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I've fallen into the trap of being so busy playing Baldur's Gate 3 that I haven't had the time to say anything about Baldur's Gate 3 (a problem I've experienced before - which is why I've never yet reviewed My Life as a Teenage Exocolonist). There's also the fact that anyone on the farthest verge of the gaming sphere is aware of this game and has probably already read a least one review of it. Still, I'll throw my thoughts out, for whatever they're worth.

2025 has been a strange gaming year for me. Far and away my most anticipated game was Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a game I've waited almost a decade for with baited breath. Baldur's Gate 3 was barely even on my radar—I played a few meager hours of one of Larian's earlier RPGs, Divinity Original Sin 2, which cemented my hatred of turn-based combat and dislike of isometric games. (Which is not a knock on DOS2—it was a very well-done game! Just not for me.) I was not willing to shell out BG3's price for the significant chance that its gameplay would be too frustrating for me to get into the story. Fortunately, my sister handled that issue by gifting it to me for Christmas—a free experiment.

In January, as usual, I plunged into my holiday cache of new games, starting with DATV—for more on my disappointment with that, see this review. When I'd quickly burned out on DATV, I turned to BG3, the unknown factor. Admittedly, this game is not optimized for console. Even after its eighth patch, it frequently crashes, particularly in battles with a high number of participants. Its menus and maps are difficult to read at a distance, such as from couch to TV. Its controls can be obtuse as the game tries to cram the huge number of functions onto a controller's limited button scheme.

However, in spite of these flaws, I've been reflecting the last few weeks on how BG3 has nevertheless been so much more fun than DATV, the game I was predisposed to like. What was it, I wondered, that made BG3 more fun? (And sorry--there will be more DA comparisons below.)

First, the thing that's most important to me in my RPGs - the vast roleplaying potential. Some games are "roleplaying" games in that you build up a character's skills and customize their fighting style. Others are "roleplaying" games in that you craft a character's personality and control their decisions in ways that (hopefully!) shape the narrative. Some are both - BG3 is both. The battle tactics of gaming has never interested me much, so I will leave that discussion to many reviewers more equipped to have it than I. What I can say is that BG3 gives you incredible potential to create your character--their backstory, their personality, their choices.

I've played three games of BG3, start to finish, and my three player characters (hereinafter referred to as "Tav," the default name for the PC) could not have been more different. And not just in my head, in the way I imagined them when I created and played them, but in the ways they were able to move through the world of BG3 and the choices they made.

BG3 eschews the clean and convenient dialogue wheel in favor of a long list of unvoiced dialogue options reminiscent of Dragon Age Origins (or DOS2, which uses the same style). This gave Larian the freedom to give the player far more response options than are available to a fully-voiced protagonist. Tav can be kind, curious, guarded, funny, caustic, and/or downright cruel. The long, branching conversations available with even minor NPCs gives the player ample opportunity to discover and display what kind of person Tav is to them.

Growing out of this same attitude are the many choices Tav can make throughout the game. I complained in my DATV review that it felt like the PC never made any real choices—they were all surface-level decisions that never once put the player in a real bind or had any notable consequences for the world. BG3 excels perhaps more than anywhere else in allowing the player to shape the world. The decision tree shaping the final two choices of the game itself spans at least half a dozen different outcomes (some with more significant differences than others—in my first playthrough, Tav became a mind flayer by the end!)

This freedom is perhaps most on display in the way your companion quests can play out. In some cases, I was reminded of Dragon Age II, where you at times had the choice to indulge your companion's worst instincts, the ones they really wanted to exercise, or to push them forcefully in a healthier direction. For instance, Shadowheart dreams of becoming a Dark Justiciar, a militant devotee of the goddess of darkness, Shar, almost universally reviled by the rest of Faerun for her petty cruelty. As this path demands more and more sacrifice from Shadowheart, you can either encourage her and bolster her resolve to follow her goddess' will—or you can ask her if Shar is really worth it, and push her to buck these divine demands. The outcomes for Shadowheart put her in a very different place, with even more, smaller differences in just how you pursue either route. Given, this is still a game trying to appeal to its audience, so few of your companions will openly regret the path you nudged them towards, although the hints may be there if things haven't turned out like they imagined.

