Baldur's Gate III: NPCs and Factions / Characters

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Emerald Grove

The Emerald Grove In General

Druid: They're all druids that are dedicated to Silvanus and aligned with the Emerald Enclave, with their mission being to maintain the balance of nature of the surrounding wilderness.
Good Is Not Nice: While they don't align themselves with evil creatures and have good goals in mind, most of them are isolationists who are not welcoming to outsiders and fully agree with Kagha in forcibly kicking out the refugees from their grove, even if it means they'll be massacred by the goblins.
Hidden Elf Village: Most of the Druid in the grove are isolationists and are eager to conduct the Rite Of Thorns in order to seal their grove away from the outside world and its problems.
Speaks Fluent Animal: Due to their Druid magic, they're all capable of communicating with animals, to the point several animals travel to the grove seeking some kind of assistance from them.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Since they're all Druids, shapeshifting into animals comes naturally to them. You can even speak to one druid who prefers being in animal form.

Archdruid Halsin

Halsin

Voiced by: Dave Jones

Race: Wood Elf

Class: Druid (Circle of the Moon)

The leader of a druid enclave inhabiting the Emerald Grove.

See Other Companions & Camp Followers for his character page.

Kagha

"A viper bares her fangs to defend her brood. You call her monster — I call her mother."

Voiced by: Clare Corbett

Race: Wood Elf

Class: Druid

The acting Archdruid of the Emerald Grove in Halsin's absence.

Above Good and Evil: Claims this if you call her a monster for threatening and/or killing a refugee child. Given the Lawful-Chaotic axis of the D&D alignment system, she's not entirely wrong that "Good and Evil" isn't the only measure of behavior. On the other hand, the analogy she uses to defend her actions compares herself to a protective animal acting on instinct rather than a sapient creature making conscious decisions, which doesn't hold up well against the whole "child murder" issue.
Animal Motif: Snakes and vipers. Characters, including her own druid colleagues, often compare her to a deadly viper. She even has a snake familiar in Teela and her magical amulet Broodmother's Revenge is meant to resemble a viper's eyes.
The Corrupter: According to Rath and Zevlor, it's due to her influence that the other druids have started to become more isolationist and more hostile towards outsiders.
Death by Irony: If she kills Arabella, you convince her to turn on the Shadow Druids and the refugees are saved from the goblins, Arabella's parents poison her during the celebration party with the same venom she used to kill their daughter.
Heel–Face Turn: If you find the evidence that she's a Shadow Druid, you can convince her to turn against them by passing various skill checks to remind her of a druid's duty to preserve balance and harmony.
Hypocrite: She'll brush off you calling her a monster for threatening a child with a venomous snake, saying that you would do the same to a viper protecting her nest, and you don't care about the reasons behind what she does. However, Kagha is perfectly fine with blanketing all of the tiefling refugees as dangerous outsiders that she's fully allowed to kick out into the dangerous wilderness to be slaughtered by gods know what, with no thought put into how they feel about it.
Ignored Epiphany: If the player doesn't talk her down from killing Arabella, she does seem a bit horrified by it after the fact... Before quickly steeling herself and insisting that she made the right call.
Laser-Guided Karma: You can make her face consequences for her actions in several ways.
- If you rescue Halsin, she'll be demoted from second highest ranking druid to novice.
- If you convince her to turn against the Shadow Druids, she'll finally admit to her wrong doing and accept punishment.
- If you don't save Arabella, she gets poisoned and comes to understand the pain Arabella felt in her final moments, and can be stabbed to death if you don't talk down Arabella's mother.
My God, What Have I Done?: If you convince her to turn on the Shadow Druids, she's shocked by how far she was willing to go, and awaits judgement from Silvanus for her actions.
Number Two: To Halsin, though she's acting as Number One in his absence.
The Mole: For the Shadow Druids, though she can be turned with the proper skill checks.
Tyrant Takes the Helm: When she took over as acting Archdruid, the druids became more hostile and isolationist towards outsiders.
Unwitting Pawn: Ketheric's notes in Moonrise Towers reveal that the Cult of the Absolute were colluding with the Shadow Druids, making Kagha, who was working in the Shadow Druids' interests, an indirect pawn of the Cult.
Villain Has a Point: After spending enough time among the bustle and vice of Baldur's Gate, Kagha's Good Counterpart Halsin, of all people, comes to concede that her druidic isolationism wasn't a meritless philosophy. The trouble was how she went about it, not the idea itself.
Would Hurt a Child: The first thing you find her doing is threatening a child with a deadly viper. If you don't pass a difficult Persuasion check, she then fatally sics it on the poor girl.

Nettie

Voiced by: Charlene McKenna

Race: Gold Dwarf

Class: Druid

A member of the Emerald Grove and Halsin's apprentice.

The Apprentice: She's Halsin's personal apprentice at the Emerald Grove, which makes her personally loyal to him and his goals. She's notably the only member of the grove who knows the specifics of why Halsin accompanied Aradin to the goblin's camp.
Apologetic Attacker: If you seek her help in removing the tadpole but don't cooperate with her, she will pretend to have a way to heal you, but actually just scratch you with a deadly poison. She apologetically explains that she has no way to remove the tadpole, and all that she can offer is a Mercy Kill from turning into a mind flayer. She's apologetic enough that you can convince her to give you a chance, but only if you swear to drink a bottle of wyvern poison in case you feel the transformation is about to happen.
Facial Markings: Her face is covered by druidic tattoos.
The Medic: She's the dedicated healer amongst the druids of the grove, supposedly second only to Halsin, and is the one that everyone points to when you ask for a healer upon arriving there. Removing a mind flayer's tadpole is quite beyond her abilities, and the best she can offer is a Mercy Kill.
Master Poisoner: Aside from being a healer, she's also quite adept with poisons as she can infect the player with a deadly poison with a single Deadly Scratch. She can also cure them just as easily if convinced or forced to.
Ms. Exposition: Her questline serves to show the player that not only is the tadpole they're infected with quite abnormal, but that there are many others that have been infected with a similar abnormal tadpole, and they have shown up before the Nautiloid ever crashed there.

Rath

Voiced by:

Race: Human

Class: Druid

A member of the Emerald Grove who opposes Kagha's rule.

A Doormat to His Men: Discussed. After Halsin selects Kagha's replacement, the player can ask why he didn't just promote Token Good Teammate Rath. Halsin replies that since Rath was so ineffectual at standing up to Kagha, he isn't yet capable of being the firm leader the Grove needs.
My God, What Have I Done?: If Kagha kills Arabella, he'll be the only one who's truly horrified that the druids are now responsible for the death of a child, and feels responsible for not being able to stop it.
Only Sane Man: He's the most vocal of the few druids that don't support Kagha's actions, openly arguing against some of her decisions and pointing out how tyrannical she's becoming.
Token Good Teammate: One of the few druids that believes expelling the tieflings from Grove is a selfish and evil act, and that Kagha has been leading all of them astray from Silvanus' teachings.

Beno Boys

Beno Boys In General

Dirty Coward: When they saw just how outnumbered they were by the goblins at the Temple of Selûne, they called it quits on the spot, abandoning Halsin and even one of their newbie teammates, Liam, to their fates. The disorganized rout also got many of them killed, with only three arriving at the gates of the Grove with a goblin raiding party in hot pursuit. The tieflings, druids (and possibly the player) all consider them cowards for it.
Fantastic Racism: They show open disdain towards the tiefling refugees, which is partly why they care so little for their cause. They usually refer to them with slurs such as foulbloods or "horns".
Only in It for the Money: They only got involved with the Sylvanus Grove questline due to them being hired by Lorroakan to search for a treasure located in the local abandoned Temple of Selûne. They don't give a damn about the fate of the refugees, the druids, or even Halsin who accompanied them to the Temple.
Overrated and Underleveled: Their dialogue indicates they're an experienced adventuring party, but they're only level 2 and only have basic equipment, and overall don't look much stronger than the supposedly-useless tiefling militia at the Grove.
Sacrificial Lamb: Most of the team gets killed by the goblin forces of The Absolute before the player even gets properly involved in the plot.
Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: They decided to quit the Nightsong job the moment they saw how many goblins there were at the temple. They see the act as pragmatic, but the disorganized rout and the fact they left Halsin and Liam behind makes other characters see them as Dirty Cowards. If asked, they'll give up on the contract for the Nightsong job to the player without issue, though Aradin thinks it's a suicide mission.
Take That!: To the standard Only in It for the Money Murderhobo adventuring parties that were the standard affair in earlier editions of the tabletop game. Unlike the player and their companions, who are multifaceted and fully realized characters with personal motivations and questlines that tie into their backstories and the setting, the Beno Boys are only adventuring to get rich or die trying, and aside from Aradin only have one or two defining character traits that comes across as a lazy or new player's attempt to weakly justify or humanize their character's crude and violent nature. Gets even worse when they crop back up in Act 3 and try to swindle your now far stronger party out of a cut of the reward for finding the Nightsong or, failing that, suicidally try to kidnap her from your camp and deliver her to Lorroakan personally.
The Worf Effect: They're a supposedly experienced adventuring party that got slaughtered by the goblins, establishing the goblin forces as a threat to the refugees, the druids, and the player.

Aradin

Aradin Beno

Voiced by: Ash Rizi

Race: Human

Class: Fighter

The leader of an adventurer-for-hire group called the Beno Boys.

Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: He's a rough blowhard with a temper, and appropriately fights with a spiked club.
A Father to His Men: Rude and rough as he is, he cares for the safety of his people and sees it as his responsibility to keep them safe, and is very distraught that so many of them died in a pointless job.
Bad Boss: While he cares for the guys he feels responsible for, when considering an attack to grab the Nightsong from your camp, his dialog indicates he's not above hiring Cannon Fodder.
Boomerang Bigot: If punched by a human player character during his encounter with Zevlor, he'll call them a slur before storming out of the Grove... despite being human himself.
Bullying a Dragon: Tell him about Nightsong being in your camp and he'll go there with some backup to to kidnap her and take you out to avoid competition. Somehow he seems to miss that that the party and Nightsong herself would be far stronger than him and the goblins he ran away from during Act 1.
Hate Sink: There is zero attempt in the writing to make him remotely sympathetic; he's openly rude, crude and brutish and not terribly bright.
Jerkass: He's a rude jerk to everyone he interacts with, and according to the refugees, he was like that even before he got even more foul-tempered after his job went so catastrophically. Even a player who saved his life and acts nice to him won't be treated all that well. He's equally unpleasant should the player encounter him again in Act 3 and tell him they've found the Nightsong, at which point he'll try to intimidate them in to giving him a share of the reward since he's the one who gave them the contract in the first place.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He's an obnoxious and temperamental thug with racist leanings, but the player might be inclined to see some good in him thanks to his obvious distraught at his friends' death and willingness to share the Nightsong contract with them, albeit on the understanding they're certain it'll get you killed. When he finds out that that the Nightsong is a person, he's completely OK with aasimar trafficking, only complaining that Lorrokan wasn't up front with him and that kidnapping costs extra (dialog implying he already knew that the Nightsong was a person before you told him was a bug that got patched in Update 6).
The Leader: He's the leader and founder of the Beno Boys, who are named after him.
Sir Swearsalot: It doesn't take a lot to cause him to tell someone to "feck off".
Ungrateful Bastard: He won't act any nicer to the player, Zevlor or Wyll for saving him from the goblin raid at the entrance to the grove.

Barth

Voiced by: Stephen Hogan

Race: High Half-Elf

One of the members of the Beno Boys that survived the expedition to the abandoned Temple of Selûne.

Commonality Connection: If the player picks the right dialogue option during his altercation with Meli, she will reveal she stole the locket because it reminded her of her mother. Barth will sympathize, given the locket is a Tragic Keepsake of his own mother, and he'll allow the girl to keep it, figuring it's what his mother would want.
Hypocrite: Barth gets angry when Meli steals a locket that belonged to his mother - but with Detect Thoughts or persuasion, you can learn that his mother stole the locket from someone else.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has the same rude and crass demeanour as the rest of his team, but he can show a softer side when interacting with the tiefling child that stole his locket at the Grove, and he'll thank the player for intervening and reining in his worst impulses during that moment.
Tragic Keepsake: He cares about the locket that was stolen by the tiefling girl because it's the last thing he has from his departed mother.
Would Hurt a Child: If the player doesn't intervene during his altercation with Meli, he'll slap her across the face so she'll give up his locket.

Remira

Voiced by:

Race: Human

One of the members of the Beno Boys that survived the expedition to the abandoned Temple of Selûne.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She acts like a jerk to the player and the tieflings, but she cares about her teammates and is very upset at having to leave Liam behind in particular, since he was a newbie and they were supposed to keep him safe.
Long-Range Fighter: She fights with a bow, and unfortunately for her, she starts very close to the melee goblin raiders during the fight at the Grove's gate and doesn't have anywhere to run to, making her the most likely character to die during that fight.
The Smurfette Principle: She's the only female member of the Beno Boys.
Tomboy: Is just as much of a crass blowhard as her male companions.
Ungrateful Bastard: Just like her boss, she doesn't display any gratitude towards the player, Zevlor or Wyll for saving her life from the goblins. However, she will show gratitude if the player saves Liam from the goblin's torture.

Liam

Voiced by: Dario Coates

Race: Human

One of the members of the Beno Boys. He was left behind at the Temple of Selûne.

Cold-Blooded Torture: The goblins captured him instead of killing him, and have been cruelly torturing him so he'll give them the location of Silvanus' Grove.
Leeroy Jenkins: Unlike the rest of the Beno Boys, he charged at the goblins, despite being heavily outnumbered. They all think him to be a dumbass for it, and assume that he died.
Token Good Teammate: Most of the Beno Boys are rude and crass jerks, and while they lament it, they did leave him behind when he charged at the goblins. By contrast, Liam has been enduring the torture at the hands of the goblins ever since out of loyalty towards his companions and sympathy towards the Grove's inhabitants.

Wilderness Inhabitants

Auntie Ethel

Voiced by: Rena Valeh

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ethel_hag.png

Sister of the Seeing Pearl

Race: Green Hag

First met as an old woman skilled in magic who lives in the Sunlit Wetland, only to eventually reveal that she is a Green Hag who frequently makes deals with hapless victims before giving them more than what they bargained for.

Affectionate Nickname: She refers to the player as "petal", but given her nature it double as Terms of Endangerment.
The Bad Guy Wins: If you uncover her scheme in Act 3 but let her leave, she'll send a letter in the Patch 5 epilogue where she gloats about how she succeeded in turning Vanra into a hag and is now expanding her coven.
Collector of the Strange: She's picked up a number of disturbing souvenirs in her time, including several from her Jackass Genie deals. It says a lot about her that the guy turned to stone and put on display like a freaking garden statue is the least unsettling thing in her trophy room.
Confusion Fu: She makes excessive use of illusory doubles and invisibility spells to keep your party off-balance. Gets especially bad in her Act III battle where she can summon half a dozen invisible doubles per round, each of which is a One Hitpoint Wonder but fully capable of attacking with necromantic and acidic spells before becoming invisible again at the end of their turn. If you go into this battle without copious amounts of invisibility detectors and multi-target attacks, you're screwed.
Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Venture into the heart of her liar before her boss fight, and she will be so fed up with you that she'll start coming up with creative ways to torment you.
Ethel: I'll rip your spine out your arsehole. I'll use your blood to spice my stew. I'll keep you alive until I've sucked the marrow out of your bones. And then I'll bring you back and do it all over again.
Deal with the Devil: Offers these to people who seek her out, and offers one to you regarding the tadpole in your head. Taking it is a bad idea, since you get a permanent stat debuff and she can't get rid of the tadpole anyway because of the - apparently Netherese - magic affecting it.
Dirty Coward: When it seems she has the upper hand, she talks a big game while pulling out all sorts of cheap moves like illusion copies, invisibility, booby traps and healing mushrooms. When it becomes clear that she has a clear chance of losing, she tries to flee by either disguising herself as her hostage or begging for mercy from her attackers.
Disney Villain Death: If you fight her, consider the following: 1) Her boss fight takes place in a room featuring a large chasm, 2) She's standing right next to said chasm, and 3) You and all your companions have a Shove ability that can be used to push enemies around. Of course, you can't loot her body if you kill her this way.
Doppleganger Attack: Her main trick is to scatter herself into multiple illusory copies that share her spellcasting. She also teleports to hide among them, but locating the real Ethel is often a secondary priority to destroying the duplicates before they can unleash their spells.
Even Evil Has Standards: She gets uncharacteristically terrified upon discovering that the tadpole in your eye is powered by Netherese magic, something that even she dare not meddle with. She even tells you to not bother looking for someone who knows about Netherese magic since there are worse things than becoming a mind flayer.
Exact Words: She told Mayrina that she would take care of the woman's child and teach her magic. As the PC can point out, turning it into a hag does technically involve teaching it magic.
Eye Scream: Should you take her deal, she'll replace one of your character's eyes. However, not only does this not get rid of the mind-flayer tadpole, it also causes a permanent debuff to your perception.
Faux Affably Evil: She'll act the part of the kindly old lady as long as you mind your manners around her, and she probably won't seek out a fight on her own, but underneath that she's a sadistic monster who can and will subject her victims to horrific fates for shits and giggles.
Fate Worse than Death: She has a habit of inflicting these on people, either because they wronged her personally or just because she's a Jackass Genie.
For the Evulz: All the horrible things that she does are usually for kicks.
Get Out!: If the player character manages to find the entrance to Ethel's hidden lair, she would soon meet the party in her true hag form, demanding that they leave at once.
Ethel: You're as thick as they come, sweetness. This is my personal play house, and you don't have an invite. Get. Out.
Glasgow Grin: She has lines at the corners of her lips that make it look like she's always grinning, which only highlights her creepiness.
Hate Sink: Kind as she may appear, Ethel very quickly reveals herself as one of the most vile characters in the game when you meet her at her home, especially when you find out what happened to her victims.
Interface Spoiler: Examining her in her Auntie Ethel guise quickly gives away the fact that she is far from a sweet old lady, not only having high stats but also her Fey heritage.
- While disguised as Captain Grisly in Act 3, she still has her Boss Subtitles.
Kick the Dog: Dog-kicking comes with the territory for hags, but the writers went the extra mile by giving Auntie Ethel unique Vicious Mockery insults that truly make the spell live up to its name. Some are directed at her opponent's race, while others specifically hit your companions where it hurts:
To a Half-Elf: I wonder which one of your parents regretted you more, half-breed.
To a male Drow: Kneel, boy! Just like the matriarchs taught you!
To Shadowheart: Why would Shar love you when no one else does?
To Astarion: Deep down you like being leashed, don't ya?
To Wyll: Oh, look! It's Daddy's regret!
Jackass Genie: She loves to fulfill her deals this way, generally using the letter of the deal to viciously troll her clients In some cases, she can manipulate her would-be victims into accepting her deals in the first place. Upon killing Ethel the first time, one of her victims who willingly let himself be petrified to avoid wasting away from a disease finds that he's completely recovered, and realizes that Ethel was responsible for his illness.
Jerkass Has a Point: While she insults a cleric player for their beliefs, she isn't exactly wrong when she points out specific flaws of the gods they worship.
Killed Off for Real: If you killed her in Act I, she'll still be alive in Act III, since she insisted that she always finds a way to come back, and certainly found one. However, it's possible to pay attention to Mayrina's research, which will reveal that you can destroy the mushrooms around Ethel's lair, which will mean she'll stay down for good once slain.
Nay-Theist: If the player tries to invoke a god in her presence, she directly insults them, calling Bane out for letting his followers do all the work, Lolth for having no power on the surface, Selûne for being arrogant despite all the blood she has on her hands, Myrkul for just plain sucking at being a god, Shar for sulking about how much people prefer her sister, etc.
Never My Fault: If her corpse is questioned with Speak with Dead about why she's so cruel, she claims that she's not cruel, people are, and she's just giving them what they want. This despite being a Jackass Genie who corrupts even perfectly innocent wishes.
Not Hyperbole: The brothers you encounter threatening her call her a hag. They don't just mean she's an unpleasant old woman, she's a literal Green Hag, as in the monster.
Oh, Crap!: As you destroy the mushrooms around her lair, she'll at first pretend you're wasting your time, then that you are just messing up her garden. When you get the last one she drops the pretense and finally panics because that just broke her ability to resurrect.
Plot-Irrelevant Villain: She's one of the most elaborate villains in the game and a Recurring Boss, but she's just a hag trying to screw over people and you just happen to be someone that caught her attention. The moment she finds your tadpole is not a regular one and has Netherese magic in it, she freaks out and wants nothing to do with you anymore.
Racist Grandma: Almost all of her Vicious Mockery insults directly target her victim's species.
Recurring Boss: Even if you kill her in Act I, she'll be back in Act III stronger than ever, with the added complication of holding a young child hostage in her belly, forcing you to put in a whole lot of extra legwork if you want to save the kid.
Resurrective Immortality: She can try to surrender during her Act 1 fight, and tells the player that it's pointless to kill her since she "always finds a way to come back", and indeed she'll be back in Act 3 no matter what you did to her. You find out that Ethel uses a type of mushroom to return from the dead, surviving your first battle this way. In Act 3 if you pay attention to Mayrina's research, you can destroy these mushrooms around her lair to permanently slay her.
Terms of Endangerment: She talks to her victims like... Well, a doting auntie, which only makes her cruelty all the more obvious (as if it wasn't already).
Troll: You can find her being pushed around by two men looking for their sister and implores you for help. The only reason she does this instead of dealing with them herself is because she wants the amusement of watching you charge blindly to the defense of a "helpless old woman."
Wake-Up Call Boss: You'll probably get the snot kicked out of you if you try to fight her, considering she's one of the highest level beings that can be found in the early game, has an elaborate lair filled with traps, and pulls a lot of unique tricks in her fight.
Walking Spoiler: Her true nature is hidden from the start, and can remain so for quite some time depending on how you interact with her.
What the Hell, Hero?: Subverted. She chews you out for not coming to her aid if you do nothing about Mayrina's brothers assailing her, but not because she actually needed the help - She's just mad that you didn't fall for her trick and blindly rush in to fight them.
Wicked Witch: She's a Green Hag, her true form is that of a hideous, green old woman who uses her magical powers to torment people just For the Evulz.
Villainous Breakdown: If you hit her with a Hag's Bane and make her vomit up the child she was trying to turn into a hag she will completely lose her shit, dropping all pretense of her "doting grandma" language and tell you she's going to smear your remains all over the walls.

Mayrina

Voiced by: Ellie Heydon

Race: Human

A recently widowed woman who's seeking Auntie Ethel's help in bringing her dead husband Connor back to life.

