#ceremorphosis

[luki-m3]

"Ceremorphosis: what does it make you think of?" -Gale

A sketch of Gale Drekarios, Wizard of Waterdeep, explaining wizardly sciences in grand fashion. Made with pencil.

[shewolfofvilnius]

A Dark Urge who is pregnant with Gortash' child and just found out.

A Dark Urge asked by Enver and Ketheric how their plan with the Illithid could possibly work when tadpole infections manifest in a matter of hours to days.

A Dark Urge, thinking of the new life slowly growing inside her. A parasite, growing slowly, excruciatingly slowly, over nearly a year. The potential victim of the parasite caught unawares for weeks or even months. Only realizing something is wrong when it's too late and their life is already ordering around this thing growing within them.

THEN, when the time is right, and only then, then the transformation finally manifests.

A pregnant Durge suggesting they order the Elder Brain to treat ceremorphosis less like a mind flayer factory...and more like a pregnancy.

[another-middlechild]

Ceremorphosis. What does it make you think of?

—

Gale saying “spot on” and gesturing to his nose does something to me.

—

I love that Illusion Gale is in the conventional color combination for this outfit. I feel like Gale makes his illusion look a little different on purpose. He does this in a helpful but somehow smug way. As is his fashion. You know, he doesn’t want to confuse anyone in camp. Because no one else is a wizard. Unlike him.

He can be insufferable at times but I love that magic man.

[diceverses]

Was inspired by my terrible mental state to finally draw an npc from my D&D game suffering a most horrible fate: ceremorphosis. This one came out pretty fast and I’m pretty proud of it! Under the cut because it’s pretty nasty.

[ghaikcake]

Finally got around to drawing this scene.

Over the course of their travels together, the unlikely pair had grown quite fond of one another's company. On occasion, Ilo' would broach the topic of Ceremorphosis, suggesting that the two might find the possibility of forging a meaningful companionship on a deeper level with one another if she was open to it. Though curious, Blythe remained hesitant, worried she wouldn't be the same. Ilo' respected her decision and was content with her answer. Over time, he even grew fond of her odd humanoid quirks and tendencies.

But then Blythe got hurt. Really badly hurt.

Ilo' made an irreversible decision...

[typhlosion426]

I may not be able to play Baldur's Gate 3 for myself anytime soon (hoping against hope that it'll be ported to the Nintendo Switch 2, its my only shot), but that hasn't stopped me from planning out my own Tav. Since I can't customize the character anywhere, I drew her instead, using different images and videos of dragonborn customization to get her as accurate to the game as possible.

Ta da!

This lovely lady is called Riga, a green dragonborn druid (I made some modifications to the starting druid armor, partially to help Riga stand out, and partially out of laziness). Since I don't know a whole lot about BG3 outside of some major story spoilers, I don't have her backstory fully fleshed out. As of now, this is all I've got for her (if I made any lore mistakes, or if anything I come up with doesn't connect or work with BG3, please let me know!):

She has an Outlander Background, having been exiled from her clan and living in the wilds on her own since.

According to Quil Grootslang, and a lore video I watched, dragonborn life is rough; militaristic, honor and duty to the clan above all else, and love is forbidden, to the point where its not even spoken of. Given her nature, there is a good chance Riga refused 'egg duty' or a loveless marriage (or both) when she came of age, was given a not-so-fair chance to keep her place in the clan, failed miserably, and was exiled as a result.

She's been alone ever since. She's good at survival, using her Wild Shapes for many benefits, but she longs for companionship. Clan life may have been miserable and unfair, but she still had friends and family there, of which she will never see again. Although exile might have been good for her in the long run, it left a great emptiness in her heart, something the company of animals can't fill in. And so she longs for companionship, anyone or anything to call friends or family so she won't be so lonely anymore.

She has a small thirst for power, given her epic failure during her one chance to prove her worth before she was exiled. Even though that chance was rigged against her, it doesn't change how worthless it made her feel. As such, part of her wants get stronger and smarter to prove herself against the clan who wronged her.

On that note, while she excels with her druid abilities, her other capabilities have yet to be seen. She's not the brightest, nor great with a sword, and she can read but her hand-writing is awful. However, she's good with magic and a quarterstaff. Perhaps a Wizard multiclass will be available to her down the line? Her favorite Wild Shape is the hummingbird (which is not in the game from what I've seen. Cowards).

