Sword Coast Sapphics

Now. Some of the important questions...

What is 'the sapphic experience'?The sapphic experience is whatever you want it to be. For some people, that means they want to see an explicitly gay relationship between two women. For some people, they want to see something more queer-platonic and more community focused. Some people want to see Shadowheart's journey as a trans woman, and how that shapes her relationships with Shar, faith and other women. Some people want to see Lae'zel at the centre of a gith gang-bang as part of Vlaakith's initiation rituals.This zine is about women, and the love they have for other women. We are trans positive, queer positive, non-binary inclusive.Is explicit content allowed?Yes. Depending on the variety of submissions, we may produce an explicit version of the zine and a SFW version of the zine, or they may be included in a single volume and clearly marked.Is [insert kink here] allowed?Most likely. We are going into this with an open mind. On the off chance that your submission might be a tad outside of our preferences, we're happy to negotiate with you to find something that makes everyone happy. For some people, sapphic love means hand-holding and coffee dates, and for other people it means vore fetish. We're not judging.Will you be allowing 'dark' content?We will be taking the same approach to content that AO3 does — limited-to-no policing. Dark content and dead dove content will be clearly marked as such, and will be automatically assigned to the NSFW/explicit portion of the zine.Our only hard lines are in regards to racist, ableist, homophobic and transphobic content. We will not tolerate any related behaviours, and you may be asked to revise your application or be removed from the project. Raceplay is strictly forbidden.It is important to note however that this is intended to be a celebration of sapphic relationships, in every shape and form, so it might be appropriate to ask yourself if a piece including themes like rape/non-con, murder or incest for example is suitable for this project. If you can make a compelling pitch, we're open to having a discussion with you about it.Why are you allowing 'dark' content in a zine about love?Karlach's canonical backstory involves slavery, medical torture, and spending a decade as a gladiator in the literal hells. Lae'zel's canonical backstory involves cult brainwashing, child physical and emotional abuse, and extensive physical violence. Minthara's canonical backstory involves murder, mind-control, and implied rape. Shadowheart's canonical backstory involves kidnapping, child abuse, extensive torture, and cult brainwashing.Orin the Red's canonical backstory involves incest, child abuse, grooming, extensive gore, and murder.These things have all shaped these women in different ways, to lead them to the point where we meet them in game. We aren't going to deny their own histories just to make a fluffy zine — if we were, we might as well just make the CaitVi Mark 2.0. Baldur's Gate 3 is a relatively grim setting in a lot of ways, and we want our creators to be free to explore that in their art.Do you allow AI content?Strictly no AI content is allowed in this zine. This is a celebration of community creativity and joy, and we want to uplift the creators! The lead moderator has a bad back, and she doesn't want to uplift a computer, it's too heavy.Obviously, we can only police this so far, as there is a limit to how accurately one can detect AI content. We aren't interested in starting any witch-hunts, so we would please ask for you to act with integrity and not use AI for any part of the creative process.I don't believe that asexuals / trans women / non-binary individuals can be sapphicGreat news, you don't have to apply to this zine! And the wonderful thing about the internet is that you're free to go off and make your own zine, catering to your own interests, far away from usThis zine celebrates all of our sisters

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The following questions relate to the transformative nature of fandom, and may be considered controversial by some — we ask you to keep an open mind and a generous heart as you read to the end

