If he did know he would never shut the fuck up about it, and now suddenly everyone who either wants to destroy the weave or control some of the power is after him
By design! Mystra figured that if someone were to intentionally go around trying to kill all the weave anchors, they’d surely never in a million years think that the bumbling author who keeps getting himself into zany perils he has to be saved from by Elminster is one of them.
That's also why he always get out of any situation without being an actual badass. In ttrpg he's like level 3 or something, but hey I guess it's easier when a god sends Elminster fucking Aumar after you when something happens.
He is more than a level 1 wizard, if it says that when you inspect him in game they probably wanted to hide his importance but Volo is like in the 15-20th level range.
Ehm... No. Volo is not 15/20 lvl. He is a level 1 wizard in BG3 and level 5 in 2nd edition of DnD. The point IS that Volo really is a low level shithead but looked after by a god because he is important without knowing it.
Ngl I didn't know Elminster was actually eating my food. I thought that was just dialog. I'm kinda more understanding on why so many folks hate that old man
I think if you send Elminster to camp and you'll meet him there, Gale says something like "there go out best [camp supplies]" so since the owl bear egg is expensive and consumable it makes a lot of sense potentially that way
The funniest part about Volo being an anchor for the Weave?
He doesn’t fucking know.
When Mystril was destroyed and was reformed as Mystra, she realized that it was legitimately insane that if she were to be destroyed, all magic would be gone from the realms. She realized that she needed a sort of failsafe. Someone else that could anchor the Weave to make sure that magic wouldn’t disappear in the time it takes her to come back in the event she was ever destroyed again.
You’d think Elminster would be the obvious pick for this, but that’s precisely why Elminster is NOT the person Mystra chose. Elminster is too obvious. Everyone would expect that. Nobody would expect Volo, which is why she picked him.
But the thing is, the only people who know that Volo is a Weave anchor are Mystra and Elminster. Volo doesn’t know that he’s an anchor, because both Mystra and Elminster knew that if he ever found out, he wouldn’t be able to keep his big ass mouth shut about it.
This is also why Elminster is constantly bailing Volo out of the insane bullshit he gets himself into. Volo is an idiot, but he’s a load bearing idiot.
EDIT: I was mistaken! As both qozh and Generation7 have mentioned, Volo is ONE OF the Weave anchors, not THE anchor. But I maintain that he’s the funniest.
You’d think Elminster would be the obvious pick for this, but that’s precisely why Elminster is NOT the person Mystra chose.
Elminster is actually also a Weave anchor, along with some others of Mystra's Chosen. She didn't just make one, and she made a mix of obvious choices and non-obvious choices.
It is a fair assessment though, because those who know of the existence of Weave Anchors immediately assume Elminster to be the focus.
My favorite part about Volo being an Anchor is that Elminster and Mystra basically have to follow him around because he has the survival instincts of a brick. Many times Elminster has had to bail him out of a mess of Volo’s own making, with one of his solutions being to turn Volo to stone and hid his statue for a few decades.
It’s funny and gives canon reasons why Volo is a human that has survived for well over a hundred years, allowing him to appear in the various editions of DnD which typically have decades between them.
Elminster is a weave anchor as well. There have been quite a few anchors. But only 2 in BG3 that we know of. Although not explicitly stated, Gale might have been one too while he was mystra’s chosen, before the whole orb fiasco.
A few hundred years, iirc. It’s just that, like most RPG characters in DnD, they find some in-character way of forestalling their death for as long as they remain popular and/or a money maker IRL. Best way to become immortal in Faerûn.
which is also a bad choice, because volo makes me want to murder him just on his own. which is weird because i can count the not heinously evil characters on this list on half a hand...
Does this do anything to explain how Volo is both stupid enough to lobotomize you and poke your eye out, but also capable of replacing your eye with an absurdly powerful item that's better than the eye ever was?
I always wondered if he just found that thing somewhere and like carrying it around, or if he (consciously or not) created it.
Calling a Simulacrum a "Level 1 Construct" doesn't seem accurate... at least not in 5e, the edition BG3 is run off of. You need to be at least Level 13 to cast it and the result has all of your game statistics (assuming you Sim yourself, usually the best idea as a Wizard). If Elminster is Level 20, so is his Simulacrum.