Deal with the Devil: She made a deal with a green hag named Ethel to bring her dead husband Connor Back from the Dead. In return, she would have to give up her then-unborn child to her, with the hag promising that she will raise the child and teach them magic. Unbeknownst to Mayrina, Ethel is using this deal to devour the newborn child later on so that she can give birth to her own hag. Despite this, the hag still upheld her end of the bargain by creating a wand that can be used to bring Connor back to life, albeit not in the way Mayrina had hoped.
The Dog Bites Back: In Act 3, she founds an anti-hag group and manages to find away to permanently kill hags, including the one that had tormented her.
Earn Your Happy Ending: If she survives to the epilogue and you convince her to let Connor go, she will give birth to a healthy son whom she names after Connor. She is happily remarried and living in Baldur's Gate as the foremost expert on hunting hags, even writing books on the topic.
Parental Abandonment: She's willing to abandon her child with a green hag because she knows she will be unable to support the child now that her husband is dead, and Ethel has tricked her into believing she will raise the child to be a magician when in reality she's planning to eat the baby.
Someone to Remember Him By: If she survives in both Acts 1 and 3, she will send you a letter during the game's epilogue stating that she had finally gave birth to her son and named him after her late husband.
Staking the Loved One: Should the player use Ethel's wand to bring Connor back to life as a zombie, they can convince Mayrina in Act 3 to let Connor pass on to the afterlife, to which Mayrina sadly agrees before destroying the wand.
Took a Level in Badass: When you re-encounter her in act 3, She's founded an anti-hag group, and successfully researched and gathered the rare components for a potion to cause a hag to release any child they consumed, as well as devised how to end Ethel's Resurrective Immortality. She's become enough of a threat Ethel turned her into a sheep and sent one of her redcaps to find her research and destroy it.
Ungrateful Bastard: She's not pleased with the player messing her Deal with the Devil with the green hag Ethel. This is averted if you tell her that Ethel killed her brothers when you first speak with her, or if you convince her of the hag's true intentions (which you can learn by casting speak with dead on Ethel) would she come to regret her decision and thank you kindly for rescuing her. She's also much more pleasant when encountered again in Baldur's Gate, assuming you saved her in Act 1.
Your Makeup Is Running: Her makeup looks exactly like one would expect on a woman who's been bawling her eyes out in grief over the death of her husband. The weird thing is that it still looks like that if/when you meet Mayrina again weeks or even months after your initial encounter.

The Githyanki

Lich Queen Vlaakith

Vlaakith CLVII

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vlaakith.png

Voiced by: Bethan Dixon Bate

Race: Lich (Githyanki)

The immortal ruler of the githyanki, who is revered by her people as a goddess (as part of her plan to achieve actual godhood). She’s also after a powerful artifact that was stolen from her not long ago; the very same one that Shadowheart carries and the Cult of the Absolute is looking for.

Arc Villain: She's the main antagonist of Lae'zel's character arc.
Berserk Button: Do not question her claim to godhood.
Big Bad Wannabe: As revealed by the Dream Visitor, Vlaakith is only pretending to know how the githyanki's great mother Gith defeated the illithid empire. In truth, Vlaakith has no idea how it happened. And what's more, she has no idea how Tav and the rest of the party are resisting transforming into mind flayers. Should the mind flayers ever rise to power again, Vlaakith would be incapable of stopping them. And that would mean a revolution against her and and the end of her time as queen.
Boisterous Weakling: Downplayed. She's a god, after all, so it's only by comparison. Actually, she's not even that. As revealed by the Dream Visitor, Vlaakith not only isn't a god, but she's only pretending to know how the githyanki's mother Gith defeated the illithid empire. In truth, Vlaakith has no idea how that happened, Vlaakith would be incapable of stopping the mind flayers if they ever rose to power again. And should the rest of the githyanki find this out, that would mean the end of her time as queen by the githyanki overthrowing her. So Vlaakith has to maintain the illusion that she's an all-powerful and all-knowing god, when she's not.
Broken Pedestal: To Lae'zel. Her ordering Lae'zel's (and the party's) death upon their return from the Astral Prism shakes Lae'zel's faith to the core, especially since she's served the Lich Queen loyally. Further urging from the player and the revelation of the truth behind Orpheus can completely shatter her faith.
Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: ...or else this happens:
Vlaakith: "BLASPHEMING TONGUE. YOU WISH TO SEE GODHOOD? I Wish you to end."
Your party has been defeated...
- While using the "Wish" spell to demonstrate godhood in fact proves that she's not a god, ^notesaid Wish is more than enough to drop your whole party dead, instantly.
Evil Is Petty: Vlaakith is willing to waste a Wish spell, a 9th level spell that is considered the strongest mortals can ever learn and can have disastrous consequences to the user if it fails (and even if successful has a 33% chance to prevent the caster from ever using the spell again)... simply to retaliate against the player if they keep on insulting her to end them on the spot, leading to a Non-Standard Game Over.
A God Am I: In a sense. She's a Godhood Seeker, so she's not technically a god yet. But she's still incredibly powerful, and pissing her off is an incredibly bad idea. The githyanki in particular all revere her as both their god and their queen, for one, so showing Vlaakith disrespect will get them to turn on you quickly.
Godhood Seeker: She's a Sorcerous Overlord, but she's well on her way to becoming an actual god. In fact, the player can notice that she's spending more time trying to become a god than she is in fighting the mind flayers. This is at least in part because Vlaakith doesn't know how to stop the mind flayers should they go on the offensive, and is only pretending she does.
God Save Us from the Queen!: She's the terrifyingly ruthless ruler of the githyanki who'll do anything and sacrifice anyone and everyone in her quest for godhood. She's so bad that she's the first of over 150 queens that has a nascent rebellion forming against her rule, and at the highest ranks of her subordinates no less. It's up to the player to decide how successful this rebellion might turn out.
Hate Sink: A thoroughly unpleasant character with almost no redeeming qualities. Her interactions consist of her either trying to demand the player to do what she wants, or yelling like a petulant child when she doesn’t get what she wants. Plus, even if you do exactly as she says, Vlaakith will still order you and Lae'zel dead, so even obeying her isn't a way to escape her fury.
Immortal Ruler: She's known as the Lich Queen of the githyanki, for having turned herself into a lich in order to rule the githyanki in perpetuity and gather enough power to ascend to divinity.
Impossible Task: She sends the party on one, expecting them to die. And should the party make it back alive, then Queen Vlaakith just orders you all dead anyways. This is what renders the queen as a Broken Pedestal to Lae'zel.
Ironic Name: According to Issue #100 of the Dungeon magazine, her name literally means "death" in her native Gith language. But that didn't stop her from cheating death by becoming a lich.
Jerkass: And how. Few characters in the game are more unpleasant to deal with than her. Vlaakith insults you if you're not a githyanki, and even being one will only slightly tone down how much of a jerk she is. She also orders your death if you visit the creché, even if you do exactly as Vlaakith says. And Lae'zel has trouble accepting that the "cure" offered by the githyanki for the mind flayer tadpoles is "kill the infected host" and that's it. Should Lae'zel choose to "ascend" to Vlaakith, it's mentioned after the deed is done that Vlaakith just absorbed the power Lae'zel had and then dispsosed of her corpse. So all in all, a thoroughly unpleasant lady.
Karma Houdini Warranty: No matter what you choose, Vlaakith will eventually be defeated according to The Lich Queen's Beloved with the rebellion against her coming to fruition and her phylactery being destroyed.
King Bob the Nth: The 157th and last Vlaakith to rule over the Githyanki, at this point, since every Githyanki queen was named Vlaakith, her name should basically be the Githyanki word for queen.
Mundane Wish: If the player is disrespectful to her during your audience at the githyanki crèche, she will waste a wish spell just to show off her "godlike" powers and wish your entire party dead on the spot.
Physical God: She is not technically a goddess, and has attained immortality only through undeath. Nonetheless, she is referred to as "godlike in power," and a Githyanki cleric can actually choose her as their patron deity. According to Voss, she consumes the supposedly "ascended" to increase her power, as she aspires to true godhood.
Sorcerous Overlord: What she really is, rather than the godlike being she touts herself as (though she intends to become one for real). It doesn't make her any less incapable of ending the party on a whim, because she has achieved the pinnacle of spellcasting in the Dungeons & Dragons lore, the Wish spell.
Super-Empowering: Implied. Githyanki spellcaster NPCs use the "Form of Dread" feature from the Undead patron warlock subclass, rather than divine magic of a cleric, insinuating that she grants them abilities as that form of patron, rather than as a god.
They Know Too Much: The main reason she orders your death after your return from the Astral Prism is because even if you had succeeded in her task of killing its occupant, the mere knowledge of this existence makes you a threat to her rule. Also, since Vlaakith is only pretending to know how to stop the illithid empire (when she's actually as in the dark as you are), Lae'zel needs to die to ensure that Vlaakith's rule isn't threatened. Depending on how you proceed through this story line, her fears about you and Lae'zel might turn out well-founded.
Villain of Another Story: She's a tyrannical sorceress ruler of a ruthless empire (i.e. ideal Big Bad material for a fantasy setting). However, as far as this story is concerned, Vlaakith is a side character whose involvement in the plot is minimal compared to other villainous parties, namely the Cult of the Absolute. There's a good deal of discussion regarding a potential rebellion against Vlaakth's rule, but the player characters don't actually take part in it. At best, they can influence it. Worth noting the rebellion against her is detailed in the well-regarded module ''The Lich Queen's Beloved," the plot which concerns Vlaakith's attempt to become a genuine god.

Kith'rak Voss

Voss

Voiced by: Richard Cotton

"Were I not merciful, I would slice the skin clean from your meat. Yet you are not bleeding. For I am nothing if not merciful."

Race: Githyanki

A Githyanki Dragon Riding Knight (known in their language as a Kith'rak) who is in charge of a search party looking for the "Githyanki weapon" that was onboard the Nautiloid.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He's seen at Sharess Caress begging Raphael for his help in freeing Orpheus, to which the cambion belittles him as he had nothing of value to Raphael. This moment is a far cry from the proud Kith'rak we first saw at the Mountain Pass.
Bad Boss: He's often insulting to his Number Two Baretha and goes out of his way to humiliate and threaten Lae'zel with death simply because she dared to speak to him with a "familiar tone". If Lae'zel or a githyanki Tav reveals to him they're infected with a tadpole while hoping he'd assist them, his "help" is ordering his men to kill them on the spot as a "mercy". He'll also consider a githyanki Tav who claims to be lost to be a complete disgrace and order them to be executed so they'll "shame Vlaakith no longer".
- Ultimately Played With: He's so dismissive and aggressive because he wants to overthrow Vlaakith and is trying to come on strong to cover it up. He drops the act and will gladly work with the party to do so should they reject her offer to destroy the artifact.
Blood Knight: The only way for non-githyanki to gain a smidge of respect for him is by talking back to him and actively trying to intimidate him. It won't really work, but he'll find such boldness amusing and spare you.
Voss: So bold in the face of death... perhaps you may live after all. Better to let stronger blood thrive. It can give rise to worthier foes and hardier slaves. Don't disappoint me.
BFS: Wields the very large and iconic silver sword that most githyanki knights are famous for carrying.
Cultural Posturing: He's constantly speaking down to other races and cultures, considering the mortal realm to be a "soft world" filled the weaklings who are only useful as slaves.
Dragon Rider: He's a Kith'rak, a high-ranking githyanki knight who is able to ride red dragons, his being named Qudanos. He's likely one of the dragon riders who attacked the Nautiloid in the opening cinematic. In-game The player will first encounter him casually dispatching a group of Flaming Fist mercenaries with the help of his dragon steed.
Ear Ache: He loses a chunk of his left ear sometime between Acts 2 and 3, likely due to him being revealed to be a loyalist to Orpheus.
Hidden Heart of Gold: It is unclear how much of his earlier, unpleasant personality is genuine and how much of it is just an act to make it seem as if he truly is devoted to Vlaakith's ideals. He is notably a lot more affable when meeting with the party after the monastery and surprisingly supportive of Lae'zel during her crisis of faith. Furthermore, he genuinely cares for his people and wants to free them from Vlaakith's tyranny.
Jerkass: He's an extremely unpleasant individual, even by githyanki standards, having nothing but mock condescension or open hostility when interacting with the party, especially if they're not githyanki. And he doesn't treat his own people that much better. That being said, he might have a softer side hidden beneath, as he becomes a lot less harsh after revealing his true loyalties and forming an alliance with the party.
Magic Knight: As a Kith'rak he's a knight who's skilled with both martial arms and magic. He'll even use his magic to pry into the head of the party when he interrogates them about the location of the Astral Prism.
The Mole: All that effort he's putting towards finding the weapon? It's so he can free Prince Orpheus and keep Vlaakith from destroying him.
Older Than They Look: He knows Orpheus since before his imprisonment, and is believed by those Githyanki who know of him to be the one who killed Orpheus on Vlaakith's orders. This makes him positively ancient. This is less of an issue for Githyanki than other races, as they live on the Astral Plane, where nothing ages.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: He's a githyanki knight, meaning he's even more arrogant and proud of his status than normal githyanki like Lae'zel. If spoken to as any other race, he'll talk to them with obvious disdain.
Secret Test of Character: If you can’t talk your way out of the Mountain Pass encounter, he’ll leave you to his guards despite the fact he and his dragon could easily kill you on the spot. In either case, he’s likely testing to see if you’re strong or cunning enough to survive the trials ahead. Why? Because he knew you had the Astral Prism the whole time. You and Lae’Zel are the best chance he has to free Orpheus from the Prism and bring about the end of Vlaakith.
Took a Level in Kindness: In contrast to his first appearance, he is much more pleasant the second time when he reveals his true colours as an enemy of Vlaakith. He warms up even further to the player character and Lae'zel should they ally with him and ultimately free Orpheus.
Undying Loyalty: Voss' true loyalty is not to Vlaakith but to Orpheus, the prince of the Githyanki. He has spent aeons trying to save and free Orpheus from his prison. When the chance arrived with the party gaining possession of the Astral Prism, Voss was quick to forge an alliance with them, knowing that they were the best chance for him to free his master. He is even willing to make a deal with Raphael to get the artifact to free Orpheus. Voss will be heartbroken if Orpheus dies or transforms into a Mind Flayer. Otherwise, he will be extremely elated to be reunited with his master.

Qudenos

Race: Red Dragon.

The steed of Kith'rak Voss.

Blood Knight: Expresses looking forward to a fight. Unsurprising for a red dragon.
Draconic Humanoid: He can take the form of a red dragonborn to more easily blend in.
Even Evil Has Standards: Such as against undead tyrants.
Generational Saga: Knew the mother of his current rider, which whatever she was like as a person the dragon considers that to be a point in her son’s favour.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Red Dragons are among the most powerful of dragonkind, and severely outclass your average Githyanki. They also get Stronger with Age, and Qudenos is old enough to have personally known Gith herself ^note, which all around makes him the power house between him and Voss.
Loyal to the Position: Tiamat swore the red dragons to defend the Githyanki, which Qudenos takes seriously. She did not however swear them to serve Vlaakith, who he has a very poor opinion of.
Noble Demon: Is in genuine favour of Voss freeing his people from Vlaakith, believing he will lead the Gith to a better future.

Underdark Inhabitants

Sovereign Spaw

Spaw

Voiced by:

Race: Myconid

The Sovereign of the Myconid circle in Ebonlake Grotto.

Large and in Charge: He's the biggest of the Myconids and is their leader. This is a common trait among Sovereign Myconids.
The Leader: As a Sovereign Myconid, he's the one in charge the Myconid colony, and the one who bargains with the player for assistance with the duergar invaders for the sake of the colony.
Mushroom Man: He's a Myconid, a race of humanoid mushroom people who live in the Underdark and have unusual spore powers.
Oh, Crap!: Should the player inform Spaw of Glut's intention to destroy his Myconid colony in retribution for Spaw's reluctance to protect Glut's when the duergar attacked, the narrator notes Spaw's shocked reaction.
Telepathy: As a Myconid he can't actually speak, so he communicates with the player via telepathic spores, often showing them actual images as a way to communicate.

Sovereign Glut

Voiced by: Matt Addis

Race: Myconid

The Myconid Sovereign of a circle destroyed by the duergar serving the Absolute.

See Other Companions & Camp Followers for his character page.

BOOOAL

Voiced by: Robert G Slade

"WORDS, PRIEST. PROMISES. YOUR GOD WANTS PROOF. WANTS BLOOD."

Race: Redcap

A red-cap who tricked a tribe of Kuo-toa into worshipping him as a "God of Murder".

God Guise: He's a red-cap who has tricked the local Kuo-toa into worshipping him as a god of murder, taking advantage of the powers they can grant him with their belief. Exposing him will make the Kuo-toa turn against him.
Punny Name: "BOOOAL" is a joke spelling of "Bhaal", the actual god of murder. Apparently, he picked the name on purpose.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: In his "BOOOAL" form he's a shadowy figure with shining red eyes, which is appropriate for his violent nature,
We Can Rule Together: Will offer the player a deal to leave him be and keep tricking the Kuo-toa in exchange for sharing their power.

Pooldripp the Zealous

Pooldripp

Voiced by:

"Our blood to fill your oceans, oh blessed BOOOAL! Our bones to build your temple in the deep!"

Race: Kuo-toa

The head of the Kuo-toa worshippers of BOOOAL.

Clap Your Hands If You Believe: His belief in BOOOAL's godhood is what is actually empowering him, shaking his belief will dispel BOOOAL's God Guise.
Fish Person: He and his followers are Kuo-toa, humanoid amphibious fish people who live in dank underground areas.
Hat of Authority: He wears a spiky shell headpiece that denotes his authority over the other Kuo-toa.
The Leader: He's the "high priest" of the BOOOAL worshippers, being their most zealous believer. Shaking his belief on BOOOAL will cause the others to follow suit.

The Society of Brilliance

The Society of Brilliance In General

For Science!: Some of the proposed experiments they wish to conduct are blatant violations of any proper code of scientific ethics. For example, they wish to see if the evil of the Githyanki is innate or taught. How do they propose testing this? By kidnapping an unhatched githyanki egg and indoctrinating it both conventionally and through psionic brainwashing. And if the experiment fails? The subject is destroyed like the others. If you hand over the egg, the results are... not pretty, as the child is subjected to accelerated growth and indoctrination of one of the more fanatical creeds, concludes the people conducting the experiment are evil (to be fair...), and butchers them all.
The Smart Guy: Regardless of character or race, all members are intelligent scholars who have an Intelligence stat of 18.
Telepathy: They're all capable of speaking via telepathy, in order to communicate with the Underdark inhabitants.

Blurg

Voiced by: Mark Noble

"There is as much to learn from an individual as there is from a community."

Race: Hobgoblin

A member of the Society of Brilliance who is studying the myconids in the Underdark.

Adaptation Species Change: In Out of the Abyss, the character of Blurg was an Orog while in this game he's a Hobgoblin.
My Species Doth Protest Too Much Hobgoblins are known for being brutal and military-minded, but he's a pacifist scholar who wants to make the world a better place. He won't be offended if you point this out.
Nice Guy: He's dedicated his life to making the Underdark a better place to live and is nothing but courteous to a non-hostile player, and tries his best to assist them once if he learns they're infected with a mind flayer tadpole.

Omeluum

Voiced by: Glen Mc Cready

Race: Mind Flayer

Class: Wizard

A mind flayer arcanist who is a member of the Society of Brilliance.

Badass in Distress: Despite being extremely powerful, it gets captured (which it freely admits was due to its own arrogance) and imprisoned by the Iron Throne. Rescuing it can be quite tricky due to the time limit before the Iron Throne's base is desroyed, but fortunately as soon as you free it, it's able to use a teleportation spell to take itself and one passenger immediately back to the submarine, negating the need to run back through the base.
Blessed with Suck: Downplayed; its magical talents made it a potential pariah within its colony, but they were also exactly what it needed to escape from the Elder Brain's psionic influence.
Creepy Good: It's, y'know, a mind flayer. If its squid-like appearance doesn't creep you out, then maybe the fact that it subsists on a diet of brains will. Still, Omeluum itself is very cordial with the party and will help them for almost no reward.
Expy: It's basically Grazilaxx from the Out of the Abyss campaign in all but name, both being good-aligned mind flayers who are members of the Society of Brilliance and having a similar backstory where they both had an arrangement with a Lich in order to obtain brains to feed on.
Foreshadowing: Omeluum's existence proves that some Mind Flayers can break free from the control of an Elder Brain, but surely it's the only one around. Until the party discovers the true identity of their Dream Guardian.
Good Counterpart: To the Emperor. While they are both illithids who broke free from the Elder Brains' control, Omeluum's morality is more clear-cut in contrast to the Ambiguously Evil Emperor. While the Emperor encourages the player and their companions to embrace their transformation into mind flayers (albeit with their agency preserved), Omeluum tries to help them remove their tadpoles as it doesn't want them to undergo the same fate as it did.
For Science!: While it does want to help the player in removing the tadpole, it admits it's also doing it because it's curious about examining and meddling with the tadpole to sate its scientific curiosity.
Horror Hunger: Like all mind flayers, it needs to sustain itself on brains to live, something that it finds morally repulsive. Part of its research in the Society of Brilliance is trying to find a way to replace its diet. In the meantime it takes advantage of there being no shortage of beings that try to attack the myconid colony in the Underdark, feeding on them as they are attackers who would be killed anyway.
My Species Doth Protest Too Much: A very rare case of a non-evil mind flayer. As it was born with a propensity for arcane magic, it was able to resist the tyrannical influence of the Elder Brain in the colony where it was born and soon fled the place. While at first it's done morally questionable things to sustain its need for brains (namely partnering with a lich, feeding on the brains of people the lich killed for their souls), it eventually decided to be a force of good in the world and joined the Society of Brilliance. It's very open to the player that it does not wish to be associated with the rest of its kind and their crimes, and doesn't wish the transformation on anyone, which is why it tries to assist the player with their tadpoles.
The Needs of the Many: During the Iron Throne rescue operation it tells you where Duke Ravenguard is held but refuses to reveal its own location because it considers the survival of the Duke more important for the future of Baldur's Gate, and doesn't want you to split focus trying to rescue it too.
Nice Guy: It's exceedingly polite and pleasant to everyone it talks to. This even includes Lae'zel, who greets it with a threat of decapitation.
Nonhuman Nonbinary: Its partner Blurg makes it clear that as a Mindflayer it prefers to be called "it" and sees nothing insulting about the term, which he respects as much as he does it and its studies.
Power Echoes: Its telepathic voice has a slightly whispery echo to it.
Rogue Drone: It's a mind flayer who fled from the Mind Hive colony they usually inhabit, due to its arcane magic making it a pariah there. It even has a ring of mind shielding so it can conceal its presence from Elder Brains.
Token Good Teammate: He and Blurg can be considered this to the Society of Brilliance members seen in the game, considering what the ones in Baldur's Gate get up to if you hand them the Githyanki egg.
Token Heroic Orc: It's a rare mind flayer who's not under the thrall of an Elder Brain, and is not working towards the restoration of the Ilithid Empire. It was born with an affinity for arcane magic rather than psionics, which made it despised by its own people until it managed to break free from the Elder Brain and escape to the Underdark. Now it just wants to experiment on its plants in peace, and is perfectly willing to help you for no cost other than the necessary ingredients. If you talk to it, you can even learn it's trying to solve its Horror Hunger problem, as it finds its need to devour brains to be morally questionable.
Vegetarian Vampire: Not yet, as it is still working to develop a vegan substitute for sapient brains using mushrooms, but it actively aspires to become a mind flayer equivalent to this. Even now it has taken to only feeding on enemies who would be killed by the myconids anyway.

