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Here is another diatribe intended for my roleplay blog:

This is a small essay that I originally typed on this post, but I didn't want to bog down the actual dash game post, so here we go, with the points numbered for easier reference.

♜ WHICH CHESS PIECE ARE YOU? ♖

White Rook

You are a White Rook. (1) As a piece that can move inwards and outwards, you're a master of self-reflection. (2) You know what needs to be done and when to do it. (3) You're a protector, and would willingly take someone's place in danger in a heartbeat because you know you can handle the pressure. (4) But even castle walls crumble. For all your chivalry and fortitude, everything must come to an end. Will you be there to see the final stages of the war? Or will you have already been discarded in the battle?

To clarify, I answered this one as though it was after being freed from the Absolute and that had been traveling with a good-inclined group of adventurers for the events of the game. And all of this would absolutely apply, though one wouldn't think so, at first, but that will be for another post. I had started explaining here and it turned into a mini-essay.

As a piece that can move inwards and outwards, you're a master of self-reflection. When not delusional due to the influence of the Absolute, Nere is his own worst critic. He remembers everything he has ever done wrong or 'failed' in his entire life. He is extremely harsh with himself and even perceived failings. His whole insistence on "Nere. Does Not. Fail." boils down to him nearly having a meltdown over Trauma [ Within my own personal storyline, this is also because the last thing he remembers his older brother saying to him before he never saw him again was, "I'm sorry that I failed you." ].

You know what needs to be done and when to do it. He is a very logical and strategic person. Though I had to mess up his INT stat a bit for the companion version so his main stats [ STR, DEX, CON ] could be right, he is also quite intelligent, and he has used it to great effect to remain alive. My version of Nere--based upon his canon stats and feats--was essentially a gladiator prior to escaping from that life only to wind up a fighter for another group. He was definitely a Battle Master fighter, always using his brain in conjunction with his impressive strength and build.

You're a protector, and would willingly take someone's place in danger in a heartbeat because you know you can handle the pressure. This part probably seems the most questionable at face value, but consider it like this: To have been treated as he was for the entirety of his life... only to then be treated well by people who have absolutely no obligation to him? Who, by all rights, could have simply killed him and walked away, never having to think of him again? All of that [misplaced/misled] devotion previously given to the matriarchs and the Weaver, didn't just vanish. Were he to find people worthy of it, he would absolutely risk his life if it saved theirs. While he absolutely hated his circumstances within the society of Lolth-sworn and thought that he could be so much More, he is absolutely geared towards wholehearted, soul-crushing devotion, as he was still devoted to 'the Weaver' before the Absolute stole him away, despite everything he had suffered. And when the Absolute does get him, he is just as devoted to this 'new deity'. "I have been entrusted with a sacred mission. I cannot fail," he says if you tell him that he can report his own failures, clearly both proud that he had been given such a mission and prideful that someone would say he failed. And then this conversation can occur if you kill all of the duergar before freeing Nere [ hint: killing the duergar first is also how you save both the gnomes--aside from the one that is now cutscene locked to die who wasn't originally--as well as Nere ]: Tav: I was abducted by mind flayers. That was when I began to hear the Absolute. Nere, "I don't understand... I've been following those... wretched beasts?" If you CAST DETECT THOUGHTS you can get: It cannot be. Have I betrayed Lolth for an imposter? Tav: Your faith in Lolth faltered. It is not too late to reclaim it. Nere, genuinely sounding so disappointed in himself, "Was I so weak as to betray the Weaver? ... I will take word to the Order of Soul Spiders. They must know of the Absolute threat." You can also choose to convince him to abandon the Absolute and RUN. That's what I choose and it has, thus far, kept him from getting zombie-fied later. Tav: You don't have to. Run - abandon the Absolute. "Perhaps you're right.. Perhaps I should. Dying for a cause is one thing, but for a mindflayer? For filth like that? ... No. I owe you a debt, it seems. You've saved me from worse than the duergar. Take this - a personal blessing. I pray we don't meet again."

He is very committed, up to and including being willing to "die for a cause". That is how Lolth-sworn drow--particularly the males--are taught to be, and it is hard-wired. It would be a very difficult thing to change.

