Baldur's Gate 3: Bane, Who Is He And What Does He Want?

there are few deific powers in the realms that inspire the same degree of ah and fear as bane the black lord if there were ever a god that could best be described as a mustache twirling villain then bane would take the cake as bane the god of tyranny has always taken an active role in faerun for example the nefarious organization the zentarim a very terrestrial organization has historically been strongly associated with the god bane in his clergy and he could easily be seen as the most ambitious of gods as he sees himself as the natural ruler and tyrant of all of existence and is clear from data mining that bain along with merkel and ball will feature prominently in baldur's gate 3. additionally you can choose to be a cleric of one of these gods so it would be more than useful to understand what role these deities have in the realms starting with arguably the most important one among them bane bane is not one of the primordial deities birthed after surunus and shara's first great conflict even as a human bain wanted nothing more than to become the most feared and respected tyrant the world had ever known however doing so would require an infusion of arcane power greater than that usually accorded to mortals he found common cause with his newfound allies merkel the necromancer and bald the assassin he was likely alive at some time concurrent with or after the fall of netheril and we know next to nothing about his mortal life bane forged a pact of mutual aid and ambition with his allies merkel and baal together they sought not just to conquer faerun but the planes themselves striving for godhood itself they realized in order to achieve divinity they would have to face and defeat a divine being claiming his power ultimately they sought to target jurgle whom i have talked about in a previous video but they also understood that they would need to achieve sufficient power to do so to this end they quested after artifacts of power in faerun and acted as generals of massive armies composed of humanoids of many races culminating in the slaying of an ancient primordial maram of the great spear an elder evil and a being of power equivalent to that of a demigod whereupon they divided the power of this being amongst themselves countless obstacles they faced and each and every one they overcame such that even jurgle began to take note of them and it is even rumored that jurgen was secretly aiding them unbeknownst to the trio as jurgen had already wearied of his position as god of death and tyranny the dark three as they had come to be known eventually crossed the planar boundary into the grey waist where jurgel dwelt in his bone castle defeating all of his minions and then approached the god upon his throne of bone readying themselves for battle they instead were surprised as journal told them he had grown weary of his power and station and would willingly relinquish it to them whereupon the three began to bicker and quarrel amongst themselves as the illusion of friendship between them spun an ambition dissolved into nothingness and a deadly fight ensued each of them trying to determine who would rule from jurgel's throne jurgle indifferent to their wants but not wanting to see them battle for eternity or die from exhaustion resolved their dispute with a game of skill when a failed game of skull bullying led nowhere in part due to the intervention of the god malar jurgle suggested leaving the decision up to chance he proceeded to break off his skeletal finger bones and the three dark travelers began to play a game of knuckle bones bane ultimately won and took the portfolio of hatred strife and tyranny believing that this would best facilitate his ability to rule over faerun and later the planes stating the following i choose to rule for all eternity as the ultimate tyrant i can induce hatred and strife at my whim and all will bow down before me while in my kingdom during the ensuing centuries bane consolidated and cemented his power quickly gaining a large following whereas jurgel had enforced tyranny through death bane sought rulership and tyranny over the living unlike jurgen who'd always been a more distant power bane took a much more active interest in the affairs of mortals and their politics if only because it aided him in ensuring his dominance throughout the realms for many centuries bane's power and influence waxed but bane being what he was was not merely content being the god of tyranny strife and hatred he wanted more in the year 1358 dr and please note that baldur's gate 3 takes place in 1492 dr bane and merkel devise the greatest of their plots they stole and hid the tablets of fate from eo the over god eyou is a power far greater than any god a power who can demote and promote any beans to any level of divinity and likely created realm space and all things in it eo had created the tablets of fate which were powerful artifacts in the form of stone slabs that served to maintain the balance between the forces of law and chaos and acted as a barrier between the worlds of a bear and torel additionally the tablets serve the function of recording the names and purposes of every god and primordial in the sphere in order to remind them of their obligations bain and merkel had erroneously believed that part of eo's power lay in the tablets but this was not true as their purpose was largely symbolic and his power was not tied to them in response to this and the thieves