Lady Esther

Voiced by:

Race: Human

Class: Fighter

A human adventurer employed by the Society of Brilliance to steal a githyanki egg as part of an experiment to raise it.

Abusive Parents: Despite her claim that she intends to raise Ptaris in a nurturing environment, she subjected him to an abusive upbringing which caused him to snap, and killed her and her employer.
Didn't Think This Through: She thought it would be a good idea to walk right up to the githyanki and offer to buy an egg, and is shocked and offended that they drove her off with violence. Apparently she didn't consider that asking "hey, is one of your children for sale?" might be a teensy bit offensive—nor will she even realize that's what she was doing if the player character doesn't point it out to her.
Fantastic Racism: She does not have a high opinion of the githyankis, whom she regards as savage and unintelligent. She will also be particularly hostile to a gith Tav. This behavior continues with her treatment of Ptaris.
Esther: The Society believes a githyanki raised in a peaceful, nuturing environment can overcome its violent nature. Hogwash, of course. A githyanki can do no more rise above its nature than gnomes can fly.
Hoist by His Own Petard: In Act 3, if she is given the egg, she can be found killed by Ptaris who hatched from it.
Only in It for the Money: She has no interest in the Society's goals, she even thinks the plan is stupid. She's just looking for a payday.

Havkelaag

Havekelaag

Voiced by:

Race: Duergar

The Duergar in charge of the githyanki egg retrieval.

Abusive Parents: To Ptaris if his egg was given to Esther in Act 1, though his abuse went too far to the point where Ptaris kills him and Esther by the time you reach the Society's Lodge.
Distaff Counterpart: To Lady Esther, as he harbors the same Fantastic Racism towards githyanki with the same belief that they're savagely evil by nature and attempting to pay the party to hand over the egg if they retrieved it.
Fantastic Racism: Towards githyanki, believing them to be evil by nature and gets offended when told the contrary.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: He may talk a big game, but his notes reveal he's aware that his Githyanki experiment is all he has to his name and is desperate to prove it right.
Insufferable Genius: He certainly thinks of himself as the most intelligent being in the Realms, saying that he'll always be proven right.
Jerkass: He belittles everyone around him, with a rather nasty case of Fantastic Racism against githyanki.

Ptaris

Ptaris/Xan

Voiced by:

Race: Githyanki

A Githyanki who can potentially be subjected to an experiment by the Society of Brilliance.

Call-Back: His potential name, Xan, is a call-back to a companion with the same name in the first Baldur's Gate game.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Ptaris' upbringing in the Society of Brilliance has some uncomfortable and likely intentional parallels to how First Nations children were treated in Canadian residential schools.
Happily Adopted: If Tav keeps the egg, they can potentially be raised by Lae'zel and Tav if they are in a relationship, or just Lae'zel if you give her the egg. In the epilogue, it is pretty clear that Xan will be raised in a much happier environment than the one the society would have given him.
Nature Versus Nurture: The whole reason why the Society wanted to conduct this experiment with him. They wanted to know if a githyanki can overcome their violent nature if they were raised in a peaceful enviroment. By the time, you meet him again in Act 3, he has killed his adopted parents. While seemingly confirming that Ptaris couldn't overcome his nature, the problem was that he was raised in an abusive enviroment with abusive parents who kept telling him that his nature was evil. If talked down, Ptaris will be horrified of what he has done, which shows that he has the capability to understand right and wrong but he was never given the chance to be better.
Ptaris: Father saved me. I was a nasty, evil thing, but his treatment made me good. I-I'm cured.
Rapid Aging: The Society sped up his aging. By the time you meet him again in Act 3, he will appear as a young adult.
What the Hell, Hero?: Using his telepathy abilities, Ptaris learns that you gave him away to Esther. He will rightly call you out for subjecting him to an abusive life.
Ptaris: You stole me from my people. Gave me to that woman. Unhatched, defenceless. You let me be bought so Father could hurt me.

The Harpers

Jaheira

Voiced by: Tracy Wiles

Race: Half-Elf

Class: Druid

Place of Origin: Tethyr

The Grand Harper of Baldur's Gate.

See Other Companions & Camp Followers for her character page.

Harper Geraldus

Geraldus

A young Harper from Baldur's Gate.

Covert Distress Code: Employs one to warn Jaheira that the other Harpers in the room are Doppelganger assassins.
Heroic Resolve: Despite being clearly horrified by what happened to his comrades and being held hostage and used to lure Jaheira, Geraldus refuses to quit the Harpers when Jaheira says he should, insisting it's his duty to help and avenge his comrade. If the player supports him, Jaheira admits its her mistake and Geraldus should remain, being the only Harper they can trust.
Sole Survivor: The only surviving Baldur's Gate Harper, after the others were killed and replaced by doppelganger.

The Selûnites (Spoilers Unmarked)

Isobel

Isobel Thorm

Servant of Selûne

Voiced by: Mia Foo

Race: Half-Elf

Class: Cleric of Selûne

A powerful Cleric of Selûne who protects the party and others from the Shadow Curse hanging over the area around Moonrise Towers. Ultimately revealed to be Ketheric Thorm's daughter, brought back from the dead through a dark pact with Myrkul.

Archnemesis Dad: With Ketheric Thorm, her father. Played with, in that she's not the one who shows up for the confrontation with him if the party saves the Nightsong, who steps in to fight Ketheric instead.
Barrier Maiden: She maintains a dome of moonlight around the Last Light Inn, protecting it from the Shadowlands' curse. Should it fail for any reason, almost every NPC inside turns into a corrupted undead almost instantly.
Back from the Dead: Isobel originally died a hundred years ago. Her resurrection happens at the hands of Myrkul, who brings her back for his Chosen, Ketheric.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Befalls this should her father capture her, to ensure that she'll never leave him again.
Came Back Wrong: Zigzagged. Reading her diary reveals that ever since her return, Isobel felt like there's something fundamentally wrong with her. Considering how deeply unusual her resurrection was, coupled with her occasional coughing fits, she might have a point there. However, she's a perfectly normal and pleasant woman to deal with whenever you interact with her, showing no signs of corruption or a hidden nefarious agenda.
Carry a Big Stick: She wields a golden spear but almost never uses it, focusing more on her cleric spells instead.
Commonality Connection: If the player character is a fellow cleric of a good-aligned deity, they may get unique dialogue options with Isobel acknowledging this.
Cosmic Plaything: She's caught in the crossfire of no less than three Gods' machinations throughout the game. Myrkul uses her resurrection as leverage to get Ketheric to swear fealty to him (and is by extension complicit in Ketheric's subsequent attempts to kidnap and brainwash her) Shar used her initial death to turn Ketheric away from Selune, and later indirectly contrives her death again by having Shadowheart target her lover Dame Aylin, and finally, Bhaal directly contrives her death if you're playing as the Dark Urge, as you're explicitly ordered to murder her and threatened with dire consequences if you refuse (and he makes good on that, trying to force you to kill your lover if you don’t kill Isobel. Notably, killing Isobel doesn’t count as an Oath Break for Paladins, suggesting the Dark Urge doesn’t really have that much choice in the matter). There's also the mystery of how she died in the first place, and whether or not the Gods, specifically Shar, had any hand in that.
Damsel in Distress: Almost becomes one, as Ketheric sends a True Soul to kidnap her. The player can prevent it, help with it, fail to prevent it or bypass the event entirely by not receiving Selune's blessing in the first place.
Light Is Good: A benevolent soul who uses light magic to defend the innocent in the name of her goddess.
Love at First Sight: According to Isobel, she only had to spare one glance at Aylin before falling in love with her.
Mayfly–December Romance: With Aylin, who is an immortal Deva of Selûne.
Mystical White Hair: Seems to be a theme among Selûnites. Aylin and (potentially) Shadowheart also have it, one way or another.
Nice Girl: Mildly sarcastic at times, but a pleasant and deeply compassionate person all around. She's also immensely grateful for your part in reuniting her with her lost love Aylin, and promises all the support she can muster in your fight against the Absolute.
Non-Action Guy: Downplayed in that she can fight but it's not her specialty, as can be seen in the attack on Last Light; without the player's help she is doomed. She is however excellent at protective spells.
The Nothing After Death: The only thing she recalls from her century of being dead is "black, black, black" all around her before she was suddenly awoken by her resurrection. This is probably a result of her unusual resurrection, given that, as a loyal follower of Selûne, she's pretty much guaranteed a pleasant afterlife.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Aylin's tomboy, being much more feminine in her demeanor than her brash and boisterous demigoddess lover.
Unequal Pairing: She's aware there's an "imbalance" between her, a devotee of Selûne, and Aylin, her goddess' immortal offspring, but in spite of that she is committed to their relationship all the same.
Your Makeup Is Running: She noticeably has this, possibly as a result of coming back from the dead.

Dame Aylin

The Nightsong / Dame Aylin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nightsong_9.PNG

Sword of the Moonmaiden

Voiced by: Helen Keeley

Race: Aasimar

While the Nightsong is established as a powerful magic item or relic, that couldn't be further from the truth. As the daughter of Selûne, the source of Ketheric Thorm's immortality, and the lover of his daughter, Dame Aylin plays a significant role in Act 2.

Auto-Revive: Her "Child of the Moonmaiden" passive ability allows her to automatically recover 1 HP at the start of her turn if she's unconscious, allowing her to get back into the fight.
Badass in Distress: When you first encounter her, she's been held hostage in a custom-made soul cage for over a century. Free her and she immediately proves her badassery in battle against Ketheric Thorm and his minions... only to get knocked out and captured again, forcing you to free her a second time if you want her help for the final showdown of Act II. At least freeing her is a lot easier this time.
Barrier Maiden: Should she die when you meet her, her death directly results in the collapse of the moonlight dome around the Last Light Inn. It's implied that losing her daughter this way distracted Selûne herself so much that it turned her attention away from her mortal followers, at least for a time.
Be Careful What You Wish For: She'll give Shadowheart this warning if you kill Balthazar and leave her at Shadowheart's mercy. She'll say that Dark Justiciars are doomed to lead hollow, loveless lives as they become utterly cold-blooded enforcers of Shar's will. If Shadowheart goes through with killing her, she's proven right, as Shadowheart will quickly lament that Shar's demands her putting a strain on the relationship, and she has to constantly engage in Loophole Abuse to keep the romance alive.
Berserk Button: Lusting after her immortality, after Balthazar proved she could be bound and used to grant true immortality to a single person. When she learns that the wizard Lorroakan also covets her immortality this way she will insist on killing him herself, even if he has been convinced she is dead or gone.
BFS: Her weapon of choice is a massive greatsword imbued with her mother's moonlight.
Blood Knight: Aylin clearly relishes battle and will be the one to finish off Ketheric Thorm after he's defeated... by brutally and viciously stomping in his skull multiple times.
Boisterous Bruiser: If Aylin is freed from Shadowfell and participates in the assault on Moonrise Towers, she loosens up considerably after and proves to have a very... bombastic personality. Tav can ask her about her half-Deva nature, at which point she'll launch into a very hammy monologue about her glorious divine heritage and the radiance of Selûne's womb, asking you if you are in marvel of it.
Break the Badass: Completely subverted. Despite being murdered and having her powers leeched off of for about a century, she shows no signs of having been broken in any way by her experience - being just as willful and defiant towards her captors as one can in her situation. In fact, should the player help release her from her prison, the first thing she does is go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and unleashes holy hell on the forces at Moonrise.
Broken Angel: Despite being only half-divine, she still fills this role, having been tortured and imprisoned for over a century. Her skin is even shown to be cracked from the years of abuse.
The Comically Serious: After the assault, Aylin will casually and nonchalantly inform Tav that she intends to carnally indulge in Isobel's company once they're reunited.
Divine Intervention: Her mere presence is this, as confirmed by herself when asked about the topic. Sending their own child to fight in their name is the most any god in this setting can do to support their followers without intervening directly, which they aren't allowed to do.
Divine Parentage: She is Selûne's actual daughter.
Facial Horror: Downplayed, as she's still quite the looker, but a century of torture at the hands of her captors in the domain of her divine archenemy has left her face crisscrossed with deep scarring, giving it the appearance of cracked marble.
Flowery Elizabethan English: Aylin's speech patterns tend to veer toward this, often using old-fashioned exclamations such as "Lo!", "Ho!" and extremely flowery prose. It serves to highlight her divine nature and set her apart from other characters, who usually speak way less formally.
Glass Cannon: Downplayed. She has a decent amount of health and good AC, but she can dish out much more damage than she can take in return, being quite vulnerable if anything decently powerful focuses its attention on her. This might fall under Gameplay and Story Integration since she charged into battle mere minutes after being freed from a century of imprisonment and torture, meaning she almost certainly isn't in her best shape. Downplayed even further in that her Resurrective Immortality means that, outside of certain circumstances, she will just get back up if she's downed.
Good Is Not Nice: If she's freed from her prison, Aylin delivers a brutal beatdown to Thorm and his forces, assisting the party in the climactic battle at the top of Moonrise Towers and playing a role in the confrontation against Thorm after he transforms into an Avatar of Myrkul. Character-wise, her long imprisonment and the abuse she suffered during that time has turned her abrasive, aggressive, and vindictive. The end result is akin to a female angelic version of the Doom Slayer.
- Nothing quite hammers in Aylin's viciousness than her caving in Ketheric's skull with her boot at the end of his boss fight — and doing so multiple times to really drive the point in that yes, he's dead. Even the Player Character, potentially a Bhaalspawn has to recoil from her brutality. Thoroughly deserved after 100 years of torturing Aylin to cheat death, but still.
- She will also literally picks up Lorroakan and snaps his spine over her knee after his boss fight. Given that he was looking to leech off her immortality like Ketheric, he had it coming.
Heartbroken Badass: She never got over Isobel's death despite handling it much better than Thorm. If they are able to reunite, it is clear that Aylin is just as in love with her in the present as she was in the past even after a century of separation.
Hero of Another Story: Is literally the child of a god, having been sent by her mother, Selûone herself, to fight in her name about a hundred years ago.
In Name Only: Despite being nominally an aasimar (and described as such on her character sheet), all signs point to her being a full angel. She is immortal^note, can keep her wings out indefinitely^note, and, being Sélûne's direct offspring, is treated by all around as something far greater than a "person".^note In general, she comes across as more similar to a deva, the lowest rank of normal angel in 5th Edition, than the aasimar she is designated as.
Instant Armor: Not entirely instant, but her magnificent midnight-blue armor appears out of nowhere over a couple of seconds while she's reclaiming her power and freedom.
Lady of War: Perhaps the best example in the game. She's the daughter of a goddess, sports the title "Dame" (which is the equivalent of "Lady"), and is perhaps the character most eager to jump into a fight. She's also immensely powerful and takes great pleasure in obliterating her opponents.
Large Ham: After being freed, Aylin does not hesitate to proclaim the glory of Selûne or her battle prowess to Tav and anyone within earshot.
Lightning Bruiser: As a winged angel, Aylin hits like a truck and can move around the battlefield faster than almost anyone else.
Living MacGuffin: The quest to find the Nightsong can be acquired within minutes of finishing the tutorial level, at which point everyone involved thinks they're looking for a magical relic of some sort. It isn't until close to the end of Act II that the party and the player realize they've been after a person the whole time. At this point about half a dozen wildly different factions are hunting her, and they all want her power for more or less nefarious purposes.
Mayfly–December Romance: With Isobel, who is a mortal half-elf.
One Head Taller: Possibly due to her divine heritage, Aylin towers over her lover Isobel.
Power Gives You Wings: If she's freed from the Soul Cage, Aylin regains her wings as her divine powers return to her after her long imprisonment.
Power Glows: Her divine heritage gives her eyes, body and weapon an aura of silvery moonlight, at least while in combat.
Pummeling the Corpse: She savagely beats Ketheric's body into the ground after the player kills him. Considering all that he put her through, it's hard to blame her.
Resurrective Immortality: As a demigoddess, she possesses this ability. Shar used it as a rite of passage for her justiciars, having her murdered over and over again only for her to return to life. Ketheric in turn leeched off her immortality. That said, if Shadowheart ends up killing her with Shar's Spear of Night, it's for real and she stays dead. It even applies in combat via her "Child of the Moonmaiden" passive, which regenerates her with 1HP at the start of her turn if she's unconscious.
Shout-Out: Her connection to the moon, coupled with her Transformation Sequence that includes a hammy invocation of the power of the Moon Goddess, bears a lot of similarities to Sailor Moon.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Isobel's girly girl. She is much more inclined to jump into combat, where Isobel is a defensive specialized cleric.
Vengeance Feels Empty: Played with. In the case of Ketheric Thorm, her tormentor for a century, Aylin never expresses anything but total satisfaction at his death and her subsequent mutilation of his corpse (only moderating her comments slightly in Isobel's presence). In the case of Lorroakan, however, she expresses sorrow and emptiness after killing him, confused at why she feels that way. Companions like Karlach and Astarion who are also driven by vengeance can comment on this; if they haven't had their revenge they will be confused, as they were expecting vicarious enjoyment, but if they have killed their own tormentor they will be sadly understanding.
Winged Humanoid: Her true appearance is that of a normal woman with huge white wings that allow her to fly.

Arnell & Emmeline Hallowleaf

Arnell Hallowleaf & Emmeline Hallowleaf

Voiced by: John Hopkins (Arnell), Angela Dixon (Emmeline)

Race: High Elf (Arnell), Human (Emmeline)

Shadowheart's parents who were held captive by the Sharrans for years.

Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: If Shadowheart's also a Selunite by the time she finds her parents they can convince her to let them go, turning them into Moonmotes as they return to Selune. She describes the fairy-like glowing orbs as helping guide those in need, as a way to continue to watch over her even if she can't talk to them in this state.
Doomed Moral Victor: They become this if Shadowheart became a Dark Justiciar in Act 2. Despite Shar parading them before their daughter and demanding Shadowheart kill them to prove her loyalty, they remain unfazed and resolute in their faith that no matter what happens, Shadowheart will see the light eventually. This can cause Shadowheart to forsake Shar on the spot and free them, but even if she does fully commit to Shar by killing them, Shadowheart's bonds with the party have at the very least ensured she won't be reduced to another unfeeling cultist, particularly if romanced.
Driven to Madness: The years of torture have taken their toll on Emmeline's sanity. Shar taunts that this is due to her fragile human mind, but her dialogue if she joins your camp indicates that she is beginning to suffer from dementia due to her age.
A Fate Worse Than Death: They were both captured alive by Sharran worshipers and held prisoner, where they were constantly tortured and Forced to Watch as Mother Superior and the others turned their daughter into a Sharran. Sometimes they were even tortured by Shadowheart, who had her memories erased and has no idea who they were. And if Shadowheart remains loyal to Shar, they'll be killed by their own daughter as a final test to her loyalty.
Forced to Watch: The Sharrans tortured them not only physically, but by making sure they witnessed how they were slowly corrupting their daughter into becoming a Sharran.
Good Parents: By all accounts, they appear to have been this. Their love for their daughter and the hope of seeing her one day freed from Shar's influence is the only thing that kept them (more or less) sane despite forty years of torture (often at the hands of their brainwashed daughter). Shar even comments that Arnell showed incredible mental fortitude during the decades of torture.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: If Shadowheart has turned away from Shar when she finds them, they'll insist that she kill them to end Shar's curse on her. However, if she persists in saying that she'd rather have them alive even if it means living with the pain, Arnell will still try to insist otherwise, only for Emmeline to shut him down.
Emmeline: Jen wants her family. Jen shall have her family.
Interspecies Romance: A high elf^note and a human.
Mayfly–December Romance: Due to elves' longer lifespans, the human Emmeline has clearly aged much more than her elven husband Arnell. Shar also comments on humans being delicate and short-lived, saying that Arnell weathered the torture better than Emmeline. This also means that their long imprisonment destroyed their plans to have more children, as Emmeline's fertile years are long gone.
Mercy Kill: If Shadowheart's turned her back on Shar her parents beg her to end all of their suffering for the sake of her future instead of their freedom.
Poor Communication Kills: Should Shadowheart ask her father about that fateful night, he'll admit that he chose to search for her in his wolf form to cover more ground and more easily track her before the Sharrans got to her. It worked in that he got there first, but he didn't consider that Shadowheart, who had no idea about her father's lycanthropy, would see a wolf attacking her rather than her father protecting her. He laments that things might have turned out differently if he had told her about that part of him before.
Our Werewolves Are Different: Arnell is a lycanthrope, possibly a Lythari elf given how teammates can tease a romanced Shadowheart about passing it on herself, who is able to turn into a great white wolf at will. The memories of him attempting to fight off the Sharrans in his wolf form were what gave Shadowheart her fear of wolves.

The Sharrans

Mother Superior (Spoilers Unmarked)

Mother Superior Viconia DeVir

Voiced by: Grey DeLisle (BG1 & BG2), Jess Nesling (BG3)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bg3_viconia.jpg

Race: Lolth-Sworn Drow

Place of Origin: Menzoberranzan

The head of the Sharrans in the Sword Coast and Shadowheart's superior and mentor. See Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Party Members for her character entry in the previous games.

