October 2, 2024 • 41 mins
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hey there, welcome to the Lord to Death podcast, a
deep dive into the lore of yourfavorite games, movies, shows
and more.
My name is Brett and today I'mgoing to do some fan service and
hop back into the world ofBaldur's Gate and Dungeons and
Dragons.
And what better way to do thatthan to dive into the lore of
the namesake of Baldur's Gatehimself,.
(00:34):
This is a great one, in myopinion, because not only do we
get some great 5e lore, but wealso get a ton of new
information from Baldur's Gate 3.
But we also get a ton of newinformation from Baldur's Gate 3
.
And, with that being said,there are plenty of spoilers for
this episode if you haven'tfinished Baldur's Gate 3.
We're going to be talking aboutsome revelations from Act 3
towards the end of the game.
(00:55):
So this is a very spoiler-heavyepisode if you haven't finished
the game.
So just a fair warning thatthis 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 getstarted, I just want to ask
that you rate this podcast fivestars wherever you're listening
to it, or like and subscribe ifyou're on YouTube.
(01:16):
The only way that I know thatyou're properly enjoying the
content that I make is if youlet me know.
So please rate the show, leavea comment or send an email To
lordtodeath at gmailcom Tosuggest an episode or just say
hi.
I also think it's worth notingthat this is officially our 40th
episode Of the show, and that'snot including the break weeks
(01:36):
or the intro or any of that.
So 40 proper lore episodes,which I think is bonkers, quite,
frankly.
So thank you to everyone whodoes listen and thank you to
everyone who keeps recommendingme content, because as much as I
do this show for myself, Ireally do it because people seem
to want it.
Thank you for 40 episodes, andmaybe we'll get to another 40.
(01:58):
We'll see.
So with that out of the way,let's get on with the episode.
Baldur's Gate was not always themassive walled city that we all
know and love today.
It was once just a small harborsettlement called Grey Harbor,
settled in the continent ofFaerun, just along the eastern
Sword Coast, which was mostlyknown as a hideout for pirates,
(02:18):
scavengers and other shady folks.
Grey Harbor was a secludedhaven where people could stash
their looted treasures and sellthem off for coin, and it was
this Grey Harbor that was hometo Balduran the Brave, who was a
young human male that yearnedfor adventure.
Being a harbor town that waslikely little else to do but
(02:39):
sail, fish and trade.
Balduran, known as Baldur tohis friends, was the first to
sail across the trackless sea tothe east of the Sword Coast,
beyond Evermeet, the home of theelves.
It's said that Balderan sailedout in a simple search for
resources that could be loggedand brought back to his home of
Grey Harbor so that they couldbuild up and he could give
something back to his home.
(02:59):
Whether he did so knowingly ornot, he ended up sailing far
east and discovered an entirelynew continent, which was known
as Ankarome, and he was thefirst native from Faerun to set
foot on those lands.
But that doesn't mean it wasuninhabited.
There was a native populationthere.
He was just the first one fromFaerun to step foot on it.
(03:20):
He was gone for years beforereturning to his home, but when
he came back he was no longerjust an unremarkable man from
Grey Harbor.
Balderan came back from Ankaromewith untold riches.
The contents of his pillage areunknown, but they are known to
have been fairly vast.
Balderan came back with talesof strange lands across the seas
(03:43):
and the loot that was justlaying there for him.
But he did not come back justto brag about his wealth to
those in Grey Harbor, butinstead invested it in his town.
After all, he just set out forsome logging supplies or other
things to build up Grey Harborwith.
So when he came back with farmore than he bargained for, why
not put it back into the placewhere he lived?
(04:04):
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 toprotect them from orc barbarians
who would raid their fields.
This massive wall that heinvested in would end up being
more important and defining inthe town's history than Balderan
likely knew, and in honor ofthe one who made it possible,
(04:27):
one of the gates of this massivewall was named after him.
This is pretty far in thefuture and it would be past his
time, but this gate would beknown as Baldur's Gate.
It started off with just theone gate being named after him,
and then the entire cityeventually just became known as
Baldur's Gate because of thesignificance of this gate, and
(04:48):
it said that, if not forBalderan, grey Harbor would have
been nothing, an insignificantblip in the dozens of
settlements along the SwordCoast.
But because of the investmentsmade by Balderan, the town was
able to become more than justthe harbor for criminals that it
was known for, and it was ableto become the bustling
metropolis that we know it astoday.
Because of the wall that wasbuilt around the town, farmers
(05:10):
were able to start taxing cartscoming up from the docks into
the protection of the city,generating extra revenue with
which they were able tocontinuously expand the city.
And as the city expanded aroundit, gray Harbor remained a core
part of the settlement, whichwould be later referred to as
Old Town.
But we're kind of getting aheadof ourselves.
So let's get back to BalderinSomewhere along the line.
(05:33):
Whether it was before or afterhis voyage to Ancorome, I'm not
really sure, but I would hazardto say that it was before and
Ancer was probably with him whenhe sailed to Ancorome.
Hazard to say that it wasbefore, and Answer was probably
with him.
When he sailed to Ancorome,baldur met Answer, who would
become his best friend, andpotentially more than that.
Answer, however, was a bronzedragon.
His true form was that of abronze dragon, but like most
(06:01):
metallic dragons, he spent mostof his time in a humanoid form
which closely resembled that ofa bronze dragonborn.
I would personally love to knowhow they met, whether it was in
Answer's dragon or humanoidform.
I wonder if Answer in hishumanoid form was a regular
around Grey Harbor or if maybeBalderan met him as a dragon in
his adventures.
Either way, I think thatthere's a lot of story there.
(06:23):
There's a lot of lore that Ithink could be explored and I
think it would be pretty neat,but unfortunately we don't know,
and will likely never know, thedetails of their first meeting.
But what we do know is thatthey were very, very dear to
each other, adventuring togetherand being faithful to one
another almost to a fault.
It's very much implied thatthey were more than friends and
(06:45):
potentially even lovers.
It's honestly much more thanimplied in a letter titled Dear
Answer, where Balderan writesyou are the greatest thing that
ever happened to me.
Answer, Be free, answer, flyand know that even when I'm not
beside you, I will always havebeen your Balderan.
As well as a conversationin-game where they simply refer
(07:07):
to themselves as more thanfriends.
You can read this in manydifferent ways, like a deeply
affectionate, platonicrelationship, more akin to
brotherhood as to lovers.
But I'm definitely in thelatter camp, I feel like,
through understanding theirinteractions together.
As we'll kind of get into, itreads as a tragic love story,
(07:27):
but I'm kind of getting ahead ofmyself once again and I just
cannot reiterate how much thesetwo cared for each other,
because it's very important tothe rest of the episode, and
whether or not you see them asfriends or lovers doesn't really
matter.
In the end, it's all justopinion matter.
In the end, it's all justopinion.
But regardless, the two wouldspend plenty of time traveling
(07:47):
together, whether it was farnorth to the Great Ice Sea in
search of the great spire builtby the Gondor gnomes, or
trekking across the Kalim desert.
The two were never far apart.
But at some point in the mid11th century, dr Balderan would
embark on one final adventure.
Dr Balderan would embark on onefinal adventure and this time
he would go without answer.
(08:14):
Most had no idea where he went.
Some theorized that Ankaromestole his heart and that he had
sailed back east to find a homethere and that he had died of
old age.
Others say that maybe his shipwas taken by raiders and his
body was lost to the sea.
And while the latter ispotentially more correct than
the former, neither of thosewere necessarily the case.
And maybe these theories werecorrect, but to know that we're
going to have to jump forwardabout 300 years.
(08:37):
In the year 1364 DR, one of thedukes of Baldur's Gate, grand
Duke Eltan, set out to find thefinal resting place of Balderan
and I know we're talking aboutBalderan, but we've barely
talked about his life at all.
And now we're already talkingabout his death.
Just hold on, it'll kind ofmake sense, we'll get back there
.
And why did they decide to tryto do this after all this time?
(09:01):
Probably the same reason whysome jackasses tried to find the
wreckage of the TitanicCuriosity and clout.
Is that too soon?
Eh, either way, they decidedthe 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 aruined fort with plenty of
rusted and broken weapons andarmor, along with a ship's
(09:24):
logbook.
They presumed that this waswhere Balduran and his crew had
ended up, and while they weresearching the wreckage, they
were assaulted by a group oflocal elves and made the
assumption that this might havebeen the same fighting force, or
potentially the descendants ofthat fighting force, that
Balduran encountered, and thesearch party was forced to
retreat retreat lest they shareBalduran's fate.
(09:46):
However, it seemed like thiswas misguided and there was no
actually reason to believe thatthis was the wreckage of that of
Balderan's crew and,furthermore, no reason to assume
that this is necessarily wherehe had died.
A few years later, in 1368 DR,the shipwreck of the Wandering
Eye Balderan's vessel was saidto have been found, along with a
(10:07):
logbook which had entries fromBalderan himself.
Though much of it was damaged,there was one lone survivor
named Dredil who was able toparse through the information
and shed some light on what hadhappened.
It turns out that on their waypast Evermeet, the vessel was
boarded by some elves whomBaldurand personally took some
issue with finding them to besuspicious, and he found a way
(10:29):
to get them off his vessel assoon as possible.
