My instant favourite non-playable character was this man right here.
Warrior, protector, who says "we're not fighters", who never once separates himself emotionally from the desperate people he leads and shelters. Zevlor hasn't had a good night's sleep in years or half an idea of whom he is outside of being the exiled Hellrider who isn't even able to still actually be a Hellrider, even though, as Tilses says, it's for life. Who lost his faith, and was then manipulated by the Absolute. It categorically was not Zevlor's fault, but he will never escape the blame -- because he believes himself only worthy of it.
I don't know. I just love something about him so much. And I also love his little shadow, Tilses, and her kind loyalty.
Haarlep and Raphael are distinguishable from each other if you have a passing habit of spending time with Raphael or studying his face; Haarlep always presents as an idealised version of Raphael, minus the things he deems flaws.
However, Haarlep could theoretically take a great many forms. There are a lot of rumours of Raphael and his glamorous lovers, plural, in Baldurian high society -- what most people don't realise is that all of those lovers, plural, are in fact the same lover, singular, using a variety of different appearances.
Haarlep, after all, loves attention. Media attention is just another addition to this, infinitely glitzier. Ending up in the gazette with everyone commenting on their undoubtedly hugely fashionable outfit at some gala, and wanting to know who they are? um, YES.
When they're not running around half-naked in the House of Hope (lingerie is comfortable when the house is warm and you're just lounging, shush), they LOVE anything that is floaty and glittery and silky-chiffony-soft. Also expect one (1) incubus to always have perfect nails and make-up. Appearances are essential, darling.
Haarlep also has been occasionally known to assume Raphael's default appearance to attend functions / negotiations he does not want to attend or, otherwise, is simply far too busy to present himself at.
Are you speaking to Haarlep or Raphael, out in public? Can you really tell?
Ps, Haarlep is more theatrical and flamboyant. It's hard sometimes to pick up on it because Raphael certainly has his moments, but Haarlep is 10% more Extra (TM) in any one moment.
Haarlep is less likely to drop a nursery rhyme on you. But they're more likely to give you a cutesy nickname which you're not sure is out of spite or just to be cute.
THIS IS OUR PLACE, WE MAKE THE RULES;
or, we love a pair of dramatic! devils in this house.
Haarlep is not as unhappy a partner to Raphael as they would have your Tav think. Nor is this a story of abuse from either Devil to the other. Frankly, it's best to instead consider them this way: we've been together for so, so long that sometimes we just need a little reassurance. Especially when one of us is an incubus & we have drastically different sex drives.
Raphael also is not the best at communicating, always. Haarlep, meanwhile, is a Sayaad. An Incubus/Succubus. They are made for love and intimacy and feed off of emotion in much of the way a vampire requires blood to survive. And they have been Raphael's world for a very, very long time. Centuries. Suddenly, Raph's spending all of his time "busy" or out of the house running about after Tav & the party. It's got them all 👀.
Because naturally, as a Sayaad whose default setting is absolutely the green-eyed monster when their partner's eyes seem to wander, Haarlep equates that with Raph's lack of sexual excitement and comes up with a sum of four, when the actual mathematics involved was not as simple as 2x2. That's right: they're JEALOUS. And insecure.
And unfortunately that makes them a little bit waspish.
They don't really want to hurt Raphael with their words - it's just the sort of thing said when we aren't THINKING and we're just a little bundle of "is he cheating?? grrr!!" before we actually pause. halt. breathe. Y'know?
We are looking at a very long marriage partnership in crisis. It's not even an unescapable one, actually. If they both sit down and talk, they'll overcome it as they undoubtedly have overcome things like this before. It just doesn't feel like that in that moment.
Your Tav is also very wrong if they think Haarlep is really in love with them. It's called Acting, babe~.
Friends with benefits, though? If Raphael's okay with that, they're up for it. Sleeping with someone who enters the House of Hope to play with them is a veryyyy different ballgame, too, from actively entering a proper longterm romance with somebody who isn't Raphael.
