February 22nd, Happy Birthday Verso Dessendre !
Bonjour mes amis! We’re very excited to share with everyone a project that we’ve been hard at work on for the past few months! In collaboration with 33 magnifique artistes, Lumière comes to life! Celebrating the accomplishments from the past year, all of our voice actors, English and French, side by side with their characters! Thank you so much to our talented artists and organizers for bringing this all together!
Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive for over 500 game awards, and the honor of being Knights of the Order of Arts and Letters! Thank you all for bringing this work of art into our lives, we can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. Never stop painting, creating, and writing the world needs it now more than ever!
Our lovely artists, please support and follow them, check out their creations. This was only possible through some really impressive teamwork! Thank you again for being a part of this painting, it was so fun bringing everyone together <(⌒▽⌒. )>
Credits under the cut
Lead organizer • Background colors • Devora Wilde (Cléa en) • Alex Martin (Renoir additional mocap) • Nicholas Maxson-francombe (Art Director) : @shinpm
Organizer help • Trashcan man : @korvogrim, https://korvogrim.carrd.co/
i love fics that feel so... grown. fics about adults that were written by adults who have years of life experience under their belts who pour that into their writing. fics where you can tell this is a person who has lived through a marriage or a divorce or a child or children or parent death or any number of Huge Life Events because the way they write with an emphasis on the highs and lows of the human experience rather than an emphasis on tropes (not throwing shade) is just so. oh man, it's just so fucking good. if my blorbos are grown men, grown women, grown people, i love it when they feel like grown people, not just extensions of the (young) author's imagination. (still not throwing shade). you know?
Round 4 — Match 7 / 10 — Karlach Cliffgate vs. Jaheira
Karlach Cliffgate is an Origin Character and a recruitable Companion who can be romanced by characters of any gender. She is a Zariel Tiefling and a Barbarian with the Outlander background. Karlach can be first found on the Risen Road during Act One. Once a soldier in Zariel's army, Karlach has been given a new chance at life after the recent events. Now, freed from Avernus, she will make the most out of it, and no one will get in her way.
"the second she starts doing the little “i’m free, i’m FREE” thing i was done for because she’s been through hell (literally) and her first instinct isn’t revenge monologue, it’s “can we go somewhere nice, can i hug people, can i dance, can i touch water without it boiling,” and it makes every other act 1 complaint sound pathetic. also her humour is so specific?? like she’s not “quirky,” she’s just a person who’s coping by being loud and honest and a bit unhinged. and when she gets emotional she doesn’t do the coy sadgirl thing, she goes full “I’M MAD ABOUT IT” and i love that. let women be angry and also sweet."
"Karlach brings me joy when I’m sad"
vs.
Jaheira is a recruitable Companion. She and Minsc return from both Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and are the only two recruitable companions who cannot be romanced. She is a High Half-Elf and a Druid with the Soldier background, and can be first found at the Last Light Inn during Act Two. Having become High Harper in the century since her first adventures, wherein her husband Khalid was killed, Jaheira is deadset on maintaining her Harper network, taking down the Cult of the Absolute, and later reuniting with Minsc, her closest friend. Jaheira is known for her sharp wits and dry humor, and also serves as a mentor figure to the rest of the party.
Hm? No, I'm fine I'm just thinking about how in the final fight with Renoir, his concept of Aline as this graceful, charming, hypnotizing goddess like creature who literally heals him and invigorates him to keep going, has to fight to the death with Aline's concept of herself, which is this gargantuan husk, visibly falling apart, just a walking shambles of a creature with a void inside that seems to be growing more and more and consuming her from the inside out
I had the opportunity to grab one of @drathe's commissions for Renoir and Aline. An absolute pleasure to work with, professional, lovely, and so absurdly talented. I mean, the last one barely needs to be said because look at them.
I like to imagine this is set a ways post-game. The family has been working to come back together. And there's just a break for them.
Anyways, I'm going to ahead and stare at this for the foreseeable future.
