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Roseweave
Learned Scribe
Ireland
212 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Oct 2014 : 01:42:44
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My character was born to a Moon Elf and Human(probably feytouched) pair and for various reasons ended up born a feytouched mutant, becoming something closer to a Leannàn Śdhe than a regular High Elf or Half-Elf(there's a precedent for this in her lineage, plus complicated backstory).
But basically we picked up a somewhat adorkable Aranea rogue who's shapeshifting was broken(stuck in Spider form, we helped her fix it though and now she has expanded shapeshifting too) while passing through the Rock of Bral, and my character has sort of fallen in love with her. I thought it was a really neat idea, especially since both of them are kind outliers for different reasons.
However the potential fall out from such a union could be pretty bad. Currently the party is looking to take over Neverwinter(we're playing a modified version of the 4E Neverwinter campaign) so it's something she would be wary of(assuming the character would even return her feelings).
Is this just too bizarre a pairing and how would you handle it? Are Aranea just universally hated by anything vaguely Elven and associated with drow? How would the Church of Sune, which my Bard/Courtesan is affiliated with feel about this?
Also, how common is it for characters to date or marry Courtesans, without them having to retire? From what I read "open" relationships or having mistresses on the side etc. seem to be somewhat standard in places. Most of the real life Sex Workers I know do have issues with dating a lot of them still manage it. Though I realise I may be the only person on this forum who has any first hand experience with that subject.
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 13 Oct 2014 : 03:38:35
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Well, I don't think of myself as an expert on any of the related topics, but I think there's suitable logic for addressing the question.
First, there's no such thing as too bizarre. The world is make-believe anyway, right? Anything can happen, if it serves the story.
Likewise, there's no such thing as universal hatred. Every PC has a set of likes/loves and dislikes/hates based on the character's (and sometimes the player's) experiences. NPCs are up to the DM. Of course your game can be racist if you want it to be, but there should be nothing in the setting that demands it without exceptions. It's not the case that every aranea deserves to be hated or mistrusted, and it's not the case that no non-aranea should ever be able to win an aranea's trust and even love.
If the believability of the story matters, then that's the real issue... don't worry about whether it can happen, just how to make it a good story.
If two creatures of any race can shapeshift (or be polymorphed by someone else) into compatible forms, then it can happen. In this case, aranea have a humanoid form, so sure it's physiologically possible for them to mate with elves, half-elves, humans, and fey-touched versions of each.
Is there a link between drow/Lolth and aranea? I'm not aware of one.
The feelings of the church... there are at least two answers to that. There's Sune's feeling on the issue, and then there's how her mortal followers feel about it. The priests and followers may be divided along racial lines... for example elves might have a more elitist/conservative view of who should mate with who than humans do. Many things might disgust an elf which don't bother a dwarf. That's an issue for roleplaying, and how it will go depends on the campaign you're in.
Sune herself will not be bothered by the idea of inter-racial pairings. In fact, the more genetically "distant" the races are from each other, the more she will probably like it... because it shows that "love overcomes all differences" and that's the sort of thing that makes Sune smile. She might even bless the union... that's up to the DM. Sune is Love... all love. The race, social class, age, and every other detail of each person in the relationship, and in fact the number of people in the relationship, ... all completely irrelevant. Love is everything.
Lastly, I don't necessarily want to discourage using real-world experience to figure out the Realms, but in this particular case I don't think it's helpful. Folks in the Realms just don't have a lot of the mental/emotional issues that people on Earth do. And the Realms is similar to Middle/Dark Ages Earth, anyway, so even the similarities that do exist are from another time frame.
Polyamory, polygamy, mistresses (and whatever the male version is called), etc... all can be fine in many places. Each culture of the Realms makes its own rules, of course, but the definitions they craft those rules from might look very different from what we think of today when someone says a "buzz word" like cheating or extramarital or fling or booty call or whatever... those terms reflect the biases of our modern culture, and they don't necessarily exist in the Realms. So don't worry about how the sex workers you know feel about dating... they each have issues that shape the way they look at the world. And no, I'm not meaning that as an insult at all. I have issues, so do you; we all do. I'm using the word to be completely neutral. And those issues don't have to be a factor in the Realms, and even in the places where the DM decides they are a factor for commoners, they don't have to hold your character back from having fun. Particularly as a follower of Sune, have fun. Life's short. Live. Laugh. Love.
All just my two cents. Enjoy the thrill and the challenges of the situation.  |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11690 Posts |
Posted - 13 Oct 2014 : 14:58:00
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| without a doubt, love can conquer all hatreds, or at least that would be the motto of any priest/priestess of Sune. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Roseweave
Learned Scribe
Ireland
212 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2014 : 00:42:14
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The Aranea were originally said to be created as Pseudo-Drow by Calishite wizards to infiltrate Drow ranks. Because of the weird Lolth thing against harming spiders they were basically used to entrap them in a weird way.
Basically my issue is that it's been left up in the air, neither ruled out nor confirmed. I don't think the GM knows what to do with it and the players are a little divided.
There's a bunch of other issues too, one of them being the age difference, 16 and 43. Which sounds crazy until you figure in the fact that my character is Fae and is "biologically" and mostly emotionally 18/19.
I really like the idea of this romance because of the Beauty and the Beast element of it. It is such a great fairytale in potential but I need to figure out the right way to sell the idea of it to the party before the GM will run with it, I feel.
My character herself is completely okay with it. She was raised by somewhat atypical, eccentric types. Her mother is pretty much an Elven Morticia Adams(or a bit closer to Yuuko Ichihara from xxholic, if you're familiar) and her dad is the cool guy delinquent type. They're very "Fae" in the sense that they're kind of flighty and eccentric but aren't snobbish at all.
I've also been writing a sort of side-fic/fan-fic of the game where the Aranea girl is one of the characters, though I haven't pushed anything on her character that doesn't make sense with what we were shown. I thought her story reminded me a lot of a Trans narrative so I did take elements of the personalities of transgirls I know but tried to keep her in line with the original.
http://crystallineprincess.tumblr.com/tagged/short-stories (nine Tails University, there's also a brief interaction between the two in Clocksmith and the Cuckoo, as it's her telling the story of how her parents met to her) |
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Help w/ odd romantic pairing(Half Eladrin/Aranea)
