Tales of the Baldurian Taverns

My newest Tav 🥀🖤 I wanted to give him a voice and do some story telling with him because he’s another character I’ve created in the BG3/Forgotten Realms universe and given a fleshed out backstory/personality 💀🤣

Tavarius VanDree is a rogue subclassed as a thief. He is 185 years old, and was turned into a vampire spawn at only the age of 25. He’s a half drow, half high elf. His Father was an escaped servant from Mezzoberanzan, and his mother was a tailor in Baldur’s Gate. They’d meet, and later marry. They had three children, Tav being the oldest of his siblings. When Tav was a young boy, his parents bought a Winery in the city and began crafting their own blends. Given their elven bloodline, it’s likely Tav’s family is all still alive, though he hasn’t seen them since the night he “went missing” nearly 160 years before the start of the game’s events taking place. And, even if they did, they wouldn’t recognize him anymore. Their sweet, generous, strong willed son died over a century ago, and left Tavarius wondering where his place in on the Sword Coast might be, had he not been stolen away and forgotten about by the world around him, at least in his mind.

The woman that created him certainly did, after all. She took advantage of his trusting nature and turned him. And she kept him all to herself for years. Showering him in love and idolization, as she also compelled him through their “bond” to return the favor. Until she was bored of him. But as we know, Vampires are power hungry creatures. She couldn’t just let her spawn go, or grant him his freedom. Nobody else was allowed to have him, even though she didn’t want him anymore. She needed him to always want her. He used to be her most favorite possession, after all. The answer? Tav was locked in a cellar on what would’ve been his 100th birthday, and left to sit completely alone and obsessing for his Mistress’s affections again, for 85 years. Until he was stolen by the Mindflayers.

He doesn’t remember much of his life before he was turned, other than he was a young man that worked the counter at his parents’ wine shop in Baldur’s Gate.

(I’m just a 🏳️‍⚧️ dude with a desk mic and a dream of being a VA one day so if the voice is awful I’m sorry 💀 I wanted to give it a shot and he’s gonna be a fun one to develop and portray)

Ascended Astarion in the house of hope with Dark Consort Vaelic 🫱🏻‍🫲🏽 Akasha’s (Queen of the Damned) bathtub scene vibes 👀

Don’t get me wrong I’m fully aware AA is a toxic, manipulative, bad ending entity 💀 But Baby I don’t have time for red flags, I’m lost in those piercing red eyes ✌🏻🥀♥️

(I always reload & keep him a spawn for the ending because I can’t let him live an eternity of being unhappy with himself but 🤫 scary pale elf looks really pretty when he’s standing above me like that & I’m making Raphael host this Delulu AirBnB 🫠)

Durge x Astarion = That Morticia & Gomez kinda love ❤️🖤🥀✨

Astarion: “You know, most people would learn of my ‘condition’ and want me reduced to a pile of ash.. But not you. Never you, actually. Come to think of it— You’ve never given ‘helping me’ with it a second thought. I think it’s safe to say— I feel safe with you. Seen.”

Vaelic: “The one that did it to you might’ve seen a plaything, and others only saw the monster he created out of it... But I see you, Astarion. Not some lowly spawn, or just a potentially promising night. I see you, the first in my heart. And when I look at you, I’m looking at everything I’ve ever wanted. Everything I never knew I needed.” ❤️🖤✨

Respectfully— Nah. I have nothing respectful to say 😩

I’m feral.

Send help 🏳️

⚠️Flashing Lights⚠️

“So much more than that, Dearest. And you’ll never be anything less than that, ever again.” ❤️🖤✨

Baby Boy was GAGGED at the thought of that lute being played 😭😭🤣💀

If looks could kill, somebody would have to go have a nice lil chit chat with Withers on Vaelic’s behalf 🤣

(Late Valentine’s Day post because I forgot to post it here yesterday 💀)

Astarion: “When we find the Druid, will this little adventure of ours be over?”

Vaelic: “I was wondering the same thing, I guess you could say I’ve grown fond of you.”

I headcanoned Vaelic to be the “Darling Boy” from Astarion’s past when I wrote out his back story before the game events 😩 He had no memory of Astarion, as he’s a Bhaalspawn and we all know what happens to their memory. Astarion has clearly endured too much from Cazador to remember his own life, much less the details of a much younger Vaelic he only spent a night with.

But I think “past, future, present” scenes like these are adorable and I love these two together so much 😭✨ So I had to make one happen for them.

“Was I sweet, once?” 🥀

* Vaelic was given as a payment to house Kilarn as an infant. He’d never known life outside of slavery until the Dark Urges began to call upon him, leading him to slaughter his house and flee to Baldur’s Gate to the temple of Bhaal to answer his father’s demand.

* He learned to play the violin at the age of 5 to entertain guests and his matriarchy.

* By age 8 he was fluent in Undercommon, Elvish, Common Speech, and had started learning a bit of Thieve’s Can’t from one of the older male Drow also in house Kilarn’s services.

*He was born with a set of horns, though nobody knows why for certain. Some believe there may be tiefling blood farther back in his family tree, or maybe it has something to do with him being a child of Bhaal himself and the murder god just wanted to give a flare of dramatics to his vessel.

