Your Baldur's Gate Headcanons
ZaramMaldovar
Member Posts: 2,309
I think it would be fun to bring this up as a topic. What are your headcanons? They can be small or large as long as they make sense to you but preferably they shouldn't interfere too much with the story. Here's a couple of mine.
1. After suffering several (or one very large the game never makes it very clear) headwounds, Minsc appears to have lost most of whatever former intelligence he had and speaks to his hamster as if it were sentient. It's my headcanon that Minsc suffers from a form of dissociative identity disorder and his former intelligence manifests itself as "Boo" this explains why Minsc is barely able to function if Boo were to go missing.
2. The Demonknight within Durlag's Tower was once a great Paladin who sought to rid the lands of evil. Instead, he somehow encountered a Helm of Reverse Alignment and became a champion of evil.
1. After suffering several (or one very large the game never makes it very clear) headwounds, Minsc appears to have lost most of whatever former intelligence he had and speaks to his hamster as if it were sentient. It's my headcanon that Minsc suffers from a form of dissociative identity disorder and his former intelligence manifests itself as "Boo" this explains why Minsc is barely able to function if Boo were to go missing.
2. The Demonknight within Durlag's Tower was once a great Paladin who sought to rid the lands of evil. Instead, he somehow encountered a Helm of Reverse Alignment and became a champion of evil.
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Many years later, having achieved some peace and rededicated himself, he emerged once more - whereupon he found a band of inexperienced adventurers facing the Sword Coast's latest crisis, and became a mentor to them.
Irenicus kept tabs on multiple Bhaalspawn and arrived in the Baldur's Gate area in hopes of acquiring Sarevok but his pool of allies made it not worth the risk. He attempted to use Skie for his "experiments" but the plan failed because Skie was too weak so he used you and Imoen instead.
Irenicus takes some of your essence at the start of SoA and tests it by killing Khalid and Dynaheir, which is why they can't be resurrected, either. The only reason Sarevok can come back is because he's living off a piece of a Bhaalspawn's soul, instead of being resurrected via spell--he no longer has the Bhaalspawn taint because that part belongs to Charname or Imoen.
The only argument against that is characters returning at a later date and time.
1. Tazok is resurrected through unknown means, although you could argue that sidequests aren't canon
2. Shank and Carbos are somehow alive in BG2, although you could argue that sidequests aren't canon and therefore Gorion's ward never encountered them.
I would say in most games, Tazok was quite likely to survive (until BGT came around, that is) and could be implied to have gotten away in time. I don't remember whether his Firkraag dungeon incarnation outrightly states that he was resurrected or whether that is only told if Charname asks with incredulity why he is still alive, as is the case with Xzar or Edwin.
Absorbing the essence of defeated Bhaalspawn could also help explain the insanely fast level / power progression in the game. Although not for Charname's companions, I suppose. On the other hand, many of those are supposed to be quite a bit more experienced than their initial level suggests, so I guess that balances it out somewhat.
"Aren't you dead?" - "Sarevok took too much for his plate, left us in a bad position. You'll find my new master much smarter, and me much harder to kill!"
"And who might you be?" - "No, not fodder! An old enemy, come to take his due even if you don't remember! I fell with Sarevok, but not again!"
"Just another nameless creature." - "Pity! Save your pity for yourself! You are amusement for Firkraag, and you will fall at Tazok's resurrected hand!"
"Couldn't we talk about this?" - "And you use words when your strength fails you! I will speak, but it will be the last you hear! I am brought back for revenge and the amusement of the new master!"
The dialogues unify after that, and Tazok gets another line relishing in the rematch. "Who am I to disagree if it means I get to put my foot to you once more?!"
It's pretty clear here. No matter what you say, even if you claim not to recognize him, Tazok mentions his death and resurrection. He definitely died under Baldur's Gate, and was brought back by Firkraag or one of his agents.
Being a powergamer, I wouldn't actually be shy about resurrecting a party member directly slain by an in-game Bhaalspawn, but I can't remember the last time a party member died to one directly.
Wouldn't that mean that Skie's soul would go directly to the Throne then? It wouldn't get stuck in the dagger.
I suppose Irenicus probably has his ways if he knows what he's doing. Maybe Skie isn't actually dead right away, more in a vegetative state.
Think of it this way
1. Skie is "killed" by Irenicus and her soul is put in the dagger for Irenicus and his "experiments" just to see if he actually could steal a Bhaalspawn Soul
2. Irenicus keeps the dagger on him in case a more powerful Bhaalspawn is no longer an option.
3. After performing the ritual on you and Imoen, he discards the dagger and Skie finally dies. Or perhaps Bodhi destroyed it out of spite not really knowing the consequences
4. When the ritual is performed on you and Imoen, you somehow survive most likely due to being far more powerful than Skie.
The doppelgangers you meet in the catacombs impersonating various Candlekeep residents are those that haven't yet perfected their act and replaced those people. Anyone you saw impersonated down there is still alive up top.
But ... you didn't see Ulraunt. The "Ulraunt" who seemingly accepts all the worst speculations and the word of a suspicious visitor over anything you say is actually a doppelganger. They are merely following Sarevok's script as part of his plan to get you out of the way.
I don't know if I 100% agree with you as I feel that Ulraunt would have wanted us dead regardless given the context given in Dream 6. But I think this is a very good theory.
This. I mean I wind up taking EVERY NPC in my party for at least a brief while anyways. Most of the epilogues don't even sound as if they stayed with CHARNAME for a long while, so brief but vivid impacts on their future seems fine.
Furthermore, the party of CHARNAME gets to have multiple strongholds. Fighter/Ranger/Bard could plausibly be held by any character, the others could be held by various party members (see above).
My biggest headcanon that diverts furthest from the norm is that Aerie and Haer'Dalis don't break up in Chapter 6. IIRC, this actually takes some extra doing because getting Aerie to choose Haer'Dalis over you for their romance comes after Aerie and Jaheira/Viconia are at the "pick me over her" fights, so some extra dialog/script editing and picking the best-sounding lines is necessary. The two are given the theatre stronghold by CHARNAME and they wander the world as a pair with Quayle's circus. I accomplish this by booting them in the Five Flagons pre-Chapter 6.
Also, all installed mods are headcanons I would think, since they are, in fact, altering canon (a totally no-mod vanilla install) to something more suitable to personal preference. So by that logic, things I've tweaked to my personal tastes, or installed that others made, are headcanons, and that is too many to list.
Depending on my playthrough, my biggest headcanon is that Jaheira and Minsc are not in the dungeon at the start of BG2. In particular, half of my Bhaalspawn don't even meet Minsc, or if they do, it's only to help him rescue Dynaheir. Why would they capture him and not anyone else? (I'm aware that SoD explains this a little, but I still don't have too much experience with it and it's not part of my headcanon yet)
Hrm, I seem to have overlooked that mod, I'll check it out.
Delainy/Durlyle unfortunately dies fighting for my character, but her/his role in helping my character and the tribe is always remembered by future generations.
My character is also remembered as a hero for their actions in defeating the wolfweres and the evil werewolves.
In my headcanon, it was simply saying his name.
You see, when Viconia critically misses an attack, she says "Vith'ir!". And she says it as an expletive. Her critical hit sound is the clearly related "Vith'os!", with a different emphasis. So our unfortunate mage introduces himself, casually dropping the drow equivalent of the F-bomb ...