Really, the only difference from Lolth to the Absolute to the player party, is whether or not the people he would lay down his life for in the player party are worthy of it, unlike those who were the focus of his earlier devotion.

Another Random Headcanon // @neredoesnotfail

Giving Companion!Nere the Sussur Bark Greatsword is just -chef's kiss- Why? you might you ask. "So, you can't cast more than basic magic again because you're no longer a warlock of the Absolute? Here, take this sword. Use that right and the other person won't be able to use magic either." 😊

Consider it a personal blessing.

[ Please ignore the hireling information in the tags and under the level description. I am on console and modifying a hireling is, thus far, the only way I can recruit him. I desperately need the "recruit any NPC" mod to drop for console. 😂 ]

CONCERNING NERE, THE ABOVE, AND THE UNDERDARK // @neredoesnotfail

Unless he has a very good reason to go about in the daytime--responsibilities or someone that he tends to be around who keeps a daytime schedule--Nere will absolutely become a nocturnal being if he stays Above following the events of the game as he decides that he thoroughly hates the sun and the brightness of daytime. Honestly, the sky in general quietly terrifies him the first time he's Above (and, y'know, in his right mind to where he can really pay attention to it). He's used to the "ceiling" of the Underdark, no matter how far up it may go. Being Above and there being just vast amounts of nothingness overhead is kind of a terrifying prospect. He absolutely ended up with some variation of agoraphobia and he was definitely feeling it for a while until he grows more accustomed to it. Even some time after the fact, it still occasionally catches him if he thinks about it. It isn't quite full-blown panic attack levels, but more of a slight tightness to chest and higher awareness sort of thing. [ And if the vast open nothingness of space overhead freaks him out, just imagine his reaction the first time the clouds open up in a total downpour. Drops falling from rocks overhead in the Underdark? Sure. Fine. Water POURING DOWN from the sky? Absolutely horrifying the first time it happened. ] He really never does get fully used to it---the weather, the general brightness, and, specifically, THE SUN---and I think, to some degree or other, he will always miss the Underdark, regardless of the pain and suffering he experienced there. Certainly, he reaches the conclusion that Lolth and the culture he grew up in are Not Great [it takes time, but when the difference of how he is treated is like the night to the day, it happens faster than one might expect, once he decides it's genuine], but the Underdark was and is still where he considers to be home. [ In the case of the self-contained verses and the story I'll never write, I do think that Asha's wonder at the stars makes an impression on him. He likes to hear her talk about the constellations and to tell the stories of them. If there's anything good about the sky, it's the stars, and that is about as far as he'll go. ] Best case scenario? Someone take him to the Arcane Tower and let him make a place for himself there. No bad memories like from Grymforge. Not even close to Menzoberranzan. And it certainly isn't like Lenore will be using it ever again. And he does still want to learn magic, so he would have plenty of space to do so, and, while he learns, the ability to protect against people who already use magic as well. It's really one of the only places in the Underdark that he might feel relatively safe.

When I cite that Nere is inordinately tall for a drow--let alone a drow male who are typically even smaller than their female counterparts--this is what I mean:

This is my human fighter--an adaption of Varian Wrynn from Warcraft--who is on the Type 4 body.

Nere was either built on the type 4 body type, or he's a specific build somewhere between 2 and 4's build. Either way, he is definitely at least 6' tall.

What's more, the reason I give him a background/prior class as a fighter has to do with his build but also his stats and feats.

His highest stats are CHA (18), INT (18), and STR (17) with DEX and CON both not much lower (15).

For a wizard, the highest stat should be INT.

For a sorcerer or a warlock, the highest stat ideally needs to be CHA followed by DEX and CON.

So why is his strength so high and why does he have both Extra Attack [normal for fighters] and Muscular which gives him advantage on ability checks and saving throws that use Athletics [ which includes resisting being shoved, staying fit, and performing physical stunts ].

My belief is that he was a fighter, though one who relied as much on his mind as on his body [ a tactician fighter ]. He wanted very much to be a wizard, though, and to learn magic and all the power that grants.

The Absolute gave him that as part of its draw, though rather than a wizard, it made him a Warlock.

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