Baldur's Gate 3: What Is The Shadow Weave?

having spoken about both the shadow of r and the shadowfell in previous videos i thought it would be a good idea to talk about the shadow weave and the magic derived from it how it's different from conventional magic and why it might be relevant to the plot of baldur's gate 3. normally when a caster cast spells or engages in any kind of magical activity they must tap into the weave the weave which i have discussed before is both an abstraction and a concrete thing it's sometimes been interpreted as mystra herself or more frequently as a fabric or tapestry from which magic can be drawn regardless of whether or not mystra is this fabric or merely controls it all magic drawn from the weave is ultimately regulated by and is subject to mistress authority and we see this well illustrated in the aftermath of the example of karsus folly the netherese arcanist who cast the only level 12 spell ever devised and who ultimately was responsible for the fall of netheril after this mystery reincarnated after the death of mistral instantly established new rules for the casting and use of magic and restricted its uppermost limits to prevent a similar catastrophe from occurring again and should she want to she could easily lift such restrictions i say this simply to point out that all magic that occurs does so by the grace of mystra but it's just as important to note that mystra encourages magic of all kinds as it is for nature to want to see a flourishing of magic under virtually no circumstances would she restrict magic for this reason karsus avatar be an exception in this manner she equally supports the activities of an evil lich or necromancer as she would those of a benevolent harper mage as long as magic is sought after devised and used then mystra is generally happy but the weave is not the only source of magical power in the world there also exists what one might incorrectly frames its counterpart the shadow weave and the shadow weave is a creation of shar and symbolizes both her opposition to the gods of light and specifically her animosity towards mystra you see shar has always been envious of mystra and her dominion over magic coveting the power for herself char's answer to the weave was the shadow weave which exists in the cracks and spaces of reality the shadow weave and the weave do share a relationship with each other though the exact nature of that relationship is poorly understood when for example ashar and cirque murdered mystra in 1385 dr the collapse of the weave also led to the collapse of the shadow weave which indicates the very least some connection between the two having said that the shadow weave is quite different from the weave in some key ways one of the most important ways in which the shadow weave differs from the weave lies in its relative inaccessibility if a caster wishes to tap into the wii for conventional magic of any sort he need only have the necessary talent knowledge and experience there are no further requirements one need not for example worship mystra in order to cast weave-bound spells not so with the shadow weave as to access the shadow weave a spell caster must either worship shar or enter into a pact with shark despite worshiping another deity if they don't the individual accessing the shadowy will permanently lose a piece of their mind or simply go insane as the shadow weave is a force based upon nothingness just a char raise and it's not well suited to mortal minds beyond this shark can at any time choose to deny access to the shadow eve of course theoretically mystra could do this with the weave as well but in practice it never actually happens since mystra simply wishes to see a flourishing of magic in all of its forms shara does not have the same attitude as mishra does with regards to the weave as the shadow weave was a conscious creation of the part of shar in order to compete with mistress weave and thus char doesn't seek to expand magic fueled by the shadow weave as much as she seeks to bring more mortals under her sway to achieve her ultimate goal of oblivion and the annihilation of all existence seen from this perspective a shadow weave user is just a pawn of char serving her interests whatever the individual caster might think because the shadow weave is based upon a force of nothingness it offers distinct advantages over weave-based magic as well as disadvantages unsurprisingly spells that deceive and muddle the mind as well as bring about death are more powerful than their weave-based counterparts specifically enchantment illusion and necromancy are enhanced and those spells that focus on energy and life are less effective namely spells of evocation and transmutation less powerful spells that create darkness are much more powerful when drawn from the shadowy whereas light spells are impossible to cast many conditions that normally affect magic based upon the weave have no effect on magic drawn from the shadow weave so wild magic zones and dead magic zones have no effect on the magic drawn from the shadow weep and magic cast by shadow weave casters is harder to counter by weave caster as is the reverse since they are somewhat opposed forces wizards who specialize in manipulating the shadow weave are called shadow adepts and of course all shadow adepts are simply driven by the desire for power now there is a form of weave based shadow magic that is closely related in form and practice to magic cast by tapping into the shadow weave but they are in fact separate things and i think it's unlikely that the netherey shadowvar i've mentioned in the previous video were using weave based magic as they had spent nearly two millennia in the shadowfell and are fanatical and ardent shar worshippers but you might be asking now why is this important it's important because we know the shadowbar probably have an active role in the plot of baldur's gate 3 based on the evidence as the tadpoles have been infused with netherese's shadow magic we also know that sharp plays a large role in the plot even if we were to only go on the evidence provided by shadowheart's presence in the party but of course we have more than that shadowvar are devoted char worshipers and are very likely involved in the plot around your tadpole the simple fact that conventional means of extracting the tadpole fail whether they're magical or not tells us that the magic surrounding the tadpole is unusual but possibly also derived from the shadow weave it really makes you wonder what the precise role of the church of chara is in this yes we have officially been told that we have been involved in a complaint driven by the dead three bane merkel and baal and you can watch my videos about them and i don't have any doubt about that as why else would laurie instate that and why would there be magic the gathering cards released with their profiles but the in-game evidence we do have always seems to hint more and more at a heavy involvement of shar rather than the dead three obviously we are missing many important details as relates to the plot of the game as we're only in early access and i must admit that the theories i'm presenting could be completely wrong but at the end of the day we have to work with the evidence that is available and so i actually think due to netery's involvement that the role of the shadowvar and shar could be just as large as that of the dead three now let me know what you think about this theory in the comments and as always thank you for tuning in please leave a like comment and subscribe as it really helps out my channel and i'll check you out next time take care

Channel: Spell&Shield

Views: 12,656

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Id: JU1qEFm83k4

Length: 6min 52sec (412 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2022