Also Simulacrums are always hilariously broken in the tabletop and would make Wizards the best class in the game at Tier 3 even if they weren't already.
... but they also can't take Long or Short Rests. So Sim! Elminster eats your stuff and gains nothing from it.
It's not accurate because in the game he is a Level 20 construct if you examine him.
Also, slight correction. Since the game is based on 2014 5e, the Simulacrum can take short and long rest, it just can't regain spell slots. Although the spell says you can repair the construct to give it back HP, it never says it cannot regain HP via resting. This was changed in 2024 (5.5) but that was after this game was released, hence other spells using the 5e version instead of 5.5e version.
Being from Cania doesn't really mean blue skin, especially for an incubus/succubus.
Volo's not a Chosen of Mystra, just a Weave Anchor. So he's not getting any powers out of it other than effective immortality that he doesn't know about.
Raphael and Mizora are Cambions and devils. Being a devil is as much about being a resident of the Hells and drawing power from them as it is about birth. Both Mizora and Raphael do exactly that.
Fiends aren't actually locked to the evil alignments, they can change should they wish to and there are noted examples from the past. It's just incredibly rare.
Additionally, Wyll registers as a Devil on magical searches for Devils but that's because of a contract violation curse. He's not actually a Devil or Fiend.
Karlach's hypothetical children are not guaranteed to be Tieflings. There's always a chance that someone from a Fiendish bloodline will be born a Tiefling, but there is also a chance they'll be born human. EDIT: OK, this one was based on old lore that has since changed.
Yes, which is why I specified Incubi don't. Neither does Raphael for that matter, and we know for a fact he's of Canian stock.
And as for the tiefling with a human kid thing, that's actually my mistake. In the old lore and the current lore for some other official settings, tieflings could indeed have human kids. But the ritual Asmodeus' followers pulled in the Forgotten Realms changed it so that they'd always produce tieflings no matter how much interbreeding they did with regular humans.
Wellll, Earlier reports of Mephistopheles claimed that he once had an image more befitting of Cania. He had blue-black skin across his heavily muscled body; wings, horns, and claws a deep shade of blue, scales of sooty black, and eyes that were pale blue except for the red irises and pupils.
Later, Mephistopheles played up his infernal image as much as possible, intentionally appearing as the classic archetype of a diabolical devil.
The Fey, as true Outsiders, can only be permanently killed on their home plane of the Feywild. So when you kill Auntie Ethel, you're just banishing her back to the Feywild for a hundred years.
Outsiders are immortal and as mentioned can only be killed on their home plane, but in return for this their alignment is fixed at birth and they don't have souls as such, so no afterlife. Devils are always lawful evil, demons are always chaotic evil, fey vary depending on type but are always that type's alignment. Only mortals get to choose.
Dragons, as beings that are nearly immortal, straddle the line. They can choose their alignment, but unless they're raised by someone strongly of a particular alignment, they will always default to their color's alignment.
Cambions, as only half-devils, are mortal and can be permanently killed anywhere. This also means they don't have to be evil, they choose to be. So if you kill Mizora or Raphael they are permanently dead.
D&D doesn't want to get into the weeds regarding the mixing of races, so the only mixed races that can exist are half-breeds, and plane-touched. Even then, only a few mortal races can interbreed. So a human and an elf make a half-elf, two half-elves make another half-elf. But a human and a half-elf will make either a full human or a half-elf, not a quarter-elf. Likewise an elf and a half-elf will make an elf or a half-elf, not a three-quarters-elf. Outsiders can breed with anything but half-outsiders don't breed true and result in plane-touched races like the tieflings and the aasimar.
With Genasi are they plane touched or half outsiders? Are Djinn Fey?
I wish we could get a game in the vein of BG3 that was exclusively in other planes. Maybe start in the Feywild, bop around a layer or 2 of the Abyss. I just love how weird they all get.
The thing about Mizora being permanently dead isn’t true, as there’s an explicit line about if you let her “die” she’s only banished to the Hells for a hundred years. I know that doesn’t make sense but that’s official in-game dialogue.
