#thenugking

8. How did Orin feel when your Durge was introduced into the cult as Bhal’s favourite child? Or if your Durge was already there before Orin’s birth, how did they react to the new baby?

Vat’il was already around for a hot minute before Orin was born (like. Roughly 20ish years) Having another Bhaalspawn be born is a pretty big deal (and he’s thankful for one, might it get Sceleritas off his back for not having his own kids for just a minute) and I’m sure he celebrated at the temple and made a big deal about it, but he really doesn’t interact with Orin until she’s around three years old. There is a vague part of him that acknowledges her as competition- she’s a Bhaalspawn, it’s in their nature to kill each other eventually- but he really isn’t all that worried about it. He really just leaves her to Sarevok and his murder tribunal for the most part. He has no love for small needy things and little patience to guide something that he can’t communicate with

14. Was there anything Orin and your Durge really admired about each other?

Shapeshifting abilities aside, I think Vat’il does have some appreciation for Orin’s presentation of herself. From her wardrobe to her speech patterns and the way she kills- she’s got a whole thing going, and I think every now and again Vat’il wants to be a touch more expressive than he is. Also her artistry- it has a time and place and he fully believes that she over indulges, but he can admit that she’s very good at what she does, and every now and again an over the top artsy murder is both what the cult needs and what Vat’il is in the mood for

of course!! answering these durge & orin asks!

7. Did your Durge have any siblings in their foster family? Did they always want a sibling before meeting Orin? How does Orin compare to the foster siblings they may or may not have killed?

rue did! she had two older siblings, a sister named cela and a brother named orrian. they were quite a bit older than her so there was a biiig age difference, but she was very well loved and doted on.

being the youngest sibling in her foster family to being older than orin in the church of bhaal was a weird thing to adjust to, but for the beginning few years rue treated her like a friend more than a sibling. it isn't until rue witnesses the way bhaalspawn are treated in the church (they are bhaals flesh and blood after all, and that gives them unwanted attention sometimes) that she finds herself extremely protective over orin.

orin is younger than her, more solidified in the church of bhaal and therefore prone to jealousy more towards rue (who comes in unnanounced claiming to be the scion of bhaal) which is something rue hadnt experienced with her foster siblings. i think comparing the two is like taking a kitten from its mother and trying to introduce it to an already estabilshed cat home if that makes any sense. lots of tension and jealousy and bitter remarks about the other

10. What did your Durge really feel about Orin’s art?

rue liked that orin had a passion for it. she may not understand it fully but supported her either way.

there was a time where gortash forced told rue he wanted a portrait of her painted and while rue sat through one of the sessions she asked the painter where he got his paintbrushes from. she then told him to send a set for her and to put it on gortash's tab with the intent to gift them to orin. they were really nice quality, imported in from waterdeep. orin would have loved them.

this was at a time where their relationship was becoming strained - with rue off being busy planning the absolute takeover and orin feeling as if she was being replaced by gortash

disclaimer: haven't reached the cult of bhaal yet bc god knows i don't want to be disappointed too soon, so rn i'm writing based on what i've absorbed via osmosis

this is for default dragonborn durge. young orin was a pest in their eyes but they didn't approve of her being dead weight. they took matters into their own hands, bringing her under their wing as a pseudo-daughter figure and mentee. however, their relationship grew strained as she mutated into this bloodthirsty vermin thing, far from what they or their father intended for her to be. they disdain and adore one another equally, but it's only orin who learned to worship someone other than her father.