I can also say at this point, having played through the character origin "The Dark Urge," that this was a fantastic addition to the game. While I enjoy making my own little guy as much as anyone, "Durge" is a great option to shake things up and it really made me see various facets of the game in a new way, given this unique context. Durge is not going to be to everyone's taste—it demands even more violence than you usually get from BG3—but I was fascinated watching this story play out (with plenty of room left for my own decisions, including ultimately rejecting my ordained destiny).

The last thing I'll mention is how the freedom of storytelling and choice in BG3 mean that you aren't forced onto a particular moral path. Your companions alone present you with a dizzying variety of moral codes, from Wyll who has devoted his life to defending the common people, to Minthara raised on the brutal drow code of conduct which prizes personal gain above all.

You can play Tav as dark or as light or as in-between as you want. You can lie to avoid fights, you can lie to start fights, you can make jokes about the harm you've caused, you can devote Tav to overthrowing oppressive powers, you can go out of your way to help people, you can remain laser-focused on your goal of curing yourself with no time to spare for other people's problems.

Your companions will react to these things—for instance, cheesing aside, Wyll and Minthara are mutually-exclusive companions, because the route you must take to recruit Minthara is so objectionable to Wyll that he'll simply leave the party. In general, they do not seek to spare the player's feelings—your companions can be angry, disappointed, betrayed, and more with Tav, as much as they can feel supported and loved. And it makes sense--it makes sense that Lae'zel is angry when she feels you're wasting time from finding the githyanki creche, where she believes there is a surefire cure to your problem. It makes sense that Shadowheart lashes out defensively if you question her devotion to Shar (even when she herself may be questioning it!) It makes sense that Gale is disgusted by the person he's become alongside Tav if you choose to raid the Emerald Grove rather than protect its residents. The characters as Larian has established them would have these reactions, and it wouldn't be reasonable if they continued to cheerlead Tav in the face of blatant violations of their moral codes and worldviews.

All of these things combine to make for a beautifully rich, layered game world which is just a joy to explore, one which I'm eager to return to yet again. Turn-based combat and isometric views are still not my favorite way to experience a game—but on the whole the story has been such a fun experience that I'm willing to brave a more complicated, more time-consuming fighting method. I may even seek out another copy of DOS2 to give that one another try, now that I have more understanding of the knack of Larian games. I may even go after the first two Baldur's Gate games!

BG3 is in no way a "hidden gem," but it was a surprise for me how much I've enjoyed it. A sleeper hit in my personal experience, perhaps. Anyway, I can't say more—I have another Tav to design.

Crossposted to

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Since I did one for Minthara - here are the things that I love about Lae'zel's romance:

Her first encounter with Tav is trying to kill them, and then they end up together agkjkgf Forgotten Realms meet-cute.
She does NOT pussyfoot around about her interest in Tav. She's into them and not afraid to declare it. Bold move when they have to continue traveling together for days/weeks/months regardless of how Tav reacts.
The way she tells Tav where to kiss her during the sex scene. Yes.
When Shadowheart asks if Lae'zel didn't consider it "beneath her" to share a night with Tav, Lae'zel responds "They were beneath me, at times. But also above me. And standing, at certain points."
The fight. That she gets so worked up about having a crush on Tav and can't think of any way to deal with those feelings but fighting. "Get out of my school" energy. Nevertheless, whether Tav wins or loses, Lae'zel declares she doesn't really want to hurt them--she wants to protect them, and wants them to protect her.
How she has to brace herself to ask for softness and affection from Tav, after potentially scoffing at Tav's earlier request for cuddling. It's scarier for her to ask for a gentle touch from Tav than it was to proposition them.
Her FACE when Tav asks to kiss her publicly for the first time adjngkj She talks SUCH big game when they're in private but the moment Tav wants to publicly show affection for her she's O.O
Waking Tav up to watch the sunset with her!! Lae'zel is someone who rarely does things purely for the pleasure of it and at the beginning of the game, I'm sure she would have considered this a waste of time. But now she finds pleasure in it, and she wants to share it with Tav. "This couldn't wait" she says!
Her entire speech during the sunset scene is so incredibly touching. Her whole life has been about war--she'll boast about having killed classmates growing up because they weakened the githyanki as a whole--but now she sees another path, and she wants to share it with Tav.
"You showed me freedom." I will not quote the entire thing but this is so core to Lae'zel's feelings about Tav and her new friends and Faerun--this is the first time she's been shown another viable way of life besides the one she was raised in, and she likes it--even though she's good at the githyanki way of life.
The moment where she acknowledges her flaws, but also insists on her virtues. Lae'zel knows she is hard to get along with for Faerunians--but she also knows she has value.
How she struggles to define exactly how she feels about Tav ("There's more, but I don't know how to say it. I don't know what to call it.") She doesn't have the words, but she recognizes the feelings--she knows she feels something special for Tav.
Related to the above - her banter with Gale where she admits she'd never heard any other githyanki talk about being in love. She literally has no cultural script for what's happening, but she cares enough for Tav to push through these scary unknowns.
The forehead kiss!
How "source of my bruises" becomes "source of my joy" TT_TT
If she's turned against Vlaakith, she and Tav can leave to join the githyanki revolution together. Either a gith!Tav and Lae'zel, having saved a foreign world, now set off to save their own, or Lae'zel, having saved her lover's world, now brings her lover with her to save her own people.
Related to the above - her helping Tav onto the red dragon with her at the end! Lae'zel has dreamed of riding a red dragon her whole life, and the first time she does is with Tav.
If the egg from Creche Y'llek is taken, Lae'zel and Tav can raise it together. Lae'zel names it "Xan" for "freedom."
Gith!Tav and Lae'zel returning for the reunion as leaders among their people and of Orpheus' rebellion.

