#i have a bunch of ezra specific shit about this concept in my head

[maleficore]

OH that's an interesting question.

I personally don't like the Urge being just a compulsion because then the only consequence of ignoring/resisting it is Bhaal's wrath and in the game that makes it seem like he's pretty shit at applying punishment for some reason? lol So I don't really subscribe to it being a post-resurrection DLC Bhaal slapped onto Durge to keep them in check either. I think it must be a trait they've always had, and in addition to that is not really supposed to be curse or a gift even, just something inherited directly from Bhaal.

It's established in game that gods can get really consumed by the thing they embody and I think that's exactly what the Urge is -- Bhaal's divine hunger for murder and carnage copy pasted into someone else. He can use it against them of course, just like with Sceleritas, but it's not something that is inherently supposed to hurt them in any way. They need to eat, they need to breathe, they need to kill. And if they don't? Sceleritas might not be the most reliable source of information, but he does mention Durge getting sick if they don't indulge for long enough (which I assume means they enter that feral state we see in the camp scene after sparing Isobel) and the "spontaneous little outbursts of joy" he mentions may also be a symptom of a kind of starvation.

It really doesn't take that long for Alfira to show up at camp unless you have a bunch of other camp events queued and by the time she does... how much mayhem has Durge caused, really? Killed a few goblins, maybe poked a guy with a hot metal rod a bit. Nothing that diabolical. And despite Bhaal's doctrine supposedly insisting on "death in droves, death in numbers" he does love a bit of drama and I think the Urge takes that into account too. It's more "filling" to kill an innocent than it is a foe, a death without consequence does not satiate the hunger the same way one surrounded by tragedy does etc.

It's just so much juicier to me if its not a "do a bad thing that you inherently wanna do or push that feeling down", but a "do this bad thing or be physically miserable and risk losing control" type of deal. Durge constantly counting murder calories in their head, always worrying it's not going to be enough. The Urge being a threat All The Time, rather than only when Bhaal sends instructions to it and Durge doesn't listen. And it being so physically and mentally exhausting to exist like this that Durge can't help but wonder sometimes if "being good" is even worth the suffering when it would be SO much easier to just let go. (💀 Bhaal Approves)

More thoughts on Durge having been created when Bhaal died: did they have the Urge the whole time, or did that only show up when Bhaal was resurrected? Since they don't remember anything we can't say for sure if the Urge was always there or if it showed up fairly recently. I can see it going either way. If the Urge was always there maybe Bhaal stuck some programming in there when he was making Durge to keep them on track while he wasn't there to keep an eye on them directly, or it was something to do with the part of him that was in them being influenced by or drawn to the rest of him; if the Urge only showed up when Bhaal returned, maybe he was worried that his little divine homunculus wouldn't take kindly to being expected to follow his orders after a century of largely being left to act freely—whether or not those fears were justified depends on the Durge, of course—and decided to put a leash on them to make sure they couldn't disobey, or again maybe it was the part of him in them being influenced or called to by the rest of him but that only kicked in once he was actually around.