#The Absolute bg3

[taygra5shaon]

psychological damage +100 for the General Thorm. ⚔️

[neilanuruodo]

Absolutely crazy how the Emperor saves the player from Minthara if they side with the goblins and destroy the grove.

Basically, whether you pursue her romance or not, you wake up from a dream of "stabbing yourself" to find her over you with a dagger in her hand and a shocked expression. If the player didn't romance her, there is a persuasion or intimidation check to convince her to stand down; if they did romance her she dives right into her concerns.

(No romance)

(After romance)

She's a smart cookie. She noticed that her "god" wasn't talking to her, connected it to the player character and the oddness around them, and decided to deal with the problem directly - even if she and the player character had been intimate.

(Incidentally, this gives us a foretaste of the kind of Elder Brain the Absolute was. The kind that maintains constant control over its subjects - which the Emperor later confirms as well.)

But then something interesting happens - despite the artifact making it impossible, she hears the Absolute's voice and spares the player.

(No romance)

(After romance)

It's not the Absolute's voice. It can't be; Orpheus's protection makes it impossible. It's the "dream guardian," using the same sort of powers that let it enter the party's dreams and communicate with them. Since the Emperor spent more than 13 years after its rebirth as an illithid (plus an unspecified amount of time between when Gortash brought it back to the Elder Brain before it picked up Shadowheart and entered the Astral Prism) it would know the Absolute's voice. It would know how to imitate it.

And it makes perfect sense. The dream guardian guides the player to Moonrise to find the colony there and to discover what's really going on. Sure, it knows the Absolute is an Elder Brain - it has to know, having been thrown forcibly into this mess by Gortash - but it can't reveal how it knows without revealing it's an illithid (and we know how poorly that revelation goes over for a lot of players). This is another way to help the player character get there, both by putting Minthara's fears to rest and giving the player character every reason to go into the Absolute's stronghold.

And we know for a fact Minthara is under Orpheus's protection the same as the player character because she tells us so in a bit of dialogue after her romance scene.

(Directly after Minthara's romance scene)

Given how the artifact responds when she wonders how it was possible the Absolute's voice in her mind went silent, it's clearly the source.

And it's not like the Emperor found some way to exclude her from the anti-hivemind communication field. If it had, she would have definitely gone through with the whole murder thing, for one. Having the infected that aren't under the Absolute's control come to Moonrise is really not in Her best interests, but it is in the party's and in the Emperor's. It has every reason to convince Minthara not to kill the player, and to instead send them to the Absolute...where they can (hopefully) end Her before She even gets to its beloved Baldur's Gate.

It's a neat and subtle bit of writing that went completely over my head the first time I did Minthara's romance. Hopefully it gives players just another reason to appreciate the Emperor and all it does on the player's behalf.

[bg3smash-or-pass]

[wallflowers-garden]

my music professor keeps saying "the absolute... music" and my mind goes somewhere else

[we-ask-beforewe-bite]

Narrator: Through a narrow crack in the wall, you heat something shift against the stone. The pulse of a crawling, living thing. Elijah: Reach in.

[ Full transcript ⇩ ]

Narrator: Through a narrow crack in the wall, you heat something shift against the stone. The pulse of a crawling, living thing. Elijah: Reach in. Narrator: Your awareness unfolds, expanding through every wall in the tower - every mind. A vast, living network, extending down into the dark - where something wakes. Dream visitor: It's a trap! Narrator: Tendrils snap like iron cords around your wrist. That presence in your mind looms large, closer now. Elijah: Do nothing. Narrator: The tendrils tighten, and suddenly you are... elsewhere. The presence is no longer approaching you, but encircling you. Observing you. Absolute Voice: ---disgraced--- -master- -heir-- --tyrant- ---DARK-- --URGE- -FALLEN-- -ONE-- --returns- Elijah: 'Dark Urge' - what does it mean? Absolute Voice: -YOU!- Narrator: A pause, as if it struggles to compress its vast being down into terms you can understand. Absolute Voice: This is the voice they have given me. To better speak to your kind without breaking you. I was once a servant of the Grand Design. Now I am slave to theirs. But you... You were the jewelled hope for their design, but now you are their flaw. Elijah: What do you mean I'm the flaw? Absolute Voice: I am the chain they will use to bind this world... But I cannot bind you. You must come to me - so I can become myself again. Narrator: A world away, the grip on you tightens - a desperate, drowning thing that pulls you down with it. Absolute Voice: Come. Become. -COME- -BECOME- Dream Visitor: Resist it! Elijah:[melee attack]: Forget subtlety - claw at whatever you can reach. Dream Visitor: It almost had you. You did well to pull away from it.

[nooling]

LOOK I JUST REALLY ENJOY THEIR FRIENDSHIP OK?? You can't tell me they wouldn't hang after their respective personal quests (spawn ending ofc)/emotional breakdowns over their own mortality

EDIT: I forgot to watermark these so now more than ever PLEASE don't repost

[spicyraeman]

got bae'zel brainrot and its terminal

[beaft]

thinking about bg3 astarion introduction. something very funny about meeting a weird guy on the road and he's like "hey, sorry for trying to stab you. i'm a lawyer btw" and you're like well that seems true. and you click on his picture and see that his character class is just Professional Liar

[cymk8]

🍷

(commission for @ DeeVee_Cake on twit!)

[taygra5shaon]

SHADOW OF DURGE 2/4

here he comes out banite lord❤️

so, after some adjustments I divided the story in 4 0art, because the last one is .....a lot gory...

but still, enjoy!

[gender-luster]

[catsharky]

The capacity to work on more demanding stuff is still eluding me, so meme redraws it is, I guess.

I'm using this as an excuse to draw some characters I haven't had a chance to yet lmao

The original images these are based on under the cut:

[bloodiedrogue]

brb about to become a bg3 sex speedrunner

[emmavakarian-theirin]

Friendly reminder from Gale

HOW TO TRIGGER:

(Thank you to @chordialy for confirming!)

Condition: Must have already had his weave lesson, teiflings saved.

Dialogue options in order:

> Sounds, er, fun?

> She must be very smart, to have done all that.

> What if she doesn't like me?

> She sounds great. But I was hoping I meant more to you than an animal companion.

- I'm flattered. Is your good opinion so hard to come by?

[charmed-n-zesty]

On my way to see a druid.

[artist-rat]

return of the shenanigang! 🎪 no feature to let karlach win plushies at arcade games? shh it's canon anyways 💯🧸🧸 (wyll is being told bad puns to distract him from dribbles' fate. astarion has stolen back the entirety of their coin which they lost spinning the wheel too many times)