Unapologetic Gortash Redeemer

I had no intentions of really ever exploring astrology for my characters, but I had a random thought earlier today since I gave Ellie an actual approximation of her birthdate and was curious.

Also had no intentions of making this a tag until I got to the end of this post (tagging everyone I can think of off the top of my head below), but now I’m super curious about everyone’s OC’s:

If you’ve given your OC a birthdate (or even an approximation), look up their astrology and tell me how alike or different they are from their sign. If you haven’t given them a birthdate, tell me what zodiac sign you think they’d be and why! And heck, if you feel like it, throw in some fanfic, VP, or art.

Eleint is (from what I understand; correct me if I’m wrong) for all intents and purposes September. And if she was found Late Eleint, that would put her birthday approximately three weeks-ish prior in Eleint.

Which essentially makes Ellie a Virgo. And Ellie very much gives Virgo vibes. I searched up some characteristics for funsies and if it’s not her to a T (taken from a google search so virgos tell me if these are wrong):

Calculating and assessing events and people around them.

Their talent for analysis makes them very detail oriented (which I haven’t done much with yet, but is how I pictured her.)

Perfectly happy to be alone.

Can find or create order in the chaos.

Honest

Discerning to a fault, but great advice givers

Perfectionists (didn’t personally give her this trait, but I could see her easily being one).

Can have a generous nature - which, I give her on her tadpole journey that she helps others (especially the tieflings) and she’s not even sure why she’s concerned so I find this one funny.

Can become hyper-critical of themselves (looking at you, Act 2 Ellie)

When in a supportive team, they can be great at helping their colleagues better themselves and deal with difficult tasks (see: tadfools)

AND OMG I JUST GOT TO THE LOVE/RELATIONSHIP SECTION:

Virgos can be extremely picky, meaning that they can take their time to find the “right one”.

Quite happy to remain single until they find the “right one”, which means that when they do finally fall in love, they are loyal and devoted.

Can seem reserved or withdrawn when it comes to expressing their feelings.

Instead of flowery words, they tend to show their love by showering their loved ones with their loyalty.

BUT WAIT!!!!

“Those born under the Virgo zodiac sign make for great parents and often tend to parent other children around their family as well.”

Please just mop me up…I’m in tears 😭

Tagged by the ever adorable @cep-stories …see her answer here

From…The price of power

And so I sat down to read of Netheril: an empire where arcanists ruled rather than idiot merchant princes, where mythallars bore whole cities into the heavens, and humankind rose at last to rival the lost wonders of Aryvandaar.

I had intended only to finish an assigned chapter before sleep claimed me. Instead I found myself reading until dawn, for there are few intoxicants more potent than wonder — that somewhere, once, mortals had come within touching distance of the divine.

I recognize that this WIP is unprompted, but I say "fuck it." I also realize that there is no actual TAV in this WIP, but it is Tav adjacent, so in my head it still counts.

As usual with any A Dowry of Smoke snippets, they are dedicated to @carnivaley <3 Had she not spent a month bullying me into keeping Rowan and continuing this story, I wouldn't have remembered that I actually enjoy myself when I'm writing Gortash xD

Without further ado, please enjoy some 517 words I pantsed this morning.

