#duaver

Duaver

Born: early 1100s

Duaver is Tenebris's second patron. He comes from a common house and found employment in Elstearn's Escorts after building up some happy clientele through his entrepreneurial exploits(Sex work, trading information, and entertaining). Tenebris snatched him up when word started circulating that there was a beautiful male available who had a flawless record of siring daughters.

Despite not enjoying the circumstances he’s in he does enjoy some of the things he does; Singing and dancing is what he was most known for when he was hired out to revelries. He likes the way he looks and plays up his attractiveness to both his advantage and pleasure. Most of his clothes and jewelry are made by him; He likes to tinker and learn about various crafts which culminates in him making himself a gun. :)

Duaver is an emotional person and sometimes that gets the best of him. He tries not to think about the ways in which he’s been used and how that makes him uncomfortable; Or that there are people he’s had a hand in making who he’ll never get to see. He was content to cultivate his skills and survive until Tenebris makes him her patron and Obfuscarae was born. He was shocked at how attached he was to her as soon as he saw her and was devastated when he realized he’d never had any meaningful moments with any of his children. So he waited for the right time to sneak into her nursery and kill her wet nurse to frame the event as a failed assassination attempt so he could hold his daughter.

After that Duaver becomes a more active schemer with a focus on protecting his kids. He also becomes a Vhaeraunite after Obfuscarae dies. I think he’d relate to Vhaeraun through his anger and his indignation at being denied the chance to be a part of his children’s lives. He wants all of his kids out of Menzoberranzan and to live long enough to have relationships with them. That includes the children Tenebris had before him too.

For that ask game

- theo

Thank you my friend! As usual I take forever to do things like this lmao.

Because I'm a dork who neglected to put my ocs on here before this I'm gonna answer these for my most developed ones: Umbral, Haven, and Duaver.

😱 What does your character fear most in their world?

(Putting this one first because the other question sent me on a ramble.)

What Umbral fears most is intimacy, and she's getting around that with her psionic abilities. One thing she did while living in Menzoberranzan was just pull the memories of herself out of someone after interacting with them. That's a habit she ditches (mostly) after leaving but she still uses her abilities as a crutch. Why bother talking to someone when you can just read their mind or sense their emotions? Why bother learning what makes someone happy when you can just force them to be happy? Why bother sharing things about yourself in conversation when you can just share your experiences directly? It leaves no room for miscommunication, and who cares if the other party gets a little traumatized from being forced to experience your traumatic memories firsthand. It's fiiiine.

If something were to happen to her that made her lose her abilities she wouldn't be able to function for awhile. What do you mean I have to talk to people now and pay attention to my words and theirs and all the subtleties of socialization. What do you mean I have to deal with the consequences of being known. This sucks I just want to mind meld until we forget where the self ends and the other begins.

Haven fears being powerless and unwanted. She really disliked her time in Menzo due to the constraints of their society. Like most people in her position she found some agency by leveraging her skills, mainly her martial prowess, and maintaining those skills is important to her. Once she gets to the surface she gets to enjoy a little more agency(and transitioning) but sadly has to deal with being alienated by the group meant to accept her. It hurt her more than she would admit. She is fascinated by the surface races and wants to befriend them but is very aware of how she's perceived so she tries to be very friendly and approachable. If she didn't have Umbral to back her up she'd be much worse off.

Duaver fears the reality that his children don't know he cares about them. He would love it if they all wanted to be in contact with him but he'd also understand if any of them didn't, though he'd try to rectify that, but would ultimately respect their feelings. It would hurt if any of them hated him to the point of not wanting contact with him, but at least in that case they know he exists and that he considers them to be important. It's a fear he has to contend with daily and when I think of his personality I think he's the most grounded of all my ocs and that's probably why.

💗 Any unique traditions where your character is from that wouldn't work or apply in the real world?

*looks into the camera then makes the wheeze face*

No but seriously, I gave this a thought for all of them and I'm coming up short. Menzoberranzan is not a nice place but there's little that happens there that doesn't in reality. Exploiting the lower class, isolating the people you want controlled, funneling them into an education system so inundated with propaganda and abusive tactics that if you don't come out of it brainwashed you're probably dead because removing you upholds the hegemony which is the only way anyone is afforded any security... yikes, that got a little too real.

Anyway, I was about to say "cannibalism" as mentioned in the Drow of the Underdark book written by Ed Greenwood(they eat their elderly) but that's also something we've done across cultures, usually with a focus on the practice having some kind of healing effect. Not so much now but I'm sure it's happening somewhere. So I'm gonna say the practice of having orgies with demons for the purpose of having supernaturally powerful offspring would not be accepted in the real world. But then again I think if you told people in the manosphere that that's how you make a Real Alpha Male they'd be all for it.

However I feel like saying "demon fucking" and leaving it at that is a cop-out. I'm still learning about all of the intricacies of drow culture but off the top of my head I can say their traditions really aren't that far away from the realm of reality, nor are they overtly repulsive. It's almost like the people who wrote the lore and cared about the concept that the drow aren't inherently evil were trying to say this. 🤔