Arc Villain: She's the main antagonist for Shadowheart's personal questline, no matter which path Shadowheart takes. If she becomes a Selûnite, she will be forced to confront Viconia in order to free her parents. But if she remains committed to Shar and becomes her Chosen, then she will eliminate Viconia as part of Shar's command to cleanse and assume command of her church in Baldur's Gate.
Bad Boss: Wiped out her previous order of loyal Sharrans at Shar's own command. She puts a ruthless face on this act in dialogue, but her cloister diary suggests she found the sacrifice staggering.
Battle Cry: A familiar one if you've played the first two games.
Viconia DeVir: L'il Alurl! For Shar!
Big Bad Wannabe: Though she may be the Arc Villain of Shadowheart's personal quest, she and her followers are pretty much regarded as a non-entity amongst the numerous factions pursuing the Astral Prism. In fact, her efforts to claim the Prism only end up working in the heroes' favor by keeping it out of reach from the Cult or Vlaakith.
Dirty Coward: Minthara accuses her of being this when she forsook Lolth and fled Menzoberranzan centuries ago.
Minthara: I admire those who challenge authority, but Viconia fled from her troubles rather than face them.
The Dragon: Shar's temporal right hand, tasked by the Dark Lady to groom her successor. Shadowheart claims the mantle by force if she remains a Sharran.
Evil Mentor: As the Mother Superior, her primary job is to instruct and convert new recruits into becoming Sharrans, a process that we're told is quite cruel and ruthless. One of her most important students was Shadowheart, and most of Shadowheart's evil traits and morally dubious life views can be traced back to Viconia's teachings.
Flanderization: Viconia's worship of Shar was always an important part of her character, but in previous games her faith was auxiliary to her racial struggles as an exiled Drow and the traumatic fallout of her fall from grace in Menzoberranzan. 3 shifts the focus entirely to Viconia's Religion of Evil; and between that and her demotion to a non-playable Arc Villain showered with off-screen Kick the Dog moments, she comes off as shallow and unsympathetic.
Happy Ending Override: Her non-romanced epilogue from Throne of Bhaal implies that she eventually rejects Shar and starts to move towards being Neutral. However here she's still in the service of Shar. If Minsc is to be believed, she did not stick with the party all the way through the first two games events, fleeing after she tried to kill Boo, which would explain why her character arc never completed.
Hijacked by Ganon: What she is attempting to do, from her perspective. The Cult of the Absolute have been recruiting from the traditional Sharran bases of vagabonds, the desperate, the despairing, and other outcasts. As such, she ordered the retrieval of the Astral Prism in order to snuff out what she saw as a band of upstarts before they got too powerful. What she doesn't know is that the Cult of the Absolute is a cover for the Dead Three, including the overarching villain of her own adventures, Bhaal.
It's All About Me: Her personal failing if Shadowheart is committed to the Sharran path. It's suggested that her hostility stems from an unwillingness to cede her power, even to she whom Viconia knows to be Shar's prophesied "champion of Darkness."
It Was a Gift: Shadowheart notes that Viconia kept the gems she earned for saving Suldanessellar in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.
Kick the Dog: According to Minsc, back when two were adventuring together she once attempted to kill Boo with a knife as thin as a toothpick and was only stopped after Boo awoke and nearly blinded her. The incident has traumatized Boo so deeply that simply hearing her name sends him into a panic.
The Leader: She's the ruthless leader of the Shar sect based in Baldur's Gate.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Viconia comes equipped with her Walking Fortress, one of the best shields in the game; players can loot it from either her defeated body or her executed corpse.
Malevolent Masked Woman: Wears a sinister white mask as part of her attire as a Mother Superior of Shar, giving her an appropriate sinister appearance.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Her outfit has a V-shaped neckline that plunges all the way to her stomach.
Not Worth Killing: Shadowheart in either path outright considers her to be this if you ask her what she wants to do with Viconia, and just leaves you decide what you want to do her. The player can ultimately spare her.
Pragmatic Villainy: While she'll always be hostile to Shadowheart no matter what, she's considerably more approachable to the avatar provided it isn't Shadowheart herself. If Shadowheart turned against Shar, Viconia makes a genuine offer of an alliance if you surrender her to the cult. She's even more affable if Shadowheart's left the party altogether as her only concern is that she's still out there as a loose end or Viconia couldn't kill her personally, which you can allay with a speech check. The only scenario in which siding with her is impossible is if Shadowheart became a Dark Justiciar in Act 2, since Shar has already forsaken Viconia and you're just there to finish the job.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: She's the most powerful cleric of the Sharran sect that she leads.
Retcon: While her non-romanced epilogue in Throne of Bhaal did make mention of her starting a cult made up of Sharran acolytes whom she would later slaughter by her own hand, said massacre was done because of a slight done against Viconia herself after one of her followers turned against her. As a result, Shar is said to have stripped Viconia of her abilities, leading to an unrepentant Viconia to abandon the dark goddess and strike out on her own. Here, Viconia's murder of her former followers was done on the orders of Shar as a test of faith, which only appears to have strengthened Viconia's devotion to the dark goddess.
Spanner in the Works: She's the one who found out about the Astral Prism and the Cult of Absolute's plan to steal it from the Githyanki. She sent Shadowheart and her team of Sharrans to steal it from the cult in turn, leading to the artifact landing in the hands of the party with both the cult and the Githyanki desperately searching for it. And of course if the player picks to play as Shadowheart this goes further as Shadowheart can go on to free Orpheus, and destroy the cult and the Absolute.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Played With. Viconia was always a Jerkass who approved of an evil party, but she was more concerned about trying to survive as an exiled drow on the surface and didn't have any evil acts to her name, nor was she that fanatical about Shar. Her non-romance ending even had her committing heroic acts like defending Calimport and Suldanessalar from evil plots. But her depiction here has her being a fanatical and ruthless Sharran worshiper, and Minsc's memories of her effectively retcon her as someone who had an ugly falling out with the party before Throne of Bhaal's ending, erasing her potential redemption from the timeline.
Unknown Rival: She sees the cult of the Absolute as upstarts poaching from the same pool of people Shar's cult draws its worshippers - the outcasts and disaffected. It's why she sent Shadowheart to steal the artifact the cult had just stolen, to put them back in their place. The Absolute and their Chosen meanwhile... don't give a rat's ass about Shar, Viconia, and her cult. They don't seem even aware of the latter two. One of them is even an ex-Sharran who gave himself to Myrkul and uses his old Sharran temple for his own benefit.
Unwitting Pawn: She believes herself to be a valuable servant of Shar, but Shar only sees her as a disposable pawn in her plan to mold Shadowheart into becoming her perfect Chosen.
We Used to Be Friends:
- Downplayed with Jaheira. They were Teeth-Clenched Teammates at best, but Jaheira will think better of you if Viconia is spared, though she does not disapprove either if you kill her.
- Minsc plays it straight, approving if you kill her.
Would Hurt a Child: Shadowheart, whom Viconia and her cohort abducted as a child, recalls several cruelties the "Mother Superior" employed to mould her into a more model Sharran. That Viconia abandoned Lolth's clergy for its ritual abuses of children points to some Villainous Ethics Decay across that interim century.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Shadowheart all but spells it out for her if she embraced Shar. Now that she has fulfilled Shar's trial and become her Chosen, Viconia's leadership is no longer needed. Viconia's unwillingness to accept this is what triggers this route's version of the Act 3 conflict.

Nocturne

Voiced by: Abigail Thorn

Race: Tiefling

Shadowheart's childhood friend and fellow Sharran who works as a quartermaster.

Birds of a Feather: With Shadowheart; they're both kind, empathetic Sharran initiates who don't feel completely at home with their religion but feel as if it's their only choice.
Childhood Friend: She and Shadowheart grew up together in the Sharran temple, with both becoming close friends as they trained under Mother Superior. Thanks to Shadowheart's Laser-Guided Amnesia, she has no memory of it.
Forgotten Childhood Friend: Shadowheart knew her when they were both children, but because of their missing memories, can't remember. This is averted if you do a sidequest and send Shadowheart on a Mushroom Samba, also revealing Nocturne is a transgender woman (still presenting as a boy in Shadowheart's memory).
Minion with an F in Evil: She's the only Sharran who won't join the fight against the party, if one occurs. It turns out she's Shadowheart's Childhood Friend; her journal shows her unease about Shadowheart's long absence, and each time she loses her memory. She also protected Shadowheart's secret hangout from being discovered. Talking to her, it's pretty clear Nocturne only remains a worshipper of Shar because it's all she knows thanks to her own missing memories, and she feels not as brave as Shadowheart to leave her goddess. Further prompting from Shadowheart leads her to say she'll consider leaving after a while.
Ms. Exposition: Tells the player and Shadowheart several stories about Shadowheart's childhood while growing up as a Sharran, something Shadowheart can't do due to her Laser-Guided Amnesia.
Number Two: Becomes this for Shadowheart if she becomes the Chosen of Shar, as her friend and confidant.
Undying Loyalty: Downplayed; Nocturne flat-out admits she isn't brave enough to leave Shar, but she also insists on keeping Shadowheart as a friend whether Shar likes it or not.

Baldur's Gate Inhabitants

Ulder Ravengard

Duke Ulder Ravengard

Voiced by: Chris Jarman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ulder_ravengard_bg3.jpg

Supreme Marshall of the Flaming Fist

Race: Human

The Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate who survived the events of the Descent and was bound to return to Baldur's Gate before being abducted by the Cult of the Absolute. He's also Wyll's estranged father.

Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He served with such distinction as a Flaming Fist that he was soon promoted to Marshall of the Flaming Fist, and then elected as Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate. During the Descent, he rallied the people of Elturel against the invading fiends despite not being from it, and did his best to save those he could.
Cosmic Plaything: Ends up being dealt a very cruel hand during the events of the game, thanks in large part due to the Dead Three and Mizora's machinations. In Act 1, he's attacked and abducted at Waukeen's Rest, and in Act 2, he's brainwashed into becoming a pawn of the Absolute, neither of which you can really prevent from happening. Then in Act 3, he's MindControlled into giving Gortash the position of Archduke, which Gortash will then leverage to try and secure an alliance with you. And finally, Mizora then tries to leverage the Duke's safety in order to pressure Wyll into committing to an eternal pact with her. Choosing to ally with Duke Ravengard over Gortash and then rescuing him after freeing Wyll from his pact is an incredibly tall order.
Fighting from the Inside: Despite being infected with a tadpole and becoming a thrall of the Absolute, Ulder is able to maintain enough willpower that, if spoken to and told of his current situation, he momentarily breaks free to ask for help. This convinces Wyll that his father can be saved, and plays a role in Wyll's potential choices for the ending.
History Repeats: During the Descent, he was nearly mentally overtaken by fiendish forces while trying to save Elturel, and needed the heroes to free him from his mental state. Once again he ends up having his will controlled by a powerful force, and needs the party to help save him from the tadpole controlling him.
I Have No Son!: Wyll reveals that when his father saw he had made a pact with Mizora, Ulder expelled him from the city. In hindsight, Wyll believes his father was correct, in the sense that from his perspective his son suddenly was willingly consorting with an evil being for no good reason, but he was still incredibly harsh about it. Due to the pact, Wyll was unable to tell Ulder why he had made the pact with Mizora, and when he tried to show him the battle site, Mizora had already removed all traces of it. The player can then mend the fences by connecting Wyll and his father's tadpoles so the Duke sees everything Wyll did and sacrificed for the people of Baldur's Gate. Ulder will admit that he was wrong to judge his son so harshly and declare that Wyll is a greater hero than him for being willing to put his own soul on the line for the city.
Rags to Riches: According to Wyll, Ulder was originally the son of a poor blacksmith who won his position through merit during his time in the Flaming Fist.

Florrick

Counsellor Florrick

Voiced by: Karen Bryson

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/florrick_p10.jpg

Race: Wood Elf

Class: Wizard

A Baldurian politician who serves as a close advisor to Duke Ulder Ravengard.

Amazing Technicolor Population: As a wood elf, her skin has a slight greenish tint.
Damsel in Distress: She's first encountered in Act 1 having to be saved from the fire in Waukeen's Rest. If she survives, the party arriving in Baldur's Gate will soon discover that she was being imprisoned under orders from Lord Gortash and is scheduled for public execution. If the party were successful in getting her out of Wyrm's Rock Fortress, she will offer some of her forces to aid them in the battle against the Netherbrain.
Easy Level Trick: Florrick is considerably easier to rescue than the prisoners Gortash keeps at the Iron Throne, as the Wyrm's Rock prison has considerably lighter security and multiple backdoor exits such as the Wyrmway and a pipeline to the city that allow you to smuggle her out without alerting the Steel Watch or Gortash's Banite forces. You can even cast Invisiblity on her and then just walk away, leaving the fortress through the main gates without anyone noticing it.
Undying Loyalty: To Ravengard, viewing him as the truest champion of Baldur's Gate and its only hope against the Cult of the Absolute. If Wyll breaks his contract with Mizora, the fiend will try to use Florrick's loyalty to Ravengard to manipulate her into attacking Wyll through lies that he killed his father to take his title and place in the city's leadership.

Cazador

Cazador Szarr

Lie to yourself, boy, but not to me.

Voiced by: Graham Hoadly

"First, thou shalt not drink the blood of thinking creatures.
Second, thou shalt obey me in all things.
Third, thou shalt not leave my side, unless directed.
Fourth, thou shalt know that thou art mine."

Race: Elf or Half-Elf (Vampire)

A cruel and powerful vampire lord based in Baldur's Gate, patriarch of the Szarr coven, and Astarion's vampiric sire.

And I Must Scream: When he rebelled against his master, Vellioth, he rebelled against him and was impaled for eleven years...for his failure, not his attempted rebellion.
But Not Too Foreign: It is hinted that he may be Kozakuran (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Japan) by both his look and the Kozakuran dictionary used to open doors in his dungeon, but his accent and words make defining his country of origin difficult, not to mention irrelevant given his age.
Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Not exactly unrealistically high, but still on the reedy side.
Cruel and Unusual Death: If Astarion doesn't usurp his ritual, he just stabs the bastard a dozen-ish times in the chest and stomach. It's so brutal that even his vampiric regeneration can't save him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Not anymore, but when he'd recently been turned he met up with someone he knew when he was alive. His master Vellioth forced him to watch while he bled said friend completely dry as punishment for his “transgression”.
Evil Plan: Cazador sired and branded numerous spawn in order to ritually sacrifice them and achieve vampiric ascension. Astarion can hijack his plot, sacrificing Cazador in his place.
Evil Uncle: Turned his own child niece.
Famous Ancestor: The party can find a bust of the Vampire Monarch Mordoc SeLanmere while exploring his mansion. The narrator implies that he might be an ancestor of Cazador's.
Faux Affably Evil: He refers to his spawn as his children and insists that they're a family no matter what horrors he inflicts on them, up to and including gang-rape.
Generational Trauma: Investigating enough of his palace reveals he was once in the same position as Astarion, until he killed his own horrific master and was fully corrupted by true vampirism. The fact that he went on to continue this twisted cycle also foreshadows what will happen if Astarion usurps his ritual. A quick glance at the scroll found in a secret corner of his dungeon which records the vampires who have reigned in Faerun for the last thousand or so years reveals he was the longest living one and that his own master's master was a Szarr, perhaps explaining Vellioth's specific cruelty towards him. What it was about Astarion that seemed to inspire similar targeted malice from Cazador, however, is left unexplained.
Hidden Depths: He was once the enthralled to his own sadist master, and probing his mind while he recuperates in his coffin hints that he feels a lot of regret and self-loathing, even if it only resurfaces during his vampiric slumber.
Hoist by His Own Petard: It's possible for Astarion to link his and Tav's minds with the tadpoles, read the scars on his back and carve them into Cazador, thereby allowing him to sacrifice Cazador in his place to become the Vampire Ascendant himself.
Horrifying the Horror: Even Raphael is disgusted at the cruelty Cazador is willing to inflict on others, though mostly because there's no purpose to the cruelty.
I Am a Monster: Reading his thoughts as his body recovers after your fight reveals that he's not all that happy about his current state of being, describing himself as "a monster that will not end."
"I sleep, but cannot rest. I live, but cannot die. I am eternal, and I grieve."
I Hate You, Vampire Dad: He was treated as cruelly and ruthlessly by his own sire, Vellioth, as he treats his own spawn.
Karmic Death: If Astarion gets his revenge, either Cazador is stabbed to death, or is used in the Rite of Profane Sacrifice ritual, by the hands of the vampire spawn he abused for two centuries.
Meaningful Name: "Cazador" is Spanish for "hunter", a fitting name for a vampire lord.
Plot-Irrelevant Villain: While he and his Evil Plan are indeed monstrous, he's ultimately just a powerful vampire scheming in the background and has nothing to do with the Absolute or the Chosen even indirectly. The closest thing one has to do with the other is that Astarion being infected broke Cazador's hold on him.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Dialogue with Astarion confirms that Cazador would often force himself on his thralls. Its even indicated that he would have others, possibly his other spawn, also have sex with them and force them to partake in orgies, all of which have left Astarion with serious trauma.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Wears an opulent black-and-red shirt when confronted. Also has black hair and a vampire's red eyes.
The Sociopath: Astarion describes him as having a "weathervane mood" and being "obsessed with power... The power to control (people) completely."
Villain with Good Publicity: Astarion claims that Cazador is generally thought be just another nobleman in the city (if slightly reclusive), and he often throws parties for Baldurian high society. Astarion will start throwing these parties himself if he usurps Cazador's ritual.
Vocal Dissonance: He looks like a fairly well-groomed man in his late middle-age, but he sounds like a frail old man when he speaks.

Cazador's Spawn

Aurelia, Leon Onufrio, Pale Petras, Dalyria, Violet, Yousen

Voiced by: Rebecca Hanssen (Aurelia), Sofia Zervudachi (Dalyria), Declan Perking (Yousen)

Race: Vampire Spawn (1 tiefling, 2 humans, 1 drow, 1 elf, 1 gnome)

The six other “favoured spawn” of Cazador, who have lived the same nightmare as their “brother” Astarion for centuries. All are desperate to be free, though they vary some as individuals.

Ambiguous Situation: When exactly did Leon become a father? Victoria is listed as a "pureblooded" human child and was killed relatively recently by the time you find her. Astarion can claim his siblings have all had "lifetimes" of experience controlling their vampiric hunger, but if she was born before Leon became a spawn he'd have to have been turned less than 15 years ago. Leon explicitly labels them father and daughter, and as a sorcerer it's possible they are blood-related, but she identifies as an orphan if you speak with her corpse. She could be taking her "father's" undead status into account, but Dalyria's reasoning for attacking Victoria explicitly rules out her being a Dhampir if she isn't just adopted.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: Of the "adoptive" sort. The spawns all refer to one another as "brother" and "sister", despite none actually being related to each other and varying wildly in race and possibly age. There does, however, seem to be some sort of affection and kinmanship among some of them—Dalyria in particular seems to genuinely care about Petras and Astarion, and though antagonistic with each other, Astarion and Petras do seem to act like bickering brothers. That said, they're a band of vampire slaves who have spent decades to centuries pitted against each other by their horrifically abusive master, so nobody could accuse their relationship of being healthy.
Butt-Monkey: Yousen the gnome has shades — Violet, who seems to have quite the vicious streak, describes him as a wining runt and Astarion occasionally speaks disparagingly of Yousen's race as whole.
Cain and Abel: Potential Abels to Astarion’s Cain, if he sacrifices them.
Dare to Be Badass: Potentially from Astarion, should they survive the ritual.
Determinator: Petras is dragged into the sunlight for an interrogation and still refuses to give up information. Astarion views this as a mix of Pride and Too Dumb to Live, even more than what's supposed to be normal for Petras.
Determined Doctor: Dalyria is a cross between this and a Deadly Doctor (what with being a vampire spawn). Her diary reveals that she was once Physician General in Baldur's Gate, and after being turned she resolved not to succumb to her hunger and instead set to work finding a cure for vampirism like she would any other disease. It worked about as well as you'd think.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Leon is Cazador's best hunter and "favored spawn" to ensure that his master doesn't hurt his daughter, Dalyria is both terrified for Petras' life when Astarion drags him into the sun and somewhat devastated that Astarion returned to Cazador's palace at all when he'd already escaped, and finally they all stay together if they survive the ritual.
Evil Sorcerer: Leon technically counts as a vampire spawn.
The Gadfly: Violet seems to really get a kick out of tormenting the others: She puts garlic in Yousen's bed at least once, and Leon is terrified to think of her going near his daughter.
I Just Want to Be Free: Aurelia and Leon are angry with Astarion when they show up at camp looking for him, thinking he's denying them their only chance to be free. Dalyria seems to cling to Cazador's lies about the Rite of Profane Ascension despite centuries of evidence to the contrary, insisting that after all the horror they've endured under Cazador they've finally earned their freedom.
Nervous Wreck: Dalyria is visibly very nervous when met, terrified of even being slightly late for Cazador when Petras wants to risk grabbing an extra victim for his first decent meal as a free man.
Nice Guy: Leon and Dalyria seem like a complicated version of this — They've both done horrible things as vampire spawn (Dalyria specifically bit a child and ultimately got her killed trying to find a cure for vampirism) but they're both decent, reasonable people in normal conversation. Leon mostly does what he does in order to protect his daughter as best he can, and is in fact a pretty good father to her despite being a vampire spawn, while Dalyria openly frets over her siblings' safety when met.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Subverted for “Pale Petras”, who Astarion just calls "Petras", though he does address Dalyria as “Dal”.
Parental Favoritism: According to his diary, Leon has the "room of the favored spawn”.
Parents as People: Leon is such a prolific hunter because Cazador is holding his daughter hostage.
Pride Before a Fall: Petras is introduced talking like a borderline Card-Carrying Villain before Astarion drags him into the sunlight.
Sibling Rivalry: Petras and Astarion both think the other is an arrogant moron.
Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: Funnily enough, despite being perhaps the most morally gray of the Origin companions, (non-Ascendent) Astarion probably ranks closer to the center of the scale among his fellow Spawn. Leon and Dalyria are largely fairly reasonable and doing their best in the terrible circumstances of their existence, whereas Petras and Violet definitely skew in the far less friendly direction.
Token Evil Teammate: All are technically evil as vampire spawn, but Petras and Violet seem like the worst of the lot. Violet especially seems to enjoy causing others pain, as her treatment of Yousen and Leon's fear for his daughter can attest.
Token Heroic Orc: Astarion believes they have the potential to be this, citing their "lifetimes controlling (their) hunger" in contrast to the thousands of spawn Cazador has in the cells.
Then Let Me Be Evil: Petras is introduced planning himself "a proper meal" (meaning at least two people) for when he's freed. If he survives, he can be firmly warned against this.
The Voiceless: Dal and Petras/Aurelia and Leon all get brief speaking scenes, but Violet and Yousen never once speak to the player or in general. Violet, however, does have a diary which can be found in the Spawn dormitory that gives some insight on her personality. Yousen remains a complete mystery with zero detail anywhere about what kind of person he is.
Walking Shirtless Scene: Leon is never seen in a shirt.
Would Hurt a Child: Dalyria bit Leon’s daughter Victoria in one of her attempts to devise a cure of vampirism, namely by replacing vampire blood with healthy, youthful blood — Unfortunately, all this did was set off a necrotic boobytrap in Victoria that Dalyria hadn’t believed Leon would have set. Cazador found out, dragged Dalyria off for punishment, and Victoria ultimately died. It’s unclear whether it was the trap or disobeying Cazador that traumatized Dal so badly.
- Leon is deeply unnerved by the way Violet looks at Victoria.

