Durgetash - Blog Posts

i'm being dragged kicking and screaming into drugetash shipping it isn't my fault

Baldur's Gate 3 has me in its unrelenting grip. I am obsessed.

Especially with the problematic king himself, Enver Gortash.

I love him. I want him as a romance option for both Durge and Tav. I want my Durge to reunite with the lover she can't remember. I want Tav to drag that man kicking and screaming through his redemption arc.

Tavtash is definitely my preference out of the two. Because god forbid I just have a normal ship with an abundance of fic. No, of course not. My dumbass has to go running for a rare pair.

And on that note, I really need fic writers to remember that Durge is not Tav!! They are not the same. Durge can be evil or good. Tav can also be evil or good. But they are fundamentally different characters regardless of how you play or write them.

So, please, please please please stop using Tavtash tags for Durgetash. I keep getting so excited that there's finally another piece of Tavtash content, only to find that it's actually Durge.

I like Durge, and I like Durgetash, and I will still enjoy Durgetash content. But y'all are getting my hopes up and then crushing them. So please stop using Tavtash tags for Durgetash content.

Your average meeting of the Dead Three

I think I talked too much about just how grossly they kiss but did not make it clear enough. Right in front of Ketheric's salad, too.

who would know your husband better than his evil ex that lives in your living room?

this is a comic about a little au ive got where after the netherbrain is handled, durge finds gortash's body and resurrects him to give him another chance and "fix him" like how dying made durge a better person.

gortash has no choice but to live with some weirdo wizard and his old friend who changed so much that enver can barely recognize him.

#GortashWeek Day 2: Worship / Betrayal 

Tarot Card - "The Lovers"

meaning reversed: Self-love, disharmony, imbalance, misalignment of values

Larian, you’re seriously telling me that Gortash doesn’t have time to kiss This

And you expect me to BELIEVE that?????

not now kitten daddy is too busy contemplating the minutia of death cult office politics to kiss

saw this on Reddit and died.

Feeling some kinda way about them again.

I'm unwell

Little things I personally love to see in Durgetash ships (this is really just what I enjoy, not what I think needs to be there for it to be valid or anything)

Fearsexual Gortash. He’s gotta be a little worried for his life and horny about it. But also…

Conquestsexual Gortash. The idea of owning the thing he is afraid of? Very sexy to him. Definitely not indicative of…

Absolutely out of control parental issues. Leaning in heavy on his experiments with people on how far they would go for their children.

Durge having full blown religious crises over holding somebody’s hand with tenderness.

Fully taking the “I consent! But I don’t!” Meme energy into Bhaal being a constant present threat to their relationship.

Both of them having a truly monstrous streak. Even if they might be soft for each other, it never stops them being a nightmare for everybody else around them.

Both of them having complimentary but different genius, whatever that looks like. The surgeon and the engineer. The politician and the empathetic killer. The mechanic and the butcher. Whatever it is, they revel in sharing space as equally smart people.

Gortash having actual injuries from Durge. Maybe he actually needs that cane…

Durge having a really tender spot somewhere for Gortash that manifests in strange ways. What strange means can vary but I delight in a huge Dragonborn bringing him breakfast pastries as much as I delight in a cute Halfling leaving him body parts of patriars like a cat with a dead bird.

I've seen a lot of durgetash naysaying out in the wild and I just wanna say this.

Larian wouldn't have paid for Gortash to be animated two different ways in a number of his scenes if they wanted it to be ~up to interpretation~ if he and Durge were close or not.

I think that players can articulate the nature of that closeness for themselves, but make no mistake: Enver Gortash treasures the Dark Urge, and not for no reason. You were confidants. You had a cipher, just for the two of you. You knew each other for 10+ years (if the House of Wonders heist happens around the same time Karlach is sold).

Headcanon your Durge's sexual orientation however you wish. Headcanon their gender however you wish.

But closeness — even intimate, private closeness — takes many shapes. Whatever your preference, platonic or romantic or some third thing, Gortash and the Dark Urge were as close as two people can be.

And it killed them both.

Salami Bhaalivna is a simple creature

A lot of Thoughts about Enver Gortash and the text of Richard III

Ok so William Shakespeare's character of Richard of Gloucester is very much the archetype for the Tyrant in western literature and I just have SO MANY THOUGHTS about the way Enver Gortash wears that particular crown... (Not to mention how the fangirl in me just loves some of Richard's dialogue and could easily see it coming out of Gortash's mouth, and I'm trying so hard NOT to write a whole ass fic just so I can get Gortash to say, "I am not made of stone.")

