I cannot tell if Elhan was being insulting when he said “I’d wager it’s been a long time since you indulged in your elven nature. Welcome home.” or not...
Considering how he has treated her up until this point, Vanya would absolutely hear that as an insult, bar none.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Okay now that I know a bit about Vanya the demon fistfighting toddler, I return with vengeance, so 1, 5, 6 and 13 for that ask meme that started it all. 😏
ASDKSJD She really did peak early, didn't she haha.
And you know what... she probably HAS punched a demon LITERALLY because the bow/arrow weapon mechanic in the original games tends to unequip itself if you run out of arrows or are too close to the enemy... leaving you with fists without even realizing it for a little while! Anyways, here’s your answers! :)
1) What drew your character to their LI and vice versa?
Well, first of all, Vanya falls into the "mark me down as scared and horny" category, so that comes into play increasingly after the reveal. She's musical, too, you'll recall, so she has a thing for his voice from the get go, making her want to converse with him more often. Second of all, they do end up getting along on the whole rather well. To her he has good humor, is suave and definitely dangerous and can sometimes be exasperating, but that’s almost part of it too. She may also be drawn to tragedy, but that remains to be seen.
Astarion’s drawn to her like a predator is to prey... only to find out that his prey had sharper fangs and bigger claws than she first let on. It leaves him... intrigued, for lack of a better word. In a sense she still exhibits “innocent” qualities which are enticing on a surface level and he wastes no time teasing her over them but she’s also more than meets the eye. Plus, she’s inclined to defend him and give him attention.
5) How do they comfort each other when they are sad?
In general, I don’t think Astarion is overly fond of touch-oriented comfort unless he’s initiated it... the exception to that hard and fast rule is at the late/post game stage in which Vanya touching the back/nape of his neck is synonymous with comfort, love, safety, acceptance and trust. Which isn’t necessarily a new tactic on her part, at its core, it's about offering comfort w/o making him feel vulnerable in a lesser sort of way. It just goes to show by that question eventually being condensed into a single touch how far they’ve come. If he is neither in the mood to talk about it or let her hold him, she gives him space, but he knows where she is and that she’s always nearby.
With Vanya, more often than not, it is enough to just hold her and offer a little bit of verbal reassurance. Sometimes he’ll just come up behind her and start braiding her hair, which is just as intimate (Even if it’s already braided, he’ll take it all out and re-do it for her if he senses melancholy). She doesn’t necessarily want to talk about what is bothering, but she appreciates having the option to do so when she does.
On rare occasions they both actively try to cheer the other up through some outside means. Astarion is better at this.
6) Who is the big spoon?
Both...
Okay well... admittedly I imagine that's how it is much, much later on.
I think Vanya somewhat prefers being the small spoon, which is ironically an indicator that she trusts him in the same way him offering her the big spoon position would indicate he trusts her. At the point where Astarion starts to allow cuddling to begin with, he'd naturally want to control the situation ( be able to pull away on his terms, etc.) and Vanya naturally allows him to do so, and slowly from there too they’ll both start developing to confidence to swap to whatever they’re feeling.
13) How do they react at being away from each other?
Oh, Astarion mopes. He laments and languishes around wherever while they're apart like the dramatic little shit he is. Woe be to anybody in the vicinity because they are going to be HEARING about it for the duration. I mean in retrospect he’s perfectly fine, but any onlooker would suspect he’s dying of a broken heart...and can you blame him? That is HIS person and he misses them. And then he demands attention as soon as they’re reunited, but in a way that pretends he wasn’t lonely.
I am talking the classic: “Hey Astarion-” ... “Vanya used to call me that... sighhhh...” ... “That’s because it’s your name, dipshit.”
Alternatively, Vanya more or less doesn't openly talk about much she misses him but it is very obvious she does, she literally doesn't even need to say anything. Also, when they’re apart everything just happens to remind her of him in some way. From innocuous things to how she thinks he’d find some event or another hilarious... or the way he’ll cluck his tongue when she recounts recent events energetically and he very clearly disapproves of her method. She also actively chooses to enter reverie more often than not and chills inside of memories of them instead of “sleeping." She's very excited to talk about everything that happened after they're reunited.
