#This is Ketheric but Worse

[y-rhywbeth2]

I can't find the original twitter conversation to quote - where it's revealed that Bane (and possibly all the Dead Three) actually died and that's how he/they got into the city of the Dead and were actually very much under Jergal's thumb as a result - only the follow up where somebody asks if Bane knows he's dead.

But it did bring me back to my crackish brainrot nonsense:

Bane is a terrible god to serve, loves torture and mutilation and murder, a garbage father, not dissimilar to Gortash in many respects, and also dead. Truly, how is my Durge to resist this mess? He just ticks so many of their boxes.

[daemon-in-my-head]

Gortash has a 'love' for humanity and it's making me sick cuz that's perhaps why I even like him. Cuz it's twisted and messed up and rotten, so fucking rotten, but it's there, and his every step and every plan of his strives towards the betterment of the status quo in some way and advancement of humanity in a way that's just making me sick.

In this essay I will-

[orchid-n-petals]

So I've already shared parts of this on a discord server, but I have to scream about Ketheric Thorm on here as well. Obviously spoilers about the character under the cut! It's a long one.

The entirety of act 2 is about him, right? Jaheira, Shadowheart and numerous other NPCs shit on him for his fickle faith. First Selune, then Shar, then, as we meet him, Myrkul. You hear about his changes of faith on a whim, you hear that he's the person responsible for the shadow curse, he is painted as a villain, plain and simple.

You can figure it out pretty early on that Isobel was resurrected and that she is his daughter; the detail as well that he wants Isobel alive is so on the nose, it gives him away completely but there are still a few questions that remain unanswered, mainly about his faith.

And then you get to the mausoleum and the picture assembles; this entire tragedy, the death of hundreds if not thousands and the complete ruination of a landscape was all, ALL because you had this absolutely wrenched, heartbroken father who had lost everything and nobody answered his grief. He was left woefully alone, the Goddess whose daughter his daughter was involved with did nothing to save Isobel.

Imagine outliving your wife and your daughter. Imagine dedicating your life to fight the Lady of Loss, your Lady of Silver's enemy, and then be left so completely alone and in silence with your grief, with your loss. It's so, so poetic how and why he turned from Selune, and it's so understandable as well; he broke. His spirit completely broke. He couldn't deal with that void of having lost the only two important people in his life, seemingly undeservedly so. He was going mad with this and a lot of his ire was likely targeted at Aylin who, in his eye, represented Selune; she's literally her daughter, after all, and it was implied that even before the deaths of his family, he sort of saw Aylin courting Isobel as Selune taking his daughter from him, despite his service. This relationship was clearly not seen by him as a boon of "giving his daughter to the Moon-maiden".

His ways in the past clearly didn't spare him from tragedy and having to cope with it (which he clearly didn't, he snapped under the weight of his grief). He was clearly angry and unable to do anything, furious and helpless, which is a dangerous combination. A good part of his first change of heart must have been fuelled by a sense of revenge.

But then Shar didn't provide any balm to his aching heart either. If you read his letters in Grymforge and in act 2, he is so focused on enacting the will of Shar because he believes that healing lies in oblivion. Everything would be easier if he could just forget, if the damn world could just forget, if nothing was remembered because without Melodia and Isobel, nothing was worth remembering.

Then came Myrkul. Literally the only god who was not only able, but WILLING to give back his daughter to him. Imagine spending your all, EVERYTHING you have to serve two gods who would not give a single shit about the greatest suffering in your life. You were basically nothing, your loyalty didn't matter for shit, everything that was taken from you amounted to no recognition whatsoever: you should simply cope and seethe. Your grief will not simply go unanswered (which is not inherently antagonising) but ignored.

And then comes this supposedly evil entity who can alleviate your pain just like that, snap of a finger and it's a done deal.

I am so serious when I say that I believe Ketheric's main incentive was to extend Aylin's immortality to Isobel as well. You can read in her diary that she feels a taint after having came back, and there are things not even Selune can cleanse, but at this point, Ketheric doesn't care about Selune, vengeance is secondary if not tertiary, he's done that war during his Shar years and what did it give him? Literally nothing.

He doesn't even care about the fact that Isobel is still her cleric. He cares about the single most important fact: Isobel is back. Life is worth living again, there is something for him, and it was not Selune or Shar who gave it to him but Myrkul, and for this singular gift, he would raze the world for the Lord of Bones. Like people can clown on him for being disloyal but the man has the loyalty of a dog bonded to its owner.

