#rosecanons

Ultimately, that night poked and prodded at deeper fears and insecurities. Roisia has been left before at the end of a grand adventure wondering how she could have missed the signs that the person she adored did not quite adore her back with the same ardour. Now, older and believing herself to be wiser, she is wary and this time, she tells herself, she will keep herself in check. She will be rational, level-headed, and even-keeled. She will not let herself get swept away by irrational desire, and her love of Astarion is a very irrational, incompatible, unwise desire.

When Astarion said that he wanted her, that she stood by him through bloodlust and pain and misery, that she had been patient, caring, and trusting, that he felt safe and seen with her, and that he didn't want to lose all of that, Roisia felt a sinking unease. A queasy sort of disquiet in her gut. Because she realised that everything he described, everything about her that he praised or acknowledged or thanked, was nothing particularly special in her eyes. As a [former] Cleric of Kelemvor, as an undertaker, as a professional mourner, she has done all of the above and more with the loved ones of decedents as part of her job. It's her sacred duty to stand by people at a low and loathsome point in their lives, through their pain and misery, with patience, compassion, and an extended hand. Hell, that's just another Tuesday!

Roisia couldn't help but feel that Astarion really only loved the things that she could do for him rather than her as a person outside of those acts of service. And those things he described could have easily been done by any Mortarch worth their salt in her place. So does he truly care for her? Or is he really just thankful for the things she's done for him? Those things that really anyone could do? It does not plant a seed, exactly, but it germinates a seed that was already present in her mind, a nasty little thought that she is not special and, therefore, not truly loved in the way that she so very much wants to be loved. That, sure, Astarion cares about her, but only because she just happened to be there and has assisted people in different stages of grief since she was a child. She is fundamentally, inescapably replaceable and it's only a matter of time until Astarion realises that and does what Eustace did: clap her on the back, thank her for her time, and move on to greener pastures whatever or wherever they may be.

Roisia was surprised by Gortash, but pleasantly so. In the first place, as far as Roisia is concerned, Ketheric and Orin recall their respective gods in their appearance: Ketheric is withered, a husk of a person, but indomitable, and Orin... well, Orin looks like a flayed corpse with meat-suit clothes, but close enough. Roisia would have expected Bane's Chosen to be more... physically domineering. Terrifying. Intractable. ...Loud? Instead, here's this charming handsome fellow who is really rather ordinary. If Roisia met him on the street, he'd just be another debonair noble lusting for power. (Join the feckin' queue!)

And neither does Gortash behave as Roisia would have expected Bane's Chosen to behave. She would have expected a Banite to be a tyrant, a Faerûnian-version of the Machiavellian prince, who instils a terror of himself and who rules through fear. Instead, Gortash gently curates among the populace not a fear of him, but a xenophobic fear of The Outsider (whether that outsider is a cult like the Absolute or a group of people like the Coast's refugees).

Roisia—by all accounts an oppositional force to his own—encounters a man who is genuinely, fully, confidently willing to partner with her to achieve a common goal and is willing to swear a divine oath to secure that partnership...

Poor man. What a fool.

You see, Roisia is something of a Machiavellian prince. She would despise to think of herself in that way were she to read Il Principe, but she has within herself some (but not all!) of the traits and qualities that are described within. She is frequently a mirror: where she meets evil, she wields evil with aplomb. ("You desire me to kiss your foot? I think not. You shall kiss mine.") She would very much prefer to offer mercy, but if her mercy is rejected—like when Ketheric imprisons Dame Aylin once again before yeeting himself into the primordial soup—then she will dole out cruelty in equal measure. Most importantly of all, Roisia is a liar and a deceiver, all while appearing compassionate, guileless, and true to her word. Roisia only really keeps her word when it suits her purposes. Were she otherwise, she would have found that Gortash would have been faithful to his word to the last. But as the Machiavellian prince, she betrays and slays him.

Actually, having written all that, Roisia is more of an embodiment of the Machiavellian prince than I originally thought: she is virtuous and good, sure, but she is also intimately familiar with baser behaviours (lying, cruelty, conspiracy, etc.) and wields those base behaviours like a tool when and where she feels it is needed and necessary.

