Baldur's Gate III finally spells it out

 Some of us are slow, okay!

Close to or just over a year into early access (these blogs have weird put-out times) Baldur's Gate III has managed to play things very close to the chest regarding what it's about and how that ties into the wider BG narrative. I myself have gone from someone with no idea what the original games were about but still with a decent interest in the game, to a huge fan of those originals and now someone fascinated in the narrative links. And why wouldn't I be? When Baldur's Gate 1, 2 and Throne of Bhaal weaved together a three-part narrative that perfectly wrapped itself up in a neat little bow, what can BG III really bring to that after all of this time? Couple with that the fact this game prominently features the machination of Mindflayers, such to the extent that they are embroiled in the logo on the box, and one has to wonder what's going on here. Mindflayers did appear in the first two games, but as total background challenges along with all the Lich,  Beholders and Dopplegangers; so where did they hit the mainstream?

Things were very shut down tight even with the briefest of looks into the main narrative thanks to the Early access content unveiled over this year, and that mystery remained for some until the reveal of the Sorcerer update not that long ago. Although, I bet if you've any sort of a foot in all of the extended universe stuff, you knew this was coming all the back from the in-universe tabletop tie-in adventure 'Baldur's Gate: Decent into Avernus'. But seeing as how that's just ancillary stuff right now, lets us first look at what comes with a sorcerer update to Baldur's Gate III and what exactly makes that such a lauded after class. How does that change things up from the Wizards and Warlocks that are already within the game and why BG just wouldn't be the same without them.

We'll start with the most obvious and important: what even is a Sorcerer? That seems like a given but if you're not into all this DnD basic stuff you might find yourself getting caught up on the minutiae between Wizards, Warlocks and Sorcerers. (You know, given how grammatically they are pretty much synonyms of one another.) It's actually rather classical; Wizards are beings who have trained heavily with their magical gift to be able to manifest and take advantage of it, Warlocks are people who have 'taken the easy path' so-to-speak and forged a pact with some sort of powerful god-like entity for their magical gifts. Sorcerers are the only avenue left to real magical power. They are those born with innate magical gifts directly due to a bloodline linked to some distant heavily magical ancestor. These can be angelic ancestors, demonic, or even draconic. Each type of ancestor defers unique benefits onto their modern day progeny which really makes the class customisation come to life in special little ways.

Now Sorcerers have no need to carry spellbooks nor hold the favor of some all-powerful demi-god, which is what makes them great choices for people who want to play as a spellcaster with melee potential like a Magus. (Literally one of my favourite classes; I adore Magi) Apparently, Sorcerers are also the place from the Mild Mage subclass comes from, which clashes with my own understanding of wild magic which I had learnt to be mages who weren't taught their abilities well enough, but I suppose this makes more sense. Wild magic, if you don't know, is magic that has the chance to randomly spiral off and become a super powerful spell variant, a super weak variant or another spell entirely. Which might mean a random spell hits off in the middle of a miniscule fight and you don't even think about it, only to try and buy something 4 hours and countless saves later just to find that your half-elf Wild mage wished away 75% of all your gold. (NEERA, YOU DAMN HARPY!) 

So all-in-all an eagerly awaited class to the Baldur's Gate lineup that brings us ever closer to a full roster except not even nearly because we still don't have Paladin yet, how? How do you make a DnD game and not figure Paladin as one of the first things you implement? The more you delay, the longer it's going to take to implement all the choices that might sever holy patronage and cause Fallen Paladin status, or the special little actions that might be undertaken in order to strengthen holy bondage. You're only making more work for yourselves later, Larian. At least fans can soothe that ever aching omission with a brand new wide area to explore in the underdark with a whole questline attached. The new area still isn't Baldur's Gate proper though. Yet again, the title city hasn't shown up in this game yet. (I just want to see if the team managed to make Baldur's Gate into a city that's big enough to be worthy of the title card for this series when it really hasn't been in the past.)

But now I want to zoom out to the wider meta and look out over all of Baldur's Gate for a moment, in an attempt to figure out where 3 fits in. Previously it's been a wonder, because >Spoiler alert< the story of the Bhaalspawn was wrapped up quite distinctly in the whole 'become a god or don't' choice at the end of 'Throne of Bhaal'. (I picked both, obviously, because Neutral Evil dictates every choice is a selfish one) This was the question buzzing around until the reveal, just before the sorcerer update dropped, of the entire intro cinematic from the starts of BGIII (What we'd seen before was a tease) and a tad of introductory lore which laid out the building pieces for us to play around with and construct the mostly likely candidate for this larger story. (Whilst still trying to figure out where Cthulu's spawn fit in. That I'm not settled on yet.) It all starts with a trip to the realms of hell.

Well, 'trip' sounds a little reductive here; more like 'your Squid kidnappers teleport to hell in order to escape hot pursuit by a hit-squad of dragon-riding Githyanki.' There the intro is now revealed to end with three floating thunderheads in the shape of the roman numerical three, (HAH! 'cause that's the game! I get it!) as well as a swarm of demons engaging in the mythical blood war. The primordial blood war is something that has never really taken the front stage in a DnD story with the exception of 'Decent into Avernus' because that's the book it was created in. (in a meta sense) It tells of a two way war between chaotic demons, who seek to destroy all, and Lawful Devils, who want to rule over all. So it's pretty clear this is going to be the main conflict that our heroes for BGIII get drawn into, however there's also another connection to draw on here.

Since the concept is pretty new, there's not a great deal of infomation on who is really involved in the Blood War, how it started or if anyone other than red-skinned monsters are involved. But if we think of ways in which this Blood war ties into lore that is already established in, and is very important to, the Baldur's Gate mythos, then something of a likely suspect for the scenario of this game begins to materialise. I mean, of course, the tale of The Dead Three; the main impetus for the entirety of the Baldur's Gate trilogy up until now. The legend goes thus: Three folk strode up to claim the throne of death and found it waiting for them and therefore they had to decide how to split the throne between all three of them. He who would become Bane took the mantle of the God of Tyranny, ruling over malevolent, callous, despotism. He who would become Myrkul chose to be the God of Death, granting him dominion over the deceased. Future Bhaal was in a bit of a pickle after that, because his brothers had taken all the good spots, but in a stroke of genius the man decided to instil himself as the Lord of Murder, figuring that he could deny either brother of their supplicants at a will thus making him the strongest. (Although, realistically, he could only ever cut off one at the benefit of the other, so he more just shoe-horned himself into a political balancing act; but the guy wasn't really known for being a genius tactician, let him have his hollow victory.)

As we sit now, maybe still a whole year from full launch, it's impossible to say for certain what the story is going to follow, but I think that if we mix the tale of dead three with the blood war there are some interesting parallels. Dominion over death or Tyranny mixes well with demons who want destruction against devils who want to rule, and given how Myrkul and Bane are currently dead at the hands of Cyric, the god of lies, wouldn't it make sense to assume that he, and the duality (possible tri-ality depending on the conclusion of Throne of Bhaal) of his office forms the conflict of BG III? Maybe just as Bhaal once did, the lingering influence of Myrkul and Bane have established stakes in the Blood war in some ephemeral sense in order to wrestle back their physical forms and resurrect themselves? The little details are yet indistinct, but the larger connection seems too juicy to just write off because everything doesn't quite slide together yet, wouldn't you say? Or maybe I'm just misinformed and delusional and you'll tell me just such in the comment right now, feel free because I love to speculate and want to hear opinions. Let me know and together we can continue to write an entire narrative for BGIII months before it ever comes out.