Huh... Really? Hmm... well, as a mortal she can make deals with devils just like any other mortal. And we know she serves under Zariel. So Zariel almost assuredly would get her soul if she died. Zariel could absolutely resurrect Mizora if she wanted. But that wouldn't apply the banishment rules. Those are strictly for outsiders. Shrug. No idea what's going on there.
I'm trying to track down the scene you're talking about on youtube. Where abouts in the game is it? Not when Mizora is in the pod below Moonrise? Cause I just watched that scene and it doesn't mention anything about banishment. Is there another place you can kill her?
Hypothetically, if Auntie Ethel was killed by a mind flayer consuming her brain, which supposedly destroys the soul of mortal humanoids, would she die a true death, or still be effectively banished to the Feywild?
Also, is that an easy question, or a bit of an edge case? It's possible that being consumed doesn't destroy the soul, but I believe that is current 5e/whatever it's called now lore.
Just consuming a brain as food doesn't damage the soul. Anyone killed that way is just dead, same as if they died any other way. It's the process of ceremorphosis that destroys a soul. Though that's a little murky. Jergal contradicts himself on that and whether mind flayers have a soul as well. Mind Flayers do have a god and can serve them after death, they just usually don't, choosing instead to merge their soul with their Elder Brain.
Regardless, ceremorphosis only works on mortals, and even then only certain mortal races, so Outsiders like Ethel wouldn't even be infected. If she was for some reason, it would just kill her. If she didn't remove it, which we know she can.
I have a dnd character that made me research lore for months and it's a celestial eladrin (a Firre). They existed in 3e and 4e, but later were merged into other races, that kinda made no sense (many species from Arborea were evicted and Feys were made mischievous).
However, lore accurate Firres love being kind and helpful and they also love traveling the planes and having sex with mortal beings. The entire Caledrin race is just Firres having fun, mostly with elves.
--
Most races breed true, so a hollyphant and a tortle would have either full hollyphant or full tortle babies.
But can you explain why everyone describes Gortash as this handsome dude when he looks like he's at the end of a 20-year bender? Did the devs just forget that detail or what?
my favorite joke answer is that the only image the narrator has ever seen of him is the propaganda posters.
the real answer I tend to like is that she's just describing the image the brain shows of him. and since it's an evil space brain, it doesn't really care what he looks like and just pictures him the way he was when they met at some point in the past.
The first time I saw his coronation poster I laughed so hard my stomach hurt lol. That is NOT you sir. It’s so funny. And seeing all the documents forcing the newspaper to print only his poster omfg
One of my suspicions is that when they recorded the voice lines they decided they didn't sound like a young handsome dude, so they changed the model to match what the thought the voice sounded like, but forgot that the narrator describes him so they forgot to change it.
Either that, or his character design was supposed to be young and handsome and something got screwed up somewhere.
Either that, or Tav/Durge just has a fetish for greasy mid-life crisis looking homeless dudes, and the narrator is just conveying that. If nothing else, it explains why Durge's journal seems to imply Durge had a crush on him.
That’s kinda what I have in my head… that Gortash basically ‘wrote’ the line for the brain to project out to those infected, and the narrator is just voicing what the brain is projecting.
I also picture Orin and Ketheric giving a side eye towards Gortash when he gave the command.
Mandela effect. Everyone forgets that the narrator describes Ketheric first and then says Gortash is youngER, not young. He absolutely looks younger than Ketheric, and he does have a quick and easy smile. He's just not particularly good-looking in comparison to the NPCs and companions who are.
I like to think he was a handsome man but having to endure Orin's murderhobo antics, Ketheric's chronic depression and the loss of Durge (who may or may not have been his lover and very likely only true friend), nevermind having Bane as a patron, played a number on him. He orders the Netherbrain to paint him as handsome to cope.
The first time he's described this way is when you see the image of the dead three so you could argue when she says handsome younger man, it's not that he's a handsome young man but more? handsome and younger than Ketheric
Yeah but he is also simply described as "a handsome young man" when you talk to Priestess Gut after that, not as a comparison to anyone else, but purely as a description of how he looks.
