Withers Before And After Baldur's Gate 3

Withers is certainly among the more interesting NPCs in balers Gate 3 and laran has ensured that he would be essential uniquely he's probably the only NPC you cannot kill or get rid of permanently in the game and he has an intimate relationship one could say with some of the main antagonists but most striking about Withers is none of that but rather Lan's representation of the figure in balers Gate 3 this representation is actually pretty novel and without necessarily being critical of it very different from every conception and interpretation of Withers before the release of the game now if you made it this far you should know that there will be spoilers in this video so proceed at your own risk Withers is rather obviously the demigod jergal and I will be referring to him off and on as such throughout the rest of the video I have in fact talked about jergal before on this channel in a separate dedicated lore video so do check that out if that's of interest to you that video will be linked in the description but it would behoove us all to go over the back story of jurgel once again especially if you're not familiar with it to understand how and why juggle is presented Ed so differently in balers Gate 3 jural was once a very big deal in the ranks of divinity in fyon and lorded over several domains he's also one of the most ancient deities in fun predating virtually all others sa for Shar and soluno and was unimaginably old even during the various ages of Neil he was however back then very different from his later incarnations in several key ways having taken on a more toned down neutral and apathetic attitude towards the world in the present as he was formerly unmistakably evil and tyrannical at the Apex of his influence during the time of Neal at the heights of the Empire's control and power over the world there were much fewer gods in Fon and several of the Gods as we know them today existed in somewhat different forms and roles and reigned over multiple portfolios that were distributed to many different gods in later times thus jurgel being one such God was the god of the Dead death and tyranny as well as many smaller things associated with such Affairs such as on death wasting and dusk sh of course was also present as Shong with suuna are the oldest deities of the pantheon and she ruled over more than just darkness and loss having Mastery over hatred thievery Illusions and many other things jurgel was to put a rather fine point on it not a nice God and this exert describing him as he existed thousands of years ago time of Neil drives this point home Juro lord of the end of everything was the power who presided over death the dead and undeath he was responsible for keeping records on the final resting place of all the dead and strove for order in death anticipating the ever encroaching termination of all things living as the judge of the Damned and the Grim Reaper it was said that only jurgel knew the final disposition of every Spirit and the day of every being's final death and he was never wrong the ultimate Tyrant no one unintentionally escaped juro's grasp once they fell under the agis of his portfolio he was very jealous of his position and even those of other faiths who sought to resurrect companions had to Plate him or risk his retribution jurgel never visibly angered and always spoke with a disembodied chilling voice that echoed with a dry Whisper of a long forgotten Crypt his tone was deceptively blind and his demeanor excessively formal even if his words pended Horrors unimaginable totally focused on death he perceived life as moment Ary existence before death's eternity the lord of the Dead was depicted as a wizened insubstantial mummy of some ancient alien race his skin was gray and tightly strung across his frame his bulbous yellow lifeless eyes and insectoid mandibles resembled a cross between a humanoid and a PR mantis his ears and nose were barely distinguishable from his elongated skull most of his body was covered with an utterly lightless cloak that seemed to absorb the very atmosphere that enveloped it he wore white gloves which covered elongated claw-like hands and forearms and a shadow filled gray cloak that Rose and fell as if buffeted by an unseen wind he clutched a thick scroll covered with intricate incomprehensible script and a freshly ink quill in his hands jurgel was said to be a shadowy Sinister figure who left a vague feeling of unease and innervation in his wake he had total command over the undead animating creating summoning dismissing and dispelling them at will it was said that with his gaze jurgel could learn the sum total of a being's life Joys fears ax and ultimate demise and simply by inscribing a mortal's name on his voluminous scroll he could inflict a being's faded demise immediately his touch instilled fear drained a being's life force or could banish his victim to the realm of the dead now as many of you probably know jurgel is no longer this God the story might well be familiar to you by now I would imagine but at some point in time jurgel grew bored with this position as the Tyrant of death and willingly seated most of his power to three Mortals sometime after the fall of Neil nearly 2,000 years ago Bane took the portfolio of tyranny Merkel that of the dead and Bal that of death I.E murder but with this transfer of power it was not the end of jergal though one might say that it was a form of semi-retirement for the God as he soon became the cesal of the then newly appointed lord of the