WMG / Baldur's Gate III

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Returning characters for BG3

Minsc and Boo have already been teased as returning, which is possible since he was turned to stone and can be brought back easily.

Other characters that are rumored to be returning:

• Jaheira — a popular character who is an elf, a long-lived race
  • Jaheira's actually a half-elf, so while she's longer-lived than a human, she would be very old if she's still alive—not exactly someone who would be running around on adventures. Viconia dies if she's romanced, so her showing up would cut off a branch, which isn't unheard of in RPGs, but we all know how well-received the novels were when they tried to do the same. Korgan dies in his epilogue. Aerie and Jan are possibilities, but their epilogues weren't as open-ended as Minsc's, which is probably a primary reason (the other, of course, being his mascot status) he's showing up.
    • Although by natural lifespans Jaheira would be very old, the Realms is a setting where there are multiple ways to live longer and multiple ways to skip ahead. The game already features a character that inadvertently did just that (Volo; he spent nearly a century in an imprisonment spell), and the teased Minsc is another example, so it would not necessarily be that strange for anyone whose epilogues were open-ended enough to show up hale and hearty enough to adventure.
    • Jaheira's also a druid—they have a high-level class feature of multiplying their remaining lifespan by 10, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that she attained this.
  • Confirmed by her appearance in the Game Awards trailer.
• Viconia DeVir — drow have amazingly long lives as well
  • Confirmed, though going into any more detail is a lot more spoiler-y than Jaheira and Minsc's returns.
• Aerie — an interesting character from a winged, long-lived race
  • Mentioned but not present; Minsc says the last he saw of her she was going to find a way to get her wings back.
• Korgan Bloodaxe — a dwarf who is a great candidate for a Token Evil Teammate
• Jan Jansen — a gnome who could provide needed Comic Relief
  • Gnomes only live a little longer than humans and Jansen was middle-aged over a century ago. Unless something strange happened Jan is long dead.

Tiamat will be making an appearance

• It's in Avernus. Her lair is nearby.
• Also supporting this, the Githyanki have a pact with her, which grants them their Red Dragon mounts.
• Jossed: she isn't even relevant to the plot.
  • Although she is an option for a cleric's patron deity.

The rare non-humanoid illithids will be featured

Including:

• Brainstealer dragons (illithid + dragon)
• Mindwitnesses (illithid + beholder)
• Mozgriken (illithid + deep gnome)
• Tzakandi (illithid + lizardfolk)
• Uchuulon (illithid + lobsterfolk)
• Urophion (illithid + roper)
• Neothelid (illithid tadpole allowed to grow without supervision)
  • The tadpoles you fail/refuse to kill will end up appearing later as Neothelids

The events of Murder in Baldur's Gate will play a role in the plot

Given that the module was calling back to the prior games, it's possible that it will be referenced at the very least. This game might also give a definitive word on Abdel Adrian, the protagonist of the novelizations who dies during the titular murder. He could be confirmed to have been the canonical Charname (possibly - and hopefully - with the novel's events being rendered Broad Strokes canon), officially retconned into a Bhaalspawn who had nothing to do with the prior games, or be left ambiguous (with Lampshade Hanging of course, such as rumors that he was Gorion's Ward).

The Mind Flayers' Plan

They intend to use modified illithid tadpoles to create a widespread network of Manchurian Agents. Gale observes that the various escapees of the illithid ship should have been showing symptoms of ceremorphosis within a day or so of implantation, and yet there's no such changes occurring. Later in Act 1 the player encounters others with implanted tadpoles who may not entirely be aware of what has happened to them, and a machine found in the tutorial level instantly transforms a victim into a mind flayer. Put together, these facts could allow the illithids to sow spies in opposing ranks, kept loyal through the illithid Hive Mind and ready to become full-fledged mind flayers at a moment's notice.

• Adding legitimacy to this is the encounter with the "True Souls" acolytes, whose religion seems to regard those implanted with the parasites (the party and a dying companion of theirs) as chosen ones. It is actually speculated in dialogue that this was intentionally engineered by The Illithids.
• Mostly confirmed.

