StoryBook

I chose to represent the 21st card of the Major Arcana: The World, finding its multiple meanings interesting and very suitable for Astarion, those being and not limited to; assured success, route, change of place, stagnation and permanence.

I used an existing card as a base and mimicked some of its visual elements (the four elements represented in the corners, the typography, and originally, a floral wreath at the center of the image, which I decided to leave out), otherwise playing around with my chosen cards meaning and the whole card thing -- well, by drawing cards! Each of the cards within the card represent a route he could choose to take, some leading to new places and adventures, and some more towards stagnation and inertia.

Overall, I had a lot of fun pondering how to represent the card's meanings, struggling with the layout in the planning phase (and loving the process) and blasting through the lineart, even managing to add in the colors on a timely manner!

My contribution is only one of many, and a lot of very passionate and talented people created their own pieces for the event, so please check them out!

Backstory: Alina was born in the woods of Cormanthor inside a secret grove dedicated to the elven goddess of love and beauty, Hanali Celanil, who she still worships actively to this day. She learned the elven way of living in there and adopted a lot of their philosophy and customs, learning how to live off nature, use the bow and hunt. She adopted their language and mostly spoke that, but later learned common and her father's native language, Illuskan. Despite growing among her elven side of the family, she always felt like an outsider, which wasn't helped by the subtle mistreatment her other elven relatives subjected her to. Alina's mother loved her dearly however and made sure to help her feel loved and cared for.

Alina's mother was a ranger and she tragically died in a goblin invasion while protecting the grove when Alina was 7-8. Alina was then taken in by her ex-pirate, human father, who had lived in the grove for some years around Alina's birth, but was later sent away and only allowed to visit a couple times a year while he traveled around trying to make ends meet. Alina's Wood-elf relatives did not take kindly to outsiders, especially humans, and did not want Alina around due to her mixed heritage and essentially banished her and her father from ever returning to the grove.

After that, she traveled around the Swordcoast with her father and learned to become a merchant and a goldsmith under his teaching, meeting lots of different people and forming brief friendships along the way. During this time she learned to survive on the road and how to get by with very little. She also learned quite a lot of things about sailing from her father. She adopted a lot of human customs during this time and adapted to fitting in among them, but once again, felt like an outsider due to her obvious elven features. No matter where she went, she'd always be a little strange to someone.

As the Swordcoast is a relatively dangerous place to travel with a child in tow, Alina's father took out a house loan and they settled to the Lower City docks of Baldur's Gate when she was 10, running their small elven jewelry focused goldsmith business from there instead. They lived in relative peace there, Alina's father making a decent living and slowly paying for the house while taking care of his daughter. Being an ex-pirate and a former jailed convict, Alina's father opted to keep a relatively low profile and had mostly professional relationships in the City. He stayed away from his criminal past and wanted to make sure his daughter never got involved in that world. Alina was mostly home-schooled and her education revolved around arts and crafts and whatever books her father owned or she took an interest in.

Then later on, Alina's father died in an accident when she was 17, leaving the house loan unpaid. Soon after that, an ex-pirate, half-orc friend of her father's called Orgran Indigosea took Alina in, paid the house loan and later blackmailed her into working for him to pay it back. Alina earned her membership to become a part of the artisan's guild and took over her father's goldsmith business, but was soon forced to turn to crime in order to meet the increasing quotas of her debt to Orgran. The goldsmith business became a front to their secret criminal activities, including and not limited to: Smuggling, fencing stolen goods, money-laundering, theft, burglary and fraud.

The half-orc did not take well to missed payments, disobedience or anything that displeased him, which lead to Alina enduring a lot of physical and mental abuse and torture in his hands. Due to this treatment, she's become accustomed to hiding her negative feelings, strives for over-independence and tends to people please a lot. She carries heavy scarring on her back and both forearms from this abuse, and hides them at all times due to shame.

Alina has had quite a lot of short term friendships throughout the years, but no experience with romantic relationships whatsoever. She's had some small crushes on people, but has never acted on them and no one has ever taken that much interest in her in general. She harbors dreams about finding a partner and starting a family some day, but after being forced to work for Orgran, any long lasting relationships became impossible to form or upkeep.

Being abducted and infected during the Mindflayer invasion allowed her to form the first proper long lasting friendships in years and even lead to her first ever romantic relationship with Astarion (I like to explore this dynamic in a lot of different ways and their romance differs quite a lot to how things go in game. For example I like to think their romance only ever starts proper post game events.)

Personality: Friendly, thoughtful, calm and kind, with a lot of witty sass/flirting if prompted (she answers how she is talked to). Prone to hiding her troubles and pain, sometimes even basic wants and needs. Overly independent, doesn't ask for help a lot. Requires a deep level of trust to open up about these aspects. Fiercely loyal when befriended. Shy when it comes to intimate things, but when she gets going, there's a lot of boldness in her. Resourceful, prone to planning ahead and thinking things through. Likes taking care of people. I see her as the mom-friend in a group.

Childishly petty, will purposefully inconvenience the one who slighted her (hiding items, defying/ignoring orders etc.). Holds long grudges. A top-grade brat if mistreated, and stubborn as an oaf, will rather die than give in -- in a serious situation, the mantra "If I'm going down, I will take you down with me" applies even if her odds are non-existent, she will fight like a cornered animal with teeth and claws. As contrast, will melt into putty if handled lovingly with care.

Level-headed, but if tested enough, will go blind with rage -- the childhood incident where she got the cut on her right ear happened because of a boy who toppled her and tried to cut her ears to make them appear more human. Alina managed to fight him off and in retaliation cut half of the boy's ear off in payback.