A couple weeks ago I decided to revamp an old OC that I never did much with into a bg3 OC and I just keep having Thoughts™
Okay so Veil was original just the result of me playing around in the Mii maker on my DS back in middle or high school, and later in high school I was like "they're a demigod with amnesia" but didn't have much else for her.
But now I've decided that in bg3 she's Mystra's Half-Elf daughter who traveled around studying all kinds of magic & doing all kinds of magical experiments. "Veil" was a nickname, as she always said "I aim to lift the veil of mystery from the Weave". She was always on rocky terms with Mystra and far too curious for her own good (nearly to the point of hubris).
I haven't decided on the details yet, but one day an experiment with psychic spells goes wrong and she's left with no memory of herself beyond the vague recollection of being called "Veil".
She happened to be in Waterdeep at the time, and again I haven't figured out the specifics yet, but a young Gale Dekarios takes her in and helps her relearn magic (Gale suspects her to be a sorcerer when she takes to it so quickly, but they both end up coming to the conclusion that it's part Elven ancestry, part muscle memory & that she must have been a wizard prior to her amnesia). Although she seems to have a knack for all schools of magic, Veil settles on divination as her specialty.
When Gale becomes Mystra's Chosen, Veil is... well, she has mixed feelings. She knows that it's a great honor, and she's learned plenty from Gale (and his books) about Mystra, but a part of her is very wary. She writes it off as envy, though she doesn't think about *who* she's envious of: Gale for being Chosen, or Mystra for having Gale's attention & admiration.
Of course, her wariness turns into disdain toward Mystra when Gale spends far more time with her in the Astral Plane than in Faerûn, drawing him away from not only Veil but everyone else in his life as well. She tries to keep in contact with him, but a mixture of Gale being too preoccupied & Mystra herself holding some disdain toward her daughter, it proves difficult and she eventually stops trying.
At some point, Veil ends up becoming a professor at Blackstaff.
I keep going back & forth on whether or not she finds out she's Mystra's daughter before or during the game.
Years later, when Veil hears about Gale's fall from grace, she tries reaching out to him again but doesn't get a response. She's worried, but she leaves him be and resists the temptation to essentially spy on him with her magic. He left her behind and she moved on with her life. No use upending her current life over him...
...and then the Nautiloid happens. Veil was on Sabbatical and traveling around Faerûn when she was abducted by the mindflayer ship.
And then after the ship crashes and she finds that portal Gale is stuck in.
Before pulling him out, she thinks "that voice sounds a lot like Gale... nevermind, it's probably just my imagination."
She pulls him out, and she cannot believe her eyes.
"Hello, I'm-"
"Gale Dekarios.... what in the Nine Hells are you doing here."
And of course, he's shocked to see her as well.
And they've both changed a lot. They've both aged (granted Veil slightly less so), Veil's hair is shorter while Gale's is longer and he's no longer clean shaven (Veil shoves down the thought that it's a good look for him).
Gale tries to go on introducing himself to the rest of the group, but Veil chews him out.
"If you think you can act like *nothing* happened, like you didn't drop off the face of Toril for years and we can just pick up as good old friends, you are *sorely* mistaken."
I can't remember the exact context beyond it being about his year in isolation, but I remember thinking about her saying "At one point, I would've done *anything* for you, Gale. I would've trudged through the hells, would've fought Mystra herself if you asked it of me. You could have asked for help, but you pushed me... pushed *everyone* away."
Part of my hesitancy to talk about Veil sooner is because part of me thinks it's kinda weird to ship two people with very similar sounding names. Not even in a "this is like borderline creepy" just me thinking how it would feel weird to me if my s/o's name rhymed with mine lol, but I also don't want to change Veil's name because 1) that's been her name since I since made her like at least a decade ago & 2) it just fits her so much more in the context of being Mystra's daughter! But I do intend to come up with a "birth name" for her and have "Veil" as a nickname that kinda just *became* her name after the accident.
I also kinda made Veil & Gale in the Sims with the idea that they're both magic professors. Mostly inspired by college AU stuff, but I like teacher/teacher more than teacher/student (in part bc I'm just a coward but also I just like the idea of them both being professors & maybe some students deciding to meddle/play wingman).
In the Magic College AU (which I imagine is basically still Faerûn just in a more modern setting), Veil doesn't have amnesia & she meets Gale while they're both students, but after graduation he becomes Mystra's Chosen & they drift apart. It isn't until years later, after Mystra basically abandons him that he ends up accepting a teaching position at the university with the intention of using the university's resources to find the missing piece of Weave. But it turns out Veil is also a professor and she's reluctant to interact with him but can't really avoid it so. Slow burn! And also here she's able to prevent him from finding the Netherese Orb and whatnot.
AND I started thinking about a second college AU but without magic (a more classic modern college au basically), partially inspired by this fic series (which is a professor x student thing but is still inspiration nonetheless). Gale teaches theoretical physics while Veil teaches folklore & mythology. Still keeping that they were students together, but in this case Gale got an internship with Veil's estranged mother's grad program or company or something & then after Mystra ends her little affair with Gale he does something stupid to try to win her back but it ends up all but ruining his professional reputation & he ends up begrudgingly accepting a teaching position at the university because that's basically the only job related to his field that will hire him. Here, in this AU, Gale & Veil have more of a rivals to lovers thing (science versus humanities, woo!).
So... yeah.