Things that make me insane about Minthara's romance(s):

"I wanted this, for myself." Even in the midst of her total brain fog by the Absolute, she knows she wants to be close to Tav. Even when she's been manipulated not to merely serve, but to serve in ecstasy, she wants to be near Tav and that is the one thing she chooses to pursue for her own ends--which are purely pleasure and comfort.
This could have easily been a victory bang one night stand, which might have tracked with her being the "evil" companion, but it clearly meant more to her from the very beginning. She stays with Tav after the sex, she snuggles, and she willingly bears her heart to Tav about her fears and anxieties regarding the Absolute and her place on the surface.
If Tav pries into her thoughts while she's sleeping, they see "the scars of a life spent anticipating betrayal." Life in Menzoberranzan trained her to expect a knife in the back constantly, and she remains paranoid about this even on the surface. But even so, she takes this moment with Tav, seeking to overcome her own fears about intimacy.
The skill check you have to pass to convince her not to kill Tav? 2. She is looking for a reason to not have to kill Tav, even if Tav spoke complete heresy to her. She wants to let Tav live, she wants to see them again at Moonrise.
Obviously, the big sad puppy eyes when she turns to see Tav during her castigation in Moonrise. Worst moment of her life and who steps through the door? The one person she has wanted to be close to maybe since she left the Underdark.
The way the two gnomes torturing her call out her "longing for acceptance and affection from a mortal," which confirms that her night with Tav always meant more to her than just a hook-up. She wanted more than just physical intimacy--she wanted something emotional. And that is what is being highlighted in her torment as one of her worst failures--that she, essentially, wants to be loved.
Related to the above - after Orin is killed, Minthara sort of laments that if not for Tav's strange act of mercy in saving her from Ketheric and Z'rell, she would have been just one more casualty in Tav's quest to destroy the Absolute, and "nobody would remember me."
"You came. I prayed that you would." I am howling at the moon. Minthara, the paladin, prays for Tav. For Tav to come rescue her. Minthara, who spurned Lolth, who has realized the Absolute was a lie, prays for Tav to come and save her.
The interplay between Minthara and a Dark Urge's respective relationships with Orin--how Orin's brainwashing and torment was what set Minthara on her quest for revenge against the Absolute, and how Durge was perhaps the very first of the cult's victims and all the amnesia they've struggled with throughout the game the result of Orin's torture.
Related to the above - if Minthara is the one kidnapped by Orin in Act III, that once again Orin has taken Minthara captive and once again Tav will free her.
The way Minthara tries to pry into Tav's mind again in Act III, only to quickly withdraw and apologize for not asking first. Minthara! Apologizing! That instead of letting it go, she still asks if she can be allowed to look into Tav's mind, because she is so desperate to see how Tav sees her. If Tav says they'd rather just use words to tell her, Minthara insists that the parasite connection is more true and accurate, and she wants to see that.
That she is hoping Tav sees her like a lover, and is openly disappointed if that's not the case. (Tie back to point 5.)
The way she begs to see herself through Tav's eyes, because "without Lolth, without the Absolute, without my home, I do not know myself." Her sense of self is so tenuous that she turns to someone else to help her understand herself--and that person is Tav, possibly the only person in the world she trusts.
The adoring look she gives Tav after some of their kisses, followed by the throaty "thank you." Thank you! She thanks Tav for their gestures of affection! (Tie back to point 5.)
That she is quietly poisoning Tav to build up their resistance in case they ever go to her homeland.
"I have never needed anyone, but I want you."
The way she is so all-in once her romance is locked in. Tav can become the Slayer, become Bhaal's chosen, become a mind flayer, choose to enslave the brain, choose to destroy the brain, go to Avernus--no matter what they do, Minthara is with them. They are her Person.
Related to the above - if Tav does become a mind flayer and tries to leave her on the grounds that they're a monster, she says "So am I, my love. Let us be monsters together." She "mourns" the loss of the parasite, because she yearns to share minds with Tav in their new state.
If a mind flayer Tav tells her they need to figure out who they are alone, without her, she pleads for just one day to change their mind.
If romanced by a Karlach origin who chooses to die rather than return to Avernus, Minthara is in tears as she promises to stay with Karlach until the end.
If Tav proposes they return to Menzoberranzan and conquer it after defeating the Netherbrain, Minthara casts off Baenre and declares "their" new house will be named after Tav.
During the epilogue, she seems rather keen to leave, and no matter what dialogue option is chosen, she admits to a romanced Tav what bothers her: she's afraid no one there likes her.

