I'm so sorry if this is a bother, but I know for a FACT that Gale's camp clothes originally had a different description than they do now, but I foolishly never grabbed a screenshot because I didn't think larian was going to just... Randomly change his clothes??? Please tell me I'm not insane....😭
you are not being a bother.
and yes, it's true: gale's original camp clothes had a different description.
i took this screenshot when i first played the release version on the day / the day after it came out:
gale's austere clothes
somehow gale has managed to make his clothes smell like a library - perhaps through thaumaturgy, or through a passion to books most people reserve for sexual partners.
at some point it was changed to:
gale's austere clothes
somehow gale has managed to make his clothes smell like a library. to inhale their aroma is to feel a sudden urge to speak more quietly. or pay a fine.
Not sure if you still do Gale meta asks so if you don’t, feel free to ignore me, but after replaying BG3 recently and getting to Gale’s third artifact explanation, I realized I’m actually a bit lost on his character on that slot.
I am of the opinion that Mystra groomed Gale and their relationship was unhealthy (I’m pretty sure you’re on agreement with that.) For a long time I thought Gale sought out to bring her the Netherese orb in an act of love and because he did not feel worthy or equal to her, but when he explained to me again I noticed at first his motives seemed to be based in the fact that Mystra closed veils to him despite how close he was to them while with her. So it leaves me a little lost because he also swore it was to serve her better, which I don’t get how that could be.
My current personal understanding is Gale, being with Mystra, was constantly looking into the “precipice” others could not access, and Mystra restricted that as she did with others. Gale, feeling like he wasn’t enough, desired to instead prove himself worthy in her eyes to access this knowledge. Perhaps it was still an effort to feel equal to someone he could not be? I’d love an explanation, ty!
thank you for your message!
yes, i am still doing them. i apologise for the wait, but they do take a lot of time, with the amount of research and time that goes into them (outlining, writing, putting together quotes and screenshots if needed). i hope you are still seeing this! 🖤
as for your confusion as to gale's motives:
i think the fault doesn't lie with you. i think the fault lies with larian.
the problem with re-writes and purging
i don't think your confusion is down to you not understanding, but rather it's larian's fault for their at times sloppy re-writes of early access in general to re-work it for the full version based on the fan feedback they received, as well as fitting the story they originally had planned within the scope of the possible.
they rewrote characters (gale, wyll, shadowheart, astarion, etc), they rewrote entire plotlines around factions and npcs while cutting others (halsin's and ketheric's relationship and how it pertained to the shadowcurse and isobel, cutting candlekeep and the astral plane, etc).
they softened up a lot of characters -- gale included -- and, important to your question, they sought to largely remove any dialogue that hinted at lingering feelings or had too many mentions of mizora from wyll and mystra from gale to placate players who felt upset by those mentions made -- even though it (imo) harmed the overall narrative for these characters -- both of which larian discussed prior to release and after release in their panels from hell and interviews, for example:
What is, in your folks opinion, is the funniest (and non-spoilery) addition or story that’s occurred because of either fan reception/feedback?
Baudelaire Welch: We mercilessly purged any references to Gale or Wyll being hung up on their exes.
the fandom in general has talked many times about larian and their tendency to adopt popular fandom narratives and/or compromise their stories and characters over fan feedback so i won't rehash it at this point once again, although you can be sure i do have some less than charitable thoughts about it all.
however, i'm of the opinion however that these "purges" often left scars in the stories and character, and they left old traces that lead to a poorer characterisation for it, they messed up timelines, motivations or caused inconsistencies in characterisation and lore -- especially because in gale and wyll's cases, these "purges" were not substituted with new scenes.
things were only taken and scrapped, and nothing new was added in its stead.
the "purging" and re-write of gale included not only changing aspects of his personality, but removing scenes that were very much integral to his character and to understand not only what happened to him and mystra, but also the direness of his situation, the sheer loss of power and status he suffered -- from a waterdhavian archwizard able to wield silverfire to a, essentially, level 1 adventurer struggling to hold onto a fraction of the control he once held over the weave.
these two "purged" scenes are the loss scene and the deer stew scene, as well as a rewrite of the first romance scene, which then took place during the tiefling party.
i have detailed many of these scenes and cut dialogues in my series re: early access gale's cut content. if you wish to read it, you can do so here.
early access gale vs full release gale: why did he seek out the orb?
