#jarlaxle baenre
[[ This is about how close Bobbert will ever get to actually showing the canonically pansexual character as not straight.
Source: Starlight Enclave chapter 3 ]]
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[[ The reason that I fell in love with D&D + the Forgotten Realms, and the reason that my love for both continues to burn bright. ]]
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[[ The reason that I fell in love with D&D + the Forgotten Realms, and the reason that my love for both continues to burn bright. ]]
[[ Although I won’t always love every change that is made to D&D, the aspect that I will always cherish is its inclusiveness. They might not always go about it in an ideal way and/or a way that we personally would’ve done it, but including LGBT+ in their official products is something that they strive for year round, not just during June.
D&D Beyond’s article, Happy Pride Month! Let’s Explore How D&D Encourages Inclusivity, includes a list of some of the LGBT+ NPCs in official D&D publications:
- The artwork to accompany details on how an academy could function as a group patron in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything doesn’t leave you guessing, as the subtext succinctly tells you: “Wizardly boyfriends relax while their classmates practice magic at an arcane enclave.“
- Alanik Ray, known as the Great Detective, and his partner, Arthur Sedgwick, investigate mysteries together and are introduced in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.
- Waterdeep: Dragon Heist has the nonbinary herbalist Fala Lefaliir, who uses they/them pronouns and gently corrects player characters if they’re misgendered.
- While playing Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, you may encounter Darribeth Meltimer who mentions her wife, Urgala, who happens to be an non-player character from Storm King’s Thunder.
- In Ghosts of Saltmarsh, the marines who watch over the docks of the salty city are led by Tom and Will Stoutly, a married couple and hardened veterans against monsters and Sea Princes alike.
- In the adventure Storm King’s Thunder, there are the Osstra family. Husbands Thelbin and Brynn and Brynn’s adopted nephew, Broland. These Nightstone villagers are Tethyrian human wheat farmers you can encounter within the first chapter.
- Acquisitions Incorporated has “Propha” Dran and her wife, Audra Courtier, who run the aptly named inn, The Dran & Courtier.
To personally add to this list, there are also:
- Waterdeep: Dragon Heist has Embric and Avi, genasi husbands who run a blacksmith shop together called the Steam and Steel. Both are members of the Most Careful Order of Skilled Smiths and Metalforgers. Embric is a fire genasi, a descendent of the efreetofCalimshan, and an expert weaponsmith. Avi is a water genasi, an expert armorsmith, a member of the Splendid Order of Armorers, Locksmiths and Finesmiths, and a follower of Eldath.
- Jalester Silvermane, the representative of the Lord’s Alliance in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, originally hailed from Cormyr, where he was part of a mercenary company called the Steel Shadows. While there, he met Faerrel Dunblade, who became his best friend and lover. Elminster befriended the two young men and brought them to the attention of Laeral Silverhand, who put them to work as deputies and spies.
- Fel'rekt Lanfeen is a gunslinger and a lieutenant of Bregan D’aerthe in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Fel’rekt is a male drow who was assigned female at birth.
- Margo Verida, an Amnian lyrist, and Khafeyta Murzan, a Mulhorandi acrobat are performers in the Sea Maiden’s Faire from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. The two women are in love with each other.
If anyone has any canonical LGBT+ NPCs from the D&D material to add, please let me know! I’ll keep this list updated. ]]
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[[ The content of this post is focused on Artemis Entreri and contains spoilers. Do not expand the Read More cut if you’d like to avoid spoilers.
The events of the novella take place after Relentless, which ends in 1488 DR. I would estimate that it transpires about a few months after the conclusion of Relentless. The following is a summarization of Artemis’ appearance in One-Eyed Jax:
- Artemis does not seem to have gone after Dahlia after the conclusion of the demon war in Relentless. It seems that his contemplations about going after her remained just that: contemplations.
- Artemis is either living in or spends most of his time in Luskan, working for Jarlaxle. Unlike Regis, Wulfgar and Drizzt, Jarlaxle didn’t have to go out of the way to fetch Artemis, thus implying that like Jarlaxle’s Bregan D’aerthe agents, Artemis lives nearby.
- Artemis is clearly a trusted go-to for Jarlaxle, but it’s unclear if Jarlaxle is paying him or what arrangement they have.
