#Act 3 basically singlehandedly ended my desire to play anything else by Larian

[theultimatepielord]

Alright I can sorta explain the traitor thing but I can't do it calmly because it makes me SO angry about the way Sarevok is portrayed in bg3. So Jaheira has definitely at no point served Bhaal, except possibly once by accident. During the bg1 expansion Siege of Dragonspear (made by different devs like 15 years after bg1s release) she can help the player clear out an ulitharid (souped up illithid that doesn't work for an elder brain) from a desecrated temple of Bhaal that was converted to a temple of Cyric near Boreskyr Bridge, the place Cyric killed Bhaal. Sarevok was dead at this point on account of Jaheira and friends having killed him a couple weeks prior, so it's unlikely he's making any reference to it. Sarevok is most likely referring to the events of Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, in which he can join up with the party. Explaining this will require a quick summary of the saga, so here goes.

Bhaal died during the Time of Troubles, a period where the gods had to walk the earth as mortals (predicated by a scheme by the Dead Three to steal the Tablets of Fate), slain by the adventurer Cyric who used Bhaal's essence to become a god himself. But ahead of the Troubles, Bhaal had received a prophesy of his death and devised a solution: children. Bhaal and Bane attacked the problem in similar ways, but while Bane planned to have a single son to use to resurrect himself, Bhaal opted to sire as many kids as possible. Each kid would have a fraction of his essence, which would return to him when they died. This did work, though it took over a century longer than Bane's resurrection. This led to the prophecy of Alaundo: "The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he will spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos will be sown from their passage." The resurrection was intended to be quick, as the kids were mostly mothered by his priestesses, who were intended to kill them after receiving word of Bhaal's death. In the temple beneath Baldur's Gate however, the Harpers, in a group featuring the sage Gorion and new recruits Khalid and Jaheira, intervened. They were too late for most of the kids, but did save two babies. Gorion opted to retire upon seeing the pile of dead babies and took 2 of the children with him to Candlekeep. One he raised himself, that became CHARNAME/Gorion's Ward/Abdel Adrian, while the other was given to the innkeeper Winthrop, and was named Imoen. Sarevok escaped the temple by hiding in the pile of dead children, and survived on the streets of Baldur's Gate for a while (by thieving and mugging, mainly) until he was found by Rieltar Anchev, who was impressed by his strength, resourcefulness, and ruthlessness, and adopted him, making him his heir and ward. He quickly brought Sarevok into his business, the Iron Throne. He hired the scholar Winski Perorate to teach the lad, and it was Winski who discovered Sarevok's heritage. Winski encouraged Sarevok to pursue his heritage, and in the course of Sarevok's research at Candlekeep, he found a sibling: Abdel/CHARNAME/GW. So Sarevok killed Gorion and tried to kill his sibling, as part of his plan to ascend to godhood. The main thrust of that plan was to hijack Rieltar's plan for commercial domination and use it to trigger a war between the Gate and Amn. Ultimately though, he died and the plan failed. Abdel and co were later kidnapped by the evil wizard Jon Irenicus, who awakened CHARNAME and Imoen's Bhaalspawn powers for his own nefarious ends. CHARNAME's emerged stronger, allowing him access to the Slayer, and most critically, a piece of the family lands: in the Abyss. Sarevok found his way to those lands and offered his knowledge and expertise to CHARNAME in exchange for resurrection. While he didn't retain his Bhaalspawn powers, he was restored to life and joined CHARNAME's crew to help him defeat the 5, a cadre of evil Bhaalspawn including Ilasera and Sendai, and headed by Bhaal's traitorous High Priestess, Amelyssan the Blackhearted, who sought to steal the essences of the Bhaalspawn to become the new Lady of Murder. Afterwards, Sarevok went his own way. At some point he conquered Westgate, he buried the bones of his one true love, Tamoko, in her homeland of Kara-Tur, and Orin's backstory got stapled on. Also somehow he gained extra longevity, because without his Bhaalspawn powers he should have died of old age by now (Abdel/CHARNAME was murdered like 5 years ago at the age of 150ish, and Sarevok is canonically older).

The thing is, in all that story, forget Jaheira not serving Bhaal, SAREVOK never served Bhaal (except incidentally by killing Amelyssan, but Amelyssan was hell bent on murdering CHARNAME's whole party, so he didn't really have a choice). Beyond that, he always looked out for himself first and foremost. He didn't want to resurrect Bhaal when he tried to create a massive war, he wanted to ascend to godhood HIMSELF. As WInski Perorate put it, "if you have the arrogance of a god and can kill like a god, who's to say you are not a god?" ALSO, Sarevok doesn't have to stay evil during the events of Throne of Bhaal. Bg 1 + 2 are mostly a story about destiny, and the question about how much of your life you can really control. For Sarevok, one of the main questions is how things would have gone had CHARNAME ended up on the streets of the Gate and Sarevok enjoyed a happy childhood with Gorion. In Throne of Bhaal, the player can even guide Sarevok to redemption, as he reflects on the fruitlessness of his quest for power and godhood. Throne of Bhaal is rightly considered the weakest part of Bioware's Baldur's Gate, but Sarevok's redemption arc is AWESOME.

And then we get this shit in bg3. Bringing Sarevok back was a bad idea from the start: the Dark Urge uses the Bhaalspawn taint as an analogy for mental illness, which works fine but is a totally different story than the story about destiny the first two games were telling. And bringing him back like THIS? Completely bastardized with all of his personality and nuance and growth sandblasted off, a completely reworked story that makes no fucking sense, and to top it all off they recast him (come the fuck on what made you think you could replace Kevin Michael Richardson). TL;DR put no weight into anything Sarevok says or does in this game as it relates to the first two, because he's just here for the cameo to get a few extra nostalgia dollars, and because hcing him as just a random Bhaal construct given a familiar face both makes more sense and is less infuriating.

Sarevok Anchev: Here come those who seek to transcend. Aspirants of his most profane order - the would-be Unholy Assassins of Bhaal. Sarevok Anchev: But these are not aspirants. You have brought traitors of Bhaal into our midst. Sarevok Anchev: Harper worm... the abdicating hero... your keen sense for this city has withered in your absence. Jaheira: Sarevok, Bhaal's least favourite son. Still tied to daddy's apron strings, I see. Sarevok Anchev: You disappoint me, child of Murder. I expected more of your return.

In hindsight bringing an old enemy of Bhaal to the Murder Tribunal was, perhaps, a bad idea. Although "traitor" implies that Jaheira actually served Bhaal at some point, which... I don't know, I haven't played the first two games. Maybe? But somehow I doubt it. (Don't tell me.) Accidentally disappointed my big brother by bringing his old enemy to the Murder Tribunal. It's fine! I'm only a little bit of a disappointment. Also, Bhaal doesn't seem to mind me bringing Jaheira along so really Sarevok has no right to complain.

Also Jaheira repeatedly referring to Bhaal as "daddy" when talking to Bhaalspawn is kind of hilarious. I feel like you probably shouldn't call the god of murder "daddy" even if it is just in the context of his actual offspring.