#Baldur's Gate 3 ending spoilers

[sweetmage]

Rhidyl/Meldri'lind, God of Tenacity🌠

Ending spoilers and more context/lore crafting below the cut!

I was trying to make an AU for every Gale ending and I finally figured out how to make the god couple ending work so I had to make a new look for him 😌

Even though he rejects it in all of his normal mortal timelines, I might have him go by his birth name (Meldri'lind meaning "beloved snake" in drow) again as a god because a.) it sounds more godly than Rhidyl and you know he's all about appearances lol and b.) So that his family may know his name and see that he has escaped their lies and proven than he is more than the tool they they reduced him to.

They told him since birth than he was destined for greatness but all of their promises were empty. He found his own way.

As the God of Tenacity (what I've decided on), overcoming and finding a way to carry on and succeed against all odds is very important to him so it fits his image well.

The virtue he embodies might make him a good failsafe for Gale's ambition as well, since Rhidyl's innate stubbornness and will to press on would have would have swelled to a defining trait in goodhood. They did not ascend out of pure selfishness or a thirst for power and he absolutely would never budge on that or allow Gale to cross that line, even as Gale inevitably strove for more.

Likewise, I think Gale's ambition could keep them on the path of growth, innovation, and positive change for their followers and their system of magic, as alone Rhidyl would have remained static and content in their current state.

[teamdilf]

I made an unfortunate typo in my Baldur's Gate 3 fic...

[keirangoldenwatch]

So my husband and I finished our run. Tears were shed, brains are dead, innocents saved, etc etc. All's well that ends well!

Mostly. It did come at the cost of Lae'zel and Taladrin's future together.

But with that in mind...

For those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the city, slash did it to save Orpheus and liberate the githyanki, slash really wanted to say "fuck you" to The Emperor--do you think you stay as an illithid for long? Especially if a certain wizard prodigy has decided to go for godhood, like Gale did in our run?

Yes, Taladrin encouraged Gale to find and use the crown. Of fucking course he did. "Wizards making bad decisions" bros over here. Jasmine did not endorse this.

But with all the gods who were mortals to start with in Faerun's pantheon, is it really such a weird idea that Gale could ascend? Not to overturn Mystra, but just to be an alternative deity of magic? If Cyric, Kelemvor, and MYSTRA HERSELF could do it then he can, too! Yes, the Dead Three give "humans who became gods" a bad rep, but...Azuth is literally a lesser deity of arcane magic separate to Mystra, who was mortal, so why can't Gale do it?

Anyway, the point I'm making is: if Gale ascends, and comes to wield incredibly powerful magic, then he could definitely fuck around with turning whomever became an illithid to save the city back into their previous form. Netherese magic has a LOT of weird shit it can do.

Maybe Gale finds a way to reverse the time of a particular person in fate, and turns back the clock until Taladrin becomes an elf again? And then maybe sending Taladrin to the Astral Plane, where time hardly passes anyway, gives him a chance to live his life alongside his githyanki wife, hunting down Vlaakith and her forces?

Or Gale just turns him back into an elf with pure transmutation magic. But that'd probably be a lot harder and cost something. And it's just less fun than the arbitrary rules of magic DnD likes to enforce.

But I want to think there's a happier ending for poor Taladrin and Lae'zel than them being torn apart by his sacrifice to her people. If he can't go with her as a mind flayer, then dammit, the pay off for helping Gale ascend to godhood better be worth it.

[voltaical-art]

do you guys ever think about how Wyll is introduced as an archetypal fantasy hero, but then it turns out he’s a warlock, who made a pact with a devil. Do you ever think about how Ansur is described as this fantastical dragon of myth, but then when you find him, he’s turned into an undead monstrosity. Do you think about how when Wyll does the right thing, he is punished to become more monstrous. Do you think about how as Wyll’s warlock powers grow, his spells get more horrific. Do you think about how Ansur was killed by his closest friend. Do think about how Wyll was cast out by the most important person in his life. do you guys ever think about Ansur and Wyll.

[heph]

A Moment in Time - Dearly Missed

[utterdrip]

‼️babe wake up new favorite astarion line just dropped‼️

[krembruleed]

the heavens are waiting, and you have work to do.

[artist-rat]

some epilogue vibes (an excuse to draw some hugs. and my durge so many times)

[dolceaspidenera]

We all know at this point that the name Astarion is connected to the word "star" (starry or little star).

But Larian decided that they wanted to go all in with the details and they delivered!

The flower you can place on his tomb in the final romance scene (which I think is such a cute and tender gesture and I love his reaction to it), seems to be an Ornithogalum umbellatum, a star-shaped white flower with six petals. Among the plant's many common names, there are summer snowflake, starflower, and star-of-Bethlehem.

Moreover, in the language of flowers, its meanings are related to trauma, mourning, and welcoming pain without repressing it.

According to Doctor Edward Bach (1886 – 1936), these flowers are "For those who find themselves in a state of great anguish due to situations that, in a given period, have caused so much unhappiness", and can be used to help with the aftermath of a trauma, the alleviation of pain and the mourning process.

