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Lore'd to Death
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Lore'd to Death
Balduran & The Rise of Baldur's Gate [Dungeons & Dragons / Baldur's Gate 3]
Ever wondered how a humble adventurer could transform a pirate-infested harbor into a bustling city? Join us in our 40th episode of the Lord to Death podcast as we promise an enthralling journey through the lore of Balduran, the legendary figure behind Baldur's Gate. From his audacious escapades across the Trackless Sea to his philanthropic endeavors that fortified Grey Harbor, Balduran's tale is one of courage, wealth, and unprecedented transformation. Discover how his immense riches and strategic constructions played a pivotal role in turning a criminal haven into a flourishing metropolis. Listen as we piece together Balduran’s relentless pursuit of control and the lasting impact of his legacy on the city he helped build
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Hey there, welcome to the Lord to Death podcast, a deep dive into the lore of your favorite games, movies, shows and more. My name is Brett and today I'm going to do some fan service and hop back into the world of Baldur's Gate and Dungeons and Dragons. And what better way to do that than to dive into the lore of the namesake of Baldur's Gate himself,. This is a great one, in my opinion, because not only do we get some great 5e lore, but we also get a ton of new information from Baldur's Gate 3. But we also get a ton of new information from Baldur's Gate 3. And, with that being said, there are plenty of spoilers for this episode if you haven't finished Baldur's Gate 3. We're going to be talking about some revelations from Act 3 towards the end of the game. So this is a very spoiler-heavy episode if you haven't finished the game. So just a fair warning that this is going to be a very spoiler-heavy episode. So please go finish the game, then come back to this episode and we're all good. And very quickly, before we get started, I just want to ask that you rate this podcast five stars wherever you're listening to it, or like and subscribe if you're on YouTube. The only way that I know that you're properly enjoying the content that I make is if you let me know. So please rate the show, leave a comment or send an email To lordtodeath at gmailcom To suggest an episode or just say hi. I also think it's worth noting that this is officially our 40th episode Of the show, and that's not including the break weeks or the intro or any of that. So 40 proper lore episodes, which I think is bonkers, quite, frankly. So thank you to everyone who does listen and thank you to everyone who keeps recommending me content, because as much as I do this show for myself, I really do it because people seem to want it. Thank you for 40 episodes, and maybe we'll get to another 40. We'll see. So with that out of the way, let's get on with the episode.
Speaker 1:Baldur's Gate was not always the massive walled city that we all know and love today. It was once just a small harbor settlement called Grey Harbor, settled in the continent of Faerun, just along the eastern Sword Coast, which was mostly known as a hideout for pirates, scavengers and other shady folks. Grey Harbor was a secluded haven where people could stash their looted treasures and sell them off for coin, and it was this Grey Harbor that was home to Balduran the Brave, who was a young human male that yearned for adventure. Being a harbor town that was likely little else to do but sail, fish and trade. Balduran, known as Baldur to his friends, was the first to sail across the trackless sea to the east of the Sword Coast, beyond Evermeet, the home of the elves. It's said that Balderan sailed out in a simple search for resources that could be logged and brought back to his home of Grey Harbor so that they could build up and he could give something back to his home. Whether he did so knowingly or not, he ended up sailing far east and discovered an entirely new continent, which was known as Ankarome, and he was the first native from Faerun to set foot on those lands. But that doesn't mean it was uninhabited. There was a native population there. He was just the first one from Faerun to step foot on it. He was gone for years before returning to his home, but when he came back he was no longer just an unremarkable man from Grey Harbor.
Speaker 1:Balderan came back from Ankarome with untold riches. The contents of his pillage are unknown, but they are known to have been fairly vast. Balderan came back with tales of strange lands across the seas and the loot that was just laying there for him. But he did not come back just to brag about his wealth to those in Grey Harbor, but instead invested it in his town. After all, he just set out for some logging supplies or other things to build up Grey Harbor with. So when he came back with far more than he bargained for, why not put it back into the place where he lived?