the loss scene and the tiefling party scene revealed early access gale's intentions: he sought the orb to proof his love to mystra and to win her back after she abandoned him.
it was the actions of, as he puts it, a very young and very naive man, who was in love for the first time, lost that love and tried to win it back.
i think it's very important to keep in mind here also that originally, gale's entire story was set on different premise than the full release version storyline. i, and others, have speculated that he was physically even more affected by the netherese orb housed inside of his body to the point of where auntie ethel was able to smell the rot on him. i have written another meta on that original storyline here.
but back to the dialogue explaining why gale sought the orb as it was in early access:
i have written down and edited here a part of the tiefling party scene after the protag and gale spent the night together, which is when he would reveal the full extent of what happened mystra, after having hinted at it in the loss and in other smaller dialogues before:
Gale: Once upon a time, not quite that long ago, there lived a wizard in a tower. The wizard was what one might call a prodigy, who from an early age could not only control the Weave, but compose it, like a musician or a poet. Such was his skill that it earned him the attention of the mother of magic herself. The Lady Of Mysteries, Mystra.
Protag: What did Mystra’s attention feel like?
Gale: Love.
Gale: Perhaps it was not quite love, but you see, the wizard was but a very young man. It was most certainly love to him. Mystra showed him the secrets behind the veils. The gossamer veils first, draped across the Weave. The delicate veils next, draped across her body. ‘Chosen One’ she whispered, as she slipped them off completely.
Protag: The veils draped across the Weave?
Gale: Indeed. What most wizards perceive is but the ripple of the Weave’s surface. Untold wonders lie beyond. I enjoyed them for a while, as we enjoyed each other.
Gale: Alas it was Mystra’s interest that didn’t last. One day all too soon, the whispers stopped. The goddess spurned the mortal. The veils were drawn once more, and the wizard was left behind heartbroken.
Protag: Poor wizard
Gale: Poor wizard. Silly wizard too, for he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Protag: What happened next?
Gale: Like so many of the heartbroken, he did something infinitely foolish. One has to think big if one seeks to win back a goddess. So the wizard thought big.
Protag: Define big.
Gale: Here goes; once upon a time, very long ago, a mighty lord lived in a tower. A flying tower to be precise. I’ll save his story for another time, but the gist of it is that he sought to usurp the goddess of magic so that he could become a god himself. He almost managed but not quite, and his entire empire – Netheril – came crashing down around him as he turned to stone. The magic unleashed that day was phenomenal, rolling like the prime chaos that outdates creation. A fragment of it was caught and sealed away in a book. No ordinary book, mind you; a tome of gateways that contained within it a bubble of Astral Plane. It was a fragment of primal Weave locked out of time – locked away from Mystra herself. ‘What if’, the silly wizard thought. ‘What if after all this time, I could return this lost part of herself to the Goddess?”
Protag: What was the answer to his question?
Gale: The answer was to try, and the outcome was to fail. Here. Place your hand over my heart. Let me show you.
Narrator: You feel the tadpole quiver as you realise Gale is letting you in. Into the dark. You see through Gale’s eyes, staring down the corridors of a dread memory. A book, bound, then suddenly opened. Inside there are no pages, only a swirling mass of blackest Weave that pounces. It’s teeth, it’s claws, it’s unstoppable as it digs through you and becomes part of you. And gods, is it ever hungry…
Protag: Yank your hand away.
Gale: Terrifying isn’t it? And that is only the beginning
This Netherese taint... this orb, for lack of a better word, is balled up inside my chest. And it needs to be fed. As long as it absorbs Weave it remains stable – to an extent. The moment it becomes unstable, however...
Protag: You will die, obviously..
Gale: Rather worse, actually. It will erupt. I don’t know the exact magnitude of the eruption, but given my studies of Netherese magic, I’d say even a fragment as small as the one I carry… It’d level a city the size of Waterdeep.
Gale: It is my truth, finally revealed. It is this folly that led Mystra to abandon me completely. I can only hope you won’t abandon me as well. After all we’ve been through... After the night we spent together. Surely we can brave even this side by side.
the reason for the full release version of gale is curiosity and thirst for knowledge and wanting to feel equal to mystra:
Gale: Such was my skill that it earned me the attention of the mother of magic herself. The Lady of Mysteries. The goddess Mystra. She revealed herself to me and she became my teacher. In time, she became my muse, and later, even my lover.