He is powerful and is willing to go to insane lengths for crumbs. What is raising a single life for a god? Nothing. It has happened and it will happen again. But Ketheric will go to the ends of the earth to serve the single god who actually listened to him. The one god who didn't ignore him.

He knows that what he does is not the morally upright thing! He is so insanely self-aware that allying with Orin and Gortash and doing this entire plot with them only to then betray them is morally reprehensible at the best of times, he knows that people hate him, etc-etc. He was a Selunite at one point and he's not stupid. He just doesn't care; it could be literal Asmodeus and he wouldn't care as long as he got what he wanted, no matter the price.

He is probably the only one from the three of the chosen who has complete clarity over his situation, he almost sways (if you pass the check during his confrontation), he is not an inherently evil man blinded by power.

But he is inherently loyal to those deserving, and as of the story's standing, completely broken by his grief. In his eyes, at this point, the only one deserving loyalty is the one who actually listened to him. Isobel lives. It doesn't matter that she hates him, that his entire life has fallen apart, that literally nothing else that is good has come of it, because Isobel lives.

I don't think he regrets a single thing. His consciousness might tear at him at the end, but I believe he would do everything over again, exactly as he did, because in the end, his daughter was brought back. Because what would a grieving, broken parent give to bring back their child? Everything. Absolutely everything. And it's such a simply given answer, no second thoughts, no doubts.

Nobody can tell me that this man is fickle. Nobody. This man was willing to burn the world to the ground, create a Boudica destruction layer all by himself for the one single thing he wanted. For any God that would listen.

I don't know, I just have a lot of thoughts about his character.

[tacogoats]

Unwell about the idea of Orin using Durge's face to keep the charade going of the Durge still being around, so Gortash doesn't get suspicious.

He does anyway because she didn't understand how real their relationship was - and she slips up. Often. He knew immediately when the Dark Urge became so, so very cold. Nothing like the warmth he has known for years now behind closed doors; because it isn't them.

She is good at fine details of the body; she gets every scar, every little blemish perfectly, but she can never truly imitate the person behind the Urge.

She couldn't have hoped to anyway, because she didn't know who they really were. Only Gortash could, because he is the first to ask.

It surprises her, and infuriates her, even! The mighty Dark Urge, debased into some lovesick puppy yearning after this little Lordling!

And the mistakes that follow are how Gortash learns the Dark Urge is gone.

[moghedien]

Act 2 of BG3 is just about half-elves antagonizing each other and making it your problem

[mournflame]

The thing is, at this point in Johanna’s existence, having her become fond of you won’t save you. She just becomes evil in a different way.

[hijackalx]

The Chosen Three sitcom: Everybody Hates Ketheric

@deimosx this is so fucking stupid LMAO

[maegalkarven]

Also funny how while Ketheric is my least favorite villain from the Dead Three Chosen, he def is the one I respect the most.

Orin and Gortash are just problem children with behavior issues and delusions of grandeur. Ketheric tho? He just wanted his daughter back.

[sankttealeaf]

wip wednesday except its saturday and i feel the need to share a bit of the wild rue/ketheric piece i thought of the other night. dropped under the cut :3

She watches with wide eyes as the wounds close up on their own and he can tell she wants to ask questions, to poke and prod his flesh until she understands it. Curiosity lingers on her face in the same way he recalls seeing Isobel look at things in her youth. Always asking questions, never truly sated with the answers. The Chosen of Bhaal’s brows are pulled together, head tilted to the side and she’s biting the inside of a cheek - a terrible habit he’s come to notice that she holds. 

“And it does that every time?” she asks, a cold hand reaching to touch the now healed wound. Ketheric grabs her wrist before she can feel it. She looks at him with pleading eyes and he knows she’ll never say please. A being like her takes without asking and he is determined to keep her in check. 

“It does,” he replies, squeezing her wrist with just enough force that her fingers twitch. A warning to not do it again. He lets go. Her hand touches his skin, cold and not unlike his own. 

“What happens if a limb was to be cut off?” she asks, bringing her hand down to below his elbow, tracing across it as if she’s marking where to cut.

