if you insist!! @w-low
so essentially, because gortash is the last netherstone dirge gets, gortasb kills off a ton of the patriars. this frees up all of their assets, including their expensive manor houses. now, the absolute finale DOES cause a lot of property damage throughout the gate, so despite a lot of those houses now being ownerless, there isn't an immediate rush to snap them up cuz the Gate is so trashed. this is a surprise tool to help us later
immediately after the absolutes defeat, everyone's tadpoles hit the suicide button (which is fun, enjoy vomitting up leftover illithid biomass as it flushes out of your brains everyone). while dirge's parasite specifically survives that command, its out of commission, and because his tadpole was helping to cope with his TBI, when it gets nuked his wound reopens (now without a convenient hole through his skull). Dirge suffers brain bleeding and swelling, which very quickly leads to a loss of motor function and speech, and then he full on falls unconscious. While he gets stabilized (thanks omeluum!), his body (still consisting of flesh taken from a god despite Bhaal reclaiming his blood) pushes him into a torpor state to recover, and immediately post game Dirge is pretty soundly Out Of Commission For The Immediate Future
this puts ALL the companions in a bit of a quandry
one of the consistent elements i play with wrt dirge is that of responsibility. i take a lot of the gameplay conceits of BG3 and interpret them as character traits, because i feel like it helps round out the party as flawed but enjoyable characters. a major one of those is how, as party leader (and protagonist), Dirge's decisions on behalf of the party carry the most weight for them. Whatever Dirge decides, the party will more or less fall in lockstep with. This is helpful for things like combat. This is wildly unsustainable for living the rest of your life.
Mostly, its just because its easier for them. Dirge is clever, insightful, and sympathetic, and when faced with overwhelming emotional turmoil, outsourcing your solution to him is wildly more successful than throwing yourself at it. So Dirge talks Shadowheart through abandoning Shar, regularly and consistently finds Vlaakith restrictive and exploitative to Laezels face, takes it upon himself to find loopholes in Wylls pact, confidently asserts Cazador will be roadkill as soon as they get to the Gate (which is correct), hunts down and seeks out infernal iron and potential avenues of a cure for Karlach, and doesnt even entertain the idea of Gale killing himself. While he avoids outright deciding things for his friends whenever possible, game mechanics ensure that Dirge "gets the good ending" for everyone. But that also, to a degree, removes responsibility from the companions for their own decisions, their own lives. Thats insanely tasty to me, and I want to play with that as much as possible.
When the time comes for those endings to get "locked in" so to speak, Dirge is wholly unavailable. Does Shadowheart want to adventure, or live with her parents? Does Laezel want to follow Orpheus on a red dragon back to the astral plane? What does Wyll want to do now that his pact is broken? Does Karlach genuinely want to die, knowing she'll never see anyone, including and especially Dirge, again until they've all passed on? How does Astarion want to spend his eternity now that Cazador's dead? What does Gale want to do with the crown of karsus?
Dirge isn't there to offer his opinion or try to talk them out of being self destructive. They have to take their growth, born of his support, and walk the final steps themselves.
The companions all have fun and interesting decisions I like to play with, but for right now the kicker here is Minthara.
See, Minthara defers a lot of responsibility onto Dirge, and seamlessly slots herself at his side to occupy the niche of advisor and confidante. Its a position that allows her security and stability with the one person she knows for a fact is sympathetic to her, that mitigates the risk of being surrounded by potentially hostile strangers. If Dirge is the leader, and shes at his side, her chances of being backstabbed are that much lower, presuming that no one would risk Dirge's ire and their own position within the party. This is also how Dirge earns a lot of her initial respect, with his straightforward and blunt manner of command. Dirge ponders a course of action, decides, then fully commits to it without hesitation. He isn't afraid of disagreeing with her, even after taking a more submissive position in their relationship once theyve established it. So Minthara has a very safe position of being able to propose courses of action without fully bearing the responsibility of carrying them out, and thus the consequences of those actions. Minthara is willing to commit to everything she proposes, but shes insulated to a degree from the fallback if anything goes south, because those actions get confirmed by Dirge.