Ansur (Spoilers Unmarked)

Ansur

Voiced by: Anton Browne

The Heart of the Gate

"I am Ansur, Heart of the Gate — butchered in flesh, risen in spirit."

Race: Undead Bronze Dragon

A bronze dragon who is believed to lie dormant deep within Wyrm's Rock.

Ambiguously Gay: Ansur’s relationship with Balduran A.K.A, The Emperor is implied to go beyond friendship as Ansur called Balduran more than a friend and a letter found on him has a lot of subtext in it.
Ambiguous Situation: The circumstance behind Ansur’s death are rather suspect; while the Emperor claims that Ansur tried to Mercy Kill him in his sleep, for him to kill him in self-defense, which is supported by both the contents of his letter and Ansur's spirit claiming he offered the Emperor a merciful death, it is worth noting that his corpse is found in its original dragon form hidden underneath Wyrm's Rock prison. There is also the fact that unlike every other slain creature in the game, Ansur’s soul refuses to leave his body behind, leaving even more mystery behind the circumstances of his death.
Benevolent Monsters: Zig-zagged as while he is a dragon, he is specifically a metallic dragon, who are usually good. His actions against you specifically come from a place of frustration and insanity rather than actual malevolence. He probably sees trying to kill you as a Mercy Kill, trying to free you from being one of the Emperor’s mind-addled thralls. Against the Emperor, however, it’s definitely personal and he’s out for revenge.
Dead All Along: The party goes down into the Wyrmway hoping to gain the aid of this legendary dragon, but once they reach him he is already long dead. So long that his corpse, to which his spirit is bound, is in a state of extreme decay.
Determinator: Rescued his friend from the control of an elder brain and then near broke his own spirit in the desperation to find him a cure to save him.
Draconic Humanoid: His humanoid form is a bit on the nose, since it is also a bronze dragonborn.
Dracolich: Essentially what he has become in function, if not name, as a dead dragon barely held together by its own ghost.
Emotional Bruiser: Presumably. An adult dragon with all that implies, but descriptions by the Emperor indicated he was very much a heart on sleeve sort of person who felt deeply.
Everyone Has Standards: And the conduct of mind flayers crosses his. Considering how the Emperor enthralled Stelmane, enslaved Orpheus, manipulates us throughout the entirety of the game, and has absolutely no problem with the fact that he literally has to eat the brains of people to survive, Ansur definitely has a point. One has to wonder if Ansur went through a similar experience to ours with the Emperor, eventually reaching a breaking point.
Interspecies Friendship: Comes with being both an adventurer and a dragon.
Interspecies Romance: Heavily implied. When the Emperor calls him his friend, Ansur makes a point to say they were "more than friends". The Emperor also mentions how Ansur had tears in his eyes when he tried to mercy kill him and was insanely devoted to finding a cure for him. The letter from the Emperor you can loot from his body uses very intimate language as well.
King in the Mountain: Is supposed to be this according to Duke Ulder Ravengard, who believes that Ansur could be called upon by the city In Its Hour of Need. But by the time the party finds him, only his spirit and bones remain because the Emperor had already killed him long ago.
Mercy Kill: What he sees trying to kill Balduran as. After trying everything, he couldn’t bear to see the love of his life devolve into a soulless Illithid anymore.
Sanity Slippage: After Balduran was turned to a mind flayer, Ansur became obsessed with finding a way to cure Balduran, even though Balduran had told him that he did not see himself as sick, desiring to be an illithid. After he exhausted every resource in a cure attempt, Ansur resorted to murder against his friend, eventually trying to kill Balduran in his sleep.
Staking the Loved One: What he tried in the end, seeing no other solution after a long, long time of looking.
Tragic Villain: As a spirit attached to his rotting corpse.
Undying Loyalty: Won’t abandon people he cares for, trying to help them the best he can.

Lorroakan

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lorrokan_9.PNG

Voiced by: Joshua B Sklar

Race: Human

Class: Wizard (Evocation)

A powerful archmage who owns Sorcerous Sundries as well as the current master of Ramazith's Tower.

Ambition Is Evil: Greatly desires the power of immortality and hired Aradin and his mercenaries to find the Nightsong.
Bad Boss: He treats his apprentice Rolan like crap. When you meet Rolan in the Sorcerous Sundries, he has numerous bruises on his face, the result of one of his many "sessions" with Lorroakan.
The Bad Guy Wins: You can side with him and successfully help him capture the Nightsong, and he'll reward you accordingly, but how long the victory will last is another matter.
Big Bad Wannabe: He certainly styles himself as a powerful and dangerous archmage, but he borders on being a Small Name, Big Ego. His boss fight can be difficult but its not so much him as the elementals he's bound to his will, and leaching off of to fuel his Elemental Rebuke spell. Once they're dealt with, Lorroakan himself is a Squishy Wizard through and through.
Bullying a Dragon:
- He intends to get immortality by imprisoning the Nightsong, as Ketheric did. But while Ketheric relied on Shar to hide her, Lorroakan seems content to just try it in his own tower and hope neither the player nor her mother, Selûne will take exception with him.
- To a lesser extent, his abusive treatment of his apprentice Rolan. You can get him to reveal via Speak With Dead that he does it because Rolan is more powerful than he is and he's trying to keep him down.
Establishing Character Moment: The very first thing we see him do is William Telling his hapless halfling assistant to test the aim on one of his constructs. This tells you a lot about his character.
Foil: To Gale. Both wizards share the same desire for godhood, and their current status contrasts one another. Gale, once a proud Chosen of Mystra, is now a wandering wizard who lost his goddess' favor and lives life as an adventurer living in make-shift camps. Meanwhile, Lorroakan is a proud archmage in Baldur's Gate, lives in luxury in his grand wizard tower and is the owner of the popular establishment of Sorcerous Sundries. Should Gale be in your party when you meet Lorroakan, the two of them can even have a special dialogue with each other, with Lorroakan mocking Gale for his fallen status. Finally, Gale can give up his quest for godhood, re-earn his goddess' favor and ultimately becomes a better man. Meanwhile, Lorroakan is portrayed as completely irredeemable, and unless you side with him, his pursuit of godhood leads to a humiliating death by Selúne's daughter, Dame Aylin. And to add insult to injury, his apprentice whom he abused can become the new owner of Ramazith's Tower.
Godhood Seeker: This man greatly desires the power of godhood, which is why he seeks the Nightsong.
Hate Sink: Lorroakan lacks any of the redeeming qualities or entertaining aspects of most of the game's other villainous characters, and is ultimately little more than a smug, entitled narcissist who abuses those under him for petty reasons and doesn't even have the power to back up his delusions of grandeur.
Immortality Seeker: He's after Nightsong in order to make himself immortal, in a similar fashion to how Ketheric Thorm did it.
"It" Is Dehumanizing: He always refers to the Nightsong as an it, and in fact corrects himself if he does refer to Dame Aylin as she.
Jerkass: He is introduced using his Halfling servant, Miklaur to test his animated golem's aim. He beats Rolan for failing impossible tests that he designed. And he wants to reimprison Dame Aylin and use her in his quest for immortality. A nice guy, he is definitely not.
Lack of Empathy: Besides abusing his apprentice and manservant, Lorroakan show no empathy or understanding that Dame Aylin, who spent a century imprisoned of what amounts to being essentially a battery for Ketheric, has no desire to suffer the same situation again.
Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Should Gale be in your party when you meet Lorroakan for the first time, the two wizards will be quick to engage in what would be nicely described as a verbal pissing contest. While Lorroakan mocks Gale for having fallen out of Mystra's favor, Gale derides Lorroakan for his foolhardy pursuit of immortality, which would pale in comparison to his ambitions to acquire the Crown of Karsus.
Sadist Teacher: After he's dealt with, Rolan explains that Lorroakan would ask him rapid-fire questions to test his arcane knowledge. He'd beat Rolan for every question he got wrong.
Smug Snake: Good lord, is he ever. Should the player point out that Ketheric ultimately paid the price for his attempt to use Dame Aylin as a living battery for his immortality, Lorroakan will smugly assert that he will succeed. He gets his spine broken like a twig for his trouble.
Stupid Evil: Trying to capture and fight the sworn sword of Selûne backed up by adventurers who have literally killed avatars of gods was only ever going to end one way. While it's up to the player to accept his offer or throw it back in his face, his attempt to capture Aylin anyway even after realizing he can't buy off the avatar is simply Suicidal Overconfidence.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- He fills practically the same role Ramazith (the wizard the tower Lorrokan lives in is named after) did in the original Baldur's Gate, being a red-robed wizard who is hiring adventurers in an attempt to acquire a magical (and female) being to experiment on her, will turn on the party if you free her, and can serve as a high-level wizard Optional Boss. The Player Character can make this a case of History Repeats, by making Lorroakan meet the same fate Ramazith did.
- Also fills the niche of delusional, pompous, narcissistic red-robed wizardry that was Edwin Odesseiron's in the previous Baldur's Gate games. Interestingly, the same contentious supplement that colored Sarevok and Viconia's portrayals in 3 (Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy) had Edwin Kill and Replace the original Lorroakan, take over Ramazith's Tower, and conjure up a projection to handle mundanities, but nothing is made of this in the game itself.
Undignified Death: Beaten and whimpering on the floor in his own tower, Lorroakan could do nothing as Dame Aylin lifts him up and kills him by breaking his back, giving the arrogant wizard a humiliating death.
What the Hell, Hero?: You can tell him (truthfully or otherwise, depending on your choices) that the Nightsong is dead upon meeting him, and in response, he angrily chews you out, before asking you to leave him be. If the Nightsong is alive and you report this back to her, she decides to confront him anyway, reasoning that she should deal with him permanently before he gets tipped off that's she's actually alive.

Helsik

Voiced by:

Race: Gold Dwarf

Class: Warlock (The Fiend)

A diabolist, owner of Devil's Fee, and a servant of Mammon, the Archduke of Minauros.

Cash Gate: Securing her assistance requires the party pay her a whopping 20,000 gold, though with a Persuasion check you can instead promise to give her a magic item from the House of Hope, the Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength. Alternatively, you can pass an Intimidation check for her to reduce her price by half, which is still quite a lot to pay unless you've been busy pickpocketing vendors and looting every corpse and corner for gold.
Spanner in the Works: Her assistance to the party in helping them enter the House of Hope leads to the ruination of Raphael's plans for the Crown of Karsus. And it can potentially lead to the release of Orpheus and the final breakdown of the alliance between the party and The Emperor.
Summoning Ritual: Provides the means for the party to enter the Nine Hells, specifically Raphael's domain, the House of Hope.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She made it possible for Gortash and the Dark Urge to break into Mephistopheles' vault, allowing them to steal Karsus crown, and thus start the Cult of the Absolute.

Nine-Fingers Keene

Astele "Nine-Fingers" Keene

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/astele_0.PNG

Voiced by: Bryony Corrigan

Race: Human

Class: Rogue

Astele Keene, also known as Nine-Fingers, is the leader of criminal organization located within the Undercity known as the Guild.

Affably Evil: As the leader of a criminal organization, she has a lot of skeletons in her closet. Nevertheless, she treats the party politely as long as they stay on her good side.
Amazon Brigade: Aside from being a woman and a capable fighter herself, her squad of bodyguards is also exclusively female.
Even Evil Has Standards: Cruel as she may be, she does not want to see Baldur's Gate fall to the Absolute.
Fingore: Take a wild guess why she's called Nine-Fingers.
First-Name Basis: Jaheira is allowed to call her by her first-name Astele rather than Nine-Fingers.
Friend in the Black Market: Surprisingly, she and Jaheira have a working relationship. After Jaheira discovered the cult's existence, one of the first thing she did was inform Astele.
Hidden Depths:
- What does the ruthless leader of the Gate's underworld keep in her high-security storage vault? A collection of cherished childhood toys, it turns out.
- Claims to have been a fan of Minsc when she was a child. Or at least, appreciated being able to use his statue as cover when it rained.
A Lighter Shade of Black: Of the two criminal organizations vying for control over Baldur's Gate's underworld, hers is by far the preferable one, what with the alternative being a division of the Cult of the Absolute.
Named After the Injury: She's called "Nine-Fingers" due to her left pinky being severed at the base.
Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: The Guild get up to all sorts of criminal endeavours but Keene also considers it their duty to defend common Baldurian citizens from outside threats and the depredations of the rich..
The Queenpin: She carries herself with all the demeanor that befits a leader of a criminal organization. Her gang members defer to her and make sure not to piss her off.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Surprisingly so, for the leader of a criminal organisation. Not only is she fair with the party if they are fair with her but she is willing to hear out Minsc regarding his time as her rival the "Stone Lord" and accept that he was mind controled if this is properly explained to her and lets bygones be bygones.
Street Urchin: She lived as a street urchin in her youth.

Valeria

Inspector Valeria

Voiced by: Roly Botha

Race: Hollyphant

"Another case closed, another bottle open! Huzzah to Valeri-AH!"

A hollyphant investigator for the Flaming Fist who is investigating the murder of Father Lorgan, the Temple of Ilmater's leader.

The Alcoholic: She's a little too fond of booze. She slacks off on work and ignores all but the most airtight evidence against her theory to spend more time drinking, and her alcoholism was a factor in her being booted to the Material Plane by her superiors.
Damsel in Distress: When the player gains access to the Murder Tribunal, either through deception or actually committing the murders, Valeria is being held captive there, the final kill the player needs to become an Unholy Assassin of Bhaal. They can kill her and complete the rite, or turn on Sarevok and free her.
Ignored Expert: According to her memoir, she had once warned the planetars in Mount Celestia that sending the then-angel Zariel to observe the Blood War also carries the risk of her being recruited by the devils, only for her claim to be dismissed as a "minor heresy". Given what became of Zariel not long after, she was right to call them out for their stubborness.
Karmic Death: If the player character kills her. How ironic that the investigator who was too busy drinking to bother investigating a resurgence in Bhaalist activity ends up kidnapped and sacrificed in a Bhaalist ritual.
Our Angels Are Different: As a hollyphant, she's a celestial being from the Upper Planes. Unfortunately for her, this makes her the perfect candidate for a sacrifice to Bhaal.
Police Are Useless: She's quick to pin the murder of Lorgan on a refugee who is also conveniently dead, ignoring all other evidence that points to someone else. She just wants to get to Sharess' Caress and celebrate her "accomplishment." If the player rescues her from Sarevok, she acknowledges her failure and gives them Orin's location. She also promises aid from the Flaming Fist in the final fight.
Precision F-Strike:
- When encountered in the murder tribunal, she discards her normally high-class way of speaking and has some pretty choice words for describing Sarevok:
  Valeria: Do not listen to this ancient fuck! Free me at once!
- She does so again if part of the final charge during the endgame, this time more calmly.
  Valeria: I'm in the mood to crack some skulls after that fuckery in the Temple of Bhaal.
Reassigned to Antarctica: Like all hollyphants, she used to dwell in the Upper Planes (specifically Mount Celestia), but was sent to Faerûn due to her cynical attitude and alcoholism. This was framed as helping people in need, but Valeria knows that her superiors are just looking for a convenient excuse to get rid of her.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: No one pays any attention to the fact that she's a tiny, gold-skinned pachyderm flying with her wing-like ears. The only person who comments on it is a rector at the Temple of Ilmater who calls her a "shitey little elephant," in a moment of frustration with Valeria's apathetic attitude.
Vocal Dissonance: Consistently referred to as female in the dialogue and interface (with "she" pronouns), but sports a masculine (though high-pitched) voice, provided by Roly Botha.

Geezer Loryss

Race: Human

An unlucky cabbage merchant with a disdain for monks.

Butt-Monkey: Gets his cabbage cart ransacked by thieves.
Noodle Incident: Something made him particularly bitter towards "monastic types", claiming they've "done enough damage as it is".
Shout-Out: To the Cabbage Merchant of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Jaheira's family

Rion

Why? You plan on winning, don't you?

Race: High half-elf

Jaheira's oldest child. In Jaheira's absence, Rion has taken up most of her mother's duties.

Action Girl: Much like her mother.
Rion: A fair point, though I'll leave the herb-lore to Jord. I was always better at breaking bones than mending them.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite her quips and unrelenting attitude towards her mother, it's clear that Rion genuinely does love her.
Brother–Sister Team: When they were younger, Rion and Jord were this. In the fight against the Absolute, Rion implies they'll be doing it again.
Cool Big Sis: Is this to her younger adopted and foster siblings.
Deadpan Snarker: Something she picked up from Jaheira.
Rion: Are we sure [Jaheira's] actually dead this time, brother? She looks dead.
Jord: Smells it too.
Like Mother, Like Daughter: Adopted, but Rion seems to have inherited her mother's snarky and sarcastic attitude.
- In the epilogue, Jaheira can reveal that Rion joined the Flaming Fist in order to further help the city, with Jaheria commenting that for better or worse, Rion's sense of duty is much like hers.
Parental Abandonment: Rion and Jord invoke this to Jaheira when she visits her home with the party. Rion is a lot more scathing to her mother than Jord is.
Rion: A Sending spell can carry twenty-five words. Do you know how many Jaheira's only message contained, in all this time she's been away? Seven.
Promotion to Parent: Very Downplayed, but with Jaheria's frequent and prolonged absences, Rion often took over the role of a guardian for her younger siblings.
Sarcastic Devotee: Despite her irritation with Jaheira, Rion dedicates herself to helping the party defeat the Absolute and does whatever is asked of her, though her words are edged with sarcasm.

Jord

Have mercy sister. [Jaheira's] old after all!

Race: Half-orc

Class: Druid

Jaheira's second oldest child. More reserved than his elder sister Rion, but retains the same amount of snark.

Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Much like Rion, Jord isn't afraid to let Jaheira know they're not really happy about her frequent and prolonged absences, but do love her all the same.
Brother–Sister Team: When they were younger, Jord and Rion were this. When asked what they can do to help against the Absolute, Rion can imply she and Jord will be doing it again.
Combat Medic: Comes with being a druid, and certain lines imply he'll serve as this during the fight against the Absolute.
Deadpan Snarker: Something both he and Rion picked up from their adopted mother.
Jord: I just let the plants... thrive and go wild. Like you raised us.
Jaheira: I raised you to be a kind and sweet boy, what happened?
Jord: I watched what you did instead of listening to what you said. [..] I take no responsibility for your plants. You know I'm more of a mushroom man.
Like Father, Like Son: Adopted, but Jord, like Rion, seems to have picked up Jaheira's snarky quips and sarcastic comments. Jord is also a druid, like her, though Jord is implied to have chosen the Circle of Spores rather than Jaheira's Circle of the Land.
- In the epilogue, Jaheira can reveal Jord has joined the Harpers to help the city and rebuild. Like Rion, Jaheira admits Jord likely picked up his sense of duty from her.
Parental Abandonment: He and Rion invoke this, mentioning that Jaheira was scarcely around to raise them. Despite this, however, it's clear they do love her dearly.
Promotion to Parent: Very Downplayed, especially compared to Rion, but Jord took up some of Jaheira's duties and helped look after his younger siblings in her absence.

Fig

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fig_8.png

Race: Human

Jaheira's second daughter.

Like Mother, Like Daughter: A fighter, much like Jaheira.

Jhessem

Race: Human

One of Jaheira's younger children.

Blue Blood: Fascinated by the fact that she can be considered nobility, as Jaheira descends from the noble houses of Tethyr. Jaheira herself doesn't care much.

Tate

Race: Human

Jaheira's second son, whom she affectionately calls "sneak thief".

Mama's Boy: Compared to Jord, at least. He will tell his mother that both Rion and Jord didn't expect her to return at all, but he believed she would.
Speech Impediment: Has a stutter. It's unclear whether it's due to nerves or just how he is.

Khalid

"He was a Harper. A better one than me, truth be told – any idiot can swing a sword. But to believe in the cause, with the whole of your heart? A much trickier thing. I have never known a warrior who would go so far out of his way to avoid a fight. Which meant the few he chose were usually the right ones."

Race: Half-elf

Jaheira's late husband, who died over a century before the start of the game. Despite the time passed, Jaheira misses him greatly.

See Baldur's Gate 1 Party Members for his character entry in the previous games.

Famed In-Story: A legend much like his wife, though unlike for herself, Jaheira spares no expense in letting the realms know how much her husband did for the realms and ensures his legacy and never forgotten.
Happily Married: To Jaheira, to the point where she's never taken a romantic interest since his death.
Posthumous Character: Has been dead for over a century by the game Baldur's Gate III starts, but is thought very highly of by Jaheira.
Speech Impediment: Jaheira says he was a very awkward individual. When recounting their wedding day, she jokes he stammered so much that she wasn't sure if their wedding vows actually counted.
The Lost Lenore: Is this to Jaheira, who clearly laments and misses her husband greatly.

The Astral Prism (Spoilers Unmarked)

The Prisoner

Prince Orpheus

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1458_87.jpeg

Voiced by: Tommy Sim'aan

Race: Githyanki
Class: Monk (Way of the Four Elements)

The Prince of the Githyanki and the son and heir of Gith. He has been trapped in the Astral Prism for thousands of years. It is his powers that protect the party from transforming into Mind Flayers. Given a choice, he'd much rather be free. Oh, and slaughter the entire party because of the tadpoles in their heads. Allegedly.