3. How did Orin go about taking your Durge down? Did she need to trick them? Was Durge blindsided, or did they see her betrayal coming?

easy. they never took her seriously - that was their biggest mistake, knowing it would happen and still deciding it was little threat to them, nothing more than a gnat between their scales. they loved her enough to let her sleep by their side and had built just enough faith in her love in turn to believe she would never truly dispose of them. she knew her place. they nearly believed she'd come to accept it; they never realized the sharpness of her desires would push her to be rid of them for good, and she never came to terms with her own deeper motives for it - that while their sire's approval was just beyond her reach, nonetheless attainable through worship (kin-slaughter), the expectations of her blood-kin would always be fragmented, a mirror reflecting back at her all the ways in which she could have been more and yet was not allowed to be. they don't want to become attainable to her, they don't want her to be more. this wasn't out of any sentiments of mercy or acceptance of her being, but rather because they need her to stay this small wriggling thing nipping harmlessly at their tail - that was when they loved her best. for her to worship them would be to forsake her own devotion to their sire, to be Chosen to them rather than to bhaal. who wouldn't cry blasphemy at that?

17. Did your Durge know Sarevok hoped they’d have children with Orin? How do they feel about that whole situation?

they knew, and they were displeased. mostly because she was a rat, unfit for heirs, unfit for motherhood, unfit for anything except to be molded and disciplined and sheltered. they never desired one another physically but there was still some form of desire present, and visceral physicality was the only expression for intimacy available to those of the cult. they're people of the body, meat-eaters. flesh eats flesh. only she was unfit to be eaten as well. it was a bridge they were planning to cross - or burn - when they got to it; they found excuses not to raise the subject but still kept her close, paradoxically shielding her with their own body, the thing that's supposed to use her.

for her part orin wasn't down for that brood mother shit in the slightest lmfao - on some level she thinks of herself as their daughter and would probably envy her own brats. hyper advanced 5D abortion.

24. How does your Durge feel when they learn that Orin betrayed them and was responsible for their brain damage and tadpoling? Do they consider it a betrayal at all?

mostly just damn was i stupid? also post-reformation durge realizes just how enmeshed they were and how orin probably should have been the one to escape it, not them. they lose sleep about it

thank you sm for the asks! needed an excuse to think about them for a while ^_^ have a little prose snippet of them when orin was younger for good measure, it's halloween:

Hello! Thank you for the ask!

6. Does your Durge consider Orin a sibling? Do they think of her as family at all?

Pre-tadpole no. Post-tadpole no. Post-fighting Orin, yes. Which is very odd for my Durjh, because they've very very much shed their past identity as an aspect of themself. They know that some people see their past self and their present self as parts of the same but they do not, and they have a very strong reaction when people try to use, say, some kind of tie to their past self to try to have sway over their present self. They reject that: they are not their past self, so the ties of their past self do not bind them.

Pre-tadpole they were Blood-kin and competing to be Bhaal's bestest baby (at least until Durjh took the lead entirely) so I think the best way of describing it would be family but not siblings. After Durjh developed the plan and started working with Gortash and Ketheric the distance only grew.

But with what they find out about Orin, with the fact that Orin spent her life in the cult and was denied any chance to see who she might be beyond that, with how, when presented with the facts of her history, Bhaal overrode her will and forced her to Slayer up regardless... yeah, Durjh feels a deeply fucked up twisted kinship with Orin. They, like Orin, have had their will overridden because Bhaal wants a murder done in his honour. They, like Orin, were denied much outside the cult - in their case because the Urge rose up and they killed their parents. And by this point, Durjh has a deep belief in the right of people to choose their own paths - they've seen how being controlled and denied that choice has hurt their friends. So they are deeply indignant on Orin's behalf. They feel deeply sorry for her and wish she could have had a chance, as she gave them, to be otherwise. They are very aware they are possibly the only person to grieve her when she's dead.

So yes. Pre-tadpole they're family but not siblings, to Durjh's perspective. Post-tadpole they have their weird lingering disgust-hatred of her.

And then they find out about her mother-sister, and see her denied choice, and even as they fight her, they wish they could fight Bhaal. Because very suddenly they see a very close point of connection between them, right at the point they can no longer do anything but kill her. And they hate it.

While my Durjh does not want to have kids, if they ever adopted a kid, they would offer them "Orin" as a possible name, due to a ... somewhat childish desire to give Orin another chance? To let her live again, outside the cult. To give her the fresh chance that she gave them. To, by proxy, give her a fresh start.