Alternative Mind Flayers' Plan.

They are using modified tadpoles to spread their influence WITHOUT changing hosts into Mindflayers (yet). They have created a religion centered around 'True Souls', who are implanted with said tadpoles. Sounds like some clever Illithid is following in Asmodeus' footsteps.

An Illithid is trying to ascend to Godhood.

• It could be secretly a cult of Ilsensyn - they promote him through worship, he provides them additional help in spreading their influence.
  • If this is 5th Edition lore, though, Illsensine is not actually a god, but an ideal so key to illithid society they draw divine magic from following it - complete unity with the source of all knowledge. Which could mean an extremely interesting idea if it turns out the mind flayers did the slow ceremorphosis on purpose to experience life from the perspective of other races, since if that is the case, that implies these Illsenine cultists are Affably Evil enough to acknowledge the perspective of other species as valid. Could lead to an interesting Protagonist Journey to Villain ending where you willingly accept ceremorphosis in return for keeping your original mind in order to help reach Illsenine for all species.
    • Or they do this to absorb points of view of other races to better understand their prey and/or advance their own knowledge - something like "yes, they're inferior to us, but still they may have discovered something useful that we missed". This still brings them closer to the Illsensine, but not in a well-intentioned way.
• Zig-Zagged: the Absolute is just a pawn to the Dead Three, but in the end it hijacks the whole plan and guns for world domination.

There will be a Bhaalspawn ilithid

Or more accurately, an ilithid whose ceremorphosis host was a Bhaalspawn, and who has inherited some of said powers. Said ilithid is likely to be the Big Bad or a Token Heroic Orc party member.

• Confirmed: one of the Origins is a Bhaalspawn, and they can undergo ceremorphosis in the end. And they indeed can be anything among the mentioned roles.

The talkative skeleton is actually a Chosen of Jergal, if not Jergal himself.

You woke him up from his long sleep within a temple dedicated to Jergal and, as a result, took an interest in you. There are also unique dialogue options that you can choose while conversing with him if you play as a cleric of Kelemvor or Myrkul, although he denies the idea of him being chosen by either deity.

• And he wasn't sealed there - he just decided to have a nap, until you came and woke him.
• His speech to the Dead Three in a secret ending scene, as well as resurrecting The Dark Urge, should Baal reclaim his essence implies that he's indeed Jergal.

The Goblins will be made playable.

The Playerbase and Feedback forums have been surprisingly positive towards the Goblins, the Feedback forums having at least a few people requesting them, they might end up having enough requests for Goblins that they made be added, even if it's as DLC rather than Base game.

Warforged will be playable.

There is in the files a line for Warforged in it.As Seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-yay9V6oiM&t=104sIt's only a WMG as there has been no confirmation and there's no guarantee said clip will pan out.

The Person Of Your Dreams Isn't The Tadpole

The tadpole is confirmed to be under the influence of magic that's preventing ceremorphosis. While Lae'zel, the party's resident mindflayer expert, is convinced that the person of your dreams is just the parasite talking, there's been a lot going on that she's been wrong about. While Auntie Ethel fails to remove the parasite, she does reveal an interesting factoid: it has netherese magic on it. This isn't the first time that Netheril has come up:

• Gale has a netherese artifact in his chest.
• Shadowheart is a priest of Shar. Shar who regularly tries to usurp Mystra (see: more references to Neth).
• Selune is also a frequent figure and has intimate ties to Mystra.

Furthermore, while the tadpole undoubtedly is having some side effects - mind reading and other psionic effects - there are additional effects that don't seem to line up with what you'd expect from a psionic, parasite species. Affected Drow aren't shown as having a sensitivity to sunlight, and Astarion (a vampire spawn) notes that most of his vampire weaknesses have been nullified. Though it could be argued that it's because none of the characters have been turned into mind flayers yet (mind flayers don't have these mentioned weaknesses), it's equally possible that we have a case of co-morbidities: two separate or interacting conditions that are happening at the same time which makes distinguishing between them difficult. Given the semi-constant background reminders of Netheril and its magic, and whoever or whatever the "Absolute" is, and it's not unlikely that some remnant of old Netheril was disturbed out of its hiding place and is trying to set itself up as a god. The missing piece I'm trying to sort out is the mind flayers themselves: the why and how of their involvement is unclear.

