Ray Murata

Edric: 3 and 4

Ari: 3 and 12

Bea: 3 and 13

[Edric Surana]

3. How did your OC discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know?

Personally, I headcanon that Ferelden's culture is a bit homophobic, at least when it comes to men (we see no same-sex relationships in DAO besides... Wade and Herrin?? and I take cues from Zevran's caution with a male warden + some of the ways a warden can respond to his advances). So Edric did grow up in Kinloch Hold expecting to be attracted to women, and having to discover that he was attracted to men. His first crush on a boy that he didn't suppress/ignore was Anders. In a place as insular as the Circle Tower, word got around that Anders flirted with both girls and boys, so that inspired Edric to try to act on his feelings.

4. Is your OC's environment supportive about their identity? How does this impact them?

In Ferelden, Edric wasn't closeted, but he was Discrete. I think that Antiva has more permissive sexual attitudes than Ferelden (like a lot of other people's HC + supported by DAV and that nonbinary governor I suppose lol), so when Edric eventually cedes his Warden-Commander role to Nathaniel and goes with Zevran to live in Antiva, his environment becomes more supportive.

IDK if you were interested in module NPCs I highly customized, or NPCs I invented wholesale, but I'm happy to share a handful from both categories!

5. How did you figure out your OC's identity?

The short answer for everybody is "vibes." I usually don't invent specific details for NPCs' backgrounds as session prep, because I'd rather focus my attention on whichever NPCs the players decide are important. That said, I did write backstory for Ayo's party in advance, because they were gonna stick around the whole story by necessity.

Ayo - Cisgender, bisexual (decided from the outset that she recently left a serious relationship with an orcish man because her true love is, of course, the sea)

Dermot - Cisgender, sort of aroace vibes but mostly he's just got other things more important to him than romance or sexuality

Maggie - Cisgender, heterosexual (I'd call her GNC straight representation, but I think she's actually gender-conforming by ogre standards 😌)

Galsariad - Nonbinary/gender agnostic, bisexual (2 of my 4 PCs used they-pronouns, so I wanted one of Ayo's party to do the same for symmetry. Our Gal uses he/they)

Irvan - Cisgender, gay but he doesn't know that yet (I think this literally never came up lol)

Module NPCs that got expanded roles in our story + NPCs I invented:

Question, the Cobalt Soul researcher - transgender, probably a lesbian, possibly asexual. I also gave her full monk levels

Taskhand Verin Thelyss - cisgender, bisexual

Warlock PC's archfey patron, Duvessa - genderless (she/her), bisexual

A different PC was an Aurora Watch veteran who served at Bazzoxan. Thus, an important NPC for us was Tarsenna Mazul, Verin Thelyss's second-in-command. Tarsenna is nonbinary (they/them) and bisexual

Moxie: 3 and 13

Renata: 3 and 7

10 for all three of them and any other OC you want to answer it for.

Ash: 1. What's your oc's gender identity? What's their relationship to their gender? Ash is extremely comfortable in who they are. They're like sure, woman works, but make it masculine and make them one of the lads. Femininity has never really worked for them.

2. What's your oc's orientation? (Romantic/sexual/platonic alterous ect) Do they have opinions about it? Aromantic, Bisexual, likes it that way. Honestly I don't think she has a conscious awareness of any sort of label for being aromantic, she would just frame it in terms of not wanting to be committed to anyone and prefer keeping things casual. If someone is pretty and they can toss them over the shoulder, hell yeah. It's that simple. 3. How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know? They grew up training to be a warrior from like the age of 12, so I think regarding gender things, they didn't take too long to start to feel like just being a girl wasn't totally right. And by age 15-16 they stopped going by their birth name entirely and just by Ash instead that felt a little more gender neutral. Half her friends in Elturel go by they/them so I don't think it was a stretch to go oh yeah that works for me. 10. Does your oc celebrate Pride? How? ABSOLUTELY. They're in the damn parade. Probably on a horse with a bigass rainbow flag. They love to have a good time, love to party, would also be the type who is like "is everyone wearing sunscreen, have you drank water?" Moxie: 3. How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know? This is simple. You see she saw a really hot girl when she was a teen and felt so blushy and not normal and heart racing and had a terrible teenage relationship with a thief. Moxie falls quick and easy in love, but this girl was completely using her. 10. Does your oc celebrate Pride? How?

Hellll yeah! She wants to dress up and put on makeup in her colours (okay actually her skin is already one of the lesbian pride flag colours so she's halfway there). Kind of do her social butterfly thing, get too drunk, stay out too late, end up covered in glitter one way or another ;) 13. Would your oc be open to a poly relationship? Why or why not? The thing about Moxie, and her falling in love quickly and easily, is once she's there she's never really considered wanting or looking for more. But let's face it, if the option presented itself, she wouldn't really be opposed to it. She lived on a hippie moonweaver worshipping commune for over a decade, she's certainly seen people in a poly relationship before. Renata: 3. How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know? No time to question identities in the Crows. Woman named Carmen was hot, in a wave of "holy shit we survived" fervor, they hooked up and it felt good (rare W for Antivan Crow training) and they kept doing it. Stress relief, and pure hedonistic pleasure is enough to go "yeah this works for me I like women." Later that would turn to love, but at first, pure sexual attraction and chemistry, so no questioning needed. She was with Carmen for years before her death, so she's like sure yeah I've seen hot men too. I guess I like both. (shrug emoji).

7. Is there something that could cause your oc to question their identity? What? Actually this is great. Renata self-identifies as bisexual, but has never slept with a man before! In her mind it 'hasn't come up' but as someone prone to thought spiralling, it's easy to imagine her being like, well what if I try it and hate it, or why haven't i slept with a man, am I really attracted to them or do I just like them in theory?

consistent practice opens up whole worlds of skill that you couldn't imagine

making mistakes in the process of learning is not only natural, it is also essential

activities that you enjoy can give you more energy back than you spent on them