OKAY SO, VANYA. Gimme some basic facts, like who is she, what does she do for living, what kind of deep emotional turmoil she got. You know, the usual. 👀 also BACKSTORY PLZ
OH? HELLO??? THANK YOU!!! OH BOY HERE WE GO, I WENT OVERBOARD! I warn you her backstory is quite an ordeal, it relies heavily on the first two games also so bare with me. ^^'
Name: Vanya Cydre
Race: Elf / Bhaalspawn
(Just as a general note for anyone who isn't familiar with this lore: A bhaalspawn is another (often derogatory) name for a child of the god Bhaal aka The Lord of Murder. He foresaw his own death and so prior to the Time of Troubles he sired many, many children across Toril that would then house pieces of his divine essence so that one day when all his children murdered each other he could be reborn. This did not go as planned. They aren't necessarily evil on principle, but Bhaal's essence is known to drive many to madness and, of course, murder more often than not.)
(For Vanya specifically: At the time of BG3, she is a Bhaalspawn in name/experience only. Her portion of divine-essence (along with the majority of Bhaal's too) was re-absorbed by the original Bhaal after he was reborn and re-claimed his Throne from her. This, by some stroke of luck or design or fate, leaves her not only alive but a mortal elf once again.)
Age: Born 1343, orphaned, raised in Baldur's Gate. 25 years during the iron crisis. 26 years at time of ascendance. 126 years old (technically) at time of capture by the Mind Flayers.
Occupation: Former heiress to the Cydre Mining Division, titles and fortunes ( family name destroyed in 1368), Adventurer (On-going, off and on), Former Lady of Murder
Appearance: She is a 5'10", blue-eyed high elf. Due to her elven blood, she has bright blue hair that fades to a more white-tone near the ends and it is kept waist length or braided. She is nothing if not committed to that color scheme, too, she takes great pride in color coordinating her armor when the option is available.
Likes: Blue jays, peacocks, the ocean, archery, the color blue (shocking!), the city/cities, nature (she has come to appreciate nature in her exile, even the Underdark), sweets (cake + fruit is like her favorite thing), stargazing, magic, dancing (in the moonlight is the best, she thinks at least), fruity alcohol, lupine flowers, most animals, shapeshifting, riddles.
Hobbies: She is a hobbyist bard (singer/songwriter/plays the viol/violin/harp), swimming, she paints a little but isn't particularly good, hunting, reading.
Dislikes: Caves (especially those filled with water), goblins, sour tastes, Bhaal, dragons, swamps also, sour tastes, spiders, she's a little claustrophobic actually, overly loud sounds or repetitive sounds.
Backstory: (This part is EXTREMELY long! There's a lot of canon-divergent info I have to notate and so... beware beyond this point, I suppose!)
Note: Vashti & Vara are also characters of mine and they are also Bhaalspawns like Vanya. However, they both fill the standard, canon, "Chosen One(s)" role/backstory for the series, whereas Vanya has separate pieces of lore from that.
Early Life: Vanya Cydre is born in Baldur's Gate in 1343. I keep messing with her early backstory but in essence... She was orphaned and then adopted by the Cydre family (a human/half-elven mercantile family heavily involved with the Iron Throne circa 1343 until 1368.) Her duty was to not shame the family name and aid the company and the guild (in many cases she did this through forging political and social alliances etc.) Her life seems perfectly secure until 1368 when the Iron Crisis hits and her family is executed by the Flaming Fist for treason (which that was a false accusation, by the way.)
Bhaal's Legacy: She then flees Baldur's Gate with mercenaries on her heels and spends the majority of 1368DR hiding in various places in the Sword Coast and in order to survive doing various adventuring aligned things. She gathers a small party of individuals to aid her. Her nightmares get worse, bloodier, more present. She starts displaying innate and unholy magics she never had before. Her dreams eventually drive her to return to Baldur's Gate and venture beneath the city where she ends up meeting her half-sisters Vashti and Vara (The Protagonists) in the temple of Bhaal before they confront the Big Bad, who is their half-brother and also murdered THEIR foster father. Her heritage is unceremoniously revealed by The Big Bad before they kill them.
Shadows of Amn (This is mostly a re-cap of the events of Shadows of Amn): Vanya decides to travel with Vashti's party for a time, figuring she is the strongest sibling between the two of them and will keep her safe from more people who want her dedad. Vara goes off and joins a traveling minstrel group. Well... Vashti and Vanya are captured by Irenicus and spend an unclear amount of time being experimented on in Amn. Once freed they hunt down Irenicus, separately at first (Vanya allies herself with Bodhi) but they end up meeting up just in time to get their souls yanked out by him... learning about her bhaal-essence power in the meantime and eventually they end up in literal Hell trying to get their souls back. This adventure is the point in time where she goes from chaotic good to true neutral and from a ranger to druid, looking for peace. Vara is a druid -> shaman and teaches Vanya druidism while they all recover in Suldanessellar after reclaiming their souls.