Dead Merkel carrying out a new set of Duties by keeping records of the dead and attending to the administrative Affairs of the realm of the dead as well somehow and over time juro's formerly deeply evil ethos became a much more neutral one though he remained steadfastly lawful and he became more and more the dispassionate and detached scrier of Doom we are all familiar with now jurgel has been in this position since handing over the Reigns of power to the dead three at one time serving Merkel then briefly sirich and now kelore the latter being most on his wavelength in terms of his approach to governing the dead and Ethos but something one could say has upset the balance recently and that is nothing less than the appearance of a game called balers Gate 3 games and films have a way of changing characters in books and by that I do not simply mean changing their behavior For the First Time characters from Pages Rod of paper enter into your site for fleshed out indeed made of Flesh in the case of Cinema or in the case of games digital bits but this physical representation itself is always going to be a matter of interpretation as in many cases we are seeing a character brought to life for the first time concerning Withers this was no different and laran decided to present Withers in a somewhat different manner than he had been portrayed in the literature compare this description with jurgel in the game jurgel was frequently depicted as a member of an ancient alien race that resembled a cross between a humanoid and a PR mantis he was a wizened and insubstantial creature mummy-like in appearance with gray tightly toed skin his elongated skull hosted bulbous yellow eyes devoid of life and insectoid mandibles as well as a nose and ears barely distinguishable from the rest of his head now to be fair there is some overlap between Wither's appearance and his description in as much as he has gray tightly topped skin but on the other hand there's very little to nothing of the insectoid appearance mentioned as his eyes are neither bulbous nor yellow nor does he possess insectoid mandibles though he does appear as one might argue as a mummy now I do not mention this as criticism but merely to point out that how characters from a literary Source are described to us can often times leave a lasting impression on the reader and the transition from page to screen can have similarly lasting consequences indeed in the context of DnD it strikes me as entirely plausible that Wither's new appearance in bg3 will become his canonical physical representation going forward in all Forgotten Realms products but the real question is why did Larry and deviate from the original description here we are left to speculate but my sense is that the original physical description of jurgel presented to us in the literature and Source books would have been far too alienating no pun intended precisely because of his alien appearance as I doubt an undead man insect would have come across as endearing to players or even relatable and thus I think it likely that laran changed jergal to make him both much more approachable and less scary to players as he was going to play such an integral role in the plot and story of bg3 better to Simply make him less frightening lest we scare off those strange humans from the realm of real life so to speak that said it is entirely possible to argue that jurgel has intentionally taken on a more humanoid form to accommodate his role as Camp Guardian after all gods and fyon cannot actually manifest themselves on the material plane and must use avatars and thus jal's Avatar might intentionally look like this for the reasons mentioned prior this view however does not work particularly well for the changes made to his personality I'm going to argue that his physical change is part of an entire makeover that jiggle has received in order to make him more approachable as a character in general in his Central role as a guide and supplier of Merc scenaries and respects Withers Ballers Gate 3 depiction is thus extremely different to that of his literary sources for the simple reason that such a personality and character would have been untenable in his role as a very important NPC and above all essential and helpful MPC to be sure jurgel retains the general thrust of his historical depiction he is dry dis passionate and does most certainly look Undead but there have also been many changes perhaps the most important question is why he's been sent to help you it's not obvious at all as in his historical depiction jural would have never interacted with Mortals as he does in bg3 let alone offer them direct help indeed as the party itself points out in his tomb very very few worship The Scribe of the Dead let alone know of him hence his connection to Mortals is in every conceivable way tenuous at best part of this is obviously plot device but another part will probably become part of the cannon and thus requires explanation now if you ask him why he's helping you he will tell you very plainly it is not by choice be assured it is not by choice who then is making him help you the seeming logical assumption is his master and Superior kellor but is this actually the case we are never told directly in game why Juro is helping you but we do know he's not there by choice so what's going on and all probability we will never know which God or force and juggle to help and interact with the party but one can still speculate as there's in fact data mind content that suggests that it was the god Helm that sent