unwillingness to emit their culpability ao cast down all the gods from their planar realms forcing them on tutorial in mortal form commanding the gods to return the tablets of fate to him this cataclysmic event would come to be known as the time of troubles and it was redefining for the forgotten realms during this time as all the gods had been cast down bane sought a way to regain his power this eventually led to bane besieging the city of tantras in the form of a black armor-clad warrior in an effort to reclaim one of the tablets of fate he had ironically hidden in the temple of torum the god of loyalty and duty but torum was informed of this and he was met by toram in battle resulting in the mutual destruction of both gods after what sometimes has come to be called the avatar crisis bane appeared dead and his portfolio along with those of merkel ambal was given to cyric the dark son a mortal granted godhood for his wickedness and the trio took on the namesake of the dead three as none of them had survived the time of troubles some of baine's former worshippers took to cyric's faith whilst others took to the faith of bane's son yak to xvim bane had likely sired with a demon much occurred over the next decade or so and a yakitori's bim gained in power drawing most of bane's worshippers into his fold until the year 1372 dr for bane it soon would become apparent that death had been but a temporary setback anticipating the possibility of his own demise bane the god of tyranny had like his companion ball praised a scion for the purpose of his own regeneration when the time was ripe xvim his alleged son turned out to be little more than a cocoon to contain the essence of bane and the god bursts forth into the black and armored figure that all know as bane destroying and consuming the younger god entirely bane quickly reconsolidated his church re-established old alliances with gods and drew his faithful back to him and was soon where he had been prior to the time of troubles soon after this the realms were to be befallen by yet another calamity the spell plague wherein siriken shah murdered the goddess mystra in the year 1385 dr disrupting magic and collapsing the weave but bane oddly enough was largely unaffected in fact he seemed to have gained in power despite this but then came the second sundering the period between the time of troubles and baldur's gate 3 is known as the era of upheaval where many strange and unpredictable things had come to pass but beginning in the 1480s dr the forgotten realms received a hard reset the second sundering commenced with aeo's decision to recreate the tablets of fate and begin anew many deities thought dead returned but oddly enough and somewhat without explanation bane and his fellows merkel and bal were significantly reduced in power to the status of so-called quasi deities which are effectively little more than extremely powerful mortals as bane had been doing quite well up until the time of the second sundering it is quite mysterious as to why he was reduced in power from that of a greater god the most powerful type of god to that of a quasi-deity although this makes much more sense for merkel and bal as they had never fully returned as bane had is it this juncture that bane becomes relevant to us in the context of baldr's gate 3 which as stated above takes place around 1492 dr we know that the dead 3 are directly involved in bg3 laurian states as much quote as we desperately seek a cure we discover the tadpole gives us godlike powers we find ourselves on the center stage of a complaint hatched by none other than the dead three gods end quote bane is i would argue the williest most tenacious and dangerous of the dead three and has the track record to prove it but how are he and his cohorts involved for one you can worship him as well as the other members of the dead three even though they are not gods and only quasi deities and the most obvious and persistent theory based on little we do know from early access is that the absolute the alleged one true god is just a front for the dead three in the scene where we interact with the githyanki artifact we encounter three figures in the vision who some speculate might actually be bane merkel and baal and the entire cult of the absolute might merely be a tool to ensure they reacquire true divinity i would largely subscribe to this but as always the devil is in the details i am much more interested in how the dead three seek to regain this power and how they could possibly return to true godhood what exactly will they do and how is the player involved the possibilities are tantalizing given the pieces on the board githyanki artifacts ancient netherese magic and the investment and interests of the nine hells all these may or may not be involved and all contribute to the mystery given bain's historical stubbornness and ambition we should all be wary should we encounter him in any form even significantly reduced in power he is almost certainly at the head of whatever complaint is brewing and i do intend to do separate profiles on merkel and bala respectively so stay tuned for those as always thank you very much for tuning in please leave a like comment and subscribe as it really helps out the channel and i will check you out next time take care

Channel: Spell&Shield

Views: 11,742

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Id: RZ_6XcgeUMs

Length: 10min 39sec (639 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 12 2022