*Vaelic is effeminate. His matron mother always assumed this meant he was a more favored Jaluk of Lolth than the rest of them, as he was “made closer to the Spider Queen’s image.” She’s a vile person that pulled close to a Mystra & Gale situation on him in the sense of he got privileges and benefits early on in his life in the house because of her favor of what he could be for her— Just not nearly to the same extremes as Mystra obviously 🥲

“You’re not alone in this, none of us are.” ❤️‍🩹✨

My birthday was on Feb. 2nd so this was my gift to me for making it 24 years 🤣👏🏻🫠

I’m in love with how it turned out. Astarion means so much to me as a character. I relate to him for so many different reasons 🥲❤️ I definitely want to add the other companions to it and make it a sleeve because BG3 as a whole has really touched me as a person, as silly as it sounds to say over a video game.

A Shining Light in the Underdark - (Entry 1.)

This is gonna be a series of short stories I’m writing about my favorite (and my main) campaign in Baldur’s Gate 3. Ranging from his life pre all the way through post game events, so there will be spoilers!!! I’m sorry it’s parts of his plot!

It features a transgender (female to male) Drow named Vaelic Kilarn. I’ve already posted a lot about him on my page as little head cannons, shorts, and he’s featured in most of my edits 🤣He is a Dark Urge origin character with a lot of baggage and I will be writing about his experiences with that. So trigger warnings to come will be added as necessary.

I also have my own head cannons about companions in these stories based off of my campaign and the world I’m building in it. So if that isn’t your thing and you’re for Vanilla 100% characters, totally okay but I’m prolly not the silly lil fanfic guy for you 😅 That being said!

Please enjoy 😌🫶🏻 (TW: Sl*very, mention of N0n-C0nsent. )

“Truth is— I’ve found you in every reality we’ve lived, and I’ve fallen in love with you as you were, in every single one. But this time, I intend to never lose you again.

- Forever Yours,

That Darling Boy” ❤️🖤

Vaelic’s leather bound journal laid on top of the nightstand in his ‘home’ in Waterdeep. Written in the newest pages read this

“My beloved Astarion,

I’ve written this letter hundreds of times over these last few years, but I don’t have any of the correct words to justify sending it off.. Not that I would even know where to find you, anyway.

I won’t drag this out, nor will I lie. I miss you. Gale is wonderful.. He was there for me when I left. Helped me cure myself of you and the “gift” you gave me.. But I tried to find your humor in his wittiness, your vulnerability in his heroism, your touch in his palms.. He could never be you, and I fear I’ll never be over you. You thought you were nothing before everything that happened with Caz, but you were everything I’d ever hoped for..

But I couldn’t watch you destroy everything you used to Love, including me. Had I known this is what’d become of you, I’d have tried so much harder to stop you in that crypt..

So why do I only think about searching the entirety of the Sword Coast to come find you? Is it some sick, obsessive control you still have over me? Or, is it that my heart could never hold as much space for anyone else as it did for you..”

The ink that composed the words trailed off abruptly, as if their author was shielding them from another person as he stopped writing.

(Non-Canon event in my campaign but I had to hurt my own feelings 🫠🫠 I edited this to be kind of an alternate universe where Astarion & Vaelic’s relationship didn’t make it past the end game events due to Astarion losing his mind and becoming Caz Jr after Ascending.)

A little WIP of my favorite Pale Elf ✨🫶🏻

(Bonus Chibistarion for balance 🥰)

1. I gave him short hair based off a head canon of mine where Astarion had my Durge give him a hair cut in camp after his nightmare with Cazador because he needed to feel in control of his own body, and if he can’t remember exactly what his face looks like then Caz didn’t deserve to either.

2. The face scar is one in the game’s cc I gave him based on his story about the one time he tried to run from Caz. He got more of a punishment than what he brings up in conversation. Like it was Caz also saying “I hope your pretty face was worth that Darling boy.”

It was the very first night after the nautiloid crash. Vaelic and the companions had all found each other, and made camp for the evening. They’re all relaxed by the camp fire under the stars.

Astarion: Trying to make conversation. “So, do any of you have loves waiting for you back home? Scandalous affairs, maybe?”

Shadowheart: “Who’s got the time for attachment, honestly? Though I’ve allowed myself to indulge in a night or two.”

Lae’zel: “Chk.. Something we actually agree upon. “Love” is such an istik concept.”

Karlach: “Well, this ticker’o’mine has stopped really anyone from gettin’ close enough for me to try”

Wyll: “The Blade of the Frontiers has no time for such personal pleasures when the fate of the sword coast is at stake!”

Gale: “Ah- I’ll pass on this topic!”

Astarion: “Ugh, honestly. The ONE time you do.”

Vaelic: “Well, I HAD two. One of them, another Drow in service of my house in Mezzoberanzan. He got assassinated for associating with me, unfortunately. The other wasn’t as serious. Just someone I met in a tavern in Baldur’s Gate my first time on the surface. He was a night spent laughing, sharing drinks, and dancing. Can’t remember his face at all anymore, but he said I was ‘Such a darling boy.’ He walked me back to my room that night, I invited him in but he refused. Said he promised he’d take me up on the offer another time. I never saw him again, though.”

Everyone stares at Vaelic for a moment, still stuck on how he so casually mentioned his first love was offed over him, except Astarion who is avoiding looking at Vaelic profusely. Though, he’s unsure about why he can’t look at him.

Lae’zel is also the only one also not phased by the m*rd*r of a mate, for obvious reasons. She noticed Astarion’s discomfort and squints her eyes at him, but doesn’t pry as there is no personal need for her to.