While the Butler is a super fun and spooky visualization for the urges your Dark Urge faces, I always loved the idea of them manifesting as the past version of you.
Imagine the potential of the same-self trial in Shar’s Guantlet. Or even if after certain events in the Temple of Bhaal, having to face and destroy that part of you once’s it’s been torn out of your blood.
Visera of course would never stab her wizard. She prefers him fully intact, human, and not blown up alongside a netherbrain.
Still in disbelief that I get to see my character in the style of the @ritzeldraws 🤯💜✨ I've admired their work since seeing their heartbreaking durge/Gale videos years ago, and it legitimately feels like a dream come true to have gotten a commission from them! The work speaks for itself, and I cannot overstate how much she knocked it out of the park based on just a short description.
The moment captured here is special to me. When I made a relationship with Gale an official part of this character's background, I customized a lot of the story in my head. This is how I envisioned Gale's confession would have gone, with a setting personalized to Damaia (and also less to do with his "last night alive", since in my version of events they basically met in Act 3, after Moonrise). He needed some help from Halsin and his druid magic to grow the flowers - but of course in usual Gale style, they were enhanced with constellation-like illusions to make them special.
I don't have a full scene written out for this moment... but in the notes for my current D&D campaign, I occasionally jot down extra moments that I imagine happening "off-screen", and I do have one that pulls from this that I'm actually kind of proud of. There's too many campaign-specific references in it, so putting it here is mainly for me as usual.
But if anyone comes across this and wants some context - on this day in-game my group had just finished a mini arc in Barovia, where Damaia faced old demons, discovered horrible truths about the nature of the Domains of Dread, and believed she inadvertently caused the death of one of her oldest friends. It was a rough day for her, to say the least (also in this campaign our home base is in Sigil, where the only spell that can make contact from another plane is Sending. So I imagine Gale checks in every couple days or so, but no real conversations can be had with that 25 word limit).
* . °•↟ᨒ•°☆☾ ∵ ☽☆°•ᨒ↟•° . *
A Sending message from Gale enters Damaia's mind, sounding playful: Does Ella’s use of evocation have you missing my own days of destruction? I could always return from the soft art of illusion, for you.
She responds with: It’s strange how Sigil has a night despite no sun or sky. I can’t think as clearly anymore when the stars are blocked from view.
Her tone is somber, almost melancholy, filling Gale with immediate alarm. For the first time since she willingly left Waterdeep, he sends a second Sending: Say the word and I’ll conjure them for you across the realms. I’m sure I could devise a way. <a pause> I am here for you, love.
I’d prefer to see your eyes, actually. And your face. Throw in the head, torso, arms, and legs too, please. <a pause of her own> Thank you. Love you.
Gale is rattled, but her joke makes him feel some amount of ease. His miniscule comfort feels widely inadequate, and it burns him inside to not know what had happened. But he knows she can get through this. She’d proven it time and time again.
As he’s thinking before bed, he realizes he has something he’s never had to use before. A variation of Programmed Illusion, that he managed to permanently cast on Damaia’s union ring but never told her. He’d been saving it for either something special - or a time of need. Which may be right now.
He casts Sending a third time: If a reminder of my feelings could provide any comfort, speak the greatest words I’ve ever heard from you to your ring with closed palm.
I don’t have time to figure that out before responding, so I’ll say ‘thank you’ now. I bet it’s over the top - and wonderful.
Damaia finds a quiet corner of the sanctum, away from her companions. She thinks it over, and first tries softly saying “You were right, Gale” to her ring. Nothing happens.
She spends a few more minutes wracking her brain, pacing back and forth. Could it be something from their wedding day? She hadn’t spoken any vows during the ceremony, hadn’t wanted to speak her feelings publicly. She did express to him how she felt later in private, but it wasn’t anything fancy or rehearsed.
She then recalls a special night, in a quiet section of woods outside Baldur’s Gate. Gale had told her something very important, and in a moment of clarity she had responded with words she’d never said before. She repeats them now in a whisper to her ring - “I’m in love with you too.” She sees a glow between the curled fingers of her fist. Gingerly opening her hand, there is an illusion of a blossom from her childhood home, one of the many local flower varieties that Gale had conjured for her that night in the past. Just like then, this illusory version of the flower is enhanced. The veins in the petals glow and pulse, the surface of each glitter with tiny sparkles like stars, giving the impression of linking constellations.
Damaia sinks slowly to the floor, staring at the bloom in her palm. A tear rolls down her cheek - whether a happy or sad one, it’s hard to say. After a few minutes, the flower fades. She clutches her now empty hand gently to her chest, lost in thought on the floor for a bit longer.
It’s strange, how the flower reminds her of multiple things at once. Her childhood, the loss of it; the first time Gale told her he loved her; that period back then of finally dealing with the aftermath of Barovia, and the weight of her new mysterious patron. Her life has changed many times over the years. She’s weathered dark times, but also experienced pure joys. She’s contemplated her true place in the world. She still has so much to learn.
Overall, her heart - which had been confused for most of the day - feels quieted. She slowly stands and makes her way back to the chamber where her companions sleep. There’s still some unrest within her that needs to be faced, and she knows she will, eventually. But right now she doesn’t mind letting her heart rest within the comfort of a love that she can feel even across the planes of the multiverse.
The last thing she knew was the strange, gurgling grunt that bubbled up from her throat. And then she knew no more.