11th-Hour Ranger: If you reject The Emperor, Orpheus joins the party during the final fight against the Netherbrain, whether as a Mind Flayer or not.
Aerith and Bob: For a prince from a culture with names like Lae'zel, Vlaakith and Voss, the human name (albeit one from Ancient Greek Mythology) of Orpheus stands out as bizarre.
Ambiguously Evil:
- Heavily downplayed. The game frames him as being far better than Vlaakith and he's willing to sacrifice himself by becoming a Mindflayer to stop the Netherbrain, which leaves him looking in a positive light. However, he's also the direct son of Gith, who was the reason for the fracture between the Githyanki and Githzerai due to her view that the Githyanki were to be a Multiversal Conqueror race. There's no indication that Orpheus disagreed with her, which can put him possibly ousting Vlaakith and ruling the Githyanki again in a far darker light. This is, however, softened in the epilogue; if Orpheus and Lae'zel survive, he sends a Tir'su slate thanking Lae'zel for the imminent "restoration of an old kinship" between the Githyanki and Githzerai.
- His closest friend, Voss, also reflects badly on him given that Voss is a Jerkass who views the other races with disdain. However, it's also possible he's only playing it up since that's how other Githyanki under Vlaakith are expected to act, something that is reinforced in his later appearances where he's much more amicable towards the player.
And I Must Scream: It's indicated that he's at least semi-aware of the things happening outside his prison and he's been trapped there for thousands of years.
Bare-Fisted Monk: He is of a Monk class and primarily relies on hand-to-hand combat. He only uses a sword once when threatening you shortly after you free him.
Benevolent Boss: Unlike Vlaakith, Orpheus actually cares for his followers. Apart from his friendship with Voss, he cares for his honor guard and will be angry with you for killing them.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: You can confront him with the knowledge that had he let his honor guard kill the Emperor, they would have been turned into Mind Flayers and been killed even if his guards had spared them. He says that allowing themselves to be killed before the transformation took hold would have been the honorable thing to do. It crosses over into Insane Troll Logic territory when you remember that freeing him would have been impossible for his honor guards without the hammer.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Has been trapped in the Astral Prism for thousands of years despite the threat he represents to the Vlaakith dynasty because of his inheriting Gith's ability to surpress the Illithid Hive Mind.
Fire-Forged Friends: When he is released, the main reason he doesn't kill the party for killing his honor guard is that he needs their help to defeat the Netherbrain. As Voss predicted, he would work with them with gritted teeth. He also seems to think that Lae'zel is kissing up to him. Should one of the party members agree to become a Mind Flayer in order to stop the Netherbrain, he opens up and begins to see the heroes in a better light, realizing they are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. After the final battle is done, he's markedly more amicable with the party and even grants Lae'zel the honor of becoming a dragon rider.
Heroic Sacrifice: Orpheus will offer to become a mind flayer to stop the Grand Design if you show any hesitation in doing so. He sees it as a duty.
I Am a Monster: Though he accepts becoming a mind flayer in order to stop the Netherbrain, he considers such a state to be monstrous. After destroying the Netherbrain, Orpheus asks for a Mercy Kill, a swift and honourable death. If Lae'zel remains loyal to Vlaakith, when she prepares to kill him for being a threat to her Queen, he welcomes his imminent death with open arms.
A Lighter Shade of Black: Regardless of whether he is truly evil (from a non-Githyanki perspective, of course) or not, he's shown to be far more amicable and noble than Vlaakith. Despite being furious with the player for killing his loyal followers attempting to free him, he puts his anger aside to stop the Elder Brain and acts politely to them, quickly warming up. Contrast this with Vlaakith, who uses threats to coerce the player into doing her bidding only to try and dispose of them (including her loyal follower Lae'zel) once they served their purpose.
Mercy Kill: Believes death is a better fate than being a mind flayer, and asks you to kill him after he’s destroyed the Netherbrain.
Nice Guy: Downplayed. At first, he's hostile to the party for being infected with mind flayer tadpoles, but if you free him and help him take down the Netherbrain, he becomes very polite and hails the person who became a mind flayer as a hero, promising to honor their sacrifice. He is also immediately willing to become a mind flayer if the player does not want to, and will view you as a worthy ally.
Red Baron: The Prince of the Comet.
Remember the New Guy?: Previous lore on the Githyanki has made no mention of any children of Gith, and the Vlaakiths were implied to be in some way related to her anyway. He also brings with him a second Gith civil war among the Githyanki, in addition to the one the Githyanki wage against their cousins the Githzerai.
Rightful King Returns: What his followers believe him to be; they believe the Vlaakith I had somehow betrayed Gith when she negotiated their pact with Tiamat for the Red Dragons as it involved Gith going to the Hells and never returning. So in their mind, the Vlaakiths are usurpers and tyrants, Vlaakith CLVII especially, and Orpheus the true king of the Githyanki.
Sealed Evil in a Can: What the Emperor paints him as, warning the player character that any potential alliance with him is impossible, as he would immediately kill the tadpole-invested party due to his ancestral loathing of Mind Flayers. In reality, while he's angry at the party for using his powers against his will and killing his honor guard instead of allowing themselves to be honorably mercy killed to stop the ceremorphosis, he'll agree to set his anger aside in order to stop the Netherbrain and can even part with the group on amiable terms.
Secret Test of Character: If he agrees to be a mind flayer and then you step in and take his place instead, then he will believe that you just subjected him to this in order to test his honor and will be impressed by your own.
Ungrateful Bastard: Averted. The Emperor thinks Orpheus's prejudice towards Illithids would override any goodwill he might have towards you if you free him. While he's upset that you killed his honor guard for trying to free him, he will ally with you against the Netherbrain and once it’s defeated, he will even thank you as his liberator.
Walking Spoiler: Learning that Orpheus is in fact alive and is the source of your protection against the Absolute casts a huge shadow over the entire game.

The Emperor

The Emperor / Balduran

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emperor_08.jpg

Voiced by: Scott Joseph

Race: Mind Flayer (formerly Human)

The true identity of the Dream Guardian who protects the party from the Absolute's control: a former adventurer (and the legendary founder of Baldur's Gate) who was transformed into a mind flayer, albeit with the memories of his past life mostly intact. He broke free twice; the first time through sheer force of will (with some help from Ansur), and the second after being caught and re-enslaved by Gortash for the Cult of the Absolute when he recovered the Astral Prism. While he has used the power of the artifact to protect the party, he is quite keen on encouraging their full transformation into fellow illithids...

11th-Hour Ranger: If you side with him, he joins the party during the final fight against the Netherbrain.
Ambiguously Evil: On the surface he's immediately helpful, saving the party from ceremorphosis and the Absolute's control, while also working towards the cult's defeat. However, his actions are all ultimately self-serving. He needs agents outside the prism - which is why he will keep working with you even if you break his trust. He's also just as much in danger from the Absolute as you are. He has a tendency to mislead (such as about his own identity and nature) or retain information (such as about Orpheus). Some of his assertions are either incorrect or lies - such as that Orpheus would refuse to help the party and attack you. He's extremely proud of being a Mind Flayer, seeing it only as a net positive and as making him greater than what he was. He assures the player he only ever feeds on criminals, but based on his history of deceit, it's easy for players to wonder if this is actually true. It's also worth mentioning that you can convince him to hijack the Netherbrain instead of destroy it, and if you do so he immediately takes the seat for himself and turns you and your party members into thralls.
- If you are particularly rude to him during his romance scene, he angrily reveals that, for all the fondness with which he speaks of her, he actually brainwashed Duke Stelmane into being his thrall. It’s heavily implied that this ultimately led to her having a stroke, meaning he's indirectly responsible for her death. Likewise, if the player makes it clear they refuse to trust him, he’ll outright call them his puppet and state that they have no choice in the matter. The ambiguity is furthered by how his tone makes it unclear if he truly means that the player is just a puppet, or if he's saying it as a way of getting back at you for your rudeness.
- After Raphael blocks his ability to see what you're up to, he demands to know what Raphael offered, even if you tell him (truthfully) that it doesn't matter because you turned him down. He'll try to rip the answer from your mind, and has to be reminded that, if he wants trust, he shouldn't be acting in such a manner.
- His pride at being a mindflayer, and his seeming inability to grasp why people find that wrong. Unlike Vampire Spawns like Astarion who can feed on animals, even if they prefer humanoids, Mind Flayers biologically must feed on sapient species (non-sapients do not provide the necessary psychic sustenance). They also have a biological need to maintain thralls in order to be stable. While he does reassure the avatar that he only targets criminals, he has zero remorse for having enthralled Stelmane, or misleading the avatar early in the game.
- He cannot grasp that a player, particularly a paladin, might find the prolonged imprisonment and abuse of Orpheus abhorrent. He also tells you not to be afraid when you tell him that Orpheus’ honour guard are innocents and you don’t want to kill them, as if your problem with the whole situation was fear, and not the fact that you’re aiding a mind flayer in enthralling an innocent person to exploit their powers, implying he simply does not understand how morally awful this comes off as.
- He mentions he became a leader of the Knights of the Shield, calling them "a mercantile operation". While not strictly untrue, fans of the setting are more likely to know the group as a devil-worshipping cult of information brokers. This opens up even more questions on just what his intentions were with the Knights of the Shield and his enthrallment of Stelmane, and whether or not he joined them to influence Baldur's Gate from the shadows, or to protect Baldur's Gate from the organization from within.
Ambition Is Evil: Or rather ambigiously evil given the complicated nature of his morality. One defining trait about the Emperor is his ambition. Whather his intentions, the Emperor wants power, he wants connections and he wants control. After becoming a rogue mind flayer and learned to appreciate the benefits of his new form, the Emperor returns to Baldur's Gate and took control of its underworld as the leader of the Knights of the Shield. With mind control or not, he influenced Duke Steelmane and controlled the city through her. If he survives the final battle, the Emperor immediately leaves to make plans to gain power and influence.
Ambiguous Situation:
- Both Mystra and Withers (the latter implied to be Jergal himself) mention ceremorphosis destroys the soul, and both are fairly reliable sources. Mind flayers typically do not retain the personality of their host bodies after transformation, nor identify as the same individuals. Yet the Emperor has memories of life as a human, and seems to identify and have continuity with that former man. Does the tadpole that took over his body simply have that human's memories, and is able to act as if they were the same person?
- The Emperor’s motives and planning are extremely difficult to figure out because of how convoluted and contradictory his plans appear to be, so much so that it is hard to understand what he is really trying to accomplish. As a mind flayer he is vulnerable to the Absolute, and fights to remain free of its influence, whilst protecting the player from it as well. Yet he also revels in being a mind flayer, and encourages the player to become one. Also, if the player ultimately refuses to go along with his methods, he turns around and willingly becomes the Absolute's slave anyway, despite the fact other options were still available.
- Withers, however, will remark upon meeting the Emperor that appearances might change but he knows who the Emperor is on the inside and trusts that his intentions are for the good of Baldur's Gate.
- His relationship with Duke Stelmane. While he has some affection for her, notes from his old hideout imply that Stelmane's deteriorating mental state was the result of the Emperor's influence, raising questions as to whether their partnership was consensual on her part or not. If you reject the Emperor in a particularly harsh manner or call him out for ‘doing a great impression of a human’ while he’s trying to seduce you, he outright confirms this.
- Whether he was the Mind Flayer who infected Tav, and the other companions, or not. He wears very distinctive and outlandish clothing compared to the other mind flayers in the game, which notably, is an exact match of the clothing the Mind Flayer in the opening cinematic has, but you can also encounter two other similar looking Mind Flayers in Act 1. If you offer to become a mind flayer to wield the stones, he’ll outright confirm he was on the nautiloid, since the tadpole he prepared for your use ever since was taken from it.
- The nature of when and how he came in contact with the Astral Prism. He was sent to retrieve it by Gortash, however, it’s up for debate whether he was the first one to actually find it. Shadowheart was sent on a mission to retrieve the Astral Prism by Viconia, stating it was a suicide mission and that she and her group had to fight Githyanki to get it. She was the only one to survive, but she got kidnapped by Mind Flayers. So did the Emperor find it first and then hide in the Prism, with the Gith unaware he was in there? Or did Shadowheart find it first, only to be kidnapped by the Emperor’s nautiloid?
Anti-Hero: Ultimately, despite all of the above ambiguity, and while his motivations are almost certainly not altruistic, he is sincere in his desire to stop the Absolute and save Baldur's Gate. He also never betrays or turns on the player unless they betray him first (even if said betrayal is freeing the Emperor’s githyanki slave and saving Orpheus from the Emperor eating his brain), and despite potentially threatening to do so, he never attempts to make them his thrall unless you talk him into seizing control of the Netherbrain, in which case he lets the power go to his head.
Berserk Button:
- Pointing out that he’s a mind flayer and not a human. This is implied to be because by doing this, you remind him of Ansur.
- Doing anything to move towards freeing Orpheus. The Emperor will have a huge temper tantrum if you make a deal with Raphael, speak with Voss or go to the House of Hope to get the Orphic Hammer. At the end when you free Orpheus, he just ups and leaves. This is implied to be because Orpheus poses an existential threat to mind flayers like him.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: He says he's the one leveraging Orpheus' power to protect you from becoming the Absolute's thrall — and he's not lying. Killing him before you've negotiated with Orpheus causes the entire party to transform into Mind Flayers on the spot.
Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: The player character may choose to engage in a romantic encounter with him, with the Emperor letting you decide between keeping his true form or changing to their Dream Guardian before hooking up with you.
Dirty Coward: Ansur outright calls him this, and given how he outright switches sides at the end if you free Orpheus rather than face Orpheus’ wrath after months of being enthralled by the Emperor and the Emperor slaughtering his honour guard, it’s hard to disagree with his assessment.
Fatal Flaw: His tendency to think things from a logical perspective and unwillingness to reflect on his own actions can end up being his undoing.
- He can strain his alliance with the player if he keeps insisting on having them take a tadpole, unable to comprehend that the player may not want to sacrifice their identity (since ceremorphosis effectively destroys the soul) even if it offers them more power and a better chance of stopping the Elder Brain. While he does acknowledge that it's ultimately the player's choice to do so or not, his insistence on doing so can lead to him being killed by the player if they feel he can't be trusted.
- He opposes the player's efforts to free Orpheus partially because he thinks Orpheus's prejudice towards illithids will override any sense of goodwill he might have if you free him. But while Orpheus does feel that way, the Prince of the Comet will put his prejudices aside in order to stop the Netherbrain. Essentially, the Emperor's decision to side with the Netherbrain out of self-preservation was not only for nothing, but can and probably will result in his death.
- In general he prefers deceiving and misdirecting his allies, rather than being forthright and honest. This goes all the way back to him running Baldur's Gate from the shadows, but also defines his early interactions with the player. He first appears in the guise of the Dream Guardian in a deliberate attempt to make the avatar lower their guard. He only reveals himself as a mind flayer leeching off Orpheus's powers when he has no choice but to call on the party for assistance in resisting an assault, preferring to make it seem before as if he's the only one protecting them from the Absolute.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Potentially, in a number of ways:
- If the player decides to fully embrace becoming a Mind Flayer themselves, the Emperor can be backstabbed by the very person he encouraged to become a mind-sucking monster like himself and can have his own brains eaten when he least expects the betrayal.
- The Emperor’s constant manipulations and half-truths can come back to bite him in the ass heavily at the end of the game. He’s completely right about the Netherstones only being able to be wielded by an Illithid at this point, however, at this point, you can tell him that he's lied to so much that you don’t believe a word he says and will take your chances with Orpheus.
- Instead of trying to at least see what happens if we free Orpheus, if you don’t let him eat Orpheus’ brain to take his power, he just instantly goes to back to the Netherbrain no matter what you do. You can even offer to release Orpheus but hand him the stones and he immediately goes into a rant about how ‘you still don’t trust him’. This is despite the fact that he already likes being a mind flayer so no one else would need to become an illithid if he did this - but he doesn’t trust you - ironically. This causes a final confrontation with you on top of the Netherbrain that was only ever going to end one way for him.
Knowledge Broker: If you join the Emperor and encourage him "to think bigger", his letter in the epilogue implies that he intends to create a powerful spy network that spans all over the Sword Coast. His letter reveals that he has managed to get into contact with Nihiloor and forged an alliance with Xanathar's Thieves' Guild.
The Emperor: Soon, my friend, neither word nor thought will traverse the Sword Coast without our knowing, nor our desire.
I Did What I Had to Do: Balduran had to kill one of his best friends, Ansur, because he was under the belief that his transformation into a Mind Flayer was something he wanted to be cured from after being freed from the hivemind, something that has deeply wounded him to this day and wishes he never has to fall to needing to do ever again.
Manipulative Bastard: Another reason players might find it difficult to trust him is because of his tendency to lie and manipulate. He shamelessly speaks in half-truths and illusions in order to engender trust, and if called out during certain events, it's possible for him to drop the act and immediately try to assert control over the player, meaning that his 'moments of weakness' might have been fabricated to make himself more sympathetic. He'll admit to it if you point it out, arguing it's just who he is now as a Mind Flayer.
- One of the most insidious examples of how the Emperor manipulates you starts in character creation. You create your own dream guardian, likely a character who you find attractive, endearing and trustworthy. Already the Emperor has gained a level of trust by taking on a form you, the player, like. Sex appeal is notoriously one of the most powerful methods of manipulating people and making people more receptive to your ideas.
- The biggest example of the Emperor constantly concealing the truth is when you confront the Dream Guardian in the Prism after Vlaakith says to do so. They tell you they know Vlaakith’s secret, a secret so great it would be the end of her but when you ask what it is, they just say ‘you’re not ready for the answer yet’. They then never bring it up again until you are suddenly forced awake one night in a fight to the death against Orpheus’ honour guard, and suddenly realise that the Dream Guardian you grew attached to is a Mind Flayer, and the source of your protection against the Absolute is an enslaved Githyanki who was imprisoned by Vlaakith and is now being enthralled by the Emperor.
Mind Rape: The true nature of his ‘relationship’ with Duke Stelmane. He enthralled her so he could run the Knights of the Shield. He also does this to Orpheus to extend his psychic protection - this is likely why he doesn’t want Orpheus free - he fears his revenge.
- To a lesser extent, he reads the player character’s thoughts and watches everything they do through the entire game and is notably freaked out when Raphael briefly gives you back your privacy. He outright tries to pry the information from your mind if you refuse to tell him what you talked about.
Never My Fault: Downplayed. While he does admit to having been Out-Gambitted after the Netherbrain revealed that he was deliberately allowed to escape in order to engineer the downfall of the Chosen, he's quick to shift the blame to the avatar by saying that they weren't strong enough to face off against the Netherbrain thanks to not being a mind flayer. He's actually right in his assessment, but it still fits his pattern of focusing more on the shortcomings of others rather than his own flaws. This gets even more pronounced if you decide to free Orpheus, as the Emperor refuses to see it as anything other than you foolishly breaking off your alliance and inviting your own doom, and he's completely blind to how it's his own stubborn closed-mindedness that's making him impossible to reason with.
Our Founder: Was once Balduran, the founder of Baldur's Gate himself.
Out-Gambitted:
- If you take Raphael’s deal, don’t break into the House of Hope, but hide the fact you took Raphael’s deal from the Emperor and manage to deceive into thinking it was the Netherbrain, you can do this to the Emperor big-time. At the final confrontation, you can say you don’t trust him, and that you have the Hammer and will free Orpheus. He says it’s impossible because he’d know if you had the Hammer, since he’s been spying on your thoughts the whole time and would know if you took a deal with Raphael.. until he realises that he couldn’t spy on you at Sharess’ Caress, and that you must have taken the deal then. The player’s smile says it all.
- By the Netherbrain, the whole time. The Emperor was most likely the one piloting the Nautiloid, taking us and our companions, infecting them, and upon gaining back his free will (thinking it was because of the Prism), taking actions to ensure we survived so we could take him to the Elder Brain with the Netherstones while he worked to subdue Orpheus. This is precisely what the Netherbrain wanted him and expected him to do, which he realises in the final moments.
Reveling in the New Form: When he first broke out of the illithid hivemind, the Emperor was quite content with his new form, even building himself a shadow empire through one of the merchant guilds of Baldur's Gate, as well as a friendship with one of the city's dukes. His friend Ansur, a bronze dragon, was against this and exhausted every resource he could trying to find a way to reverse the transformation. Eventually, he resigned himself to killing the Emperor, rather than let the newborn illithid's appetite threaten anyone else, forcing the Emperor to slay him in self-defense (or at least that's the Emperor's version of the story).
Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Should the player insist on freeing Orpheus, the Emperor will declare that he has no choice but to join the Netherbrain out of self-preservation.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: If the player antagonizes him and rejects his advice to use the tadpole, he'll eventually give up on trying to persuade you and simply describe your relationship as a necessary and useful tool.
Token Heroic Orc: Played with and mainly dependent on player choice; the Emperor seems to revel in his illithid urges, despite having free will from the greater hivemind, and compares ceremophosis to "evolution" and sees nothing but positives in his transformation. However, it also seems the Emperor would rather have the decision to become an illithid be one people willingly embrace of their own volition, even if he is baffled why anyone would refuse such a "gift"... even if that "gift" is to become a brain-eating squid-man with horrifyingly eldritch powers. Depending on player choices and interactions with him, this trope could be played straight, defied, or subverted.
Unwitting Pawn: Turns out he was one to the Netherbrain. When you meet him in his true form, he states that when he found the Prism, he felt his free will returning, found Orpheus, and thus assumed it was Orpheus that was the source of his newly gained free will. In reality, it was the Netherbrain, who deliberately loosened its hold over the Emperor, knowing that it would seek out individuals who could challenge the Chosen Three, therefore allowing the Netherbrain to break free from their control and seize the power of the Crown of Karsus for itself.
Walking Spoiler: The mysterious Dream Guardian turning out to be not only a mind flayer, but also Balduran himself, are major spoilers.
Was Once a Man: The Emperor was once just an ordinary human adventurer seeking to explore the world and its riches. But when he stumbled into Moonrise Towers, he ended up getting abducted by mind flayers and was eventually transformed into one of them in the service of the Absolute. A sidequest reveals that he was once Balduran, the founder of Baldur's Gate who was thought to have died in an expedition to Anchorome long ago.
Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: If you free Orpheus and fight the Emperor on top of the Netherbrain, you don't actually need to kill him to win the battle. If this happens, however, he will not appear in the final cutscene and it's unknown what happens to him after. Did he manage to slip away? Did his connection to the Netherbrain cause him to lose control and die like the other mind flayers? Did he die in the crash? It's uncertain. His appearance is also unaccounted for should Gale sacrifice himself using the Netherese Orb.
The World Is Not Ready: Should the player character reveal the Emperor's former identity as Balduran to Duke Ravengard, the latter urges them to keep it a secret, arguing that the citizens of Baldur's Gate need to continue seeing the founder of their city as the beloved hero he once was and not the monstrous mind flayer that he is now.
You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Will incredulously ask if you are joking when you try to cast Detect Thoughts on him. As a mindflayer, telepathy is his only way to communicate verbally, so not only is he already telling you his thoughts, but he can feel your attempt.

The Court of Murder (Spoilers Unmarked)

The Custodian

Sarevok Anchev

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sarevok.png

Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson (BG1 & BG2), Redd Pepper (BG3)

"This is the court of the Dread Lord’s tribunal. I am its custodian. Here come those who seek to transcend. Aspirants of his most profane order — the would-be Unholy Assassins of Bhaal."

Race: Human

The original Big Bad of Baldur's Gate. A Bhaalspawn who once worked to assume his father’s place as the Lord of Murder, Sarevok now acts as the custodian for the court of murder.

For tropes relating to his appearance in the first and second game, see here.