Then, when they reachedAnchorome again, they were met
with some of the nativepopulation who took issue with
Baldurand for some issues thathe may have caused during his
first visit.
What this was about I'm notreally sure, but it doesn't seem
like there's any moreinformation about his first
visit to Anchorome.
(10:50):
Unfortunately, however Balduranwas permitted to pass through
the lands because of thestrength of the crew that he
brought with him.
They managed to amass anothertrove of treasure, which they
loaded up onto their ship andheaded eastbound and down back
to Baldur's Gate.
When they were attacked andBalderan lost half of his crew.
Needing to replace the numberthat was lost in his crew, he
(11:12):
conscripted some of the localsto his crew and they began
sailing.
Among those locals who he hadconscripted, he found a shaman
who, again, he took issue withand had him thrown overboard.
Bad move, balderan.
Bad move because the rest ofthe trip was plagued with bad
weather and beetles infestingthe food supplies, which led to
(11:33):
an all-time low in crew morale.
They were able to find an islandon their way back and forcibly
set anchor and hopefullyreplenish some of their supplies
.
When things took an evensharper turn for the worse,
members of his crew startedshowing signs of sickness, which
apparently turned out to belycanthropy, and if you know
anything about lycanthropy, youknow that it is not exactly a
(11:57):
good time.
The members of Balderan's crewwho weren't yet infected were
soon killed by those who hadtransformed, and the Wandering
Eye was damaged to the pointwhere it wasn't even seaworthy.
Trudeau was able to fend offthe lycanthropes and became
marooned on the island until hewas rescued by some passing-by
adventurers, along with theother members that survived,
with the crew.
(12:17):
Amongst the wreckage, they wereable to salvage some of
Balderan's personal effects,which ended up in a museum in
Baldur's Gate, and it's not saidwhat happened to Balderan
specifically, but we can assumethat he was among the living,
who was saved by the adventurers, because his story seems to
continue, and he managed to makeit back to Baldur's Gate, or at
(12:37):
least very close to it.
Balderan heard of some fabledtreasures that lay beneath
Moonrise Towers in the WesternHeartlands, a location that most
people listening to thisepisode will be more than
familiar with.
It's said that Balderan's shipwas capsized and he was taken
captive while looking for thistreasure trove.
Being so close to the Underdark,there was always the threat of
(13:00):
running into Drow, draegar or,worse, illithids, and I'm going
under the assumption thateveryone listening to this
episode knows about Illithids,or Mind Flayers as they are more
commonly known as.
If you didn't catch it, I dohave an episode about Mind
Flayers, so go ahead and listento that one if you haven't
already.
There's a lot of really goodinformation in that episode that
(13:22):
will help you to understand whythey are the threat they are,
and it'll help you understandthe following a bit better as
well.
I'm going to reference thatepisode quite a few times in the
next little bit.
So if you haven't listened tothe episode on Mind Flayers, go
back and do so.
Whether it's before or afterthis episode doesn't really
matter.
And the reason why I'm puttingso much emphasis on the
illithids is that, unfortunatelyfor Balderan, he accidentally
(13:46):
ran headfirst into an illithidcolony and was captured,
infected with an illithidtadpole and underwent
seromorphosis turning him intoan illithid enslaved by the
colony's elder brain.
There's not much worse of afate than being taken and turned
into an illithid.
In the episode I just mentioned, I go through the entire
process of seromorphosis, but Ithink it's worth reiterating
(14:09):
that one who undergoes thisprocess ceases to be themselves.
The tadpole consumes its host'sbrain and uses it as sustenance
to grow and take over the bodyas they become an illithid
Because there's no brain left.
The host is no longer who orwhat they once were.
They are now entirely anillithid whose entire purpose is
(14:31):
to serve the Elder Brain, whichexerts a field of control over
every illithid within a certainradius, and this was the fate of
Balduran, or so it seems.
Anyways, balderan remained anillithid and served the Elder
Brain in the Underdark Colonyfor around 10 years.
I see some sources stating thatit was around 14 years, but
(14:53):
from what I remember fromin-game it was closer to 10
years, and this was according toa record of interrogation by
Enver Gortash.
And for all that time, hisfriend Answer was probably
looking for him, as Balderandidn't allow Answer to come with
him on his last voyage, whichlasted who knows how long
probably years and Answer becameconcerned about the fact that
(15:13):
his little sweetling had notreturned for several years, and
so he had set out to find him.
I wish that there was anaccount of this anywhere other
than just a vague mention,because I think it makes for a
great story, or it would makefor a great story rather.
But somehow Answer managed torescue Balderan, or at least
what remained of him.
And, yes, that does mean thathe went down into the Illithid
(15:35):
colony and managed to save theIllithid that was once Balderan.
And I have a problem with this,a big problem that will come up
time and time again, andsomething I brought up in my
episode about mind flayers andHulby.
Damned if I don't repeat itagain Balderan should not have
been Balderan anymore.
He was an illithid.
There are many different kindsof illithids, sure, but the
(15:58):
average illithid, as Balderanwould have come to be, looks
exactly the same as the otherdozens of illithids in their
colony, as this is a product ofseromorphosis and part of the
illithid grand design that theyare the perfect beings who
basically all mirror one another.
Furthermore, like I mentionedbefore.
Furthermore, like I mentionedbefore, through the process of
(16:20):
seromorphosis, one ceases to bethemselves as they are
transformed, because theillithid tadpole literally
consumes their brain matter inorder to kickstart the
transformation process.
This is known and is documentedthrough every source material
that there is on illithids up tothis point, until this game,
except for one other, and thatsource is about a bedtime story
(16:42):
where there was an illithid whomaintained the memories of who
they were before seromorphosisand managed to stay conscious as
themselves and overthrow anillithid colony.
This being was known as theadversary, but there's nothing
more to suggest that this wasanything more than a myth.
And even if there were anythingto suggest that this actually
(17:03):
happened.
It only ever happened once, andas far as I'm concerned it was
a myth created by illithids tofurther introduce mistrust
amongst themselves and to makethem aware of bad eggs who might
not be fully under the ElderBrain's control, so they can
weed them out, because that didhappen.
On occasion there were renegadeillithids amongst illithid
colonies who weren't entirelyunder the control, but they were
(17:25):
still illithids.
They were not who they werebefore they became an illithid.
The only documented cases of anillithid retaining anything from
their former life was insubconscious tics, like humming
a familiar tune or tapping theirfeet or writing a certain way
or something that was soingrained in the host's muscle
memory that it just kind ofhappened when they were drifting
(17:48):
into a daydream.
But again, it was asubconscious movement, not a
memory or a part of themselvesactually coming through.
And you might be thinking,brett, that's a pretty cynical
take, and you might havecontradicted yourself by
bringing up the myth andunconscious tics, and I disagree
.
There's so much lore out therethat states that nalithid and
(18:09):
the host cannot exist at thesame time, and I think all of
that source material trumps anymyth or coincidence.
You could, however, come to theview that the adversary was
real and that baldurin ended uphaving the exact same thing
happen to him, where he washimself in an illithid's body.
That's pretty convenient forthe rest of the story and it's
(18:33):
pretty convenient for someonewho basically built up Baldur's
Gate to retain their memoriesand still live underneath
Baldur's Gate, basically, and Ijust think it's too much of a
coincidence to subscribe to thattrain of thought.
But you could take it that wayand I'm not saying that you're
wrong if you do take it that waythat Balderan was the same as
the adversary, or maybe theadversary was Balderan Because,
(18:56):
as we know, illithids exist kindof across all of time.
So maybe Balderan was theadversary and that myth made it
back in time and was toldthroughout time to warn people
that this was going to happen.
But again, I don't reallysubscribe to that theory.
I think that this is more orless impossible.
But I do have my own theories.
I'll save that for later.
(19:16):
Furthermore, onto my last.
Furthermore, it had been adecade since baldurand
disappeared, or I guess justover, and I don't doubt that.
Answer would have been able totrace baldurand's footsteps to
moonrise towers.
Answer was an adventurer, afterall, and I think that part of
the story is entirely likely.
I also believe that a bronzedragon would have been able to
(19:37):
go into an illithid colony andcome out on the other side.
That that seems perfectlylikely.
What I don't think is likely isthat Answer managed to find one
illithid amongst the entirecolony, identify him as Balderan
and rescue him.
I just don't think that couldbe possible.
And yet here we are.
Allegedly, answer was able torescue Balderan from the
(20:00):
Illithid colony and take himoutside of the Elder Brain's
influence, where somehowBalderan was still Balderan
through seromorphosis.
I'm going to come back to thistowards the end of the episode
because I think I have a littlebit of a crackpot theory, but I
think it's the only thing thatactually makes any amount of
sense.
That isn't just saying thatBalderan was the adversary, but
(20:22):
for now let's just continue withjust saying that Balderan was
the adversary.
But for now let's just continuewith the story of Balderan.
Even though Balderan was takenoutside of the Elder Brain's
influence, he was still verymuch an illithid, although he
allegedly had the full memoriesof his previous life as Balderan
, with one fairly largeexception he could no longer
feel emotion.
(20:42):
That meant that he no longerfelt any affection towards
Answer, as reflected in DearAnswer, where he writes I may no
longer feel my feelings, but Iknow yours and yours are agony.
