what was jahen like when he was very small? i know he had a bad experience with his family but did he catch bugs ? did he talk to stray cats ? did he eat anything he wasnt supposed to ?
I think probably the answer to these questions is "all of the above" hahaha ♡
baby Jahen had no adult supervision to speak of really. I kind of imagine Ianvic kept him inside the "house" (read: shack) until he was old enough that his proprioception was developed & reliable (could walk, run, jump, bend over, etc with only occasional scraped knees) and then little Jahen slowly increased the radius he'd venture from the shack as his curiosity grew and his confidence built.
he loved critters from a young age so I absolutely imagine him running around with fistfuls of bugs and lizards. he'd have wanted to pet and talk to any animal that would let him close, so definitely stray cats, neighborhood dogs, carrier pigeons, donkeys pulling carts, well-fed rats outside of kitchen stoops, and the like. of course that was before he'd grown up enough to start learning ranger skills so he couldn't use the spellwork to literally "speak to animals" but he had opinions and a working set of lips nonetheless! I actually think his love of animals kept him out of worse trouble than he could have gotten himself into when he was still really little because he could content himself with playing with the frogs in any given puddle for hours at a time.
and yeah, as far as eating weird things goes lmao, both Ianvic and Kovan would make food at home anytime they were there and any of the three of them in the "family" were pretty much welcome to it but there were no set mealtimes and no smaller snack-like things to speak of and Jahen did a LOT of growing (he is huge) so he was hungry all the time. I have it in my notes that he started helping out at a stable for pocket money for snacks around the time he was 10 or so, but I also think that he wasn't taught a lot of manners and wasn't above nicking pastries from people's windowsills or possibly yoinking discarded potatoes from roadside baskets. almost certainly ate something "off" once in a while and was sick for a day afterwards but he's resilient and usually sprang back quickly. probably didn't always learn his lesson though lol
I answered once in an ask that he started exploring the woods outside of the Gate when he was still fairly young and that's when the idea of leaving someday first started taking root, because finding treasures like honey and wild berries and being able to catch his own fish from the river with a bit of twine and such felt like his first real look at how he could build a better life for himself someday.
however! baby Jahen was pretty smart and knew that he needed to grow up and Get Skills if he was going to strike out on his own, so once this seed of an idea started forming in his mind, he started to become a little more responsible. he put in more hours at the stable, stopped stealing from more well-to-do folks (he probably still pickpocketed in the undercity though), and found an outer city schoolhouse window to eavesdrop at in order to learn simple math (and it helped him with learning to read & write too, though he'd already managed a liiittle bit of that himself.) so he'd started to grow up and mature quite a bit by the time he was nearing teenhood. he definitely still petted all the stray cats though. <3
Hello! Hope you're doing well :) Please share your headcanons for Jahen: 🪶✉️
hello! thank you so much! :3 I answered for the hawk feather here.
[ ✉️ ]ㅤwhat kind of letter would they write but never send ?
this one really excited me to get because I figured I could basically treat it like a writing prompt. ;u; I hope that's okay! <3 this is a letter Jahen writes (but doesn't send) to his brother, Ianvic, as the tadpole party nears the end of the events in-game.
(all the writing quirks are Jahen's, not mine! c: he hasn't had any formal schooling so while his writing is very good for someone who taught themself, he still makes small mistakes here and there. mixes up its/it's, inconsistently uses apostrophes in other places, combines words like "awhile" and "alot.")
asks are from this game!
in-game letter images are from this resource!
and for reference, this is my handwriting :3 I put a fair amount of effort into making Jahen's unique from mine.
here's the transcript if the images aren't loading:
Hey Vic,
I know it’s been a while. Not sure if you got my last lett
Listen, I’m coming into town and I have bad news.
There’s been an infiltration into the Gate’s power. Its bad; you can’t side with these ones, trust me. Nothing to be gained here. I think you should try to get out, maybe for a few tendays if you can. I know he doesn’t listen to anyone, but if you can get dad to
Something’s going to happen, Im not sure what yet. But it will be big, and a lot of people are going to die. I know I sound crazy. I don’t have anything I can tell you as proof. Im just hoping you might trust me. Im not all useless, after all. I think you know that.
I’m wrapped up in it myself. Not by choice, of course. If I had any other damn choice
My odds aren’t great, for getting out of this. So this might be the last you hear from me. If this is goodbye, I wanted to
Wanted to let you know, if I could. If you get this, just try to get somewhere safe. And if I don’t make it to the other side, know I went down fighting.
Wyll sees Jahen's father first. Kovan, he hears his name in his mind, and finds the same somber jaw and freckled brown skin that he knows from nights of being held in his love's strong arms. Jahen's father's hair is cut much shorter and tucked behind the rounded tops of his human ears, and there's a hardness in his gaze that his son doesn't bear his friends. He is tall and burly, and in this memory, he's frowning dangerously. But there's no fear of him in Jahen's mind, true to his word.
Jahen's brother seems the odd sheep out of the family. He's lankier, with wilder brown eyes, Jahen's pointed ears, and a shock of curly hair tied behind his head. Ianvic, Jahen calls him, which is a distinctly elven name, Wyll recognizes. He wonders if Jahen's mother named his brother, and if his father named him. There's a murmur of agreement in the shared space between their minds, and he knows Jahen has wondered the same.