Abusive Parent: And how! He raised his daughter Helena in twisted Bhaal worship, then had Orin with her, to ‘not dilute Bhaal’s blood’, intending for Orin to be a sacrifice to Bhaal. He then commanded Helena to murder Orin, who was only seven. Orin managed to kill Helena instead.
- As of the modern day he now speaks of loving Orin like he did her mother, casting further horrific implications - it’s telling that even Ax-Crazy Orin refuses to believe it if the player tells her some of this truth, and utterly breaks down if the player manages to convince her of the truth about Sarevok.
- Sarevok fully wants you as the Dark Urge to kill Orin, despite the fact she’s his own daughter.
Arch-Enemy: With his sibling now gone, the narrator notes Sarevok harbors deep hatred for Jaheira and Minsc. A successful insight check makes it clear neither party will let the other walk out alive, at least unless you convince Jaheira and Minsc to kneel before him.
Broken Pedestal: Defied Trope. All Orin did was to impress Sarevok; she's unaware her mother's attempt on her life was at his own command. When she's made aware, she refuses to believe it. Even if you start to convince her,
Demoted to Dragon: In the first game, Sarevok worked to take his father's place as the Lord of Murder, having no desire to serve anyone's will but that of his own and openly admitting to Gorion's Ward that what he sought was Bhaal's power and not the resurrection of a man whose consciousness had seemingly "wafted away on the celestial winds". While he would later become open to the idea of becoming The Dragon for Gorion's Ward following his second defeat in the sequel, he gave no indication that he had even considered the idea of resurrecting his father and restoring him to power. Over a century and a failed attempt at redemption later, Sarevok has since sworn fealty to his father and now leads the court of murder dedicated to the worship and service of Bhaal.
The Dreaded: The narrator notes that his face is known to all Baldurans, and that the protagonist's stomach tightens when seeing him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- In a twisted Bhaal worshipper way, he seems to love his granddaughter Orin, expressing great pride in her.
- He also shows a surprising level of genuine empathy for the Dark Urge due to their shared blood and prior roles as The Chosen One in their father's eyes, and understands their goal for vengeance against their granddaughter in earnest and doesn't attempt to stop them; in fact, he encourages The Dark Urge to slay his granddaughter as a warped way of affection by teaching both them and her the ultimate lesson that comes from harboring their twisted blood.
Eviler than Thou: Bhaal is evil in every conceivable, twisted way - but of all the things he did to his discardable tools of children, he never had grandchildren by them. This only applies to what Bhaal has personally done, however. Some of the Dark Urge's memories, and background comments on the Bhaal cult, strongly imply that incestuous relationships are in fact widespread among Bhaal's followers.
Flanderization: Like Viconia, Sarevok's faith in his evil god has become his defining character trait. Unlike Viconia, little to none of his prior characterization justifies this; Bhaal's power and iconography were all Sarevok cared to take from his "father," and the game's attempt to explain it is inconsistent with his portrayal in both the original game and Throne of Bhaal. The emphasis put on his "fecund" bloodline is this trope in itself, as he explicitly lost his Bhaalspawn essence and relished his freedom from its call to murder.
Sarevok: When Bhaal held sway over my soul, I reveled in the bloody carnage I wrought. But my will was not my own. (...) I will not surrender my being to the whims of another again... be they god or drow.
Greater-Scope Villain: Sarevok is responsible for a lot of Orin's warped mentality in a way to condition her regardless of what the blood of Bhaal coursing through her veins compels her to do; making him indirectly responsible for a lot of the chaos that unfolds in the latter half of the game once the Absolute begins breaking free because Orin throws all pragmatic reasoning to curb and decides to revel in the bloodshed to follow, even if it bites her in the ass too.
Happy Ending Override: In Baldur's Gate 2, Sarevok could be redeemed and set on a path of atonement, albeit as an implied Hero with an F in Good Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life who may have regretted being given a second chance at life. Jaheira implies he wasted that opportunity and returned to his old habits.
Ignored Epiphany: Jaheira accuses him of having wasted his one chance for redemption during the events of the second game.
In Love with Your Carnage: When revealing the Dark Urge's past to them, he makes no secret of how awe-struck he was by their sheer depravity and how they seemingly mastered the art of murder in a way that could impress even the God of Murder himself. In particular, he showed great approval towards a Paladin Dark Urge, namely how they became an Oathbreaker prior to losing their memories:
Sarevok: I remember the first time you set foot in the Tribunal. Fallen paladin, coated in the blood of your order. Pure corruption, I knew you would go far.
Orcus on His Throne: Despite being the Big Bad of the original game and infamous for nearly bringing all of Baldur's Gate to ruin with his subterfuge a hundred years ago, the revived Sarevok is content simply sitting as the custodian and judge for Bhaal's court of murder awaiting anyone who wishes to join Bhaal's service as aspiring assassins, mostly because he's satisfied that his granddaughter Orin is fulfilling their shared desire to cause bloodshed in Bhaal's name... that, and as Jaheira taunts, his failures might have rendered him The Un-Favourite in his father's eyes and is basically reduced to an Almighty Janitor for the time being as a glorified door guard for access to the Temple of Bhaal.
Redemption Failure: Sarevok himself implies when questioned that he did attempt to turn things around and pull an earnest Heel–Face Turn when his sibling's actions brought him Back from the Dead, but the influence of his blood ties to Bhaal just proved to be far too much to resist and he ultimately fell back into all of his old ways. Jaheira herself comments on this and is pissed he wasted his short-lived Heel–Face Turn.
Retcon:
- In Throne of Bhaal, Sarevok implored Gorion's Ward to grant him another shot at life and was ecstatic to have escaped the hells. He was resurrected absent his Bhaalspawn essence and, freed from what previous hold his father had over him, declared that no god would ever control him again. Regardless of whether he was redeemed by his sibling, his epilogue had him retire to Kara-Tur to bury his lost love Tamoko, never to return. 3 casts a black pall over all of this: he expresses bitter resentment over the second life "cruelly" forced upon him^note, writes that dying itself "bolstered his faith" in Bhaal, apparently "worshipped murder" so sorely he rallied a death cult, and (somehow, despite no longer qualifying as one himself) sired an incestuous family of Bhaalspawn to be raised under the Murder Lord's creed. The narration is also oddly insistent that Sarevok's first death came about when he failed to become Bhaal's "Chosen," which is far from the case.
- Sarevok's portrayal also contradicts the dubiously canon Forgotten Realms supplement from which III draws inspiration from in its portrayal of the franchise's Legacy Characters. Minsc's and Boo's Journal of Villainy details how, following his assistance in Melissan's defeat, Sarevok found a career as one of the most famous mercenaries in Faerun, only to eventually fall to despair and drug addiction after his earthly achievements as a mercenary failed to give him the same sense of joy and purpose that his former attempt to assume godhood once had. After decades of substance abuse, Sarevok was reduced to an old man begging in the streets of Baldur's Gate, with what remained of his divine heritage only barely slowing his ageing. The recently revived Bhaal would later find and recruit the now elderly Sarevok as the high priest of his clergy, providing Sarevok with new purpose. The game's portrayal of Sarevok, on the other hand, appears to have barely aged, and is implied to have fallen under the Lord of Murder's thrall long before the latter was fully resurrected, if Sarevok having an adult granddaughter - whose mother he raised in Bhaalist worship - is any indication.
The Starscream: Sarevok is just as ambitious as ever once Orin is out from the picture, attempting to backstab the Chosen of Bhaal — especially if they are The Dark Urge where he showed genuine empathy over their shared positions prior — to claim the Chosen title for himself. The only thing that keeps this from being a Too Dumb to Live moment is that Sarevok knows he's more than likely screwed since they were capable of defeating his aspiring granddaughter, but both his blood as a Bhaalspawn and the creed of the Court demand blood be spilled in the name of Bhaal regardless of reason or rationale.
The Un Favourite: Jaheira calls him Bhaal's least favorite child due to his failures.
Villainous Incest: He's Orin's father and grandfather, siring her to spread his most "fecund" strain of Bhaalspawn seed. Correspondence in her chambers confirms she has at least one sibling of even purer blood, and Sarevok's comment if confronted over this ("I loved Orin as I loved her mother") suggests the same fate awaited, or already befell, Orin herself.
Would Hurt a Child: If the corpse of Orin's mother is spoken to, she will reveal her attempt on seven-year-old Orin's life was at Sarevok's own command.

The Tribunal

Amelyssan, Illasera, Sendai, Abazigal

Races: Human, Elf, Lolth-Sworn Drow, Blue Dragon

Bhaal's "least-trusted zealots" and "faithful departed": spectral, bloody remnants of the Five, Bhaalspawn whose carnage once shook the realm (and their manipulator, Bhaal's former high priestess Amelyssan), returned in death to serve their dread lord eternally. For tropes concerning them in Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, of which they were the primary antagonists, see here.

Ascended Meme: Illasera was an infamous pushover in Throne of Bhaal, taken out in the prologue before you even meet the game's Starter Villain. In 3, she can be needled about her poor performance in life.
Daddy's Little Villain: Most of them being the literal progeny of murder.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: From a cabal of mostly aspiring gods to downcast phantoms bound to an actual god's will. Although the fall is less so for some, such as Sendai having always been a faithful for her father’s return, than seeking her own ascension. In contrast fall was especially steep for Amelyssan, who was about 99% the Goddess of Murder at the time of her death.
Echo of Amelyssan: The very Gods, ALL OF THEM, were forced to watch my fall at the Mana Forge.
Irony: Sarevok was Promoted to Playable in Throne of Bhaal and helped bring about their downfalls. Here, he lords over a court comprised of their spectres.
Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Amelyssan, for whom this post is a punishment for treachery.
Unexplained Recovery: It's unclear how Amelyssan is even still around as a spectre, as her reckless welding of Bhaal's taint to her own soul necessitated her Cessation of Existence no matter how it was parted.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Balthazar and Yaga-Shura are curiously absent from the tribunal despite Orin making them effigies. In the case of Balthazar, it is implied that the new Balthazar took his corpse and was experimenting on it, but how that affected things is unclear. The fact that he was looking to oppose the rise of either the others or the return of Bhaal himself may also be a factor. In Yaga-Shura's case the removal of his heart in an attempt to become invincible might have made him unavailable in some way.

The Serial Killer

Dolor

Race: Dwarf

A dwarf trying to join Bhaal's cult by performing a series of high-profile murders, marking each murder with the sign of the Absolute.

An Arm and a Leg: He takes his victims' hands, as he needs body parts from several murders to enter the Court of Murder. He's also got a more personal "passion project" for those body parts.
Ax-Crazy: As expected for a Bhaal worshipper.
Dirty Coward: His preferred murder method is to discreetly paralyze his victims so they'll be too helpless to fight back. And whenever his murder attempts are exposed, he tries to escape as quickly as possible, leaving doppelganger minions behind to keep his pursuers busy.
False Flag Operation: At Orin's request, he's leaving the mark of the Absolute at the murder sites so that Gortash gets the heat. It doesn't work for him, as the Flaming Fist investigator soon realized that the mark doesn't make sense with the rest of the MO and is thus a Red Herring.
Master Poisoner: His MO is to poison the target with a paralytic before taking their hands while still alive and then finishing them up.
Self-Made Orphan: He ended up murdering Ffion, his own mother, when she found out about his secret as a serial killer.
Serial Killer: As befitting someone trying to joing the Bhaalist cult.

Gods of Faerûn

The Dead Three

Bane, Myrkul, and Bhaal

Left to Right: The Black Hand (Bane), the Lord of Bones (Myrkul), and the Lord of Murder (Bhaal)

Voiced by: Doug Cockle (Bhaal), David Rintoul (Bane), and Tony Todd (Myrkul’s Avatar, uncredited)

A trio of malevolent gods who were once mortal adventurers seeking godhood. The original god of death Jergal, tired of his duty, gave each of them a part of his portfolio. Bane became the god of Tyranny, Myrkul the god of Death, and Bhaal the god of Murder. Eventually, the Dead Three would cause the Time of Troubles by stealing the Tablets of Fate from the Overgod Ao, who in turn would banish all the gods to the Material Plane as mortal avatars. Many gods died at the hands of mortals or their fellow gods during this tumultuous period, and the Dead Three were no exception.

Bhaal, on his end, had foreseen his own demise, and the plan for his eventual resurrection form the overarching plot of the original duology. Myrkul and Bane would also return eventually, and all three of them ended up being reduced to Quasi-Deities, with their portfolios having passed on to other gods.

For tropes relating to them in the campaign setting, see Here.

Affably Evil: In line with how his Chosen Gortash acted, Bane is incredibly polite and gracious to the Player Character should they trigger a conversation by using the "Speak with Dead" spell on Gortash's corpse. He respects you for outlasting Gortash, while noting that as long as people have ambition, he'll never truly be gone. He'll even give some helpful pointers on how to earn his favor if you ask him, pointing out that a follower of his ways would use the Absolute for themselves... but he's fine with whatever decision you make. Of course, he's still one of the three gods that orchestrated the conspiracy with the Cult of the Absolute to begin with, and the reason he even appears is because he's currently punishing Gortash’s soul for failing him.
Archnemesis Dad: Bhaal, to a good-aligned Dark Urge. Bhaal can kill the Dark Urge if they deny him, only for Withers to resurrect them (despite this being something that should be impossible) because he respects the Dark Urge's stand.
The Bad Guy Wins: If you play as the Dark Urge and fully give into your murderous desires, you can reclaim your place as Bhaal's Chosen and control the Absolute to cause unspeakable terror and destruction throughout the world, exactly as Bhaal wanted in the first place.
Back from the Dead: All three died during the Time of Troubles (Myrkul and Bhaal by unexpectedly powerful mortals who later became the gods Mystra and Cyric, Bane in a duel with the righteous paladin god Torm) only to all later return by one method or another.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Bhaal is noted to have this. He is, after all, literally the god of backstabs. You'll see his worshippers engage in this. Dolor kills his mother. Saverok in turned tricked Orin into killing her mother, his own daughter. Orin in turn betrayed the Dark Urge. You can even mock Orin about this by pointing out that betrayals are Bhaal's whole thing and she's an idiot to think she was special or immune to this. The taunt all but breaks her and forces Bhaal to personally intervene to focus her back on task.
Didn't Think This Through: A common problem of theirs. Much like how their theft of the Tablets of Fate only served to piss off Ao and lead to their deaths during the Time of Troubles, they fail to consider that their plan to raise an army of mind flayers involves turning a lot of people into said mind flayers. As Withers points out during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech, ceremorphosis destroys the mortal soul, and for this to happen on such a grand scale would massively interrupt the flow of souls within Faerun. It was not only going to draw his attention, but would've eventually drawn the attention of all the other gods (and possibly also Ao, as interfering with the mechanics of divinity is one of the few things he cares about) and make them come down on the trio. Downplayed with two of them; Bhaal is so murder-happy that he wouldn't care about not getting souls and instead would just revel in the murder and carnage, while Bane does not mind that he is not getting souls because he cares more about denying everyone else them.
Greater-Scope Villain: They are the instigators of the whole Cult of the Absolute plot, with their Chosen acting as their agents. Orin and Ketheric in particular make it clear they are only aligned with the others because their respective god demands it.
The Grim Reaper: When Myrkul's Avatar is summoned at the end of Act 2 he appears as a looming hooded skeletal being, wielding an equally massive scythe.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In a Dark Urge playthrough, one reason you can give for rejecting your Bhaalspawn heritage is that you don't want to deal with the terrifying urge that drives you to kill your own companions. Furthermore, after being revived by Withers, you can react with relief that any sins you now commit will be your own, and you can still end the game by seizing control of the Absolute for your own purposes... meaning that Bhaal managed to alienate his own Chosen by trying to interfere with their free will, which was reason enough for even a selfish and power-hungry Dark Urge to abandon him.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In previous installments, Bhaal couldn't give a damn about his children beyond whatever use they might have for him, and even then, they were no more than sacrifices to fuel his inevitable revival. The sole exception is the Dark Urge, who was so cruel and bloodthirsty Bhaal wholeheartedly approved of them. This is presumably because unlike their other children, whom he made by really going around the realms, the Dark Urge was actually created deliberately through Bhaal's blood himself according to Fel, and therefore could be considered making a clone of himself in a way.
Really Gets Around: Bhaal; this was the cornerstone of his contingency for his return, and to this day Bhaalspawn still cause endless trouble for the realms. Orin the Red and the Dark Urge during Blood in Baldur's Gate were his most vicious and depraved, with the latter being so violent Bhaal declared the Dark Urge his favorite child.
Stupid Evil: Their plan involved taking away mortal souls that could empower the other gods, by transforming them into mind flayers. Bane actually did account for this, and it was part of his plan. But even still, every other god immediately was against them from this, dooming them to failure.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: In The Stinger Withers gives one to the Dead Three, pointing out that since mortal souls are destroyed when mortals become mind flayers, the Trio's plan was doomed to failure as it would have inevitably drawn the attention of all the gods, much like how it drew Wither's own attention. He further says that the three having met their defeats at the hands of mortals whom they keep underestimating only further shows they are very poor excuses for Gods themselves.
Truly Single Parent: Fel indicates that the Dark Urge was brought to life through Bhaal’s blood, not regular conception.
Villain No Longer Idle: Myrkul is the only one of the three — as Bhaal is too much of a Dirty Coward to throw hands himself and Bane prefers Pragmatic Villainy and being The Chessmaster despite being one of most Physical Gods in the setting — to get directly involved in the mortal realm after Ketheric uses himself as sacrificial fuel to summon an avatar of him, who is absolutely, positively pissed off that the Player Character and their party forced his pawn to waste himself to invoke Myrkul and is hellbent on killing them for interfering.
We Win, Because You Didn't: This is Bane's approach to the entire Absolute Plan, as he can tell you if you converse with him through Gortash's corpse. Sure, ceremorphosis destroys the soul, so he wouldn't be directly gaining any new followers from having an army of mind flayers rampage, but the other gods would lose theirs. As he says it himself "victory not in toiling your field to greatness, but in burning the others' down". He does have the advantage here, in that while he has suffered recent misfortunes like the other two he actually has a pretty healthy number of followers outside the Cult of the Absolute while Bhaal and Myrkul's cults all but died out after their deaths and haven't recovered by much.
You Have Failed Me: Forgiving, Bane is not. Casting Speak with Dead on Gortash's corpse after his death doesn't summon the Lord, but his Master, Bane - who immediately lets you know his Chosen is currently suffering an eternity of torment as punishment for his failure.

Milil

The Lord of Song

The god of Song, Poetry, Eloquence, Creativity, and Inspiration.

The Bard: Appropriately for a god mainly worshipped by bards, he appears as one during the game's epilogue, bringing music to the camp during the party's reunion.
Jaded Washout: He was much more venerated by his worshippers in the past until his mocking ballad about Cyric caused him to be ejected from the Faerûnian pantheon and banished to the Fugue Plane as punishment until he was rescued by Withers. When you talk to him, he even tells you that he does feel like this.
Pet the Dog: If you pass a History check and recognize him as the Lord of Music or pass a Deception check to fake it, Milil is ecstatic at the idea that someone actually remembers him. If you request a change in music, he happily complies.

Mystra

Voiced by: Jane Perry

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/untitled_1412.png

The Mother of All Magic

The third and current incarnation of the goddess of Magic. Once a human mage named Midnight, she ascended to godhood following the death of the first Mystra during the Time of Troubles.

For tropes relating to her in the campaign setting, see Here.

Blue-and-Orange Morality: By nature of her divine domain, Mystra cannot prioritize anything else above the Weave. Thus while she is overall good-aligned, she is capable of ruthless measures where protecting it is concerned. Chief among them are ordering Gale on a suicide mission, and the absolutely horrific consequences for the Sword Coast that ensue if he actually follows her orders at Moonrise Towers, all acceptable losses to protect the Weave from the threat of Karsite artifacts. Reflecting on their past relationship, Gale may eventually comment that the gods are literally not capable of caring about things the way mortals do.
Cruel Mercy: When Gale assumes that Mystra has sent Elminster to him to give him her forgiveness, Elminister sadly states that she is offering what she would consider forgiveness. Indeed, her forgiveness requires that Gale sacrifice his life using the orb inside him to blow up the Absolute.
Divine Date: Mystra is known for taking her chosen as her lovers. Gale was one of them, as is Elminster, whom is encountered during the game.
Even the Girls Want Her: Discussed when Minsc discovers that Gale and Mystra used to be an item. He notes that male Rashemi magic users are secluded from the outside world, and wonders if it's to keep them away from Mystra, while also noting that there's no reason that female magic users, who are trained to be Rashemen's leader, couldn't also be seduced.
God's Hands Are Tied: After learning that Mystra wants Gale to sacrifice himself, the player can ask why someone as powerful as Mystra doesn't just deal with the Absolute herself instead of demanding that one of her followers sacrifice themselves. Gale says that Mystra is powerful enough to do that, but Ao almost never allows direct intervention because of the bad long-term consequences.
Godzilla Threshold: At first, the party assumes her demand that Gale sacrifice himself is just because she's mad at him. But when he meets her she explains that she knows Ceremorphosis destroys mortal souls, so people dying in the blast is better than them being turned into mind flayers because they still get an afterlife. More so, she also explains that contrary to Gale's belief, the orb wasn't a part of the weave that broke off Mystryl when Karsus tried to absorb the weave, but rather a part of Karsus' weave. It's been hungering to finish what Karsus' spell started. Hence Gale having to drain magical items and why Gale went from an archmage to a level 1 wizard - it ate the weave inside him. Mystra herself is only stabilizing it by letting it feed directly on the weave itself. So even if the Orb doesn't detonate it still represents a threat to the world. Her demand of Gale isn't out of petty anger, but because both the Orb and the Absolute are world threats that need dealing with.
Invincible Villain: Calling her a villain’s a stretch, but a Gale that makes an enemy out of her is destined to fail. Even if Gale uses the Crown of Karsus to ascend to godhood, she'll remind him she's one of the most powerful goddesses in the world, and makes short work of him in their off-screen confrontation in the epilogue.
Lack of Empathy: Going with her plan in Act 2, results in the immediate transformation of all infected with tadpoles and ultimately the destruction of Sword Coast. However the Crown of Karsus is successfully destroyed…which indicates towards what her actual priority was, which is not the saving of mortal lives, given there’s no way she could not have known what would happen.
Pet the Dog: If Gale gives up on his desire for godhood and gives Mystra the Crown of Karsus, Mystra fulfills her promise of removing the orb during the epilogue, allowing Gale to return home and live a normal life.
- If Gale becomes a mind flayer but gives Mystra the crown, she returns his soul and restore his human form. This scene is expanded in Patch 6 where she is shown returning Gale his soul and leads him to Elysium.
Purple Is Powerful: She's glowing purple when she appears to Gale.
Rebuilt Pedestal: If you convince Gale to seek her forgiveness, he will learn the actual reason why he lost his magic and why Mystra was so angered by his actions, given that the Karsite Weave is a threat to the Weave itself. A humbled Gale swears that he won't let her down again and will bring her the Crown of Karsus, to which Mystra assures him that he will succeed in his task.
Reasonable Authority Figure: While at first her request for Gale to sacrifice himself paints her as being callous and vengeful, she's shown to be more reasonable when he gets an audience with her. She makes it clear she doesn't object to the party's new plans in dealing with The Absolute, and only requests Gale that he return the Crown of Karsus to her once all is done, lest it causes more harm to mortals. She even promises Gale that she will restore his soul in case he becomes a mind flayer, a promise she keeps to a player-controlled Gale. Furthermore should Gale leave the crown in the Chionthar rather than give it to her, while she does not remove the orb she nonetheless assures him that neither it, nor she, will be a danger to him from now on.
Sex Goddess: Gale admits that sharing a bed with an actual goddess is as amazing as it sounds. Apparently, Mystra can get quite creative with the Weave:
Gale: The pleasures I experienced in Mystra's embrace go far beyond the thrill of having one's tummy tickled. I remember once, she took the smallest piece of the Weave and made it into -
Unequal Pairing: While any relationship between a mortal and a deity is this by definition, Mystra was also Gale's teacher before she became his lover, having first appeared to him in his childhood.
What the Hell, Hero?:
- In a rather rare moment, aside from Gale (who feels guilty about taking the orb to begin with), your entire party unanimously agrees that it's pretty cruel for Mystra to demand Gale sacrifice his life using the orb to stop the Absolute, feeling that A:it's overkill (given that it'll not only kill Gale but no doubt many other given the blast radius) and B: it heavily underestimates the party's ability to stop the Absolute by other means.
- She delivers one to Gale in turn, when they meet. The orb is the Karsite Weave, and it fed on his gifts, and now on the true Weave. Furthermore she mentions Gale's entire efforts were born of impatience and childishness. He didn't need to do a grand gesture like this to impress her, he'd already done so. He kept telling himself he was doing it for her, but in truth he was entirely doing this for himself and his own ego. Gale eventually admits to the player she is correct.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A humbled Gale who drops his idea for Godhood and seeking Mystra's forgiveness will start receiving his goddess' favor once again. Mystra assures him that she has complete faith in his ability to succeed in his quest to bring her the Crown of Karsus and end the Crisis of the Absolute.