Protag: Are you telling me you made love to a goddess?
Gale: Oh yes. We enjoyed each other's company - body, mind and soul. But even so, I desired more. You see, no matter how powerful a wizard we mortals can become, we never scratch more than the surface of the Weave. Mystra keeps us in check. There are boundaries she doesn't let us cross. Yet every time I was with her, I stood on the precipice, gazing into the wonders that lay beyond. I sought to cross her boundaries.
Protag: How exactly did you try to cross those boundaries?
Gale: I tried to convince her. I pouted, I pleaded, I swore my ambition was only to serve her better. But she only smiled and told me to be contented. As inconceivable as it seems to me now, I shared a bed with a goddess and yet I wasn't satisfied. So I sought to prove myself worthy to her instead. We come now to the crux of my folly. Shall I share the story behind it, or would you rather head straight to its sordid finale?
Protag: I'm intrigued. Tell me all.
Gale: Very well. Here goes: Once upon a very long time ago, a mighty lord lived in a tower. A flying tower, to be precise. I'll save his history for another time, but the gist of it is that he sought to usurp the goddess of magic so that he could become a god himself. He almost managed, but not quite, and his entire empire - Netheril - came crashing down around him as he turned to stone. The magic unleashed that day was phenomenal, roiling like the prime chaos that outdates creation.
Even the Weave itself could not withstand the onslaught. It fractured, then shattered, and all magic was lost to the mortal realms until the day Mystra returned. She restored the Weave, reuniting all its scattered shards. Or so I thought, until in the course of my studies I learned of a book. A Netherese tome in which a piece of the fractured Weave had been sealed beyond her reach.
'What if', I thought, 'What if after all this time, I could return this lost part of herself to the goddess?'
Protag: So your grand plan was akin to emptying a cup of water in the sea. Brilliant.
Gale: I certainly thought so. Sometimes there is great strength to be found in symbolism. I was certain that this deed of raw power draped in romance would convince Mystra to take me by the hand and welcome me into her hitherto forbidden domains. I was mistaken. I obtained the fabled book and took it into my study. As for what happened next... Here. Place your hand over my heart. Let me show you.
Narrator: *You feel the tadpole quiver as you realise Gale is letting you in.* *Into the dark.* *You see through Gale's eyes, staring down the corridors of a dread memory. A book, bound, then suddenly opened.* *Inside there are no pages, only a swirling mass of blackest Weave that pounces.* *Its teeth, its claws, it's unstoppable as it digs through and becomes part of you. And gods, is it ever-hungry...*
in conclusion, early access gale did it out of love for mystra as a young man, as a chosen, and as a romantic trying to win back his lost first love, however naive and grand (and ultimately doomed) the gesture was, which was then cut to appease those who thought gale was "too hung up" on mystra, and changed around, purging some scenes and dialogue while keeping others.
(on a tangent: this also once again shows, imo, how ultimately it's completely futile to try and appease these sort of demands/complaints since this is still very much a big complaint that is levied against gale's character.)
it's now more about power, curiosity, knowledge and a desire to be equal, while the new narrative of the full release version still to some extent kept the relationship with mystra intact.
with the removal of the deer stew scene, of the loss scene, and all those little dialogues, purging and cutting away to re-write gale's devotion to mystra as the embodiment of weave and his first true love, while still leaving in some of that, with lines from those very conversation, is where your (as well as other's) confusion is coming from.
i'm only rambling now so i will stop and say that i hope this was at least somewhat helpful for you!
Since tressyms dont normally speak, and tara is noted to be able to speak common, when do you think that happened? do you think her and gale were speaking straight away after summoning her? also, do you think she was a kitten or an adult back then?
thank you for your message! 🖤
first off, it's true that tara is noted to be able to speak common. i still find it extremely funny that she pretends she does not when first meeting the protag and gale's other companions:
devnote: pretending she [tara] doesn't speak common
as well as gale translating for her, even though he most certainly knows she does in fact speak it.
as for your questions, i think there's a lot that goes hand in hand here:
do you think she was a kitten or an adult back then?
this is pure speculation, but gale says this when he first brings up tara:
gale: one time my parents denied me a kitten, so i summoned myself a tressym. dear old tara. beautiful creature.
i do think that based on what gale prefaces this with--wanting a kitten and being denied by his parents, thus summoning himself a tressym--we can assume that he summoned himself tara when she was in her kitten stage as a tressym.