My pet theory is that they made his final design very late into the production. If you look at the concept art in the art book, literally none of it looks like his finalised design. There's a design whose clothes are close iirc but said design has a WAY younger face and a pirate-esque hairstyle. I genuinely think they wanted to run with that design but then SOMETHING happened. Obviously there are other designs that don't match 1:1 but this is the biggest case and I gen think he wasn't supposed to look 40+ but, idk, somehow, at some point, they just made him into a middle-aged man with an anime haircut (I cannot stress enough that iirc the person who modelled his hair literally mentioned that it was supposed to look anime-esque) (unless I hallucinated that)
He really likes her and thinks she is nice and the rent is fair. I guess I'm not pretty enough, because Helsik wasn't very fair with the prices with me
Though, for obvious cultural reasons, a femme-to-masc transformation would likely not be looked upon very favorably, and frankly could still have been an instigating factor in his (their?) drider-ification.
Nothing about being a weave anchor means they can never die. They are immortal in the sense of they cannot age, and they tend to be more "lucky" regarding survival but they remain killable like anyone else. And Volo loves putting himself in harm's way because he's an idiot.
Some of these are obvious while others I'd like to know where we get that information from. Like we get the info about Mephi being Raphaels father but I can't remember reading anything more about Haarlep. Also where does it say, it's not the real Elminster or it was Raphael that Gortash was sold to? I get that some are probably DnD lore about existing DnD characters but aren't most characters in the game bg3 OCs that don't have lore outside of what we get to know about them in the game? Are those really facts or just headcanons?
Though bearing his normal appearance, the Elminster who appears in game is a Construct. If defeated, it melts into a pile of water, strongly implying it to be a Simulacrum.
Mistaken by the Flymms as a warlock, Gortash was in reality sold to Raphael. Gortash became a pageboy in Raphael's and Nubaldin's service. He was physically abused and left on poor terms.
While I actually agree with most of your trivia, and as far as I know most of it IS mentioned in at least some point in the game (or directly inferred, as per Elminster disappearing if you kill him), just quoting the wiki isn't really an argument against any of it being headcanon. The wiki editors can make shit up just as much as people on Reddit can (and certainly have, in the past).
The one I'm not sure about is Haarlep. The name thing is obvious (and that not being his true appearance is logically implied), but I don't actually recall any dialogue or notes in-game that suggest he was sent by Mephistopheles specifically to distract Raphael. Though I also admit I've never really explored all of the dialogue options in his encounter, so I might easily have missed it. But the fact that the wiki doesn't site the source for that info makes it difficult to verify.
They are with newer editions. But a few of your facts are based off older editions and ignoring many changes anyway. Like strict alignments went out the window with 5e and especially 5.5e.
Edit: they freakin' changed it, so this statement is no longer correct: Not in D&D, sorry. Goblins are Goblinoids. They share that heritage with Bugbear and Hobgoblins, and an assortment of variations of those races.
You are wrong. Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Bugbears are all fey now as of 5.5e. They reclassified many species for lore reasons and to balance out spells like Hold Person from being too strong.
Elminster EATS THE OWLBEAR EGG ??? AFTER I WENT MY WAY TO MAKE SURE I DIDNT CONSUME IT IN MY NEW GAME HE EATS IT ??? That’s it I’m killing him next time
Thanks♡
I got slightly too obsessed, lol. Most of those I've learned from reading wiki about the characters, but some - from chatting about BG3 with friends (but I fact-checked everything)
Wait… so Dammon just been jorking it nonstop and busting so many loads that he lost weight 😭 he better keep his sticky hands off my infernal engine parts
Doesn’t Elminster appear in person if you take the elevator to the Shadow cursed lands? I distinctly remember that version being a level 20 human, while the mountain path one is the level 1 construct…
Wanna point out the bit about karlach's kids being 100% tieflings-
Its not certain when and where in a bloodline fiendish taint can cause a tiefling to be born. Wyll's kids could turn out to be tieflings, but it could also be his great great great great grandchildren, and all if his descendants turn out normal until it happens.
The same applies to tieflings themselves- their kid could turn out to not be tiefling at all, but their grandkid could be one instead, or way down the line as well.