E33 Fandom: Aline is a toxic boymom who favors her son over both of her daughters. *doesn't say a word about Renoir favoring Alicia*
Just. Aline is OBVIOUSLY going to be focusing on her son rn because he is DEAD. OF COURSE her memories are going to be focused on him. Meanwhile, Verso SAYS, OUT LOUD, that Alicia is Renoir's favorite, but not a word from anyone because "dad-favoritism is cute but (ALLEGED) mom-favoritism is toxic"
(Also. To the people saying the Aline described in the artbook is different from the one in-game. That's the point. That is. The point. The point is that she's warped by grief right now. The point of the ENTIRE GAME is the effects of grief on people. The POINT is that projecting who she is now backwards onto who she was before the fire is reductive and shows a fundamental lack of empathy.)
But, Rose. Girl Dads are adorable. And Boy Moms are evil.
Also, kindly ignore that this "Boy Mom" is dealing with suicidal depression from hearing her son burn to death/be murdered and the crushing guilt of feeling like she failed to protect her children.
Also ignore the fact that Clea says the Aline prior to the fire was different and never would have acted like that. And the clues in game that. Aline was like she was in the artbook.
@wrenthedruid I felt bad since you seemed v excited and like you might have been hoping for romance stuff, and my next for-real photoset might not be romancey per se - but I ended up spending most of my evening figuring out some new pose and lighting mods so I am glad to be able to present you with the fruits of that labor instead. :D
When joining a new fandom, do you go out of your way to do "required reading"? I.e. do you seek out the most popular and reputable fanfiction/headcanons by highly regarded users and incorporate it as your fanon?
I do that deliberately, as a must-have step
I do that passively (e.g. check it out only if others share it/I like it)
I don't do it because I am not really interested
I don't do it deliberately, out of principle
My fandom does not have fics/headcanons considered "required reading"
I adopt my friends' headcanons, but not popular users' headcanons
Other
Voting ended onDec 21, 2025
This is brought on by me seeing a pretty popular tweet where the OP lamented that they found a fic that does not follow the "accepted fanon" and contradicts another, seminal work of fanfiction by an esteemed fan author (but not the source material, from my understanding). Which both baffled and fascinated me.
Ok I was watching a video from Hello Future Me about the phycology of Kora, and the psychological concepts they talk about really made me think of characters from Expedition 33, mainly the Dessendre family, so I’m posting a large rant lol.
(Low key so much makes me think of that game it is so good and the characters are all so complex!)
Spoilers under the cut
Primarily it made me think of Aline aka the Paintress. In the video they talk about how mentally harmful it can be when the fundamental truth about ourselves are damaged and challenged, it makes me think of how much the fire would’ve damaged Aline’s own identity and how much of that Aline had to go through. Like:
Identity/deep held truths: I’m a good mother
Counter:
- my son is dead
- my daughter is injured and traumatized
- my eldest resents me.
- a good mother would never blame their daughter. I should love and support my daughter but can’t stand to be near her
My husband protects myself and my family
- He was gone and our son died and daughter was injured.
I’m passionate and loving
- I can barely feel anything and am floating day to day
- I (maybe mentally know it’s unfair but still emotionally) resent my husband for failing us and can’t stand to help him grieve when I’m still drowning.
My home is safe
- I went to paint and came back to my house on fire and hearing the sound of my son screaming as he burned to death. (I missed this at first, but one of the first memories in the monolith is of Aline painting with fire all around her and screaming in the background. That was how she recalls the night of the fire. No trying to be comforting ‘you’ll be ok’ like Alicia got, just screams of pain.)
I am politically and socially powerful
- I couldn’t stop enemies from burning my home and children.
- I am powerless to defend the things most important to me.
- Whoever killed my child has gotten away with it. (Since Clea is still wanting to hunt them at the time of the game)
Like with all that insanity and more going on, I can 1000% understand wanting to go to a place where she does not have to confront this reality every single day. If you look at her journal entries, she mentions “for a few hours my heart can beat” for a bit of time each day. She does not have to be in a place where she has to fundamentally re-examine everything she is and try to rebuild herself.
I love this game because nobody is really a bad guy, they are just messy humans. And by saying, I think Aline is understanable I don’t mean I think Renoir is wrong. I think he is probably equally as flawed and loves his wife dearly still.
