#alanik ray

[i-am-rat-soup]

Enjoy peepaw and D&D Johnlock. I have a busy week (finals start Friday and continue into next week) and will probably spend most of my prep time consumed by dread (domains of dread?? Maybe.)

[artsyarcane]

Ravenloft headcanons:

Both Rudolph and Erasmus van Richten are really good at trick shots. (It’s a skill that comes in handy surprisingly often.)

Alanik had a habit of pacing the room while in deep thought. This habit resulted in wearing pathways in the floor. Being wheelchair bound did not stop this habit.

Ez has terrible taste in romantic partners.

The only things Strahd is still capable of feeling genuine affection for are his nightmare and the bats that hang out in his castle.

Azalin Rex is a giant troll and was allowed by the dark powers to escape Darkon because he only ever wants to fuck with people and doesn’t actually do anything truely “evil”… anymore.

Alanik gets super excited when people try to kill him. It’s his favorite part of working a case because it’s an indicator that he’s close to the truth. He’s always deeply disappointed when it doesn’t happen. Arthur is usually terrified by his excitement but has slowly become accustomed to it.

Erasmus (as a ghost) enjoys making his loved ones laugh and it always confuses the hell out of his father.

Erasmus has a suspiciously fey-like affinity with animals. When he was alive, he’d befriended a flock of ravens. He even kept one as a pet. A one-eyed “hell bird” named Hades who had a habit of biting Rudolph for no particular reason. After Erasmus died, Hades stayed with Rudolph for almost 20 years before dying of natural causes.

Rudolph makes dad jokes. He actually has a rather dry sense of humor and is surprisingly funny if you can get him to open up.

If Erasmus is resurrected, Gennifer and Laurie smother him with an almost embarrassing amount of affection though he isn’t shy about reminding them that their “little cousin” is roughly 20 years older than they are. They do not care.

When the detective duo first started their relationship, it was Alanik who made the first move (spurred by Erasmus), causing Ez to lose a bet with Rudolph. Later Arthur proposed using a puzzle box.

Ez and Erasmus both have a massive sweet tooth.

Arthur has in-depth conversations with the corpses he autopsies and sometimes even tries to involve Alanik in said conversations. Alanik finds this practice entirely bizarre but deeply insightful.

(Part 2)

[theicedcoffeegay]

