positive

careful, focused, determined, imaginative

neutral

curious, studious, hesitant, committed

negative

short-tempered, dismissive, oblivious, entitled

Nadryn (Nah-DRIN) is short, slim, and carries himself with the air of a person who is very much used to getting his own way. There is a slight tremor in his hands that he disguises with long sleeves, and his body is webbed in scarring from a lifetime of whippings. He has a preference for black robes trimmed with silver or white, and he likes to wear heavy, sweet fragrances.

height5'2"

buildslim

hairwhite

eyesvibrant red

background;

CONTENT WARNING: Lolth-sworn Drow culture deals with physical and emotional abuse of children and adults, as well as themes relating to xenophobia and ideas of Drow racial supremacy. Some of this will be detailed in his background and personality sections, so please be mindful of this if it could be potentially triggering for you!

Nadryn Mizzrym is the second son of House Mizzrym, a high house of Menzoberranzan sworn to the services of the Spider Queen Lolth. While the Underdark is known for being filled with beauties and horrors alike Menzoberranzan stands out as an especially harsh city-state, and one that punishes any deviation from conformity with frequent – and often deadly – cruelty.

Like all Drow matriarchs, Matron Iymniss largely left the raising of her second son to the other males of the house. His childhood was cold and painful: Nadryn's time was split between the rigorous training of a young male who showed promise with faer (magic) and the strict rituals of the House, wherein even looking upon Matron Iymniss without permission could put him at the end of his sisters' snake-headed whip. His questioning nature and tendency to daydream meant that what little free time he had was often reserved for punishment; the coporal, at the hands of his sisters, and the psychological at the hands of Matron Iymniss.

The Drider pits were a warning to all young Drow of what would become of those who displeased Lolth. Unfortunately for Nadryn this was a warning that the Matron liked to underline up-close and personally, much to the delight of Risdal, his elder brother.

His time at Tier Breche academy was not the breath of freedom he'd hoped it would be. When Sorcere (Tier Breche's school of magecraft and wizardry) accepted him a few ears earlier than most, Nadryn had hoped to find the room to begin figuring out what kind of person he wanted to be — but Matron Iymniss's hold on his metaphorical leash was tight. He quickly learned that he was disinterested in the power-games of Drow males left unsupervised, however it would turn out that his own personal interest was of absolutely no consequence. Risdal was having him followed, of that much he was certain, and his sisters put constant pressure on him to spy for their House, and so in an effort to protect himself from further scourging he forced himself to learn how to play the political lanceboard. For half a century he reluctantly used whatever tools he had at his disposal — illusory magic, poisons, sex, coin — to drip information back to House Mizzrym, which was when he first began to learn how to dissociate his mind from his body and actions.

It was his prodigious command of illusory faer alone that stayed his sisters' hands from getting rid of him when he returned to the family home after Sorcere, citing his hesitance to commit himself body and soul to his family's political ambitions. It was fortunate, then, that Nadryn had proven himself an exceptionally talented mage: he was a boon to the family in terms of magical skill, however Matron Iymniss insisted on shutting him away from the public eye for what she called his "weakness under Lolth". Be as that may, his command over illusions was not something to be wasted, and so Nadryn was often forced to participate in the torture and mental breaking down of House Mizzrym's hostages, enemies, and playthings.

This wasn't enough for Risdal. Disgusted by his younger brother's half-hearted commitment to Lolth's teachings, he regularly petitioned Matron Iymniss to have him transformed into a Drider or killed – even attempted the latter a handful of times unbeknownst to the women of the family. It was only after his brother's third attempt on his life (in which Risdal very nearly succeeded) that Nadryn realised just how precarious his situation really was. After recovering from the brutal poisoning that has left him with a chronic shortness of breath and a mild tremor in his hands, Nadryn decided to try and buy himself a little time by further proving his worth to the family. In his youth he had read about a lost artifact known as the Diamond Staff of Chomylla – a staff that was not only powerful in its own right, but could unlock he hidden knowledge of the ancient Uvaeren. Surely this would please Lolth, please Matron Iymniss, and calm his brother for a while? Surely if he retreived it on his own he would be hailed a hero of House Mizzrym?

