Shar, Shadowheart & Loss | Baldur's Gate 3 Lore

hello everyone welcome to my first flooor video on borders Gate 3 we'll be discussing the character of sha Shadow heart their backgrounds and Devotion to her goddess now I'm not just going to delve into bg3 but also Forgotten Realms if you don't know Forgotten Realms is where Dungeons and Dragons takes place that's not to say that a DN campaign has to take place in a Forgotten Realms universe but they assumed default setting of a playthrough is Forgotten Realms and bg3 also uses this setting as a heads up there will be spoilers for X1 2 and three of bg3 as we will be touching on some of Shadow Hut's Story So to avoid spoilers please save this video for later play some more of the game and come back after with that said let's begin Shadow heart is a character you can encounter at the very beginning of the game and immediately we can learn a lot about her from her appearance alone one of her most notable features is a circlet she wears around her forehead a silver chain with a jet black circular gem in the center the same iconography can also be found all over her body armor without even speaking to Shadow heart if you are familiar with Forgotten Realms you will recognize this as a symbol of the Goddess sha a black disc with a border of Deep Purple these colors are also used extensively in her church and among her followers sh and clergy are fond of jewelry fashioned from obsidian black onyx amethyst and purple jade and this is significant if you know who sh is and what she represents one of the dark Gods she is a deeply twisted and perverse being of ineffable evil and endless Petty hatred and jealousy and with this knowledge it might change how you regard Shadow heart which is probably why she doesn't reveal this to us at first in fact Shadow heart doesn't divulge any personal details later we learn that this was intended all we know about Shadow heart is that she carries a mysterious artifact said artifact is highly sought after by many and contains great power within there is a point in story where Shadow har uses the artifact as a last resort to save the group from visions and unending Darkness this understandably causes our party to confront Shadow about what Earth she's carrying and who she really is this is where we learn about who she serves I I am a servant of sha my home is a secret Closter in Boulders gate I need to bring that artifact back there no matter what this is a massive confession and eloquently put by Gail if you have him with you you worship sha by me depending on how you want to role play this could be a deal breaker if you don't wish to have a Sharon in your party or even someone who won't be open and honest with you but we all have our secrets don't we secrecy is everything for Sha's children it's our code our Creed our Shield I'm not sorry I kept this from you not one bit Shadow wholeheartedly says she did not want us to know about this this is one of the dogmas of the Sha Faith dark followers are instructed to reveal Secrets only to fellow faithful consorting with beings of good alignment who actively serve their deities is a sin unless undertaken to the advantage of them in purely business dealings or to corrupt them from their beliefs into the service of sha shadowart reluctantly tells us the truth because she has no choice if she wants to get to Boulder's Gate the Final Destination of her Mission her best chance is with your party she asks us to have an open mind because then she can justify revealing her Secrets her joining the party is purely for business but also shadowart doesn't have much information to share with you anyway because she has had most of her memories wiped no matter how much you probe or change your phrasing Shadow Heart Won't and can't share much with you I can't tell you anymore this Mission required utmost secrecy we all submitted to having our memories suppressed so that we couldn't betray Sha's confidence the way she views it is that this is also a test for her show loyalty and Devotion to her goddess and be rewarded at the end memory wiping in Forgotten Realms appears in a class called the dark cloaks dark cloaks have a special perfume scent that some people swear has amnesiatic properties and this is also demonstrated in their abilities dark cloaks can cast forget once per level each day a dark cloak of fifth level can utter a soothing word that will eliminate one bad memory from the victim a dark loak of seventh level has access to a special perfume if the smell fails a save versus Poison they are affected by a forget spell and there may be a hint to this in bg3 when you get to the sh gaunet in act two enemies called justia Avengers have bundles of incense on them this sweet Woody Aroma may be a reference to the amnesiac perfume but this practice is not just forgetting for forgetting sake part of the ethos of sha worship is that loss and pain go hand in hand loss is the nature of Sha of pains hidden but not forgotten vengeance is carefully nurtured away from the light hidden from others she is said to have the power to make