Tieve: The girl from the Hillside

As a note, the player's primary familiarity with the setting is from playing Baldur's Gate 3. I haven't read any Forgotten Realms novels, and I have only a passing familiarity with the other games, so some of this may not fit fully into the greater body of lore, though heaven knows I'm trying my best based on reading through various online resources. If you want to interact with this character and something I've written doesn't fully match your understanding of the lore, lmk and we'll work something out.

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Basics:

Name: Birth name is Bridie, which is how I refer to her in her backstory, but she's known relatively widely as Tieve and will happily answer to that, or even to Tav.

Appearance: Human woman, in her early to mid twenties. Dark brown eyes and hair to match, sable with reddish undertones. She has a pale blue tattoo of the tree of life on her face, which may have been an attempt to disguise the burn scars that criss-cross her face from left to right. She's about 5'6", with an average build. Sometimes her body language is a little stiff, as if there's some pain or numbness in her left arm or leg; this is due to still more scarring on that side of her body, hidden under her clothing.

Class: Archfey Warlock, folk hero background.

Stats: Strength is her dump stat, Charisma is sky high. Everything else is in-between. Girl never met a perception check she couldn't fail.

Personality: Compassionate to a fault, though she doesn't always act on the feeling if it puts her or her companions in immediate danger. She will not accept pre-payments for work, and she's leery of gifts (comes of growing up with fey everywhere), much to some of her companions' chagrin, but that's equal parts kindness and pragmatism.

Starting out in Act 1, she's maybe excessively gentle, trying to avoid fights and make friendships and alliances instead. She gets increasingly ruthless as the plot unfolds, though, as it really starts to sink in how much danger they're facing, and by Act 3 she is almost completely out of fucks to give.

In a fight, she's a dumbass who thinks she's a tank despite being a warlock. She will try to head off blows aimed at Gale, in particular, because she knows he's a glass cannon, and also Astarion, because he whines so much when he's hurt she assumes he's always more severely injured than he is.

She is Mom Friend and makes the rounds to check up on everyone before bedtime. It's probably annoying. Or heartwarming. Or both.



Bridie was born in a feudal village in the Moonshae Isles, somewhere in Gwynneth. Her mother, Carys, was a druid there, a local healer and practitioner of fertility magic who worked closely with the lord of the land. There was fey activity in the area due to the presence of the Fomorians and others (spying and general political maneuvering) and so Bridie's mother had contact with more than a few fey, including Sqeulaiche, who she considered a friend of sorts.

Despite a lack of interest in marriage on both their parts, Bridie's mother and the lord of the land had a relationship, which resulted in her conception and birth. Had she been a son, he might have taken an interest in her, but he did not, and merely continued to pay her mother appropriately for the work she did in the area, with occasional forays into physical affection, with no strings attached.

During her childhood, Bridie spent a lot of time with odd playmates, fae and spirits, due to minor isolation from the rest of the village. Everyone knew exactly where she came from, the bastard child of their master, and that made things terribly awkward, though she didn't understand that at the time. When she was about seven, things changed. Political tensions increased across the area as the Fomorians moved closer and took over Oman's Isle, and the local lord sought alliance with Queen Connomae out of sheer desperation. Part of the agreement involved either slaying or selling Bridie and her mother to the Fomorians, due to their associations with benign solitary fey and the Seelie Court. It would send a message.

The betrayal resulted in a devastating fight, as Carys was in no way inclined to go quietly. She was thoroughly outnumbered and did not survive, though she enabled Bridie to escape. It's from this fight that Bridie obtained her burn scars, which cross her face and mark much of the left side of her body. Her childhood friends contrived to take her to the feywild, partly out of feeling indebted, partly just to deny her to Connomae. She spent about a decade there, with a lot of time serving as a pet or handmaid in Verenestra's court. Verenestra being terribly vain and indisposed to like anyone approaching her beauty, a scarred child made an ideal companion. She didn't intend to be cruel, but it was always very clear to Bridie that she didn't have much in the way of looks going for her, so she learned other means of charming people. She has a bit of a complex about her facial scars, and there is no level of sincerity or finesse that will convince her to accept a compliment based on her appearance. In her experience, most people who aren't fey are some level of ugly, anyway.

