I agree with the community consensus that Gale is an ENxP sx/so 7w6. I also lean towards the idea that he’s an ENFP, though to be honest, I’m not very well-versed in MBTI. Both ENFPs and ENTPs are predominantly 7s; I’ve also heard that the ENFP and E3 combination is quite contradictory, and the ENTP and E3 is also questionable. To me, Gale doesn't look like a heart triad type at all; rather, he seems to have 3 in his tritype. I understand where the idea that he is an so/sx 3w4 comes from, but the primary motivation behind Gale's actions does not align with the types of the heart triad. He seeks primarily to gain new experiences and avoid emotional pain, rather than to gain the approval of others by adapting to their every expectation. He primarily seeks new experiences and the avoidance of emotional pain, rather than seeking recognition from others by adapting to their expectations (3s) or displaying care and generosity to earn their love (2s). His unconscious passion is gluttony, not vanity or pride: Gale is genuinely obsessed with magic, and his primary motive for gaining access to more advanced magic was curiosity and a desire for new experiences. He is guided more by his own sincere desires than by chameleon-like pursuit of social prestige, although the latter plays a part as well. Sevens are also often confused with Fours: both types belong to the frustration (or idealist) group and keenly feel that "something is missing in life" and are prone to fantasizing. As for the subtypes of 7s, the sexual subtype idealizes reality, living in a world of fantasy, whereas the social subtype suppresses selfish desires in favor of self-sacrifice and the benefit of society. The sexual subtype is a dreamer and an idealist. It manifests gluttony through a yearning for lofty ideals, passion, and a thirst for extraordinary, fairytale-like experiences. It focuses on magnetism, intensity of feeling, and the pursuit of adventure. These individuals tend to idealize reality and their partners, avoiding any confrontation with the mundane nature of real life. They live to pursue what fascinates them, and fascination is a blend of mental and sexual energy. The social subtype is an altruist (acting as the counter-type). This means they consciously suppress their craving for pleasure, channeling their energy instead into serving a cause, helping others, or protecting the environment. It feels guilty about hidden selfish desires, so places duty and society above personal comfort, tries to become "pure" and good.
The official alignments of the playable characters (companions and the Dark Urge) of Baldur's Gate 3 (taken from the Dungeons & Dragons strategy video game Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms)
Characters are arranged according to their alignment at the start of the game, and arrows indicate subsequent alignments based on the player's decisions (also taken from Idle Champions, where it is possible to change the alignment of some characters using so-called feats and specializations). Don't pay attention to whether the images of characters with the same alignment are on the left or right, this does not indicate a greater tendency towards law or chaos.
Wyll Ravengard: Neutral Good
Halsin: Neutral Good
Minsc: Chaotic Good
Karlach Cliffgate: Chaotic Good
Shadowheart: Lawful Neutral (pre-Nightsong), Lawful Good (as a Selûnite), Lawful Evil (Dark Justiciar)
Jaheira: True Neutral
Gale of Waterdeep: True Neutral, Neutral Good (???)
Lae'zel: Lawful Evil
Astarion Ancunín: Neutral Evil
Minthara Baenre: Neutral Evil
The Dark Urge: Chaotic Evil, Lawful Good (resisting the urge)
Based on his approval and disapproval in Baldur's Gate 3, I'd say the Blade of Frontiers' alignment is close to Lawful Good, but given his pact with Myzora, placing him in Neutral Good seems more appropriate.
I'm not sure whether Jaheira's alignment listed in Idle Champions applies to Baldur's Gate 3 or the previous games. I believe her alignment falls somewhere between True Neutral and Neutral Good, roughly similar to my own, which, according to a quiz involving realistic life situations and specific answer options, is True Neutral, while another quiz with less specific questions and more vague answer options ranks it as Neutral Good, but close to True Neutral. I would also characterize Gale's Act 1 alignment as True Neutral, with a bias toward Neutral Good. In Idle Champions, there's an option to change his alignment to Neutral Good, but without a specific event description. I believe this is human Gale in the epilogue. I also think this was his pre-orb alignment, and the shift to True Neutral occurred due to the presence of the orb. His approval and disapproval make it clear that he wants to be on the good side, but is also willing to tolerate evil if it helps him survive. For example, if an evil player destroys the Emerald Grove, Gale gets angry and plans to leave like Karlach and Wyll, but he can be persuaded to stay by appealing to his condition. He also fawningly comments on evil actions, such as, "Oh, well, I don't approve of your actions, but it could have been worse, so be it." Jaheira also has that "at least something, it could have been worse" vibe. God Gale, in my opinion, remains True Neutral, but even more neutral and indifferent, no longer striving to be on the side of good.
