Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Tav isnt canon

I dont get why some of you call the mc tav. Yes its a placeholder when you name your character but it simply stands for gustav which was the codename for baldurs gate in ea and is also the name of svens dog. Mc makes way more sense or protag/hero whatever. This game hasnt a canon name for the protagonist its all about your choices

We use it as shorthand for a custom player character/protagonist, as opposed to an origin or Durge player character/protagonist.

Seriously though, linguistically, Tav makes perfect sense. Everyone knows EXACTLY what you mean when you say Tav. If you simply say MC, that just means your main character, which could be a dark urge, or any of the origin companions. Tav perfectly explains what Tav is, a custom non-origin, non-dark urge main character.

Of course Tav isnt canon buts a Meme since Early Access because people forget to name their character and ended up with a Tav protagonist. Its not that deep and that the reason some are using it

Okay now i get it. Happened to me as well. It was very hidden. Thanks for clarifying

CHARNAME wasn’t the canon name of the BG1/2 protagonist either. It’s not really more convenient. Just fun to write / say.

Woah woah, you are telling me the Bhaalspawn who saved the SC wasn't called CHARNAME?

Yeah Tav is just a placeholder nothing more. I think op knows now that its just a meme and why some people say it. Its even a meme by larian themselves. Whats the point of character creation and to name a character when he already has a name and fixed looks etc....also tav already sounds like a meme lol. But the baalspawn from bg2.....there was a horrible novel. Novels, comics etc dont make anything canon but didnt wotc adapdet that story and made it canon? A lot of people were p* at that. I think wotc dont consider that story canon anymore

I was wondering what name Jaheria was going use and when she said "Gorian's ward" I thought "I really wanted you say CHARNAME"

Glad she didn't say Abdel

I still havent forgiven MtG for going with Abdel not CHARNAME
it would have been hilarious

The real tav is durge. Tav gets none of the durge content, durge gets all the tav content, all the reactivity from . It's not even close.

I personally never say tav as well even if its a meme even from the devs. Mc or avatar is the canon definition of the character even in the game

There is no real Main Character. There is only your canon or headcanon like it should be

Even Wotc doont consider Abdel canon anymore. Novels usually dont make anything canon but wotc adapted that novel but it seems they already stepped away from it. What a crappy decission from the get go it ruins the players story completely

They could have made a CHARNAME for every colour combination and gone hog with it, maybe one card for each of the default portraits. think of all the cash monies they missed out on.

He get's mentioned by name in the game. Though there are some Bhaalspawn novels that Jaheira defaced and discredited that were obviously stand-ins for the shit RL novels.

It seems like the BG 1 and 2 'novels' are cannon, though the events depicted in them, other than some broad strokes, are fictionalized garbage.

avatar ? ratava ? tava ? tav

That's how the word evolved from circa 1964 until 1989. Since then, it hasn't changed much.

Okay now i get it. Happened to me as well. It was very hidden. Thanks for clarifying

Forget to quote
Is that real? Isn’t tav in this game a meme because it was called project gustav?(bg3)
Is tav also a shortener for avatar?

@benbaxter


I finished the game 2 times and she never said abdel. The novels were adapted by wotc but like the previous poster said it looks like not anymore. I don’t consider abdel as the canon name anyway. It really ruins every decision you make in bg2 and 1

WotC have a very flexible approach to canon, which I find can be frustrating sometimes and a relief at others. There's an article on the subject on the FR wiki at https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Forgotten_Realms_Wiki:Canon that I found quite helpful.

Oh, and yes my understanding is that "Tav" indeed was inspired by "Gustav", though that's not to say that Larian didn't consider that the name might be fitting for other reasons. When I first saw it (before I heard about Project Gustav) I wondered if it were connected to the Wheel of Time Ta'veren which would be quite fitting in some ways if entirely the wrong universe!