Orin, of course, would probably find this rather patronising and awful if she knew. It is probably for the best that she never has the chance.

14. Was there anything Orin and your Durge really admired about each other?

I think Orin admired Durjh's single-minded ruthlessness. You know that Animorphs quote about ruthlessness? This one:

"People don’t understand the word ruthless. They think it means ‘mean.’ It’s not about being mean. It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it." - Marco, Book #30: The Reunion, pg. 71 (by K.A. Applegate)

That's Durjh pre-tadpole. A little post-tadpole too, but in a different direction. But pre-tadpole, this is very much Durjh and I think Orin respected that utter, perfect drive. I think she was disappointed by the simplicity of their murders and I think she... hm. I do think she envied how easy of a time Durjh had in getting Bhaal's attention? She went to such elaborate extents for a drop of Bhaal's attention and Durjh could knife someone in an alley and get a pat on the head. Bhaal playing blatant favourites. But, in turn, I think she did see where Durjh's utter ruthlessness served a purpose and I think she admired their perfect precision of it - as long as it wasn't pointed at her.

Meanwhile... I think Durjh did admire Orin's ability to plan, even if they found what she planned for deeply frustrating. I tend to think of Durjh as... kind of a complete disaster? My headcanon runs that they were largely normal until puberty, when the Urge kicked in and I think they were horrified when they murdered their parents - but not horrified that they had. Horrified by how easy it was, horrified by the fact they didn't feel guilty. And I think that, that realisation of how easily and remorselessly they could kill, I think that fucked them up deeply, because up until that point, they'd been a normal kid, with normal expectations. And now their parents are dead by their hands and they don't feel guilt and they know they should feel guilt, they've felt guilt over other things they've done wrong, why don't they feel ashamed of this, why does murder feel right-

I think they followed Sceleritas because they were at a complete loss. I think they murdered because it was one thing which conclusively felt right. I think they planned to murder the world because if the world was dead, no one else would ever have to know that they murdered the parents they loved and felt no guilt over it. I think it was that singular focus because they had to find something to hold onto, a clear light to follow, because otherwise they'd wander off the tide-washed causeway and into deep water and drown. I think, until they had that murder the world plan, there were times when they struggled. But... what else did they have? They'd murdered their parents. They'd murdered so many. So they doubled down. They can't go back. They must go forward.

(Thoughts which post-tadpole Durjh echoes.)

And then there's Orin, and her joy in murder. I think that re-contextualised some things for them, and, just as there were times they struggled, I think Orin's joy was it's own lighthouse to them and gave them some good days too.

I think, on some level, they liked having her as second, because she found wholeness in the chasm they'd thrown themself into for lack of anything else. They were plummeting, occasionally finding points of light or rocks to adjust trajectory from, while she was flying, free and happy. And if they could grasp onto her, keep her joy close, maybe that could be a way out of the pit. Maybe, some brief times or when they were in the pits, they could inhabit her joy instead of their own empty, utter purpose. I think they were exasperated by what she chose to plan for, and I think their admiration of her joy didn't stop them from wishing she'd be more efficient and less elaborate - but I think her joy was a shining star to them, and something they dearly wished they could have or knew how to find. To pre-tadpole Durjh, murder was peace, it was purpose, but it wasn't joy.

!!!! hiya!!! thanks for making the ask games theyre so fun omg

ask game from here btw :3c

2: What was their relationship with Orin like immediately before the tadpole lobotomy? Was Orin sure in her decision, or did she regret what she was going to do?

Dirge and Orin had a close sibling relationship that had since soured over the years as Dirge pulled ahead in influence and Orin felt left behind. Immediately before the tadpole lobotomy, their relationship had degenerated into frequent bickering that constantly threatened to escalate, and Dirge had taken to leaving her in charge of the Temple more and more often for longer and longer durations as he worked on the Absolute plot and steadily failed at holding off an oncoming mental breakdown. Orin felt increasingly frustrated as she was handed more and more responsibility with no changes in acknowledgement or respect, which then fermented into disdain and bubbling rage with no clear outlet.

