That Moment When All You Wanna Draw Is Durgetash & Other Ship Art, But You Have An Art Contest Submission

That moment when all you wanna draw is Durgetash & other Ship art, but you have an art contest submission to do, Convention prep aka Keychains, & other owed art to finish first. Sigh, so much to do and so little time to be self indulgent. 😔

@bontwisty That moment when our two favs collide LMAOO

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I went through some of the official material to find sources that might be useful when writing Raphael and Haarlep (may also be helpful when writing Mizora and Mephistopheles). Here's a collection of what I found, with some notes.

Overview:

Cambion and succubus stat blocks

More stat blocks

Devil contracts

Avernus

Magic in Avernus

Map of Avernus

Blood War

Soul coin

Menu

Infernal Cambions

Mephistopheles

Ranks

Devil Cults

From the Monster Manual:

Cambion stat block

BG3 only players might not be familiar with these spells, so I'm linking them here: Alter Self - Detect Magic - Plane Shift

Note that this version for Plane Shift only works on the cambion themself, whereas the spell normally works on up to eight willing creatures, or one unwilling creature. Raphael might have used a variant of the spell to unwillingly transport the player and companions to the House of Hope and back.

"Telepathic Bond" is an interesting ability that Haarlep doesn't have in BG3.

There is a spell called Shapechange but it seems to work very differently from Shapechanger.

Also, the whole "taking your form and you can feel when it's being use" thing isn't mentioned here, it might be something unique to Haarlep or something they learned, rather than an inherent ability.

From the Monster Manual Expanded:

More stat blocks

From Descent into Avernus:

Devil Contracts

I feel that in the Infernal Hierarchy, Raphael falls into the "Duke" category, which is probably unusual for a cambion. (He is not an archduke, as archdukes are the rulers of the hells. He wants to be one, but isn't yet.)

The contract forms we see him use in the game are close to "Infernal Scroll" (the contract the player can sign) and "Song of the devil" (the contract he made with Yurgir).

Avernus

"Pieces of cities stolen from other planes" might also be the case with the HoH, though Raphael probably added the devil statues later on.

Magic in Avernus

Good to keep in mind when writing a wizard character!

Map of Avernus

Blood War

I don't think Raphael works directly for Zariel. He still has to follow her laws though, as we can see in the HoH, where the archivist is expecting a visit from Zariel's High Inquistor.

I think Raphael might be paying the hell equivalent of taxes to Zariel for living and operating out of Avernus. He may also occasionally sell useful items or souls to Zariel's forces, to profit from the Blood War. He does mention one of his goals is to end (win) the blood war, so he is at least on Zariel's side, if not fighting with her directly.

Soul coin

That's about 13 cm and 150 grams.

Menu

Some dishes one might be served in the hells. Raphael also mentions "Cocktails and Canapés" when talking to Yurgir, so that's something that exists in this world!

From Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes:

Infernal Cambions

This could be the reason why many of Raphael's attacks create Hellfire, which is something Mephistopheles invented.

Mephistopheles

Ranks

Like I said above, I think Raphael has the title of Duke, which would put him at rank 12, but I think rank 11 would also be realistic.

Devil Cults

I don't think Raphael would worship Mephisto, but you could easily argue he has inherited his affinity for fire magic through genetics.

Also note that unlike most other devils, Raphael is not trapped in the Nine Hells. As a cambion he can plane shift once per day and can easily access the Material Plane. He might still want a cult worshipping him for other reasons though.

Just a Dark Urge romance in a nutshell

If not romanceable, why romance shaped?