(Taylor's Version)

Tav: Quick question. If after you claim someone's form their appearance changes, for instance they lose a limb, change their hair, get a scar, age, would the form you take of them follow the changes? Or would it only happen after you sleep with their changed body? How about if you get somebody pregnant? Would the baby have your true form's dna or the form's you took for the act? And do u lose the forms of people who passed? What about if they pass when you're currently taking their form?

Haarlep: ...

Balduran definitely felt himself transform and die and has gone insane because of it, creating what we know as the Emperor. The soul doesn't disappear during ceremorphosis, it becomes the illithid; Balduran is still in there, hence why he said his personality was "strong enough" to break through. He's been fighting the nature of the illithid he's become for years, but this new mind is telling him he's evolved and there's a selfish part of him that agrees; this alien form is far more powerful than his elf form. Mix that in with dev notes, he's searching for companionship and trying to do the right thing while ignoring the fact that he is very much becoming manipulative as hell in his own way. Despite that, illithid nature knows how to prey on a human mind(or what's left of it), and in later romance scenes it only takes a push from illithid!Tav/Durge to "go bigger".

He is obsessive and possessive over Tav/Durge, and I think it's very telling that Ansur calls us his thrall; someone who does whatever he says. Exactly what we've been doing from the start. The Emperor doesn't protest this fact. If you call him a freak during the romance scene, he confirms it. If we protest, Ansur looks us over and doesn't get a chance to respond because the Emperor interrupts.

Going back to the romance scene where he confirms the thrall hood, I do think that's illithid nature breaking through. When the Emperor's feelings are especially hurt, the urge to take control and manipulate takes over. Despite that, in the scene where you sleep with him, he seems especially tender. He won't let you look away for even a moment. The obsession is still there, but softer.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, I think the Emperor experience a Bill Cipher moment. He had full intentions of enthralling us if we didn't go after the brain and somewhat succeeded, at least metaphorically, but it fell in love in the process and is pissed when we aren't in love with it anymore.

Clawthornes 🐾