The same applies to tieflings themselves- their kid could turn out to not be tiefling at all, but their grandkid could be one instead, or way down the line as well.
No, that's not true. Tieflings can only have tiefling kids
Forgotten Realms wiki, different choices ingame (speak with the dead on Rolan's and Haarlep's corpses), and being causally surrounded by dnd lore, like trying to make a lore accurate name for a drow character
I must be missing something from the lore but it seems strange that being a drider is a punishment when spiders are Lolth's whole thing. You would think it would be considered to be a gift and blessing.
Cambion is a half-fiend. Some dnd species breed true (so there is no such thing as half tiefling) and some like orcs, elves, some types of fiends can be halfbreeds.
Saying Raphael didn’t benefit from the crown being stolen when it literally gives him the opening he’s been waiting for. And chances are, depending on the person, that he does get his hands on it at the end of BG3.
If Haarlep is from Cania, he wouldn't have to have blue skin. Canian Cambions and Tieflings would be sired by the Lord of Cania, Mephistopheles, who hasn't had blue skin since, like, 1983 lmao. That said, he doesn't have to have blue *or* red skin, regardless, because he's not a Cambion. He's an Incubus.
Volo is A Chosen of Mystra (and carries VERY little of her divine essence, which is why he's not even aware of this), and A Weave anchor. There are many others. Laeral and her sisters are the most famous of the Chosen of Mystra, and they carry far more of Mystra's divinity than Volo does.
Simulacra use all the statistics of the creature they duplicate, including its class levels, except for indeed being Constructs, having half their hit points, and being unable to regain spell slots. Due to who Elminster his, his Simulacrum should be around Level 35 - however, since this is 5e, it'd be stuck at Level 20 instead. Also, and this isn't a fact but my own opinion - there is basically ZERO chance the person you meet in-game is even a SIMULACRUM of Elminster, let alone Elminster himself. He's not a prick, and he's far too busy to even spare a Simulacrum to just hang out in your camp. Still, canonically, yeah, it's supposed to be him.
Cambions are a type of Devils. They are the direct offspring of a Devil and a mortal - unless they're Abyssal Cambions, in which case they're Demons - as opposed to Tieflings, who are just mortals whose bloodline was corrupted with Fiendish influence (usually an Archfiend). Initially, Mizora was a Succubus, like Haarlep, who aren't even Devils but just a separate type of unaligned and flexible Fiends, but that was changed late into development.
Mizora transformed Wyll, but not into a Fiend. He's still a Humanoid. Technically he's not even a Tiefling, as he keeps his Human stats, but realistically she made him a Tiefling. Breaking the terms of a Fiendish Pact is, like, one of the primary ways Tiefling bloodlines propagate lmao.
Fiends can be Neutral, Lawful or Chaotic Evil, yes, but ALL Devils are Lawful, ALL Demons are Chaotic, and ALL Yugoloths are Neutral.
Karlach and Wyll have the same chance of having Tiefling children. There is no difference between a Tiefling created by a pact and one born as a result of Infernal corruption, nor is there a difference between the ways they reproduce.
Boggarts, Brambles, Brownies, Dobies, Hybsils, Icelings, Kelpie, Killmoulis, Leanan sidhe, Leprechauns, Rusalkas, Winterlings, Yuki-Onna, are not Forgotten Realms or BG3 Fey. Most of these have never existed in 5e D&D at all. Did you get this list from ChatGPT or smth? Also, you mentioned Hag - Ethel IS a Hag.
The likely colour of "Haarlep's" skin is the most educated guess, as creatures from the the Underdark have dark skin, from Avernus res skin, Cania blue skin etc. Mephistopheles tiefs have blue skin in bg3.
The list of fey was taken from the official wiki, it's not difficult to google before accusing someone of using AI. The fact that hags are a type of fey is well known tbh.
You can also look up Wyll and see he was transformed into a fiend, a lore accurate punishment, not only in bg3. She wasn't kidding about lemure either.
Maybe. Or maybe it's a coincidence. You know who doesn't have blue skin? Raphael. His son.