Hesitant to post this on tumblr because I don't want to kick off Discourse but "friendship ended with Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate 3 is my new best friend" is so the mood. BG3 has just been so much more FUN that Veilguard, and I say that as someone who was deeply invested in DA for years. Maybe part of that is just that I don't know enough about BG to know if this latest game has fucked its lore and screwed over returning characters (I know at least one person very unhappy with Viconia Devir's cameo) but I do think it's more than that. BG3 lets you roleplay in a way that Veilguard never does. All of the things you control about Rook in Veilguard--species, appearance, class, background--are essentially superficial. There are some unique dialogue options, but at the end of the day, you're playing Bioware's character Rook, who really cannot deviate from their canon attitude and personality. My first Tav, a tiefling monk who was kind-hearted but ultimately non-interventionist about a lot of things, could not be more different from my other two--a githyanki fighter who preferred to talk her way out of fights, and a dragonborn barbarian Durge who doesn't seek cruelty but nevertheless has left a trail of blood behind her. And all of these are things expressed in game separate and apart from any headcanons I have about them.

Your companions REACT to things! My first Tav had a pretty supportive friendship with Gale; my second barely knew his name; Durge was actually close to him before the Grove slaughter, after which he really wanted nothing to do with her. My first Tav and Wyll almost got together; in the current playthrough, he left the party entirely. Your companions in BG3 have views and beliefs of their own that seriously impact how they view Tav's actions and behavior and that makes the game so much more interesting!

There are things to explore! I let Shadowheart kill Aylin my first run, so meeting her in the second run was a surprise and a delight--and impacted several more quests than just Shadowheart's! I played Veilguard twice, and it really is one and done. If you've played it once, you've seen what it has to offer. Your choices are superficial, your companions are with you no matter what, and for Rook, all endings but one (the one where they themselves go into the Fade) pretty much have the same impact. Despite the amazing graphics and killer character creator and smooth combat, the game is ultimately boring, because it's a roleplaying game that doesn't let you roleplay.