We get told in game that Clea is the most like Renoir, and she is very ‘pick yourself up and keep moving’ and that’s a similar vibe (though much more lovingly) given by Renoir to Alicia in game. ‘Trust me. You just need to keep moving forward and things will get better. You will feel better eventually.’ likely true, but insanely difficult to smile and agree with while you were struggling so deeply. Like if he said that to his wife, what identity is she supposed to move forward with? She has difficulty viewing herself as a mother anymore, she has difficulty with her political and social identity, she has difficulty with her wife identity. How is she supposed to keep moving when she doesn’t have anything to move forward with? So much of her life ended that night. Of course she wants to go back in time.
Also, Renoir is hyper sensitive to being trapped in a painting. During the game Clea dismisses that they’ve been in paintings for longer which to me implies he probably saw the path Aline was going down, of staying in a painting forever, and tried to intervene early or before it got too crazy. Which yes, responsible, but also could be viewed as catastrophizing and controlling. Would she have stayed in there forever if he had not forced the issue? we will never know, (though it is implied that she would have because that’s what is implied happens to Alicia in her ending)
For Renoir ‘I love my wife and am saving her from disaster before it gets too bad’
For Aline ‘my husband who I do love, but I am feeling complicated about, is trying to take away the only place in the world where I feel like I’m not constantly imploding because of his own insecurities.’
Fracture
I don’t know. I just needed to post this stuff because I feel like Aline gets a bad rap. I also get sad when people get mad at Renoir. XD they are all flawed and that is OK!
I feel like all of these could be applied to Alicia as well. Aline and Alicia are supposed to mirror each other like Verso mirrors his father. Yes Alicia is young and “Shouldn’t” view her life as over because of her injuries, but she has to rebuild so much of her identity and deal with the loss of her brother that she blames herself for? Like, yeah, I love Verso’s ending a lot more, but I cannot be mad at Alicia for wanting her ending.
This game is so good with so many complicated characters and I love it so much.
Pairing: Jaheira & Nine-Fingers Keene
Characters: Jaheira, Nine-Fingers Keene, Rion, Jord, Canonical Guild Members, Original Minor Characters
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Descriptors: Cross-Generational Friendship, Slow Build, Tragedy, Backstory, Time Skips
Fic Word Count (Thus Far): 16.6k
Chapter Word Count: 4.9k
Chapter Setting: Baldur’s Gate, 1478 (about 14 years before BG3).
Summary: Nine-Fingers Keene has known Jaheira a long time. This is how it fell apart. (Chap 4/?)
Chapter Summary: At twenty-three, Astele's first foray into leadership goes sideways when she's faced with a reckoning for the things she left behind.
read on ao3 | send me fic requests!
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The match crackles and sputters as Astele strikes it against the edge of the table, illuminating the dank, chilly room in a flickering burst of light. She pushes the flame into the base of a battered oil lamp; the jittery shadows settle gradually into stillness, stretching long and ominously around the cramped space.
“There. Bit better,” she says gruffly. She'd prefer to light the fireplace - it's nearly two in the morning and cold as Stygian steel - but they can't afford to draw attention to themselves until the job is finished. This will have to do for now, just enough light to keep an eye on her ragged little band of co-conspirators until dawn breaks.
They're a motley crew to put it mildly. Rilsa, her friend from Little Calimshan. Harren, from the ‘Keepers. Rakath, the sour-faced dwarf bookie from the Steeps. Adreth, the jittery little gnome from the Faithless smugglers. Marver, now an enforcer with the Fetcher's boys down in the Undercity. And Laris, of course, who still looks a little out of place among the roughhousers, even after five years of trotting along at Astele's heels.
This is it, Astele thinks to herself. The first test. Proof of concept. Holding together so far - just gotta keep the reins tight.
“Marver, keep guard outside,” she says, forcing her voice into its best approximation of authority. She likes to think she sounds like Kopali in these moments - crisp, direct, and unflappable - but if she's honest, it's still a work in progress, especially when it comes to Marver. The money was too much for him to turn down, but it hasn't made him less of a prick, and he's none too pleased about taking her orders.
“Why me?” he asks, surly, shifting to lean one elbow against the dusty mantelpiece.
“‘Cos you're such a fan of beating the shit out of people,” Astele quips, narrowing her eyes at him. “And ‘cos I said so. Or it can be your arse if it turns out someone followed us.”
Marver grumbles, but he doesn't argue, just turns and disappears out the door into the dark.
Astele watches him go, then sighs and sits down heavily on one of the rickety chairs at the table. It complains with a loud squeak as it takes her weight, but holds.