Selûne

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/selune_statue.png

The Moonmaiden

The goddess of the Moon, Navigation, Quests, Wanderers, and non-evil Lycanthropes. According to myth Selûne is the oldest deity in the realm, alongside her twin sister Shar. The two of them created the worlds when Overgod Ao created the universe's crystal sphere, and many of the other gods descend from them. Eventually when Chauntea beseeched them to bring warmth and light to the world, Shar and Selûne's unity was broken when the latter created the Sun. Ever since the two goddesses have been at war, their conflict creating the original gods of Magic, Death, War and Pestilence.

For tropes relating to her in the campaign setting, see Here.

Big Good: Selûne does rather more than any of the other good aligned entities in the Realms to back up the party if they are also generally being good as she empowers Isobel to resist the Shadow Curse, has her daughter Aylin help them after being freed and freely accepts Shadowheart as her cleric after she rejects Shar.
The Dividual: Shar and Selûne were once known as the Two-Faced-Goddess and The-Sisters-Who-Are-One. Despite their now millennia long conflicts, aspects of this remains. As Dame Aylin explains, when she turns Shar's glaive into a moon glaive, anything Shar owns, Selûne has a claim to. It's also why Selûne immediately empowers Shadowheart if/when she turns her back on Shar. It is also presumably what inspired Viconia to kidnap Shadowheart and raise her as a Sharran.
God of the Moon: She is the moon goddess.
In Mysterious Ways: In contrast to her twin, Selûne takes a passive role in the narrative, primarily empowering clerics like Isobel and Shadowheart, and does not speak to any playable characters directly (though Aylin implies that she has received marching orders directly from her to aid the fight against the Absolute). This is averted, however, if the player character betrays Aylin to Lorroakan, in which case Selûne is so infuriated that she sends four of her Slivers (celestials sworn to Selûne) to aid her daughter and massively empowers Aylin to keep her free.
The Maker: As one of the goddesses who created the world.

Shar

Mistress of the Night and the Lady of Loss

"I am nothing. I am the empty room. The dreamless sleep. The shadow's shadow. There was no pain before my sister set the sun aflame. Now you exist to suffer, until you find your way back to my embrace."

The goddess of Darkness, Night, Loss, Secrets, and Forgetfulness. According to myth, Shar is the oldest deity in the realm alongside her twin sister Selûne. The two goddesses created the worlds while the Overgod Ao created the universe's crystal sphere, and many of the other gods descended from them. Eventually when Chauntea beseeched them to bring warmth and light to the world, Shar and Selûne's unity was broken when the latter created the Sun. Since then, the two goddesses have been at war, with their conflict creating the original gods of Magic, Death, War, and Pestilence.

For tropes relating to her in the campaign setting, see Here.

The Bad Guy Wins: If Shadowheart kills the Nightsong and fully commits to Shar by the end of her personal questline, Shar ends the game having succeeded in her plan of grooming her ideal herald and dealing a devastating blow to Selune in the process. If Shadowheart fails Shar's "final test" despite killing the Nightsong, Shar still has the satisfaction of murdering Selune's daughter, and can now torment Shadowheart for her failure. Her plans do fall apart if Shadowheart converts to Selune and you help her fight back against the Sharran cult, but she still presents Shadowheart with a Sadistic Choice as a final act of spite, ensuring that one way or another, Shadowheart will have to live the rest of her life in Shar's shadow.
Barred from the Afterlife: A book you can find tells the story of a cleric of Shar who sacrificed her entire mind to the goddess of forgetfulness, only for Shar to never bother to claim her cleric's soul when she passed away, leaving her in the Fugue plane for Eternity with Kelemvor basically shaking his head.
Cain and Abel: She is the Cain to Selûne's Abel, with their divine rivalry even extending to their respective followers.
The Dividual: Shar and Selûne were once known as the Two-Faced-Goddess and The-Sisters-Who-Are-One. Despite their now millennia long conflicts, aspects of this remain. As Dame Aylin explains when she turns Shar's glaive into a moon glaive, anything Shar owns, Selûne has a claim to. It's also why Selûne immediately empowers Shadowheart if/when she turns her back on Shar. It is also presumably what inspired Viconia to kidnap Shadowheart and raise her as a Sharran.
Evil Aunt: To Dame Aylin, aasimar daughter of her twin sister, whose death Shar attempts to contrive through Shadowheart before she becomes a Dark Justiciar.
Evil Is Petty: You can find a list of Sharran grievances about Selûne. They include:
- The Tides
- Making people think werewolves exist when it's in fact your husband who hasn't shaved.
- She changes a lot, so it's hard to get to know her.
- She makes people refer to the moon as feminine and that's a stereotype.
Greater-Scope Villain: Shar and her servants are responsible for a significant amount of the suffering going on in the background. This is particularly apparent in Act 2, as the curse that ravages the land originates from her former servant Ketheric Thorm.
God of Darkness: Darkness is one of her various domains.
Hate Sink: She doesn't seem so bad just speaking with Shadowheart, but you come to learn just how evil Shar is as the game goes on. Her appearance in the House of Grief cements Shar her as being the absolute worst no matter which route Shadowheart takes. Even evil-aligned avatars who push Shadowheart into embracing Shar are repulsed by her demeanor, with the narrator noting that Shar’s words makes their "skin crawl" and there is no lesson to be learned here. This is because Shadowheart was supposed to be a cleric of Selune, but Shar twisted Shadowheart into a cleric of Selune's most hated enemy, basically out of spite for Selune and to get one over on her. Then, on top of that, Shar had Shadowheart's parents kidnapped, along with surpressing Shadowheart's memory just to make sure that she'd be an obedient servant, and worse still, an obedient servant that would torture her own parents with no memory of who they were. All of this is to make Shar's cruel and tyrannical nature completely unambiguous and establish that even committing to her service in exchange for the power she can grant is a Deal with the Devil at best.
Jerkass Gods: The trope is played with. Shadowheart will give a rather benign description of Shar as a goddess who teaches hard truth and teaches to overcome adversity. The depth of Shar's evil becomes evident in Act 2 and 3, with Shadowheart either turning on her goddess entirely, or embracing it, which turns her cold and distant and puts a strain on her romance going forward. Saying nothing of what she did to Shadowheart and her parents, or her Shadow Curse.
Malevolent Masked Woman: Her avatar wears a mask that covers her eyes. In the lore, she has appeared with no eye mask to some of her most fanatical followers, and they have described them as the absolute coldest and blackest eyes ever, so presumably the mask is to prevent Shadowheart from going totally insane in her presence.
The Maker: As one of the goddesses who created the world.
Omnicidal Maniac: Shar's ultimate goal is to destroy all light and life in the universe, returning it to the primordial darkness she represents. This isn't something there's any danger of her completing any time soon (and indeed it may actually be impossible) but all her plotting is meant to aid, however distantly, in that apocalypse and any nobler aspects, such as those Shadowheart sees in her, are merely a cover.
Pragmatic Villainy: Should you push Shadowheart into embracing her destiny as a Dark Justiciar, Shar will become a genuine ally and support your efforts in defeating the Absolute. She's even willing to make concessions to her dogma by allowing Thaniel to lift the Shadow Curse, and not interfering too much with Shadowheart's (or most Sharrans') attempts at Loophole Abuse in order to pursue their romantic relationships.
Pyrrhic Victory: In the route where Shadowheart turns away from her, despite the former having to deal with the fallout of Shar's machinations for the rest of her life, Shadowheart’s defiance cost Shar dearly: Dame Aylin, the daughter of her twin sister and nemesis, is now free from her imprisonment, her most devout followers are either mostly or totally dead, the Gauntlet of Shar is nothing more than an empty ruin, her curse no longer holds any sway in Ketheric’s old lands if Thaniel recovered, and all of the time and resources spent grooming Shadowheart into her Chosen were All for Nothing.
Sadistic Choice: And how! Either Shadowheart has to kill her parents to be rid of her agonising curse that lets Shar torture her from her a distance, or she can free her parents but she has to leave with that curse for the rest of her life. Either way, she has to live with the fallout of this for the rest of her life.
Schmuck Bait: A Selunite cleric player has the option to pray for her blessing before entering the gauntlet. Predictably, Shar responds by simply cursing the player with a debuff.
Villain Respect: Shar does surprisingly toss some respect towards Arnell Hallowleaf, noting that he held up impressively well under the years of torture he was put through.

The Ironhand Gnomes

The Ironhand Gnomes in general

A clan of deep gnomes named after the gnomish god of Protection, Gaerdal Ironhand. Over a century ago, members of their clan allied with Sarevok only to be banished from Baldur's Gate once their association became known. Now, they seek to clear their name and regain their place as the city's foremost craftsmen and tinkerers, a place currently held by the gnomish followers of Gond at the High House of Wonders. Unfortunately, the entire clan has been captured by the Cult of the Absolute.

Misplaced Retribution: They hold the Gondians responsible for all their woes and believed that they were willing collaborators of the Cult of the Absolute. They're wrong on both counts.

Wulbren Bongle

Voiced by: Nicholas Aaron

The leader of the Ironhand Gnomes. A great and clever craftsman consumed by hatred.

The Bad Guy Wins: If the player sides with him against the Gondians, or simply doesn't finish the Steel Watch Foundry questline, the Patch 5 epilogue reveals that Wulbren succeeded in driving the Gondians out of Baldur's Gate.
Dirty Coward: If he's present when Last Light Inn is under attack, the only actions he takes are to run and hide in a side room away from all the action.
Fantastic Racism: His disdain for the Gondians is downright genocidal, which is notable because he doesn't appear to be a Gordian supremacist.
Hate Sink: A rude and angry little stump who is completely ungrateful for anything the player or Barcus does for him, and who wants to murder enslaved Gondians for no reason. Hated to the point of it being a meme in the community.
Hypocrite:
- If you find him on the outskirts of Baldur's Gate before learning of the Gondians' plight, his rants seem reasonable at first. He rages that the city allowing Gortash to build his Iron Legion is a recipe for disaster. He rants about how the people who side with him are fools who are giving up their individual liberty in favor of stability. For all his passion about protecting the liberty of the people, however, he doesn't think that this applies to Gondians. He thinks they're all Gortash's bootlickers. Even after the Gondians come pouring out of the destroyed Iron Legion factory with the domination collars still around their necks, he refuses to accept that they were forced to work with him under duress and that they rebelled as soon as they found out that Gortash's hostages were safe. You need to pass an intimidation check to convince him and his gang to not murder them, and even doing this will cause Wulbren to consider you a traitor to his cause.
- In the same rant, he says that the Gondians would have served Sarevok if they had been given the chance. Players of the first game might remember that Wulbren's own people actually did serve Sarevok when they were given the chance, something he conveniently forgets.
Jerkass: Wulbren is not a pleasant individual. Even though Barcus risked his life to attempt to save him, Wulbren does not acknowledge his effort and simply sent him away. He also doesn't show much gratitude if you break him out of his cell. It gets to the point where Barcus questions if he was ever the friend that he thought he was.
Laser-Guided Karma: The player can encourage Barcus, whose loyalty Wulbren had constantly taken for granted, to take charge of the Ironhand. Barcus will then exile Wulbren from the city, sadly coming to terms that his old friend will always be a threat to peace between the Ironhand Clan and the Gondians.
Misplaced Retribution: He believes the Gondians to be the source of all their woes and hates them with a passion. They aren't. Depending on the player's choices it may come to a head after the foundry is disabled.
No Sympathy: Even learning that the Gondians were essentially forced into servitude by Gortash doesn't change his views in the slightest. He already shows instances of this when he argues that even if the Gondians were working for Gortash against their will, they should have died as free people.
Pet the Dog:
- Notable given his otherwise hostile attitude towards everyone else, but it doesn't take much to convince him to help the Tieflings in their escape from Moonrise Towers, which involves doubling back into a hostile area to break open their cell after securing a safe escape route for himself and his companions.
- If the player has generally been friendly to him, choosing not to work with him in Act 3 has him criticize your choice to do so. Despite this, if you destroy the Steel Watch Foundry, he applauds your work and still treats you as a friend at first, only turning hostile if you support the Gondians.
Precision F-Strike: Occurs during his rant about "the FUCKING Gondians!"
Social Darwinist: Despite his speech about standing up to tyranny and fighting for freedom, he demonstrates almost in the same breath that he thinks anyone who isn't willing to fight for their freedom doesn't deserve it, and its better to kill them lest they be used as fodder for tyrants. Even aside from this, he's a horrible friend to Barcus, largely due to Barcus' Non-Action Guy nature and belief in peaceful resolution, and if you try to suggest a solution to the Steel Watch situation that doesn't involve terrorism he'll regard you as a weak, spineless coward.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In the present day, Wulbren is an outright Jerkass, racist towards Gondians, and looks down on Barcus (his oldest and perhaps only friend), but you can find his journal (alongside Barcus's own writings) that indicate that he didn't always used to be the way he is now. To the point he used to look up to Barcus for being brave enough to leave the Underdark and make his own path in Baldur's Gate. Barcus laments about how far Wulbren has changed should Barcus lead the Ironhands and kick him out.

Barcus Wroot

Voiced by: Dario Coates

A childhood friend of Wulbren, whose gone to look for him after he vanished. He's encountered in danger several times by the player, needing rescue every time.

Butt-Monkey: Barcus does not have a lot of luck in the game. He is introduced as a captive of goblins and tied to a windmill, and players can make the windmill go faster which flings him off and kills him. If he survives, he is later seen being captured again by Absolutists and enslaved. Even when he meets Wulbren again, he is still treated as dirt by his old friend.
Defrosting Ice Queen:
- Of sorts. Barcus is curt and to the point when you first meet him, insisting that he can take care of himself and that only he is capable of searching for Wulbren. After several setbacks, including getting recaptured once more, Barcus finally admits that he may not be as capable an explorer as he thought and eventually trusts you to search for Wulbren in his stead. By the end of the game, he's significantly warmer and considers Tav/Durge a friend. Doubly so if you're a duergar or a drow, as he's openly prejudiced against you and expecting you to stab him in the back up until you finally convince him to stay in your camp.
- Notably, if the player never follows up with him after Grymforge and Barcus survives (which leaves Wulbren in charge of the Ironhand Gnomes and he declares the Party an enemy), he will send a letter via Withers in the epilogue that simply states To Whom It May Concern: Withers gave me this address and said I should consider writing. Well, I've considered it. Return address included. Best, Barcus Wroot.
Doom Magnet: He's constantly getting captured by the cult of the Absolute. You can talk him into joining your camp because of his propensity to get captured, and he reluctantly agrees.
Grew a Spine: If he survives to Act 3, at the conclusion of the Ironhand questline, he eventually calls out Wulbren on his mindless vendetta on the Gondians who are innocent victims of Gortash. He can take leadership over the Ironhand Clan and kicks Wulbren out, realizing someone needs to lead the Ironhand even if he isn't confidant in himself.
Know When to Fold 'Em: After being rescued a second time, he concedes he is a "terrible adventurer" and takes a more behind-the-scenes role in his mission to rescue Wulbren.
Non-Action Guy: While his determination to find his childhood friend is admirable, a fighter he is not. After his second rescue, he'll catch on to his limitations and tag along with your camp rather than going off on his own again.
Timed Mission: Although the exact trigger point is a bit unclear, progressing too far through Act I before encountering him skips the entire windmill scene and results in Barcus being found dead on the ground in the village center, precluding any further interaction with him in later acts. Later, rescuing him and the other Gnomes in the Grymforge can similarly be missed if you don't find the runepowder quickly enough.
What the Hell, Hero?: He eventually grows disgusted with Wulbren, calling him out on his hatred. With support from the player, the rest of the Ironhands follow him, and he takes over leadership of the clan.

Circus of the Last Days

A circus travelling through all the planes of existence. They can be encountered near the city of Baldur's Gate in the game. This circus is filled with all kinds of colorful characters.

Lucretious

Voiced by: Daniel Jacob

Race: High Elf

Class: Wizard (Necromancer)

The ringmaster of the circus.

Drag Queen: Is clearly meant to resemble one.
Necromancer: Several of her performers are corpses raised by herself. Contrary to most depictions of this trope, she isn't evil.
Skewed Priorities: When one of her performers is revealed to have been murdered, she worries more about the loss in profits than the act itself. This is partially justified in that Dribbles's act really did save the circus when times were hard and being a Necromancer, she can just bring him back to life (once she has most of his pieces back, at least).

Akabi the Genie

A loud abrasive genie operating a Wheel of Fortune type of game.

Five-Aces Cheater: His wheel of fortune is rigged. The player can discover this via a perception check. They can discover Akabi uses a magical ring to secretly cast Mage Hand. Once the player buys or pickpockets the ring, they win the game.
Jackass Genie: A more literal example than most versions of this trope as while he doesn't twist wishes he grants, he does belittle and cheat his customers.
No Indoor Voice: Yells all of his lines. The player can even yell back at him that he is very loud.
Sore Loser: When the player discovers how Akabi rigs his game and puts a stop to it, Akabi sends him to the jungle of Chult, far far to the south of the continent. After the player escapes Akabi angrily closes down his game.
Troll: Seems to get a kick out of insulting people.

Dribbles The Clown

The clown of the circus. Seems to be famous and popular among the citizens of Baldur's Gate.

Non-Ironic Clown: From what is described of him, he is a clown who genuinely wants to make people laugh with his jokes. In one of the books you can find in Act III, Dribbles was apparently a prodigy at being a clown (which explains why most Baldurians have fond memories of his routine) and left his old life as nobody behind once Lucretious realized his talents.
Impersonation-Exclusive Character: The real Dribbles is actually dead by the time you enter the circus. The one you meet on stage is a doppelganger pretending to be him.

Zara the Mummy

A mummy selling all sorts of cosmetics, such as dyes, disguise kits and clown face paint.

Chummy Mummy: She is just a friendly merchant trying to make money...who happens to be an undead mummy.
Surrounded by Idiots: If you cast Detect Thoughts on her, she thinks all visitors are idiots for not understanding she wants to sell stuff.
The Unintelligible: Because her mouth is gagged with bandages, everything she says is muffled.

Zethino

A dryad running a test of love. The player character can invite companions to try it out with them.

Garden Garment: Like most dryads she's dressed only in leaves and vines.
Nature Spirit: She is one, dryads being being the spirits of trees. Normally this limits their movement, as they can't go far from their tree, but Zethino's tree appears to travel with the circus.
One True Love: She's a big believer in this, which is the purpose of her test. Take it with a companion that's already a confirmed Love Interest and you get a quiz based on how well you know their personality.
Posthumous Character: Possibly. She can have been murdered and replaced by Orin to taunt the party. If the player has already encountered Orin twice in other forms then Zethino is exactly who she appears to be.

Characters / Baldur's Gate III: NPCs and Factions

Edit Locked

Emerald Grove

Halsin

Voiced by: Dave Jones

Kagha

Voiced by: Clare Corbett

Nettie

Voiced by: Charlene McKenna

Rath

Voiced by:

Beno Boys

Aradin Beno

Voiced by: Ash Rizi

Barth

Voiced by: Stephen Hogan

Remira

Voiced by:

Liam

Voiced by: Dario Coates

Wilderness Inhabitants

Auntie Ethel

Voiced by: Rena Valeh

Mayrina

Voiced by: Ellie Heydon

The Githyanki

Vlaakith CLVII

Voiced by: Bethan Dixon Bate

Voss

Voiced by: Richard Cotton

Qudenos

Underdark Inhabitants

Spaw

Voiced by:

Voiced by: Matt Addis

BOOOAL

Voiced by: Robert G Slade

Pooldripp

Voiced by:

The Society of Brilliance

Blurg

Voiced by: Mark Noble

Omeluum

Voiced by: Glen Mc Cready

Lady Esther

Voiced by:

Havekelaag

Voiced by:

Ptaris/Xan

Voiced by:

The Harpers

Jaheira

Voiced by: Tracy Wiles

Geraldus

The Selûnites (Spoilers Unmarked)

Isobel Thorm

Voiced by: Mia Foo

The Nightsong / Dame Aylin

Voiced by: Helen Keeley

Arnell Hallowleaf & Emmeline Hallowleaf

Voiced by: John Hopkins (Arnell), Angela Dixon (Emmeline)

The Sharrans

Mother Superior Viconia DeVir

Voiced by: Grey DeLisle (BG1 & BG2), Jess Nesling (BG3)

Nocturne

Voiced by: Abigail Thorn

Baldur's Gate Inhabitants

Duke Ulder Ravengard

Voiced by: Chris Jarman

Counsellor Florrick

Voiced by: Karen Bryson

Cazador Szarr

Voiced by: Graham Hoadly

Aurelia, Leon Onufrio, Pale Petras, Dalyria, Violet, Yousen

Voiced by: Rebecca Hanssen (Aurelia), Sofia Zervudachi (Dalyria), Declan Perking (Yousen)

Ansur

Voiced by: Anton Browne

Lorroakan

Voiced by: Joshua B Sklar

Helsik