#Gur

[rolanpilled]

BG3 Patch 5 Spoilers

WARNING: BG3 SPOILERS AHEAD!

New content from the ending scene of BG3. This is all from the perspective of a redeemed Dark Urge who romanced Shadowheart and Halsin, and recruited every "good" ally possible.

people at the party: all your companions, scratch, owlbear, volo, and a bard in the middle playing a song (his name is milil)

lae'zel is the only one who isn't here physically, she sent an astral projection instead because she's been busy fighting vlaakith

astarion explains why he ran away (ashamed) when the sunlight hit him, he's become a "hero" who adventures and has accepted himself

(romanced halsin) you can hug halsin, he's missed his friends and you. you can do both the hug and the kiss, it's really sweet. he's turned the shadowlands into a community, repursing reithwin and moonrise towers into homes for people

jaheira's daughter rejoined the flaming fist, she's been working on rebuilding the harper network. the upper city was entirely destroyed by the battle but has been mostly rebuilt. she jokes that you might be a parent soon

wyll gives you a choice between three stories, a stegosaur/dinosaur battle, an impossible lich, or a young dragon. he lost his warlock powers but has been managing the best he can, and has become a RANGER ("a true hunter of monsters"). duke ravengard is commanding the flaming fist and help rebuilding the city, and he's very proud of his son

minsc and boo guard the streets while jaheira is "occupied with harperish manners". they "went to give a tickle" to the zhentarim, then got locked up in a zhentish cell, awaiting execution? idk if i'm reading incorrectly but he seems to be implying that he actually GOT executed but withers brought him back just in time lmfao

gale has become "professor gale dekarios of blackstaff academy, educator of the esteemed school of illusion". tara is with him. he surrended the crown of karsus to mystra, who cured him of the orb in exchange (his tattoo is gone), though his students still think he's explosive (he implies that he uses it as a threat to keep his class under control). he tells his students about your adventures together. he also implies you're welcome to visit his tower

shadowheart (main romance) - the game told me that we settled down together to live a happy, peaceful life on a farm in the countryside. shar still hurts her (if parents are saved), especially when she can sense that SH is enjoying herself, but it's been getting less frequent because she's been "losing interest". there's a new hug and kiss scene for her too, so i'm assuming this is for ALL companions and not just halsin/SH/whoever

withers will speak to you about karlach, explaining that she won't be able to come back. he jokes about her, which is rare for him, and you're given to opportunity to grieve her loss. in "a dozen tendays" (assumedly how long bg3 is), "an entire life was lived, she lived several centuries" (not exact quote).

milil, the bard playing in the center, does NOT want to be there. he's pissed that no one recognizes him (he's pissed specifically that i'm a bard and don't recognize him), i had to pass a deception check to recognize him and he cheered up and offered to change the song he's playing

there's a chest called "Chest of Grateful Words" filled with letters from your allies!

"Official Guild Letter"

"Letter from Barcus"

"Letter from Art"

"Letter from Valeria"

"Letter from Ravengard"

"Letter from Sebastian"

"Letter from Florrick"

"Letter from the Gur" (unascended Astarion)

"Letter from Alfira" (durge, killed quil grootslang)

"Letter from Dammon"

"Letter from Elminster"

"Letter from Nocturne"

"Letter from Voss"

"Letter from Hope"

"Letter from Mayrina"

"Letter from Nine-Fingers"

"Letter from Zevlor"

"Harp-stamped Letter"

Baldur's Mouth Gazette

If you find anything interesting I missed, please let me know.

[kirain]

What do you think of Gandrel? First time I played I let Astarion kill him and thought it was funny, but I super regretted it later. I've done 4 play through of bg3 and I haven't let him kill him ever since.

Real. I genuinely hate how many people let Astarion kill him for a sliver of approval they don't even need. Gandrel is a good man, simply looking for his daughters—the daughters Astarion kidnapped. The first time I played, I didn't have Astarion with me when I met him. I heard him out, but ultimately told him to stay away from my friend. Then, out of curiosity, I reloaded and brought Astarion with me. I didn't even get a chance to finish the conversation before he stabbed the man in the eye. Obviously, I reloaded again and let Gandrel live. I wasn't willing to let Astarion murder him over blatant racism.

