#umbral

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. 🤔

Umbral

Born: mid 1200s

Umbral is the second daughter and a powerful telepath kept isolated by her mother. Due to not having any way to filter the constant stream of information from others' thoughts and feelings she didn't speak for the first twenty years of her life as she had nothing to express. She eventually gets over this with help from Obfuscarae who struggled similarly with differentiating her memories from the present. After this Umbral basically functioned as her mother's living lie detector which makes her depressed. She doesn’t like violating people’s privacy.

When Obfuscarae dies Umbral realizes that she's saddened by her death. This feeling becomes her anchor as she figures out who she is, as any time she begins to question what is or isn't her thoughts she returns to the sadness and knows that she is a person who mourns her sister.

As Umbral explores who she is she gets more experimental with her telepathy. She actually likes her ability when she can tell where she ends and a person begins. She has a stint where she seeks out people to share a telepathic bond with; She likes sharing thoughts and memories, literally playing with their emotions, and altering their perception. It makes her feel powerful and she likes that, although she's scared of liking it because she doesn't want to turn out like her mother. But in her mind if she's using her power to make someone feel good then it's okay. Also the telepathic bonding is basically sex to her and for a while she has an unhealthy dependency on it.

Umbral - Alejandro Sintura , 2025.

Colombian , b. 2000 -