ASHA & LOLTH-SWORN // @morethandarkness
I haven't said much about Asha's backstory, as I've been fighting with my old laptop and just didn't have the energy for much usually by the time it booted and then I had to wait another hour for the page to load once I clicked 'new post'.
But! New laptop and here we go!
I don't 100% know if all of this 100% fits DnD lore or not—as I am still learning and researching—but Asha isn't Lolth-Sworn and never was, though she did spend some of her earliest years in Menzoberranzan.
She and her family were part of a group of wanderers/nomads who just roamed through the Underdark. [ I have kind of turned over the idea that if they had a little business they ran where they would gather things down in the Underdark, like the couple you help with the Noblestalk. No storefront. More likely just out of a wagon they would bring into town and sell from when they needed to reup on other supplies. ]
Regardless, their group came under attack by a group of Lolth-sworn. Some were slaughtered. Some were taken. Asha and her older brother Szaryn [ who is actually her middle brother but she was so young at the time she didn't remember and Szaryn wasn't going to remind her of someone else lost ] were among those taken and put to work at a noble house, mostly doing chore type work.
Within my own self-contained verse, it was the same house where Halsin was a "guest", and she was, in fact, there at the same time. Though she didn't fully understand because she was so young, she knew something wasn't right and she would sneak him food and water when everyone was busy. She treated him with kindness. Asked him questions about who he was, where he was from. She was a very curious little one and Halsin seemed friend-shaped.
Szaryn realized Asha was sneaking to talk to the other and, worried for his sister, he approached Halsin, too, talking to him to decide whether or not he trusted him... and then asking that if he managed to get out at some point, would he take Asha with him.
[ "We both know it is only a matter of time. She is too kind for too cruel a place, and one way or another, it will kill her." ]
Now, when the attack happens wherein Halsin escapes, what follows is verse and other writer dependent.
He either gets both children out, manages to get just Asha, or he can't find them in the chaos and has to flee [ in the latter scenario, Szaryn grabs Asha and runs, though they are caught not long afterwards and separated ].
If Halsin managed to save one or both children--again, within self-contained lore--he practically raised them. If he had to escape without them, he may or may not remember them to start, but once he does, I can't imagine that there wouldn't at least be a little bit of guilt over what happened.
I say all of that to say this.
In the 'blog-run' of the story where all things are possible:
When they encounter the petrified drow, she plays tank the whole fight from the moment she realizes the Spectator will keep releasing the drow if the fight continues. She makes sure everyone is onboard and knows the plan, draws the attention, takes the damage, and doesn't give word to kill the thing until the very last of the drow are free of stone. This included one loss, Dhourn, who was snapped out of it after taking a hit from one of them , attacked the Spectator, and then was subsequently killed. That was how Asha realized they just had to take the hits and not hit back until everyone was freed... and then attack only the Spectator. Though not possible in game, she will--or more likely get her brother to do so--invite the un-petrified drow to join the camp. As per blog canon, at least two of them do so: Moy and Tecothy. The latter is more than a bit hesitant and wary but agrees at the encouragement of the former who sees it as "Anything is an improvement from returning home, isn't it?"
She will not kill Minthara. First of all, this decision is made because Halsin quite plainly states how the True Souls are basically made puppets to the Absolute, carrying out its will, and she struggles to find a definitive line where a True Soul can be held wholly responsible for their actions while still under the influence of the Absolute. She will not kill someone who she cannot even be certain is guilty in their hearts of the actions taken. Second, she is willing to help Minthara and give her a place in the party later. This is because she understands what Lolth-sworn society is--has seen it and suffered it for herself--and, in her mind, it is equally difficulty to condemn someone when they have never known anything different. She can also see, whether Minthara will openly admit it or not, that the woman has been through something traumatic. To abandon her would be cruel.
She will not kill Nere. She accepts the task from Sovereign Spaw, having seen through their eyes someone who was slaughtering their people without remorse and being worried for the safety of the myconid colony. But when she gets there, she sees someone afraid and a little disoriented after his ordeal. She grieves the loss of the gnome--though in EA, apparently, he didn't kill anyone so I may stick with that?--but, again, she struggles to find a definitive line where a True Soul should be held responsible for their actions while still under the influence of the Absolute. She talks to him. She convinces him to free the gnomes. And the longer they all remain there and she talks to him, the more his demeanor begins to shift. He becomes uncertain, almost addled. He goes from talking about himself in the third person... to talking in the first. He seems... confused. And, while it doesn't completely exonerate him, it does affirm for her that he deserves a chance. Even if it were to break her Oath, she would spare him, because she felt it was right. And, again, though not possible in game, in blog canon, she offers him a place in the camp, safe from the Lolth-sworn that he betrayed--however unknowingly--and safe from the influence or command of the Absolute. As with Tecothy, he is wary of her, but he doesn't see that he has much choice under the circumstances...
Now, if/when Halsin goes off about sparing and bringing in Nere, and later about doing the same with Minthara once he realizes, regardless of which path they walked to this point, Asha will look him dead in the eye and telling him that everyone deserves a chance. They both know what the Lolth-sworn society is like. They have both suffered from it. In different ways, yes, but still suffered even so. How then can they condemn someone who has never known anything else? And with a tadpole on top of that? He said himself that True Souls become little more than puppets for the Absolute! The only thing that protects their little band is this artifact. They HAVE to give them a chance. She will not condemn someone when there is no possibility in the moment to discern what level of accountability they hold for their actions. Which, at least with my Halsin, I feel would likely sway him, even if he still wasn't happy about it. [ Particularly if she also brings up the matter of "If we will not condemn someone even for their worst decision when the consequences were so dire, how can we condemn another for a decision we cannot even know was theirs." which takes a direct jab at Kagha and with him not dealing more harshly with what she did and intended to do. ]
