this is a combination of sketches, two (bottom) from the journal i keep for my dnd character Virric, and one (top) as a cute quick dabble in scenery with figures not being as heavily a focus.
Meet Nèva. She’s a wild magic sorcerer from Waterdeep. I originally made her for our Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign and ended up bringing her in for Icewind Dale. It only makes sense that she was my first Tav for BG3
(First full body render of Néva, LET’S GOO ) Backstory below the cut 🧇
(Be warned, I’m not much of a writer. Hopefully I don’t ramble too much. TBH, this part’s more for me than it is for you)
Name: Néva (pronounced NAHY-va). This is an alias; her real name is Evélynn (ev-AYH-lin) Margaster
Race and Class: half-elf wild magic sorcerer
First Impressions: Elegant, yet sloppy; flirty and reckless. Upon meeting her, she doesn’t seem to take anything seriously and has a way of turning a negative scenario into a chaotically hilarious situation.
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From: Waterdeep, North Ward
Family: She is a distant part of the Margaster household within Waterdeep. While she doesn’t have any siblings and is not fully involved with her family’s affairs, she does play an important role within a secretive sect of the Margaster family that still hold ties to Asmodeus worship. She’s not too concerned about “playing her role” and doesn’t fully understand what worship entails until it actually affects her… I like to think of it as the equivalent of going to church without realising what you’re doing and why.
Most defining life moment: Evélynn had a wife - Veronica - whom she was absolutely smitten by. Instead of studying over magical tomes and artifacts that might help the family as she was supposed to, Evélynn would shirk her duties to fawn over the love of her life. Lucky for the Margasters, Veronica had an innate gift for tapping into magic and would pick up the slack. Upon one of their many seafaring conquests, the Margasters find a powerful magical armlet that allows the wielder to receive a great boost to their own magical abilities. Evélynn and Veronica were tasked to study it and determine how useful it would be to further the church. Upon the day of their research review, Evélynn was late to the meeting and Veronica took her stead. As Evélynn finally arrived during the demonstration part of the review, something went wrong with the controls and caused a massive magical surge. Evélynn ran toward Veronica and, in doing so, got the brunt of blast. The armlet becomes infused to her upper right arm and shoulder, melting into her skin. When the dust settled and crumpled bodies lay strewn across the ground, Veronica was nowhere to be found. Evélynn, with very little innate magic ability to begin with, was suddenly imbued with uncontrollable power. She fled for her life, distraught at the disappearance of her wife and in fear of the Margasters getting their hands on her and whatever this artifact was. Evélynn changed her name to Néva and hid in plain sight within Waterdeep, living in squalor inside the Yawning Portal. It is later revealed that Veronica’s soul is stuck inside the armlet and powers Néva’s wild magic.
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Greatest strength and weakness: Néva is an extremely passionate person. This can be to both her benefit and her detriment. It lends way to her resilience in the hardest times, and her recklessness at other times. This recklessness is mainly seen in her hedonistic tendencies towards alcohol and sex, but can be also come out in poor decision-making on the battlefield. Néva is also a pretty broken person (more one why below); she overindulges in booze and promiscuity to forget most days. Her motto is “ I’m here for a good time, not a long timeline”.
Greatest Desire: More than anything, Néva wants to see her late wife again. She wants to make her whole, hold her close and apologize. At the beginning of her adventures in Waterdeep, Néva wants Veronica alive again. However, as she travels the Swordcoast and many of her leads turn fruitless, she settles for being able to see her wife again and say a final goodbye.
Fatal flaw: Néva’s desire to see Veronica again clouds her actions and moral judgements, leading her down some pretty dark paths. Of course, trying to bring someone’s soul back to a body that no longer exists will lead to powerful necromancy, fringe religions and other planar powers, all of which Néva can barely grasp. Yet she must try. If there is a possibility, Néva will gravitate to it even if it’s detrimental to herself and her party members. This had led to some broken relationships and tough conversations between her and her party. Headcannon: Act 2 of bg3 was a big turning point for Néva’s obsession to get her wife back when she meets and learns more about Isobel and Ketheric. She can see it’s possible yet she is faced with what her future looks like (i.e. what Ketheric has become) if she continues haphazardly down her obsessive path. This leads to a positive shift in her desires and by the time she reaches Icewind Dale, she’s really just looking to be able to put her wife to rest.
