#bg3 musing

[ride-a-dromedary]

Baldur's Gate 3 Epilogue mod where everything is the same, but Wyll shows up with an eyepatch where his now removed sending stone eye was if his pact was broken.

[twisted-in-the-wind]

Too much thought into Raphael's "Real" Plan

I think most people would agree that taking the Crown and just putting it on/hoping for the best sounds like a terrible, risky plan. I believe Raphael when he says that he's not a mortal and can take it but then what? Try to take the Weave from Mystra like Karsus intended to? I'm sure Mystra would have a plan to deal with this because she's not an idiot. It's also too obvious and not really as simple as getting the Crown in any case. To truly use the Crown to seize the Weave and control all magic, he would also need the spell Karsus's avatar which, assuming he found it, wouldn't work because of Mystra's capping of spells at Level 10. However, there might still be a way to give Raphael a boost in power that makes him nigh undefeatable. We encounter Karsus's journal in the game which contains his plans for the Crown. An intelligent man who was around and probably met Karsus, with his journal and the Crown could probably reverse engineer the Spell even if he couldn't get his hands on the original. I think, however, that Raphael knew or knows how to get it but that's just speculation. He says he knows multiple ways to get what he wants from people and I think this applies to most areas of his life. So, let's assume he gets the spell and the Crown, he still can't cast it because of Mystra's cap which she implemented to protect the Weave. However, there is a second, unregulated Weave, the Shadow Weave which is Shar's dark magic repository and what I would say is the Anti-matter version of regular magic. It's as powerful as Mystra's Weave and mostly untapped because of what a twat Shar is. If Raphael can modify or adapt the spell to seize Shar's divinity instead of Mystra's then he would have a lot of power to wield. I theorise as well that he can cast the spell in the Shadow Realm/Shadowfell which uses the Shadow Weave instead of Mystra's magic which would effectively get around the Level 10 restriction. If he can sieze power from Shar (who he's been weakening for many years by proxy) then he can...well, maybe, he'll be able to use it to infect and devour Mystra's Weave; the way Gale's bit of contaminated magic sought to devour it. If this comes to pass, even if he gets a portion of the Weave, he is already as powerful as Mystra. If he gets all the Weave, then he can control who can use magic and who can't, effectively crippling the Devils who rely on it. His father is obsessed with magic and experimentation so this would be a personal insult and blow to him. Effectively, Raphael would be using a magical artifact that Mephistopheles dismissed to seize the source of power for Gods and Devils alike. One hell of a coup d'etat. He could then, maybe, use that power to turn all of Earth into the Shadowlands where people die but their souls remain on Earth being no use to either Gods or Devils. This is very very speculative though since the lore doesn't state it definitively. Of course, this is all a series of assumptions with the expectation that everything goes according to plan. Raphael's arrogance, narcissism and trust issues mean that he will 100 percent overlook things in this process; it's hard to see individual flaws when you've been looking at the whole picture for too long. Anyway, this theory probably has a ton of flaws, if you spot one, it's okay to let me know. It's just for fun after all. https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Karsus%27s_Folly https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Karsus%27s_avatar https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowfell https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Annals_of_Karsus

[ride-a-dromedary]

People who are annoyed or surprised by Halsin's attitude shift in Act 3 still really don't compute with me because we are introduced to Halsin, not even having physically met him yet, through his act of having took in a couple dozen tieflings as refugees even though people in his own order objected to the action and they allegedly didn't even have the supplies to do so (though how true that is is up for debate). How exactly did you think he would feel seeing people starving and sick in the street and denied entry to the city? Happy? Understanding?

[ride-a-dromedary]

You ever think about how Ulder and Wyll Ravengard could have very easily served as the emotional core for a solid portion of Act 3 and actually been an emotional driving point for the downfall of an entire scheme? Everything I did, I did for Baldur's Gate. I did for you. First you cleave my heart in twain. Now you shatter it into pieces. By the gods can you ever forgive me? Oh look! It's daddy's regret. Papa's Prince. No matter of pride for me or my father. Pride of Ravengard. Pride of Baldur's Gate.

[ride-a-dromedary]

I made these for me and like two other people.

[ride-a-dromedary]

The epilogue conversation with the owlbear cub where you suggest he lives with Halsin back in Reithwin cements for me that Halsin did, in fact, either wildshape into an owlbear to teach him things or just roughhoused with him as an elf, because he mentions fighting him and, frankly, the image of Halsin wrestling with an owlbear like it's an overgrown puppy amuses me.

[ride-a-dromedary]

I personally am inclined to believe that if Halsin willingly downplayed his abuse at the hands of the drow by making a joking comment (which he is completely allowed to do as a victim who has had centuries to process what occured), then he also may be downplaying the severity of the forehead/eye scar incident.

[ride-a-dromedary]

I keep getting this very soft vision of Halsin with a toddler on his hip, calf deep in the river watching the fish, and other kiddos with him splashing around and he stops to think how much the land has healed and how much *he* has healed in tandem.