Discover Top Posts Tagged with #babukar

Eljaal : Dammit, Winda !

Winda : What?! It wasn’t me!

Eljaal : Sorry, force of habit. Dammit, Babukar !

Babukar : Not me either.

Eljaal : Oh...Then who set the house on fire?

Bineta : *whistles*

#tales of xadia #incorrect quotes #the dragon prince #incorrect tdp quotes #tdp #tdp fandom #fandom #winda #eljaal #bineta #Babukar #tdp winda #tdp eljaal #tdp bineta #tdp Babukar

I’ve been reading the Tales of Xadia Playtest, and I’m really loving Babukar the battlemage. Such an icon!

Gosh there’s so much to read, and absorb, and re-read, I’m drowning in thick worldbuildy goodness, but omg yes!

With that pale mop and beard and stocky body, the first thing I thought when I saw him was “omg Treestump is that you??” Heh. But this dude’s got layers and layers (as all these NCs do), and holy cats all his layers are amazing!

Battle mage. BATTLE MAGE. Have I mentioned how much I love a good battle mage? *side eyes Dragon Age: Inquisition* It’s a lot, okay. Dramatic flashy battle moves are one of my favorite weaknesses, and I expect a Sunfire battle mage to be the flashiest of them all. Whatcha got, Babukar? Bring it, impress me. My brain is ready!

And speaking of brains, I love the inherent contradictions in this elf’s deets. Intellect is his highest attribute. He likes to think, and he looooves to out-think. Tactics--battlefield and psychological--are his faves. And with that Glory die in the Values section being a freaking d10, and Truth a d8? He uhhh, he needs to be right. He’s got a lot of his own personal worth tied up in his continued ability to succeed, on and off the battlefield. Give this guy a foe, and he won’t be able to think about much else until their conflict is resolved. Very very preferably in Babukar’s favor. My dude is very comfortable with his skill set, and he has firm expectations for what he can accomplish, but he looks like he enjoys a challenge like nothing else, and it could distract him at the wrong moment and divert his focus from where others may wish he kept it.

It seems very possible that Babukar was the interrogator assigned to Amaya when she was captured and brought to Lux Aurea. It must’ve driven him nuts that he couldn’t communicate with her, and that she could simply ignore him by closing her eyes. Would he have questioned the efficacy of his own truth spell, Verum Animo? Does that thing even work if the person doesn’t answer verbally? Now I have Sunfire magic questions! If I got to pick the answer, I’d say the spell can tell, but Babukar, being unfamiliar with Katolis sign language, is less than 100% certain of his spell results, and that’s not the level of confidence he’s used to reporting with.

He probably appealed in highly frustrated fashion to Janai herself, and Janai took over, fetching Kazi and cutting to the chase, dragging Amaya before Khessa. She and Babukar probably felt they were very short on time, and they needed to push Amaya hard or move their focus onward to potential human incursions in areas they weren’t watching as closely as the freshly destroyed Breach.

Hmmmmm, there would likely be a fair bit of banked resentment fires on both Babukar’s and Amaya’s parts once they found themselves on the same side. Banked, because they both know there are bigger issues at stake. That could be fun to play around with.

ALSO: Under Specialties, it says Babukar has a d6 in Crafting! Holy cats, does this mean he can make Sunforge blades?? Oh man oh man! How cool is that? I mean, his sister Bineta does have one, so possibly their connection got her into a position as a Knight, where she also works and fights alongside Janai.

I was chatting with @uneryx yesterday about all this rpg goodness, and the elf beards came up, and I had a moment of realization: in ElfQuest, a series of graphic novels from uhhh a while ago now where the elves also have four fingers (and where Treestump is from), the Wolfrider elves grow beards only when they’re a few hundred years old. And Sunfire elves are known to live a few hundred years, too. So I’m enjoying the fun idea that TDP’s elves can grow beards as a mark of their maturity. Though I do think it’s funny to imagine that Nausics, the Skywing elf from the playtest tale, grew his chin tuft to keep his face warm in the constant wind, like a tree that grows on a coastal cliff.

And I can’t help but peek at all these NCs’ deets and wonder what further implications and parallels and worldbuilding influence they offer with the story and characters we know from the show (see: musing about Amaya above). This playtest tale has an NC named Vuxen who can perform arcane blacksmithing, and my boy Babukar here does crafting as a Sunfire mage, so just like that *snaps fingers* Ethari has a spectrum of artificing (hey psst @random-fandom-ramble lookit) on which he may fit. At which end, or in the middle, who knows?

Babukar and his sister probably make a very determined driving force in battle and Janai makes good use of them both. Perhaps he gloms onto Kazi when he realizes how knowledgeable they are, and asks them to teach him sign language so he doesn’t fail at communicating again. And please gods let Babukar consult with the Master Craftsman of the Silvergrove on important sword-related matters. It’s plausible that Babukar’s focus is on battle magic with Sunforge blades as a side gig, while Ethari is potentially more focused on swordcraft with his magic as a side gig. Their magics are somewhat complementary, and so are their skill sets, so if Babukar could succeed on a Mastery check and assume he actually has more to learn, I think he could pick up something useful from a knowledgeable exchange with Ethari, and of course vice versa.

Babukar, returning from the Moonshadow Forest: Well, that was enlightening.

Bineta: The Moonshadow craftsman proved useful?

Babukar, lightly: Oh, I taught him a thing or two. *strokes beard thoughtfully*

Bineta, rolling her eyes: I know that gesture. He surprised you.

Babukar, defensively: He’s a Moonshadow. They do that.

Bineta: Mmhmm, well I’m glad you learned something worthwhile too.

Babukar, confidently reminiscing over exchanges with Ethari: I sure did.

In long because this is no longer short, anon, Babukar is great and I support him. He’s one of my top two faves from the NC list! Thank you for the ask!

#asks #ToX #tales of xadia #babukar #sunfire mage #sunfire elves #listen i love him #he's powerful #but if you know where to hit him he'll crumble #just like any excellent complex character