Unaware that her isolation and ostracization was Dirge's attempt to protect her from feeling the wrath of Bhaal's full attention, she confronts Dirge in Moonrise, which escalates when Dirge turns to leave the argument entirely, and Orin's rage at feeling snubbed crystalizes into radical action as she impulsively snatches a dagger and stabs him while his back is turned. It was an impulsive, reckless decision born of [word], the tadpoling an act of spite to hammer home her victory over him, and she regretted it immediately. She had wanted to kill him, of course, many many times. But that desire stayed an ephemeral concept, beyond the pleas for a proper duel to elevate her as favored spawn and honor her status as bloodkin. She hadn't planned to do this to him. And he didn't die. He just laid there, bleeding and shuddering and cold and silent, and she had rid herself of her only brother forever, and there was no fixing it. In 7 days that parasite would chew through his brain and burst out of his skin as a newborn illithid. She had doomed him and hadn't even done him the favor of a quick death.

Orin's feelings were complicated and intense, guilt and regret and rage and sorrow, that she forced herself to bury under pragmatism as she dragged Dirge's body to where Kressa would find him. Afterwards she retroactively justified to herself, and sitting with the consequences as Bhaal's new Chosen made her retreat deeper into hatred and malice as a way of coping. She always hated him, actually, and had planned to betray him, obviously, and she wanted to make mockery of him and humiliate him for his pride and arrogance. In reality, during the betrayal itself, she was stressed, lonely, isolated, reactive. She was guilty and full of regret, because all Orin wanted was to feel like his equal, like she used to when they were kids. She wanted him to look up to her again, wanted to feel important, wanted, and couldn't understand why there was this sudden gap between them that only seemed to grow. Of course she regretted it in that moment. Of course she couldn't allow herself to mourn. All she had left was Bhaal and Sarevok then. She had to make it count. She had to be worth it.

5: Does your Durge regret Orin’s death? Would they have saved her, if it were possible? Did they find a way to do so anyway?

Orin's death is Dirge's biggest regret. He would have saved her in a heartbeat if it was possible, and stumbled through the consequences gladly, for the chance to free her from that hellish place. Minthara had been traumatized by her, scarred by her, then kidnapped again by her, and even though Minthara is the love of Dirge's life, Orin was his sister. It didn't matter to him that she wasn't as pure blooded as him, or even Sarevok. It didn't matter that she betrayed and tadpoled him. Orin freed him from the Cult, and he remembers what that means now. Thats his SISTER, the only one he's ever had, and she can face whatever comeuppance she has coming out of this place, out of the temple, away from Him. They'll fight each other to the death, he'll give her the duel she wants just... for her, or for Minthara, for anyone, anything, anyone but Bhaal. It isn't fair that he got to have friends and find love and feel the sun on his back and see the mountains while shes been trapped by duty in a box sealed under the world for the sake of a god that hates her. It isn't fair that he has so much love and she doesn't have anyone, when he doesn't even deserve it. He never earned his second chance, but he got one anyways. It isn't fair. Why does he get to be okay and have a happy ending but she gets chewed up and swallowed? What's the difference between them? Isn't it just luck? Why does Bhaal have to take this too? Why does Bhaal have to force her into the Slayer, why does Bhaal have to find a way to take everything from Dirge just because he can, why does Orin have to be collateral damage in Bhaal's crusade to reensnare him? Why didn't anyone love Orin like he does?

Her death sits hollow in his chest, and it isn't just because he died and came back after either. It was a pointless cruel thing, that brought no relief or catharsis to anyone. Minthara finds no justice in Orin's death, and Dirge feels no burdens lift. Only regret. Only sorrow. Only tragedy. If he ever found a way to right the scales and bring her back, just to give her the chance to live without Bhaal's yoke, to breathe and laugh and suffer and cry and live, he'd do it. He'd hesitate, thinking of Minthara and his loved ones, but he'd do it anyways. Orin's family, she deserved to die knowing she had that, and she didn't. If he could make the world just that touch more fair, it'd be worth it.