Let's be real Kagha is not materially worse than at least half of the companions. "She threatened a child" Lae'zel and Shadowheart both explicitly approve of not intervening on Arabella's behalf; Lae'zel and Astarion both approve of siding with the goblins which involves slaughtering every child in the Grove; Astarion will kill a dozen or more Gur children to ascend unless Tav convinces him not to; Gale is trying to become a god almost expressly to get back at his ex-lover; Shadowheart kills an aasimar in chains unless Tav convinces her not to and may also kill her own parents in pursuit of Shar's will; Minthara encourages Tav both to embrace their heritage as Bhaal's chosen and to assume control of the Elder Brain...let's not start throwing stones from glass houses

I went into her tumblr tag and should have been expecting the vitriol in there (* ￣︿￣) I get it, she's not likeable, but to act like she's uniquely awful in the game is kind of laughable, even when you're comparing her only to Tav's friends/companions.

In other news, this fanfic has turned me onto the idea of Kagha/Minthara and now I can't let it go.

"But it wasn't enough for you. You were distracted by your own desires: bloodlust, murder, chaos, and most damning of all, an unexpected weakness, and longing for acceptance and affection from a mortal."

I can't post the gifset from tumblr because the images are too large, but I am going insane over this dialogue from Minthara's torturers at Moonrise Towers if you romance her in Act I. First of all, knowing how Minthara prizes the sanctity of her mind, this kind of mental torment and digging through her most private thoughts to torment her with them must rank among her worst-case scenarios. Second, that it's not her violence that's being used to most condemn her, but her desire for affection, her yearning to belong. That is what's being called out as her greatest failure--and that probably tracks perfectly with what she was taught in Menzoberranzan. That when she finally tries to reach out anyway, in spite of knowing this would be considered weakness among both the drow and the Absolutists ("I wanted this, for myself" she says to you after your night together), it's used to punish her. It's no wonder you can't just pick your romance up with her where it left off when she's just been so brutally reminded that love or even a semblance of it is a weakness that can and will be used to hurt her.

There's also the fact that if you kill her in Act I and then speak with her corpse, you can ask her what her "ambitions" were before she died, and she tells you "To find a home." Minthara is LONELY and I will stand by that.

Rambling about my newest Tav (Durge flavor)

Haranatavna's a berserker subclass of barbarian, so rage is part of it all, but hers is a very cold kind of rage. She's not the kind of person you can work up into a temper to get her to make mistakes. She gave her eye up to Aunt Ethel trying to solve the parasite problem, but her decision to kill Ethel--although strongly motivated by anger that she had paid a price and gotten nothing for it--was by all outward appearances made very calmly.

Part of that is her indifference to killing. It's a coin toss for her on whether or not to kill any given person, so while it doesn't take much to talk her into it, it also doesn't take much to talk her out of it. For her, it's an option like any other, not one that requires a given amount of anger for her to exercise.

( Read more... )

Dark Urge run here we gooooo

This is Haranatavna ("Tav") and much of her backstory is on hold until I've played more and understand more about Durge's background. I've only just made it to the Emerald Grove but I'm already enjoying this origin.

She's a barbarian class but on the whole pretty chill. She's willing to help people as long as it doesn't conflict with or endanger her core goal: never to be under the control of anyone else. She's very curious and loves to learn, and is pleased to engage in philosophical discussions about death with Withers. She can be a pretty solid traveling companion. Unfortunately, she also spends large portions of her time in a dissociative state trying to convince herself that it does actually matter if she hurts other people. She's not always successful.

She will be romancing Minthara, for which I will recruit Minthara the "right" way so...sorry tiefling refugees and druids. But the Grove slaughter will be a turning point for Tav to become a true resist!Durge and she and Minthara can work on being better people who overcome their worst instincts together <3

Go and live in angsty rock and roll

This hasn't made it on here yet but I've recruited Minthara for the first time this playthrough and I'm in LOVE she's horrible and I'm in LOVE her puppy dog eyes and desire for bloody vengeance are extremely compelling. She wants to know about githyanki poetry 😍

I said this in the tags of a tumblr post but I'll share it here too: One of the things that took me by surprise with Minthara's character is how openly she talks about her fear. When she talks about being taken captive by Orin, she doesn't try to make it sound like nbd and doesn't even omit how Orin laughed at her apparent fear. It's not something I would have expected from her initially and it's very intriguing.

