BG3: Gaila feelings! [crosspost]
Oct. 26th, 2023 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineI was plotting out the early details of the f!Gale AU and had a kind of horrifying idea.
When you(Tav) first meet Astarion, if you fail the Perception check and have already rescued Gale (but no one else), Astarion will put his dagger to your throat and warn Gale to keep his distance. Gale pleasantly assures Astarion that he(Gale) will incinerate him(Astarion) if he(Astarion) uses the dagger on you. That's all cool and interesting.
But I remembered that 5e clerics use holy symbols as spellcasting foci, so I had the idea that when Astarion jerks Larissa around and swipes his dagger to her throat, her holy symbol is yanked out, and either swings out or the chain actually snaps and Mystra's symbol tumbles dramatically to the ground. Either way, in the AU, Gaila's attention would narrow in on it, and she'd use that sweet 17 INT to immediately put 2 and 2 together, realizing that her cleric rescuer is afellow devotee of Mystra. So she knows she's protecting someone blessed by Mystra when she threatens Astarion.
It gets worse!
I was like ... what if that's part of why she jumps to "I will incinerate you" when Astarion threatens Larissa, given that she(Gaila) barely knows her? Larissa did save her, but—
Wait. Larissa saved her, out of general good will. Her devotion to Mystra makes it especially easy for her to do (by in-game mechanics) but that is not why she did it—she has no clue whatsoever who Gaila is/was wrt Mystra at this point. But Gaila doesn't know that.
For Gaila, things looked really bad, and then a priestess of Mystra showed up out of nowhere to rescue her. Not just any priestess, either, but a true cleric empowered by Mystra. That's a lot to deal with anyway, but I was suddenly imagining there's this wild moment where Gaila's thinking ... what if Mystra sent Larissa? After all, Larissa wouldn't have helped if Mystra didn't want her to, right? What if this is Mystra's way of still caring? What if—oh shit, he's still got the dagger to her throat, Mystra will not understand if someone she's blessed ... chosen ... if her cleric gets killed when Gaila could stop it.
This is a very terrible footing for their relationship to start on, but I kind of love that, tbh? Larissa's relationship with Mystra is not particularly healthy either, and ... I think I like the idea that their dynamic starts out as deeply enmeshed in the whole Mystra situation and gradually becomes its own thing without them even wholly realizing it.
When you(Tav) first meet Astarion, if you fail the Perception check and have already rescued Gale (but no one else), Astarion will put his dagger to your throat and warn Gale to keep his distance. Gale pleasantly assures Astarion that he(Gale) will incinerate him(Astarion) if he(Astarion) uses the dagger on you. That's all cool and interesting.
But I remembered that 5e clerics use holy symbols as spellcasting foci, so I had the idea that when Astarion jerks Larissa around and swipes his dagger to her throat, her holy symbol is yanked out, and either swings out or the chain actually snaps and Mystra's symbol tumbles dramatically to the ground. Either way, in the AU, Gaila's attention would narrow in on it, and she'd use that sweet 17 INT to immediately put 2 and 2 together, realizing that her cleric rescuer is a
It gets worse!
I was like ... what if that's part of why she jumps to "I will incinerate you" when Astarion threatens Larissa, given that she(Gaila) barely knows her? Larissa did save her, but—
Wait. Larissa saved her, out of general good will. Her devotion to Mystra makes it especially easy for her to do (by in-game mechanics) but that is not why she did it—she has no clue whatsoever who Gaila is/was wrt Mystra at this point. But Gaila doesn't know that.
For Gaila, things looked really bad, and then a priestess of Mystra showed up out of nowhere to rescue her. Not just any priestess, either, but a true cleric empowered by Mystra. That's a lot to deal with anyway, but I was suddenly imagining there's this wild moment where Gaila's thinking ... what if Mystra sent Larissa? After all, Larissa wouldn't have helped if Mystra didn't want her to, right? What if this is Mystra's way of still caring? What if—oh shit, he's still got the dagger to her throat, Mystra will not understand if someone she's blessed ... chosen ... if her cleric gets killed when Gaila could stop it.
This is a very terrible footing for their relationship to start on, but I kind of love that, tbh? Larissa's relationship with Mystra is not particularly healthy either, and ... I think I like the idea that their dynamic starts out as deeply enmeshed in the whole Mystra situation and gradually becomes its own thing without them even wholly realizing it.