The Dungeons & Dragons brand has been making a big comeback in recent years. D&D, one of the first names that comes to mind when “Fantastic Role Playing Game (FRP)” is mentioned, is experiencing a significant renaissance, first with a feature film and then with a new AAA game. Meanwhile, he carries the powerful stories he created in the past to the present. One of them is, of course, the Baldur’s Gate brand.
Let’s start with what is called Baldur’s Gate.
The map you see above is a map of the fantasy planet Faerun. On this map, there is a settlement called Baldur’s Gate in the place marked with a red circle. So we’re talking about a settlement here, not a door. Since the theme is the Middle Ages, there is a settlement in the form of a city, a castle or two, and three or five villages around it. One of these settlements, Candlekeep, acts as a kind of academic settlement. Our story seems to start there too, but it just seems.
Do you know who I am?
I don’t even know… The most clichéd, simplest character history story of the fantastic universes “My parents died when I was a child, there is no brother or grandfather yet, they trained me, hop I came as a level 1 character.” is in the form. Baldur’s Gate starts out similarly, but at least this time we have a sister. We’re staying with a sorcerer in Candlekeep with our sister. Let’s just say he’s a wizard, he has a name, Gorion. First we survive the raid on Candlekeep, then we hit the roads ourselves. Gorion sacrifices himself to save us from an enemy in black armor, we are left alone with our sister in this life. Our goal is to both save ourselves and find out what happened to Gorion.
This is exactly where things start to get messy. Because it is a story that we will be involved in, which started long before we embarked on our adventure. We actually get involved 20 years later on a journey that started with Time of Troubles, which is among the stories of Forgotten Realms (Forgotten Realms).
Time of Troubles? What is that?
Now this is god, goddess, demigod in what we call Forgottten Realms, there are several hundred of them in total. Their work power is “Oh, let me be stronger, I will rule even more.” stuff like that. That’s why they are trying to steal the tablets called Destiny Tablets in the hands of the god Ao. Ao, on the other hand, is not a god like Zeus or something, but rather resembles a god figure in heavenly religions and applies divine justice. He takes away the powers of all the gods except the watchman god named Helm, who waits at the gates of heaven, and forces them to wander in human form in Faerün. In the process, magic perverts, goddesses and gods become mortal, some of whom die.
And one of those who will die is Bhaal, whose fate was prophesied to him. Since he himself is too distant to die as the god of murder, he has a plan in mind. She plans to have as many children as she can before she dies and come back to life when her children grow up. Would you believe we were one of those children, and it was our half-brother named Sarevok who raided Candlekeep and killed Gorion while he was trying to kill us. We have to kill him regardless of our choices in the game, and the first game ends at this point.
Baldur’s Gate 2: Leading Our Enemies to the Gates of Hell
We start this game in a prison. We learn that after the first game, a wizard named Jon Irenicus has imprisoned us, but our sister Imoen comes and saves us. We’re just going out and dealing with all kinds of creatures, and what shall we see? The magical guardians of the city (they’re called the Cowled Wizards) have captured both our sister and Irenicus and will send them to a prison called Spellhold. We are also looking for ways to save our brother in this city called Athkatla. In summary, we go to Spellhold after a series of adventures in which we collect a lot of gold because it requires a lot of bribes.
When we reach Spellhold, we see that control has passed to Irenicus. He’s magically stealing the souls of both we and Imoen, who we later learn also have Bhaal’s blood. He also gives Imoen’s soul to a vampire named Bodhi, who is also Irenicus’ sister. Thanks to our ability to transform into a monster form called the Slayer and possibly the iconic character named Drizzt Do’Urden, we’re beating Bodhi with a car.
Of course, in no fantasy universe an enemy is completely wiped out in one go, so we’re chasing Irenicus all the way to the elven city of Suldanessellar. His purpose is to draw strength from the Tree of Life and to overcome us. It isn’t happening. Finally, our adventure goes all the way to Hell. That’s where the spirit of ready Irenicus will go, we do takeout and come back to him.
Am I Not Now Death, Destroyer of Worlds?
With the next additional package, we see that our story is slowly coming to an end. The number of Bhaalspawns is directly proportional to their strength, as the Bhaalspawns die on the right and left, the strength of the remaining ones increases. The 5 strongest Bhaalspawns are, of course, us and four more unfortunate half-brothers. One of these brothers is a dragon and the other is a fire giant, by the way, our father has never been idle.
Even though an older sister named Melissan tries to prevent the Bhaalspawn brothers from falling for each other, we eliminate our half-brothers one by one in the game. Finally, we learn that Melissan is actually Amelyssan, our father’s former abbess. She seeks to eliminate us and become the new Goddess of Death. It’s not like that, we beat him. Then we go to our father’s throne. Either we become the new god of murder, or a kind-hearted god, or we smash the throne and live as mortals. Thus, the stories of Baldur’s Gate games that have been released so far are completed.
Meanwhile, as the D&D stories progress, this game will take place about 100 years after the old games and probably won’t be very connected to the previous story. On the other hand, in D&D stories, an answer is given to the choice at the end of Baldur’s Gate games: Bhaalspawn named Abdel Adrian is breaking the throne. When he dies, Bhaal resurrects as the essence hidden in him is released, and he reconstructs the throne.
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