Meta-Knowledge

Roisia is my Source Hunter from Divinity: Original Sin, but I recreated her in Baldur’s Gate 3 as a way to continue her story albeit in a completely different universe. The story and events of DOS have since become part of her backstory, and tweaked to fit the world of Faerûn.

Name Pronunciation

I’m honestly none too fussed about pronunciation. Her name is an 11th century mediaeval name that would later become “Rose” in Middle English. Roisia is probably meant to be pronounced something like /ɹɔɪːsiːɑ/ (Roy-see-ah) based on other name variants found around the same time. Her nicknames, as given to her by her parents, include: Rose, Rosie, petal, pet, rosebud, bud, so on and so forth.

Personality

Roisia is charming, adventurous, with a voracious curiosity, and a deeply analytical mind. She believes that taking care of the dead and providing a voice for the dead is her life’s calling. She was formerly raised to be a Cleric of Kelemvor, but believes that her god has disowned her since she reanimated her father. She now believes herself to be deemed among the Faithless. She’s compassionate to those in need and is willing to break rules (and the law) to help others. While she is generally a law-abiding citizen, she is dogged in pursuing the whims of her curiosity and will likewise do whatever it takes to solve a puzzle, a mystery, or a murder… or simply answer a question that has occurred to her. She is sociable, prefers when everyone gets along, and will try to talk her way into and out of most situations. This includes charming, reasoning, intimidating, and/or deceiving others to get her desired outcome. Ultimately, she finds solace and comfort in the company of animals, the dead, and books. Her favourite animal is the noble spider, and she breeds and raises some species in her spare time.

Spells and Such

I tried as best I could to replicate Roisia’s DOS character. In DOS, she was classed as a Witch. Witchcraft spells in DOS are a mixture of Necromancy spells and Enchantment spells, and I chose my spells in BG3 to imitate the ones that you get in DOS. As a witch in DOS, Roisia also had the ability to talk to animals and summon a spider. (I cheesed this in BG3 with the Find Familiar spell—technically a Conjuration spell—and having her drink a potion after every long rest.) To be more in keeping with her backstory, I gave her a Guild Artisan background and invested skill points in skills like Medicine.

Backstory

Roisia grew up in Eastway of Baldur’s Gate. Her father worked in the Gray Harbor shipyard as a shipwright and her mother was a Mortarch, running the Eastway Cemetery & Lydgate Funeral Service. She was raised to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a Cleric of Kelemvor, and specifically as a Mortarch, from an early age. She assisted her mother in managing the burial customs and rites for the Lower City’s diverse community (from embalming to ritualistic cannibalism to poisonings), comforting grieving family members of the deceased, and tending to the dead buried in the cemetery.

Her life took an unexpected turn when her father drowned during a sea trial. Grieving for her father, Roisia made her first attempt at Necromancy. She unwittingly used a wish spell in the process and reanimated him as a skeleton. Because it was the wish spell, not her first attempt at a necromantic ritual, that bound the soul of her father to his bones, Roisia is determined to master the School of Necromancy and truly resurrect her father.

She is interrupted in her early studies by the appearance of Eustace, who recruited her into the Source Hunters, an organisation dedicated to eradicating dangerous magic users (like… Necromancers). “We need you,” he said. “… and you need us.” Roisia & Eustace (or Roy & Stacey as they became known to each other) investigated the mysterious murder of a town counsellor and uncovered a Necromantic cult in the process. As they adventured together, Roisia began to develop feelings for Eustace, but as their adventure concluded and they returned to the Source Hunter Academy, Eustace did not return those feelings. Dejected, Roisia left the Source Hunters and returned to her home in Baldur’s Gate.