Speaker 1:Balderan became a philanthropist, giving to those in need amongst his friends and family, or giving it to the farmers to put up walls around them to protect them from orc barbarians who would raid their fields. This massive wall that he invested in would end up being more important and defining in the town's history than Balderan likely knew, and in honor of the one who made it possible, one of the gates of this massive wall was named after him. This is pretty far in the future and it would be past his time, but this gate would be known as Baldur's Gate. It started off with just the one gate being named after him, and then the entire city eventually just became known as Baldur's Gate because of the significance of this gate, and it said that, if not for Balderan, grey Harbor would have been nothing, an insignificant blip in the dozens of settlements along the Sword Coast. But because of the investments made by Balderan, the town was able to become more than just the harbor for criminals that it was known for, and it was able to become the bustling metropolis that we know it as today. Because of the wall that was built around the town, farmers were able to start taxing carts coming up from the docks into the protection of the city, generating extra revenue with which they were able to continuously expand the city. And as the city expanded around it, gray Harbor remained a core part of the settlement, which would be later referred to as Old Town.
Speaker 1:But we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves. So let's get back to Balderin Somewhere along the line. Whether it was before or after his voyage to Ancorome, I'm not really sure, but I would hazard to say that it was before and Ancer was probably with him when he sailed to Ancorome. Hazard to say that it was before, and Answer was probably with him. When he sailed to Ancorome, baldur met Answer, who would become his best friend, and potentially more than that. Answer, however, was a bronze dragon. His true form was that of a bronze dragon, but like most metallic dragons, he spent most of his time in a humanoid form which closely resembled that of a bronze dragonborn. I would personally love to know how they met, whether it was in Answer's dragon or humanoid form. I wonder if Answer in his humanoid form was a regular around Grey Harbor or if maybe Balderan met him as a dragon in his adventures. Either way, I think that there's a lot of story there.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of lore that I think could be explored and I think it would be pretty neat, but unfortunately we don't know, and will likely never know, the details of their first meeting. But what we do know is that they were very, very dear to each other, adventuring together and being faithful to one another almost to a fault. It's very much implied that they were more than friends and potentially even lovers. It's honestly much more than implied in a letter titled Dear Answer, where Balderan writes you are the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Answer, Be free, answer, fly and know that even when I'm not beside you, I will always have been your Balderan.
Speaker 1:As well as a conversation in-game where they simply refer to themselves as more than friends. You can read this in many different ways, like a deeply affectionate, platonic relationship, more akin to brotherhood as to lovers. But I'm definitely in the latter camp, I feel like, through understanding their interactions together. As we'll kind of get into, it reads as a tragic love story, but I'm kind of getting ahead of myself once again and I just cannot reiterate how much these two cared for each other, because it's very important to the rest of the episode, and whether or not you see them as friends or lovers doesn't really matter. In the end, it's all just opinion matter. In the end, it's all just opinion. But regardless, the two would spend plenty of time traveling together, whether it was far north to the Great Ice Sea in search of the great spire built by the Gondor gnomes, or trekking across the Kalim desert. The two were never far apart. But at some point in the mid 11th century, dr Balderan would embark on one final adventure. Dr Balderan would embark on one final adventure and this time he would go without answer.
Speaker 1:Most had no idea where he went. Some theorized that Ankarome stole his heart and that he had sailed back east to find a home there and that he had died of old age. Others say that maybe his ship was taken by raiders and his body was lost to the sea. And while the latter is potentially more correct than the former, neither of those were necessarily the case. And maybe these theories were correct, but to know that we're going to have to jump forward about 300 years.
Speaker 1:In the year 1364 DR, one of the dukes of Baldur's Gate, grand Duke Eltan, set out to find the final resting place of Balderan and I know we're talking about Balderan, but we've barely talked about his life at all. And now we're already talking about his death. Just hold on, it'll kind of make sense, we'll get back there. And why did they decide to try to do this after all this time? Probably the same reason why some jackasses tried to find the wreckage of the Titanic Curiosity and clout. Is that too soon? Eh, either way, they decided the best way to follow in his footsteps was to sail Anchorome , where they thought he might have ended up at. On the coast, they found a ruined fort with plenty of rusted and broken weapons and armor, along with a ship's logbook. They presumed that this was where Balduran and his crew had ended up, and while they were searching the wreckage, they were assaulted by a group of local elves and made the assumption that this might have been the same fighting force, or potentially the descendants of that fighting force, that Balduran encountered, and the search party was forced to retreat retreat lest they share Balduran's fate. However, it seemed like this was misguided and there was no actually reason to believe that this was the wreckage of that of Balderan's crew and, furthermore, no reason to assume that this is necessarily where he had died.
