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i really love the phrase “with all due respect” because it doesn’t specify how much respect is due. could be none. bitch.
This is a small essay that I originally typed on this post, but I didn't want to bog down the actual dash game post, so here we go, with the points numbered for easier reference.
You are a White Rook. (1) As a piece that can move inwards and outwards, you're a master of self-reflection. (2) You know what needs to be done and when to do it. (3) You're a protector, and would willingly take someone's place in danger in a heartbeat because you know you can handle the pressure. (4) But even castle walls crumble. For all your chivalry and fortitude, everything must come to an end. Will you be there to see the final stages of the war? Or will you have already been discarded in the battle?
To clarify, I answered this one as though it was after being freed from the Absolute and that had been traveling with a good-inclined group of adventurers for the events of the game. And all of this would absolutely apply, though one wouldn't think so, at first, but that will be for another post. I had started explaining here and it turned into a mini-essay.
As a piece that can move inwards and outwards, you're a master of self-reflection. When not delusional due to the influence of the Absolute, Nere is his own worst critic. He remembers everything he has ever done wrong or 'failed' in his entire life. He is extremely harsh with himself and even perceived failings. His whole insistence on "Nere. Does Not. Fail." boils down to him nearly having a meltdown over Trauma [ Within my own personal storyline, this is also because the last thing he remembers his older brother saying to him before he never saw him again was, "I'm sorry that I failed you." ].
You know what needs to be done and when to do it. He is a very logical and strategic person. Though I had to mess up his INT stat a bit for the companion version so his main stats [ STR, DEX, CON ] could be right, he is also quite intelligent, and he has used it to great effect to remain alive. My version of Nere--based upon his canon stats and feats--was essentially a gladiator prior to escaping from that life only to wind up a fighter for another group. He was definitely a Battle Master fighter, always using his brain in conjunction with his impressive strength and build.
You're a protector, and would willingly take someone's place in danger in a heartbeat because you know you can handle the pressure. This part probably seems the most questionable at face value, but consider it like this: To have been treated as he was for the entirety of his life... only to then be treated well by people who have absolutely no obligation to him? Who, by all rights, could have simply killed him and walked away, never having to think of him again? All of that [misplaced/misled] devotion previously given to the matriarchs and the Weaver, didn't just vanish. Were he to find people worthy of it, he would absolutely risk his life if it saved theirs. While he absolutely hated his circumstances within the society of Lolth-sworn and thought that he could be so much More, he is absolutely geared towards wholehearted, soul-crushing devotion, as he was still devoted to 'the Weaver' before the Absolute stole him away, despite everything he had suffered. And when the Absolute does get him, he is just as devoted to this 'new deity'. "I have been entrusted with a sacred mission. I cannot fail," he says if you tell him that he can report his own failures, clearly both proud that he had been given such a mission and prideful that someone would say he failed. And then this conversation can occur if you kill all of the duergar before freeing Nere [ hint: killing the duergar first is also how you save both the gnomes--aside from the one that is now cutscene locked to die who wasn't originally--as well as Nere ]: Tav: I was abducted by mind flayers. That was when I began to hear the Absolute. Nere, "I don't understand... I've been following those... wretched beasts?" If you CAST DETECT THOUGHTS you can get: It cannot be. Have I betrayed Lolth for an imposter? Tav: Your faith in Lolth faltered. It is not too late to reclaim it. Nere, genuinely sounding so disappointed in himself, "Was I so weak as to betray the Weaver? ... I will take word to the Order of Soul Spiders. They must know of the Absolute threat." You can also choose to convince him to abandon the Absolute and RUN. That's what I choose and it has, thus far, kept him from getting zombie-fied later. Tav: You don't have to. Run - abandon the Absolute. "Perhaps you're right.. Perhaps I should. Dying for a cause is one thing, but for a mindflayer? For filth like that? ... No. I owe you a debt, it seems. You've saved me from worse than the duergar. Take this - a personal blessing. I pray we don't meet again."
He is very committed, up to and including being willing to "die for a cause". That is how Lolth-sworn drow--particularly the males--are taught to be, and it is hard-wired. It would be a very difficult thing to change.
Really, the only difference from Lolth to the Absolute to the player party, is whether or not the people he would lay down his life for in the player party are worthy of it, unlike those who were the focus of his earlier devotion.