Worldview: likely existential in the way that she’s grown up in wealth through conquest. Néva recognizes how blunt and cruel the world is and that if you want to be happy, you have to carve it out yourself. Even after Veronica is gone, Néva’s main coping strategy is to “enjoy” life in whatever that might entail in the moment. It leads to some chaotic shenanigans and drunken mistakes.
Three adjectives: flirty, vibrant, hedonistic
Personality quirks: dresses elegantly but rarely wears dresses, loves a good bottle of red or two…, has a mean rbf, has way too fancy a palate for living in squalor, likes to listen poetry recited in song form, sleeps at the strangest hours
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Other Random Facts:
the armlet ended up melting into Néva in the rough shape of a butterfly (think kintsugi); coincidently, many of Néva’s spells take the shape of a butterfly;
Néva wears a blue ribbon in her hair that used to be Veronica’s necktie (I really wanted to add this because it reminded me of butterfly wings, but it’s really a awkward angle and ends up looking pretty stupid when I draw her head turned. I’ve dropped this for now and edited the drawing.)
She has used illusion-based cantrips (namely thaumaturgy) to turn tricks at the Yawning Portal (she really should be a bard…)
Bg3 specific: when Néva first met Gale, she was immediately on edge that another Waterdavian who might know her and her family was in the party…she gets more comfortable as time goes on and they have this missed connection sort of thing; Néva initially gravitated to Shadowheart, but something that she did/said during their wine night in act 1 reminded her too much of Veronica, so Néva chose to distance herself; Néva’s dream visitor took the form of Veronica… she immediately knew the dream visitor wasn’t who they claimed to be, but it felt so real that she was okay suspending her disbelieve for a while; Néva ends up with Astarion in a kind of “birds of a feather” way (more doodles exploring this later) - initially, she sees him as a distraction and ultimately uses him in a similar way that he uses you; when he opens up in Act 2, Néva has to reevaluate how she sees relationships and physicality again; the events of act 3 give them plenty of opportunities to open up to each other and learn more about each other’s sorted pasts…Néva would have shared more about her late wife; after the events of bg3, I’d like to think they travel together to search for a way to walk in the sun and a way to separate a soul from metal
Algatharis and Mal just kinda resolved their "romance" into companionship. They just care about each other - whatever that entails and however is to be determined but that's what they're both content with, bc she just...she can't love anyone right now. She does...that's the worst part is that she does and she just cannot for the life of her allow herself that. She's not ready, she might never be, she doesn't know what she wants - but she knows she doesn't want courting or a relationship or exclusivity or to be smothered or controlled.
Constantine tried to get Mal jealous and fucked a random drow attendant at the blood lounge and Mal's...hmm well she's jealous and not. Her heart is broken more than she thought it would, but it's nothing like the grief she's still feeling from El (why she cannot love), but if Constantine thinks she's gonna be his lil sloppy seconds travel toy...lmfao
Like she's poly, but she's not gonna chase a man for his attention....especially when the guy chose a lowborn instead of the sexy goth druid noblewoman in front of him. She's no second choice, no passive plaything at a man's whim, and she's not desperate. The last entity she fucked was Graz'zt it is quite literally exclusively Constantine's loss. He chose a random cocktail waitress and Mal's like, "guess I'm just a type to him...Oh well, there's no accounting for taste." The others absolutely noticed her being extra bitchy in the maze and connected the dots but it's not gonna help.
Coni just closed the romance door and the player still thinks he has a chance but god he really fucking doesn't. I legit don't see a way he digs himself out of this one