Little did he know that setting out on this secret quest would change the trajectory of his life forever – not only as a result of the Ilithid tadpole and the Absolute, but of learning what life could be like outside the societal confines of Menzoberranzan.

personality

To untangle Nadryn's behaviour it is crucial to understand that he has spent his 110 years of his life being socialised in a community that worships the evil Spider Queen Lolth, considers cruelty and malice the ultimate way to please Her, and controls the number of males (two, maximum) born into a noble household so as not to threaten the absolute power of the females. Lolth-sworn Drow are known throughout Faerûn for their vicious, ambitious society that crushes those percieved as weak underfoot; for example, the Lolth-honouring way for a female to ascend through the social hierarchy is to scheme, assassinate, and betray her way into power, with the males around her perceived as too stupid to be of use for anything but protection and reproduction. Anyone who deviates from the tenets of Loth is an abberation in the eyes of the Drow, and must either be forced into appropriate behaviour or face the wrath of the Spider Queen.

Lolth's wrath is very, very real, and the threat of it was regularly used as a way to terrorize Nadryn into falling in line beneath Matron Iymniss. Lolth sees all of her children, knows all of her children, and will brutally punish entire families for the transgressions of a single member — transgressions such as not killing enough innocents in a raid, allowing other families to ascend without properly attempting to tear them back down, or showing leniency towards captives instead of forcing them to suffer through agonizing torture. For these crimes Lolth would destroy entire dynasties, perhaps even transform the most egregious offenders into Driders, which is widely considered among the Drow to be a fate far worse than death.

It is therefore unfortunate that none of this comes naturally to Nadryn, whose love of stories, tendency to daydream, and disinterest in politics means he has ever been seen as a grave embarrassment to his House. In many ways he is fortunate to have been born the second son and not the elder: Matron Iymniss has no further expectations of him than doing what he must to keep the House in good standing with Lolth, which means that for the most part he can be punished, hidden, or ignored by the rest of the family. The few occasions during his childhood in which he was vocally rebellious saw him flogged bloody and menaced enough that he has since learned to hold his tongue, and as such he tends to keep any feelings of disagreement firmly to himself.

His fear of Lolth and her punishment means that he has had to develop ways and means of keeping up appearances when forced to partake of activities that make his stomach turn. Nadryn has become very good at compartmentalising the empathetic part of his brain: when the family demands use his body for information he does so without question, when they tell him to slaughter he does so with swift efficiency, and as a mage who specialises in illusion magic he has partaken in many hours of intensive psychological torture in the family dungeons. In order to live with himself he has separated that person from the person he chooses to be when he is alone: he views them as a necessity for survival whose skin he can slip into at will, but not as a part of himself.

Fiction is a way for him to escape the horrors of his life, and his love of fantasy has only increased over the passing decades. Engaging his imagination is the easiest way for him to cope with all that he's seen, done, and suffered through, to the point that he has even started penning fantastical works of his own from the privacy of his own chambers. His writing is one of the greatest secrets he holds from his family — if Risdal found out, he would surely murder him on the spot for his softness — and while it is his primary means of self-soothing, he is constantly wrestling with the deep-rooted shame of it. With any luck his manuscripts will never be seen by any other living person.

As such, secret-keeping has become a part of who he is. This has had a lot of practical applications on the surface as well as among his people: in Menzoberranzan, for example, his work in the dungeons is something to be seen as a badge of honour, but since venturing to the surface he hasn't told a soul of that part of his role within the family. This is in part because he has no interest in intimidating his way through his adventure: more than anything, Nadryn is desperate to actually make a friend, and to have people in his life who aren't scared of him and who he doesn't have to be scared of in turn.

He is, however, still a product of his upbringing in other (less violent) ways. While his family view him as a nuisance at best he is still a natural-born son of Matron Iymniss, and so his rooms have always been furnished elegantly, his food has always been perfectly prepared by the servants of the House, and he has grown used to an extremely comfortable standard of living. Nadryn doesn't understand why he would have to cook or clean for himself, nor does he have any interest in learning what he would consider to be 'servant duties' — however the longer he spends existing away from Menzoberranzan, the more likely that is to change. He is also prone to pouting when confused, irritated, or not getting his own way, and is a dab hand at what many would call 'the silent treatment'.