When she came of age, she asked to return to the world in order to avenge herself and contribute to the interests of the Court there in some small way. The price of her freedom was a warlock pact, which seemed more like a boon at the time since she wasn't exactly skilled at defending herself. It does mean she can be recalled to the Court if they choose, though thus far there's been no sign that her patrons intend to force her to do anything. Ostensibly, her loyalty as a warlock is to the Court as a whole, not necessarily to a particular archfey. She's not sure which individual owns the contract as her patron, and that may be deliberate on the fey's part, to keep her from zeroing in on that individual in an attempt to wriggle free of the pact.

If asked, she'll say she doubts it could be Titania or Oberon, since she's just not that important.

During her travel to Baldur's Gate, Bridie became known as "Tieve", The Girl from the Hillside, since she emerged from a fey mound. She gained a (folk hero) reputation for being unable to leave people in trouble well enough alone, with a special soft spot for orphaned children.

Her reputation sort of followed her to the Gate, but with the mix of languages there, 'Tieve' became corrupted to 'Tav' (because of course it did). She's been on her own for only a year or two, living in the poorer areas of the Lower City for the most part, and earning her keep with odd jobs, performances (she's no bard, but she can play the flute), and light sellsword work.

(Tl;dr version, will ship with all companions and share if her partner(s) are up for it. Big heart, high WIS, moderately low INT here. She is also easily swayed to compassion for orphan children and takes a big sisterly interest in Mol, Yenna, and Arabella, whether they like it or not.

I am, of course, willing to adjust Tieve's IC approach/attitude towards companions and other characters as players wish, especially for plot purposes! These are merely notes for how she was played IC in the game. Dreamwidth is a brave new world. Feel free to PM if you want to work something out.)

Shadowheart: They didn't click at first, although Tieve got a lot of mileage out of Shadowheart's tendency to approve of misdirection and talking through things rather than leaping into direct conflict. Tieve is never one to charge into a fight. She also never pushed her for information, because she knows knowledge comes with a price. The question of the prism was never directly dealt with until external forces made it be dealt with, at which point it somehow ended up in Tieve's inventory without any discussion so I'd be okay with playing out however that might have gone. As Shadowheart's past unfolds and she realizes how much hurt she's been through, and how little she can rely on her own memory, Tieve gets increasingly protective of her. Handing her back to Viconia was never going to be a possibility.


Lae'zel: That first somersault-leap was an unmistakeable heroic entrance, and despite the githyanki's general abrasiveness, Tieve was an instant fan. The tendency to bluntness is refreshing to her, too, after so long in the Court, where no one lies but no one says what they mean, either. She was quick to pick up on how willing Lae'zel was to pack bond even in the absence of other gith; it seems like it must be an unusual quality for someone from such an insular culture, and she is impressed.

(Lae'zel is her choice of romance through her playthrough; while I'm leaving things open-ended in dwrp, she will always appreciate her on some level, platonic or romantic.)


Wyll: Fellow warlock and folk hero! She sees a little more of herself reflected in Wyll than she likes, especially because he's got that storybook prince thing going and that's really not how she wants to see herself. He's a good person, though, and she likes to talk shop. She encouraged him to try to get out of his pact, which is possibly hypocritical because she doesn't want to be free of hers and doesn't expect to be released, like, ever. The Court is a dysfunctional family but it's the only one she has. Still, devils and fey are different creatures, that's her story and she's sticking to it.



Astarion: Her do-gooding means she butts heads with him almost constantly, at least until he realizes it extends to him and she's willing to help with his problems, too. This includes feeding him on the regular, because it's practical, and protecting him from Araj because she's not his keeper and if he says no to something, she assumes he means it. His snark doesn't always go over super well with her, but sometimes he makes her laugh. As they progress into Act 2 and 3, she gets increasingly willing to be ruthless with their enemies, which he appreciates, though chances are he doesn't love how she's still willing to do a good turn with no promise of reward.