I believe that [character x] should have been a lesbian and will be portraying them as suchThe romanceable companions in Baldur's Gate 3 have been explicitly stated to be some manner of multi-sexual by the developers, writers, and most of the actors at this point too. To insist that certain mannerisms and means of expressing attraction can only be experienced by particular groups is a close-minded way of thinking that we would like to avoid.That being said — for some people, sexuality is a fixed state where they comfortably reside for the entirety of their lives. For others, it can be fluid, changing with each new encounter. For others still, it can be a fixed state with one single hard and sharp turn that takes them by surprise one day in their life, which is all a very complicated way of saying — maybe you have a story to tell about one of the companions rediscovering herself and her desires in the face of a loving and supportive community and found family. Maybe your Karlach does want to identify as a butch mommy figure now that she has her own bodily autonomy again, and your story is a reflection of that. Maybe your Minthara feels more confident in setting aside attraction to men because she's in a safe, sapphic relationship that she won't be asked to destroy for the sake of family politics.Additionally, we are well aware of the disappointment that some feel about the lack of explicitly stated lesbian representation amongst the companions, and we don't want to dismiss or minimise those feelings.We aren't going to say no to lesbian readings. As long as what you bring to the conversation is earnest, enthusiastic and respectful of the other participants who do want to acknowledge the canonical bisexual, pansexual and polysexual readings of the companions, we'll be delighted to have you. This is the power of headcanons, after all, and why we partake in transformative fiction and art — if we only ever allowed ourselves to create things that were explicitly approved of by the creators of the original work or canon readings, then none of us would be here at all.I believe that [character x] should have been asexual and will be portraying them as suchAs we explained above, the romanceable companions of Baldur's Gate 3 have been explicitly stated to be some manner of multi-sexual by the developers, writers, and most of the actors at this point too. All of the female companions are shown to engage in sex in some capacity in a romance arc.Now, again! That doesn't necessarily have to mean anything for your own reading of the character, and the creations you'd be offering for the zine. As long as what you bring to the conversation is earnest, enthusiastic and respectful, we'll be delighted to have you. Specifically in regards to asexuality and aromanticism, what we aren't looking to see is any mocking or derisive attitudes towards sexual and romantic relationships. We're here to celebrate sapphic relationships and sapphic communities, not tear them down.I want to do a piece about [canonically male character] as a trans femme, is that allowed?A tricky question, and one we will assess on a case by case basis. There's never a solution that makes everyone happy when the topic of gender-bending, Rule 63, and trans reimaginings comes up. For some people, it's empowering; for others, it's deeply offensive and fetish content.Ideally, we want you to approach this question with this in mind — what does it say to an audience if we advertise ourselves as a zine about women, only for Astarion to have more prominence than the women in game? If you are determined to bring a trans femme reading to the table, what does it offer the reader, and what insights into the character can we gain?For example, a piece about Gale having her egg crack during her year in isolation could be a fascinating concept to explore. A story about how the continued violations of Astarion's body as a metaphor for the alienation and violence trans femmes face? Brutal, but so resonant. Or what about a piece about Wyll's forced transformation as a stand-in for the trans femme experience of puberty, and the new threat of being seen as a monster? Heavy-handed, perhaps, but acceptable.What we don't want to see is a gender-bent Durgetash or Bloodweave porn where they both look and act precisely the same but now they have vaginas. Have a little tact.What characters are allowed in the zine? Are we only allowed to feature the companions?Literally, any character featured in Baldur's Gate 3 is up for grabs. Do you want your Tav to have a tawdry love affair with Auntie Ethel? Go for it. Any NPC, no matter how limited in scope, can be your muse. You can write Minthara/Karlach, you can paint Isobel/Aylin, you can write a song for Alfira/Lakrissa, or you can do a lovingly rendered VP about that one overly excited halfing outside the Blushing Mermaid who loves Gortash too much paying the nymph at Sharess' Caress to dom her as Femme!Gortash. Go wild.Are OCs allowed? Can we use our Tav or our Durge?We're delighted to have OC content, within sensible limits. If your OC — either Tav, Durge or other OC — would be considered sapphic, either by your own interpretation or by the character's own internal sense of self, we would love to see them — ideally in the context of a sapphic relationship, but we're willing to be flexible. We aren't looking for any OC//OC ships or content at this point in time.For writers specifically, are x Reader fics allowed?We believe this falls within the boundaries of OCs, as long as the Reader is paired with an established female character. For obvious reasons, we would ask for a gender neutral Reader or female (cis or trans) Reader in order to honour the spirit of the zine.

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