• Shar and Selûne also have another connection to the Netherese: they both provided backing to surviving Netherese enclaves, Selûne's just haven't had the ritual that'd return them to Toril happen yet. And there is a connection between mind flayers and the Netherese: Ioulaum, the arcanist who effectively created Netheril as most remember it by inventing the mythallar and the flying cities it allowed, took illithid students around the fall of Netheril, illithid students that would go on to become the first alhoons, illithid liches. Ioulaum himself eventually transformed himself into an undead elder brain and still existed as of the last time he was mentioned.
  • And that fits snugly in the previous WMG about illithid apotheosis, just replace one minor detail.

• The plot was rewritten a bit between Early Access and release, but it's confirmed: it's Emperor, a rogue illithid.

Eye spy with my little I

Most people who offer you help with your tadpole don't mean that, and actually only exploiting you. In particular, both Volo and Ethel use the fact that you lost the eye to spy on you - either through prostesis or through an echantment on your own eye. The cambion doesn't need this to follow you, and he is too more interested in the tadpole.

• Going by his established personality, Volothamp Geddarm almost certainly meant to aid you with the tadpole, he just wouldn't see anything wrong with learning a little more in the process and doesn't know as much as he thinks he does.
  • After rewatching: it looks like he was contacted by a third party during his "research" and given instructions to deliberately injure PC's eye and give them a spying one if he fails to extract the tadpole itself (or maybe the eye was to go bye-bye anyway due to his lack of skill), possibly as a payment for actual information about tadpoles and methods of their removal. By OP logic this party is also backing Ethel, though withholding information about Netheril magic.
• Point-by-point: Nettie just tries to kill you, because she cannot do anything; Volo and Ethel damage your eye, possibly spying through it; Raphael is obvious, though commented to be desperate and possibly wanting the tadpole more than your soul; Gut wants a pet illithid, but it looks like not all her ideas are her own; Korilla doesn't offer help with a tadpole, but mentions an interested party; Halsin can actually be trustworthy, or at least very good at lying; and Omeluum is interesting case - he's obvious to suspect as his efforts fatten the tadpole, but he also offers you a mind-shielding ring, so unless he (or someone else) can track the ring later, his attempt to help is genuine. The rest remains to be seen in later patches.
• Nope: Volo's, Omeluum's and even (in regards to removing the tadpole) Ethel's offers are in good faith and Gut is genuine in her desires. Only Raphael has some hidden agenda, but it would be a surprise if he didn't. Ethel does have a hidden agenda as a hag, as seen by her museum, but she was willing to do her part of the bargain first... until she figured out that your particular tadpole is way beyond her weight-class.

Jergal is actually behind the Absolute

While the Absolute seems like a Mind Flayer conspirativos, it’s clerics actually do have divine magic(or at least something easy to pass as divine magic), indicating there’s a god behind it. The symbol of the Absolute resembles the union of the Dead Three’s symbols, and Jergal once held all their three portfolios until he got bored and gave up most of his divinity to the first mortals that came knocking. He could have got bored of being the scribe of the dead and be planning to return to his old power, using mind flayer tadpoles in some way.

• If so, then it was a test. One that they failed if Wither's dialogue in the ending is any indication.
  • Said speech clearly indicates that he sees the whole scheme as crude and stupid. While they indeed failed, he's been only an observer, and they cooked up the plan by themselves.
• Jergal was never that evil. Cold, uncaring and aloof certainly, but not randomly cruel like the Dead Three. Also if he really wanted to return to full power he'd need to take out Kelemvor and Cyric, as both still hold a lot of the power the Dead Three inherited from him.