This agony that he describes isthe agony that Answer's lover
might as well be gone if hecould no longer feel any
affection towards him.
(21:03):
This agony caused Anser tosearch far and wide for an
answer to bring Balderan back inhis entirety.
Balderan didn't wish to be anillithid either, but he
understood that no amount ofmedicine or medical
professionals could bring himback.
He pleaded to Anser that heshould stop trying to find a
cure and accept the situationfor what it was.
(21:24):
Balderan was now an illithidfull stop, and eventually
Balderan embraced his new form.
He came to understand that thepsionic powers that he was
granted were a boon, not a curse, a natural part of his
evolution into something greater.
Of course, this evolution camewith the fact that he had to
feed on brains to sustainhimself.
(21:46):
But he decided to prowl thestreets looking for criminals to
feed on, attempting to make hishome of Baldur's Gate a better
place in his own little way.
But Answer could not abide bythis.
We learn that Answer would notcease trying to find a way to
revert him back to his humanform as the Baldurin that he
once knew and loved, even whenasked repeatedly to stop once
(22:07):
Balderan had accepted his newform.
And so Anser decided that theonly cure that he had not tried
yet was breaking his mortal coiland attempted to murder
Balderan in his sleep as an actof mercy.
Balderan awoke before this actcould be done and stood his
ground against Answer, who wouldnot back down from this course
(22:29):
of action.
Wielding his giant slayergreatsword, which conveniently
worked against dragons I'm notsure if that counted when Answer
was in his human form or notBalderan struck Answer down in
an act of self-preservation.
Answer's remains were taken farbelow Worms Rock Isle, which we
can assume was named after thefact that Answer's remains were
(22:50):
laying there, and this was inBaldur's Gate and left in what
would be called the Dragon'sSanctum.
This spot would be the place oflegends and generally thought
of as a myth, since it washidden away and I didn't find
anything to support this exactly, but it seems that Balderan had
this place built specificallyfor answer.
There are statues of Balderanthroughout the area, leading
(23:12):
those who would enter through aseries of tests to determine
whether or not they were worthyof entering the sanctum.
While it may have seemed like amyth that there was the corpse
of a dragon underneath Worm'sRock, there were a few who truly
believed it to be the case andnot a myth, like older Ravengard
Will, ravengard's father, who,during the crisis that happened
during the events of Baldur'sGate 3, believed that the only
(23:34):
way to take down the absolutewas to awaken the dragon and
have him fight alongside them.
But anyways, after all of thiskerfuffle, having killed his
closest ally, balduran decidedthat this was still his city and
he would use his new form torule from the shadows, since no
one would accept an illithidopenly ruling them.
He forged a close relationshipwith duke stellman, who was on
(23:58):
the council of four at the time.
This council was a group offour wealthy individuals who
were chosen to rule baldur'sgate in a plutocracy, which
basically just means the wealthyrule.
Balderan would help DukeStalmane and meet with her on
matters that concerned the citygoverning forces behind the
Knights of the Shield, who werethe largest mercantile operation
in Baldur's Gate and eventuallybecame known as the Emperor,
(24:24):
and I'm guessing that he neverindulged Duke Stalman, that he
was once Baldur and that createdthe necessity for a pseudonym
to refer to him by.
And yes, this is the sameEmperor that we meet in Baldur's
Gate 3.
And he tells us all of this ingame, in bits and pieces,
revealing only what is necessaryat that point to gain our trust
.
And I think that it should beplainly obvious.
(24:46):
But I think it's worth notingthat everything the emperor has
told us should be taken with agrain of salt.
Whether he was actuallyBalderan or not, the one thing
that Adelithids all have incommon is that they lie
incessantly to save their ownskin and to further their own
plans.
If we assume that he was indeedBalderran, then we have to
assume that the story about howAnswer tried to kill him in his
(25:08):
sleep might have beenexaggerated, if it was even true
to begin with.
I would sooner believe that,since Answer was assumedly the
only one who knew of theEmperor's identity as Baldran,
the Emperor killed Answer incold blood so that there was no
one else that could tie him backto his original identity and he
could start new as the emperor.
(25:29):
He probably would have wantedto preserve the image of
baldurin and have people believethat he was lost to sea or
living out a lavish retirementin anchorome and not turned into
something that they could onlyfear.
That's my opinion, though, andI think that I have every right
to be skeptical about everythingthat the emperor says.
(25:49):
Skepticism aside, the emperorwas doing his best to take
control over the city that wasonce his home.
He started to overreach withthe duke's domain, and their
relationship deteriorated overtime.
It's unclear exactly whatfacilitated this change, but it
was probably something along thelines of the emperor taking too
much too quickly.
Perhaps he was pushing his ownagenda to the point where it was
(26:12):
obvious to Duke Stelmain thathe was using her as a pawn in
his own twisted game.
Perhaps she tried to speak outagainst him and get him off of
her back, and the emperorthreatened her life.
I wouldn't put it past him.
And the Emperor threatened herlife.
I wouldn't put it past him, andI just want to say that it's
hard to say how long the Emperorhad been trying to rule from
the shadows, but we can do somequick maths.
One source says that Balderansailed to Ancorome in the
(26:35):
mid-thousands DR, and we knowthat he spent 10 years in the
Illithid colony, and we cangather that he spent a few years
in Baldur's Gate itself whileit was being built up through
his philanthropic efforts.
So we can safely say thatBalderan was back in Baldur's
Gate as an illithid somewherebetween 1080 and 1100 DR.
But then there's the othersource that says that he left on
(26:56):
his final journey in the mid1100s DR.
But that doesn't really makesense.
If he was born in the mid 1000sDR, as he was only human, his
lifespan was not that long.
So I'm going to go with himbeing an illithid somewhere
between 1080 and 1100 DR.
The events of Baldur's Gate 3take place in 1492 DR, so we
(27:17):
have a period of about 400 yearswhere the emperor is
potentially attempting to runBaldur's Gate from the shadows.
But we know that Duke Stalmaindied to the members of the cult
of Baal after suffering a strokewhich left her as a shell of
her former self in 1491 DR.
So that relationship definitelydidn't come up until later, and
(27:38):
this was likely the peak of theemperor's influence over
Baldur's Gate.
So before he even knew DukeStalmane and was maybe
officially known as the emperor,he had been doing this for 300
some odd years.
I just think it's interestingto put all of this into
perspective, because it makesthe story of Balderan and the
emperor so much more interestingknowing that he was in the city
(27:59):
when it was just Grey Harborand he was there through the
forming of the metropolis thatis Baldur's Gate and was able to
directly see the fruits of hisefforts being put into place to
build it up, and, illithid ornot having the memories of
Balderan seeing his city beingbuilt up, that makes sense why
(28:19):
it was so important to him.
Over time, people began to knowof the Emperor, but only in name
and not identity.
Over time, people began to knowof 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 cityrun.
However, one day someone wouldlearn of his true identity and
bring it all to ruin.
That person was Enver Gortash,the chosen of Baal and the
(28:42):
leader of the absolute.
Gortash, who we should all befamiliar with at this point,
found out the true identity ofthe emperor, or at least he
found out that he was anillithid who was attempting to
run Baldur's Gate.
Who knows if he knew that hewas.
Potentially, once Balderan andEnver Gortash had him abducted,
the emperor would be sent backto the illithid colony and back
(29:04):
to the Elder Brain, where hewould once again be subjected to
its will, but not entirely.
He clung to his moniker, theEmperor, as it brought him some
sense of comfort, even in hisfull Illithid form, under the
Elder Brain.
This Elder Brain was the sameone that he was held captive to
when he was abducted severalhundred years ago, when he was
initially turned, but it was anew beast.
(29:27):
At this point, the Elder Brainwas under the influence of the
Dead Three, who used theNetherese Crown of Karsus to
have it do their bidding for theCult of the Absolute.
The crown was stolen by Endra,gortash and the Balspawn, known
as the Dark Urge, who took itfrom the vault of the Archdevil
Mephistopheles and used it toenslave the brain.
(29:47):
The entire point of this was tobe able to implant illithid
tadpoles into people's heads andnot have them undergo
seromorphosis immediately.
The tadpole would lay dormantuntil the Elder Brain gave the
command turning all of theaffected into illithids
immediately, essentially givingthe Dead Three an immediate,
overwhelming army at the snap ofa finger to take over Baldur's
(30:10):
Gate in the blink of an eye.
And that brings us to the eventsof Baldur's Gate 3, or just
before it, in the same year of1492, dr, the Illithid that was
once known as the Emperor, wassent out on a mission to
retrieve the Astral Prism, whichwas a Githyanki device.
That had two different purposes.
The first was to act as anavigational device which led to
(30:31):
a pocket dimension where thedescendant of Gith Orpheus was
being held.
The second purpose was directlyrelated to the first fact,
because Orpheus was basicallyattached to this artifact, which
meant that it projected a fieldwhich disrupted the effects of
illithid psionics, since Orpheusinherited that gift from his
mother.
That might sound a lot if youhaven't listened to the episode
(30:54):
on the Githyanki and theGithzeri.
So I do have an episode allabout that where I explain this
more in detail.
Another plug, I know.