Speaker 1:A few years later, in 1368 DR, the shipwreck of the Wandering Eye Balderan's vessel was said to have been found, along with a logbook which had entries from Balderan himself. Though much of it was damaged, there was one lone survivor named Dredil who was able to parse through the information and shed some light on what had happened. It turns out that on their way past Evermeet, the vessel was boarded by some elves whom Baldurand personally took some issue with finding them to be suspicious, and he found a way to get them off his vessel as soon as possible. Then, when they reached Anchorome again, they were met with some of the native population who took issue with Baldurand for some issues that he may have caused during his first visit. What this was about I'm not really sure, but it doesn't seem like there's any more information about his first visit to Anchorome.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, however Balduran was permitted to pass through the lands because of the strength of the crew that he brought with him. They managed to amass another trove of treasure, which they loaded up onto their ship and headed eastbound and down back to Baldur's Gate. When they were attacked and Balderan lost half of his crew. Needing to replace the number that was lost in his crew, he conscripted some of the locals to his crew and they began sailing. Among those locals who he had conscripted, he found a shaman who, again, he took issue with and had him thrown overboard. Bad move, balderan. Bad move because the rest of the trip was plagued with bad weather and beetles infesting the food supplies, which led to an all-time low in crew morale.
Speaker 1:They were able to find an island on their way back and forcibly set anchor and hopefully replenish some of their supplies. When things took an even sharper turn for the worse, members of his crew started showing signs of sickness, which apparently turned out to be lycanthropy, and if you know anything about lycanthropy, you know that it is not exactly a good time. The members of Balderan's crew who weren't yet infected were soon killed by those who had transformed, and the Wandering Eye was damaged to the point where it wasn't even seaworthy. Trudeau was able to fend off the lycanthropes and became marooned on the island until he was rescued by some passing-by adventurers, along with the other members that survived, with the crew. Amongst the wreckage, they were able to salvage some of Balderan's personal effects, which ended up in a museum in Baldur's Gate, and it's not said what happened to Balderan specifically, but we can assume that he was among the living, who was saved by the adventurers, because his story seems to continue, and he managed to make it back to Baldur's Gate, or at least very close to it. Balderan heard of some fabled treasures that lay beneath Moonrise Towers in the Western Heartlands, a location that most people listening to this episode will be more than familiar with. It's said that Balderan's ship was capsized and he was taken captive while looking for this treasure trove.
Speaker 1:Being so close to the Underdark, there was always the threat of running into Drow, draegar or, worse, illithids, and I'm going under the assumption that everyone listening to this episode knows about Illithids, or Mind Flayers as they are more commonly known as. If you didn't catch it, I do have an episode about Mind Flayers, so go ahead and listen to that one if you haven't already. There's a lot of really good information in that episode that will help you to understand why they are the threat they are, and it'll help you understand the following a bit better as well. I'm going to reference that episode quite a few times in the next little bit. So if you haven't listened to the episode on Mind Flayers, go back and do so. Whether it's before or after this episode doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1:And the reason why I'm putting so much emphasis on the illithids is that, unfortunately for Balderan, he accidentally ran headfirst into an illithid colony and was captured, infected with an illithid tadpole and underwent seromorphosis turning him into an illithid enslaved by the colony's elder brain. There's not much worse of a fate than being taken and turned into an illithid. In the episode I just mentioned, I go through the entire process of seromorphosis, but I think it's worth reiterating that one who undergoes this process ceases to be themselves. The tadpole consumes its host's brain and uses it as sustenance to grow and take over the body as they become an illithid Because there's no brain left. The host is no longer who or what they once were. They are now entirely an illithid whose entire purpose is to serve the Elder Brain, which exerts a field of control over every illithid within a certain radius, and this was the fate of Balduran, or so it seems.