(which i personally find extremely adorable, but also poor morena. a child genius on her hands, a kitten with wings and a magma mephit friend her son just summoned... (': )
the 'dear old tara' portion to me seems to be more reflective of the time they have already spent together at that point, highlighting gale's fondness for his tressym companion and, even though it's not specified anywhere in the game, i do think his familiar.
with that out of the way, it's easier for me to delve into the other questions:
tara is noted to be able to speak common, when do you think that happened? do you think her and gale were speaking straight away after summoning her?
it's true that tressyms usually do not speak common. they have their own language. the forgotten realms wiki has this on tressyms in their entry:
Tressym were highly intelligent, being a little above average human intelligence. They could not speak human languages, but had their own language, "tressymspeak", which was based on purrs and growls. [source]
however, if we work with the assumption that tara is gale's familiar (in-game he only ever calls her his companion and friend) and was intended that way (there were plans to not only include her in gale's origin playthrough, but with gale as a companion, and it would also further highlight how exemplary and unique his control of magic is since this is quite a feat for someone so young to achieve) then that would offer some more possibilities:
A familiar was a normal animal or similar creature that had been summoned to service by a sorcerer or wizard and magically bonded to the spellcaster, after which it became a magical creature and gained greater intelligence and new powers. The magical link between a familiar and its master was so strong that in some ways they shared a common existence. All familiars had special abilities of their own and also granted special abilities to their masters in return.
All familiars were intelligent—not necessarily very intelligent, but more so than an animal. They automatically knew any skills that their master knew—though they might not be able to do those skills for lack of speaking or opposable thumbs, for example. They were able to understand Common, but most were not able to speak it. [source]
we learned from these entries that tressyms have above average human intelligence and that familiars were able to share in skills and knowledge of their masters.
we also know that tara is particularly intelligent and gifted, creating her own spells like the cat flap of displacement, which she uses to travel great distances:
Tara the Tressym: I'll tell her. With my Cat Flap of Displacement, I can afford the occasional visit. I'd bring you along, if I could. Perhaps some day.
and we also know that she was the one who found the solution for gale's condition, as temporary as that solution was, from his conversation during the tiefling party:
this is only tangentially related, but i do like to mention it here because i think it fits within that picture, but gale delights in learning and teaching. he seems to have learned ignan for his magma mephit friend (he teaches the protag a handful of words during his resurrection protocol and we know from his official character sheet he speaks a handful of other languages too). so i do think we can extrapolate from that fact that he would do the same for tara as well. learn and teach.
so in conclusion, looking at all of these different puzzle pieces together, i don't think it's a stretch at all to assume that gale either taught tara to speak common and she learned from him, and/or they both either devised or created a way for her to speak.
Hi there! Hope you're well :) I was wondering if you knew what dye you used with the Robe of the Weave that you have Gale wearing in a lot of your gifsets? I've been messing around with dyes but I feel like none of them look quite right 😭
thanks for your message! i don't mind helping.
do you mean this dye?
it's this one:
and it comes with the basket full of equipment mod on nexus!
i love that 'the' gale dekarios is into souls games
haha, thank you for your message. 🖤
i genuinely do think that the actual gale would be very into fromsoft's games if given the chance to play them.
not for the gameplay necessarily -- even though i do think he'd rise to the challenge out of a stubborn sense of pride -- but for the the lore and world-building, the mythical/magical aspects of it, the lore density the fragmented storytelling, item descriptions, ancient gods, fallen civilisations, and also just the beauty of these games.
i feel all of that is something that's genuinely like catnip for a scholarly wizard professor like gale.
i can absolutely picture him pausing constantly to read every single item description, theorising and trying to understand the bigger picture, getting emotionally invested in tragic npcs, getting heated about lore discussions, insisting he totally understands the design philosophy of a boss right after dying to the them twenty times in a row.
also the melancholic and epic (in the sense of a great myth, like the odyssey) tone of those games fits him really well.
i think that there's also a lot of overlap with themes he already embodies in bg3: gods and mortals, ambition, forbidden knowledge, consequences of power & falls from grace, curses, the weight of the past, and ancient magic/rituals gone wrong.
thank you for your ask. i'm sorry it took this long to get around to it. my mind blanked.
i want to add that these are solely my own headcanons and just that. nothing more. if you have a different opinion, that's valid. i'm not here to argue or debate about it.
anyhow, these aren't in any particular order, just writing as i think of them:
-gale was clean-shaven before the orb and being discarded by mystra. his hair has outgrown its original style as well. this is the reason why tara hates gale's beard, even when felines usually like to rub their faces against them.