And since this artifact had theability to disrupt the influence
of the Elder Brain and otherillithids, including the
tadpoles that lay dormant inpeople's heads, it was a very
clear threat to the Dead Three,gortash and the Absolute in
(31:15):
general.
You might think it's a mightyfine coincidence that the
Emperor just happened to beamong the search parties, but it
wasn't a thing of chance in theslightest.
The Elder Brain, while enslaved, had its own notions of
overthrowing the Dead Three andtheir Chosen so that it could
have its own free will back.
The Brain must have known ofthe Emperor's past and his
strength and specifically chosethem to do their bidding,
(31:38):
unbeknownst to the Emperor.
Still a good coincidence thatthe Emperor was back under the
control of the elder brain andthat he was able to be chosen
for this mission.
But it was all part of the plan.
Aboard a nautiloid with aninquisition of other mind
flayers, the emperor was amongthe first of several parties to
locate the astral prism.
Upon making contact with it,his free will was given back to
(32:00):
him.
As the artifact began tonullify the effects of the elder
brain, he was able to escapeinto the prism, where he was
able to find a void of solace inthe Astral Prism, along with
Orpheus, who was also imprisonedthere.
Having taken the artifact fromthe Githyanki, the Nautiloid was
soon overtaken by Githyankidragon riders, which is where we
start the game.
(32:21):
The player character, alongwith the Githyanki warrior
La'Zell and the shah-worshippingShadowheart, crash land onto
the beach with the artifact andthus begin their journey unaware
of the influence that theEmperor had in their survival,
as from the prism, he was ableto still use his psionic powers
and stop them from dying uponimpact with the ground, and so
(32:43):
the Emperor helps the party intheir journey and leads them to
get rid of the Chosen of theDead Three.
At first, he attempted to maskhis true form by coming to them
in visions as their dreamguardian, disguised in a form
that was more suitable to theirtastes, something more humanoid.
Eventually, the gig was up andhis form as an Illithid was
revealed, and he pleads to theplayer character that this ruse
(33:05):
was a necessity, since theywouldn't have trusted him in his
illithid form initially, whichis likely true.
He continues to spin talesthroughout the story, telling
lies and twisting the truthwhere it needs to be in order to
get the player character ontheir side, and, unfortunately,
this is where things get a bittricky, because the game is very
open ended and driven bydecisions that the player
(33:27):
character makes, leading to itbeing a vastly different
experience for everyone whoplays it.
I've gone over everything thatis concrete, however, and the
only thing that's really left tothe wind is the ending of the
game and how that potentiallyaffects the Emperor's fate, but
I don't really feel like I needto go over those because, as far
as I know, there's no canonending, and I want to make sure
(33:48):
that this episode is as close tocanon as we get.
So what of Balderan's legacy?
Well, aside from having thecity be his namesake, there are
also plenty of statues ofBalderan around the city,
including a massive statue inthe river Kionthar that looks
over Grey Harbor, which isfitting, since that was his
original home.
There was also a citywidecelebration, known as Returning
(34:11):
Day, which marked Balderan'sreturn to Grey Harbor from
Anquerome.
Aside from that, the populationthat resided in Baldur's Gate
were referred to as Baldurians,sort of named after him.
And in the city there was amausoleum in the high hall which
stood as the resting place forBalderian dukes and also
contained relics from Balderan'spast, such as his cloak, his
(34:34):
spyglass and a longsword in acracked leather sheath, which
were all found from the wreckageof the Wandering Eye.
And I mean, how can you ask fora better legacy than having a
city erected in your name?
I think that the effects of hisimportance are quite evident
just in that fact.
And you probably thought I wasdone.
But I have one last thing to add, and that's the ranting and
(34:56):
rambling that I promised beforeabout a theory that I have on
the emperor regarding how hemanaged to keep his memories.
I started writing a joke aboutgetting your tinfoil hat ready,
about some crackpot theory, butI genuinely think that this is
the best answer and so I can'teven make that joke without
undermining my own theory.
So this whole thought processcomes from the idea that the
Emperor kept his memories asBalderin through Seromorphosis.
(35:19):
I've explained how this isn'tgenerally accepted as being
possible from many sourcespretty much all of the sources
and I go into further detail inmy episode about the mind
flayers as to why I don't thinkthat should be possible and I
stand by my statement.
But I come to you now with someupdated information and a
proper theory as to what I thinkhappened.
(35:40):
Balderan definitely went on thatexcursion to Moonrise Towers
and I'm certain that he gotcaptured by the Illithid colony.
The story goes that he wascaptured, taken in and underwent
seromorphosis to become anIllithid, and he managed to
retain his memories from hisprevious life as Balderan.
But knowing that the tadpoleconsumes the host's brain matter
(36:00):
in order to turn its body intothat of an Illithid, I don't
think it's possible that heretained more than the
occasional subconscious tickfrom his previous life, as I've
mentioned can happen with someillithids, and I'm here to say
that I don't think that Balderangot implanted with a tadpole.
I do not think that heunderwent seromorphosis and I do
(36:20):
not think that he got turnedinto a mind flayer.
I think that he and his partywere instead just killed and
their brains were devoured bythe colony.
Instead, from page 221 of the5e monster manual, we get the
following An illithidexperiences euphoria as it
devours the brain of a humanoid,along with its memories,
(36:42):
personality and innermost fears,and I believe that our answer
lies in that passage, and thestatement is enough to back up
my point.
A mind flayer not only gainsnourishment from devouring a
brain, but it also gains a partof that person as well,
including parts or all of theirmemories and personality.
(37:02):
I think that Nalithid simplydevoured Balderan's brain and
gained his memories andbasically impersonated him
through the rest of their life.
Ten years later, when Answercame into the colony whether he
was looking for Balderan or itwas just by happenstance on a
scouting mission this Illithid,who had Balderan's memories,
(37:22):
would have recognized Answerimmediately and saw it as a way
out.
They would have had to roll anat 20 on their performance
check, but maybe they reachedout telepathically to Answer and
begged him to get him out ofthere, and so Answer did what he
thought was right for theperson he thought he knew.
But why would an illithid haveany reason to impersonate a
(37:44):
random person who they consumed?
Well, a mind flayer's goal isto enact the grand design, which
is to say take over themultiverse.
Balderan was a historicallysignificant person who lived
above them in Baldur's Gate.
This would mean that being ableto impersonate this person
would inevitably lead to beingable to take a position of power
on the surface, which isevident by the Emperor's actions
(38:07):
leading up to the game, whichgoes directly in line with
something that an Illithid woulddesire.
Any Illithid could have thisnotion to use Balderan's
memories as a means to gainpower.
But if that's not compellingenough, then it's also entirely
possible that the Emperor mighthave been an, an Ulitharid, a
(38:32):
noble amongst illithids, who wasseen as nobility and were not
so easily controlled by theElder Brain and often went on to
found their own colonies andbecome Elder Brains themselves.
And Ulitharid would see this asan opportunity to gain power
for themselves and directlycontest the Elder Brain.
But I'm not sure that this wasthe case, as an Ulitharid was
innately stronger than even thestrongest amongst Illithids, but
(38:52):
they were also veryrecognizable just by their
physical appearance, beinglarger and having distinctly
longer tentacles than the others.
And we see the Emperor in gamecompared to other Illithids that
we see are pretty similar.
There aren't any major physicaldifferences other than the
robes that he wears, but histentacles are basically the same
(39:13):
length as anyone else.
So, that being said, it wouldmake sense if the emperor was an
Ullothar, since the Elder Brainlater chooses them out of the
colony to lead an expedition andthey would choose someone who
they knew was stronger than therest.
But I choose to just believethat they were a regular
illithid who consumed the Braidof Balduran and used his
(39:34):
memories to gain power withinBaldur's Gate.
This theory makes sense to meand it fits nicely within the
established lore, instead ofintruding upon it and making its
own rules Not to say thatLarian wasn't given the leeway
to do so, and I'm sure that theycame upon the myth of the
adversary and thought that thatwas something that they could
use.
But I think that changing thedecades of lore on Mind Flayers
(39:56):
to say that it's possible toretain your memories through
Seromorphosis is a bit insane,and since it's more or less left
up to interpretation, sincethere isn't much detail given
about Balderan's disappearance,I again think that this is the
most lore-friendly way toapproach it, and I think it
gives an extra dimension ofmalice to the illithids using
(40:16):
someone else's memories toinfluence the ones they love and
gaining power through it.
It really feels like anillithid thing to do.
And that wraps up this episodeon Balderan and the Emperor and
brings me to the question thatnever gets any answers what do
you think?
Do you think that my theoryabout Balderan being consumed by
an illithid rather than beingtransformed has any merit, or do
(40:39):
you think that he was able tojust retain his memories through
seromorphosis?
You can find us online at Lord'sDeath on your favorite social
media apps Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
We're also on YouTube, so ifyou head over there and hit
subscribe, I would reallyappreciate that.
If you have any questions orsuggestions for topics, please
send me a message wherever youcan find me, or at lordtodeath
(41:00):
at gmailcom.
If you're using the Spotify app, there's a comment section
attached to the episode whereyou can submit any questions or
topics, and if you're on YouTube.
Leave a comment.
I would love to hear from youand remember history tells us
that you can do great things bysailing west to a new continent
and terrorizing the local peopleinto giving you riches beyond
measure which you can bring backhome so you can build a big ass
(41:23):
wall and turn into an alien.