He’d known from the moment Meyer Ravenshade had accepted his proposal for his nieces hand in marriage that the Lady Rowan Ravenshade would not arrive with the eager compliance Parliament expected of its future Archduchess. This was a woman who’d spent the better part of the last two years mourning the wizard who’d practically blown up his Netherbrain, clearly the announcement of their quick engagement couldn’t have been met with tears of joy. Had their positions been reversed, he suspected his own enthusiasm might have been equally as lacking. Still… The city waited for their union. His guests waited for dinner to start. He waited for her to show herself. And he absolutely hated waiting. The thought scarcely had the chance to settle before the soft clink of crystal against crystal announced someone lingering at his shoulder. “I must admit, my dear, you’ve managed to truly surprise me.” The voice was warm with a practiced civility, carrying the sort of effortless confidence that only the truly well-established ever seemed capable of possessing. There was no hesitation in approaching him, no nervous glance towards his Steel Watchers, no unnecessary flourish of etiquette intended to remind him of his station. She simply stepped into the space beside him as though it belonged to her just as much as it belonged to him. Lady Wisteria Jannath. Sapphire silk draped elegantly from her shoulders, embroidered with delicate gold and silver vines that shimmered each time she shifted beneath the candlelight. Time had silvered strands of the firey auburn hair he once remembered spilling loose over those same shoulders, yet it had done remarkably little to diminish both her beauty or the intelligence resting quietly behind her pale green eyes. There had once been a time when those eyes had watched him from across candlelit dining tables rather than crowded banquets. Long before Wyrm’s Rock. Long before Parliament had begun addressing him at Your Grace. Before the invention of his Steel Watchers, before his coronation as Archduke, before the city had decided that Enver Gortash was a man worth bowing to. Wisteria Jannath had known him when he had been little more than an ambitious nuisance with expensive tastes and very little coin to indulge them. Her gaze wandered to the untouched place setting beside his own. Gortash rolled the stem of his goblet lazily between his fingers. “Only now?” A quiet laugh escaped her. “Oh Enver, you’ve spent years surprising this city.” Her smile lingered. “It was your choice of fiancee that became the first surprise I haven’t managed to predict beforehand.” “How disappointing that must be for you, my Lady.” “No, not disappointing.” She replied, lifting one shoulder in a half-shrug. “Just curious, is all.” It was her curiosity that finally drew his attention. For a brief moment their eyes met, and Gortash was reminded why their conversations had always been considerably more stimulating than those of half the Parliament assembled around them. Wisteria never asked questions because she was lacking the answer to them. No, she asked because she wanted to see whether your answer differed from her own.

Thanks for tagging me (sorry if I forgot someone!) @perpetualmaladaptivedaydream @cinder-rellish181 aaaaaand...@optimisticgrey (if you saw me post anything...NO, YOU DIDN'T! ;))

What’s an idea, dynamic, or trope in your current work that feels naughty or self-indulgent? (Spicy answers 100% encouraged)

The most suggestive and naughtiest things about Suna have sadly not been posted nor shared yet, because I’m still working hard to figure out a few more things about her past, while the things I’ve shared until now are mostly angst-centered (self-indulgence at maximum levels there).

Yes, I must confess I’m first of all a huge angst enthusiast and I tend to lean towards hurt/comfort, star-crossed lovers, nightmare comfort, anguished declarations of love, unrequited love, amnesia, tragic soulmates and major trauma A WHOLE LOT, but angst leading to smut (and, in general, emotional distress leading to intense romantic/sexual tension) is one of my favorite tropes ever, and my future plans for my OC contemplate tons of that (especially the short thing I’m working on right now about Suna and Orin and their toxic sisters/relatives dynamic, where I also want to explore the path that led to Suna’s fall as a Bhaalspawn. Spoiler: it has A LOT to do with Gort, obviously).

And what about the naughty side, you might ask? Well, first of all there are a few mentions of breath play in the most recent things I wrote/shared. It’s not exactly a self-indulgent detail, but in my OC headcanons, Suna enjoys that kind of things, and she enjoys it A LOT (Suna and her tyrant loved to indulge in choking each other in bed quite often before her tadpoling, and if there’s a thing Orin’s lobotomy has not been fully able to erase from her naughty brain is exactly that, even if her post-tadpole version prefers something milder. Gale’s influence, I suppose…). Anyway, from my OC’s point of view such obsession is not just a mere kink, but also something that has a lot to do with trust, one of the feelings Suna struggles with the most.

Last but not least, I’m kinda obsessed with the whole Suna-Gort-Gale dynamic. In my intentions there’s never been the idea of making this a three-way thing, but since most of my OC's past trauma is processed through her dreams/nightmares (at least in my longer fic), I thought it might be nice to at least hint at some kind of strange overlap between her two lovers often happening when she’s, emotionally speaking, at her weakest.

Is your OC a virgin, blushing maiden, or sexual fiend? Or aro/ace? Or something in between?

Bhaalspawn Suna is more on the fiend side, definitely not an aro/ace, and certainly NOT a virgin nor a blushing maiden. She’s under the greatest pressure because of her role, and Bhaal’s oppressive presence weighs heavily on her shoulders, so sex becomes her first and often only source or recreation and favorite pastime. She collects lovers like a philatelist collects stamps and tends to view them more as trophies or objects than people. Most of the time she likes to pick the ones she wants to spend time with among acolytes, and after the deed is done, she gets rid of them and offers them to Father, before moving on to the next conquest (though she sometimes collects relics of them, if they have been especially remarkable). She NEVER sees them as her equals (Gort will be her first and ONLY exception while she’s still under Bhaal’s influence) and mostly uses her lovers to validate her ego.