Shadowheart's crisis of faith

Shadowheart is currently a Cleric of Shar, although she's lost a good deal of memories, including her real name. She also seems to have really good morals for someone that supposedly follows and worships Shar, the goddess of darkness, loss, and secrets. She's quick to dodge most questions about her faith, mostly because she doesn't know the answers and the previous mission she was on for her deity resulted in her being the only survivor although, again, she has no idea about the mission itself or how she survived it. Somewhere down the line, it will be revealed that Shadowheart was actually a Cleric of Selûne who was kidnapped and brainwashed to worship Shar instead. Even if that isn't what happened, something will cause her to flip flop between the two deities. It could possibly be up to the Player Character's previous actions to determine which path she ultimately follows. What does help explain the possibility of her being a kidnapped and brainwashed Selunite is the weird magic flaring up when you find the broken Selune statue in the blighted village, possibly a sign from the goddess herself.

• Partially jossed. While Shadowheart is not a Cleric of Selûne, she can convert to her faith after Shar abandons her for sparing the Nightsong.
• On the other hand, she was in fact brainwashed by the Sharrans, even before she lost her memory in the mission to retrieve the artifact. And while she never was an ordained cleric of Selûne, she was a follower of the goddess going through some sort of religious initiation when she was kidnapped. The weird magic flaring up in her hand is in fact related to this as well, it's a sign that her parents are still alive and being tortured by Sharrans, their life magically linked with hers.

The Absolute is really an evil Charname

Instead of destroying the Throne of Bhaal, Charname ascends and becomes the new God(ess) of Murder. However, they begin having ambitions of becoming the most powerful god in existence and drag the cast of III into their schemes.

• Jossed. The Absolute is actually an enslaved Motherbrain.

The person we dream at night is a fiend

Assuming, of course, that the "lover" isn't a by-product of the tadpole and is a separate entity looking to control the player and their party. At some point, the Nine Hells caught wind of the mind flayers' plan to create a new kind of tadpole. They became interested and have decided to try to enthrall the player in order to gain control over this new "weapon". One of their tactics is sending out minions to manipulate them, such as Raphael. But one of the fiends is posing as the player's preferred partner in order to bind them to their will.

• Jossed. It's a renegade mind flayer and they have no connection to Raphael.

Tarquin from Divinity: Original Sin 2 will make an appearance

In the epilogue of that game, the necromancer Tarquin makes allusions to another plane of existence where creatures feast on people's minds. Then he disappears. Assuming Larian knew that they would be making BG3 when they wrote that...

The player will be able to turn into a mindflayer

As an alternative to extracting the tadpole to avoid the transformation, the player will be able to find a way to circumvent it — such as using the magic jar spell to leave the body before the transformation and then return to it once it's complete.

• Confirmed. They're shielded from the Motherbrain during the process and then kill it, thus retaining their personality and free will for the whole time.

The player will have the option to potentially work with the tadpole

The tadpole may become angry that it is being used as a weapon and being denied the ability to become a proper mindflayer, or maybe it will have a Heel–Face Turn upon learning the truth of what elderbrains really do with dead mindflayer minds.

• Mostly Jossed but with a caveat. You can use the tadpole's powers but not by it's own will.

The Dead Three are behind the Absolute

Look at the symbol of the Absolute; it's a combination of the symbols of Bane (the handprint), Bhaal (the skull), and Myrkul (the triangle). How they tie in with the tadpoles is unknown at this point, but there are several possibilities.

• They're working with a group of Illithids for mutual benefit.
• Their agents stole and then modified a bunch of tadpoles.

Furthermore, if the Hooded Skeleton is connected to Jergal, who gave up his portfolio to the trio in the first place, then Jergal might have an unexpected interest in stopping them.

• Broadly confirmed. There actually is an Absolute that exists and wasn't created by them, but each of the three Chosen of the Absolute is connected to one of the Dead Three and the Cult of the Absolute and how it perceives the Absolute is a creation of the Chosen.

Cyric is behind the Absolute

The Absolute exists, as a symbol, to primarily do three things.