That doesn't mean you shouldsteal from the local populations
and use it for your own gain,but I guess if your life as a
fishmonger gets boring, thenit's always technically an
option and I'll lure you todeath in the next episode.
See ya.
Hey there, welcome to the Lord to Death podcast, a
deep dive into the lore of yourfavorite games, movies, shows
and more.
My name is Brett and today I'mgoing to do some fan service and
hop back into the world ofBaldur's Gate and Dungeons and
Dragons.
And what better way to do thatthan to dive into the lore of
the namesake of Baldur's Gatehimself,.
(00:34):
This is a great one, in myopinion, because not only do we
get some great 5e lore, but wealso get a ton of new
information from Baldur's Gate 3.
But we also get a ton of newinformation from Baldur's Gate 3
.
And, with that being said,there are plenty of spoilers for
this episode if you haven'tfinished Baldur's Gate 3.
We're going to be talking aboutsome revelations from Act 3
towards the end of the game.
(00:55):
So this is a very spoiler-heavyepisode if you haven't finished
the game.
So just a fair warning thatthis 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 getstarted, I just want to ask
that you rate this podcast fivestars wherever you're listening
to it, or like and subscribe ifyou're on YouTube.
(01:16):
The only way that I know thatyou're properly enjoying the
content that I make is if youlet me know.
So please rate the show, leavea comment or send an email To
lordtodeath at gmailcom Tosuggest an episode or just say
hi.
I also think it's worth notingthat this is officially our 40th
episode Of the show, and that'snot including the break weeks
(01:36):
or the intro or any of that.
So 40 proper lore episodes,which I think is bonkers, quite,
frankly.
So thank you to everyone whodoes listen and thank you to
everyone who keeps recommendingme content, because as much as I
do this show for myself, Ireally do it because people seem
to want it.
Thank you for 40 episodes, andmaybe we'll get to another 40.
(01:58):
We'll see.
So with that out of the way,let's get on with the episode.
Baldur's Gate was not always themassive walled city that we all
know and love today.
It was once just a small harborsettlement called Grey Harbor,
settled in the continent ofFaerun, just along the eastern
Sword Coast, which was mostlyknown as a hideout for pirates,
(02:18):
scavengers and other shady folks.
Grey Harbor was a secludedhaven where people could stash
their looted treasures and sellthem off for coin, and it was
this Grey Harbor that was hometo Balduran the Brave, who was a
young human male that yearnedfor adventure.
Being a harbor town that waslikely little else to do but
(02:39):
sail, fish and trade.
Balduran, known as Baldur tohis friends, was the first to
sail across the trackless sea tothe east of the Sword Coast,
beyond Evermeet, the home of theelves.
It's said that Balderan sailedout in a simple search for
resources that could be loggedand brought back to his home of
Grey Harbor so that they couldbuild up and he could give
something back to his home.
(02:59):
Whether he did so knowingly ornot, he ended up sailing far
east and discovered an entirelynew continent, which was known
as Ankarome, and he was thefirst native from Faerun to set
foot on those lands.
But that doesn't mean it wasuninhabited.
There was a native populationthere.
He was just the first one fromFaerun to step foot on it.
(03:20):
He was gone for years beforereturning to his home, but when
he came back he was no longerjust an unremarkable man from
Grey Harbor.
Balderan came back from Ankaromewith untold riches.
The contents of his pillage areunknown, but they are known to
have been fairly vast.
Balderan came back with talesof strange lands across the seas
(03:43):
and the loot that was justlaying there for him.
But he did not come back justto brag about his wealth to
those in Grey Harbor, butinstead invested it in his town.
After all, he just set out forsome logging supplies or other
things to build up Grey Harborwith.
So when he came back with farmore than he bargained for, why
not put it back into the placewhere he lived?
(04:04):
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 toprotect them from orc barbarians
who would raid their fields.
This massive wall that heinvested in would end up being
more important and defining inthe town's history than Balderan
likely knew, and in honor ofthe one who made it possible,
(04:27):
one of the gates of this massivewall was named after him.
This is pretty far in thefuture and it would be past his
time, but this gate would beknown as Baldur's Gate.
It started off with just theone gate being named after him,
and then the entire cityeventually just became known as
Baldur's Gate because of thesignificance of this gate, and
(04:48):
it said that, if not forBalderan, grey Harbor would have
been nothing, an insignificantblip in the dozens of
settlements along the SwordCoast.
But because of the investmentsmade by Balderan, the town was
able to become more than justthe harbor for criminals that it
was known for, and it was ableto become the bustling
metropolis that we know it astoday.
Because of the wall that wasbuilt around the town, farmers
(05:10):
were able to start taxing cartscoming up from the docks into
the protection of the city,generating extra revenue with
which they were able tocontinuously expand the city.
And as the city expanded aroundit, gray Harbor remained a core
part of the settlement, whichwould be later referred to as
Old Town.
But we're kind of getting aheadof ourselves.
So let's get back to BalderinSomewhere along the line.
(05:33):
Whether it was before or afterhis voyage to Ancorome, I'm not
really sure, but I would hazardto say that it was before and
Ancer was probably with him whenhe sailed to Ancorome.
Hazard to say that it wasbefore, and Answer was probably
with him.
When he sailed to Ancorome,baldur met Answer, who would
become his best friend, andpotentially more than that.
Answer, however, was a bronzedragon.
His true form was that of abronze dragon, but like most
(06:01):
metallic dragons, he spent mostof his time in a humanoid form
which closely resembled that ofa bronze dragonborn.
I would personally love to knowhow they met, whether it was in
Answer's dragon or humanoidform.
I wonder if Answer in hishumanoid form was a regular
around Grey Harbor or if maybeBalderan met him as a dragon in
his adventures.
Either way, I think thatthere's a lot of story there.
(06:23):
There's a lot of lore that Ithink could be explored and I
think it would be pretty neat,but unfortunately we don't know,
and will likely never know, thedetails of their first meeting.
But what we do know is thatthey were very, very dear to
each other, adventuring togetherand being faithful to one
another almost to a fault.
It's very much implied thatthey were more than friends and
(06:45):
potentially even lovers.
It's honestly much more thanimplied in a letter titled Dear
Answer, where Balderan writesyou are the greatest thing that
ever happened to me.
Answer, Be free, answer, flyand know that even when I'm not
beside you, I will always havebeen your Balderan.
As well as a conversationin-game where they simply refer
(07:07):
to themselves as more thanfriends.
You can read this in manydifferent ways, like a deeply
affectionate, platonicrelationship, more akin to
brotherhood as to lovers.
But I'm definitely in thelatter camp, I feel like,
through understanding theirinteractions together.
As we'll kind of get into, itreads as a tragic love story,
(07:27):
but I'm kind of getting ahead ofmyself once again and I just
cannot reiterate how much thesetwo cared for each other,
because it's very important tothe rest of the episode, and
whether or not you see them asfriends or lovers doesn't really
matter.
In the end, it's all justopinion matter.
In the end, it's all justopinion.
But regardless, the two wouldspend plenty of time traveling
(07:47):
together, whether it was farnorth to the Great Ice Sea in
search of the great spire builtby the Gondor gnomes, or
trekking across the Kalim desert.
The two were never far apart.
But at some point in the mid11th century, dr Balderan would
embark on one final adventure.
Dr Balderan would embark on onefinal adventure and this time
he would go without answer.
(08:14):
Most had no idea where he went.
Some theorized that Ankaromestole his heart and that he had
sailed back east to find a homethere and that he had died of
old age.
Others say that maybe his shipwas taken by raiders and his
body was lost to the sea.
And while the latter ispotentially more correct than
the former, neither of thosewere necessarily the case.
And maybe these theories werecorrect, but to know that we're
going to have to jump forwardabout 300 years.
(08:37):
In the year 1364 DR, one of thedukes of Baldur's Gate, grand
Duke Eltan, set out to find thefinal resting place of Balderan
and I know we're talking aboutBalderan, but we've barely
talked about his life at all.
And now we're already talkingabout his death.
Just hold on, it'll kind ofmake sense, we'll get back there
.
And why did they decide to tryto do this after all this time?
(09:01):
Probably the same reason whysome jackasses tried to find the
wreckage of the TitanicCuriosity and clout.
Is that too soon?
Eh, either way, they decidedthe 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 aruined fort with plenty of
rusted and broken weapons andarmor, along with a ship's
(09:24):
logbook.
They presumed that this waswhere Balduran and his crew had
ended up, and while they weresearching the wreckage, they
were assaulted by a group oflocal elves and made the
assumption that this might havebeen the same fighting force, or
potentially the descendants ofthat fighting force, that
Balduran encountered, and thesearch party was forced to
retreat retreat lest they shareBalduran's fate.
(09:46):
However, it seemed like thiswas misguided and there was no
actually reason to believe thatthis was the wreckage of that of
Balderan's crew and,furthermore, no reason to assume
that this is necessarily wherehe had died.
A few years later, in 1368 DR,the shipwreck of the Wandering
Eye Balderan's vessel was saidto have been found, along with a
(10:07):
logbook which had entries fromBalderan himself.
Though much of it was damaged,there was one lone survivor
named Dredil who was able toparse through the information
and shed some light on what hadhappened.