jurgel to fyon jurgel a god of the Dead awaits the player in Camp he is bound by the Judgment of another God Helm to assist the players as Penance for past crimes he provides Resurrection services to the players based on this the power compelling jiggle to act would be Helm but it seems odd that Helm would compel or indeed could compel somebody such as Withers again this is clearly a plot device however there might be a plausible interpretation to think about that given what we know about Juro and Game and his own chastisement of the dead three in the epilogue if Helm had sent Withers to fyon then it might be related to his poor choice of allowing them to become Gods n to Millennia ago since that time they have caused all kinds of havoc and destruction with the initiation of the time of troubles at the hands of Bane and Merkel being the worst one needs to ask why this time seems so different is it the cumulative Foul Play of the dead three after so many centuries that justifies the intervention it could very well be there are dozens and dozens of horrific events in the history of fun that could be laid at the feet of the dead three so perhaps it is the culmination of such things but then again there's one area of concern here that differentiates this matter from others and that is the matter of the Mind players and the question of souls by jal's account iths do not have Apostolic Souls though there is some debate on this and I did make an entire video about this that I will link in the description but assuming he is right perhaps the stakes are so high because this is not merely a matter of death and destruction but one of the death and destruction of Souls which gods require to populate their Divine Realms even if Withers does not have a mandate from Helm which may or may not be the case Withers is certainly disappointed to say the least in the dead three and likely himself for having chosen them as Replacements and that in conjunction with with the destruction of mortal Souls might be enough to explain his presence ultimately we will never know exactly why and it might not even make that much sense as everything needs to fit the story of balers Gate 3 regardless of its theological plausibility and now we come to juro's most decisive change and the question of juro's very nature as a Divine entity originally he was a very cruel albeit orderly and lawful God and when he stepped down from Power he became a much more apathetic and neutral one and he was presented to us in the literature up until now in just this way Withers on the other hand can appear surprisingly kind and understanding during the course of balers Gate 3 specifically I am referring to the situation with the orphaned Arabella the original jergal to be blunt would have been piously indifferent to everyone's fate even that of a child such as arabella's but again given the plot constraints of Ballers Gate 3 that would not have fit the story very well and thus jurgel is far more human than we normally would take him him for because it is necessary for the game to flow though to be fair even in his Humane treatment of a child he remains nonetheless somewhat detached and withdrawn this is perhaps most evident in the delightful fan service that laryan provided to players in the form of Withers hosting a get together party at the end of the game know that probably would not happen outside of a game in fact I cannot recall anything like that in all the history of the Forgotten Realms when the original Ballers gate games came out few at the time myself included thought that the plot of these games would have a lasting impact on the lore of the Forgotten Realms itself and yet it did and eventually it became Canon I raiseed this point because jergal is now likely changed forever and going forward he probably will be perceived as vastly different than before depending on where you're coming from if you had read the Lauren books involving him prior to his appearance in Ballers Gate 3 then your image of an apathetic insectoid mummy has forever been shattered and you will need to adjust just if however this is your first exposure to the demigod then no such adjustment is necessary anytime a character from a book or literature reaches the screen be it film or game that character is always changed think of Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones having read the books of the 9s my sense of him was very different from what we came to know and appreciate in the actor who played him Peter Dinklage for many who only watch the series Peter Dinklage is Tyrion and even for those who had read the books Peter Dinklage became Tyrion and tyrion's depiction in the books is not but a distant memory I suspect we can expect the same of jurgel or any other character or God that we happen to meet and interact with in a game going forward that was formerly literary figure the new jergal is much more human understanding concerned and dare I say compassionate than the old one ever could have been and whether rightly or wrongly balers G 3 made him this way and it is this way he shall forever remain going forward pixels one could argue speak louder than a thousand words thank you to everyone for watching if you like my content you can leave a like comment share and subscribe as it really helps out the channel it'd be much appreciated and I will check you out next time take care

Channel: Spell&Shield

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Length: 16min 18sec (978 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2024