• The first is to sow confusion and aggression among the established religions and factions on the Southern Sword Coast. This is achieved by direct action (the operations we actually witness) and indirect actions. (By being a new cult, they attract immediate hostility.)
• The second is to find and capture artifacts of power, such as the githyanki weapon.
• The third is to spread the word about the Absolute.
  • Now, the symbol of the Absolute would seem to make the Dead Three a shoe-in, but this requires three notoriously self-interested entities to put aside conflicting goals and animosity to cooperate. There IS another god that might be a better fit. A god who's symbol also centers around a skull. A god of strife who's been only too happy to deceive his own followers to pursue his aims, and make use of whatever tools are available. (Tools such as Shadow magic and mind-flayer tadpoles perhaps?) A god who, in the past, has even gone by names such as 'The One,' 'The All,' and 'The Everything.' Cyric would meet those criteria, and concocting a symbol to direct the ire of the righteous towards three of his greatest rivals is right up his alley.
• Jossed: it's indeed the Dead Three. They and their Chosen are cooperating only to backstab each other.
  • Which one could have guessed; Cyric's plans are never this...coherent.

Both their amnesia, and the violent impluses behind the Dark Urge suffers from are due to Bhaal's influence

While the Dark Urges may not be a Bhaalspawn, they have come into contact with Bhaal's power at some point, and it left it's mark on them in the form of impluses to maim and murder.

• Confirmed. The Dark Urge's murderous impulses stem from their heritage as Bhaalspawn.

Shadowheart's such an unlikely Sharran Cleric because her memory wipe locked away her socialization to be cruel.

Nature Versus Nurture is a theme that comes up at least once, explicitly, before Act 3. The party encounters a researcher who wants to abduct a Githyanki egg at the behest of the Society of Brilliance, because they want to see if they can raise a githyanki who isn't anti-social to decide whether violence is born or taught. If the authors fall on the opinion that violence and cruelty are taught, Shadowheart's memory wipe might have included some of the puppy kicking lessons Sharran initiates would surely undergo, even if she retains the skills and outcome of that training. The result might be that her kinder inclinations bleed through stronger without the full spectre of her Sharran upbringing honing her cruelty.

The Dark Urge was subjected to a Reincarnate Spell or something similar at some point

That's how The Dark Urge was a white dragonborn in the Blood In Baldur's Gate prequel, but can be anything in the main game.

• That's more of a gameplay convention - if you choose someone different, you're implicitly retconning the prequel to fit your choice.

The Emperor wasn't wrong to be concerned about Orpheus... regarding himself

The Emperor had planned on having his brain eaten, either by himself or by whoever got turned into a Mind Flayer, and he gets real snappy at you for siphoning off his abilities, which you can imagine he'd be even more pissed off at the guy directly doing it. Even if Orpheus would have been willing to side with you, the Emperor had done a lot to him personally.

Arabella has become the Chosen of Silvanus

She got her powers after handling the idol of Silvanus and it's not some inherent quality of the idol as plenty of folks (including potentially the player) have held it and not gotten on-demand druid magic. So I'm thinking when she stole the idol she made unwitting contact with Silvanus and the Treefather saw something in the kid and empowered her. He is the kind of god who would do such a thing without bothering to offer an explanation. He's also the kind of god Jergal would approve of (sternly neutral and focussed on his purpose rather than personal preferences) which links in with Withers supporting Arabella's destiny.

Gale's godhood will be temporary.

As the god of ambition, Gale will always be seeking to surpass other gods. It's only a matter of time before he targets Ao, and there is no scenario where that will end well for him. Best case scenario is that he'll be made mortal again. Worst case is that Ao will just wipe him from existence.

Sarevok endured a Crisis of Faith between games

Though he coveted Bhaal's role he was never a devotee of his father's ways, but it's possible after he fell to his sibling and he was brought back, his Bhallspawn essence gone, Sarevok eventually committed himself to his father in full upon his return. One of his endings in Baldur's Gate 2, does mention that once he buried his loved one Sarevok began Wandering the Earth, unable to find peace, and so like many in real life who feel lost, he turned to religion in an attempt to find some place in the world now that his chance at godhood was gone, it just happened to be his dad's murder cult.

The Sarevok we see within the game's story is NOT the original Sarevok.

