The Chaos Bringer Series

Background

The Chaos Bringer Series is my current Work In Progress (WIP) fanfiction series that I specifically started to learn certain writing skills. We all need to start somewhere.

It is a Baldur's Gate fanfic written in the spirit of the tongue-in-cheek Dungeons and Dragons storytelling style. It is based on the events of Baldur's Gate 3 and includes all companions, a female Tav and an original female character (Nyx).

The fanfic follows the major story plot and honours the essence of BG3 and its characters, but it is not a carbon copy of events/dialogue in the game. This is to create interest and keep me sane as I weave in new/alternative stories/dialogues and integrate the backstory and journey of my OC (Original Character).

The fanfic sets out to celebrate BG3 for what it is, a story of companionship and overcoming seemingly impossible challenges both external and internal. It follows Nyx, as she travels with Tav and the gang while they get to know one another, the threat they face and experience each other's stories along the way. It has mature and dark components in line with the original game, but the main focus remains the story, the relationships between the characters and how they develop.

Writing Goals

From the start I wanted to steer clear of the usual 'fanfiction' tropes, especially the reputation that fanfics are smut fictions. This does not mean that I'm not going to explore some aspects of romance and intimacy, but that it simply won't be all that the fiction is about. I would likely get very bored if it were.

Thus, to keep me focused, motivated and as a reminder of what I set out to do I created a list of writing goals.

Things I want to explore during the writing of the story includes:

- Great characters

- Strong dialogue

- Immersive stories

Great characters:

- What makes relatable characters that you want to have more of?

- What makes characters different from one another and how do you portray this?

Strong dialogue:

- How do the motivations, background and personality of characters determine their actions, decisions, thoughts and dialogue?

Immersive stories:

- Incorporate 'human' elements into character stories; even for those who are 'thinking types' or 'darker types'

- Evil vs. dark vs. misguided elements

- Romance and intimacy

- Aim for fresh and tasteful

- Note to self: avoid tackiness

Fun stuff I'd like to play with:

- Monsters

- Battles

- Banter

- Symbolism

- Characters I'd normally 'not see myself writing about', such as a seductive vampire spawn with hidden agendas and trauma

- Characters not found in 'main stream media', such as Tav and Nyx who are both rare MBTI-female combos

I also discuss some of what I am trying to attempt as footnotes in the manuscripts themselves. Therefore, the footnotes include 'my author thoughts', DnD foreign language definitions, things I modified or invented for the fanfic's lore and images of the interesting monsters I include during the fight scenes (or those outside of BG3).

World Anvil Profile

I started this World Anvil profile with the main aim of creating an interactive research library for The Chaos Bringer series. I use Obsidian as my primary writing software, but the library or research part is getting crowded despite my OCD tendencies for organization. Also there are things Obsidian cannot do (or I don't have the motivation or time to figure out how to code it in there).

The main reason for being on WA is the maps section. As part of my research I wanted to gather up as many maps of Baldur's Gate as I could. I also like doing graphic design and I find creating new maps for the lesser known parts of Baldur's Gate both relaxing and rewarding.

Other things include making large-scale timelines and outlines of BG3 plot events, since Larian studios have a huge amount of lore hidden away in piece-meal books, notes and some such scattered around the game. These are separately available online in the Baldur's Gate 3 and Forgotten Realms wikis - however the big picture of how they all connect with one another is not so apparent or clear cut. Thus, I'll use WA to piece these together and make them available for everyone (sans spoilers to The Chaos Bringer series). This also allows me to fill in the gaps for my fanfic lore and plot. The world of Faerûn is immense, both in lore and locations...

Last Thoughts

The Chaos Bringer series is a long term project, this is both due to time constraints as I work full time and also to give me the mind space to concoct up all my plans and plot events.

It has a heavy focus on Dark Fantasy; exploring the human condition and how this manifests in the behaviour and development of characters. Thus, there will be dark topics with regards to abuse and trauma as well as unsettling scenes and decisions for the characters to make - as the world of the Forgotten Realms is anything but forgiving. Hence, the mature theme and adult reader ratings - because we are dealing with difficult topics and there are no 'correct' answers. However, to reiterate it is not a smut fiction, neither is it overly gory in terms of violence (by my best estimations).

Act I (Where Darkness Hides) is complete, and available on AO3 and WA.