To “cure” herself of her heartbreak, Roisia drew up a list of lifelong goals for herself. They are:

1. A cemetery or plot of land of her own to oversee. 2. “Tenants”/”Residents” (aka The Deceased) to house and tend to on this land. 3. To master Necromancy such that she can extend indefinitely her own life and the lives of her loved ones. 4. One (1) Spouse (*not of the squeamish variety) 5. Children (*ideally 3-5)

Refocused aggressively on her list, Roisia returned to her duties during the day and her studies during the night. She was abducted by the nautiloid one night while she was off to dig up a new test subject.

Playlist

Yasmin couldn't bring herself to execute her duty as a Cleric of Kelemvor and former Necrobane and execute her (now undead) husband. In one fell swoop, Roisia ruined her mother's otherwise stellar track record as a Kelemvorite.

Logistically, if Yasmin wanted her husband to have freedom of movement, she could no longer offer room and board to the servants and staff in her employ. She allowed rumours that her business was suffering financially go unchallenged, since an undead husband in a funeral home is even worse for business. Generally speaking, Roisia's father, Jairus, keeps to the upstairs (the family's quarters) and attic during business hours and is free to roam the house and grounds at night. (This is of course on the condition that there are no funerary celebrations that evening.) He now puts his carpentry skills to work in the fashioning of coffins and caskets, but otherwise his time is his own.

Because they no longer have live-in servants, the family now has to take on more domestic labour (e.g., cleaning, laundering) to prevent their servants from discovering the lie. Jairus has commandeered cooking for his family, but will clean or launder clothes when bored. I should note here that both Jairus and Yasmin came from working-class backgrounds. They know how to do domestic labour; it was Roisia who grew up with servants and who had to learn to do without.

The relationships (between spouses, between child and parent) are loving, but not without strain. Jairus is fundamentally lonely. He feels like a ghost: he can't go back to work at the docks as a shipwright, he can't go out for a pint at the Maid with his mates, he can't go off to the countryside to visit with his side of the family, he can't even take a walk around the city at night for fear of discovery. So he grasps at any family time he can get, which is tough when he is functionally nocturnal and the rest of his small family is diurnal.

Yasmin, meanwhile, still deeply loves her husband even as a skeleton, but she also sees his pain. She is torn between keeping her daughter happy (father lives) and offering her husband a way out (father dies), and struggles with the guilt of whether or not a mercy killing would really be a mercy to Jairus... or to her. And then, some nights, she worries that perhaps she would not be able to kill him at all were she ever to try, and that would make everything all the worse.

Roisia, meanwhile, is largely ignorant of her parent's anxieties. She is still elated to have her father back in whatever capacity. She enjoys picking up the thread of their past lives: stargazing and charting with him, chatting to him from the kitchen table while he cooks, demanding that he retwist her locs even when he's certain she doesn't need a retwist, trying to outplay him at games, etc. She hides her studies in Necromancy as best as possible from her parents, but dreams of a day of restoring her father to the way he was, flesh and all.

Basically, I know two things about Roisia that will influence my roleplaying decisions in-game for the final release.

The first is that Roisia has concrete goals in mind for her future, known as her List. They are (in order):

A cemetery or plot of land of her own to oversee.

“Tenants”/”Residents” (aka The Deceased) to house and tend to on this land.

To master Necromancy such that she can extend indefinitely her own life and the lives of her loved ones.

One (1) Spouse (*not of the squeamish variety)

Children (*ideally 3-5)

Roisia is open to casual sex if she desires it or wants it for herself, but she is looking seriously for her #4. This #4 needs to be able to embrace (not literally) death, the deceased, and the undead because Roisia views all that as her life’s work. They also need to be safe and trustworthy enough to introduce to her father, who is currently occupying--haunting?--his own skeleton. Oh, and they would have to like spiders because Roisia loves her spiders. Swears by them.

As for the current set of companions, I actually thought about who would be a good #4 for Roisia. As part of making this comic, I also thought about the reasons why Wyll and Gale might politely decline Roisia’s advances and, should I be able to romance them in a final release playthrough, what tensions might arise as a result of a relationship because I’m a drampire and angst and reckless melodrama feeds me.

So! Without further ado, the ranking of imaginary potential suitors.