Speaker 1:Anyways, balderan remained an illithid and served the Elder Brain in the Underdark Colony for around 10 years. I see some sources stating that it was around 14 years, but from what I remember from in-game it was closer to 10 years, and this was according to a record of interrogation by Enver Gortash. And for all that time, his friend Answer was probably looking for him, as Balderan didn't allow Answer to come with him on his last voyage, which lasted who knows how long probably years and Answer became concerned about the fact that his little sweetling had not returned for several years, and so he had set out to find him. I wish that there was an account of this anywhere other than just a vague mention, because I think it makes for a great story, or it would make for a great story rather. But somehow Answer managed to rescue Balderan, or at least what remained of him. And, yes, that does mean that he went down into the Illithid colony and managed to save the Illithid that was once Balderan. And I have a problem with this, a big problem that will come up time and time again, and something I brought up in my episode about mind flayers and Hulby. Damned if I don't repeat it again Balderan should not have been Balderan anymore.
Speaker 1:He was an illithid. There are many different kinds of illithids, sure, but the average illithid, as Balderan would have come to be, looks exactly the same as the other dozens of illithids in their colony, as this is a product of seromorphosis and part of the illithid grand design that they are the perfect beings who basically all mirror one another. Furthermore, like I mentioned before. Furthermore, like I mentioned before, through the process of seromorphosis, one ceases to be themselves as they are transformed, because the illithid tadpole literally consumes their brain matter in order to kickstart the transformation process. This is known and is documented through every source material that there is on illithids up to this point, until this game, except for one other, and that source is about a bedtime story where there was an illithid who maintained the memories of who they were before seromorphosis and managed to stay conscious as themselves and overthrow an illithid colony.
Speaker 1:This being was known as the adversary, but there's nothing more to suggest that this was anything more than a myth. And even if there were anything to suggest that this actually happened. It only ever happened once, and as far as I'm concerned it was a myth created by illithids to further introduce mistrust amongst themselves and to make them aware of bad eggs who might not be fully under the Elder Brain's control, so they can weed them out, because that did happen. On occasion there were renegade illithids amongst illithid colonies who weren't entirely under the control, but they were still illithids. They were not who they were before they became an illithid.
Speaker 1:The only documented cases of an illithid retaining anything from their former life was in subconscious tics, like humming a familiar tune or tapping their feet or writing a certain way or something that was so ingrained in the host's muscle memory that it just kind of happened when they were drifting into a daydream. But again, it was a subconscious movement, not a memory or a part of themselves actually coming through. And you might be thinking, brett, that's a pretty cynical take, and you might have contradicted yourself by bringing up the myth and unconscious tics, and I disagree. There's so much lore out there that states that nalithid and the host cannot exist at the same time, and I think all of that source material trumps any myth or coincidence. You could, however, come to the view that the adversary was real and that baldurin ended up having the exact same thing happen to him, where he was himself in an illithid's body. That's pretty convenient for the rest of the story and it's pretty convenient for someone who basically built up Baldur's Gate to retain their memories and still live underneath Baldur's Gate, basically, and I just think it's too much of a coincidence to subscribe to that train of thought. But you could take it that way and I'm not saying that you're wrong if you do take it that way that Balderan was the same as the adversary, or maybe the adversary was Balderan Because, as we know, illithids exist kind of across all of time. So maybe Balderan was the adversary and that myth made it back in time and was told throughout time to warn people that this was going to happen.
Speaker 1:But again, I don't really subscribe to that theory. I think that this is more or less impossible. But I do have my own theories. I'll save that for later. Furthermore, onto my last. Furthermore, it had been a decade since baldurand disappeared, or I guess just over, and I don't doubt that.
Speaker 1:Answer would have been able to trace baldurand's footsteps to moonrise towers. Answer was an adventurer, after all, and I think that part of the story is entirely likely. I also believe that a bronze dragon would have been able to go into an illithid colony and come out on the other side. That that seems perfectly likely. What I don't think is likely is that Answer managed to find one illithid amongst the entire colony, identify him as Balderan and rescue him. I just don't think that could be possible. And yet here we are.
Speaker 1:Allegedly, answer was able to rescue Balderan from the Illithid colony and take him outside of the Elder Brain's influence, where somehow Balderan was still Balderan through seromorphosis. I'm going to come back to this towards the end of the episode because I think I have a little bit of a crackpot theory, but I think it's the only thing that actually makes any amount of sense. That isn't just saying that Balderan was the adversary, but for now let's just continue with just saying that Balderan was the adversary. But for now let's just continue with the story of Balderan.
