Ashenivir Zauvym- from the Obedience series | drow wizard, recently-graduated the Arcanum of Mythen Thaelas | sweet trans-masc nerd, love of my life, probably has ADHD, chronic people-pleasing overachiever, born submissive and Ra'soltha to Rizeth Velkon'yss who he’s definitely not in love with
Rizeth Velkon'yss - from the Obedience series | drow wizard, former Menzoberranyr, current Master of Arcane Theory | closed off, hard to read Dom, refuses to talk about his feelings, high standards and stupid handsome | also stupidly in love with Ashenivir (not that he’s saying anything about it)
Vizaeth Xunhrae Thaezyr - main character of Obsession | drow wizard, Sorcere apprentice, trans-masc nightmare boy | devoted Lolthite and Pharaun Mizzrym’s #1 fan | has a necromantic rat familiar with an eyeball he acquired through Definitely Normal Means in her ribcage
Zeth'rinn Baenre - Jarlaxle fankid, originally an NPC from my d&d campaign | transmasc idiot, got ill-advised top surgery via Lolth | not nearly as suave as he thinks he is, still one of the hottest boys in the Underdark | grew up in Bregan D'aerthe and has Weird Family Relationships with half of them (by which I mean he is not fond of uncle Kimmuriel, adores uncle Valas, and is in some kind of undeclared War of Fuckery with Artemis)
Rune - half-elf warlock Dark Urge | feral dog of a man | violence is his love language and fortunately for him Astarion is into that | man of few words and much aggression | ended the game a free man who can occasionally be talked into behaving like a civilised boy
“Wow, this kink is so weird and extreme” and then you look inside and it’s literally just “what if I never had to Be Responsible or Make Good Life Decisions ever again, and somehow this was a sex thing?”
Something I love about confronting Cazador is how he obviously never processes that Astarion has friends until it’s too late.
Petras and Dalyria must have mentioned that Astarion wasn’t alone when they met him, but when you read Cazador’s journal? He’s 100% fixated on Astarion. How Astarion stood in the sun, how Astarion was willing and able to disobey him. And when Astarion shows up, Cazador barely acknowledges the party at all - and sure, that’s partly because this is Astarion’s moment in the narrative, but Cazador doesn’t so much as ask why these random strangers are there! They’re not part of his plans, so they don’t exist.
And then they immediately save his errant spawn from the ritual and start beating his ass.
Just. What must have been going through Cazador’s head when that fight starting turning against him? ‘Is that… the Blade of Frontiers? Why is a monster hunter - and is that a cleric? - helping a vampire spawn? An undead? Ah, but they must be treating it as a necessary evil to have a chance to slay me, of course - hold on, why is the cleric healing Astarion? Why does that wizard keep Counterspelling everything I’m casting at Astarion, why waste the spells when I’m not even targeting him? Did… did that druid just cast Daylight on Astarion’s weapons? And that brute of a tiefling - that’s not just disgust in her eye when she looks at me, it’s fury - and she keeps putting herself in front of Astarion, why in the hells would she - she’s running right at me- ’
I hope that one of the last things Cazador ever knew was the choking realisation that Astarion didn’t just come back strong, or free. Astarion came back loved.
I love this and it was literally the best way to show it. By starting with the practice you get to see how hard they worked on this and that it isn’t like edited or visual effects, plus you get the satisfaction of seeing the finished product at the end