And it was racism. In D&D, the Gur are a nomadic people of mostly dusk-skinned monster hunters and fortune tellers. They're private and honourable, their alignment usually good or neutral. They have a bad reputation only amongst settled people (living in cities or towns), who view them as shifty and untrustworthy solely because they don't live like the majority of the population. They're regarded as cut-throat and unclean, for no reason other than them being nomadic. You need only listen to Astarion's stereotypical description of them to know he hated them long before Cazador came along.

In Early Access there used to be a line of dialogue where, if you pushed Astarion for details about the night he turned, he admitted the Gur attacked him because they were dissatisfied with a ruling he passed regarding their people. This was because Astarion was initially written to be a corrupt magistrate. In the new release, however, that line and backstory are gone, likely because Larian was worried players would have a harder time sympathising with him—because he is outwardly racist. He even quips about eating Kobolds, because to him they're "animals". But they're not animals. They're a playable race in D&D. They're sentient. He simply sees them as lesser beings. And he feels the same way about gnomes, too. 😒

Now obviously he gets over that prejudice if you romance him as a gnome (or any small race), but some people tend to defend all of Astarion's worst traits, to an almost unhealthy degree. His racism is not excusable. It should be criticised, in the same way you can criticise his hatred of the Gur. Personally, when he told me about the attack, I told him he couldn't hold all Gur responsible. He didn't like that, of course, but I stuck to it, and by Act 3 he agreed to help save their children. In my opinion, that's the best way to help Astarion become a better person. He needs pushback and a friendly, morally good influence.

Plus, the Gur weren't wrong for hunting him. It wasn't his fault, but he did steal their children. Gandrel wasn't lying about that. If you pass a persuasion check when you meet him, he'll tell you he's looking for "the monster who stole our children", and the reason he refuses to tell you anything at first is because he doesn't want to put you in danger. He even warns you about Ethel and offers to trade supplies. He's a good man, as most of his people are. In fact, the whole tribe is extremely reasonable when interacting with you, even if you set 7000 hungry spawn loose on the Sword Coast. If you do so, Gandrel can later be found in the sewers, lamenting over his daughters.

So to anyone who let Astarion kill Gandrel: if you do another playthrough, maybe give the poor guy a chance? He's just a worried father looking for his kids. 😔

[frame-narrative]

[ozthedm]

I love Astarion to death, I really do. He has some of the best moments in the game, and is probably my favorite of the origin companions...

Which is why I have to say as an Astarion-enjoyer that it is deeply concerning to me how his racism is brushed to the side so easily both in-game and in fandom.

And yes, he is canonically racist. I'm not going to go into his gnome comments or what early drafts of the character indicated about his past, since those are slippery slopes. But trust me, his in-game attitude towards the Gur (who are stand-ins for Roma, a real-life minority ethnic group) is enough.

"But it makes sense that he would be prejudiced against the Gur because of his backstory." Yes, it does. It's understandable, even. But that does not mean it shouldn't be called out and condemned beyond one optional line about not holding a grudge against an entire ethnic group because of his tragic backstory.

Also, it's possible he may have had this mindset even before his death. Astarion has a line indicating that, when he was a magistrate he'd made some sort of ruling against the Gur that angered some of them enough to attack him in the street.

Now to be fair, Astarion's history before Cazador is deliberately kept vague, so at a certain point this becomes conjecture. I still think this is worth mentioning because if we take his words at face value, then that goes beyond benign ignorance into the active participation of subjugating a minority group.

I want to be clear that I'm not saying Larian and Astarion fans are condoning racism. Again, I am an Astarion fan. I totally understand that saying "my blorbo is a racist" is deeply uncomfortable. I know that the idea of an amoral character is more fun than actually addressing that amorality is, in fact, bad.

But maybe that's the point of Astarion. In a choose-your-adventure game, he illustrates how easy it is to do and excuse terrible things while brushing them off as not a big deal.

It's just very weird to me that the narrative goes all in on addressing actions which Astarion had little to no control over, but hardly even acknowledges the harm he's done of his own free will. Especially when a major part of his arc is about how to move forward when you are responsible for others' suffering.

