circus tent and , since theyre know for hiring anyone he tried his luck and it worked! he just did menial jobs at first. but he started talking to a guy there iren who was also knew but part of the main show (acrobat) and they really hit it off. they started practicing together for shits and gigs but he actually was really good at this and he soon also became a part of the show. iren and kaius became partners and soon got married. the fact that the circus traveled a lot also meant that he gained a lot of magic knowledge without the looming threat of being arrested and sent away. him changing his surname also meant that he could finally contact his parents without them getting into trouble. he did use a different first name, but it was an alias they used multiple times in athkatla due to also being under a lot of scrutiny there, so they got it right away. they got a heartfelt reunion and his parents tried to convince him to come back home with them, but after discovering this new found freedom he simply could not go back to what basically felt like being constantly suffocated. so he chose to stay, not to mention the fact that he did not want to leave his husband behind like that. while there was still a heated argument... after some time things calmed down and eventually they understood. at this point kaius was an adult and they couldnt control him, so they had to learn how to let him go after discovering him again. and it wasnt easy, but they had to. the fact that they kept in touch via letters helped them a little, and sometimes when the circus was close to athkalta he could see them in the audience.

after a while the letters stopped coming and this was because kaius left the circus in order to find out what happened to his missing husband. sometimes they were separated due to the fact that they needed to do different jobs in order to keep the circus going, and traveling apart was part of it. they were never apart for longer than 2 days, and so kaius got worried when the 3rd day hit with no sign of him and so he went out to look for him.

it took way longer than he thought, years went by before he found any sign of what happened, iren was abducted and turned into a mind flayer. and this news devastated him. after years of clinging onto a sliver of hope, it got shattered and while he half expected to find his husband dead, this shit still hurt as turning into a mind flayer was a fate he didnt wish on anyone, let alone his beloved. most of his mourning was almost done at this point, yet he still had grief left in his heart from the discovery BUT fate did not let him mull over it as he also got abducted by mindflayers (and this is where the bg3 story begins basically)

THIS is why the guardian scene hit differently with kaius. the emperor takes the form of iren

who looks like this btw :]

but kaius knew it wasnt him, yet he could not help but trust him, as it is still kind of a raw wound and he could not trust someone who looks like him.

BUT WHEN THE EMPEROR REVEALED HIMSELF AS A MIND FLAYER... ohhh things got fucking choppy... like aWAIT YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY BE IREN?? HIM?? but this was fucked up. at this point kaius has moved on??? and also with gale.... it was a fucking mess. so from the point of the emperor reveal to the emperor = balduran reveal he just felt an insane amount of guilt and anger (at himself) that he could not get over.

ultimately the fact that the emperor fucked with his feelings like this WHILE HE COMFORTED HIM really pissed him off and so... he could not trust him in the end... and freed orpheus (also his bff lae'zel needed this to free her people so. win win.)

so like i really like the aspect of gale and him basically going through a similar situation irt their love life and they kind of help each other in that aspect. they THINK they're using each other to get over their 'exes' but in reality it's a fucking mess of things. they help each other but feel bad about it bc they both think they can be better and are awful people

i could go ONNN about how gale affects kaius and vice versa in their story but this is ALREADYYYY so long so. i will spare you. SORRY I RAMBLED SO BAD LMAO