Speaker 1:Even though Balderan was taken outside of the Elder Brain's influence, he was still very much an illithid, although he allegedly had the full memories of his previous life as Balderan, with one fairly large exception he could no longer feel emotion. That meant that he no longer felt any affection towards Answer, as reflected in Dear Answer, where he writes I may no longer feel my feelings, but I know yours and yours are agony. This agony that he describes is the agony that Answer's lover might as well be gone if he could no longer feel any affection towards him. This agony caused Anser to search far and wide for an answer to bring Balderan back in his entirety. Balderan didn't wish to be an illithid either, but he understood that no amount of medicine or medical professionals could bring him back. He pleaded to Anser that he should stop trying to find a cure and accept the situation for what it was.
Speaker 1:Balderan was now an illithid full stop, and eventually Balderan embraced his new form. He came to understand that the psionic powers that he was granted were a boon, not a curse, a natural part of his evolution into something greater. Of course, this evolution came with the fact that he had to feed on brains to sustain himself. But he decided to prowl the streets looking for criminals to feed on, attempting to make his home of Baldur's Gate a better place in his own little way. But Answer could not abide by this. We learn that Answer would not cease trying to find a way to revert him back to his human form as the Baldurin that he once knew and loved, even when asked repeatedly to stop once Balderan had accepted his new form. And so Anser decided that the only cure that he had not tried yet was breaking his mortal coil and attempted to murder Balderan in his sleep as an act of mercy. Balderan awoke before this act could be done and stood his ground against Answer, who would not back down from this course of action. Wielding his giant slayer greatsword, which conveniently worked against dragons I'm not sure if that counted when Answer was in his human form or not Balderan struck Answer down in an act of self-preservation.
Speaker 1:Answer's remains were taken far below Worms Rock Isle, which we can assume was named after the fact that Answer's remains were laying there, and this was in Baldur's Gate and left in what would be called the Dragon's Sanctum. This spot would be the place of legends and generally thought of as a myth, since it was hidden away and I didn't find anything to support this exactly, but it seems that Balderan had this place built specifically for answer. There are statues of Balderan throughout the area, leading those who would enter through a series of tests to determine whether or not they were worthy of entering the sanctum. While it may have seemed like a myth that there was the corpse of a dragon underneath Worm's Rock, there were a few who truly believed it to be the case and not a myth, like older Ravengard Will, ravengard's father, who, during the crisis that happened during the events of Baldur's Gate 3, believed that the only way to take down the absolute was to awaken the dragon and have him fight alongside them.
Speaker 1:But anyways, after all of this kerfuffle, having killed his closest ally, balduran decided that this was still his city and he would use his new form to rule from the shadows, since no one would accept an illithid openly ruling them. He forged a close relationship with duke stellman, who was on the council of four at the time. This council was a group of four wealthy individuals who were chosen to rule baldur's gate in a plutocracy, which basically just means the wealthy rule. Balderan would help Duke Stalmane and meet with her on matters that concerned the city governing forces behind the Knights of the Shield, who were the largest mercantile operation in Baldur's Gate and eventually became known as the Emperor, and I'm guessing that he never indulged Duke Stalman, that he was once Baldur and that created the necessity for a pseudonym to refer to him by. And yes, this is the same Emperor that we meet in Baldur's Gate 3.
Speaker 1:And he tells us all of this in game, in bits and pieces, revealing only what is necessary at that point to gain our trust. And I think that it should be plainly obvious. But I think it's worth noting that everything the emperor has told us should be taken with a grain of salt. Whether he was actually Balderan or not, the one thing that Adelithids all have in common is that they lie incessantly to save their own skin and to further their own plans. If we assume that he was indeed Balderran, then we have to assume that the story about how Answer tried to kill him in his sleep might have been exaggerated, if it was even true to begin with. I would sooner believe that, since Answer was assumedly the only one who knew of the Emperor's identity as Baldran, the Emperor killed Answer in cold blood so that there was no one else that could tie him back to his original identity and he could start new as the emperor. He probably would have wanted to preserve the image of baldurin and have people believe that he was lost to sea or living out a lavish retirement in anchorome and not turned into something that they could only fear. That's my opinion, though, and I think that I have every right to be skeptical about everything that the emperor says.