Turning Minthara down after she was "disappointed" to realize Tav only thought of her as a friend is hands down the hardest thing I've had to do in this game ;A;

But also - the vulnerability!! "Without Lolth, without the Absolute, without my home, I do not know who I am" "show me who I am through your eyes, let me see myself" !!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW CAN I BE NORMAL ABOUT HER

I'm just losing my mind about Minthara practically begging to share minds with Tav so she can see herself through someone else's eyes because her sense of self is so tenuous and poorly-understood by her that she needs someone else's view of her to try to understand herself. If Tav says she'd rather just say what she thinks of Minthara aloud, Minthara (gently) pushes back, insisting that the only way for her to get the real truth is to see it in Tav's mind. This woman is so lost and desperate to understand herself, but even now with someone she trusts enough to admit this to, she cannot bring herself to trust Tav's word on the matter.

This woman will say things that make Lae'zel look like a bleeding heart empath and then look at you like this

In a grim finale to yesterday evening, Tav helped Astarion complete the ascendance ritual only to hear his unhinged monologue afterwards and then side with the Gur to off him.

Really fascinating to see the cycles at play here: knowing how Cazador abused and tortured Astarion, hearing the memories of how Vellioth abused and tortured Cazador...seeing the horror that Cazador wrought on his spawn, seeing Astarion bend Cazador over and carve the ritual symbols into his back (and they do not skimp on that scene, it goes on a while with Cazador screaming as Astarion does to him what he did to Astarion - I wonder if Cazador's screams sound sweet to Astarion?) I can only assume how this moment with Astarion throws Cazador back to being helpless at Vellioth's hands, and it's easy to imagine even at his age how his pursuit of power felt like a pursuit of control over his own life, of freedom from fear...so to hear Astarion claim as soon as the ritual is over that he'll never have to fear anyone again...boy the cycles do cycle.

Interestingly, Lae'zel opposes this course enough to interrupt the cut scene pleading with Astarion not to do it, and after she seems genuinely sad that he succumbed to desire for personal power (which she contrasts with power for the collective). Minthara, predictably, supports Astsrion's ascension, although she has nothing to say afterwards. After killing him with the Gur, she's frustrated we offed a powerful ally. Lae'zel continues to be disappointed, but seems to believe we had to do it. From a monster-hunter perspective, we aced the day by ending with zero vampires.

I heard murmurs online that ascendant Astarion is just as bad if not worse than Cazador and even the brief glimpse I got of him does resonate with that. Makes me wonder who Cazador was before Vellioth got to him. Someday I'll do a Durge playthrough and let Astarion live out his ascendant vampire dreams.

Astarion was inspired by our betrayal.

Encouraging Shadowheart to defy Shar as a githyanki Tav who defied Vlaakith feels particularly powerful. Shadowheart insists this is her duty, her life's purpose to follow Shar's orders, and Tavarezzyn is like "Like it was my purpose, Lae'zel's purpose, to follow Vlaakith?"

Initially when I started this run I expected Tavarezzyn to support or at least not oppose Shadowheart's goal of becoming a justiciar, just because Tav was so focused on her own goal she wasn't overly concerned with everyone else's, and because morally she's less opposed to the idea of killing than other companions and Tavs, but her experience with her own god-queen radically altered her views on Shadowheart being effectively bound to Shar's will without the chance to really consider what that means. She sees in Shadowheart herself and Lae'zel, giving their loyalty, even their lives, to a ruler who could not care less about them except as they serve her purpose, and she can't support putting Shadowheart in that position.

Tavarezzyn begins Act II with more stable footing in Faerun, in no small part because she's now spent several weeks traveling with locals. Furthermore, as Lae'zel initially derisively points out, she's starting to get into playing the hero. Their successful defeat of the goblins and rescue of the tiefling refugees netted them a fair deal of praise, and this is the first time for Tav that people have ever been glad to see her, as opposed to groaning and cursing and asking if she can be reassigned somewhere else. It's never before been the case that people looked to her for anything or trusted her to solve a problem and if she's honest yes, she is getting into it, enough that she's willing to cooperate with Jaheira and the Harpers even if it doesn't totally serve her own goal of destroying her parasite.

However, it's also a little terrifying to have people whose opinions of her are not baseline in the dirt, because they can actually be let down.

Tavarezzyn's personal journey starts with running away from her platoon. This began as an incredibly half-hearted attempt at suicide, which was over without any real effort when she realized she didn't want to die, just to not be constantly surrounded by people who thought she was worthless. So she high-tails it to Faerun, essentially at random.