Post-tadpole/amnesiac Suna is something else entirely, instead. With most of her memories gone, also a lot of her previous traits vanish (but her experience does not, obviously :D). The main difference is that instead of trying to avoid real emotional intimacy, she slowly learns how to embrace it, and emotional connections become her main focus before starting any kind of intimate relationship. Depending on how her story develops (in canon she settles down in Waterdeep with Gale, while in fic things are going to be much more complicated because of Gort’s huge involvement), there might be a few little differences, but her most peculiar traits will never change: she might be a little more “tamer” than her previous Bhaalspawn self, but she’s never going to be a “vanilla” kind of woman, she won’t stop being an enthusiastic and dedicated sex enjoyer who loves to experiment and to explore new things, and her propension for marking her lovers (love bites, mostly) here and there will probably never change (and that will probably earn her a “stop biting the damn thing” line from Gale more than a few times in canon, while in fics Gort will probably end up sporting more than a few bruises and teeth marks in public nearly every day, obviously with very ill-concealed pride).

What’s your OC’s “I shouldn’t be this turned on by this” trigger?

Once again, it mostly depends on which version on Suna you pick: Bhaalspawn Suna is obviously turned on by anything involving blood and gore mostly, but the girl has also a huge authority kink going on, and despite struggling under Bhaal’s influence she cannot resist people in power and authority figures in general. She kinda hates them, but at the same time she’s deeply fascinated by them (and maybe she secretly wants only to get close enough to earn their trust, then get rid of them and take their place). Okay, the girl has a huge problem with authority in general, and maybe she could use a good therapist.

Also, for some reason she can’t resist the allure of hairy chests (no further explanations needed here) and masked men (so you can imagine her reaction when she sees Gort wearing his banite mask, hehe).

Once free from Bhaal’s influence though, her turn-ons also change: composure, self-mastery and competence become the things she values the most.

What is your OC’s hard NO?

Anything non-con is out of question, plus any kind of bathroom-related kink is a huge NO for her.

What is the most debauched VP/Art you have ever created?

I made a few nsfw drawings (traditional art only) a few years ago for different fandoms (SW and SWTOR) and shared most of them on a Discord server. Those pics are probably still out there somewhere, but it’s been years since I last saw them going around. I rarely do VP and I would never dare to call my pics (with PS5 photo mode) “artistic VP” honestly, but I have some talented moots who can do miracles at VP, and gifted me with some nice and sexy pics of my OC making out with Gort/Gale. God bless my moots!

What is the wildest NSFW smut you have ever thought up? Did you write it?

This might surprise a few people, but in the beginning (and in a couple of totally different fandoms) I used to write exclusively smut/wild NSFW things for friends, and most of them were short things about canon characters x OC or x self-inserts. I had a lot of fun with them, at least until I discovered the wondrous world of angst and that became my main focus, but back then, most of my fandom activity was heavily centered around kinky content of any sort (basically anything, except probably wax play, watersports and bathroom kinks) and I loved writing tons of very-much-self-indulgent bullshit (even if the characters usually had the emotional depth of a brick 😆). Feeling a lil nostalgic rn…

Do you have any crazy projects for the future?

Not sure if any of my future plans/projects might be considered “crazy”, but I DO indeed have plans, and a bunch of ideas about my OC I’d love to explore in the foreseeable future (mostly through one-shots or tiny things of no more than two chapters, because longer fics can be really exhausting sometimes). Writing angst is something I enjoy maybe a little too much, so most of those things will be heavily angst-oriented, but I’m not a monster who only enjoys torturing blorbos, so I’m also planning a few “lighter” things involving my OC and her backstory. And yes, more than one of those things might end up including a nice amount of smut (as a treat :3).

I was tagged by @litsenn , @fireflyeyes , @cinder-rellish181 , @thesanguinesonnet , @bladesingerlily and @deianestormborn <3

QSAT was being a lil bitch with me and I was possessed by a dark Gortavia brainworm and Cassandra on a little honeypot mission.