Speaker 1:Skepticism aside, the emperor was doing his best to take control over the city that was once his home. He started to overreach with the duke's domain, and their relationship deteriorated over time. It's unclear exactly what facilitated this change, but it was probably something along the lines of the emperor taking too much too quickly. Perhaps he was pushing his own agenda to the point where it was obvious to Duke Stelmain that he was using her as a pawn in his own twisted game. Perhaps she tried to speak out against him and get him off of her back, and the emperor threatened her life. I wouldn't put it past him. And the Emperor threatened her life. I wouldn't put it past him, and I just want to say that it's hard to say how long the Emperor had been trying to rule from the shadows, but we can do some quick maths.
Speaker 1:One source says that Balderan sailed to Ancorome in the mid-thousands DR, and we know that he spent 10 years in the Illithid colony, and we can gather that he spent a few years in Baldur's Gate itself while it was being built up through his philanthropic efforts. So we can safely say that Balderan was back in Baldur's Gate as an illithid somewhere between 1080 and 1100 DR. But then there's the other source that says that he left on his final journey in the mid 1100s DR. But that doesn't really make sense. If he was born in the mid 1000s DR, as he was only human, his lifespan was not that long. So I'm going to go with him being an illithid somewhere between 1080 and 1100 DR.
Speaker 1:The events of Baldur's Gate 3 take place in 1492 DR, so we have a period of about 400 years where the emperor is potentially attempting to run Baldur's Gate from the shadows. But we know that Duke Stalmain died to the members of the cult of Baal after suffering a stroke which left her as a shell of her former self in 1491 DR. So that relationship definitely didn't come up until later, and this was likely the peak of the emperor's influence over Baldur's Gate. So before he even knew Duke Stalmane and was maybe officially known as the emperor, he had been doing this for 300 some odd years. I just think it's interesting to put all of this into perspective, because it makes the story of Balderan and the emperor so much more interesting knowing that he was in the city when it was just Grey Harbor and he was there through the forming of the metropolis that is Baldur's Gate and was able to directly see the fruits of his efforts being put into place to build it up, and, illithid or not having the memories of Balderan seeing his city being built up, that makes sense why it was so important to him.
Speaker 1:Over time, people began to know of the Emperor, but only in name and not identity. Over time, people began to know of the emperor, but only in name and not identity. They had no idea what he was, only that they were seemingly the one who was making the city run. However, one day someone would learn of his true identity and bring it all to ruin. That person was Enver Gortash, the chosen of Baal and the leader of the absolute.
Speaker 1:Gortash, who we should all be familiar with at this point, found out the true identity of the emperor, or at least he found out that he was an illithid who was attempting to run Baldur's Gate. Who knows if he knew that he was. Potentially, once Balderan and Enver Gortash had him abducted, the emperor would be sent back to the illithid colony and back to the Elder Brain, where he would once again be subjected to its will, but not entirely. He clung to his moniker, the Emperor, as it brought him some sense of comfort, even in his full Illithid form, under the Elder Brain. This Elder Brain was the same one that he was held captive to when he was abducted several hundred years ago, when he was initially turned, but it was a new beast.
Speaker 1:At this point, the Elder Brain was under the influence of the Dead Three, who used the Netherese Crown of Karsus to have it do their bidding for the Cult of the Absolute. The crown was stolen by Endra, gortash and the Balspawn, known as the Dark Urge, who took it from the vault of the Archdevil Mephistopheles and used it to enslave the brain. The entire point of this was to be able to implant illithid tadpoles into people's heads and not have them undergo seromorphosis immediately. The tadpole would lay dormant until the Elder Brain gave the command turning all of the affected into illithids immediately, essentially giving the Dead Three an immediate, overwhelming army at the snap of a finger to take over Baldur's Gate in the blink of an eye.
Speaker 1:And that brings us to the events of Baldur's Gate 3, or just before it, in the same year of 1492, dr, the Illithid that was once known as the Emperor, was sent out on a mission to retrieve the Astral Prism, which was a Githyanki device. That had two different purposes. The first was to act as a navigational device which led to a pocket dimension where the descendant of Gith Orpheus was being held. The second purpose was directly related to the first fact, because Orpheus was basically attached to this artifact, which meant that it projected a field which disrupted the effects of illithid psionics, since Orpheus inherited that gift from his mother. That might sound a lot if you haven't listened to the episode on the Githyanki and the Githzeri. So I do have an episode all about that where I explain this more in detail. Another plug, I know.