Throne of Bhaal: The gauntlet- sibling against sibling... even those who have been watching your back this time are liable to turn on you. With it there comes the choice between mortality and divinity. Ultimately, she finds herself in a position to choose divinity... (it's happenstance, really.) and she does. She spends a bit less than a century as the Goddess of Murder (It's less... pure evil and more of a practical approach (True Neutral style). As opposed to her father she promotes it as a tool for vengeance & balance rather than simply chaos or personal gain... Her avatar/totem is still fearsome though, just... different than her father's. I won't describe it in detail even though I've designed it already but it's often simplified in art and writing during this period as a dog-like dark shadow with bloody paws and is referred to by various nicknames re-hashing that imagery in various ways. As a note, officially all that's changed for the average joe is that Bhaal worship resurfaces sharply and Bhaal has a different avatar, has changed focuses in doctrine and demands to be referred to as a lady now.... people are willing to let this all slide. "Vanya" has a gravestone dedicated to her in Amn's cemetery district.)
Baldur's Gate 3: In 1468DR Vanya awoke on the Mind Flayer ship with no memory post-getting her soul back and that's where her story begins. I imagine going forward part of her personal goals, beyond the Mind Flayer issue, involves 1) revealing her lost past and then coming to terms with it... 2) Which comes after #1 has progressed to a certain point... how/why she is alive now to begin with. 3) Denouncing or seeking to reclaim the Throne from her father by some means.
Important Note: As you can see she played a role in Alaundo's prophecy and the Bhaalspawn Crisis (which is more or less 100 years prior to BG3...) and even ultimately claimed what was most sought after... (mainly because character growth on the part of the actual Main Character left it vacant and she didn't have anything better to do!) but canonically it is just not her story! The spotlight of destiny isn't overly concerned with Vanya, she just happens to be there at certain points to take advantage of it! (Or get burned, in the case of the torture parts.)
With that in mind, my original WANT by putting her in Baldur's Gate 3 was me trying to give her her own story that I kind of cheated her out of... to give her a better, more satisfying ending and be able to have fun with her in a way I rarely did within the original context of those games.
And I want to say part of the reasoning she had taking Bhaal's throne was unselfish ("if I don't do it, somebody who will abuse this power will one day, or else Bhaal will find a way to come back still. It's better for everyone this way.") And that is absolutely a thought in her head but a bigger part of her is looking around like "What exactly DO I have to live for?" which makes the decision to do something MORE all that much easier.
Shortlist of emotional turmoil ;)
Raised almost entirely by humans (disconnected from her elven heritage/culture)
In general she comes to often feel expendable & isolated even from those she should reasonably feel are in the same boat as her.(i.e when working with Vashti and Vara who have a tight sibling bond that they don't share or seem willing to develop with Vanya). A lot of that feeling also stems from the worldly opinion of her divine-heritage/existence being overall negative.
(I should say that I think in the context of BG3 this feeling generally only re-surfaces during high-stress moments in a 'deeply buried muscle memory' sort of way.)
the family that raised her was falsely accused of treason and executed- and she had to flee in order to survive (survivor's guilt)
persistent nightmares & intrusive thoughts (due to Bhaal's legacy, and then the tadpole preys on those memories/urges again.)
imprisoned, tortured & experimented on (two separate times in 1369DR, put another tally on survivor's guilt.)
She is very, very chill about most everything as a defense mechanism, this is all well and good until she has a meltdown. :)
I was thinking about sending you something for the OTP meme you reblogged but my thought process ran into an issue of knowing zero to nothing about your characters aside from some names. Regardless, I am curious about your take on how our favorite mister Tell-me-I'm-beautiful might realise that he's in love. What does he even think about love in general? Bonus points if you also answer these questions about your character whom you paired with him.
It's okay!! I am relatively tight-lipped about my own OCs beyond basic details unless somebody directly asks me because I'm erm... shy... ^^' but thank you so much i love,,, that you asked this,,, thank you!!!