Installing Haarlep was a clever move on Mephistopheles' part, perhaps, but he seriously misunderstood the overwhelming attachment and loyalty of an incubus. Mephisto, basically, gets told only what Haarlep & Raphael decide to tell him, which is usually only fragments of the truth.
@thishouseofhope & I are old, oooold friends. My Haarlep hasn't developed in a vacuum; they are very much a partner to this particular Raphael formed from extensive discord discussions. As such, Walden remains my exclusive Raphael.
Enver has developed alongside Walden's Raphael and @infernaliscor's Karlach. @infernaliscor is, as such, his exclusive Karlach. Forever.
And here is the crucial difference between Enver and Wyll:
- When Zariel came to collect, Enver gave Karlach away, though in secret had his own plan in motion via the Infernal Heart. Because that's how Enver's brain works - in deals, loopholes, and devils. He is clever and he is cunning. Head over heart.
- Whereas Wyll, in the same situation, in the same choice: breaks his contract and takes the consequences because he is all HEART and his brain works in terms of kindness, bravery, honour, doing the right thing and damn whatever will happen to him.
Or, on Enver & Karlach, underneath every pride and pretense.
Please firstly note that I write this with @infernaliscor in mind as my exclusive Karlach.
Enver meets Karlach on the streets of Baldur's Gate. She's a couple of years younger, and he's drawn this tall, confident, fearless, funny girl like a moth to a flame -- because she sees him, this slightly older, broken teenage boy, and gives an effortlessly friendly: Hey Soldier, and that. That means something. In a way he can't even put into word or thought remotely adequately.
And for the first time in his life, Enver Gortash has a friend.
He doesn't quite know how to handle this. He's waiting constantly for the hammer to drop; nobody is as nice as Karlach, just for the sake of being nice. It's got to be some sort of trick. If he feels this safe, it's got to end sooner or later. It always does.
But he makes her his bodyguard, because she's strong in a way he isn't. He shares money and food with her. He tells her his big plans for the city. He's going to improve so many things, for kids like them. Poor kids, y'know? He's going to build an enviable, seamless world of glimmering brass and flawless steel. A world where work will be easy and everyone will be safe -- if, of course, they stay in line.
His eyes light up as he talks about it, this 'perfect' future.
But Enver has escaped from the House of Hope. Before he could make it back to the material plane, he had to cross through Avernus. He ended up in a rather distinctly physical kind of debt -- to Zariel, of all people.
And Karlach stands no chance of standing up to Zariel. She's just a girl, barely into adulthood.
It's going to come crashing down. After a few years of peace and hope, it's going to all come crashing down and he can't stop it, he --
So he grits his teeth and thinks up a plan.
He's always been good with his hands, with making things tick. And when one grows up in the Hells, one ends up inevitably being owed a few favours here or there from those of a hellish persuasion. Infernal machinery enters his itinery. He makes a blueprint, for an engine to give the one who wields it unstoppable power - the sort of power even Zariel can't stand up against.
Karlach is his bodyguard. Karlach is his friend.
Friends give each other gifts, don't they? And what greater gift is infinite power - the power to become the ruler of the First Hell, and to one-up the only person Enver has, right now, to fear.
So he sells her to Zariel, playing it as that Zariel can use her as a soldier. In exchange, Zariel will test his design of an Infernal Engine on Karlach. Karlach will become something new and incredible - unenvied power, fire in form of a girl. What she does with that is up to her, but he has high hopes.
Zariel has something she wants more than Enver, now. She has a pet soldier, powered beyond mortal levels of ability. Very, very good at hunting enemy devils...perfect for the Blood War.
But, the design is substandard. A first try. A bit clumsy. Enver is still learning - he misses things that will later become obvious to him when he gets around to perfecting the Steel Watch.
