Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Forget Minthara, Abdirak is the real deal

I find him hilarious and the voice actor does a fantastic job selling how much of an exalted kinky cultist he is. I would gladly trade Astarion for him as the party's freak in the sheets and I hope we'll meet Abdirak in the future and maybe have the chance to do quests for him/with him.
Not to mention it would be legitimately interesting to hear his perspective on many events taking place in the game since he seems to have an understanding of people's past trauma and seems like he could -unironically- be a really empathetic character despite the façade of stereotypical BDSM practitioner. His design is fairly unique like Halsin's is so I wouldn't be surprised if he was intended to be a recurring/relevant character going on.
In general, I would like to get the chance to recruit more companions or permanent camp residents like Volo or the talkative Skeleton that aren't involved in the adventure because of the tadpole but because they have their own motives and goals. In Abdirak's case it could be simply for 'research' purposes since by following the player around he'll have the chance to observe how different individuals from very diverse backgrounds cope with pain and loss. He could be interested in observing Lea'zel for example, since she comes from the Astral plane and clearly isn't someone who would want to show any sign of weakness in front of others.

What do you guys think?

I can see so much wasted potential, if we just left this guy behind, never to be seen or heared again. :-/

I appreciated Abdirak's attention to our limitations, and at least the suggestion of following good SSC, as much as we were able to see.

His model art is kind of off-putting, because he's clearly got a number of fairly rough permanent markings that will leave lasting damage - and the thing about worship dedications for this particular mistress is that permanent or lasting physical damage is a no-no - it's seen as a failure of practice, so to speak.

I kind of don't like that Loviatar is categorised so strongly as an evil deity; the lore he shared with us is an accurate description of at least one major aspect of her worship - the reveling in live through expressions of pain and our ability to truly feel them. In temples of her worship, it's conducted by highly skilled and trained attendants, and only upon willing supplicants, who WILL refuse to administer worship to someone who is not up to it - or who, at the least, will only give lesser dedications based on an individual's physical ability to withstand it. Her temples also serve ministrations and aftercare to supplicants, and usually they are very willing to talk to visitors about such things.

It's true that her adepts (etc.,) will often be asked to assist in the torturing of others, which they will do... but generally speaking they do so much in the way that Abdirak is placed here; trying to demonstrate method without lasting harm. It's still torture, and it's still pretty evil in that regard, other than in combat and when defending themselves, they are rarely, if ever, the instigators of such acts - just the ones trying to make sure that the actual instigators are doing it right.

I'd love to have Abdirak join our camp as a camp follower. As the OP suggests, I think it would be a viable way of exploring, in unironic fashion, the less spoken of side of being this sort of a practitioner... the emotive and mental well-being side of things, the importance of proper aftercare... and you know, just generally an illustration that being able to revel in the ferocity of being alive through the experiences of pain in a controlled and consenting environment, doesn't mean that you have to be a raving sociopath... that'd be nice too.

Do you have a source for this? Preferably 5e.

Who The ***** is ABdirak?

The BDSM freak at Shatttered Sanctum.

I love Abdirak, one of the best non playable characters in the game, from the style to how the voice actor decided to depict him, everything makes him shine.

It's interesting because you can choose wether to accept his trial (like I did with my second Tav, who decided to do that to gain points with Lae'zel) or deny to follow the sadistic acts (like I did with my first Tav).

Also I would like him to be romanceable for an eventual run using Astarion (or Lae'zel) as main character.

What is it with all those "I wish X was romanceable" posts (I don't mean just this specific post - this attitude is quite prevalent here)? Is it the pandemic?

Larian, please don't make this a dating sim...

Abdirak has a great voice actor. It would be a shame, if that would be all, we hear from him. As far as I know, he isn't killable, so maybe, we'll meet him again later for a quest or maybe he will join our camp.
I agree with DiDiDi though, that not every character needs to be romanceable.
I have yet to try his 'treatment' though, I usually threaten him with cutting off his hand, should he try something. I have to say, he is a good sport about that though.

@Niara


1. Always enjoy your posts.

2. I don't think you are correct. Sounds like you are describing some faction within the church of Sharess. Granted I haven't seen anything since 3.5, but in 3.5 Faerun Loviatar's followers enjoyed capturing Ilmater's faithful and torturing them to death. Let me know if you have a 5e source that contradicts the 3.5 description.

Perhaps you could ask Larian to make him a companion and you could write a romance where you converted him to the faith of Sharess. He's already doing the consent thing so you could teach him aftercare and such.

Yes, Abidraak being a camp follower, that would fit him perfectly. It's really hard to not laugh at his cutscene, same goes for Volo.
When he is in our camp; he could give us a quest; have an interaction simliar to the Skeleton; that he provides us with a buff in exchange for losing some health.

