#is it bhaal again??

[calistozom]

«Looking after children is easy»

Post-credits scene in a nutshell >w<

[stayatsam]

Chosen in Red (Dark Urge)

[wild-magic-oops]

My Durge playthrough everyone lmao

[voltaical-art]

some judge and bishop doodles from a bit ago

[camelliagwerm]

You glance piteously upon your false bride. You are Bhaal's stallion. Many of your own Bhaalspawn have been born to die in this half-year. Your new children will become the tyrant's horde — why do you spare even one thought for your forsaken mate? Our issue would be perfect... Your darling would never agree to breed a spawn with you. The defiance begets death. And neither Selûne nor Shar will claim her in the end. Bhaal wants her more than those graven gods.

EPILOGUE: SHARRAN SHADOWHEART & EMBRACE!DARK URGE

[y-rhywbeth2]

Still got BG2 Bhaal on the brain; particularly the bits where he likes to point out to his "favourite" children that they're demigods born of murder and don't/can't belong with the mere mortals. Usually in tandem with trying to coax them to be a good child and do what they're told by telling them they're special and powerful.

Oh, and the bits were he goes "you could protect your loved ones/"the weak" with divine power, you know..."

"Life... is strength. This is not to be contested; it seems logical enough. You live; and you affect your world. But is it what you need? You are... different... inside. [...] You are born of murder, the very essence of that which takes life."

"Why do you submit to the flesh, when death is bred in your bones? Follow, and receive the gift you are owed by the blood in your veins. Follow, if only to protect the weak that fell because of you."

And, obviously, we see it in BG3.

"Special, yes, special, aren't you? Ssh, don't fight it. You know what you need to do. Take up that knife, do what you do best. Easy as breathing. You'll feel better after."

"See? You are worse than everyone else. Filthy hierophant of the broken and damned. [...] The illithid tide can be broken by you."

"...you can't help but be a prodigy spree-killer. It's in your perfect nature."

A lot of the undertones I'm picking up on are the same ones you get from Sceleritas: "You don't belong with normal people, you're Other and you're better. Normal people will never love you. But Father loves you. Father will give you presents and keep you safe - if you're a good child."

I don't know, I just enjoy the flavouring of Durge internalising the idea that they're fundamentally bad, alien and only Bhaal can ever love them. Adds reasons to pick the Chosen ending - especially the concept that maybe you can keep your friends safe while you destroy the world - kill them last and then yourself, the last living beings. It's a horrific ending and utterly cruel to them, but cults don't encourage thinking skills and Chosen of Bhaal Durge isn't exactly the healthiest person around. The feral ending is even more tragic, and it can make the resist ending more complicated than "yay, I'm free" (yes, my heavily brainwashed Durge is thrilled that daddy doesn't love him any more(!))

-

Companions: "Your father tortures and kills you in dream visions. Repeatedly."

Durge: "Gods don't think like mortals. Father is the Lord of Murder; that's his love language."

Companions: "..."

(One thousand years therapy for the spawn of murder.)

[crossdressingdeath]

Now that I have everyone's responses to the "Durge was an Absolutist leader" reveal, I have thoughts. I think the whole thing works best if you tell the party about you being Bhaalspawn before going to the inauguration, because if you do that they're all like "It's okay, you don't have to be evil, you can fight your father, you have to fight your father" and while some Durges would probably be upset about the repeated insistence that they Mustn't Be Evil it's definitely well-intentioned and they want to support you. And then you get to the inauguration and they're furious about the Absolutist reveal. Which is mostly fair (Shadowheart getting mad at you specifically for not telling anyone when she knows you have amnesia is just a little unreasonable), but it's also like. all that support goes away the second they learn you weren't a good little non-murdery heroic Bhaalspawn like Gorion's Ward. To be fair, their anger and sense of betrayal are understandable, it's a hell of a thing to learn and I get the sense that the party really doesn't grasp just how strong Bhaal's hold on Durge is (I don't think it's a coincidence that Jaheira and Minsc are two of the calmest about the Bhaalspawn reveal or that Jaheira takes the Bhaal's Chosen reveal better than most of the party, they have more experience and so have a better understanding of what being Bhaalspawn actually means, but even they don't as far as I'm aware know about the "literally crafted from Bhaal's divine essence" situation)! I can definitely see why they for the most part react so overwhelmingly negatively, I would too in their position. But at the same time... poor Durge? I mean, they've just learned that they were a leader of the cult that stuck a tadpole in their and most of their friends' heads and is trying to take over the world. While the response to that would vary depending on the Durge, that's a heavy thing to suddenly have to deal with! And then the closest thing to support they get from the party is Minthara and Jaheira saying "Well, you fucked up big time but you can still sort of make up for it" and a couple party members not responding to it at all. The only person in this situation who seems pleased to have them around right now is Gortash.