And Zariel is not, and never has been, a mechanic. She has a blueprint, of course, and thus her mechanics have their guides they can go by, but none of them think like Enver, so none of them can fully comprehend his work. And as Devils, there's a certain layer of arrogance in there too: why should they follow HIS orders? Surely they know better.
And the clumsy design of a 22-25yro mechanical genius in training, added to the arrogant alterations of a bunch of devils who will never, ever follow a set of rules exactly if their lives depend upon it...
Well, it gives Karlach power, alright. But it's also slowly killing her.
And Enver, as bright as he is and as much as he plans everything down to a 'T' - never accounted for these two things: his own ability to fail, and Devils improvising.
(And when he eventually finds out years later when Karlach comes looking for him in a rage -- he takes it personally. It's a fuck up. Fuck ups are unacceptable. He's going to bloody well fix it.)
Or; a discussion of Enver Gortash and the life events that formed him into the Tyrant of the Gate. TWs apply for references to historical child abuse of a neglectful, physical, and emotional nature. TWs also apply for slavery in a fantasy setting, of Baldur's Gate.
Firstly: it does not excuse Enver, but it certainly explains him, that he has known almost nothing but abuse, violence, betrayal, and abject cruelty from other people throughout his life.
Let's discuss his parents, who canonically sold him to a warlock (who then sold him to Raphael), so that they could pay their debts and keep their shoe shop afloat.
Let's just. Let that sink in.
His parents. Sold him. To pay their debts. So that they didn't lose their shop.
On top of this, his mother speaks absolutely horribly about him - her own son - and is an indescribly vile, bitter human being.
I think it's very telling how he handles his parents differently. That he completely tortures his mother, leaving her fully aware of her state and unable to fight against it while still thinking as nastily of him as she always has.
On the other hand, his father just lives in blissful state of ignorance, sold the story that he's the proud father of an industrious boy he initially raised as an apprentice, but who worked his way up through the trades.
My first conclusion: Enver's mother was the abuser. His father the enabler.
Mrs Flymm beat Enver, screamed at him, told him he was hateful and worthless from the time he could understand what he was hearing. Mr Flymm, meanwhile, gave him half-hearted compassion but was too weak to intervene, or just told Enver: ''be a good boy, don't set your mum off''. Mrs Flymm was the one to sell him to pay their debts, Mr Flymm just let her and didn't step in to protect his son.
Hence, the two very different states his parents live in. The crime of deliberate violence and cruelty punished by making his mother wholly aware but completely dependent, and crucially, never able to harm Enver in any way again. While, the crime of simple weakness and inefficiency as a father, is punished by alternate, fabricated reality; his father is happy and proud of him, and never fails to defend his honour.
Alright, so we've handled the matter of his biological parents. But what about this Raised By A Devil stuff?
1. Well, to pay their debts, his parents sell him to a Warlock. He is a tiny child at the time.
2. That warlock in turn sells or gives him to Raphael.
And here we have, well -- something a bit different. Bit of a different dynamic here. Raphael is….Raphael, lol, he's self-centered and busy doing Devil things, and he almost certainly doesn't want to deal, long term, with raising a mortal child he never asked for, but, meh. "Enver" means Luminous, and this little boy he's been handed is, very much an example of that. He's shockingly clever. Mind that takes in everything and always hungers for more information, more learning. Enver is a voracious reader, a quick learner in terms of making things, and a charming little opponent at lanceboard.
So Raphael sighs, and decides that it's worth his while to tolerate this child, and see what he becomes. Perhaps he's even entertained; Enver is so very clever and so very fascinated in everything his new Devilish 'father' does. And we know Raphael easily becomes fond of those who gain his interest, so he probably becomes quite fond of Enver.
So one hand, it's the most positive parental dynamic that Enver has ever known. We see evidence of this in how much Enver emulates Raphael as an adult - his cunning, his charm, his way of Dealing, his talking with his hands and exaggerated body language that comes across as theatrical and imposing, and of course his fashion sense -- well, that's all very much Raphael-inspired.
