I Think That Romancing Astarion Should Break Your Oath If You Play As OotA Paladin, Purely Because It

Someone explain to me why I randomly started listening to Sleep Token for the first time like three days before the new single released. I know I'm late to the party but I'm loving it. I feel a hyperfixation coming on... pray for me.

It's scary to be transgender in the world right now but if you're transgender I love you and we have to stick together and keep fighting and keep living and keep loving

Current mood:

Yes, that's poor Gale who fell into the lava and is melting.

I love the clip where Neil Newbon talks about how he wanted to make Astarion's laugh kind of abrasive or off-putting... because little does he know that just made him more endearing. Oops.

Just watched the Baldur's Gate live D&D session from Magic Con and these are the lessons we've learned: 1. Do not let Lae'zel negotiate anything ever

2. Don't try and sell your friends

3. Lae'zel is a bad influence on Wyll

4. Lae'zel will tear into the fabric of reality to give herself extra reactions; do not leave her unattended

What I mean when I do not control the hyperfixation.

Etriel Analelle Ancunin and the young Astarion Ancunin

my ko-fi

When the player first meets Wyll you can ask him about his stone eye and he'll reply: "It's made from pure Bloodstone, carved from the Galena Mountains just north of the Moonsea. A reminder that sometimes, blood must be shed and sacrifices must be made."

And I, knowing nothing about Wyll at the time, took one look at his eye and went: "No, the fuck it ain't!"

See, if you know anything about bloodstone, you know that it's called that because it looks like it has drops of blood trapped in it:

[Heliotrope (aka Bloodstone) from Wikipedia]

The plain light grey stone of Wyll's eye is clearly not bloodstone, even at a glance. So, why would Wyll call it bloodstone?

While I don't think Wyll is above lying, and he tells a good story, it's an odd lie to tell in the first place. Any lie that can be dismantled by somewhat common knowledge is a poor lie. (Or maybe I'm the weird one for immediately clocking that it wasn't bloodstone.)

What if it wasn't a lie?

We know that Wyll's eye is a sending stone and Mizora uses it to track Wyll and to give him orders. In EA Mizora could even use the stone to spy on Wyll, though there's no evidence of that in the full release.

As per DnD 5e, there aren't any rules about what type of stone has to be used to create sending stones, only that they are created in pairs and are carved identically in order to help identify the other half of the pairing. We know that Wyll lost his eye during the battle with the cult of Tiamat and we know Wyll's scarring was designed with the intent to be a "physical, intimate sign of the contract between him and his patron" and to look "like his face had been grabbed very painfully by claws or sharp nails". Coincidence? I think not. 

Wyll would have been exhausted, having just survived his encounter with the cultists. Unable to fight back, Mizora could have simply plucked his eye out of his head and before he could even ask why she would have replaced it with a stone eye. This, she might have mentioned, was an eye made of blood stone and a sending stone that they would use to communicate. She might then explain that 'blood stone' (with a space in the middle) is a type of stone found in Avernus, imbued with special properties due to its hellish provenance. Or, she might not explain it at all. This type of stone might be why Mizora is able to track Wyll (there is a magical item in DnD called a 'Blod Stone' which has this ability). There could even be further abilities from this type of stone.

And Wyll, hearing that it is bloodstone, simply comes up with a different story to explain where it came from, thinking like all good liars that it is better not to stray too far from the truth and damning himself to being discovered in the process.

(Information pulled from Wyll_InParty2_Nested_FreedMizora and Wyll_InParty2_Nested_BladeStory dialogue trees)

The patch 8 animation was just trolling the Astarion fans I swear. Deliberately pronouncing his name "wrong" in the song because people keep arguing about it even though there really shouldn't be an argument. His characterization really felt to me like it's poking fun at how fanon so often turns him into a caricature of himself. Plus all the little easter eggs referencing popular fanart, edits, and other quirks of the fandom. They knew what they were doing and it's so funny. The stupid song is still stuck in my stupid head.