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The Once and Future Champion (Baldur's Gate 3/Dragon Age)

Reader mode
Ugh, draft error. I'd forgotten to put this paragraph in the interlude. It slides in right before Isobel's enter stage left.

cliffc999 said:
And even then, part of me had still dared to hope that I could possibly escape... until we arrived in the Shadow-Cursed Lands and I saw the true extent of Lady Shar's power. And it most certainly had been her power - I had tested for that. I'd told Hawke and the others that my contact with the necrotic energies of the Shadow Curse hadn't harmed me because my exposure had been brief enough to escape without harm, but that had also been a lie. In truth I hadn't been affected at all. The Shadow Curse did not touch me in the slightest, even without torchlight, the Blood of Lathander, or the pixie's blessing... solely because Lady Shar willed it so. That was when I knew She had neither been lying nor bluffing.
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In-game, this is actually true - if you ever expose Shadowheart to the Shadow Curse without any protections, you trigger a brief dialogue where she realizes that it's not touching her at all and she goes off on a tangent about how this proves the favor of Shar. She's the one immune character you have even from the getgo. However, she only gets the first-level immunity (the same as Isobel's blessing or a good bright light source), not the full immunity that a moonlantern or a pixie blessing gives.
 
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When the literal God of Murder is better to His worshipers, you know She's a piece of shit.

And the God of Murder is really straight forward. You a muderer? Ok, you can worship me. Want to be my cleric? Ok, murder, sure, and no, I don't much care who.


Not like Shar, who will make sure you target any and all friends first.
 
TyricGaias said:
Any consequences if Shar were to die?
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Based on prevous times a God has died on that world? Somebody else would end up taking over their position, becoming the new God/dess of Loss and Pain.

They might be less of a dick, they might not. Or, some God/dess could well steal that and add it to themselves, at least in theory. I don't think that's ever really worked.
 
G1336 said:
This has done a great job in reminding me that I wouldn't piss on most of the gods of Faerûn if they were on fire.
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NGL, the only god or goddess in BG3 who doesn't come off as even a part-time asshole is Selune. But hey, she's actually one of the least dickish in Faerunian canon as well, so, adds up.

Then again, when your literally evil twin sister is freaking Shar, it takes effort to look even mildly bad.
 
I suspect that Shar could not die without Selune also dying. They are two faces of a coin. They aren't wholly separate. Nothing of Shar's can exist without Selune having a claim on it, and vice versa.

Also possibly the oldest gods in the Forgotten Realms, and definitely among the most powerful. They were the mothers of the first goddess of magic, Mystryl. Shar created the Shadowfell and the Shadow Weave. Girl sticks to her themes.
 
I'm not sure I go with them being that tied to each other like some urRu/Skeksis pairing from "The Dark Crystal" who each bleed if the other gets cut, but I entirely am down with them being twin sisters who have opposing portfolios and an eternal emnity... as well as a shared claim on Toril, seeing as how they're effectively it's co-creators.
 
Simonbob said:
Based on prevous times a God has died on that world? Somebody else would end up taking over their position, becoming the new God/dess of Loss and Pain.

They might be less of a dick, they might not. Or, some God/dess could well steal that and add it to themselves, at least in theory. I don't think that's ever really worked.
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I mean if the Crown of Karsus is just lying there after Gale is done with usurping godhood with it, and your Tav is a wizard themselves...
 
Shart gotta be Shart.

In any case, the only good god is a dead good. Unless you're one of the three idiots.
 
Feels pretty contrived but you've already written it so it is what it is.
 
cliffc999 said:
the usual thing you get when another bunch of stupid bastards are crouching around an idol in the sewers and thinking they'll earn ultimate power on a platter if they just knife enough beggars.
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Man, this one line radiates so much Tired Protagonist energy.

"Ugh, not another cult appropriate for level 6-8 adventurers!"
NihilSupernum said:
Shart gotta be Shart.

In any case, the only good god is a dead good. Unless you're one of the three idiots.
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See, this is uniquely Faerunian problem. St. Cuthbert of the Blessed Cudgel, from Greyhawk? Sponsors "not being a dick" and "hitting dicks with cudgels". Cayden Caliean from Golarion? Alcohol and abolitionism. Sarenrae? Being Nice. Pelor? Ditto. It's pretty much just the Toril gang that is unreasonable and overbearing. (And the evil ones, but that's a separate issue)
 
I dunno. Sarenrae's church has done just as many purges as Iomedae's.
 
Come to think of it, Cliff, have you read any of the Glowfics set in Golarion like Project Lawful or the ones by lintamande? Those have some interesting explorations of how an Evil god might coerce and manipulate otherwise-good people into serving it, in a similar cosmology to Faerûn.

Anyway this was a great update, I liked the tactics in the fight and the Shadowfell explanation is the kind of clever worldbuilding harmonization I read your stories for.

From how Hawke's experiences with loss have been brought up this chapter, I wonder if Shar's message to Shadowheart was less about keeping her and more about setting him up for a later invitation to the goddess' service? He's already lost so much and learned to live with that, after all...
 
GrayBowser said:
From how Hawke's experiences with loss have been brought up this chapter, I wonder if Shar's message to Shadowheart was less about keeping her and more about setting him up for a later invitation to the goddess' service? He's already lost so much and learned to live with that, after all...
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If not both, although frankly, Hawkes experience with loss means any recruitment she might try is not going to go the way Shar might like, if only because he's learnt the kinds of lessons she doesn't want her followers to understand.

As for Shadowheart,

It's more about gaslighting her until she reacts the way Shar wants her to for her spiteful experiment.
 
My primary exposure to Faerun is Tabula Avatar (a primarily Buffy/Baldur's Gate 2 cross), which has a major plot thread involving extreme character development, and about half a million words to work with, so I keep being set off-balance by the (significant and very relevant) differences. Although it did at least give me a moment of, "I know that name. But where from?" when Jaheira came up.


cliffc999 said:
"When I finally confronted father about his turning to Shar, he denied serving her any loner. Shar had lied to him, he said. She'd made him a promise and then broken it. But he wouldn't talk about what new evil god he now served or why, or what horrible pacts he made to make us alive again-" She shook her head. "He ordered me locked away. He said that I would eventually understand but for now I had to be kept safe where I couldn't interfere. But I grew up in that tower - hells, I'd seen it built when I was just a girl. His new servants didn't know enough about its secret ways to stop me from escaping. And so I wandered over the region with only my goddess' blessings to spare me from the curse, trying to piece together exactly what had happened - how things had gone so wrong-" She sighed. "And then Jaheira arrived with her troops, fleeing with death behind them into nothing but death ahead of them. So I led them to shelter here at Last Light, and - well, when a priestess of the goddess known for being most opposed to the dark power who cursed all the land around shows up to offer you her aid against that very same darkness, even cynical old Harpers don't have enough suspicions to ask inconvenient questions."
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longer

cliffc999 said:
I prayed with everything in my heart for the strength to stared her down without breaking, and eventually she nodded. "If you ever want to talk, please come seek me out at any time. And don't worry about Jaheira having any objection to you - I'll take care of it." She nodded to me again. "Good night, Shadowheart."
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stare
 
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