- Regis is sent to meet with Artemis as per Jarlaxle’s instructions. His friends don’t find this very safe, so they assign guards to accompany him. Artemis sends Regis’ guards, Pwent and Athrogate, onwards to the One-Eyed Jax tavern with the promise of beer, intercepting Regis and takes the halfling to the meeting with Jarlaxle.
- Regis chats with Artemis while the halfing has his second breakfast and reviews the notes for a role he’s supposed to play, but no insight is given into what he talks about with Artemis or what Artemis is doing while Regis is eating and reading.
- Artemis poses as an attendant during Regis’ high-stakes gambling, for the purpose of switching the fake ruby pendant for the real one. He does so with an impressive sleight of hand, in which he removes the fake pendant from around Regis’ neck and puts on the real one within a second, and with Regis only feeling a gentle pull on the back of his neck. Regis reflects that he thought himself an accomplished thief, but compared to Artemis, he was a bumbling novice.
- During the staged fight between Athrogate and Pwent, Artemis catches the target carrying damaged coins that were the sought after pieces of evidence. He eases the target to the floor while cutting open the man’s coinpurse, spilling the coins. Artemis retrieves a few pieces of the damaged coins, and while these are enough evidence for the rest of the cast, Artemis goes after the target and manages to coax more damaged coins from him. Artemis also gets the target to tell him that he’d been receiving a lot of suspicious items and wet items from the crew of the Narwhal as payment. Artemis uses leverage at Jarlaxle’s expense to do so, bribing the target with a full year of free drinks at the One-Eyed Jax.
- Artemis recognizes that the flag that Narwhal flies is that of Lantan, correcting a mistaken identification of Mintarn. Knowing the Lantanese nature of the vessel is what allows Jarlaxle to make key inferences.
- Artemis was aboard the Deudermont’s Revenge, Jarlaxle’s hunter schooner that went after the Narwhal.
- “Seemed to work well enough on you”, Artemis remarks of Drizzt when the ranger disparages smokepowder. Drizzt was shot by a smokepowder pistol, but despite the content of Artemis’ jab, “his voice revealed a great discontent, a sourness that was not usual for the grim man anymore.”
- Dahlia’s signature weapon, Kozah’s Needle, is found in the hold of the Narwhal, along with all the treasures from other ships sank by the Narwhal. Regis surmises that she was among those killed by the Narwhal.
- The text refers to the cast on Deudermont’s Revenge as, “the companions” and “the friends”. This includes Artemis.
- Artemis is included by implication in the characters on Deudermont’s Revenge cheering as Narwhal blows itself up. Artemis is also similarly included in the cast celebrating Regis and trading boasts about who would’ve killed more had the two ships’ crews engaged in hand to hand combat.
- Deudermont’s Revenge takes just Artemis to Mintarn. He alights from the ship before it fully pulls into the port. The crew talks about how he’s going on a “scouting mission”, but it’s revealed that Artemis found out who designed the smokepowder cannon on Narwhal. Bonnie Charlie, the captain of Deudermont’s Revenge, comments that she doesn’t think it’s accurate to describe Artemis’ mission as a scouting one, for he loved Dahlia once.
- Later, in a conversation between Jarlaxle and Drizzt, Jarlaxle reveals that Artemis returned earlier and that he’d found the one who designed the cannon. Drizzt asks if Artemis brought the designer back, and Jarlaxle responds, “Only the part of him that did the thinking”. Jarlaxle further reveals that Artemis told him to shoot it as the first shot out of the Lantanese cannon if he were to rebuilt it.
- Jarlaxle invites Drizzt to join him as he sets off to find Artemis for dinner for he suspects that Artemis would be in a bad mood.
My thoughts:
- Overall, the story harkens back to the earlier Drizzt books, where they’re not always savying/changing the world, and more concerned with local stuff. Those stories read more true to the setting and more like the stories told by the vast bulk of the other FR novels. In that regard, I found One-Eyed Jax more enjoyable than Drizzt versus the latest god-like thing.