In sum, Nadryn is a person who values his own survival enough that he is willing to remove himself from the moment and commit atrocities for the sake of his House — but then who wouldn't be, after over a century of being brutally abused for disobedience, conditioned to fear Lolth, and raised to believe that a gruesome existence as an insane half-man half-spider awaits him should he disobey her word? He is terrified of the Spider Queen, terrified of Matron Iymniss, terrified of his brother and all of his sisters, and has survived one too many of Risdal's assassination attempts to believe himself especially long for this world. One day, his brother will succeed where he has previously failed. Nadryn has to do something to secure his position before that can come to pass, or be forced to resort to employ the very same tactics against Risdal and get rid of him once and for all.

wizard — school of illusion — 12 levels

✨ cantrips + misc

friends . ray of frost . mage hand . minor illusion . prestidigitation . see invisibility . faerie fire . darkness . find familiar: cheeky quasit . arcane recovery

✨ known spells

level i

shield . mage armour . ray of sickness . magic missile . thunder wave . sleep . find familiar

level ii

hold person . melf's acid arrow . misty step . phantasmal force . crown of madness . web

level iii

hypnotic pattern . counterspell . fireball . bestow curse

level iv

dimension door . phantasmal killer . confusion . blight . greater invisibility . polymorph . banish

level v

cone of cold . telekenisis . cloudkill . seeming

level vi

circle of death. disintegrate . eyebite

pearl . 30+ . uk gmt/bst .

horrology

code

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

NOTE: I am including his romance and sex options in the rundown but will not be approaching threads with those as canon. He is OTA shipping, these are just the choices I made for this run! ♥

ACT I MINDSET: During Act I Nadryn is struggling to adjust to the social norms of the Surface Dwellers. He is largely dismissive of other people's problems unless solving them can directly benefit him in some way, and his main goal is to surround himself with powerful allies who can help him on his journey to remove the Illithid tadpole. He is finding himself growing fond of his companions but struggles to balance that with his upbringing in Menzoberranzan, and his fear of the Spider Queen often forces him to hide behind the 'Lolth-sworn Drow Noble' persona that he uses to navigate his life in the Underdark. Occasionally, a softer side peeks though.

KEY:

*Good deed: 😊
Bad deed: 💀
Romance: ❤️

*An act committed for purely unselfish reasons / a genuine desire to help

➔ Did not free Shadowheart on the Nautiloid 💀
➔ Recruited Astarion
➔ Recuited Lae'zel
➔ Recruited Gale
➔ Recruited Shadowheart
➔ Liberated Withers of his sarcophagus
➔ Killed Nettie for forcing him to commit to killing himself 💀
➔ Ignored refugees 💀
➔ Allowed the goblin prisoner to be killed 💀
➔ Recruited Wyll
➔ Was non-committal re: Raphael's deal
➔ Rescued Mirkon 😊
➔ Invited Scratch to join their camp 😊
➔ Learned Astarion is a vampire; allows him to feed with permission
➔ Freed Barcus Wroot just to prove a point
➔ Received Lump the Enlightened's war horn
➔ Kept the Necromancy of Thay for himself
➔ Shared an intimate Wizard Moment™ with Gale and the Weave ❤️
➔ Encouraged and helped Astarion to kill Gandrel 😊
➔ Rejected Ethel's offer of help
➔ Fought and killed Ethel
➔ Gave Mayrina the Bitter Divorce
➔ Accepted Astarion's sexual proposition; told him his scars were written in Infernal ❤️
➔ Recruited Karlach
➔ Killed the "Paladins of Tyr"
➔ Took the Zhentarim shipment and left Rugan and Olly alive
➔ Left Waukeen's Rest to burn
➔ Found the Zhentarim hideout; allowed Zarys to kill Rugan 💀
➔ Agreed to deliver shipment to Baldur's Gate
➔ Did not rescue Oskar Fevras
➔ Opened the Necromancy of Thay; learned Speak with Dead
➔ Talked way into the Goblin Camp
➔ Received the Blessing of Loviatar but has very complicated feelings about it
➔ Killed Dror Ragzlin and Priestess Gut; knocked out Minthara
➔ Rescued Volo (reluctant)
➔ Rescued Halsin
➔ Wiped out the Goblin Camp 💀
➔ Invited the owlbear cub to join their camp 😊
➔ Incidentally saved the Emerald Grove + tieflings
➔ Slept with Astarion at the party ❤️
➔ Allowed Halsin to join the camp
➔ Headed to the Githyanki Creche
➔ Disagreed with Elminster (and Mystra) re: Gale 😊
➔ Freed Lae'zel from the Zaith'isk 😊
➔ Encouraged Lae'zel to defy Vlaakith 😊
➔ Wiped out the Creche
➔ Looted the Blood of Lathander

Edited 2023-12-07 15:42 (UTC)

INFO SHEET + IN-GAME CHOICES.

positive

neutral

negative

ACT I 🕸️ CHOICES (ONGOING)