Continuing to uncover the secrets of the Snares penguin, the most "forgotten" penguin species. This time, the history of its taxonomy. The Snares penguin has a very confusing taxonomic history. A melanistic penguin from the Snares Islands was originally collected in 1874 by the New Zealand scientist Frederick Hutton. It was named Eudyptes atrata (later changed to atratus as Eudyptes is masculine in gender), that is, black penguin (ātrāta/ātrātus is Latin for darkened, from āter, which means black). On account of the loss of the type specimen in a shipwreck, the identity of the bird has always been uncertain. However, some new information has come to light since Buller's plate was published (1888), first through the collection of specimens of the ordinary Snares penguin and secondly the photographing of another black penguin identified by the ornithologist Sir Robert Alexander Falla as the erect-crested penguin (Eudyptes sclateri). In The crested penguins of New Zealand, Emu 53: 185–187 (1953), the New Zealand naturalist Walter Oliver was able to successfully propose that a few slight anatomical differences did exist between the Snares penguin and the early description and illustration, leading the Snares penguin to be called robustus instead of atratus. The type specimen was collected in 1892 from the Snares.
Hutton's type was figured by Sir Walter Lawry Buller in the second edition of his Birds of New Zealand in a coloured plate by Keulemans. The type specimen was afterwards lost in the wreck of the Assaye. The bird was black, evidently much blacker than was represented in the coloured plate. The crest, which was not subject to the melanistic change, is precisely that of erect-crested penguins. The place of origin between the nasal-groove and gape is correct, and the erect tendency of the yellow feathers is charaсteristic of the erect-crested and of no other species. There are, however, faults in the picture. No crested penguin has a bill the shape that Keulemans has drawn it, and the flipper is too short. The character of the crest, however, should be considered as settling the identity of this black penguin. In addition, in the original description, Hutton says "culminicorn not tapering posteriorly" which is a diagnostic characteristic of erect-crested penguins. As if to confirm this classification, Falla records the occurrence of a of a black erect-crested on Kilda beach, Dunedin, in 1934. In 1888, W.L. Buller classified the true Snares penguin with the Fiordland penguin (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus) described in 1845 by George Robert Gray, considering them to be conspecific. Catarrhactes pachyrhynchus is another name that Buller used for the species in his 1905 work (Supplement to the 'Birds of New Zealand' vol.1: 86, 89.). The English name for these penguins used by Buller that year was Victoria penguin, but he also suggested the name rock-hopper, which in the work was used to refer to the gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua), and the actual eastern rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes filholi; Catarrhactes chrysocome in the work) was called tufted penguin. Both the Snares and Fiordland penguins are known by the name pokotiwha in Māori, with poko (upoko) meaning head and tiwha (titiwha) meaning gleaming, describing their bright yellow crests. The Snares penguin is also known as the Snares crested penguin and the Snares Islands penguin in English and has island-related names in almost all languages.
By J. G. Keulemans, in Buller's A History of the Birds of New Zealand. 2nd edition. Published 1888.
Falla (1935) first distinguished the Snares penguin as being different from the Fiordland penguin and gave what he considered to the subspecies the name Eudyptes pachyrhynchus atratus. The phylogenetic relationship between Snares penguins and Fiordland penguins have been debated. In the 1970s, the Checklist of New Zealand Birds considered Snares penguins, Fiordland penguins and erect-crested penguins as conspecifics. In 1976, Oliver’s name Eudyptes robustus was finally ascribed to this species. The genus name Eudyptes is derived from the Ancient Greek roots εὖ (eu), meaning good and δύπτης (dyptes), meaning diver. In English, the species of the genus are collectively called crested penguins. This genus was introduced by Louis Pierre Vieillot in his work Analyse d'une nouvelle Ornithologie Elémentaire (1816). Catarractes and its variations (Cataractes Scopoli, 1777, Catarrhactes Herman, 1783, Catarhactes Brandt, 1837 and Catarrachtes Allen, 1904) were other names for the genus of crested penguins first used by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760; the genus names derive from the Ancient Greek κᾰταρρᾱ́κτης (katarrhā́ktēs), from κατα- (down) and ῥᾱ́σσω (to strike, dash), a kind of aquatic bird, perhaps a gull or osprey. Other names of the genus were also Penguinus (Brünnich, 1771), Penguin (Illiger, 1811), Chrysocoma (Stephens, 1826), Geopega (Billberg, 1828), Penguina (Wood, 1835) and Microdyptes (Milne-Edwards, 1880). Rōbustus in Latin means hard, firm, solid, robust and refers to the beak of the species.
