can i have some crumbs about esma plsss 😁😁
Esma was born in Memnon, Calimshan. Her mother was a Calishite human and her father a wood elf originally from the forests of Tethyr, but travelled to Calimshan frequently working as a caravan guard. He eventually settled permanently in Memnon to help raise Esma.
Esma's mother had a strong faith in Selûne, and named her daughter with the intention of invoking divine protection. This faith is something Esma inherited like it was second-nature. Esma's faith was so powerful that it attracted the attention of Selûne herself.
Selûne offered Esma a single Wish, as a reward for her belief. Without thinking anything of it, Esma used this Wish to become magically pregnant, as she always wanted to be a mother.
Selûne visited Esma in her dreams during the course of her pregnancy, promising a healthy child on the condition that Esma travel to Baldur's Gate to give birth. Esma followed this dream.
The moment Esma entered Baldur's Gate, she was swept to the headquarters of the Silver Ladies, an all-woman elite Selûnite order that was already expecting her. They helped Esma give birth to Simay, and for the first few weeks, Esma was the happiest she had ever been.
But then, Esma started to notice the strange obsession the priestesses enacted over her child. She wanted to leave and take Simay with her back to Calimshan, but the Silver Ladies claimed that Selûne's desire was for Simay to be raised in their temple. Suddenly, Esma felt betrayed and used by the very goddess she had dedicated her whole life to. Fueled with bitterness (and unrecognized postpartum depression), Esma chose to reject the offer made by the Silver Ladies to remain with them, and said goodbye to her daughter.
Esma returned to Memnon, feeling like she was in a daze over the whole experience. During this very vulnerable time, she sought help from a grief counsellor in Calimport who was actually a Sharran. This Sharran coaxed Esma into the Darkness's fold. Slowly at first, so by the time it came to overt indoctrination, it was all too easy.
Since this time, Shar has taken most of Esma's memories of Simay; enough that she feels anger towards the Silver Ladies and the goddess Selûne herself, but not enough that she can recall the details of what exactly she had lost. Now, Esma lives to fill the hole left from this with worshipping Shar.