Slaves To Darkness: Viconia And Shadowheart

anyone who has played the original balder's gate series as well as baldur's gate 3 early access will know that both have cleric companions and more importantly cleric companions that worship the goddess shar i do not believe this to be a coincidence as most likely you do not either what could be the reason for this and what do viconia and shadow heart have in common we'll get to that in time but i think it's pertinent to first discuss who shar is and what she wants what is the nature of the goddess shar shah is different from many deities for a number of reasons but the most important one is that she is the first or rather tied for being the first of all deities in realm space gods that are first are usually fairly unique and above all primordial in what they represent and want and char is no exception to this perhaps more so than any other deity char's existence could well be described as a paradox in itself as she reflects and represents the void in oblivion the nothingness that had existed prior to the creation of realm space and yet she exists with the memory of a void that she herself did not exist in yet longs for above all other things it is for this reason that shar more than anything else personifies loss yes she is the goddess of darkness and night but she is the goddess of darkness and night precisely because of the loss that that darkness and night represent driven by loss shar is immensely evil pitiless envious hateful and malicious her resentment of existence itself drives her to do unspeakable things a deity such as bane simply wishes to rule over all creation but a deity such as char wants nothing less than for creation to cease to be murder tyranny disease pain and death all these portfolios seem terrifying on their face but pale in comparison to the creature that ishar because she is willing to do anything and everything in order to achieve her goals char's twin an eternal enemy is selune as they emerged as the first goddesses and sulunai sought to create and nurture effectively doing the exact opposite of what char desired and thus their mutual enmity was brought about by their very nature not simply due to events or poor interactions which is to say that their bad blood is in their blood so to speak shar also created the shadowfell as well as the shadow weave as a counter to mistress weave which serves as an alternative to spellcasters to draw upon in large measure to spite and mock mystra in short char hates everything simply because it exists and has only one long-term goal the annihilation of existence itself and all of this is important to remember because it reminds us of what char's intentions are she is a powerful goddess with many worshipers but who often presents herself in a matronly manner as a protective mother figure to her charges but it's all an act a grand deception purporting to be a healer and caretaker to her worshipers someone who aids them with a pain of loss and grief the reality is that she seeks to nurture that grief and loss to transmute it into a festering wound that never ceases to be and to inflict suffering upon our worshipers and makes it such that they accept it as normal without any prospect of hope or escape she nurses spite resentment regret and vengeance in her worshipers all under the guise of being a caring mother who unbeknownst to her children manipulates her offspring and seeks to destroy them they are after all only tools as is everything else in existence serving her ultimate goal of achieving oblivion where then do characters such as viconia and shadow heart fit in here viconium may or may not be familiar to you and if not then i fear there'll be spoilers concerning your history and background if only because i think the connection between char viconia and shadowhart is fairly relevant bicone is a very important companion in baldur's gate 1 and 2 and thrown a ball viconia de vere a drow began her life in typical drow fashion in the underdark city called menzo baranzon a c you might know from another character whose name i won't mention right now training to become a priestess of loth at some point in time loth demanded that viconia sacrifice an infant in her honor in ritual fashion which she refused her mother matron of house de vere feared losing the favor of loth and so demanded that viconia prostrate herself before the goddess which viconia refused to do furious the mother attempted to have viconia taken away and have her sacrifice to the spider queen but was stopped by her brother vollis was a powerful wizard who slew their mother earning the enmity of the spider queen and was soon after captured and turned into a drider a half drow half spider monster as a punishment for his perfidy of course viconia lost all her spells in connection to loth and fled to the surface and somehow though we are not told in detail came to embrace the worship of shar and became a clerk of that goddess vyconia did not have it easy on the surface and was chased and hounded by elves and goblins until as if by fate she was rescued by a calisthenic caravan who in fact only rescued her to be used as a concubine this backfired and viconia was able to manipulate the leader of the caravan such that he did her bidding until one day his heart gave way and she was accused of murdering him after this incident she spent her every waking hour hooded on the surface so that none would recognize her for being drow all the while constantly looking over her back for a loss of engines she ended up in baragust a town in the western heartlands of faerun and neighbor to a man called roarin who despite pretensions of friendship tortured and attempted to murder her upon finding out she was drow narrowly escaping she killed him and eventually encountered the infamous ball spawn the star of the original baldur's gate series by konya's past actions as well as the interactions the pc can have with her in baldur's gate 1 and 2 as well as throne of bal show that she has in some sense a conscience both in the face of loth and her demands upon viconia as well as in light of her experience on the surface in fact with the right dialogue choices and interactions a pc who is romantically involved with her can shift her alignment from neutral evil to true neutral what about shadow heart well rather obviously we are stuck in early access and thus know next to nothing about her past or history but there are several dialogues where shadow heart is a bit more forthcoming about her past than she otherwise would be provided you make the right decisions in terms of her approval shadow heart regards the church of shara's family and someone that took her in when others rejected her and shadowhart rather actively expresses her hatred towards the goddess but spouts it as if it were just political religious propaganda she had heard from the church of shar it's not entirely clear what if any similarities exist between viconia and shadowhart or indeed if these similarities unite them but they are united in their worship of shar and i don't think this is a coincidence though we hardly know all the details about shadowheart it is heavily implied that she was at least in part rejected by people in her past viconia was rejected to the point where she was going to be ritually sacrificed aloth by her drow family and it is at this juncture that the god of shark comes in the loving and soothing mother who promises them relief from their past and pain but instead pour salt into their wounds stoking their resentment and bitterness about their lives whilst presenting herself as benevolent and helpful and this is simply how char operates she takes advantage of the emotionally wounded and the weak and those consumed by bitterness and fans the flames causing even more pain which she delights in all the while pretending to be a benefactor and yet neither of iconia nor shadow heart are inherently evil i'll make that bold claim no they are not good people in a traditional sense either but neither are they what one might typically associate with conventional evil it seems entirely possible to my mind just as the bolspon was able to at least partially turn viconia away from her path of darkness that with the right dialogue and choices shadowheart will be made aware of the fact that she has been manipulated and possibly abused by shar the fact that her memories have at least been partially erased is an indication of that whether is an origin character or a companion the revelation of the truth of shara's perverse evil will be a moment of great interest and possibly a moment to save her as perhaps sulu herself will pierce the darkness and shed light upon shadowheart's benighted soul or much as with viconia shadowheart can be further plunged into the darkness that is shar and never return to the light as always thank you for tuning in do leave a like comment share and subscribe to the channel and i will check you out later thanks for watching take care

Channel: Spell&Shield

Views: 26,365

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Id: SSJr6Gm4CmE

Length: 8min 42sec (522 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 18 2022