Edit: every time I see an artist include this flower in their Astarion fanart my heart swells with joy. Love this community

[pinacoladamatata]

[arianiziolek]

I hope they will wake up Bhaal on time and The Dark Urge won't be all alone on his big day. Polish jump scare: Spoiler: Wdziałam nowe endingi no i Bhaal chyba zapił jak skurwysyn, bo sie nie pojawił. Ale z drugiej strony to dobrze oddaje jakim Bhaal jest wiecznie niezadowolonym tatuśkiem, może się łaskawie pojawi jak Durge zabije każdego szczura i insekta.

[what-is-it-to-be-pk-esque]

Playing around with freecam and saw that Astarion does this lil sheepish/coy/nervous playing-with-his-hands thing a lot so I made a compliation:

Most of it seems to happen during Act 1 when he's doing his over the top flirting, but there are a few moments that sort of are similar from parts of act 2 & 3 Edited to add the tadpole clip I originally missed & a couple from the "whose blood would you drink" convo and the act 2 confession aaaand edited again after finding some more from the raphael scar dialogues Updated 9/17/24: found 1 min more of instances like if you become an illtihid

[shewolfofvilnius]

It's fascinating how even though you don't always hear about \ anyone other than Astarion, every origin companion in BG3 has an endgame/epilogue state that is either outright bad for them or at the very least "not as good as they deserve".

Obvious there have been books and 100,000 pages of fic and discourse written about Ascended Astarion. In the moments when he almost acts like his old self, even then it's merely humoring you with a whim.

Mother Superior DJ Shadowheart flat out admits to severe empathy for what Viconia went through, and has fully closed herself off from any sense of attachment or feeling other than Nocturne and Tav. Her continued need to find carve-outs and exceptions and loopholes parallels Viconia's own eventual disagreements with Shar. And as we know, Shar will eventually betray or abandon her if Shadowheart doesn't betray her first. It's the story of every devout Sharran we meet.

Gale, the God is a smug arrogant hubris-ridden asshole that's even mean to Tara in the epilogue. Nearly every single sentiment he expressed about why he wanted the Crown and to ascend is immediately inverted. Of course he's not going to interfere. He's a figure of aspiration. Once he received power himself he immediately forgot and forsook everyone and everything about why he wanted it in the first place. A romanced God Gale is SLIGHTLY more grounded but that's mostly just because you ground him. And if you ascend with him, that ends that.

Lae'zel's return to Vlaakith results in her ascension, which leads to her missing the party and being very dead. The things that Lae'zel claimed to value will never truly be as long as Vlaakith rules, and her not escaping and falling back into her people's death cult robs her of the ability to create a new Gith, a better Gith.

Karlach is dead, or almost as bad, a Mind Flayer. And while most of her initial personality remains, by six months in she's already grown emotionally distant and her personality is clearly and evidently being slowly overridden by the brains of the dying she consumes. She's forsaken the embrace of death for the guise of eternal continuation in her. And even surrounded by the ten people who should mean the most in the world to her, all she mostly thinks about is others' perceptions of her (ala the Emperor) and the fact that she's hungry. Mind Flayer Karlach even notes that she used to think becoming a Mind Flayer would be the worst thing ever, but now she likes it. Shades of the Emperor x1000 and a clear sign that the Karlach we know and love is rapidly becoming a memory.

and then there's Grand Duke Wyll. On the surface, it appears the happiest of the "bad" endings, but pay attention. Note how he discusses wheeling and dealing and making agreements with patriars. (How well has contracts and deals worked out for you in the past?) Oh, and in certain conditions including romance, Wyll will offer you the chance to become a Grand Duke as well - with the others being his father (Ravengard #3) and Florrick (Wyll/Ulder's longest lasting family friend). That's not a government of the people for the people. When the power is tied up by a husband, spouse, his father, and their most trusted advisor, that's the makings of a monarchy or oligarchy. Of the type of patriar power-claim to last for generations, something Wyll himself once mocked. Oh, and if you adopt a child, then you get into the worst part of it all: Wyll's been busy running a city, and oh hey, instead of y'all bringing YOUR FOUR MONTH OLD DAUGHTER with you, hey, she'll be cool being watched by the Ilmater temple for a night right? Sorry, Wyll, were you saying something a few months ago about distant parenting? Yikes.

[mybloodystarlight]

Dark Justiciar Shadowheart // Gale the God of Ambition // Vampire Ascendant Astarion

Richard Siken, “War of the Foxes” // Tory Adkisson, “Anecdote of the Pig”

[lemotomato]

I haven’t seen anyone post about the epilogue you get if you romance Gale and he sacrifices himself at the final battle. I did this for science, but I didn’t expect how much it would wreck me 😭

New epilogue spoilers under the cut

[arainaizevran]

WYLL to an ILLITHID TAV: Have you been... comfortable in the Undercity? Is there anything more I can bring you?