Kenzi Koffee

TW: Su!c!de attempt, potential emotional manipulation, dark themes, ascended Astarion, toxic relationship, lil bit of blo0d, vampires being vampires, etc.

~Part 2/3~

Summary: Several years after Astarion ascended and Baulder's Gate was saved, Freya finds herself lost in a place of regret after her relationship with Astarion becomes strained. The Vampire Lord lets himself fall into a place of utter darkness.

She loves him dearly and believes deep down somewhere, he still loves her in his own way...but the ascension robbed him of ever overcoming the pain that haunts him, and with every day of their eternal life together- he slips further into better mirroring the vampiric cruelty Cazador once inflicted upon him.

Freya is my OC, Astarion belongs to BG3/D&D

This is how I imagine after the events of the game, if this is the route that is chosen...this is a possible outcome. This is not the ending I imagine is canon, but is a theme I wanted to explore.

Caption: Part Two of my "Until The World Burns Down" fan-comic. This part of the comic was pretty challenging to draw. I also went into a bit of an art block phase during creating these pages so I'm not particularly happy with their results. The coloring had me struggling for some reason. The next batch of pages though... 👀

I think that if Tav were showing signs of depression- feeling as though they made a mistake in helping him ascend, he would simply try to cover up the emotion behind it by playing a particularly manipulative savior and dismiss Tav's feelings, leading to a perpetual cycle of sorrow and then pretending that sadness never exists; because in his mind...what is there to grieve? Being all powerful means there is no reason to allow weakness to flourish.

‼️ TW: Su!c!de attempt, potential emotional manipulation, dark themes, ascended Astarion, toxic relationship, lil bit of blo0d, vampires being vampires, etc.

~Part 1/3~

Summary: Several years after Astarion ascended and Baulder's Gate was saved, Freya finds herself lost in a place of regret after her relationship with Astarion becomes strained. The Vampire Lord lets himself fall into a place of utter darkness.

She loves him dearly and believes deep down somewhere, he still loves her in his own way...but the ascension robbed him of ever overcoming the pain that haunts him, and with every day of their eternal life together- he slips further into better mirroring the vampiric cruelty Cazador once inflicted upon him.

Freya is my OC, Astarion belongs to BG3/D&D

This is how I imagine after the events of the game, if this is the route that is chosen...this is a possible outcome. This is not the ending I imagine is canon, but is a theme I wanted to explore.

Caption: Okay so this comic took me literally ages to make. I started it around February before I got a little busy and had to make progress with this slower than I'd originally intended. (49 hours of working canvas time haha)

I've learned a lot since the start of making this comic- so my style changes quite a few times from the beginning to the end as I grow more comfortable with the process of drawing in this style. There are still some things I'd do differently if I were doing it all over again, and perhaps I'd change some of the writing as well...but I'm happy to take the experience learned from a bigger project like this and apply it to something new. (Like my upcoming webcomic for instance ~shameless plug~ 👀 )

I wanted to explore some of the relationship dynamics that I believe would start coming into play post-game if Astarion has been ascended. I believe he would be very dismissive of how Tav feels if they begin to question him, leading to a very strained relationship.

I also feel that if Tav were showing signs of depression- feeling as though they made a mistake in helping him ascend, he would simply try to cover up the emotion behind it by playing a particularly manipulative savior and dismiss Tav's feelings, leading to a perpetual cycle of sorrow and then pretending that sadness never exists; because in his mind...what is there to grieve? Being all powerful means there is no reason to allow weakness to flourish.

🦇 Aeterna Amantes 🦇

The comic is an angsty AU where Freya aids Astarion’s ascension. She is only wanting the best for him and to help him feel empowered in his most vulnerable moment when he’s confronting Cazador. She realizes only too late how absolute power can enable someone to never grow beyond the baser instincts he had developed to survive.

Essentially it will be a brief exploration of the dynamic between my resisting durge Freya and an Ascended Astarion after the events of the game have concluded. (My favorite canon ending will always be a resist durge x spawn Astarion of course. 🖤)

Some more color experimenting and playing with style while I practice making comic-driven illustrations. I’ve been wanting to draw a more refined version of my OC Warrick for a while now- so I could see what his electrifying power crystals look like in color.

The magic within these crystals surge consistently beneath his skin as they were surgically implanted in his body to make him powerful. I’m sure the design of them will change as I draw them more- but I like how they look here.

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Lore dump about the world in which Warrick is from because I feel like yapping:

Lore wise, these crystals are what serve as a power source within the universe of Eithneal. They were created by the ethereal draconach that watch over the realm and gifted to mortal beings so those without magical abilities would still survive on an otherwise magic-driven planet.

Humans in particular were never meant to wield magic in the same sense that older species (such as fae, fauna, dragons, etc) do- however they’ve developed ways and technology that empowers them to be capable of doing so…even if it results in the destruction of the very world they were gifted to begin with.

As humanity grows, the older species begin to die out- and the ancient magic that holds their world together begins to die alongside them. Eithneal relies upon the draconach to survive, and as faith in the draconach wanes…as humanity forgets their origin and the gift they’ve been given…the faster Eithneal corrodes.

Warrick initially had no desire to harness magic for himself- especially in a way where it causes him constant pain, but his circumstances made it Inevitable…

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TLDR: Dragon gods bless magic rocks and give them to people- people mess it up because of course they do. Warrick is an angsty antagonist with magic rocks under his skin.

Inspired by Killian Carson from the Legacy of Gods series by Rina Kent. 🖤

“Cheeky little pup~”

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A speedy fun little Astarion drawing made in the hopes of helping me through a bit of art block. He’s definitely become such a comfort character of mine. Every version of him is so well written, there are very few fictional characters I’ve come to adore this much. 🖤

Practicing drawing a face I was familiar with also really helped me overcome some fundamental issues I was having with my art since I could spot the differences quicker. Thankfully a friend of mine helped me spot some mistakes I frequently found myself repeatedly making and I’ve been practicing a lot to correct them.

I’m looking to keep improving upon this style of mine for my webcomics. I still do painterly pieces and strive to improve that as well- but I think right now I want to lock in on this more comic friendly style. This was an experiment to practice with line-work and a more limited color palette and I’m very happy with how it turned out I think! 🤗

The Faun 🦌

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What started off as just some fun speedy expression practice turned into a full finalized experimental where I tried out some new techniques. Really love how it turned out!

🌑 Something a little different than my typical art posts~

Inspired by ‘Lights Out: An Into Darkness Novel’ by @navessa.allen