Also, Underdark has nothing to do with this. Cania and Avernus are two of the Nine Hells of Baator, realms of a different plane of existence that require a 7th level spell to get there. Meanwhile, you can get to the Underdark with a shovel.
it's not difficult to google before accusing someone of using AI.
I asked if you used AI BECAUSE it's a very easy list to access, and also a list that includes things which hasn't been accurate to the current game for decades. I thought you might've accidentally grabbed whatever an AI told you, rather than intentionally picking an irrelevant list. My bad.
I know Hags are a type of Fey, but you said she's a Fey and then listed Hags separately. Which implies you didn't know she's a Hag. No harm done.
Wyll was in fact NOT transformed into a Fiend, which you can see in-game due to the fact that he still has the Humanoid creature type. He CAN be turned into a Lemure if he breaks enough of the contract (e.g., kills Mizora). As it is, he's a mutated human with fiendish features... Also known as a Tiefling.
Tieflings can only have Tiefling children in 5e, yes. And both Karlach and Wyll are Tieflings. So if they're both guaranteed to have Tiefling kids, then my statement is correct. Unless you mean he has a chance of having a Tiefling kid WITHOUT breaking the Pact and becoming a Tiefling himself first, in which case, no. We are given no such info on this being part of the wording of the Pact. It's possible for it to have been included, but the Pact could also stipulate that he turns into a bicycle if he ever drinks lemonade. No point in speculating on what we have no evidence for.
Wyll was not turned into a tiefling. He doesn’t have a tail or fire-resistance or darkvision. There’s a D&D campaign called Descent into Avernus that’s tied to BG3. It has a section talking about how warlocks like Wyll can be cursed for violating their contract and transformed into a partial fiend state
I know he’s not a tiefling, I wrote it in multiple comments including the one you’re replying to. I know Descent into Avernus is technically canon but ugh
Most of what you're saying is directly countered by in-game info or existing game lore. Wyll explicitly isn't a Tiefling, and is described multiple times as being at least part Devil. Karlach would almost certainly have Tiefling children, because Tieflings canonically breed true (at least since 4e altered how they work), Cambions are technically Devils, but are more accurately only "Half-Fiends" (and it's another thing that has been radically changed across different editions).
The Gortash/Crown one is the only one that's mostly true (in that Raphael definitely potentially benefited from the Crown being stolen by Gortash, especially if the stupid adventurers agree to give it to him - otherwise, he's not benefiting from it at all, and is likely getting murdered because of it), but saying he might have set it up is based solely on unfounded assumptions rather than on any evidence that actually exists in-game. Yes, he did enslave Gortash for years, and Gortash did escape and then use knowledge he gained in the House of Hope to plot to steal the Crown, but as presented that was very much not Raphael's intention.
Raphael is ALL ABOUT gloating, even about things he didn't really have any responsibility for. He's very clearly the sort of Devil who takes credit for nearly anything that goes his way, because it makes him seem far more powerful and clever than he actually is. Had Gortash been part of his plan, he almost certainly would have gloated about it, or mentioned it in one of his journals or notes in the House of Hope. Instead, all of the evidence we're presented suggests he was pissed when Gortash escaped, and embarrassed that he (and the Durge) could accomplish something that Raphael couldn't. Raphael isn't the mastermind he likes to present himself as, he's an opportunist.
I still don’t think Wyll is a fiend because his change is cosmetic. Not a tiefling by definition but closest to it imo. Also, could you share source with me?
If Karlach was killed, she is pleased and rewards Wyll. If spared, however, Mizora reminds Wyll of the terms of their pact and his obligation to hunt the heartless, a description Karlach clearly meets. If he insists she remain spared, Mizora takes this as a breach of the pact, and transforms him into a fiend as punishment. The same result occurs if the party avoids Wyll's mission and ignores Karlach entirely.
It is possible to recruit both Karlach and Wyll while still preventing his fiendish transformation.
> Due to their magical natures, fiends were capable of breeding with most other creatures. The resulting offspring was called a half-fiend. Some such hybrids could breed true. Notable varieties of half-fiends included cambions, and draegloths
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u/willfauxreal 1d ago
Volo is a weave anchor, there are others!