#ketheric

[divorcedwife]

who wants to plays bunnys gate 3 with me

[prinnay]

Come visit lovely Baldur's Gate :)

brought to you by the ads council of the absolute

[mean-girl-astarion]

I might keep making these until someone stops me

[drmace]

Ink of Baldur's Gate Day thirteen - adversary

[doraingrid]

Ketheric Thorm The Undead General Myrkul's Chosen

[zuzanamariana]

In the theatre of dreams, Ketheric killed his wife every night. That wasn't how things happened… but always upon waking, he would glare into the dark, long-faced and solemn, and he would think: 'I keep you alive with my memories, beloved. I kill you with what I've become.'

My piece for @dead3zine done after Roberto Ferri

[electricb00]

the man that you are .......

[trappedinafantasy37]

The partnership of the Chosen Three was always going to end in betrayal and all three of them knew that. The entire concept of the Absolute is an authoritarian's wet dream! It was literally dreamt up by Gortash. Only one of them could ever claim the sole power of the Absolute and Gortash had to be sure it was him. Problem is, Gortash can't fight for shit and he knows it. He had to come up with other means to keep the others from turning on him, or if they did, he'd still have the upper hand.

Given his history with grief and despair, Ketheric is the most easily manipulable. It is no coincidence that he is stationed in the heart of the Shadow Curse he created. He is surrounded by the powers of Shar, keeping him stuck in a permanent stasis, paralyzed by his own grief. Everyone who knows Shar knows she was eventually going to send someone to kill him. No, I don't think Gortash planned on Shadowheart, but I do think he anticipated Shar would get the job done. In the event Ketheric did march on Baldur's Gate, Gortash and the city would see it coming and that is when Gortash would betray Ketheric. He would use the chaos of the moment to make himself the "hero" and seize power in the city.

Durge and the Bhaalists were the closer and more immediately threat, living right in his backyard. They did the dirty work, bloodied their hands so Gortash could proclaim his were clean. They performed targeted assassinations on those who would be politically inconvenient to the Absolute as well as random killings to sow fear in the city. This fear would lead the residents to desire and rely on the "protection" of the Fist, the Banites, and the Steel Watch. There wasn't a clear moment in which Gortash could turn on Durge and Durge would not be easy to kill. Unlike himself and Ketheric, Durge is the actual demigod amongst them. Gortash needed a way to passify Durge. What better way than to lean into a Bhaalspawn's desperate longing for connection and affection?

All that went belly up when Durge went missing / presumed dead and Orin, another demigod, was crowned as Bhaal's next Chosen. Gortash finally met someone who was equally as, if not more, power hungry than he was. Her betrayal of Durge sent a clear message that she would not hesitate to turn on the other two if they became inconvenient to her. Orin is not like Durge nor is she the same vein of desperate. By becoming Chosen, Orin had everything she wanted (at least, it's what she thought). Gortash could not flatter her into passivity. He could not simply convince her to do what he wanted.

Conspiracies like the Absolute require careful thought and precision. They rely on predictability and Orin is everything but. Orin's impersonations are not bad and she has fooled him multiple times. She makes him uneasy, because he knows she can kill him and he'd never see it coming. He relies on his army of Fist and Steel Watch for protection, but Orin can get right through them and they'd be none the wiser. Why else do you think Gortash had to use magic to restrain her? In a fight between Ketheric and Orin, Gortash bets his money on Orin. He bets his money that she could win between the three of them.

Gortash does not dislike Orin because she is "impulsive" of "incompetent" but because he cannot control her. Orin was not a threat to the success of the Absolute, she was a threat to Gortash's sole claim to the Absolute. He knew she could easily take the Absolute from him and he would never see it coming.

But sure. Go off on how Orin is the weakest of the Chosen Three and how stupid she is.