It turns out that on their waypast Evermeet, the vessel was
boarded by some elves whomBaldurand personally took some
issue with finding them to besuspicious, and he found a way
(10:29):
to get them off his vessel assoon as possible.
Then, when they reachedAnchorome again, they were met
with some of the nativepopulation who took issue with
Baldurand for some issues thathe may have caused during his
first visit.
What this was about I'm notreally sure, but it doesn't seem
like there's any moreinformation about his first
visit to Anchorome.
(10:50):
Unfortunately, however Balduranwas permitted to pass through
the lands because of thestrength of the crew that he
brought with him.
They managed to amass anothertrove of treasure, which they
loaded up onto their ship andheaded eastbound and down back
to Baldur's Gate.
When they were attacked andBalderan lost half of his crew.
Needing to replace the numberthat was lost in his crew, he
(11:12):
conscripted some of the localsto his crew and they began
sailing.
Among those locals who he hadconscripted, he found a shaman
who, again, he took issue withand had him thrown overboard.
Bad move, balderan.
Bad move because the rest ofthe trip was plagued with bad
weather and beetles infestingthe food supplies, which led to
(11:33):
an all-time low in crew morale.
They were able to find an islandon their way back and forcibly
set anchor and hopefullyreplenish some of their supplies
.
When things took an evensharper turn for the worse,
members of his crew startedshowing signs of sickness, which
apparently turned out to belycanthropy, and if you know
anything about lycanthropy, youknow that it is not exactly a
(11:57):
good time.
The members of Balderan's crewwho weren't yet infected were
soon killed by those who hadtransformed, and the Wandering
Eye was damaged to the pointwhere it wasn't even seaworthy.
Trudeau was able to fend offthe lycanthropes and became
marooned on the island until hewas rescued by some passing-by
adventurers, along with theother members that survived,
with the crew.
(12:17):
Amongst the wreckage, they wereable to salvage some of
Balderan's personal effects,which ended up in a museum in
Baldur's Gate, and it's not saidwhat happened to Balderan
specifically, but we can assumethat he was among the living,
who was saved by the adventurers, because his story seems to
continue, and he managed to makeit back to Baldur's Gate, or at
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least very close to it.
Balderan heard of some fabledtreasures that lay beneath
Moonrise Towers in the WesternHeartlands, a location that most
people listening to thisepisode will be more than
familiar with.
It's said that Balderan's shipwas capsized and he was taken
captive while looking for thistreasure trove.
Being so close to the Underdark,there was always the threat of
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running into Drow, draegar or,worse, illithids, and I'm going
under the assumption thateveryone listening to this
episode knows about Illithids,or Mind Flayers as they are more
commonly known as.
If you didn't catch it, I dohave an episode about Mind
Flayers, so go ahead and listento that one if you haven't
already.
There's a lot of really goodinformation in that episode that
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will help you to understand whythey are the threat they are,
and it'll help you understandthe following a bit better as
well.
I'm going to reference thatepisode quite a few times in the
next little bit.
So if you haven't listened tothe episode on Mind Flayers, go
back and do so.
Whether it's before or afterthis episode doesn't really
matter.
And the reason why I'm puttingso much emphasis on the
illithids is that, unfortunatelyfor Balderan, he accidentally
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ran headfirst into an illithidcolony and was captured,
infected with an illithidtadpole and underwent
seromorphosis turning him intoan illithid enslaved by the
colony's elder brain.
There's not much worse of afate than being taken and turned
into an illithid.
In the episode I just mentioned, I go through the entire
process of seromorphosis, but Ithink it's worth reiterating
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that one who undergoes thisprocess ceases to be themselves.
The tadpole consumes its host'sbrain and uses it as sustenance
to grow and take over the bodyas they become an illithid
Because there's no brain left.
The host is no longer who orwhat they once were.
They are now entirely anillithid whose entire purpose is
(14:31):
to serve the Elder Brain, whichexerts a field of control over
every illithid within a certainradius, and this was the fate of
Balduran, or so it seems.
Anyways, balderan remained anillithid and served the Elder
Brain in the Underdark Colonyfor around 10 years.
I see some sources stating thatit was around 14 years, but
(14:53):
from what I remember fromin-game it was closer to 10
years, and this was according toa record of interrogation by
Enver Gortash.
And for all that time, hisfriend Answer was probably
looking for him, as Balderandidn't allow Answer to come with
him on his last voyage, whichlasted who knows how long
probably years and Answer becameconcerned about the fact that
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his little sweetling had notreturned for several years, and
so he had set out to find him.
I wish that there was anaccount of this anywhere other
than just a vague mention,because I think it makes for a
great story, or it would makefor a great story rather.
But somehow Answer managed torescue Balderan, or at least
what remained of him.
And, yes, that does mean thathe went down into the Illithid
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colony and managed to save theIllithid that was once Balderan.
And I have a problem with this,a big problem that will come up
time and time again, andsomething I brought up in my
episode about mind flayers andHulby.
Damned if I don't repeat itagain Balderan should not have
been Balderan anymore.
He was an illithid.
There are many different kindsof illithids, sure, but the
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average illithid, as Balderanwould have come to be, looks
exactly the same as the otherdozens of illithids in their
colony, as this is a product ofseromorphosis and part of the
illithid grand design that theyare the perfect beings who
basically all mirror one another.
Furthermore, like I mentionedbefore.
Furthermore, like I mentionedbefore, through the process of
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seromorphosis, one ceases to bethemselves as they are
transformed, because theillithid tadpole literally
consumes their brain matter inorder to kickstart the
transformation process.
This is known and is documentedthrough every source material
that there is on illithids up tothis point, until this game,
except for one other, and thatsource is about a bedtime story
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where there was an illithid whomaintained the memories of who
they were before seromorphosisand managed to stay conscious as
themselves and overthrow anillithid colony.
This being was known as theadversary, but there's nothing
more to suggest that this wasanything more than a myth.
And even if there were anythingto suggest that this actually
(17:03):
happened.
It only ever happened once, andas far as I'm concerned it was
a myth created by illithids tofurther introduce mistrust
amongst themselves and to makethem aware of bad eggs who might
not be fully under the ElderBrain's control, so they can
weed them out, because that didhappen.
On occasion there were renegadeillithids amongst illithid
colonies who weren't entirelyunder the control, but they were
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still illithids.
They were not who they werebefore they became an illithid.
The only documented cases of anillithid retaining anything from
their former life was insubconscious tics, like humming
a familiar tune or tapping theirfeet or writing a certain way
or something that was soingrained in the host's muscle
memory that it just kind ofhappened when they were drifting
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into a daydream.
But again, it was asubconscious movement, not a
memory or a part of themselvesactually coming through.
And you might be thinking,brett, that's a pretty cynical
take, and you might havecontradicted yourself by
bringing up the myth andunconscious tics, and I disagree
.
There's so much lore out therethat states that nalithid and
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the host cannot exist at thesame time, and I think all of
that source material trumps anymyth or coincidence.
You could, however, come to theview that the adversary was
real and that baldurin ended uphaving the exact same thing
happen to him, where he washimself in an illithid's body.
That's pretty convenient forthe rest of the story and it's
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pretty convenient for someonewho basically built up Baldur's
Gate to retain their memoriesand still live underneath
Baldur's Gate, basically, and Ijust think it's too much of a
coincidence to subscribe to thattrain of thought.
But you could take it that wayand I'm not saying that you're
wrong if you do take it that waythat Balderan was the same as
the adversary, or maybe theadversary was Balderan Because,
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as we know, illithids exist kindof across all of time.
So maybe Balderan was theadversary and that myth made it
back in time and was toldthroughout time to warn people
that this was going to happen.
But again, I don't reallysubscribe to that theory.
I think that this is more orless impossible.
But I do have my own theories.
I'll save that for later.
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Furthermore, onto my last.
Furthermore, it had been adecade since baldurand
disappeared, or I guess justover, and I don't doubt that.
Answer would have been able totrace baldurand's footsteps to
moonrise towers.
Answer was an adventurer, afterall, and I think that part of
the story is entirely likely.
I also believe that a bronzedragon would have been able to
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go into an illithid colony andcome out on the other side.
That that seems perfectlylikely.
What I don't think is likely isthat Answer managed to find one
illithid amongst the entirecolony, identify him as Balderan
and rescue him.
I just don't think that couldbe possible.
And yet here we are.
Allegedly, answer was able torescue Balderan from the
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Illithid colony and take himoutside of the Elder Brain's
influence, where somehowBalderan was still Balderan
through seromorphosis.
I'm going to come back to thistowards the end of the episode
because I think I have a littlebit of a crackpot theory, but I
think it's the only thing thatactually makes any amount of
sense.
That isn't just saying thatBalderan was the adversary, but
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for now let's just continue withjust saying that Balderan was
the adversary.
But for now let's just continuewith the story of Balderan.
Even though Balderan was takenoutside of the Elder Brain's
influence, he was still verymuch an illithid, although he
allegedly had the full memoriesof his previous life as Balderan
, with one fairly largeexception he could no longer
feel emotion.
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That meant that he no longerfelt any affection towards
Answer, as reflected in DearAnswer, where he writes I may no
longer feel my feelings, but Iknow yours and yours are agony.