Speaker 1:And since this artifact had the ability to disrupt the influence of the Elder Brain and other illithids, including the tadpoles that lay dormant in people's heads, it was a very clear threat to the Dead Three, gortash and the Absolute in general. You might think it's a mighty fine coincidence that the Emperor just happened to be among the search parties, but it wasn't a thing of chance in the slightest. The Elder Brain, while enslaved, had its own notions of overthrowing the Dead Three and their Chosen so that it could have its own free will back. The Brain must have known of the Emperor's past and his strength and specifically chose them to do their bidding, unbeknownst to the Emperor. Still a good coincidence that the Emperor was back under the control of the elder brain and that he was able to be chosen for this mission. But it was all part of the plan. Aboard a nautiloid with an inquisition of other mind flayers, the emperor was among the first of several parties to locate the astral prism. Upon making contact with it, his free will was given back to him. As the artifact began to nullify the effects of the elder brain, he was able to escape into the prism, where he was able to find a void of solace in the Astral Prism, along with Orpheus, who was also imprisoned there.
Speaker 1:Having taken the artifact from the Githyanki, the Nautiloid was soon overtaken by Githyanki dragon riders, which is where we start the game. The player character, along with the Githyanki warrior La'Zell and the shah-worshipping Shadowheart, crash land onto the beach with the artifact and thus begin their journey unaware of the influence that the Emperor had in their survival, as from the prism, he was able to still use his psionic powers and stop them from dying upon impact with the ground, and so the Emperor helps the party in their journey and leads them to get rid of the Chosen of the Dead Three. At first, he attempted to mask his true form by coming to them in visions as their dream guardian, disguised in a form that was more suitable to their tastes, something more humanoid. Eventually, the gig was up and his form as an Illithid was revealed, and he pleads to the player character that this ruse was a necessity, since they wouldn't have trusted him in his illithid form initially, which is likely true. He continues to spin tales throughout the story, telling lies and twisting the truth where it needs to be in order to get the player character on their side, and, unfortunately, this is where things get a bit tricky, because the game is very open ended and driven by decisions that the player character makes, leading to it being a vastly different experience for everyone who plays it. I've gone over everything that is concrete, however, and the only thing that's really left to the wind is the ending of the game and how that potentially affects the Emperor's fate, but I don't really feel like I need to go over those because, as far as I know, there's no canon ending, and I want to make sure that this episode is as close to canon as we get.
Speaker 1:So what of Balderan's legacy? Well, aside from having the city be his namesake, there are also plenty of statues of Balderan around the city, including a massive statue in the river Kionthar that looks over Grey Harbor, which is fitting, since that was his original home. There was also a citywide celebration, known as Returning Day, which marked Balderan's return to Grey Harbor from Anquerome. Aside from that, the population that resided in Baldur's Gate were referred to as Baldurians, sort of named after him. And in the city there was a mausoleum in the high hall which stood as the resting place for Balderian dukes and also contained relics from Balderan's past, such as his cloak, his spyglass and a longsword in a cracked leather sheath, which were all found from the wreckage of the Wandering Eye. And I mean, how can you ask for a better legacy than having a city erected in your name? I think that the effects of his importance are quite evident just in that fact. And you probably thought I was done.
Speaker 1:But I have one last thing to add, and that's the ranting and rambling that I promised before about a theory that I have on the emperor regarding how he managed to keep his memories. I started writing a joke about getting your tinfoil hat ready, about some crackpot theory, but I genuinely think that this is the best answer and so I can't even make that joke without undermining my own theory. So this whole thought process comes from the idea that the Emperor kept his memories as Balderin through Seromorphosis. I've explained how this isn't generally accepted as being possible from many sources pretty much all of the sources and I go into further detail in my episode about the mind flayers as to why I don't think that should be possible and I stand by my statement. But I come to you now with some updated information and a proper theory as to what I think happened.