She spends a few weeks in Baldur's Gate utterly wracked with guilt, eventually deciding she must return, and it's on this trip to rejoin the other githyanki that she's picked up by the nautiloid. Nevertheless, those few weeks in Faerun is the first time she's ever really experienced foreign cultures. Certainly she offended a couple hundred people in her brief time there, but she was also exposed to ideas and perspectives shed never considered before, and those things are percolating in her mind even before the nautiloid.

This makes her more prone to shifting values throughout the journey of the game and gives her a primer to be a little more tolerant when it comes to picking up her various non-gith companions.

Lae'el is a bitch and a half to Tavarezzyn once she realizes how low on the feeding chain Tav really is among the githyanki (which doesn't take long; the scars her crechemates left her were supposed to show she's a loser who can't hold her own in a fight). Some of the other companions--Wyll, Gale, Karlach--take some issue with this. Unfortunately, faced with the double humiliation of being rejected by her own kind and being pitied (as she sees it) by outsiders, her response is generally "FUCK OFF ISTIK" or perhaps challenging them to a fight, thanks to a heady cocktail of continual rejection by her own society and a lifetime of bullying combined with feverish commitment to the same values and norms over which she was rejected.

loading up a cargo ship for her issues, bad enough to be disdained by the only other gith around, but being comforted by ISTIK?, intolerable, her brief sojourn into Baldur's Gate began to shift her views, but in Act 1 she still has a ways to go

Behold: Tav, short for Tavarezzyn, a pathetic excuse for a githyanki.

Tav is, by githyanki standards, a coward and a dogshit warrior. She managed to survive multiple attempts by crechemates to put her down mainly through a combination of dumb luck and pitying intervention by adults, but she has (not pictured here) about a half a dozen notches in her ears to prove her lost fights and make sure other githyanki know what a loser she is on sight.

Unfortunately this had the impact of making her a perpetual defeatist, convinced at the start of any task that she's definitely going to fuck it up, which inevitably becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, further convincing her of her own uselessness.

Despite utterly failing to achieve any measure of success by githyanki standards, she continues to zealously laud those same values, worshipping Vlaakith and dreaming of ascension, something laughably beyond the realm of possibility for her. However, early in the adventure after escaping the nautiloid, she does consider that actually, removing herself from githyanki society might be best for everyone. (And in fact, she was caught by the nautiloid in the throes of regret over deserting her platoon, trying to make her way back to them.)

Lae'zel begins their acquaintance from a point of total contempt. She is aware very quickly that Tav is a black sheep among their people and has no respect for her. But Tav's quick and surprisingly successful flash of leadership on the nautiloid, allowing both her and Lae'zel to survive, gives her a desperately needed confidence boost, and as the weeks on the road progress, she discovers she is actually, good at maybe a couple of things, or at least she can improve at some things. Maybe.

For her part, Tav is smitten with Lae'zel immediately, but of course aware of Lae'zel's disdain for her (which does nothing to temper her growing loyalty to and affection for Lae'zel) and assumes there is no chance that will ever happen.

Much to Lae'zel's annoyance, she finds her attitude towards Tav shifting as they travel together, until she's surprised to find she cares about this loser. Together, they weather the shock and anger of Vlaakith's betrayal of the githyanki people and vow to carve their own path and take their queen out of power, the keystone cementing their now inseparable bond.

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Recent Playing: Baldur's Gate 3
Blorboposting again
Blorboposting again
Looking for R in my RPG
Drop the rock
Weakness
Haranatavna
A New Tav Has Entered the Scene
(no subject)
A New Blorbo Debuts
Tavarezzyn
Tavarezzyn
Tavarezzyn
Tavarezzyn
Tavarezzyn
A New Tav Has Entered the Scene

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Entries tagged with baldur's gate

Recent Playing: Baldur's Gate 3

Blorboposting again

Blorboposting again

Looking for R in my RPG

Drop the rock

Weakness

Haranatavna

A New Tav Has Entered the Scene

(no subject)

A New Blorbo Debuts

Tavarezzyn

Tavarezzyn

Tavarezzyn

Tavarezzyn

Tavarezzyn

A New Tav Has Entered the Scene

Profile

July 2025

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