OK BUT IS ANYONE GONNA TALK ABOUT THE 2 NEW CHARACTERS IN THE NEW VAN RICHTEN'S GUIDE TO RAVENLOFT NAMED ALANIK RAY AND ARTHUR SEDGWICK???

~~~~~~~~~~~ Warning of some spoilers ahead ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They're actually the cutest and my new obsession. Alanik is a detective and hired on Arthur, a physician, to go on adventures with. Alanik fell during a mystery involving a serial killer and ended up paralyzed in both legs so he and Arthur built him his own wheelchair so they could continue adventuring together. Then they got married.

If that's not beautiful, inclusive storytelling then I don't know what is.

My sister frequently utilizes a wheelchair, so I sent her the picture below and she was ecstatic!

Alanik pictured in wheelchair, Arthur to his right. Picture from the Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft book.

[stories-me]

Alanik Ray, the Great Detective of Ravenloft: 

What he’s from: Ravenloft. 

What he might be in: Some sort of Jade-Realm thing, maybe (Jade-Realm is a world of Dungeons and Dragons)? 

Background: 

Known as the Great Detective, Alanik Ray possesses an unrivaled deductive mind. The century-old elf has a knack for seeing through falsehoods, a talent aided by decades of experience and science-driven deductive methods. 

As a young detective in the nation of Darkon, Alanik revealed his father’s criminal empire and oversaw its destruction. His success launched his career as a private detective, embroiling him in the intrigues of Martira Bay’s nobility. During this time, he met the young physician Arthur Sedgwick, who became his partner and saved Alanik’s life countless times. The pair’s adventures – including several deadly encounters with the sinister group known as the Kargat – eventually led them to relocate to Port-a-Lucine in the nation of Dementlieu. A mystery involving a shapeshifting serial killer resulted in a fall from a roof that paralyzed Alanik’s legs. Within the following month, the pair created a custom wheelchair for Alanik, and they married. 

Today, Alanik Ray and Arthur Sedgwick investigate mysteries wherever need and novelty take them. Arthur lends his practicality and martial skill to Alanik’s dazzling intellect during the pair’s exploits. Sedgwick also chronicles their adventures and has published two volumes to date: “The Life of Alanik Ray” and “The Casebook of Alanik Ray”. 

He and Arthur are also allies of the famed monster hunter Dr. Rudolph Van Richten, and Van Richten’s other allies. 

One mystery he’s working on seems to involve two rival murderers, who are in some sort of duel with each other. AND, one of the murderers is also a necromancer! 

Alanik Ray’s Traits: 

Ideal: “Logic is a guide but also an illusion. Order and reason don’t supercede what is right.” 

Bond: “I have the perspective to see depravities others can’t. I use my insight to reveal wickedness and make the world a better place.” 

Flaw: “Most people are dangerous, manipulative liars and not to be trusted.” 

How he is like me: 

We both see the world in a unique way (for example, I feel like flying on planes are both a quick way to get from place to place, but also hellish, at times, due to being trapped on there with wailing infants). He also is very intelligent, and has a disability (in his case, his paraplegia, and in my case, my high-functioning autism). He can sometimes be difficult and hard to get along with (they no longer play “Clue”, as Alanik keeps stubbornly insisting that Mr. Boddy murdered himself, claiming it’s “the only explanation for the evidence” and that “the rules are wrong”). So can I. Also, we both have trouble realizing that people don’t like being yelled at and the like. And then there’s the fact that we both have different definitions of “important” than others (i.e., he thinks the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun is “unimportant”). 

How he is different from me: 

He is paralyzed from the waist down, is gay, and is in a relationship. Also, while he is mostly guided by logic, I am usually guided by my fan fictions. Also, he’s quite dispassionate about his affairs (mostly), whereas I am VERY passionate, to the point where I sometimes blame others when things go wrong. He can sometimes be difficult and hard to get along with. So can I. In his case, he doesn’t exactly care that people are sometimes uncomfortable around him. 

[artsyarcane]

Detective Alanik Ray; I don't think I've asked about this guy. What can you tell me about him?

You asked about Arthur Sedgwick but not Alanik, no.

Alanik is a young elven detective (so, about a century old, young for an elf) who, ironically, came from a sort of criminal background. He brought down his father’s crime ring and it’s likely that bit of history that, at least in part, makes him so good at his job. After some time he met Dr. Arthur Sedgwick and the two became close partners with Dr. Sedgwick chronicling Ray’s many cases. At some point, one of Alanik’s cases resulted in a fall that left him paralyzed. Struck with the stark reminder that he wasn’t invincible, he and Arthur were wed soon after the event and Alanik has become much more cautious.

Into the headcanons because he lives rent free in my head:

Close friends (but especially Arthur) tend to call him “Nik.”

He likes to pace when he’s thinking. Not just about a case but about anything in general. Arthur used to know the exact number of steps he would take before he’d stop to clear his head. Now that he’s paralyzed, he hasn’t stopped doing it. Arthur only manages to keep him from completely destroying the floor by supplementing some of his pacing with PT.

Arthur proposed to him with a puzzle box that he solved while Arthur was rambling about it.

He LOVES when people try to kill him. He takes it as a sign that he’s close to solving a case and the adrenaline rush leaves him particularly animated. He’s usually very calm and measured in demeanor so this shift tends to be very jarring for those who’ve never witnessed it.

[artsyarcane]

(Might be returning from hiatus)

What can you tell me about Dr. Arthur Sedgwick?

Dr. Arthur Sedgwick is known to have been the author chronicling the many adventures and mysteries investigated by his husband, Detective Alanik Ray.

If that sounds like Sherlock Holmes for some reason, it should.

Sedgwick became quite protective of his husband (*then fiancé) after a case involving a shapeshifter wherein Ray fell (or was more likely thrown) from a roof. The fall probably should’ve been the end of the detective but he lived and the two married soon after.

*Arthur is soft spoken and patient but he’s also a formidable fighter and deceptively bold.

*these points are headcanon.

[artsyarcane]

@morezizan introduced me to a website where you can create custom stat blocks so I’m gonna leave these here because I love these boys.

[i-am-rat-soup]

Got the art unblocked just in time to draw my two favorite gay detectives

Cannon gay, cannon married, cannon cool as hell. Alanik is still somewhat of a work in progress so I may post him again.

Long chunk of text on why I care so much about them, why they’re pretty constantly on the brain even if I don’t say it, why I want them to get more attention as characters, etc ect, but the TLDR is that seeing queer characters in their favorite stories and genres and settings can give queer youth hope and that’s what they were to me.

hell yeah 👍

I’ve been wildly in love with fantasy for as long as I can remember, and utterly enamored with dungeons and dragons since elementary school, when I used to steal my brother’s dnd books, especially the monster manual, and take them to my room to read them over and over. (Sorry not sorry)

And when I originally latched on to Ravenloft, I was most fixated on Alanik and Arthur, and at first I thought it was just because they were detectives and they were cool. I know now that I’m a gay man. Nice.

I’d never really been exposed to many queer characters, in spite of the fact that my lovely great aunts are lesbian. I latched onto a lot of queer stories as a kid without knowing why, but the two who have stuck in my head the longest are Arthur and Alanik. Maybe it’s because I became especially attached to the specific setting and to them as characters during possibly the worst time in my life, (a time where I was isolated (as in severely. As in I physically couldn’t talk to anyone outside of my immediate family and my one friend I had who didn’t stay a friend for long), had lost my dog and my one friend who I’d known for as long as I could remember with no explanation, was trying to figure myself out and was facing a lot of difficulties with my transness and my family) and their story captivated me enough to keep me around, digging out and reading through the book, reading through their passages and looking at the art. I think it might have been that in them I could see characters, people who would accept me, and in that book, I saw a world where yes, there were monsters and horrors, but it didn’t stop them from being accepted and having found family and love. I think that being so fixated on and captivated by characters that were like me and part of my favorite world kept me alive when I was a fucked up kid.

So yeah. Anyways that’s the story of why I carried around Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft literally everywhere I went for a couple of years. Happy pride.