her devout followers forget their pain so whether it was sha herself or one of her followers who personally wiped Shadow heart's memory it was done to remove something painful but this doesn't mean that shadow heart doesn't still have a connection to pain there are instances where we see her react to a glowing brand on her hand Shadow heart once again cannot remember why she has this strange wound but I will say now that this pain is connected to her lost memories as we explore act one slight hints are fed to us as to chart's background for example if you encounter a wolf whether it's hostile or not Shadow heart will become frightened afflicting her with a status effect that means she cannot move if you've managed to gain enough approval with Shadow heart she will allow you to look into her mind and Witness one of her few remaining memories we see shadowart as a child alone in the woods fa to face with a wolf a masked figure appears behind her based on the symbol on her forehead that familiar black circle we can assume this is a sha worshipper we do not see her face but we can see her purple gray skin indicative that she is a Dr some Dr Who dwell in or at least raid surface lands in the south are known to worship the human deity sha more of these masked figures appear brandishing Spears and we hear them put down the wolf her and those who saved me and taught me her ways the Mother Superior she made me who I am Mother Superior gives an indication of this person's ranking most sh and clergy use such titles of address as brother Knight or sister Knight disappear as they say mother night or father night other titles and their hierarchy may follow this format with the novice Adept of the night up to Flame of Darkness a trusted Arch priest of the Goddess from what shadowart tells us the Mother Superior was in charge of raising her taking her under her Wing into the Charon family this explains why Shadow heart's devotion is so deep she was raised in this culture from a young age and because of that shadowart has dreamed rising to a particular rank a dark justicia as long as I prayed to Lady sha I've wished to serve her as a dark justicier there is scarcely a greater way to fully dedicate yourself to Lady sha safe perhaps if you become the head of her church I can only find one mention of a dark justicia in the Forgotten realm Source material and it says clergy of the faith who have killed one of the clergy of saluna are rumored to gain access to an honorary order or secret society known as the dark jusus I haven't mentioned saluna yet partly because she deserves her own dedicated video so please let me know if you like that and if you're enjoying this style of video as a brief summary saluna and sha are both goddesses twin sisters and most importantly Rivals shens and Salon nightes the respective followers are enemies of each other so as an act of loyalty killing a salite FHA is a right of initiation into her intimate sect however in bg3 this is expanded upon as shadowart puts it the old ways were lost over time now some claim the rank simply by killing a single salite but before they were a true Elite in her opinion killing a salite is an easy way to become such such an honored position of dark justia this is the current day tradition however an older more fanatical way of proving yourself to be worthy exists The Gauntlet of sha this is entirely organic and new material to bg3 to my knowledge by passing Sha's trials you'd be accepted granted the honor and title of dark justicia and an audience with the night singer but who is the night singer well when you enter the gaet there are magnificent statues everywhere a lightly clothed figure golden accessories and wearing a grand headpiece her eyes are concealed and her Helm is shaped like a reverse Dark presentant Moon a top it a deep black orb is nestled the symbol of sha in temples representations of the Goddess either a black sphere outlined ER rasing magically animated flames of purple or paintings of a beautiful human with long raven black hair dressed in swirling dark Garb she smiles coldly and her large eyes have black pupils and otherwise solid purple sha is depicted in many forms so are these statues meant to be her in faith and avatars we see an illustration of sha mid battle with her sister saluna notably she's brandishing two daggers in the later 3.5 Edition faiths and pantheons we see another illustration of sha also dualing dagers and what we find in bg3 but a statue with arms crossed over her chest holding a short blade in each hand based on the shared feature we can assume that this statue is the bether depiction of Sha but returning to my first point who is the night singer sha has has two main avatars and one of these is called the night singer a 12T tall presence whose female form is masked in feathers of All Sorts that trail away into an increasingly intangible cow cloak of gigantic proportions that merges into any shadows and darkness present she sings continually even when simply speaking and her song is hauntingly beautiful and tragic this song is also used as an