So when Dirge collapses and shows no sign of waking, when he might not wake up for months if not longer, Minthara has to decide how she ought to live her life post Absolute without his input. She has to trust that Dirge will support her, she has to trust that he'll wake up, and she has to build her life without being able to bounce those decisions back onto him. Her situation is vastly different from her comfortable spot playing the game back in Menzoberranzan. She is an outcast in the Gate, she will be reviled if she goes back to Menzo. She has betrayed Lolth from her forcible conversion, then abandoned Lolth in turn once her mind was her own. The men she brought from House Baenre were mulched or converted. There is no warm welcome in Baldur's Gate, and there is no warm welcome back in Menzoberranzan. What does she want? Does she want to struggle to reassert herself in Menzo, to chase the life she once had and topple her house? Or does she want to struggle to build a new life here on the surface, a reviled drow with only her connection to the heroes of the Gate as influence?
In the end, Minthara decides she cannot risk moving Dirge through the Underdark in his current condition. And if she'll be here until he awakens, then she cannot simply wait to build a stable foundation. She has to build it without him. And with the Gate in shambles, its upper class destroyed, with connections to the Guild and blackmail on the Knights of the Shield, this power vaccuum won't last forever. So she strikes while the iron is hot, and uses the resources accumulated throughout their crusade against the Absolute, and snatches up one of the ruined abandoned properties of the patriars, and sets herself to reconstruction. There are connections to make, theres influence to leverage, power plays to ingratiate herself to. She has to be prepared to live here, longterm. And one of Minthara's strengths is her commitment. Once she sets her mind to something, she attacks it full force. If she cannot return home, she will not go back.
Dirge's torpor is, I think, the kick Minthara needs to step out from her position beside Dirge into the spotlight, to be highly visible and solitary in an unfamiliar world whose rules she has yet to comfortably grasp (keyword: comfortably, because Minthara is anything but ignorant). Its a testament to her experience and maturity, i feel, that she makes this decision without much prompting or debate. I think she would ruminate on it for a few days, watching her alurrssriin for any signs of waking, and then commit herself fully to her decision. She'd prefer if he was there for this, and if he decided to stay in Baldur's Gate, shed complain but agree. But this is her life, her priorities, her decision, and nobody elses.
I definitely consider it telling how Minthara wouldn't really allow herself to ruminate past the point of slight indulgence, and how this essentially negates the oppurtunity for regrets to pile up. despite having a full several centuries ahead of her, shes a very "in the moment" kind of person imo, v occupied with what Is and what Will Be, and doesnt spend much time circling the past. she still bears its weight ofc, and it shows, but shes reckoned with herself enough to keep it from kneecapping her. So the decision to stay in Baldur's Gate is a measured one, considering all angles including her sentimentality wrt her home, and its one she makes by herself, for herself. Evaluating if a life spent on an unfamiliar surface, awaiting the awakening of a partner and comrade with no clear indications of when to expect his presence again, and balancing it against her desires to return to Menzoberranzan, to overthrow her mother, to try and grasp some catharsis through conquest. She chooses him, and she chooses to start anew, and she does so because she decides thats what she wants to gamble on, and does it without asking Dirge's opinion on what HE'D want to do, or what HE thinks is best. She trusts that she knows his mind well enough to predict his feelings. And once she decides, Minthara's all in.
So yeah! Post game Minthara yoinks a patriars manor up for sale cuz he got brutally murdered and starts renovating it for her menzo tastes while she establishes herself in the circles of power left in the Gate. Gales position isnt nearly as complicated LMAO
Gale, without Dirge to bounce opinions on, is left in a bind. He isnt entirely sure if he wants to pursue ascension, esp cuz Dirge has gone on record that he thinks it'd strip Gale of whats valuable and interesting about him, but he's also really uncertain about if he wants to return it to Mystra. Or toss it into the Chionthar. Theres also the matter that he hasnt spoken to his mother since his depression year in the tower, and Dirge's playthrough takes about 16-18 months. So. Years plural since talking to her, before disappearing off the face of the earth. And, unmoored and indecisive as he is, Gale instead opts for the easy way out of endlessly deliberating. Initially, he has the excuse of staying by Dirge's bedside to help watch over him while they all await his awakening, so he couchsurfs at Jaheira's. But then Minthara gets her house, and Dirge is moved there, and then Gale is couchsurfing in Minthara's house. And then Dirge wakes up. And Gale just kindaaaaa?? Doesnt go home LMAO. Its been 6 months post Absolute that convo is gonna be GODAWFUL. Hes "researching". Hes feelin stuff out. Hes blatantly avoiding getting yelled at by his mommy cuz he doesnt rly know how to handle interpersonal fuckups that are solely his fault. I love Gale but I think he can very easily talk himself into and out of situations if he isnt grounded by another person and Dirge is comatose LMAOOO
So now Minthy has some fuckass wizard loitering around. Free bullying target