It might throw him off his game a little how she won't respond to compliments about her appearance. She knows he's just playing around when he flirts, so if anything were ever to happen with them, it would be slow burn.

(Astarion is the player's favorite, ftr. Give me any kind of interaction with him, I will happily ship, but playing them as friends or frenemies is also A+. By default I assume she's been willing to let him feed from her, which I think feels like a queerplatonic dynamic if they're not in a relationship.)


Gale: Another parallel that stings a little. She knows what it's like to spend your formative years with supernatural entities. They may mean you no harm, may even intend to give you their best, but that doesn't make it easy, and they can commit awful wrongs without meaning to. She really wants him free of Mystra, at least emotionally, and she will encourage him to push back and think about his past in a different light at every opportunity. She also thinks he's kind of a nerd, which means she underestimates his hunger for power until mid game after he sees the Crown and starts to express interest.


Karlach: If you don't love Karlach, there's something wrong with you. Tieve has some concerns about her impulsiveness, but her tendency to being good to people is very welcome in a party that includes excessively secretive, abrasive, and deceptive people. She will hug her all the time, given the opportunity, and Karlach is probably the first person she will go to if she's down and needs reassurance, because a cheerful "Hey, Soldier" is just a nice thing to hear in and of itself.


Halsin: She has huge respect for druids, since her mother was one, but, uh...the Grove kind of put a dent in that respect. She doesn't want to blame Halsin for that, especially since he wasn't there when they arrived, and tried to sort things out after being freed, but she's not sure how far to trust his judgment. She believes he's fundamentally well-meaning, and yeah he looks like a very cuddly armful of Big Guy, but she has a hard time sussing out what his values actually are, aside from respect for the natural world. There's an underlying sadness to him that worries her, too, but she can't quite put her finger on where the hurt is, or how to help. Hearing about his childhood friendship with Thaniel struck her deeply, though, because her own experiences with fey and spirit friends were not dissimilar.


Minthara: Gods, but she just wants Minthara to be a better person than she apparently is. We knocked her unconscious rather than killing her (partly just because the player wanted to collect all the possible companions), and we rescued her from Moonrise, but we have little hope of convincing her that taking the power of the Absolute is a bad idea. Tieve restricts her promises to "we'll get revenge on Orin" and fully intends to let Minthara strike the killing blow if possible; I mean, we have to kill Orin no matter what so why not give her some closure? Minthara is fascinating to talk to, anyway, and she loves to exchange stories and points of view, even knowing they'll never meet in the middle.


Jaheira: How can such a good person be so dysfunctional with their loved ones? Jaheira reminds Tieve a lot of her own mother, and that is likely to lead to some arguments and possibly some hard truths that neither of them wants to talk about. They have excellent camp rapport, though, and a matching dry sense of humor.


Minsc: It's not that she doesn't take him seriously. He's a legend, she absolutely does, Boo and all. It's just that he really tickles her sense of whimsy. She will accept the talking space hamster without question, consult him seriously when the opportunity arises, and thank them both for their opinions even if she has no idea what squeak squeak meant. Minsc is Minsc, clearly a force of nature in and of himself.


Raphael: Honestly she kind of appreciates the charm and swagger. That doesn't mean she likes or trusts him, but he's so entertaining to watch, she doesn't hate it when he comes around. As a consequence, she's probably a little too soft toward him. She has no intention of selling her soul (she's not even sure it's up for grabs, given the nature of her pact) or the Crown of Karsus, but she's stalling real hard in making him her enemy. There's a good chance he picked up on very genuine relief that one time he blocked out the voice of the Emperor to talk to her without being overheard.


The Emperor: Hoo boy, does she hate this guy. Despite the soft start, nothing he said ever fully convinced her it was okay that he's in her head. The fact that he is clearly observing the group constantly is beyond unsettling, and even if it's for their protection she feels it's not that different from the parasite being there. Even before the big reveal that he's an illithid, she's not comfortable with him.