In Baldur's Gate 1 he was the main villain, a Bhaalspawn who was resentful of his cursed blood driving him to kill but nonetheless was bent on conquering. In Baldur's Gate 2 he was revived without the taint, becoming much less powerful as a party member but potentially being able to unlearn the lessions his traumatic childhood foisted upon him. And in Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy, he ended up becoming a famed mercenary, only to end up becoming a depressed drunkard in his old age as his body couldn't keep up with the abuse his career put on it.

In this light, it's entirely possible that the Sarevok we see in game, one who openly states that he's a shadow of his former self, is the Bhaalspawn taint that the original shed upon being revived by Gorion's Ward.

The Nautiloid attacked the city in the opening specifically to find Shadowheart

In Act 3, a scroll in Jaehira's office says that a Nautiloid has been stealthily abducting and returning people in Baldur's Gate at night (which is when Astarion was abducted). Compare this to the mass attack in the opening.

Once you find all the pieces, you learn that the Astral Prism was originally in Githyanki hands. Then the Absolute stole it with a Nautiloid piloted by the Emperor. At some point, the Sharran Temple learned about the Absolute and assigned Shadowheart's squadron to steal it from them, to which they succeeded. Then the Nautiloid abducted Shadowheart, which is where the game begins.

My theory is that after the artifact entered Shadowheart's possession, she tried to hide in the city in the opening. The Absolute was desperate to get it back, so they sent a Nautiloid to go out all and abduct everyone they could, stealth be damned. The Githyanki noticed the Mind Flayer invasion and sent a strike team.

During the Feral Durge Epilogue, Withers or the Party kills them with either no or few casualties

If Tav attacks someone during Withers party under normal circumstances, Withers gets pissed and kills you/teleports you away. If the Feral Durge attacks the camp, even if the party is over, Withers will be pissed and stop them. If he doesn’t, then and someone in the party wakes up and notices them it turns into a huge fight withan entire camp full of Level 12 characters vs 1 Level 12 Dark Urge

The Githyanki Heretic that was executed for claiming she was "God's Favourite Princess" was the original Vlaakith LXXV

She became part of a heretical cult (which, given that Githyanki society for many generations was and technically still is staunchly atheistic, could be anything), and because Vlaakith LXXIV couldn't afford to have a daughter so openly defying Githyanki dogma, had her executed and her sister renamed to carry on the line of succession.

The Sword Coast Zhentarim are in serious trouble after the end of the game.

They probably thought siding with the Cult of the Absolute was gonna be a good business opportunity but the point of the Black Network is ultimately to finance and lay the groundwork for the Zhents to Take Over the World. Once news of what almost happened reaches the organisation's leaders back in the Moonsea area they are gonna be very upset that their Sword Coast agents almost lead to Mind Flayer domination of Toril and any Zhentarim that avoided the party's wrath are going to be made examples of.

If you sleep with the Emperor, he shows your companions to sow distrust between Tav/The Dark Urge and them

It seems rather odd that if they bang the Emperor, the companions see and then never bring it up again. It also is odd if a companion like Halsin or Jaheria see considering they don’t have tadpoles. It’s very possible that the Emperor purposely projected three companions to “witness” you togeather in order to cause Tav/Dark Urge to distrust them and more willing to listen to him.

Ceremorphosis brought on by these modified tadpoles doesn't immediately consume the soul, but it does eventually.

Despite Withers being so certain that illithids lack souls, implying that immediate loss of soul is the norm, there are several examples of souls being retained soon after ceremorphosis.

• Turning into a mind flayer and then offing yourself results in you being sent to the Fugue Plane, to Withers' surprise.
• Should Orpheus be the one to transform, he'll ask that you kill him while he still has a soul to call his own.
• If Origin Gale transforms, he can still present the crown to Mystra, and she'll turn him back to human.

However, this doesn't mean these souls are retained forever. If Karlach transforms, she'll be pretty much the same immediately afterward, but during the epilogue party, she'll be very different in personality and demeanor; her manner of speaking is a lot more refined, and so calm it's almost monotone, and she'll be a lot less affectionate towards a romanced PC.