Felicity nearly choked on the agonizing gasp of air that flooded her empty lungs. Her eyelids dragged across her dry eyes as she blinked furiously, and the soup of shadows and shapes that swam in her field of vision came back into focus. Her aching limbs felt heavier than lead, yet somehow, a pair of arms managed to hold her; trembling fingers tangled in her sticky, blood-soaked hair as he cradled the back of her head.
“Oh, my stars…”
Gale’s shoulders heaved as he released the breath he’d been holding. His colourless face glistened with a thin sheen of cold sweat, his dark eyes wide with horror.
The stark fear and anguish in his stricken expression made Felicity’s renewed heartbeat stutter. 𝙂𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛. She wondered what he had seen that instilled more terror in him than she had seen before — the possibilities turned her stomach. She lifted a hand to wrap her fingers around his wrist, gently stroking the back of his hand with the pad of her thumb.
“Easy,” she rasped in a wan attempt at levity. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
A strangled noise escaped him, something between a laugh and a sob, as if his body was caught in a crossroads of emotion. His throat worked as he swallowed once, then twice, before Gale finally held Felicity impossibly closer to press his brow against hers. Only she could hear the thin, shaky sigh that left his lips.
“I suppose I did.”
From somewhere nearby, Astarion’s familiar derision cut through the quiet.
“Yes, yes, we’re all so very glad she’s alive — can we save the petting for 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 we get out of this godsforsaken place?”
❝ MONSTERS LIVE IN ALL OF US. It's only a matter of time before you become one yourself like me. ❞ — Azmaveth, neutral evil necromancer wizard.
a bg3 / dnd commission from @ritzeldraws on my dear necromancer wizard who is neutral evil character. he was originally just a tav that i wanted to make different choices but then i fell in love with him more and more. with help from a friend, azmaveth became a complex character that got inspirations from a few characters in other media. i already posted him on my IG and can't already believe how many people have liked him already. but i hope you may enjoy as well.
Todays #mermay2026 prompt is BRIDE and of course the first thought that came to mind wasn’t a beautiful union between two lovers, but the haunting visage of a bride-turned-siren, luring ships to the jagged rocks in hopes of finding her long lost sailor groom.
Was she left at the altar? Was he lost at sea on his way to marry her? Or maybe, due to the rigid constraints of the church, she couldn’t be with the woman she loved.
Either way, this screams haunting tragedy, and I love how it came out.
Gale of Waterdeep? More like Gale’s in Deep Water.
Guys, I love a mermaid AU. Professor Dekarios on a sea voyage going after some forbidden knowledge and they come across a bloodthirsty siren intent on luring sailors to their deaths?
I love the idea of giving the merspecies the same natural phenomenon of the fish they’re repping. Like yeah, give her the bioluminescence, but also the male versions should be 1/10 her size and only reproduce by biting her and fusing to her side AND (sometimes) being stuck there forever.
I might be testing the bounds of niche with this one. Back in the olden days before we had internet access, me and my siblings would fight over who gets to play games on the basement computer. One of these games was King’s Quest VII: The Princeless Bride
It was a point and click puzzle game, and I never finished it, but one part I LOVED was this crystal dragon. You need a scale from her, but she’s sad and when you ask her why you learn that she’s lost her spark and can no longer fly. So of course you bring her one, but since she’s so excited to fly she gives you a ruby and tells you to come back later for a scale.
One thing about these old games that I need to see more of are the BEAUTIFUL backgrounds designed for the levels. I can only hope to achieve that level of whimsy. 🐉👑
Saw you on TikTok before coming to your blog here and I just wanted to say that your art brought tears to my eyes. Someone in the comments was asking if you sell prints and if you ever decide to do that I believe many people would love to purchase one from you.
Keep going, you're doing amazing and it's so refreshing in this sea of AI slop 🫶
I did make the prints available! And I’m so glad you liked the piece🥹
Really the love for it is blowing me away! I just had so much fun making it and exploring different textures and brushes. I have the prints available through the link in my bio for anyone interested!
What’s that saying? We are the Universe experiencing itself. Well, these Artemis II astronauts are out there experiencing the universe on an entirely different level.
I’ll admit, I had this idea and I did not eat or sleep or move until it was done. It was just one of those things that you need to get out or it’ll stay a sketch forever. I changed up my style a bit for this one too, utilizing some of the more artsy procreate brushes I have never touched in my entire life as an iPad artist.
Shotgun Wedding: Find your fiancé and rescue him from the bounty hunters who didn’t get the memo he’s no longer a wanted bandit on the run. Maybe you’ll make it to the temple on time for the wedding.
Here is the full video! Also posted on every one of my socials because I honestly am so happy with how it turned out. If you know animation, you know that EVERYTHING is intentional.
Visera as a Dark Urge definitely has a past with Gortash, so I thought this trend would suit them perfectly ❤️🗡️🖤
I stand by the opinion that the Gortash/Bane fight should have been during an upper city gala for the new Grand Archduke, and the fight should have involved the Titan Steel Watcher as Bane’s avatar. And the difficulty of the battle depends if you saved the Ironhand gnomes, if you have Karlach, and if you destroyed the Steel Watch factory.
I also think learning his backstory and bringing it up to him should have given him disadvantage on certain checks, as a sort of vicious mockery buff.
But of course the scene before would be a fancy ball where everyone wears a nice outfit.