“With time it will grow back,” Ketheric explains. Her face lights up in a way he’s only seen when she’s talking about blood or death or Gortash.

“Can we-”

“No.” 

She pouts. A childish behaviour he can’t help but laugh at. If she pouts and bats her eyelashes, does she think she’ll get what she wants? Perhaps if she tries the trick on Gortash (and he knows she has) he’ll bend under her demands and give in. But Ketheric knows these games.

“Ketheric.” She says his name so quietly he has to strain to hear it. “It would mean a great deal to me if you would let me-”

“No.” 

She doesn’t understand boundaries. That’s the first new thing he learns about her. The child of Bhaal takes and takes and doesn’t let people refuse her. He waits for her to ask again or for her blades to come out and for his arm to be on the floor. Ketheric is a patient man yet being around the girl makes him feel his age. Instead of some bloodthirsty remark, she sits back with a heavy sigh, tail swinging in wide, angry arcs behind her. 

“I’m not here to play your childish games,” he tells her and it worsens her pouting. “Leave me.” 

[ellfeyy]

every day i think about why we don't have any special opportunity to team up with gortash, orin and ketheric instead of killing them when playing as dark urge.

LIKE Imagine your entire party leaving you because it's a totally fucked up idea, and then these three end up in your party instead.

i also like the idea of going to gortash in the third act to offer him an alliance after getting ketheric on your side, and he's like "sure beautiful whatever you say" (we all know they fucked before so yes). and then he tells you to go to orin first and offer her an alliance and if she accepts, gortash will throw the whole baldur's gate at your feet, because it is ORIN after all. she'll be hard to convince without any bloodshed (especially for durge) and gortash will be truly amazed.

also the option to romance these three in this outcome.. it's a NEED.

[autisticlaezel]

Do I want to write an AU where Brylee remembers everything and just sort of. Doesn't Tell Anyone for obvious reasons (she still deals with the other physical and mental symptoms of everything Kressa put her through, obviously. Which is why she teams up with the rest of the party; as much as she hates to admit it, she's too weak to return to Baldur's Gate and take back her rightful place by herself), or do I just want to write very specific scenarios within that AU?

[y-rhywbeth2]

Durgetash is a slow motion car crash to me. It's like, yes the love was real, and that's ultimately absolutely irrelevant; if either of them ever thought it could make a difference in the end, then they were lying to themselves. This isn't sustainable.

If they hadn't ended up as a pair of corpses on the floor - a footnote in the Realms' next tale of heroism - then the push and pull in their power games that lets them stand as equals would inevitably unbalance sooner or later, breaking the partnership beyond repair: either Durge kills Gortash, or Durge ends up falling from that pedestal as either a corpse or another slave.

"...this is how it has to be."

The relationship had its moments of true tenderness, but it was fundamentally twisted, as were the people involved, and it was all inevitably going to burn - but hey, the fire is pretty and they'd be bitter and sad about it when nobody was looking. They keep mementoes as keepsakes trophies.

...although I like to imagine (my) Durge thinks of it less as the violent and tragic end of a relationship and more as the traditional Bhaalist marriage. They've spent so many years planning out this murder suicide where Lord Bhaal consumes their joint souls.

(I just love toxic crash-and-burn doom-spiral villain pairs)

[randomfanner]

so this is based on two concepts my and a friend have mashed together-

AU where Orin, when she is a child, has a quest that involves going across the shadow cursed lands to kill someone and ‘prove herself’ out in the world, and during her trek she runs into Ketheric. She tries to kill him but well, that doesn’t work because immortal. And Ketheric sees this small, white haired, white eyes child(like Isobel) who is clearly very, very fucked up on a number of levels(like him!) and just grabs her by the scruff, drags her to Moonrise and dunking her in a bath to get all the dirt and blood off of her well she is hissing like a feral cat.

[skiitter]

Ketheric is so fine and for why. It’s supremely uncool that I cannot rattle his bones like a monkey shaking the bars of its cage.

[eggbagelz]

Im not fond of how karlach's ending is written like i know theres supposed to be an aesop there or smth but it just feels tragic for the sake of being tragic

[masatos-wig]

unfortunately. ever since i started playing bg3 my life has been

go to work -> think abt which choice couldve given me more astarion approval -> think abt astarion -> sad that i cant play rn -> go straight home to my cave to play for the rest of my day -> repeat