Let's start with the basics. What do they think of love?:
I whole-heartedly believe Astarion, at least up until a certain point in time, thinks love (in broad terms) is primarily a tool and one he is particularly skilled at using to get what he wants. Barring it being used as a tool, that is to have one feel it genuinely and to let it control you to a degree, he believes that is appalling and frankly he finds it foolish. I imagine, given how I suspect he'd use "love" (in a way, love is just a stronger version of infatuation which also has its uses) to his advantage and his complex about being controlled, it's not going to be particularly pretty when he realizes that's what he feels nor is it going to be easy to put a name to it.
Vanya, at the time of BG3, has directly witnessed what she'd call "pure" love that eventually forms a relationship in her both her sisters' own relationships, and so she can say for sure that it exists and she admires it, thinks it's beautiful. That being said, having witnessed such fierce love, she also knows and has, again, personally witnessed the pitfalls it brings about. Plain and simple, from her view and experience... love is a vulnerability, a risk. (And she says this in a non-derogatory way, it is what it is.) And yes... a part of that conclusion from her standpoint probably stems from various traumas and this persistent feeling of isolation (which is due to her heritage, her upbringing, ideals, etc.) (tl;dr: Love is good real but being real is exactly what makes it dangerous and it will be abused. That is why it should be treated with caution when realized.)
Now the second question... How they might realize they're in love:
I can't help but think for Astarion it happens gradually and is for a great deal of time mistaken as a mixture of fondness and a feeling of security due to her usefulness/willingness to go to bat for him. I mean he's going to be doing subconscious gestures that aren't strictly necessary of him for survival, such as her being the first person he looks to/thinks about/seeks out, deliberate awareness, allowing himself to relax. That is... until it just suddenly hits him in the most mundane of circumstances that he actually, genuinely loves this one.
The "big" things, of course, will build and solidify this feeling (Defending him openly, listening to his input, prioritizing him, etc.), but it'll be something small that hits him like a sack of bricks and suddenly he looks back up until that point and he knows.
Something like seeing her smile (not necessarily even directed at him!), a certain approved touch, a laugh, the way specifically her left ear twitches every so often when she's in reverie, the way she treats someone else in comparison to him, the way her fingers tap or twitch in mid-air as if she's playing an instrument when she's lost in thought, something small she's done solely for his comfort that she didn't have to do is when he'll do a double take looking at them and go "Oh." dramatic pause. "Shit."
Vanya is going to realize it almost immediately as the feeling develops, berate herself, and then promptly buries it. (This is due to a lot of factors outside of her or him. If the environmental situation was a bit more favorable she might be agreeable to being in love.) She is fairly good at doing that, to a point, so this revelation on her part doesn't really change any of her physical routines in regards to him and she still loves him against every better judgement she is able to make, even if she's pretending it's not all that serious. However she is also, in an odd way, more critical/cautious than she had been before she realized she'd fallen head over ass for the snarky bastard. It was not hard for her to do, she realizes she may have a type. If she has learned anything at all after all this time about situations such as the one she finds herself in where death and betrayal is very, very likely... it is that "love" will be used against her at the most inopportune moment and she endeavors to be prepared for that event when it comes about... no matter who is trying to use it against her. She wonders if she sets a line she will not cross, as such, if that make it easier to do if the time comes.
And yet, even though she airs on the cynical side of things more and more often nowadays, a small, weak part of her bruised soul hopes that things will turn out differently for her, for them, this time.
For anyone wondering how Vara is SUPPOSED to be pronounced....since Vashti and Vanya are both pronounced with a “Vah-” starting sound it would follow that Vara was also pronounced the same way.
So “Vah-sh-tea”, “Vah-n-yah” and finally- “Vah-r-rah”
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
🖊 Vanya: I don’t want to talk about the long, lore-heavy explanation of how she got from point A to B, so on a semi-light note... she plays the violin + the piano. Both of which were taught to her by her father, so for a long time her music lacked that spark of genuineness like her mother (also a bard) had. It’s only after she goes on the road with Vashti & Vara does she start experimenting more.
🖊 Vara: She sews all her own clothes... knits, crochets, weaves, embroiders. She finds the motions and working with her hands in that way relaxing.
🖊 Vashti: She likes to play cards (poker, pinochle, rummy... etc.) & is definitely not above cheating, prefers it actually (though when she DOESN’T she’s a shrewd player and can definitely hold her own, but she hates any uncertainty.)