-while gale has enchanted the piano in his tower to play by itself, he can and does play himself when the mood takes him.
-gale doesn't truly get jealous or possessive. he skips that step and slips right into questioning himself and feeling sad/insecure.
-gale tends to overthink, he struggles with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed esp after the orb, but has found methods that help him deal with these feelings and bring them under some form of control to examine them ("please, i need to think... i need to retrace my steps to a glade of calm and think.")
-he cries at his wedding & struggles through his vows
-he never takes off his wedding ring
-while he is very much an acts of service person in a relationship, he learns to accept and love being taken care of and doted on by his partner
-gale is very much able to find beauty in the mundane and simple things of life: beautiful flowers in a garden, the way the light falls at sunset, the sound of rain tapping against the window, the fresh salty sea breeze in the morning, a warm cup of expensive tea, a beautiful piece of art, a touching poem
-he often prefers walking home with his partner after work instead of using portals or teleportation. it allows him to talk about both of their days and show his partner things about the city he loves so very much. it also allows him to clear his head after a long day.
-his spellbook has pages that look like this:
when tara has decided that nagging him to stop working didn't cut it anymore.
-speaking of: gale gets so absorbed into his work and research that he skips both sleep and meals
-after his long isolation and depression, struggling with orb and being affected by it physically, gale is quite slender/willowy (tara has several lines reminding him to eat and take care of himself in an origin run) with a soft stomach and no muscle definition
-he's ~175 cm
-he's touch-starved
-while he does like to cook for others, he doesn't tolerate anyone helping him with the task. he will however appreciate it if his partner cooked for him.
-his tower now is quite barren, except for his extensive book collection, having consumed most magical artefacts he owned
-after his return to waterdeep, he likes to fill it with little things he has collected over time. the space is healing as much as he is.
-gale still suffers from chronic pain flare-ups, even after the orb is gone/calmed
-he likes it when things (fabrics, clothes, pens, books, etc etc etc) are well made and of high quality, but not necessarily ostentatious
-he has an eclectic taste, sort of imparted on him by morena's own
-his father abandoned him and morena
-gale is extremely open-minded and accepting, and will entertain almost any and all thoughts and opinions as long as they are well argued for / follow a sound logic
-while he's not easily spooked or scared given how diverse and open waterdeep is, nothing quite managed to prepare him for the things he would see during the journey to cure himself and the others of the tadpole. his knowledge was mostly academic, save for the stray unfortunate death slaad encounter. he works through these things by compartmentalising. writing them down, examining them and going over them in his mind.
-he hopes that he and the friends he's made on this journey will stay close. he writes them regularly and is elated when he receives a reply himself, but will need encouragement and reassurance to organise a get-together in waterdeep.
-his biggest flaw is not hubris or the ambition in the pursuit of knowledge he held as a chosen, his biggest flaw is his sense of worth as gale dekarios, the imperfectly perfect human being, the person behind the titles and accomplishments and perceived failures and insecurities
-he still has to realise what truly happened in his 'relationship' with mystra and still has a lot of healing to do after the game ends
-in the early stages of his relationship with his partner, he's very willing to please/tolerate, at times sadly to the detriment of his own preferences (drow twin scene)
-while he takes compliments in stride, he still likes and appreciates word of affirmation and praise; his partner insulting or degrading him would wound him deeply
-while he wouldn't be a father himself, he would be perfectly happy to be the eccentric uncle. yet even so and while he does love it, he would need time to recharge his social batteries after / recover from the overstimulation that being around children for a prolonged amount of time brings.
-gale's magic is a second nature to him and he likes using it even for the many mundane things, turning the page of a book, getting a spice from a high shelf, etc
-he's a born sorcerer with a wizard's education
-after settling in waterdeep with his partner, he lets his hair grow out more
-while easily lost in his work and research, gale is extremely thoughtful about anniversaries or birthdays, always striving to find the perfect gift
-he likes reading to his partner or being read to & discussing it, exchanging thoughts and opinions
-it's canon that he does write poetry, i like to imagine he'd sometimes leave little haiku-esque verses for his partner
i'm sure i have more, but they escape me right now so. 🖤