This agony that he describes isthe agony that Answer's lover
might as well be gone if hecould no longer feel any
affection towards him.
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This agony caused Anser tosearch far and wide for an
answer to bring Balderan back inhis entirety.
Balderan didn't wish to be anillithid either, but he
understood that no amount ofmedicine or medical
professionals could bring himback.
He pleaded to Anser that heshould stop trying to find a
cure and accept the situationfor what it was.
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Balderan was now an illithidfull stop, and eventually
Balderan embraced his new form.
He came to understand that thepsionic powers that he was
granted were a boon, not a curse, a natural part of his
evolution into something greater.
Of course, this evolution camewith the fact that he had to
feed on brains to sustainhimself.
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But he decided to prowl thestreets looking for criminals to
feed on, attempting to make hishome of Baldur's Gate a better
place in his own little way.
But Answer could not abide bythis.
We learn that Answer would notcease trying to find a way to
revert him back to his humanform as the Baldurin that he
once knew and loved, even whenasked repeatedly to stop once
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Balderan had accepted his newform.
And so Anser decided that theonly cure that he had not tried
yet was breaking his mortal coiland attempted to murder
Balderan in his sleep as an actof mercy.
Balderan awoke before this actcould be done and stood his
ground against Answer, who wouldnot back down from this course
(22:29):
of action.
Wielding his giant slayergreatsword, which conveniently
worked against dragons I'm notsure if that counted when Answer
was in his human form or notBalderan struck Answer down in
an act of self-preservation.
Answer's remains were taken farbelow Worms Rock Isle, which we
can assume was named after thefact that Answer's remains were
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laying there, and this was inBaldur's Gate and left in what
would be called the Dragon'sSanctum.
This spot would be the place oflegends and generally thought
of as a myth, since it washidden away and I didn't find
anything to support this exactly, but it seems that Balderan had
this place built specificallyfor answer.
There are statues of Balderanthroughout the area, leading
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those who would enter through aseries of tests to determine
whether or not they were worthyof entering the sanctum.
While it may have seemed like amyth that there was the corpse
of a dragon underneath Worm'sRock, there were a few who truly
believed it to be the case andnot a myth, like older Ravengard
Will, ravengard's father, who,during the crisis that happened
during the events of Baldur'sGate 3, believed that the only
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way to take down the absolutewas to awaken the dragon and
have him fight alongside them.
But anyways, after all of thiskerfuffle, having killed his
closest ally, balduran decidedthat this was still his city and
he would use his new form torule from the shadows, since no
one would accept an illithidopenly ruling them.
He forged a close relationshipwith duke stellman, who was on
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the council of four at the time.
This council was a group offour wealthy individuals who
were chosen to rule baldur'sgate in a plutocracy, which
basically just means the wealthyrule.
Balderan would help DukeStalmane and meet with her on
matters that concerned the citygoverning forces behind the
Knights of the Shield, who werethe largest mercantile operation
in Baldur's Gate and eventuallybecame known as the Emperor,
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and I'm guessing that he neverindulged Duke Stalman, that he
was once Baldur and that createdthe necessity for a pseudonym
to refer to him by.
And yes, this is the sameEmperor that we meet in Baldur's
Gate 3.
And he tells us all of this ingame, in bits and pieces,
revealing only what is necessaryat that point to gain our trust
.
And I think that it should beplainly obvious.
(24:46):
But I think it's worth notingthat everything the emperor has
told us should be taken with agrain of salt.
Whether he was actuallyBalderan or not, the one thing
that Adelithids all have incommon is that they lie
incessantly to save their ownskin and to further their own
plans.
If we assume that he was indeedBalderran, then we have to
assume that the story about howAnswer tried to kill him in his
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sleep might have beenexaggerated, if it was even true
to begin with.
I would sooner believe that,since Answer was assumedly the
only one who knew of theEmperor's identity as Baldran,
the Emperor killed Answer incold blood so that there was no
one else that could tie him backto his original identity and he
could start new as the emperor.
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He probably would have wantedto preserve the image of
baldurin and have people believethat he was lost to sea or
living out a lavish retirementin anchorome and not turned into
something that they could onlyfear.
That's my opinion, though, andI think that I have every right
to be skeptical about everythingthat the emperor says.
(25:49):
Skepticism aside, the emperorwas doing his best to take
control over the city that wasonce his home.
He started to overreach withthe duke's domain, and their
relationship deteriorated overtime.
It's unclear exactly whatfacilitated this change, but it
was probably something along thelines of the emperor taking too
much too quickly.
Perhaps he was pushing his ownagenda to the point where it was
(26:12):
obvious to Duke Stelmain thathe was using her as a pawn in
his own twisted game.
Perhaps she tried to speak outagainst him and get him off of
her back, and the emperorthreatened her life.
I wouldn't put it past him.
And the Emperor threatened herlife.
I wouldn't put it past him, andI just want to say that it's
hard to say how long the Emperorhad been trying to rule from
the shadows, but we can do somequick maths.
One source says that Balderansailed to Ancorome in the
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mid-thousands DR, and we knowthat he spent 10 years in the
Illithid colony, and we cangather that he spent a few years
in Baldur's Gate itself whileit was being built up through
his philanthropic efforts.
So we can safely say thatBalderan was back in Baldur's
Gate as an illithid somewherebetween 1080 and 1100 DR.
But then there's the othersource that says that he left on
(26:56):
his final journey in the mid1100s DR.
But that doesn't really makesense.
If he was born in the mid 1000sDR, as he was only human, his
lifespan was not that long.
So I'm going to go with himbeing an illithid somewhere
between 1080 and 1100 DR.
The events of Baldur's Gate 3take place in 1492 DR, so we
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have a period of about 400 yearswhere the emperor is
potentially attempting to runBaldur's Gate from the shadows.
But we know that Duke Stalmaindied to the members of the cult
of Baal after suffering a strokewhich left her as a shell of
her former self in 1491 DR.
So that relationship definitelydidn't come up until later, and
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this was likely the peak of theemperor's influence over
Baldur's Gate.
So before he even knew DukeStalmane and was maybe
officially known as the emperor,he had been doing this for 300
some odd years.
I just think it's interestingto put all of this into
perspective, because it makesthe story of Balderan and the
emperor so much more interestingknowing that he was in the city
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when it was just Grey Harborand he was there through the
forming of the metropolis thatis Baldur's Gate and was able to
directly see the fruits of hisefforts being put into place to
build it up, and, illithid ornot having the memories of
Balderan seeing his city beingbuilt up, that makes sense why
(28:19):
it was so important to him.
Over time, people began to knowof the Emperor, but only in name
and not identity.
Over time, people began to knowof 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 cityrun.
However, one day someone wouldlearn of his true identity and
bring it all to ruin.
That person was Enver Gortash,the chosen of Baal and the
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leader of the absolute.
Gortash, who we should all befamiliar with at this point,
found out the true identity ofthe emperor, or at least he
found out that he was anillithid who was attempting to
run Baldur's Gate.
Who knows if he knew that hewas.
Potentially, once Balderan andEnver Gortash had him abducted,
the emperor would be sent backto the illithid colony and back
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to the Elder Brain, where hewould once again be subjected to
its will, but not entirely.
He clung to his moniker, theEmperor, as it brought him some
sense of comfort, even in hisfull Illithid form, under the
Elder Brain.
This Elder Brain was the sameone that he was held captive to
when he was abducted severalhundred years ago, when he was
initially turned, but it was anew beast.
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At this point, the Elder Brainwas under the influence of the
Dead Three, who used theNetherese Crown of Karsus to
have it do their bidding for theCult of the Absolute.
The crown was stolen by Endra,gortash and the Balspawn, known
as the Dark Urge, who took itfrom the vault of the Archdevil
Mephistopheles and used it toenslave the brain.
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The entire point of this was tobe able to implant illithid
tadpoles into people's heads andnot have them undergo
seromorphosis immediately.
The tadpole would lay dormantuntil the Elder Brain gave the
command turning all of theaffected into illithids
immediately, essentially givingthe Dead Three an immediate,
overwhelming army at the snap ofa finger to take over Baldur's
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Gate in the blink of an eye.
And that brings us to the eventsof Baldur's Gate 3, or just
before it, in the same year of1492, dr, the Illithid that was
once known as the Emperor, wassent out on a mission to
retrieve the Astral Prism, whichwas a Githyanki device.
That had two different purposes.
The first was to act as anavigational device which led to
(30:31):
a pocket dimension where thedescendant of Gith Orpheus was
being held.
The second purpose was directlyrelated to the first fact,
because Orpheus was basicallyattached to this artifact, which
meant that it projected a fieldwhich disrupted the effects of
illithid psionics, since Orpheusinherited that gift from his
mother.
That might sound a lot if youhaven't listened to the episode
(30:54):
on the Githyanki and theGithzeri.
So I do have an episode allabout that where I explain this
more in detail.
Another plug, I know.
And since this artifact had theability to disrupt the influence
of the Elder Brain and otherillithids, including the
tadpoles that lay dormant inpeople's heads, it was a very
clear threat to the Dead Three,gortash and the Absolute in
(31:15):
general.
You might think it's a mightyfine coincidence that the
Emperor just happened to beamong the search parties, but it
wasn't a thing of chance in theslightest.