attack if you get into combat with the night singer if you fail a saving throw against it the song can either Force the loss of an experience level cause 3d8 points of unearthly chilling damage inflict feeble-mindedness or even cause death in all you hear it safe to say you do not want to be fighting in Avatar of sha Sha's other form is the dark dancer not as tall as the night singer but still over 7t tall Leaf exquisitely beautiful she dances gracefully and alluringly her jet black body sparkling with stars and her dark eyes two hypnotic orbs that can emit both harmful and beneficial gaze effects these effects manifest in charm and enchantment magic spells at triple strength and with a minus three penalty to the Target saving throat beings kissed by the dancer are forced into a choice between becoming her loyal servant or dying instantly unless you make a successful saving throw against death magic if you choose not to risk rolling the charm will convert all your existing aims and Views to align with shs the charm is so powerful that being so affected would happily die for sure the charm can be dispelled only by using wish or limited wish one of a mortal's most potent spells possible you alter the very Foundation of Reality by simply speaking what you desire I wish you to me which is why it's up to the discretion of the DM to maintain the game's balance if they permit it to be used sha also manifests as a purple-eyed face hanging in the darkness wreathed in relentlessly whipping and oiling black dresses like the tentacles of the giant octopi sometimes called the devourers of the deeps sometimes it would just be a single steadily gazing purple eye at its heart but even if that eye were absent in the dark purple Aura you would still feel like you were being watched constantly in summary shus depicted as feminine incomprehensibly beautiful and consistently associated with a black and and purple color scheme so do we ever see what sha looks like in pg3 yes in act 3 the climax of Shadow heart's Quest you were granted an audience with sha her statue depictions were not far off the same Crescent headpiece eyes concealed but we see her enormous scale this time much taller than the night singer described in the source material only her head and shoulders are visible but they alone scale over 12T tall her voice does sound Melody like if you had obeyed there would be no pain but you struggle on you will make things worse for yourself however she also borrows physical features from the dark dancer when we see her Avatar she appears to have that jet black skin that the dark dancer is described as having as for what exactly sha looks like we will never truly know because an avatar is simply a manifestation of a deity this manifestation is not nearly as powerful and is merely a projection of a deity's power in the same way that this Avatar sha is a fraction as powerful as her true form is her appearance is also likely to be a fragment of the true broader picture we get another hint to Sha's appearance in Shadow heart's dark quest line I don't think it's fitting to call them the good or bad path so I will be referring to them as the dark and light path the dark path is to encourage her to become a dark justicia and if she does she will change her appearance in response this hairstyle is closer to Lady Sha's own image I did it to honor her instead of her blunt bangs and Center parting Shadow heartt now wears her hair with a side parting and no fringe the hair is pushed to the sides although a subtle change this was done with intent this is how Sha wears her hair however I would argue that a more fitting change for this development would be for shadow heart to let down her hair entirely the fact that shadow heart has jet black hair is significant because such hair is seen as a symbol of the dark lady's pleasure and is left to flow unfettered and long compared to what happens if you choose Shadow heart's light path you get a really shocking but positive impact when she shows you her new hair and I feel like the dark path could have been more impactful but that being said I do like Shadow heart's plattered hairstyle and keeping that really makes her unique and it suits her as well but enough about Aesthetics for now let's talk about Behavior to meet the Avatar of sha you will have needed to make a game-changing choice in act two kill or spare the Night song the dark and light path the Night song lies in weit at the end of the Sha Gauntlet and killing her is the final test of the gauntlet because Night song is supposedly daughter of saluna Sha's enemy hence proving oneself worthy of rising to the rank of dark justicia this is Shadow heart's lifelong dream it's up to you to decide if you want her to go through with it however as the night song warns to be a dark justicier is to turn your heart from everything but loss you will know no love no joy only servitude this is for shadowing if you are pursuing Shadow heart romantically letting her become a dark justicia will make your relationship a lot more complicated Shadow heart will not be able to