But, on the same note, we know Raphael. He's busy. His focus is elsewhere, on the big picture, on all of these plans he has for taking over all of the Hells AND every damn plane thereafter. He has deals to make, souls to take, a Crown of Karsus to somehow get his hands on, and an Archdevil father to keep off his back.
So he mostly just leaves Enver in a room with things to pique his curiosity perhaps, but otherwise is hands off and just. distantly glamorous and cunning in a way Enver emulates, possibly seeking his approval.
But here's the tragedy, and here's where Enver is, once again, fatally failed by an adult in his life. Obviously the House of Hope is full of devils and utter wretches. The staff are Devils. Warlocks come in and out. People with nothing left to lose always come to Raphael with a deal in mind.
And it's a place with very few people aside of the quartet of Raphael (busy and not paying attention), Haarlep (busy being Haarlep), Hope (busy being tortured), and Korilla (busy being a Warlock), who would have shown a child any consideration or kindness.
And some of those Devils, the staff - insufficiently watched by their busy Master or perhaps, simply not giving a damn what Raphael might think because he's only a cambion - take it upon themselves to subject this captive child to hell, literally. Nubaldin takes great and particular pleasure in it, and considers it justified - Enver, after all, is difficult. He doesn't listen. He talks back. He defends himself. He always asks Why.
So Enver is mistreated, again. In a place very few people have ever felt safe in, but he should have.
And eventually it becomes too much. And someone leaves a portal open and Enver takes off in the night and never looks back.
Raphael assumed it was teenage rebellion. Every child eventually becomes willful and must fly the nest.
Enver, however, has had his worldview re-established very firmly: that everyone will step on you, hurt you, betray you, or at the very least, take so little notice of you that they simply cannot, or will not, protect you.
So he decides: to stop this happening, I must be strong. So strong, that nobody - not even devils - can ever, ever step on me again.
And sixteen year old Enver Gortash casts his lot with Bane that night, whether he knows it or not.
Don't be a giant prick, please, and also don't follow / interact if you're under 18. I'm 31, busy, often emotionally, physically, and socially exhausted. I will respond slowly to threads I am feeling as/when the mood strikes; if you want a super fast and engaged partner, my blog really isn't for you. I also won't, and can't, tolerate idle drama, anon-hate, dashboard exploding into infighting anymore, or any variation of, 'I don't like them so don't speak to them because I said so', or 'respond to me NAOOOOW and only me'. I'm tiiiired, folks. :( Let me live.
That Being Said - I also won't tolerate actual predators, so if someone is genuinely being dangerous, I have open ears.
Quality? What's That? - My blog will be probably half deep, well-thought out examinations of my little library of anti-heroes, irritations, and out right asshats, and half utterly roasting them. Especially Raphael. Mocking certain Theatrical Devils is a labour of love at this point. Seriously, I love him so so sooooo much, but I intend to give him very little quarter, as a treat.
On Villainy - Most of my characters have either distinctly Fallen, or are at the very least Sauntering Vaguely Downwards. That means I find them entertaining to pick apart and dig my lil teeth into. It does not mean that I agree with or condone their various misbehaviour. I will always endeavour to explain a character's actions, because I look at them first and foremost As A Person, but I have no intention to either Excuse or Glorify them.
On Shipping - Only with discussion and plotting. Or if we've shipped our characters in the past.
Please tag - Graphic child abuse (my blog may discuss/depict mentions of and memories of historical abuse, handled sensitively, as it's very important for characters such as Rufus and Enver as it made them who they are), Incest, A/B/O (not my cup of tea), and animal cruelty, particularly harm to cats.
My blog may not be spoiler free. Read at your own risk. However, latest Genshin Impact patch/chapter spoilers will always be tagged and under a cut.
I guess, we'll just. Figure this shit back out together super casually? *Finger Guns*