Subsequent studies that examined relationships using morphology, protein data, and mitochondrial and nuclear DNA have all supported the recognition of three separate species. Nevertheless, one recent review of their taxonomic status still considered Snares and Fiordland penguins as conspecific (Christidis & Boles, 2008). Consultations by Birdlife International in 2014 led to the calculation of the Tobias score (a quantitative, points-based method developed to objectively assess bird species limits, assigning 1-4 points for minor to exceptional differences in biometrics, plumage, vocalizations, behavior, or distribution, with a threshold of 7 points often used to delimit distinct species), which demonstrated that Snares penguins should be considered a separate species from the Fiordland penguin.
There is no doubt that the Snares and Fiordland penguins are sister species, and their lineages probably diverged in the mid-Pleistocene. Relative to other species of crested penguins, the place of these two species on the evolutionary tree is controversial. Below are some possible relationships.
Densitree of 500 random AxML gene trees (based on the maximum likelihood method), summarizing gene discordance. Gene discordance refers to the common phenomenon where the evolutionary histories (gene trees) of individual genes conflict with each other and with the overall species tree, often due to biological processes like incomplete lineage sorting and hybridization/introgression, or errors in data, creating complexity in understanding true species relationships, especially in rapidly diversifying groups. Based on the results, the erect-crested penguin is their closest relative, followed by the extinct Eudyptes warhami, then the rockhopper penguins, and finally the macaroni and royal penguins.
This illustration depicts a time-calibrated cladogram that Ksepka & Clarke (2010) obtained by combining morphological and molecular data. The erect-crested penguin is their closest relative, followed by the macaroni and royal penguins, and finally the the rockhopper penguins.
Phylogenetic tree of extant and extinct penguins. The phylogeny (Gavryushkina et al. 2017) is based on the maximum sampled-ancestor clade credibility tree, which uses 202 morphological data characters across extant and fossil taxa, and five mitochondrial and nuclear markers for extant taxa. Their closest relatives are the rockhopper penguins, followed by the macaroni and royal penguins, and finally the erect-crested penguin.
In Dark and Darker, the druid has the ability to shapeshift into an African penguin, in addition to bear, panther, chicken, and rat. Penguins and other such nonsense in a fantasy world inspired by medieval Europe is odd, but I like it.
Those who are not interested in penguins have most likely never heard of the existence of this species of penguin, which has the most restricted breeding range of all penguin species. The Snares penguin (Eudyptes robustus) is a breeding endemic to the Snares Islands, meaning it only breeds there, although its non-breeding range extends well beyond the islands. The Snares are a group of uninhabited rocky islands with dense forest cover on the two largest islands (North-East and Broughton). Collectively, the Snares have a total land area of 3.4 km2. The Snares are listed with the New Zealand Outlying Islands. This species, in my opinion, also has the most limited contact with humanity, and human activity itself has not yet had any impact on its population size. Based on molecular data of fossil bones, museum skins and contemporary blood samples, the population has probably remained stable over at least the last millennia. It is also one of the least studied penguin species.
Snares penguins were first encountered by humans in Australia. Subfossil Snares penguin remains were found in a Holocene Aboriginal midden (an old dump for domestic waste) at Stockyard Site on Hunter Island, in Bass Strait 5 km off the western end of the north coast of Tasmania. The remains were estimated by radiocarbon dating to be about 760 ± 70 years old in 1983. However, Tasmania, which was connected to the continent by a land bridge, was inhabited at least 40,000 years ago, and encounters with this species most likely occurred earlier. New Zealand has been inhabited by humans since at least the 14th century, and the Māori, indigenous people of New Zealand, were aware of the Snares Islands before their discovery by Europeans. As in Australia, single individuals on the shores of mainland New Zealand were likely hunted by humans, but there is no evidence of hunting directly on the Snares Islands.
The island group was first sighted by Europeans on November 23, 1791. At the Snares, commercial sealing began shortly after their discovery and continued there until the 1810s, when the New Zealand fur seal was commercially extinct. Fortunately, penguins on the Snares Islands have never been commercially hunted. In the past, Snares penguins were killed by taxidermists. It is noteworthy that the first penguin collected on the Snares Islands was a melanistic erect-crested penguin (Eudyptes sclateri) in 1874, not a Snares penguin; the first Snares penguins were collected only in 1888. "Thousands of penguins (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus and E. chrysocomus) were on the rocks, standing like regiments of soldiers. It was amusing to see Captain Fairchild, who delights in such sport, tumbling them into sacks, to be taken on board for museum purposes." — Andreas Reischek, an Austrian taxidermist, naturalist, ornithologist and grave robber, January 23, 1888. Eudyptes pachyrhynchus is the scientific name for the Fiordland penguin, but in this case refers to the Snares penguin, as they were considered conspecific at the time; the name Eudyptes chrysocomus was the name Walter Buller, a New Zealand lawyer and naturalist who was a dominant figure in New Zealand ornithology, gave to the Fiordland penguin in 1873, and it is difficult to say which species was meant in this case. The type specimen, the first specimen bearing the new scientific name, and the one true example of the species, was collected in 1892.