love you anymore she expects me to fill my heart up with love for her alone leaving no room for others no room for us because her heart must belong entirely to sha that's not to say you won't be able to do romantic things with shadow heart it just means that this will be a less conventional relationship from here on out and hey who am I to judge if you're down to desecrate some holy statues and have Blasphemous relations in front of them or whil engaging in some blood play well that's what's instore for you with Shadow heart's dark path to bring it back to Forgotten Realms this kind of activity is most definitely part of shaon culture because of the secrecy of shaon worship celebrations and holidays are not one widespread or well known but the few that do exist have everything to do with night and darkness in fact every night the shaon clergy hold a ritual called Nightfall dancing eating and drinking to celebrate the coming of Darkness lay worshippers must attend at least one Nightfall and must perform and report to their fellows at least one small Act of wickedness in salute to the lady every 10 day so this dark and disrespectful deed in front of a statue of saluna would be considered a wicked act to please sha other events include the rising of the dark the coming of the lady and the kiss of the lady all occur at night and involve plotting slaying sacrificing and feasting now congregations like this sound evil that's right Sha's alignment is neutral evil for those who don't know an alignment is how you categorize your morals ethics beliefs and behaviors a character with a neutral evil alignment will do anything as long as it benefits themselves in some way they will rob someone because they need the money or kill to remove an inconvenience not killing in the Restless senseless way that a chaotic evil character might do but despite this neutral evil is the most dangerous alignment of all because it represents pure evil without honor and without variation so why why is evil such as this allowed to continue well it's not for lack of trying places of worship and where followers of sha congregate are always in secret Sha's love of secrecy is strong her clergy worked towards fulfilling her desire for secrecy by always acting through manipulation and behind closed doors Intrigue this is demonstrated where worship occurs the temples are hidden and composed of underground cells one notable Temple in ccal is the local Thieves Guild headquarters as you can probably imagine an establishment such as this is unlikely to be in plain sight especially not with a massive sign across the door saying thieves and sha worshippers welcome here a sh and Bas of operations would be tough to locate this is a mutually beneficial relationship as the worshippers of sha want their secrecy as much as the thieves do and in some cases these thieves and criminals will also work worship sha she is also worshiped by many who favor dark surroundings or must undertake Deeds or do business in darkness so in bg3 when you arrive at the titula boulders gate in act 3 there is a hidden temple of sha in the city this will be pretty hard to find with no clues unless you have Shadow heart in your party you will have received a Scouts tip about its location the temple is through a secret underground passage inside of the house of grief on the face of it it is an honest and well-meaning establishment to Aid those going through loss but as you and I know loss has everything to do with sha the house of grief isn't only a front for the temple but also a recruitment Point sha desires to bring all humans under her sway most folk will suffer loss and turn to her for peace especially through Vengeance and the influence of all other faith will be lessened if a grieving individual came to this house for help they would be vulnerable enough to be persuaded into joining a cult with the promise that their pain would be alleviated bracing the darkness to help them forget despite Sha's evil alignment and her being the goddess of night darkness and loss there is another side of the Goddess a side that is actually beneficial the dark cloaks are members of Sha's clergy function as oracles and caregivers to the emotionally damaged the dark cloaks bring the Bliss of forgetfulness to such troubled Souls the dark cloaks have actually made some progress in seeing Sha's faith become a socially acceptable one there is an argument here that Sha's Dogma is considerate of other people hurting but remember she is neutral evil she is doing this for her own benefit at the end of the day to gain more loyal followers to do her bidding one follower in particular shadowart was groomed by the shaon cult to become Sha's next right hand her painful memories were removed yes but sha was the reason for those memories in the first place if you have saved nsol she will be the one to tell you the truth that memory of the wolf in the forest was falsified they trained you well trained you hard chiseled away any part part of you that did not fit their plan they made you forget instead of a wolf Shadow heart's father was