#balduran bg3

[wellthebardsdead]

Tav: well I would say Baldurans Balls out of shock but- you don’t have any anymore.

The Emperor: …First of all. Rude.

[kikicolors]

my lisa frank princess 💗

[persbaderse]

in baldur's gate 3 if you play someone who was raised in baldurs gate, they will know about the city's history and recognize some of the villains as people who supposedly died ~100 years ago, which is very funny to me. like imagine your city is being invaded by aliens and you try to get to the bottom of it, and you find out jack the ripper, the unibomber, and that guy you remember seeing on the news who held up a bank for 72 hours have all teamed up in a super secret satan club. also the first mayor of your city from back in colonial times is still alive and wants to fuck you.

[lucidpeech]

The Emperor, in Alexander McQueen RTW 2023

[depressedandasian]

The emperor backseat fighting is so annoying.

[wilchur]

Isn't it a bit odd that Gortash is the only one who had no idea where tf Durge disappeared off to? Between him having to be there during the raid to crown the brain with Durge and Ketheric, and Orin showing up right after all like "I'm the Chosen of Bhaal now :)" I find it hard to believe that he not only didn't realise something must've happened to Durge down there, but that he also did not investigate their disappearance at all? It literally takes like 10 minutes to go through the whole thing and Orin did not hide their "body" at all. And yeah "we promised to not meddle in each other's affairs" blah blah, but he spent A Lot of time in the colony after the raid playing with his pickled brain jars so is it really meddling if Durge was literally a 3 minute walk away, being opened and closed like a reusable Ikea ziplock bag over and over again?

So my headcanon is that he had no idea when exactly the attack happened because Orin took Durge's form right after the deed was done and kept the disguise on for as long as she could. By the time Gortash (running on 2h of sleep a day and sheer force of will, making sure everything Goes According To Plan) finally figured out what was going on, it's been too long to pinpoint the exact moment "Durge" began to act off and know where to look for their body at the very least. Plus it's not like he could put the entire scheme on pause just to go chasing ghosts, Durge would not want him to.

And I think it fucked him up a bit, that he took too long to notice and lost his chance at maybe preventing the entire thing from unraveling. I think that "we promised to not meddle in each other's affairs" is either a lie or him trying convince himself he couldn't have done anything anyways.

Now imagine a Durge that is not an idiot, that dug through every nook and cranny of Moonrise and the colony in search of answers and knows a lot more than Gortash assumes they do since they're supposed to be a full on amnesiac. A Durge that talked to the elderbrain, that read the prayer of forgiveness and recognised their own handwriting, and that learned from Balthazar's notes right next to it that this Enver Gortash they so admired spent considerable time there while they were being tortured endlessly just on the other side of the fleshy corridor.

Imagine that instead of "Orin betrayed me, and you did nothing to help me then." they would say something more along the lines of "You call me your nearest and dearest, your favourite, but I know you were right there when Baltahzar's necromancer played with me like a doll for weeks and did nothing to help me." and just watch this man disintegrate from the psychic damage in real time.

[steel-peach]

Balduran and Ansur (based on the murals) + misc sketches

[mademoisellegush]

Balduran is the Funniest Bastard On Toril I love them so much

[emmy-dekarios-bg3]

Another Wyll dialogue that has me CRACKING UP (IYKYK)

[superectojazzmage]

My Baldur’s Gate 3 hot take is that debates about whether or not Emperor Balduran is trustworthy or or not are a waste of time because a great deal of the point of the character — narratively and gameplay-wise — is that he’s an extension of you. YOU interpret and decide on his personality, nature, and choices the same way you do with your Tav.

If you want him to genuinely be the flawed and odd-thinking but ultimately noble and heroic “token good Mind Flayer” that he presents himself as, then he will be like that simply because you treat him as being such. He’ll be trustworthy and dependable, totally truthful about only wanting what’s best for Baldur’s Gate and about wanting to free the Illithids from Elder Brain control and make ceremorphosis a consensual choice, while also being open to compromise in the name of forging bonds. He’ll be the unlikely hero who, with you by his side, uses the Stones to destroy the Absolute and save his beloved city.

If you want him to be and treat him like a backstabbing, manipulative liar and potentially dangerous monster who is at best disconnected from basic reality, at worst a murderous narcissist trying to bend you to his will, then he’ll act like it. His interactions with be tense, snappish, and uncomfortable. He’ll threaten you, make unreasonable demands, never compromise, and try to assert control over the party while making clear that your alliance is one of convenience and necessity. And ultimately, he’ll either betray you and defect to the Absolute’s side because he can’t control you or, at your urging, hijack things and use the Absolute to take over the world.

His past is designed to be interpreted in massively different manners depending on what kind of person you want him to be. He killed Ansur either out of justified self defense because Ansur wouldn’t admit that Balduran was still himself beneath the changed form, or because Ansur was trying to stop his evil plans. He dominated Stelmane’s mind because she was a bad person and he wanted to turn the Knights of the Shield into something good, or because he’s an evil manipulator who dominates those he can’t charm. He withheld information from you because he was being cautious and wasn’t sure if you were going to be an ally (like your party members), or because he was manipulating you by making himself seem more sympathetic. He never freed Orpheus and doesn’t want to free him because as an Illithid he rightfully fears a Githyanki Prince and that freeing Orpheus will allow the Netherbrain to control him again, or because he’s an malevolent bastard who knows that Orpheus would ruin his plans. It’s up to you to decide.

He can change tune on a dime, make self-contradictory choices and statements, abruptly do things just because of something you decided to say because you wanted to see what would happen. Just like you do as a player, because he’s as much your PC as Tav. It’s why you get to customize the form he appears in your dreams with. The Emperor is good or evil or whatever depending on what you WANT or MAKE him to be.

[jeeaark]

Greygold knows near absolutely nothing about the founder of the city: owns a gate. hangs out with a dragon. has merry-as-all-hell-sounding magic-mouth statues. Wyll's a big fan.

Maybe Greygold is going out of their way to rib a centuries-old statue because they once heard a wise thought-piece along the lines of 'Art that conceals reveals more about the concealer than how they are trying to portray themself as'...

OR.

Greygold just thought that Balduran's hat looked really really silly.

[notsohappynotsosad]

Idea stolen from @madmedicinecat

[blackstaff-blast]

I've been so inspired by the tarot cards of Dragon Age: Inquisition that this Emperor just happened. Straight up spawned.

*looks at hands like the Dark Urge*

find me on instagram

[eeldritchblast]

...

[lucidpeech]

wildest fwb in all of faerun, i'd say or at least, all of Baldur's Gate

[itsiitsu]

Song of Balduran