She did refuse to kill him for Vlaakith, primarily because she was already convinced it would only lead to everyone else dying, Lae'zel included--but it was not a great experience. She knows fey tricks, and pretending to be vulnerable to show how much you "trust" someone is a perfectly serviceable manipulation tactic. More and more as the plot unwinds through the game, she realizes he's maneuvering around her, specifically, since he speaks more often to her than to any of the others. With everyone relying on her for advice and leadership, it sends her stress level skyrocketing. And that's even before the revelations at the start of Act 3.

By the time she sees his old lair, she resents his manipulation deeply, but she also feels she has to play nice and give lip service to trusting and caring about him. Needless to say, she did not romance him in her playthrough, but let him down as gently as she could, because letting him feel like he has control of her seems like the best way to keep him guessing. She fully intends to free Orpheus, but concludes it has to be at the last minute possible, and it may be as risky for her and her companions as facing down the Absolute. It would bother her less if she were the only one at stake.

She is very close-lipped about her feelings about the Emperor situation, because she knows he's listening, so companions may well think she's taking him more lightly than she actually is.


Gortash: She really, really wants to hate him, but he's clearly not the psychopath Orin or even Ketheric were. Despite his genuine honesty when offering to share power, she doesn't trust him not to change his mind later, after what he did to Karlach. That said, as an alternative to the Emperor and/or Raphael...she's tempted. If Karlach weren't in the picture, she might agree to partner with him, in the hopes of tempering his most vicious urges later on. She'd hate herself if she did, though, so it's good Karlach is there.

Mizora: Oh my god Wyll, why is this bitch so obsessed with you?

Assorted pets and other followers:
By Act 3 we have:
Scratch, who has found his forever home, no one hurts him on pain of death
the Owlbear cub who she is trying to teach to play fetch but he just chews the hell out of whatever she throws for him
Shovel, who doesn't hang out in camp but is a delight to let loose in a fight
Us, the ugliest kitty in the world but we love them
Yenna and Grub, and Tieve has faith that some day that cat will let her pet him (spoiler: he won't)
Volo, who doesn't know he's a pet but he is
Withers, and we're probably his pets
And we have had Arabella, Barcus, the Duke, Isobel and Aylin stay with us. Tieve would have straight up brought Gondians and Tiefling refugees to camp for safety if it were an option. She collects people, possibly to the point that even her lawful and/or chaotic good companions are skeptical.

The crowd is, understandably, quick to disperse after the abrupt battle with Dribbles the not-actually-a-clown. The pools of blood on the pavement are still wet, but unless the redcaps mop them up in the next hour or so, they'll be drawing flies soon. About half of the performers are, like Popper, taking the situation in stride. Clown man dead, big whoof.

Not all of them feel that way, though, and Lucretious is in the midst of a heated conversation with a woman in motley and green who was selling sweets earlier (peanuts! popcorn! fairy floss with threads of magic glinting in the cloud of spun sugar...).

"What kind of necromancer are you if you can't even speak with the dead?" This is no way to speak to your employer, technically, but not only is the girl in green uncowed, but Lucretious seems to be taking her temper in stride.

"My conversations with the dead are usually very one-sided, sweetheart," she says. "I say jump, they don't actually need to ask me how high."

"So that's it then? All you're doing is hoping to get his bits back and make him work again?"

"What if I put the doppelganger's corpse to work mucking out Crimson's stall? Will that make you feel better?"

There's a pause, because evidently yes, that idea does help a little bit. The girl deflates a little, folding her arms across her chest, but her expression goes from outraged to murderously sullen. "I want to know who sent it. This is not their hunting ground."

"...it's hardly the first loss we've seen."

"Guests are different. This was one of our own. We have to retaliate."

"Tieve, if we were going to hunt someone down I'd hire a sellsword, not a candy-maker. Come on, you need to let this go."

The look on Tieve's face screams that she is not, in fact, going to let this go. But before she says something she'll regret, she catches a glimpse of the unfortunate hero of the hour out of the corner of her eye, and breaks off the conversation with Lucretious unceremoniously, to make a beeline for her.