TLDR;

If a character (who isn't an antagonist) is intentionally written to be bigoted, that isn't something that should be easily glossed over by the writer or reader/viewer/player/etc.

[luketaluketa]

clem checks out her future

[mediumlargedarkpizza]

[greycloakofevereska]

Putrid Bog (Sunlit Wetlands) - Gandrel

BG3 Astarion 2/?

[dontforgetukraine]

Ukraine's GUR (Defense Intelligence of Ukraine) published a video of an operation they conducted on Aug 6th in the northern part of the Black Sea.

Source: Rob Lee, GUR, Anton Gerashchenko

[kaiju-wolfdragon]

Pinky and her color bug friends

There's a lot more rare color bugs like her, red to pink, and each color bug has a different taste and smell, road (red color bug) smells like strawberries, oz (orange color bug) smells like tangerines, yap (yellow color bug) smells like banana, gur (green color bug) smells like mint, ce (cyan color bug) smells like chocolate blee (blue color bug) smells like blueberries, pow (purple color bug) smells like grapes and finally, Pinky (pink color bug) smells like bubble gum!

[veilkeeper]

Ulma: But things have changed. You have changed. Is it true you left your master? That you broke the spell that binds you to him? Astarion: Well, I mean... kind of? It's a long story, honestly. Roz: What business is it of yours? Ulma: For those your friend stole from us, it is a matter of life and death. We have tried to save our children once already, attacking Cazador Szarr's palace at first light. Even then, it was too well defended. But if his own spawn approached? Someone he thought he could control? He would throw his doors open and welcome you in. And once inside, you could do what we could not. You could save the children you damned. Astarion: You don't know Cazador like I do - he's merciless. You want me to march into the lion's den and save your children, but I promise you, they're already dead. Roz: How can you be sure, Astarion? Astarion: I spent two hundred years bringing him victims. Each and every one was whisked away to be fed on that night. Ulma: But you never saw him feed yourself? He could keep prisoners for days before killing them. If our children are truly gone, then we ask for blood. I know you can understand that, spawn. Roz: You owe them revenge, Astarion. If nothing else, you owe them that. Astarion: I suppose... Yes. Yes, revenge I can do. Ulma: You have lived a life of violence and sin. You have stolen lives, broken families, and caused immeasurable grief. Doing this will not right those wrongs. Astarion: If you're trying to encourage me, you're failing abysmally. Ulma: But it will be a start. You may still be redeemed.

this is a long one, but i didn't want to cut anything out because i think the whole exchange is really fascinating! it's interesting to see astarion be confronted with people he has hurt - people he hurt under cazador's orders, of course, but people he hurt nonetheless. until now, astarion's been in control of the narrative around what he's done... which has really resulted in him being very vague and dancing around what he, specifically, had done. but he can't really downplay the implications when ulma's right here telling us he condemned children to death. it's kind of a vulnerable moment for astarion, and you do see him get a little defensive there.

but hey, we're going to kill cazador anyway. might as well give the gur some peace of mind while we do it.

[thecharmingchimaera]

I’m endlessly fascinated by Astarion’s connection to the Gur.

An idea for an AU occurred to me, based entirely on my compulsive need for More Drama TM - what if Astarion had started out a Gur himself?

Think about it. The community raises money, he heads off to Baldur’s Gate and becomes a magistrate, everyone’s very excited for him, until he starts enacting legislation against them, and Drama ensues.

That way, Astarion getting beaten up by the Gur before he was turned has even more weight, because they’re family. Might even be a compelling reason for him to at least initially prefer Cazador’s promise of a “family” over his own. (It’s estrangement! Dissociation! All that good angsty stuff!)

Hmm. I think I might need to write a fic about this.

[suicidalgamergirl]

Batstarion Fic: Reflections

Another night of self reflection. Her birthday was a few days away. She graced her arms with minor cuts from a box cutter. She didn’t know why she had that tendency to self harm. Was it selfish that she wanted attention? Or was she sick of the coming of age of her only special day?