"I do know how to disturb peace very well," he laughed as he drank from his cup and she mirrored the movement, keeping her eyes on her as the cup pushed against her lips. The red wine would stain her lips and coated her tongue in its aroma. "You do strike me as the type." It made him laugh, a rumbling one that came up from down inside of his lungs. It was not too hard to imagine how someone else would be charmed by him, she could see it. It was a shame for him that she was not that kind of person, he was the prey in the situation and she was the predator. "Name is Rugan, can I get yours?" "Cassandra."

It's Sunday, and somehow also mid-July? What the fuck? Thank you @saylofwaterdeep and @defira85 for the recent WIP tags!

I have a few different things I'm working on right now, because Gortash week is almost upon us (again, what the fuck? Where did the time go?). I haven't decided yet if I will snippets for those pieces in advance, so in the meantime, here's a little bit of Heaven, Chapter 9.

“Sit on the table, if you please.” This room had none of the luxury of the other, only clean, quiet efficiency. A plain, wooden table took up most of the space, even pressed against the wall as it was, and several narrow shelves held books, scrolls, vials, and bottles of all sizes. Herbs hung from a drying rack next to a narrow window of clouded glass. Balsam, Ta’av noted, and belladonna. She threw herself onto the table with a grunt. Every move hurt, but at least the world didn’t sway quite as much when she was off her feet. “I can heal,” she managed to say. Her thoughts felt heavy. “I can cast—” “Shhh.” The woman guided her to lie back, and then she was plucking something off a shelf. “I will cast a spell in a moment. Best to remove the bolts and clean the wounds first.” She paused and glanced down with a cheeky smile. “Unless you want to have a scar.” “A scar?” Ta’av repeated vacantly. She was staring at the woman’s freckles. “I—um—no, thank you.” She wasn’t sure if she could scar. She rarely seemed to, before, even though she saw flashes of her body being cut into over and over again. Her divine blood seemed to knit her skin back together cleanly, but it hadn’t been enough to heal her brain, and that blood wasn’t hers anymore.

(Credit to @/thesanguinesonnet for creating this tag game)

I was tagged by @nadas-dirthalen and @defira85 (I can't see/interact with your post as its marked mature and I haven't done age-verification, but I'm sure the answers are bangers!) - thank you both! I'll try not to make my answers too boring lol 😌

Going to yap about Calleigh, Rosslyn and Nora!

What’s an idea, dynamic, or trope in your current work that feels naughty or self-indulgent? (Spicy answers 100% encouraged.)

Hmm, I don't know if I have good answers for this first one, spicy or otherwise! But anyway:

Calleigh - Uh...I...gave her my own birthday? Solace/Solis (July) 29th. Also, I remember being told a while back about something Davrin says (perhaps as part of his romance dialogue?) about how Wardens have greatly increased appetites thanks to the taint - hungrier and hornier. So I guess I always bear that in mind when thinking about/writing her 🙂‍↕️ Oh, and that she is a service top.

Rosslyn - Trope-wise, just...yearning/pining. Lots of yearning for the worldly, pretty bard. All the little touches between her and Leliana, and how everything feels heightened.

Nora - I don't have any current work for her, but I always like thinking about how cagey she is, all the secrets she's hiding, and how that colours her outlook/interactions/behaviour - especially with Jae.

DEBAUCHED EDITION NSFW

Thank you @optimisticgrey 🖤I loved reading about Celeste in your spicy post 🔥🔥🔥

No pressure tags: @missfortunetherogue @unovafarm @wasted-sam @rdekarios @starlit-serpent @scoldingdarjeeling @cursed-nyxan @archduchessgortash @lucretiouswept @carnivaley @gortashsrighthand @the-starflower @faeriiefire🌟🔥

🔞NSFW below🔞

I found these lovely Veilguard-themed character templates and thought they would be fun to fill in!

Templates by Halkuonn (@/arcandoria) are here

(art of Calleigh in the second template in the Veilguard icon style by @/pinkvbay)

DEBAUCHED EDITION NSFW

Thank you, @thesanguinesonnet , what a delightfully debauched idea *rubs hands like a greedy racoon*

This also answers the tags of @tynithia @helyanwe4608 @litsenn @rdekarios @cinder-rellish181 @lolthwoven @perpetualmaladaptivedaydream

uno-reverse for all of you, if you have something you'd like to share!

In case you are waiting for the continuous story I started two weeks ago, you can find the parts here: One, two, three, four, five. Will continue on Wednesday.

Let's have at it.

The usual Celeste-NSFW-warnings apply here: adult content, BDSM and debauchery