- That said, it is more than a bit strange that Drizzt would concern himself with such a small-scale situation, especially when he’s got a baby, his first child at that, at home. Even if Catti-brie told him that it’s ok and that she can take care of things, if Drizzt were a good dad, shouldn’t he be realizing that being there for his child is the most important thing? For someone who goes on and on about how important love, family, friends and bonds are, his behavior is strange. It makes some degree of sense for him to be out there running around fighting stuff when the world is at stake, because in that case he’s fighting for there to be a world for his child to live in. However, Jarlaxle losing some money, even some people dying, is hardly enough justification for him to leave his baby, especially when Jarlaxle has tons of capable help at his disposal. In this sense, One-Eyed Jax is just pandering to the fanbois.
- There’s a fair amount of review, and within those reviews, exultations of Drizzt and the Companions of the Hall. Unnecessary and ego-stroking, and while the recent novels have been like that, normalization in this sense is hardly a good thing.
- Killing Dahlia off-screen is beyond not cool, it’s bad, lazy writing. There’s a chance that Dahlia might not be dead, after all there is the whole, we didn’t see the body so she’s most likely still alive trope, but I wouldn’t put it past Bob to kill her off off-screen, not even in a main novel. Dahlia’s increasing unpopularity means that any space she takes up in a novel is space that could go towards getting Bob more money. I would hope that he doesn’t go this route, as it would be an even bigger sell-out, but he’s been selling out and there’s a note of finality to Dahlia’s disappearance. Although I wasn’t a fan of Dahlia and Artemis as a pairing, I’m dreading what Dahlia’s death means, I suspect that unfortunately Bob has plans for someone else to pair with Artemis. I’m betting that it’ll be Yvonnel II, which is rather unfortunate.
- It seems like Bob’s making a token effort to have Artemis retain some of his teeth, but the effort doesn’t feel genuine. Artemis’ sarcastic remark at Drizzt is immediately clarified to be something else, I’m not sure what Bob is getting at but I sincerely hope it isn’t making Artemis into a tsundere. While Artemis doesn’t have any compunction about killing someone he holds responsible for Dahlia’s death, Drizzt’s total lack of reaction to it is strange for a supposed hero of righteousness. It’s the same back when Narwhal blew itself up, only Regis is portrayed to feel remorse and guilt. It’s understandable that Jarlaxle and Artemis wouldn’t, as well they shouldn’t, and even Wulfgar to an extent. But Drizzt was cool with it as well.
- Jarlaxle destroys the plans for the smokepowder cannon rather than using it in his own ship, saying that power should be gained from years of study. This pleases Drizzt. Jarlaxle, the master of opportunities, who’d stop at nothing to gain an upper hand and claw a place for himself in the world, doing this just feels incredibly out of character. It feels like another instance of Salvatore bending his character the wrong way to convey a personal belief or to further elevate his golden boy.
- As far as the lore of the greater world is concerned, One-Eyed Jax does harken to some of the stuff that happens in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, the official module set roughly four years later. The novella makes references to Jarlaxle’s trip to Lantan to commission his manta ray-shaped submarine, the Scarlet Marpenoth. However, it also breaks the lore in a non-insignificant way, in fact upsetting the entire premise of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist in stating that Neverember’s embezzled wealth has been restored to its rightful owners. That embezzled wealth, exactly 500,000 gold dragons, is what the four “villains”, Jarlaxle included, are going after, that the players try to prevent the theft of.
- Mintarn is an island off the Sword Coast that’s pretty far south from Luskan, about as far south as Baldur’s Gate. Lantan is farther still, however it should’ve taken many tendays for Artemis to make the round trip. The way it’s presented made it sound like he was there and back in a few days’ time.
- I found it both really amusing and really irritating that Drizzt, who achieved the super duper monk ability of true transcendence, an ability that doesn’t even exist in 5e, can only catch a projectile but not throw it back. Even the disaster monk in my current D&D game, who regularly falls off the balcony while doing his morning exercises, can catch a projectile and throw it back in the same action. ]]
[[ Despite being a big fan of Jeremy Crawford’s efforts towards representation in D&D and following him for years, this is only the second time that I’ve tweeted at him. I don’t expect a response, but I hope that he at least will see my messages.
In other news, I can’t help but be filled by a sense of dread by this whole entire summer celebrating Drizzt thing, for the reasons stated in the above screenshots, and for Bob really not needing more encouragement to write worse with each new book. ]]
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Reposting this because I haven’t noticed all this time that the original post and all of its reblogs were nuked by Tumblr’s Dec 2017 purge. This was one of my earliest Jartemis works, it’s a pretty rough and sketchy piece but it was ok for what it was for.