Stil, she needed to keep her mind at bay. Pulling herself to read stories about vampires and their protection upon their delicious prey. Yes, it is wish fulfillment as the author protested. Yes, there was something intriguing about how a plain ordinary lady can attract a powerful vampire. Wish fulfillment of these stories had a certain appeal.

Vampires didn’t exist. Someone like her couldn’t attract someone so beautifully traumatic. Her blood wasn’t anything special.

Her relationship with her only ex boyfriend made her feel very insecure about herself. He was constantly stressing her to have sex with him. She was damaged goods. Then the bastard cheated on her because she wasn’t giving him what he wanted.

He was the only person that saw something in her. He is gone now.

So getting herself lost in these stories was a guilty pleasure. She was a failure in everything. Everyone looked down at her when she dropped out of university because she had no job to pay for the books.

Then she was hit with a mental illness.

And she disgraced her parents once more.

She wanted to love them, but every time she wanted to hug them, a barb wire of insecurities and lack of self worth appeared. It made her distant from family.

Having a mental illness is the new Scarlet Letter. Everyone has a constant opinion of you while you struggle by yourself, trying to live your own damned life.

So what if she forced this kind of literature? It was escapism and a breath of fresh air. She needed it. It only made her happy while keeping the voices at bay.

She looked at the clock. It was late. She needed to rest.

Placing the eReader down, closing the lights, and pulling the covers, she needed to endure another night of being alone. Maybe one day she can finally be proud of being herself.

She needed a miracle.

****

A white bat was fluttering in the night skies. Those pesky hunters didn’t have the balls to chase him down. Such power from his fingertips. He’ll show all of them that he was not one to easily die by their weapons.

But now, where was he flying too?

Squeaking to himself, he needed a place to rest.

Realization came to him as he noticed an apartment with a cutely crude design of a bat on the bat house.

Surely, it wasn’t that bad. Not like his lavish Crimson Palace.

It’ll do for his small petite frame.

The bat flew towards the bat house, fluttering in and latching himself on a pole inside said house. Curling himself with his wings, he was safely tucked in the bat house.

Though, a fragrance caught his heightened attention. He noticed some blood drops, but whom did they belong to?

Tired, the bat will figure it out tomorrow.

All he knew for now that he was safe.

For now.

****

The hunters regrouped at a motel. They missed their target. Those damned vampires. Their boss, a descendant of strong monster hunters, The Gur, looked at his teammates. He knew vampire spawn were quite easy to take down.

Yet they were dealing with The Vampire Ascendant. No one in history had challenged quite a creature. It will be such a victory, a trophy against the creatures of the night. Having him perished would have graced his ancestors.

Now, they needed rest. Finding a vampire bat in the city might be difficult. It’s like no one would build a safe space for bats, due to them being rabies carriers. So calling a local news report would question the sanity of said hunter. No one will take their alert seriously. Most of the public knew vampires don't exist.

And they shouldn’t exist. They prey on the weak. They would do anything to enslave mankind if they managed to roam freely.

His buddy hunters were getting tired.

But mark his words.

The Vampire Ascendant will fall.

[bg3tav]

Astarion checked in on me first thing in the morning. That was sweet of him. I'm feeling okay, neck is a little sore, but I'll get used to it I think. I've dealt with worse.

Back to the Blighted Village. Killed a few ogres. No biggie. We're getting good at taking them down. Apparently one of them was actually smart. Aren't ogres usually stupid? I didn't let him live long enough to ask the question. We likely would have had the same outcome either way.

Astarion is calling me his friend. I... I... I hope I didn't give him the wrong impression. We killed the Gur today and Astarion is opening up about Cazador. I can tell it's hard for him to talk about. I can't let anything happen to him.

Tomorrow, we take out the Hag.

[speed-demon-doodler]

Act 3

Not a great introduction to Baldur's Gate city :^)

(I'd say act 3 as a whole but Orion got launched into orbit by a stray arrow the previous day so there's that)

[luketaluketa]

a comic where gur delivers a revelation.

[patrickpants]

Lol you so pressed about a videogame. Relax

I’m a game dev—I think trans rights are human rights and that antisemitic stereotypes are bad.

If you disagree, please dni thanks!