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writing is from the second chapter of my “Fever” fic. :] I made Jahen’s father and brother in the cc! for Kovan I actually used an art program to edit together a different brow and jaw from two face models. There just wasn’t a vanilla face that I thought fit him exactly right, plus I wanted him to look like Jahen had taken after him.
(Jahen is on the left in the first set of pictures, and on the right in the second set.)
1. What would your Tav’s greetings be (at different levels of approval)?
21. Describe a defining moment from their past, which makes them who they are today!
also - how do you pronounce Jahen's name?
aaa heck thank you so much for the q’s!! ^o^
1) I already had these in my back pocket from another post so I’ma toss em up here again~ C:
Platonic High Approval: "Look what the owlbear dragged in." • "There you are." • "Good to see a friendly face coming my way."
Romanced High Approval: "You've been thinking about me too?" • "Do we have a little time? You'll have to tell me if not. Keep me on track." • "Hope that smile is for me."
Medium Approval: "Can I help out with anything?" • "If something needs doing, just let me know. l'll do my best." • "Wanted to let you know I found something. Thought it might be useful, so I put it by your pack." (places either a random herb in your alchemy inventory or a handful of berries in your food inventory. this greeting can happen at medium approval or higher.)
Neutral Approval: "What is it?" • "Something wrong?" • "Oh, hey. Something on your mind?"
Low Approval: "Ugh, what do you want now?" • "This had better be good." • "Don't know what that look on your face is about. Maybe I shouldn't care though."
21) I wanted to talk about something that I didn’t already cover in the backstory fic so here’s what I got! ^u^
When Jahen was young and first began exploring the woods outside of Balder’s Gate, it was just idle wandering the way kids are prone to do. He picked up things he liked from time to time; rocks, flowers, feathers, etc., but it wasn’t until one day that he found and harvested some honeycomb using a smoke trick he’d read in a book that the idea of leaving home one day took root. His older brother Ianvic was delighted with his find, and it was the first time in years that Jahen had received even the slightest shade of approval or interest from his family on anything. it didn’t last long, but it sure planted that seed. and Jahen still fondly remembers the evening meal that followed with honey on their bread and a warmth around them that he had almost forgotten could be.
I had decided on this backstory detail before I got to the part of the game when Halsin tells you of his own fondness for honey and it made me SO happy haha, I was thinking to myself what a perfect thing for them to connect over. xD felt like the moment was placed there just for Jahen! 💛
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Jahen’s name is pronounced similarly to how it looks except the “h” in the middle is a soft “h,” near-silent. ^u^ like if you said it in a hurry or with an accent you might end up with something closer to “Ja’en.” the “a” sound is the same sound as in “father” and the “e” sound is the short sound same as in “bed.” thank you so much for asking, I’m flattered you were curious! :]
I have decided to give Ianvic a best friend. :] (Kaja, on the left. Ianvic himself is on the right.)
this helps play into the character dev I have for Vic being the distant older brother; initially Jahen's primary caretaker when he was a toddler for things like feeding him, dressing him, etc, but withdrawing and being almost as unreachable as their father by the time Jahen was getting to be bigger, like age ten or so.
I think it would make sense if Ianvic pulled away specifically because he thought he'd be hampering Jahen's ability to find companionship if he remained emotionally available to his younger brother. after all, Ianvic also had the poor example of their father's completely un-familial behavior, and if he had grown up and made steadfast friends himself, he could have easily concluded that you just don't rely on your family for that sort of thing in the sort of circles he runs in. he could have rationalized it internally, that Guild members can't afford close ties to direct family because it'd be too easy to track them down and use them against you. surely that's also why his father has never shown him affection or care.
but of course, for Ianvic, coming to these conclusions and taking some agency for himself in making that sort of decision was something that lightened the burden a bit, whereas Jahen only ever had two family members in his life who, after a certain point, didn't really seem to care whether he was close or accounted for, whether he lived or died. so he only had questions that shed feelings that eventually got stamped down in a desperate bid for repression. and unlike Ianvic, Jahen didn't get lucky enough to make real friends.
in fact I think I'd say that even though Ianvic had distanced himself by that point, he did have some inklings to the fact that Jahen's friendships were a bit easy-come-easy-go, and that his younger brother suffered a few mild betrayals in that regard. might be why Vic was even a touch more verbally supportive from time to time about Jahen starting to look for ways to leave the Gate; he recognized that Jahen hadn't gotten to grow up and get a better life where they were, so it'd be only logical for him to go look for it elsewhere.
Kaja himself is a half-drow whose destitute mother was raped in a drow raid during a caravan pilgrimage, so he was neither raised in the Underdark nor found it terribly comfortable to be at home in Baldur's Gate much of the time. though his mother meant well towards him she still carries some baggage about the past, and she also has held superstitions about his sorcery being some kind of drow magic she couldn't understand. he wandered elsewhere to fill his time and hone his skills, and ended up taking odd jobs from the Guild due to so many people distrusting him by nature. sort of the "if I can only be seen as bad I guess I might as well prove everyone right" kinda thing
he is a good friend to Ianvic though. they're cavalier about their friendship on the surface by necessity/to avoid drawing threats but they'd pretty much die for each other if the chips were down. they probably make a pretty kickass team too. I imagine Ianvic has pretty classical rogue skills while Kaja has his storm sorcery. you'd be dead before you realized there were hostiles in the area lol