WHO IS RICHARD III?

In real life, he was the last Plantagenet king of England, and a controversial figure, but I'm just talking about how he's depicted as a character in William Shakespeare's play Richard III (and to a lesser degree in Henry VI) . In Shakespeare's plays he is written as the quintessential scheming, backstabbing, duplicitous tyrant who will stop at nothing to gain and keep power. He concocts a massive plan in which he will manipulate the whole of the English aristocracy into crowning him king, by creating a situation in which they will be so desperate and angry at an imagined enemy that they will beg him to assume power over them. Sound familiar?

"Since I cannot prove a lover (...) I am determined to prove a villain." They have different backgrounds, but with both Richard of Gloucester and Enver Gortash there's a driving current of otherness compared to the ranks of the nobility that they're manipulating. Gortash is from a working class family but clawed his way up to join the ranks of the well-bred elite through cunning and ingenuity (and lots of crime). Richard was born into a noble family, but is physically disabled and is often mocked or insulted for it. In context, Richard uses the phrase 'since I cannot prove a lover' less as a complaint about his love life and more as a general example of how he has doesn't fit in with his peers. Basically, "You don't accept me? I'll make that everyone's problem."

"How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown..." Both of them survived trauma and violence, which was directed at them by people against whom they were powerless at the time. Gortash was sold to Raphael as a child and spent years as a target of every kind of abuse his master deigned to throw at him. Richard saw his father and brother brutally tortured, then murdered by the queen of their country, while he could do nothing to stop it. In both cases they internalized at a young age that violence = power = safety.

"Was ever woman in this humour won? (...) I, that kill'd her husband and his father, to take her in her heart's extremest hate (...) and yet to win her, all the world to nothing!" Both Richard and Gortash are platinum-tier smooth-talkers, who are skilled at getting other people to act the way they want through use of charming words. Richard shoots his shot with Anne despite the fact that she knows full well he murdered her last husband and she literally spent the first half of the scene wishing death on him. But by the end of the scene he's convinced her to marry him. Gortash, similarly, can talk the player character around to siding with him against the Elder Brain in spite of having just spent the first 2 act of the games trying to unravel his evil plots. Why? Because they're both just. that. smooth. They both have a way of manipulating others with a smile and good cheer - they sound so reasonable, even when you KNOW you shouldn't listen to them.

"Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself." Both of them have are underestimated partly because of their ability to be charming, and partly because of their status as outsiders. Gortash because of his working class background, and Richard because of his disabilities. In both cases, there are people who find them repulsive but generally toothless (Queen Elizabeth and Ulder Ravengard respectively) who live to regret it. In both cases there are also people who ring the alarm bell that this creep is up to no good, but who aren't heeded soon enough.

"And thou unfit for any place but hell." "Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it." "Some dungeon." "Your bed-chamber." They both have a little bit of that freak in them and seem to get off on trying to fuck people who want them dead. See: Richard with Anne. Durgetash in general.

"I'll be at charges for a looking-glass, and entertain some score or two of tailors." Gortash and Richard are both exceptionally well-dressed, to the point of vanity. Gortash is described as handsome in the game, but even fans who dig him can admit that he has a very unconventional style of attractiveness. His teeth are discolored, his skin is blotchy, he's pushing late middle age, and he's got the sort of flat features that other fans have pointed out are typical of boxers and other people who've gotten punched in the face a lot. Similarly, Richard is described as hunchbacked and with features so deformed that 'dogs bark at (him) as (he) passes by'. Yet, despite not being conventionally pretty, both of them seem to spend a lot of money on their clothes. ... this is getting long, so I'm going to end this here. Might do a part 2 later if the brainrot is still upon me.

Why You should Read "A Little Wicked"

(if you like villains, BG3, smut, and Enver "Slithering Wet Malice" Gortash)

A Halfling Cleric (least played race and class combo!) main character with nuanced morality, a layered backstory, and who engages in sincere, messy non-monogamy

Humor in conversations, from puns to jokes to Enver Gortash deadpan snarking at the Morninglord Lathander himself

A serious, nuanced look at how an ascension-chasing Astarion would be in a relationship

A Tavtash pairing that makes sense with the underlying character motivations while still respecting a historical (and future) Durgetash pairing

Melting hot smut in multiple pairings and scenarios that fit into the story as a whole

A full chapter dedicated to the Temple of Bhaal and the emotional Descent to the Underworld experience of a Reject-intending Dark Urge

An ending where we don't have to choose between the Emperor and Orpheus!