16. Bribing or threats, which is their preferred method?

Threats!! Combined with heavy doses of mind fuckery — saying one thing aloud, another thing in your mind. If you don't comply with what Tavaris wants? They can wind their way into your mind, find ways to make you bend before them. Honestly, it's a surprise they didn't try the tadpole thing sooner, it was already their M.O.

Post-tadpole? Threatening or finding ways to convince people otherwise. Bribes are not their thing unless absolutely necessary. She's just very niceys and doesn't want to hurt people :( She's trying her best

60. Their most treasured memory with Orin? Why do they treasure it? Love, spite, sibling rivalry win?

That's a very loaded question for Tavaris for a number of reasons, but their favorite is probably something no one else would think of: just a moment when the two of them agreed on a plan to work on some murder. Just a time when they were on the same wavelength, hurting someone together, the thing they could always connect on. She treasures the way she felt connected to Orin in that moment, and wishes it could have lasted.

89. What's the easiest way to piss them off? Interrupt them when they're focused, wake them from a nap, ignore them?

Pre-tadpole: being dumb. By that I mean, being ignorant or undermining their plans in some way. Being unwilling to change, misunderstanding their goals. Tavaris is single-mindedly focused on their goals: if you can't see the long game, if you undermine their work? Good luck bud.

Ok so, I had a bunch of stuff written out. But it wouldn't post and I refreshed and lost it like a dumb ass.

So here's what I remember about what I wrote about my Tav.

Killian La'Vernne

8.Are they connected to any specific areas in game, or do they open up new areas as part of their personal quest? If they're not from around here, how much do they tell the player about their home/place of origin?

She's not connected to any specific area but she is from Waterdeep like Gale is. I love Waterdeep from a concept perspective and I ran a bit of Dragon Heist. She is specifically apart of Bregan De'Arthe as here parents are allies of Jarlaxle. She tends to keep her personal information secret but she talks a lot about Waterdeep itself. She has only been to the underdark a few times and was raised mostly above ground. If her loyalty is high enough she does mention her family more.

18.What would your character have to say about another companion after recruiting them? What would another companion say about recruiting your character?

She will rib Gale when he joins and tends to treat her similar to how she treats her brother who is also a wizard. She does get prickly when Gale refers to others magic as essentially 'not really magic'. She doesn't respect him after that.

Gale is neutral about her, thinks being a bard is 'easy'. She does tend to play dumb around him so he tends to overlook her a lot. But she does push his buttons a lot.

She's suspicious of Astarion and comments how he might have drow blood in him because of his eyes. She welcomes rogue and they tend to get each others vibe with how theatrical Astarion can be she hams up her perfomance to him.

Astarion thinks shes a normal bard and doesn't realize how much she picks apart information and hides from everyone until later. He realizes later she plays dumb to bring everyones guards down. He respects the hussle at the very least and he tends to play into the helpless nature for his own advantage.

Shadowheart is wary about her. Thinks she is too friendly too fast and she knows on some level she's trying to keep everyone's opinion of her good/neutral. She has had sharran training in deception even if she's not the best at it she recognizes the tactics.

Killian likes Shadowheart in like the edgey theyre both into darker stuff kind of way. She's happy to have more healing and gets why Shadowheart is so cagey.

Wyll, surprisingly theyre pretty civil. I don't see Killian really doing anything different with him. She does put on a more galliant sort of persona around him but she does respect how much he wants to help and sticks his nose into things.

Wyll, civil to a fault tends to specualte about what a bard with her skill set was doing in baldurs gate.

Lae'Zel, Killian respects her but trolls her not long after joining even asking Tav if they should mess with her. She views Lae'Zel similar to how she's seen ex-lolth drow act about the underdark which is what she tells the player after you recruit laezel.

Lae'Zel views her as a flighty bard. Doesn't take her seriously for the longest time.

Karlach, Killian is so attracted to Karlach it's not even funny.