She likes to pull a prank that involves acorns. As long as there's trees nearby, she'll pelt someone with acorns, and make them think they're being attacked by a horde of angry squirrels.

Her favorite food is salted fish, after disguising herself as a stray cat to get scraps from a fisherman's family during tough times.

Don't let her eat or drink anything that might induce belching in public. Her poison breath gets hard to control.

Oceans make her nervous, but her worst fear is dragons, having grown up listening to tales of the dragonborn's enslavement on their original home world (Ansur will probably give her nightmares). The githyanki and their mounts make her anxious as a result (score for the Emperor), so any interactions with Lae'zel have yet to be seen.

The Underdark fascinates her, despite, you know, everything.

Anyone she grows to truly care for and love, she'll refer to as 'scalefriends' whether they have scales or not.

She's asexual (that'll be hard since the game wants you to romance with almost everyone), a big reason why she wouldn't have been able to stay within her clan, but I can see her getting along very well with Karlach (come on, Karlach's awesome).

Due to Riga's longing for friendship and family, the Emperor's Dream Guardian form will be that of a parently figure (She'll probably go "Dad, is that you?" when she first hears him, and be very confused when she sees a tiefling and not a dragonborn after). She'll be aghast when the Emperor's true form is revealed later on, but will be quick to look past appearances and help him out, due to the severity of the situation, and the fact the Emperor's been looking out for her this entire time.

She'll trust the Emperor and will defend him whenever others talk shit about him, until she hears about the past deeds he purposely didn't tell her about. She'll doubt him then, and while she'll still call him 'scalefriend' in the end, she won't trust him with the stones to defeat the Netherbrain when the time comes.

Like everyone in the game, the idea of ceremorphosis is horrific and suicidal in Riga's eyes (the thought of losing her tail is also atrocious), but at one point she'll be more open to the idea. Not because of the Emperor, but I'd like something to happen that will make her think everything she's gone through and learned was all for nothing. Or who knows? Maybe she won't need a reason at all. Maybe she'll understand that a sacrifice has to be made in order to save the world (not to mention the benefit of mind flayer power is tempting for that mental itch that still calls her worthless).

The transformation will isolate Riga further from the world than ever before. She's well aware of this, but she's been on her own for this long, why stop now? Unless her companions (mainly Karlach) talk her out of it, reminding her that she has friends and still has a life and others to fight for, she'll be willing to make the sacrifice (so depending on my playthrough will go, either Riga or Karlach will undergo full ceremorphosis. Sorry, Orpheus). And if Riga is the one to change, well...

This is how I imagine Riga will look as an illithid. Yeah there's already a model for what the player/Tav looks like as a full mind flayer, and while it looks good on its own, lets be honest, its lame compared to the other mind flayer designs, especially if it doesn't fit how the player looked before.

As a mind flayer, Riga will still have characteristics from her previous form (including her tail, yay!). She'll also prefer to wear a robe over the illithid armor that comes with the transformation (I don't know what kind of robe she's wearing, I imagined her wearing one with those colors, so I looked at some robe designs from the game and did what I could).

Her personality will be more calm and detached, a trend with mind flayers it seems, but she'll still be herself, and will even maintain a small connection to nature, much to everyone's surprise.

As such, she'll still pull the acorn prank every now and again. And her hand writing is still questionable.

She won't join the Emperor to rebuild the Knights of the Shield, much as part of her wants to. Whether she chooses to transform or not, she'd rather find a place for herself in the world first, once the illithid apocalypse is dealt with. The journey with her companions would give her the confidence to do so. If she doesn't turn, she'll stay to help rebuild the city after celebrating. City life makes her uncomfortable, but she'd still want to help regardless, in hopes that the city will become a better place since it was an absolute mess in more ways than one before. As long as she's there, she'd also make a game of figuring out what improvements and potential downgrades are the Emperor's doing behind the scenes. If she does turn, she'll go straight to the Underdark after celebrating, since she won't be welcome in the city. She'll join the Society of Brilliance if they allow her, although she might join them anyway if she doesn't turn, once the city is re-built. - And that's Riga! At least a 'prototype' version of her character until I finally get around to playing the game. What do you think?

[greycloakofevereska]

Stages of Ceremorphosis

BG3 Gale 1/?

Our orifices remain blissfully unbloodied. Our heads remain clear, and our blood temperature normal.

[toonvasion]

Shay MindFlayer

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