Roah Moonglow enjoying milk tea. Yes, that's an entire bullet point on its own. Y'all don't give enough love to her

Lots of DnD lore shout-outs, from the MC's deity to Barovian implications to reminding everyone that their favorite new-beginnings god has a cataclysm named for him

I talk up A Little Wicked a lot, and that's because it deserves it. It's a longer fic, 57,000 words in eleven easy-to-split-up chapters. It's an act 3 rewrite, with no copied scenes, but with new spins on many in-game events (let's just blow a hole in the Szarr Palace lmao,) and it's written by someone who genuinely likes and understands all the characters they write about. It's my first novel-length fic, and anyone who drops in my DMs about it raves about how emotionally invested they become, how true the characters are to the game, how this little fellow Zefira Shadebrook is someone they come to love!

I know, maybe people are like "eh, a halfling having sex" - but give me a chance, please! If you love Durgetash, if you love the bastard Enver Gortash, if you can just try one Tavtash story (that ends in Durgetash!) and give me a chance to impress you, please try reading A Little Wicked. It will be worth your time.

What if this is Gortash's way of having a plan to betray the others. Just as Durge is planning to end the world, with himself and Gortash as the last living beings, what if Gortash was planning on "liberating" Durge from their bhaalspawn flesh and blood. Durge would be a part of Enver's perfect order. Maybe both of them are hatching plans to subvert the other for their cause, tyranny and murder respectively. This is a wild rabbit hole indeed.

Let's say, Durge somehow defies daddy Bhaal and Gortash does not bite the grass.

Let's say, despite tireless efforts Bhaal doesn't rly like letting go of his kids, esp not those crafted from his own flesh and blood.

Let's also say, Gortash, the mad unethical scientist, would find 'ways' for Durge to get rid of the burden that is their Bhaalspawn body (essence may be gone but that body still Bhaals property technically).

And now, cuz I'm feeling funny, what if the Steelwatch and the whole consciousness/souls bit Gortash got going on is precisely with that in mind? After all, Gortash is a tyrant obsessed with freedom. And Durge is his equal. So of course he'd assist in their escape from their own hell, too. And if what they need is a new vessel to store their consciousness, well, Gortash and his mechanical puppets are happy to oblige.

I'm onto smth I know it (and this is definitely not just a scrapped ending that I've been reconsidering again)

I'm going to pretend this is canon and no one can stop me

Also this gets 10 times funnier if you think Durge and Gortash were dating and Ketheric was the third wheel. Durge and Gortash are unsubtly flirting with each other and Ketheric is trying to keep them on the topic of the Absolute

Myrkul is the third wheel of the Dead Three, and you can not change my mind.

Bane and Bhaal hate each other so much, and Myrkul's just there like

"I hate both of you"

and the other two are just busy yelling at one another

I swear Bane and Bhaal are exs, and Myrkul has to now deal with this eternal falling out

I know it's technically about how Bane got the most power and Bhaal is jealous blah blah blah, but this is funnier

They are divorced, your honor

And Myrkul is just there, sick of it

Another thing about Yurena's horns decorations/jewelry, since it's all from Gortash. For a long time she just had the two rings, then eventually a chain around one of them too. But in the current day she also has little studs in her horns, which are also from Gortash, naturally. It took a long time for Gortash to even suggest such a thing, and even longer for Yurena to agree to it, because I imagine tiefling horns are like goat horns and therefore have nerves and shit (read; putting something like those studs in would hurt). And like Yurena has no problems with pain, both having a high pain tolerance and generally not finding pain as a bad feeling, but to trust someone to potentially hurt her like that? It took a while, not to mention Gortash insisted on spending plenty of time so close to make sure each stud was perfectly placed, perfectly symmetrical

Gortash: I'm not hurting you, am I?

Yurena: You'd be bleeding by now if I cared

Gortash: I didn't ask if you care, just if it hurts

Yurena: I'm not the first tiefling you've met

Gortash: You're the first one whose horns I've touched. It's never come up before

Yurena: If you must know, fine. Yes, there's pain each time the jewelry is put in. Be careful closer to the base of them if you care about it so much

Gortash was in fact extremely careful. At the end of it all, Yurena has more horn decorations to treasure and Gortash is left admiring his art - and Yurena

My biggest head canon for my Durge and Gortash is that Gortash was the one that decorated her horns. Yurena wears chains and rings and stuff on her horns and I fully believe Gortash started that with the rings, he probably was given some silver rings but he likes gold so he just.. put them on Yurena's horns. Something like this;

Gortash: I have no need for these, and silver would look good on you. Would you like them?