the one to be encroached upon by shaon forces captured along with Shadow Heart's Mother shadowart in turn was abducted and indoctrinated if you killed Night song you will still get this reveal but much later and by Sha herself who restores this part of Shadow heart's memory but this wasn't for closure or satisfaction or an act of kindness sha orders shadowart to Now kill her parents with this knowledge or to experience loss grief and forgetting again sh promises shadowart that if she does this she will erase this memory and make her second in command to make it even worse it's also revealed here that shadow heart was made to constantly visit her parents in this prison torture them and her memories would be wiped after every time what have you done to them we child we did this to them together my power and your will and this most likely started when she was still a child interestingly this could be connected to why Shadow heart has the name she does Shadow heart in the church all followers resend their real name for a personal name sha gave them and the dark deed they performed for her in order to demonstrate their loyalty and win that name and for a little girl to torture her parents it would be fitting to be awarded the name shadowart now you might be thinking what did Shadow heart's family do to deserve this terrible fate it's revealed by Sha that shadow heart's parents are Fanatics of saluna they were among the most fanatical of my sister sala's followers but for years they have been resisting My Embrace reading notes in the secret Temple reveals that shadowart had been specifically targeted and tracked for some time these are all about me 40 years of my life documented like I was some sort of specimen it would be a great Triumph for sha to capture a child from a family of saluna raise her as a Charon and have her personally punish her parents for eternity depending on your previous choices with Night song and the Dark justicia Quest the dialogue with Shah here will vary if you have saved Night song your choice with Shadow heart's parents will be a lot more complicated that painful mark on Shadow heart's hand is shown to react to her parents this is Sha's grip on her they are all connected and to sever this connection Shadow heart's parents must die enough I'm taking my parents away from here I'm taking them away from you you cannot we are still bound to you you cannot both free us and free yourself from her curse doing this will mean that shadowart can truly be free from Sha no longer dealing with the pain in her hand but now having the pain and knowledge that she killed her parents on the other hand freeing her parents means she will sacrifice her freedom to always be a porn and play thing for sha to spitefully twist the blade in her wound whenever she pleases both options have pain and both options bring pleasure to sha it's a prettyy messed up choice to say the least I chose the Free Shadow heart's parents to give her a chance to have a real family instead of a cult and a spiteful goddess as a surrogate mother if you chose for shadow Heart To Kill her parents in the light path as she heartbreakingly puts it loss actual loss not sh's Oblivion I had my family for Too Short a moment now they're gone by my hand now she's experiencing actual loss with no option to forget this time sha is a sore loser she wishes for everyone to experience pain like the pain she felt when her sister saluna ignited the Sun that burnt and destroyed her domain of Darkness she's regarded as bitter and vengeful for this but in truth maybe she just wants to bring together all the lonely individuals those who had been wronged liked her those who have lost like her to have a safe place to come together lick each other's wounds and indulge in doses of Amnesia but as we know this was never for their own benefit this is for sha so she does not have to feel so alone so she can be the mother figure she can be the one in control and she can be the one to inflict loss thank you everybody so much for watching I really hope you enjoyed this first video on Boulders gate um Forgotten Realms D andd they're all wrapped up in a really awesome Universe with so much Source material to uncover if you enjoyed this and you want to know about more gods and how they're p in game or other characters as well please let me know thank you all so so so much and a special thank you to my channel members and patrons [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Miss Chalice

Views: 67,985

Keywords: baldurs gate, baldurs gate 3, baldurs gate iii, bladurs gate 3, baldurs gate 3 shadowheart, shadowheart, shadowheart lore, shadowheart quest, shadowheart dark justiciar, shadowheart hair, shadowheart white hair, baldurs gate 3 lore, baldurs gate 3 shar, baldurs gate 3 shar gauntlet, baldurs gate shar trials, baldurs gate house of grief, dnd, dungeons and dragons, forgotten realms, forgotten realms lore, dnd lore, shadowheart ending, shadowheart romance, shar shadowheart, shar

Id: 0OvSwkepdfE

Length: 31min 27sec (1887 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023