The Scar
The searing light from a nearby bolt of lightning blasts into the unremarkable room. It is as if the room were being recreated in this overwhelming wave of illumination, though it lingers for only a single heartbeat. During that most ephemeral moment, colorless tones and dull shapes surge into sharp relief, birthing themselves from the gray-toned indistinct outlines previously visible to darkvision, violently erupting into poignant hues exaggerated by the blindingly white light. Within a breath, all fades back into the gray, yet that tranfigurational moment was enough for the drow to ascertain what he’d previously wondered at with delicate ebony fingers.
“That scar,” he marvels with a soft gasp, “Is that from–”
The resigned man’s sigh halts his words as surely as if the human had shot up a hand to clasp the black throat. “Yes, inside Crenshinibon,” the weary voice replies. Although he fears what he may see, curiosity compells Jarlaxle to look up and consider his abbil’s visage, whereupon he discerns the barest hint of a self-deprecating smile on the otherwise plaintive features.
“A fine throw,” Entreri adds in a whisper so hushed that the despair-struck mercenary would have bet on all eight of Lolth’s legs that had the assassin spoken the words instead, his voice would almost certainly have broken.
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[[ I made an even more cursed thing. XDDDD
I didn’t think that anything could be more cringey than Gunther’s live performance of his Ding Dong Song. Jarlaxle singing along to it is definitely a top contender. >_>
On a more serious note, I went through at least two dozen tries getting this to work, with most of them sunk in failed attempts in which the app rendered him with his neck singing. This is the best result, but still far from perfect, but at least it’s his mouth opening most of the time.
The art used for this animation is from the official D&D 5e module, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, published by Wizards of the Coast. ]]
[[ I made a cursed thing. XD
Wombo is lip sync app that, like Deep Nostalgia, can work with most photos. Its algorithm looks to be dependent on the way the image is cropped. Front-facing portraits cut off at the neck and shoulders are the best candidates for the app, but it will work on partial side views, video game screenshots, artwork, etc. Some images will yield cleaner results than others.
There’s a set list of songs you can get the image to lip sync to. Rick Astley’s voice is totally wrong for Jarlaxle but I thought it would be hilarious. XD
The art used for this animation is from the official D&D 5e module, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, published by Wizards of the Coast. Tyler Jacobson is the artist for the adventure’s cover art, from where this image originates. ]]
[[ Final Deep Nostalgia post for now. The app had a lot of trouble with Jarlaxle, specifically with not being able to identify a face in the various artworks featuring him. I would guess that primarily his hat and secondarily his eyepatch confuses the software, and the pointy ears probably do not help either. Even the “successful” animation above shows a lot of issues (source: Waterdeep: Dragon Heist interior art).
These are the artworks that I’ve tried with Deep Nostalgia that the app couldn’t find a face in:
(Credit: Todd Lockwood’s cover art for Promise of the Witch-King)
(Credit: Aleksi Briclot’s cover art for Maestro)
(Credit: Tyler Jacobson’s cover art for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist)
(Credit: Todd Lockwood’s cover art for Road of the Patriarch)
The last one is especially disappointing as he doesn’t have a hat on his head getting in the way for the app, but I guess the eyepatch throws off the app too much. The dramatic lighting and lack of hue diversity shouldn’t hinder the app, as with the former I was able to successfully animate a fanart of Artemis and if the latter was an issue, the app shouldn’t be able to handle black and white photos, which it does.
I didn’t try the Jarlaxle from the cover of Servant of the Shard due to it being a total profile shot. I also didn’t try the Jarlaxle from the art for cover of The Legacy, as this was the largest image that I could find of it:
(Credit: Todd Lockwood)
The size and resolution (or rather, lack thereof) falls beneath Deep Nostalgia’s minimum threshold. ]]
[[Zardoz ZordbyJEJORTIZ, original post here.
From the artist:
This is a digital painting I did of Captain/Grand Marshal Zardoz Zord. It’s part of a larger piece that is in the works to accompany a DMsGuild supplement on the Sea Maiden’s Faire carnival. I wasn’t going to post it until the product is finished, but I decided I’d release this particular image early after I heard the news. RIP Sean Connery.
