Aww thank you for the question @moriarfer, I turned it into a post so I can try to answer it.
Edit to add:
Yes the concept of the Emperor choosing these familiar faces as facades being bizarre is not lost on me.
But I have never taken that anything that happens in a vision as a normal kind of reality. Initially, it appears to be a strange fever dream and your brain is trying to make sense of some strange version of reality you cannot comprehend normally. So just as things that don't make sense happen in dreams, you know there's something you don't comprehend but accept in the dream visions.
Anyway, to the post:
Of the three guardian facades I mentioned in the tags, I have images of two out of the three. I'm doing this on mobile with some unpolished/rough screenshots, so pardon the basicness of it. I'll have to make a proper post some time for all these characters.
First, I dabbled with the idea to pick one of Coranzan's parents: Veldrin and Zilharess. This would've been a weird choice, honestly, so I didn't end up going with it in any playthrough.
The second was Coranzan's ex-lover, Amanais (on the left). If I had this character more fleshed out in my first playthrough, I would've gone with him because it's so fucking messed up. They had a pretty toxic relationship and as mentioned, Coranzan ended up murdering him, so this would've been a wild choice.
In my most recent playthrough, I chose Eilistraee and I don't have an image of that handy. I'll try to reblog this post with that after work.
Squidgang!! Thank you for asking. ❤ I think I went a bit nuts but I loved your questions, so thank you so much for allowing me to rant about my silly lil' fella!
9. What’s the significance behind Coranzan's name?
So Coranzan's name has no significance in Drow, nor among his family. And although that sounds like the opposite of an answer, there's a reason for at least the second part of that.
I won't go into the full details (some bits still need to be ironed out) but the generation before him was part of a minor noble House (Aleghym - not canon) that fell and the remaining members were scattered or killed. Being associated with it was more of a hinderance than a boon. So there's no names being carried down, Coran's parents don't even want it to sound like anything close.
Additionally, Coranzan's parents were, at the time of his and his sister's birth, Secret Moondancers and they pretty much wanted their entire family unit to be as low-key and non-descript as possible. So, he has a name that very specifically carries no history and no significance. Coranzan has felt no desire to change it - since being closer to the surface than the Underdark, he sees no reason for it.
23. How does Coranzan act in situations of stress? In moments of peace?
Stress isn't great for Coranzan - he is quite mercurial. He can spend a fair amount of time under pressure and keep his cool, but once he's met his threshold he can become an asshole fast. For example, he'll wrest control from others if they are taking too long to make decisions. He tends to jump in to make a decision rather than allowing anyone to "hem and haw" over it.
Coran ALSO isn't great a peace. He needs to be in motion constantly. He needs a goal to work on at ALL times. The best way to keep him down without causing trouble in moments of peace is to bury him with his writing - letters, music, poems, etc.
26. Give us one of Coranzan’s secrets!
Hmm. I am still working out some of the details on this but his biggest secret would be that he got isolated from his family and subsequently duped by a lover he took (named Amanais) some 10-15 years or so before the events of BG3. As a result, Coranzan killed him. There's a bit muddiness to it on if it was self-defense or pure rage. In truth and in Coranzan's heart, it was rage. He absolutely murdered Amanais for tricking him.
Now, it's not like Drow killing other Drow is groundbreaking or anything - especially in lovers trysts - but Coranzan paints himself as some great above-it-all kind of person since he converted to following Eilistraee. And in truth, he really, really isn't. And he never will leave that behind. But he tries to convince himself it was necessary and it wasn't.