...I wonder if that's part of the reason why Gortash chooses to reveal all of this here and now in front of the party rather than trying to find a moment to talk to Durge privately. It wouldn't have been hard for him to say "Well, I want to talk to the leader of your group privately and I won't give you any information until I get to do so," make it into some sort of power play or something and then explain the situation once they were alone. It might even have been smarter, since that way the party wouldn't be suspicious of Durge. But instead he spills the beans in front of everyone, driving a wedge between Durge and the rest of the group. The others love Durge enough to stick by them even after the reveal, but Gortash couldn't have known that would be the case when he told them! It doesn't make sense to deliberately cause problems among the party if he wants them working together as a team to deal with Orin for him, but it does make sense if his ultimate goal is to get rid of the rest of the party so he and Durge can rule together as was the original plan. After all, if the group decided they don't want a (former) Absolutist leader around and chase Durge away, where could Durge go other than straight to Gortash?

[strawberrypinky]

basically a shower thought BUT:

When Gortash speaks to Durge about the Temple of Bhaal, he says he does not know where it is located. However, the Temple of Bhaal is basically right next to the same boat which takes the player & party to the Morphic Pool of the Elder Brain.

Does Gortash teleport to the Morphic Pool of the Elder Brain? Are there multiple entrances from which he can access it? Because if not & he takes the same old boat Tav/Durge take to reach it —

How did he miss the Temple of Bhaal?? It is literally next door???

[chronurgy]

In my feels about how Gortash abso-fucking-lutely ruined Durge's life. Just fucking destroyed it. But that's also the only reason they have any sort of chance to make something different for themself. He's the only reason they even have a chance at a happy ending (even though it's a happy ending that he can't be in)

[fandom-geek]

What's the reference for this? I'm aggregating in game sources and I have seen this twice now:

gortash tells them of an exhibition of a bhaalspawn's corpse and another bhaalspawn's creations and durge immediately plans to attack the hall of wonder to recover them.

it's from the "test mission with gortash" note that you can find in durge/orin's bedroom, in the wardrobe beside the bed

i feel like a lot of ppl have missed this note, because i've seen so few people mention it in fics or meta? especially since it was the first time durge and gortash fought alongside each other.

anyway, both those brothers are from bg2. brother eler is eler had, who worked with gromnir il-khan, and brother toop is toop the brave, a kobold bhaalspawn who allied with several others, including a... were-chinchilla bhaalspawn

[alibonbonn]

My drow druid durge, my baby boy. He forgot his name. Astarion wants to fix him so bad.

[mogwaei]

Hold my beer tea, I'm doing [1] solas dragon age art for DA day after months of going dark.

[maegalkarven]

Also funny how while Ketheric is my least favorite villain from the Dead Three Chosen, he def is the one I respect the most.

Orin and Gortash are just problem children with behavior issues and delusions of grandeur. Ketheric tho? He just wanted his daughter back.

[cedarw00d-the-fourth]

redeemed Gort au....He gets tadpoled instead of durge....hregrgrggrr...

[raviollies]

BHAAL-BABE ?

[darija-morgan]

I can't help but adore that there are not one, not two, but six gods of death in FR lore!

Like...

God of Death

In pretty okay grim reaper way

God of Death

In bloody stabby stab way

God of Death

In dominant daddy bbc way

God of Death

In chaotic stupid bullshit way

God of Death

In fair unbiased judge way

God of Death

In insidious alien insect mummy way

They warms my dark soul in an inexplicable way :3