Notes from the artist regarding their upcoming DMs Guild supplement:
It’s more of a background supplement, with full-color maps of all the ships and their stated contents, portraits and descriptions of the carnies, color advertising posters in the style of 18th-19th century carnival posters, descriptions of the various shows and acts to be enjoyed, and a few possible adventure hooks related to the carnies themselves.
]]
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[[ Slapped some simple shading on a drawing from 2018, which I’d apparently never posted on this account. This was supposed to have been one of a series of drawings of Artemis and Jarlaxle modeling various sexy underwear, but I think I threw in the towel when I didn’t like how this drawing turned out. I don’t think I can draw Jarlaxle sexy enough, and having a Sellswords-themed sexy underwear collection with just one Jarlaxle piece seemed kinda silly.
Here’s the only other installment in this series. ]]
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I’ve made a Twitter account for my NSFW art: jartesmut
My NSFW art can also be found on Pillowfort and AO3 but neither of those have been great for me.
I’m cleaning up and purging my WIPs folder, found this really old sketch that I don’t plan to take any further. I still like the original concept enough (mmm, sushi) to share it, so here you go.
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All I Want For Christmas
——————
[[ I started this in 2018 but was unfortunately not able to finish it then.
After over 100 hours between then and now, it’s finally done! This is the most time I’ve put into a piece, and represents the limit of where my skill is currently. It feels kind of surreal right now, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to finish it, and now that I have, I’m not altogether sure what to do with myself.
There’s a snowless version for those that are finding themselves buried under too much of the white stuff.
A very Merry Christmas to everyone, Happy Holidays, and may the coming New Year be full of good things for all of you! ❤️
Art belongs to me.
Artemis Entreri, Jarlaxle Baenre, Zaknafein Do’Urden, Wulfgar (yes he’s wearing a manbun ), Catti-brie, Drizzt Do’Urden and Guenhwyvar belong to Wizards of the Coast. ]]
[[ Merry Christmas everyone! :D I didn’t have time to do a Christmas artwork this year, so here’s last year’s. :P Hope y’all are having a great one! ]]
[[ Merry Christmas!!! ☃️
Just reblogging this old art again this year, one of these Christmases I’ll have enough time and energy to make something new. XD
Hope everyone has some time to rest, relax and practice some self-love! ❤️ ❄️ ]]
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Reposting this because I haven’t noticed all this time that the original post and all of its reblogs were nuked by Tumblr’s Dec 2017 purge. This was one of my earliest Jartemis works, it’s a pretty rough and sketchy piece but it was ok for what it was for.
The Scar
The searing light from a nearby bolt of lightning blasts into the unremarkable room. It is as if the room were being recreated in this overwhelming wave of illumination, though it lingers for only a single heartbeat. During that most ephemeral moment, colorless tones and dull shapes surge into sharp relief, birthing themselves from the gray-toned indistinct outlines previously visible to darkvision, violently erupting into poignant hues exaggerated by the blindingly white light. Within a breath, all fades back into the gray, yet that tranfigurational moment was enough for the drow to ascertain what he’d previously wondered at with delicate ebony fingers.
“That scar,” he marvels with a soft gasp, “Is that from–”
The resigned man’s sigh halts his words as surely as if the human had shot up a hand to clasp the black throat. “Yes, inside Crenshinibon,” the weary voice replies. Although he fears what he may see, curiosity compells Jarlaxle to look up and consider his abbil’s visage, whereupon he discerns the barest hint of a self-deprecating smile on the otherwise plaintive features.
“A fine throw,” Entreri adds in a whisper so hushed that the despair-struck mercenary would have bet on all eight of Lolth’s legs that had the assassin spoken the words instead, his voice would almost certainly have broken.
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Life’s been crazy, trying to get back to drawing. Here’s a new WIP, because I apparently don’t have enough unfinished things already. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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[[ This is last year’s MerMay drawing, posted as one image. Hoping to color it for this year. ]]
It’s not looking like I’ll have time to color this for MerMay this year either, but I haven’t reblogged it to this account yet.
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[[ This was supposed to be a break art from more involved projects, but I ended up putting more time than planned into it. x_x It’ll look better shaded and I might do that later, but for now I just wanted to put something out there after a several months long art-posting hiatus. ]]
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“Violets are not blue.”
Entreri was frowning, but Jarlaxle knew from his friend’s raised eyebrow that the human’s ill humor was feigned.
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