Baldur's Gate 3: The Truth About The Gods

I want to share a little secret with you something the gods don't want you to know something they are perhaps not even aware of concerning themselves sure the gods are incredibly powerful far more so than any mortal and some can extinguish a mortal life with but a thought but that does not mean that they have no weaknesses in fact as alluded to just before one of the God's weaknesses is something that many of them are not even aware of in the context of the Forgotten Realms it would be wrong to assume that the gods are just souped up Mortals something along the lines of archimages to the one thousandth power rather as important as their magical and physical might is so too is their mental architecture and their psychology they are distinct from Mortals in more than just one way perhaps the best way to illustrate this is to take an excerpt from a now ancient Forgotten Realms novel called The Prince of Lies a tale of the God siric and his former friend midnight now mistra I would certainly recommend the novel as it details much about the gods but one thing in particular that it sheds light upon is their nature as Illustrated below as mistra is speaking to her cleric and paid patriarch Adan in an effort to help him understand how the Divine mind works as she struggles to negotiate and coexist with her fellow Gods come here Don I want you to meet Talos Mr called still tense with anger the patriarch stalked to Mr aside have you lost enough of your Humanity to make light of these wretches hardly mistro said her blue white eyes snapping fire look again I know you're bright enough to understand this the madman was naked his hair long and unkempt with the blue eyes narrowed in suspicion he watched the patriarch closely all the while he plucked the beard from his chin one whisker at a time he dropped the hair onto the floor around him which was already crowded with the unraveled threads of his blanket and the cloth shrez that had once been his clothes go ahead Adan Mr said softly try to stop him the patriarch reached out and still the man's hands The Lunatic trembled watching a dawn with watery eyes after a moment when he thought the inmate had calmed a Don released him the Bony fingers flew to the offending beard and tore at it again neither faster nor slower than before mystra laid a gentle hand on adan's shoulder what does he see when he looks at you someone stopping him from plucking his beard out maybe not even a person maybe I'm just some huge paralyzing Shadow or a set of chains so now you've met Talos mistress said flatly or one very much like him this poor man destroys whatever clothes or bedding they give him no one can figure out why his mind is set on it and if they keep him chained too long he stops eating stops sleeping they let him out like this now and then to tear something up and light the gods he's only aware of anyone around him and so much as they help or hinder his mad view of the world Adon responded but surely the gods Mr shook her head their minds are more expansive but just as Limited in perception then how can they communicate a Don asked if they're mad men they shouldn't be able to agree on anything something in their Consciousness must translate what the other gods say Mr replied they're all looking at the same reality but seeing it in Myriad ways Talos can see nothing but a world that must be destroyed she swept manically across the chamber to a man with his knees pulled up tight to his chest bloody tears streamed down his sunken cheeks and this is illmator who sees only the suffering of faerun his son mate is gond the wonderbringer whose mechanical Marvels will spread across the world Like A Clockwork Army Mishra gestured to a bald dwarf busily constructing a tower from shattered chains and fractured serving bowls finally the goddess of magic came to a young man his face Twisted into a hideous mask by some misfired enchantment he primped and fussed over his Tufts of hair sprouting from his blackened scalp you already know soon fire hair and you Adan asked bluntly what is the face of your Madness Ayu allowed me to keep something of my Humanity but that means I can see all the others as mad mistra said Talos has no idea how the others perceived the world I on the other hand can share in his and every other God's Twisted Vision in the end that could make me the maddest this passage illustrates the conundrum and challenge of the gods they are in their own way far more limited than Mortals since for all the weaknesses of Mortals they still possess the ability to perceive nuance and to engage in nuanced thinking whether they are inclined towards good or evil the range of thought and considerations Mortals have access to is it time significantly greater than that of the Gods gods are in this sense more akin to Blind forces of nature than they are to thinking beings any God of Arun barring perhaps mistra and to a lesser extent kelimvore will be mentally bound to the con contents of their portfolio is a god meaning that they will only be able to perceive reason and think in the context of either advancing their portfolio or protecting it when asked for example about Helm mistro simply replies Helm sees the world as nothing but some vague prize to be protected from an even more vague adversary likewise a god such as tear the God of Justice can only see the Realms as the court where Justice is either carried out or hindered and the gods whose portfolios are closer to his or further will end up being seen as supporters or opponents of Justice mask the god of Thieves can only see the world as a heist composed of things that are either worth stealing or not and leviator goddess of pain and torment can only see the world in terms of how much pain and suffering she can inflict upon it and in similar fashion to the manner in which I've described tear views the other gods as either AIDS or obstacles to this goal and specifically illmator the god of suffering in endure Insurance who represents her polar opposite is interpreted as the worst being in the world God's in body as perfectly as possible their interests the limitations thus far described but Mortals do not and therein lies the rub s require Mortals worship to fuel their divine power but Mortals are not singular vessels of a particular virtue or quality the way gods are and therefore Mortals will always be in perfect exponents of the deities interests as they falter or fall and can be swayed either by Vice or virtue they may strive to be representations of their God's interests But ultimately will always fall short for example during the time of troubles the clergy of torum the god of loyalty and Duty took it upon themselves to run other good faiths out of the city of tontris in a false interpretation of their obligations to the principles of Duty much to the Chagrin of torb himself as he was not pleased in the context of Baldur's Gate 3 Shadow art is an excellent example of both the nuance and fallibility of Mortals we don't as yet fully know why she follows Shar other than her belief that the Sharon Church took her in when no one else would and she has great faith in the church but if we permit ourselves to believe in the theory that she was once a saloonite a theory I personally subscribe to we can see that although Shadow heart's faith is nominally strong it's completely blind which seems to be irregularity among many ashar's worshipers it is easily conceivable that despite Shadow Hearts seeming Rock Solid Devotion to her goddess she could be swayed back to solune if the theory is true or even to some other god or goddess Mortals are not automatons and in a way the gods are or perhaps better put the gods are like A.I really good at what they do in their limited range of what they do but incapable outside of it Char is incredibly good at being duplicitous deceptive and manipulating Mortals to the point where they are convinced forgetfulness and Oblivion are preferable to existence to remembering life but that is just a conceit not a reality Char really truly does want to annihilate all of existence because that wish is what she embodies What Mortal could possibly actually want that without cajoling likewise a follower of tear as much as he wishes to pursue Justice and follow the law might be tempted or LED astray because Immortals unlike gods have conflicts of interest both internal and external and we even have an example of this with the Fallen Palin of tear from Baldur's Gate 3. ultimately gods represent ideals that are possible for all Mortals to pursue and strive for at least in part but whereas gods are the personification of such ideals and therefore perfect in their representation of them Mortals fall short of that but at the same time can see beyond the narrow sphere of said ideals in this way the gods are actually far more limited than Mortals even if their power differential suggests otherwise so next time you play a cleric or pray to a god or talk to shadowhart remember what it is you're actually appealing to and that it might not be the thing you thought it was as always thank you for tuning in please leave a like comment share and subscribe as it really helps up my channel and I'll check you out next time take care

Channel: Spell&Shield

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Id: tLcSa102_BA

Length: 9min 35sec (575 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 23 2022