The Elder Brain, while enslaved, had its own notions of
overthrowing the Dead Three andtheir Chosen so that it could
have its own free will back.
The Brain must have known ofthe Emperor's past and his
strength and specifically chosethem to do their bidding,
(31:38):
unbeknownst to the Emperor.
Still a good coincidence thatthe Emperor was back under the
control of the elder brain andthat he was able to be chosen
for this mission.
But it was all part of the plan.
Aboard a nautiloid with aninquisition of other mind
flayers, the emperor was amongthe first of several parties to
locate the astral prism.
Upon making contact with it,his free will was given back to
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him.
As the artifact began tonullify the effects of the elder
brain, he was able to escapeinto the prism, where he was
able to find a void of solace inthe Astral Prism, along with
Orpheus, who was also imprisonedthere.
Having taken the artifact fromthe Githyanki, the Nautiloid was
soon overtaken by Githyankidragon riders, which is where we
start the game.
(32:21):
The player character, alongwith the Githyanki warrior
La'Zell and the shah-worshippingShadowheart, crash land onto
the beach with the artifact andthus begin their journey unaware
of the influence that theEmperor had in their survival,
as from the prism, he was ableto still use his psionic powers
and stop them from dying uponimpact with the ground, and so
(32:43):
the Emperor helps the party intheir journey and leads them to
get rid of the Chosen of theDead Three.
At first, he attempted to maskhis true form by coming to them
in visions as their dreamguardian, disguised in a form
that was more suitable to theirtastes, something more humanoid.
Eventually, the gig was up andhis form as an Illithid was
revealed, and he pleads to theplayer character that this ruse
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was a necessity, since theywouldn't have trusted him in his
illithid form initially, whichis likely true.
He continues to spin talesthroughout the story, telling
lies and twisting the truthwhere it needs to be in order to
get the player character ontheir side, and, unfortunately,
this is where things get a bittricky, because the game is very
open ended and driven bydecisions that the player
(33:27):
character makes, leading to itbeing a vastly different
experience for everyone whoplays it.
I've gone over everything thatis concrete, however, and the
only thing that's really left tothe wind is the ending of the
game and how that potentiallyaffects the Emperor's fate, but
I don't really feel like I needto go over those because, as far
as I know, there's no canonending, and I want to make sure
(33:48):
that this episode is as close tocanon as we get.
So what of Balderan's legacy?
Well, aside from having thecity be his namesake, there are
also plenty of statues ofBalderan around the city,
including a massive statue inthe river Kionthar that looks
over Grey Harbor, which isfitting, since that was his
original home.
There was also a citywidecelebration, known as Returning
(34:11):
Day, which marked Balderan'sreturn to Grey Harbor from
Anquerome.
Aside from that, the populationthat resided in Baldur's Gate
were referred to as Baldurians,sort of named after him.
And in the city there was amausoleum in the high hall which
stood as the resting place forBalderian dukes and also
contained relics from Balderan'spast, such as his cloak, his
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spyglass and a longsword in acracked leather sheath, which
were all found from the wreckageof the Wandering Eye.
And I mean, how can you ask fora better legacy than having a
city erected in your name?
I think that the effects of hisimportance are quite evident
just in that fact.
And you probably thought I wasdone.
But I have one last thing to add, and that's the ranting and
(34:56):
rambling that I promised beforeabout a theory that I have on
the emperor regarding how hemanaged to keep his memories.
I started writing a joke aboutgetting your tinfoil hat ready,
about some crackpot theory, butI genuinely think that this is
the best answer and so I can'teven make that joke without
undermining my own theory.
So this whole thought processcomes from the idea that the
Emperor kept his memories asBalderin through Seromorphosis.
(35:19):
I've explained how this isn'tgenerally accepted as being
possible from many sourcespretty much all of the sources
and I go into further detail inmy episode about the mind
flayers as to why I don't thinkthat should be possible and I
stand by my statement.
But I come to you now with someupdated information and a
proper theory as to what I thinkhappened.
(35:40):
Balderan definitely went on thatexcursion to Moonrise Towers
and I'm certain that he gotcaptured by the Illithid colony.
The story goes that he wascaptured, taken in and underwent
seromorphosis to become anIllithid, and he managed to
retain his memories from hisprevious life as Balderan.
But knowing that the tadpoleconsumes the host's brain matter
(36:00):
in order to turn its body intothat of an Illithid, I don't
think it's possible that heretained more than the
occasional subconscious tickfrom his previous life, as I've
mentioned can happen with someillithids, and I'm here to say
that I don't think that Balderangot implanted with a tadpole.
I do not think that heunderwent seromorphosis and I do
(36:20):
not think that he got turnedinto a mind flayer.
I think that he and his partywere instead just killed and
their brains were devoured bythe colony.
Instead, from page 221 of the5e monster manual, we get the
following An illithidexperiences euphoria as it
devours the brain of a humanoid,along with its memories,
(36:42):
personality and innermost fears,and I believe that our answer
lies in that passage, and thestatement is enough to back up
my point.
A mind flayer not only gainsnourishment from devouring a
brain, but it also gains a partof that person as well,
including parts or all of theirmemories and personality.
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I think that Nalithid simplydevoured Balderan's brain and
gained his memories andbasically impersonated him
through the rest of their life.
Ten years later, when Answercame into the colony whether he
was looking for Balderan or itwas just by happenstance on a
scouting mission this Illithid,who had Balderan's memories,
(37:22):
would have recognized Answerimmediately and saw it as a way
out.
They would have had to roll anat 20 on their performance
check, but maybe they reachedout telepathically to Answer and
begged him to get him out ofthere, and so Answer did what he
thought was right for theperson he thought he knew.
But why would an illithid haveany reason to impersonate a
(37:44):
random person who they consumed?
Well, a mind flayer's goal isto enact the grand design, which
is to say take over themultiverse.
Balderan was a historicallysignificant person who lived
above them in Baldur's Gate.
This would mean that being ableto impersonate this person
would inevitably lead to beingable to take a position of power
on the surface, which isevident by the Emperor's actions
(38:07):
leading up to the game, whichgoes directly in line with
something that an Illithid woulddesire.
Any Illithid could have thisnotion to use Balderan's
memories as a means to gainpower.
But if that's not compellingenough, then it's also entirely
possible that the Emperor mighthave been an, an Ulitharid, a
(38:32):
noble amongst illithids, who wasseen as nobility and were not
so easily controlled by theElder Brain and often went on to
found their own colonies andbecome Elder Brains themselves.
And Ulitharid would see this asan opportunity to gain power
for themselves and directlycontest the Elder Brain.
But I'm not sure that this wasthe case, as an Ulitharid was
innately stronger than even thestrongest amongst Illithids, but
(38:52):
they were also veryrecognizable just by their
physical appearance, beinglarger and having distinctly
longer tentacles than the others.
And we see the Emperor in gamecompared to other Illithids that
we see are pretty similar.
There aren't any major physicaldifferences other than the
robes that he wears, but histentacles are basically the same
(39:13):
length as anyone else.
So, that being said, it wouldmake sense if the emperor was an
Ullothar, since the Elder Brainlater chooses them out of the
colony to lead an expedition andthey would choose someone who
they knew was stronger than therest.
But I choose to just believethat they were a regular
illithid who consumed the Braidof Balduran and used his
(39:34):
memories to gain power withinBaldur's Gate.
This theory makes sense to meand it fits nicely within the
established lore, instead ofintruding upon it and making its
own rules Not to say thatLarian wasn't given the leeway
to do so, and I'm sure that theycame upon the myth of the
adversary and thought that thatwas something that they could
use.
But I think that changing thedecades of lore on Mind Flayers
(39:56):
to say that it's possible toretain your memories through
Seromorphosis is a bit insane,and since it's more or less left
up to interpretation, sincethere isn't much detail given
about Balderan's disappearance,I again think that this is the
most lore-friendly way toapproach it, and I think it
gives an extra dimension ofmalice to the illithids using
(40:16):
someone else's memories toinfluence the ones they love and
gaining power through it.
It really feels like anillithid thing to do.
And that wraps up this episodeon Balderan and the Emperor and
brings me to the question thatnever gets any answers what do
you think?
Do you think that my theoryabout Balderan being consumed by
an illithid rather than beingtransformed has any merit, or do
(40:39):
you think that he was able tojust retain his memories through
seromorphosis?
You can find us online at Lord'sDeath on your favorite social
media apps Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
We're also on YouTube, so ifyou head over there and hit
subscribe, I would reallyappreciate that.
If you have any questions orsuggestions for topics, please
send me a message wherever youcan find me, or at lordtodeath
(41:00):
at gmailcom.
If you're using the Spotify app, there's a comment section
attached to the episode whereyou can submit any questions or
topics, and if you're on YouTube.
Leave a comment.
I would love to hear from youand remember history tells us
that you can do great things bysailing west to a new continent
and terrorizing the local peopleinto giving you riches beyond
measure which you can bring backhome so you can build a big ass
(41:23):
wall and turn into an alien.
That doesn't mean you shouldsteal from the local populations
and use it for your own gain,but I guess if your life as a
fishmonger gets boring, thenit's always technically an
option and I'll lure you todeath in the next episode.
See ya.
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