It's time to post about another girl in my head!!!!
early version of her in BG3
This is Njera von Bänjjar (pronounced "Nyer-a" von "Ben-yar"), she's a Tiefling Shadow Sorcerer Noble with some weird hangups about her magic. I made her in collaboration with @fastsquirrel977 who made a Paladin bodyguard for her, Evelyne Rouselle. They are hopelessly in love, the problem being both of them are stuck in a status quo of Njera burying most of her emotions and Evelyne feeling like her feelings can't be requited due to the disparity of their class.
most recent Heroforge iterations
Njera and Evelyne are kinda disconnected from any given setting, so there isn't much specificity to their backstory, but the basic idea is that Njera and Evelyne met when Njera's house took in Evelyne as an orphan when the two were kids. At some point in their early teens, both of them realized they were trans and began transitioning, with Njera developing her magic around the same time. The shadow magic Njera has comes from her father's side of the family, but only manifests in the women, so it'd been absent from Njera's life until it appeared (I'm not sure if the magic appeared first or if Njera started transitioning first).
Unfortunately, since the magic appeared suddenly later in her life than manifesting naturally at a younger age, Njera fell ill due to it when she was 15. While she recovered with seemingly no long term effects, many misfortunes befell her house and family, the worst of it being Njera's mom, Avva (Ahv-va), falling ill and dying. This, along with Evelyne leaving the house for her squireship and Njera's father, Dunnar (Doo-nar), burying himself in his work to cope with his grief, left Njera feeling incredibly alone. Throughout the rest of Njera's teens and early 20s, Njera cultivated a veneer of haughtyness and casual cruelty in an effort to push people away so she didn't hurt anyone else.
When Evelyne's squireship ended and she became a fully fledged knight, she returned to House Bänjjar to act as Njera's bodyguard full time. Their relationship had deteriorated to the point that Njera didn't see Evelyne's return as one of friendship, but one of obligation. Things didn't get better when Evelyne was given her own squire, dividing her attention from Njera, which caused more strife between the two.
Njera views herself as pragmatic, but in reality she's ruled by deep pain and guilt. She never truly got over her mother's death and in large part, blames herself for it. Her relationships with her father and Evelyne are mostly out of obligation, though she does desire a deeper connection with them. She's also prone to intense jealously when it comes to Evelyne, which is a big problem when Evelyne needs to split her attention between Njera and her squire. At her core, Njera is deeply sad and disconnected from her real emotions and cannot break out of this status quo without some kind of external influence.
it'd be so cool if this happened :)
I initially conceptualized Njera as just a haughty sorcerer noble, but as I talked about her, I ended up adding a lot more detail to her and ended up here. Her being trans was also a spur of the moment decision where I decided to just give her a penis in her BG3 version, and while her transness isn't a core part of her character, it's become an important part of how I frame her in my head, especially since Evelyne is also trans. There's so many other little details I could get into with her, but this is already so goddamn long ðŸ˜