Yurena: Your fingers are much larger than mine

Gortash: Ah, right. Hm. Here, I have an idea *puts a ring on each of her horns* see? They look lovely like that

Yurena:

Yurena: Do you have more

Picture of Yurena below to show off her horn jewelry

Currently writing a sort of continuation Durgetash AU where my Durge character (Yurena, because she's my main Durge character so why not) convinces Withers to bring Gortash back after everything that happens, and the two of them (now both having been given new life) are free from their gods and decide to simply travel Faerûn. In it I lean into them putting old skills to new use, and that leads to Gortash inventing a camera for Yurena. This is essentially how him showing her it goes

Gortash: I made this, you can look through this lens and then click this button and it will take a picture of whatever you see through the lens. I'm working on a device that connects to it to see all the pictures you take but for now you can see them on this too Yurena: *staring at him through the camera* This is so sweet of you, what made you do this? Gortash: Well a while back you said something about wanting to capture a moment forever, and I wanted to make that happen for you. Plus I always have admired that creative spark of yours, now you can make the beauty you see last forever. Anyway I started thinking about what I could- Yurena: *click* Gortash: ...what was that Yurena: You said I can make anything beautiful last forever Gortash: My dear, I'm honored, may I see the picture Yurena: Sure Gortash: *staring at the picture of him mid sentence, not at all posed for a picture*

And that is how Yurena gets Gortash to be speechless for a solid minute because he can't decide if he hates the picture because of how unflattering it is or if he loves it because he knows she's seeing the beauty of his mind at work and it's such a wonderful feeling to be loved

I should post about Yurena soon like I did for Echo

Work is hell let me daydream about my domestic Durgetash AU/alternate ending

Did I come up with it today? Yes. But also it's about to be my only source of comfort as I brave the storm that is working at a grocery store

"You're supposed to be dead" was all that came out, but there were many more thoughts racing through Durge's head

How was he alive? How long had he been alive? And, oh no, why did he almost feel relieved.

Gortash was decomposed, nothing like his usual self as he rushed to explain. Durge stood still, arms crossed as he stared at Gortash

In truth, the words weren't processing in their mind. They were too preoccupied by the internal conflict, knowing this man was a threat but being glad his death had only been temporary

At some point Gortash stopped talking. Durge said nothing, they couldn't when none of the explanation had stuck

The two stared at each other, unspoken emotions dancing behind each of their eyes

"Durge?"

Finally, Durge spoke again, tone light; "I'm glad I can kill you myself"

Imagine this:

Gortash is back, no one knows just yet, with the the exception of withers.

Withers thinks it's best for gortash lays low for a while.

The companions have no clue about his resurrection.

Gortash is aware that he is now an enemy of the people in baldur's gate.

Going back there isn't an option right now.

He is at the wilderness campsite, that's where he stays.

Every now and then, the companions would visit withers, gortash must remain unseen at all cost.

So he hides, until they leave.

Eventually, it all gets a little tiresome for gortash.

Wondering when he'll be able to get out of hiding.

This time, durge pays a visit to withers.

Gortash hesitates, he hadn't seen durge since their confrontation with the elder brain.

Realisation hits him, he must hide, quickly.

With a quick sigh of relief, gortash wonders, if durge would be glad to see him. Maybe not.

Durge has changed, no reason to be around a miserable failure like himself.

Durge has moved on, with no memories of their times together.

To durge, he is the past. The forgotten past.

Gortash's thoughts were cut off when he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Lo and behold, standing there, in his hiding place, was none other than the one he was thinking about.

Durge saw him.

Durge knows nows.

He should be disappointed he failed withers.

But he's happy, happy to be seen by his durge.

"You're supposed to be dead" were the words durge spoke.

Time to explain everything.

"What's on your mind?" Oh nothing just that Durge knew their feelings for Gortash were wrong in Bhaal's eyes but all they could do was ask for forgiveness. It wasn't the admiration that was wrong, the connection with another person, but rather that Gortash is the Chosen of Bane. "Forgive me, Father, for I cannot help but admire the Chosen of your sworn foe: Enver Gortash."

These two are all I think about anymore. They make me sick. I love them