Speaker 1:Balderan definitely went on that excursion to Moonrise Towers and I'm certain that he got captured by the Illithid colony. The story goes that he was captured, taken in and underwent seromorphosis to become an Illithid, and he managed to retain his memories from his previous life as Balderan. But knowing that the tadpole consumes the host's brain matter in order to turn its body into that of an Illithid, I don't think it's possible that he retained more than the occasional subconscious tick from his previous life, as I've mentioned can happen with some illithids, and I'm here to say that I don't think that Balderan got implanted with a tadpole. I do not think that he underwent seromorphosis and I do not think that he got turned into a mind flayer. I think that he and his party were instead just killed and their brains were devoured by the colony. Instead, from page 221 of the 5e monster manual, we get the following An illithid experiences euphoria as it devours the brain of a humanoid, along with its memories, personality and innermost fears, and I believe that our answer lies in that passage, and the statement is enough to back up my point.
Speaker 1:A mind flayer not only gains nourishment from devouring a brain, but it also gains a part of that person as well, including parts or all of their memories and personality. I think that Nalithid simply devoured Balderan's brain and gained his memories and basically impersonated him through the rest of their life. Ten years later, when Answer came into the colony whether he was looking for Balderan or it was just by happenstance on a scouting mission this Illithid, who had Balderan's memories, would have recognized Answer immediately and saw it as a way out. They would have had to roll a nat 20 on their performance check, but maybe they reached out telepathically to Answer and begged him to get him out of there, and so Answer did what he thought was right for the person he thought he knew.
Speaker 1:But why would an illithid have any reason to impersonate a random person who they consumed? Well, a mind flayer's goal is to enact the grand design, which is to say take over the multiverse. Balderan was a historically significant person who lived above them in Baldur's Gate. This would mean that being able to impersonate this person would inevitably lead to being able to take a position of power on the surface, which is evident by the Emperor's actions leading up to the game, which goes directly in line with something that an Illithid would desire. Any Illithid could have this notion to use Balderan's memories as a means to gain power.
Speaker 1:But if that's not compelling enough, then it's also entirely possible that the Emperor might have been an, an Ulitharid, a noble amongst illithids, who was seen as nobility and were not so easily controlled by the Elder Brain and often went on to found their own colonies and become Elder Brains themselves. And Ulitharid would see this as an opportunity to gain power for themselves and directly contest the Elder Brain. But I'm not sure that this was the case, as an Ulitharid was innately stronger than even the strongest amongst Illithids, but they were also very recognizable just by their physical appearance, being larger and having distinctly longer tentacles than the others. And we see the Emperor in game compared to other Illithids that we see are pretty similar. There aren't any major physical differences other than the robes that he wears, but his tentacles are basically the same length as anyone else. So, that being said, it would make sense if the emperor was an Ullothar, since the Elder Brain later chooses them out of the colony to lead an expedition and they would choose someone who they knew was stronger than the rest. But I choose to just believe that they were a regular illithid who consumed the Braid of Balduran and used his memories to gain power within Baldur's Gate. This theory makes sense to me and it fits nicely within the established lore, instead of intruding upon it and making its own rules Not to say that Larian wasn't given the leeway to do so, and I'm sure that they came upon the myth of the adversary and thought that that was something that they could use. But I think that changing the decades of lore on Mind Flayers to say that it's possible to retain your memories through Seromorphosis is a bit insane, and since it's more or less left up to interpretation, since there isn't much detail given about Balderan's disappearance, I again think that this is the most lore-friendly way to approach it, and I think it gives an extra dimension of malice to the illithids using someone else's memories to influence the ones they love and gaining power through it. It really feels like an illithid thing to do. And that wraps up this episode on Balderan and the Emperor and brings me to the question that never gets any answers what do you think? Do you think that my theory about Balderan being consumed by an illithid rather than being transformed has any merit, or do you think that he was able to just retain his memories through seromorphosis?
Speaker 1:You can find us online at Lord's Death on your favorite social media apps Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We're also on YouTube, so if you head over there and hit subscribe, I would really appreciate that. If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, please send me a message wherever you can find me, or at lordtodeath at gmailcom. If you're using the Spotify app, there's a comment section attached to the episode where you can submit any questions or topics, and if you're on YouTube. Leave a comment. I would love to hear from you and remember history tells us that you can do great things by sailing west to a new continent and terrorizing the local people into giving you riches beyond measure which you can bring back home so you can build a big ass wall and turn into an alien. That doesn't mean you should steal from the local populations and use it for your own gain, but I guess if your life as a fishmonger gets boring, then it's always technically an option and I'll lure you to death in the next episode. See ya.