1. WYLL

Of the companions present in EA, Wyll would likely be Roisia’s first choice for #4. He’s warm, generous, compassionate, seems to always keep an eye (wink wonk) out for others, and fiercely follows his own moral compass. The sort of person Roisia would like to bring home to her parents and the sort of person she could imagine having a family with. 10 outta 10. However, one thing that I’m curious to see in the final release is whether Wyll continues his life of heroism in the epilogue of the story. Presumably, hero-ing takes Wyll over hill and dale on marvellous adventures. Roisia is not typically the sort to travel when she is not pressed to: she likes her graveyard and her dead and that’s where her adventures lie (sometimes literally). So that would be an example of potential tension or incompatability in their imaginary relationship: Roisia wants someone who is comfortable having Baldur’s Gate as their primary sandbox and Wyll wants to continue his work far afield. I also think of Wyll as someone who is accustomed to saving people--i.e., actively preventing them from becoming a corpse--so part of me also wonders if he would be comfortable around the dead/undead (people he might have been able to save had he been present, for example) for prolonged periods of time.

2. GALE

Second choice of the lot for Roisia’s #4 would likely be Gale. Gale is charming, confident, smart, and also has a kind heart that seeks to protect others. He and Roisia have a lot in common at least on a superficial level. They’re both intellectual academics with high expectations of their quality of life and Gale seems to have been at home in Waterdeep much like Roisia was very much at home in Baldur’s Gate. The sort of person Roisia wouldn’t be ashamed to bring home to her parents and someone she thinks would be a good father if that’s something he wanted alongside his wizarding career. 8 outta 10. I wasn’t sure if they were the stuff of a long-lasting relationship in part because of Gale’s past (to put it vaguely to spare anyone spoilers), in part because I wondered if Gale would desire to go home to Waterdeep, and in part because I think Gale’s sort of magical pursuits are very different to Roisia’s. From what little I know, Gale’s magical interests sound highly cerebral whereas Roisia’s magical pursuits are more... well, down to earth. I see the difference as something akin to lab v field work, the ivory tower of academia v diggin’ around in the dirt for pot shards sort of thing. I’m not 100% sure if they would magically mesh on that level, but it’s early days yet and tbh I think I’ve missed a lot of Gale’s scenes. But if Gale wanted to go home to Waterdeep, Roisia would not want to follow. Baldur’s Gate is her home.

3. ASTARION

Third choice in the imaginary queue of potential suitors is Astarion. Frankly, the only reason Astarion is ranked so high is because Lae’zel and Shadowheart don’t seem to like Roisia or don’t like her choices, which sometimes feels like the same thing and knocks them out of the running as potential #4s altogether. Roisia sees Astarion... well, in the words of Jane Austen:

‘I allow his person and air to be good - and that his manners to a certain point - his address rather - is pleasing. - But I see nothing else to admire in him. - On the contrary, he seems very vain, very conceited, absurdly anxious for distinction, and absolutely contemptible in some of the measures he takes for becoming so. - There is a ridiculousness about him that entertains me - but his company gives me no other agreable [sic] emotion.’

This is perhaps an exaggeration of Roisia’s regard, but the gist is there: she finds him charming, companionable, and very amusing when not taken with any great seriousness. In addition, Astarion seems the most relaxed around necromancy and the dead, although that’s partially because he views them as potential mindless servants. And Roisia would genuinely enjoy the one-night stand with him in the wood. However, absolutely most definitely not the person to bring home because her mother is a worshipper of Kelemvor and a former Necrobane who will very likely try to kill him. It’s one thing to make exceptions for your loved ones--your daughter, the Necromancer, and your husband, now an undead skeleton--but a vampire spawn? Not a chance! To make matters worse, Roisia knows that a lecture would surely await her: if Roisia feels comfortable and unthreatened around a vampire spawn, than that is 1) a definite ploy by the vampire spawn for his future victims to drop their guard and 2) ridiculous because even vampire spawn are incredibly powerful and are a serious threat. So, not #4 material in the slightest. 2.5 out of 10. A long-term relationship feels like it would be a hot, hot mess. ... God, I love it. A complete disaster. Delicious.