There are no Snares penguins in any zoo in the world. Fifteen short-lived birds brought to Wellington Zoo, New Zealand, in 1909 were probably this species. It is known that Buller kept one Snares penguin in his garden, which he mentions in his 1905 work (Supplement to the 'Birds of New Zealand' vol.1: 86): "One of the birds brought to me by Captain Fairchild from the Snares was saved when the others were converted into specimens. Originally very savage and pugnacious, this bird became quite tame and docile. He would follow the gardener about in the most persistent manner to be fed. After he had settled down to the new condition of things he took up his quarters in the kennel with a young Gordon-setter. During the heat of the day he would take refuge in the kennel, coming abroad in the cool of the evening and during the early morning. He lived on terms of perfect amity with the dog, for whom at times he testified his affection by gently pecking him all over the body with his bill, an attention which the sagacious animal seemed quite to appreciate". Nowadays, the only individuals kept in captivity are wild birds temporarily staying in wildlife rehabilitation centers.
The Snares Islands are part of the New Zealand Subantarctic World Heritage Site and are a nature reserve under the Reserves Act of 1977, with landing only by permit. Any tourists landing on the Snares is strictly prohibited and only cruising in zodiacs along the shoreline or cruising in a large ship along the coast is allowed. While Snares penguins appear to have a greater tolerance to human presence than mainland penguin species, constant exposure to human disturbance may still affect the birds. People in boats may be perceived differently by the penguins than people on land, which makes it difficult to assess to what degree penguins may be affected by cruise boat visitors. Only intensive interactions like daily handling of eggs over extended periods have been found to be a significant cause of stress for the penguins.
Oil spills following shipping disasters would likely have a localized impact near and downstream of the wreckage. Compared to the mainland, marine traffic near the Snares Islands is sparse but as the islands are uninhabited and far removed from oil spill response infrastructure, while an oil spill is unlikely the consequences are dire, particularly so if it occurred during the breeding season when most of the world population is feeding locally. The greatest threat of oil spill, therefore, comes from cruise ships and fishing vessels that visit the islands throughout their summer breeding season. There are active offshore petroleum exploration permits for seas some 150 km to the northeast of the Snares as well as other petroleum exploratory wells within a 200 km radius spanning from southeast to northeast of the Snares Islands. These areas are visited by male penguins during the incubation phase so that any oil leakage could potentially affect the birds. However, with the prevailing eastwards and northwards currents that characterize this section of the ocean, it seems unlikely that oil leaks from these sources would reach the islands.
There are fisheries that target the Snares penguins’ main fish and cephalopod prey species. The commercial fishing zones adjacent to the Snares include a substantial fishery for hoka, redbait and arrow squid, all of which are believed to be important prey items for adult Snares penguins during the breeding season. Hence, there is potential for resource competition, but it is not significant. Snares penguins have not been recorded as bycatch, but there is a potential threat. While the gillnet fishery in New Zealand is largely confined to the continental shelf surrounding the mainland, the Snares penguins’ tendency to forage close to Stewart Island during the chick-rearing period may expose them to gillnets. Moreover, it appears that some gillnetters may have been operating near the Snares Islands. If that were the case, it could be devastating considering most of the population are commuting to and from the island throughout the breeding season.
The population of Snares penguins has apparently been stable throughout the last century despite significant variations in ocean temperatures. However, ocean temperatures around New Zealand mainland, the same water mass that also surrounds the Snares Islands, have been rising steadily in the past 20 years and have contributed to the population declines in yellow-eyed penguins. The impact ocean warming may have on Snares penguins is unknown. The El Niño weather phenomenon appears to negatively affect Fiordland penguins along the open coast of New Zealand: the strong 2015/16 El Niño resulted in extremely poor breeding success. Snares penguins forage in a similar marine environment, however, whether El Niño conditions also affect their breeding performance is unknown.
If you'd like to learn more about the Snares penguin's habitat, predators, and prey, I suggest exploring my interactive map dedicated to this species. Similar map for the king penguin is almost complete (only the section on exploitation by humans remains to be completed), and a map for the emperor penguin is also in progress.
The Snares penguin and two similar species: the Fiordland penguin and the erect-crested penguin↓