I don't have a really good 5e source, unfortunately. There's not a lot for her or her clergy in 5e content - we have an entry from SCAG, which is a couple of paragraphs. It does cover most of what I said, though with a slightly less positive tone - all pain, willing or not, is sacred, and she is the deity that all practitioners in pain - torturers, etc., - give their passing thanks to. I will admit that it also does state that not all sects participate with willing supplicants all the time, and that in places where slavery is an accepted practice (such as Thay), there are sometimes sects that operate underground rings for capture and enslavement of new victims. What I personally choose to take from that entry, however, is the tacit admission that those cases are, as said, only a 'sometimes' thing, and that there are much healthier sects out there, that do not stray into that dark aspect of their goddess. I will admit to a certain amount of personal bias here; I want to look at and focus on the healthier aspects of worship and practice for her.

Embarrassingly, aside from that few paragraphs in SCAG... our most up to date 5e canon material is now actually BG3 itself, since it will be considered a canon source unless any book material ends up contradicting it (books trump games, in terms of canon conflicts, but in lieu of there being an up to date book source, games are considered canonical). In which case, Abdirak's books about his mistress do indicate an aversion to causing permanent or lasting damage. Killing someone is easy; maiming someone is simple; inflicting pain to the point that they nearly break, but which they will recover from both physically and mentally, so to suffer again anew later - that is art worthy of worship.

I didn't want to post anything before you responded Niara as to not dogpile and also in case my information was outdated, but that also struck me as the opposite of what Loviatar is about -- Loviatar in many ways represents the opposite of what I'd think of as a healthy bdsm practice would be. A Loviataran is the kind of person who'd care about your limits and don'ts only so they can abuse them to hurt you even more. Loviatarans don't want you do die because when you die the suffering stops. But I'd much more expect them to want to leave marks, scars, chronic damage and similar (including emotional scars because they are equally into mental anguish and suffering) just because they know every time you hurt it will bring back memories of the suffering.

BDSM as a mutual, sexual experience would be more in the alley of the Sharessans or even Ilmatarians. Ilmater's holy symbol is a couple of tied hands, for gods' sake -- compare that to Loviatar's scourge

I think elsewhere I mentioned I would have actually loved to see this guy become a companion cleric or paladin cause he is so unique and could be an amazing traveling companion.

That and while we already have an evil deity cleric, more for variety can be a good thing. Even if non origin companions have less in the way of world significance.

I doubt there will be 2 clerics, and even if, my bet would be on Minthara (for Absolute playthroughs, where I'd expect many companions including SH to leave or even fight you).

Past Baldurs gate Games gave you options in companions to where there were multiple choices for what kind of wizard would be joining your party, what kind of fighter or cleric and so forth. So I hope there are 2 or more cleric options, in fact even though it would require resources I hope a lot of characters get implemented as potential party members so there is a really varied cast, with the Origin characters having the most story and world significance.

I get where you're coming from, but my view is that any way that they harm a supplicant, in which they will not make a full recovery from, is thereby one way that you cannot harm them again. You could destroy one of their eyes, but do it twice and then you won't be able to inflict that suffering on them ever again. Suffering without actual debilitation is important, in that regard.

I think with the current information we have, it comes down to different sects and how they individually practice - there will be some enclaves that practice closer to my envisioning of it (that's how it's always been portrayed in games I've played in where her clergy have shown up), and there will definitely be others that are more overtly destructive.

I feel that the main way in which Illmater followers and Loviatar followers differ is not in the practice, as it is the purpose and the feelings evoked. Loviatans draw pleasure, ecstacy even, from the acts of giving and receiving pain - pain is personal and intimate, and it exemplifies being alive. Illmater, on the other hand, views pain only as suffering; pain is a negative, which it is noble to shoulder the burden of, for the sake of others. One views pain as intrinsically good, while the other views it as intrinsically bad, and that is where they clash.

As far as I understand, Sharess is all about sensual fulfillment, and is inherently a pleasure goddess, and I'd certainly not mind spending a sojourn getting caught up in the endless revel if it passes by my town... but I'd not expect to find any, if many, practicing masochists in her ranks.

Still, I'm happy to admit I likely have a personal and experiential bias on this one, and may be seeing what I want to see a little bit too much.

I think he's funny, but I would never trade my vampire husband for a cultist.

Usually I agree and allign with your kind of position but mostly because it would be difficult to implement a more realistic system that is one in a character can hit on (or not) whoever they want and be hit on (or not) from anyone (just like in real life we have the chance to hit on, for one night stands or stable relationships, with anyone and we can be approached by anyone), but some npc are so outstandig and unique that a relationship option that, if managed well from the narrative point of view, can bring to very interesting outcomes.

Abdirak is a faithful of a deity whose domanin is pain inflicted upon others and self imposed, he also is charismatic and charming (kudos to the voice actor), a relationship option could show how does he react when a sadistic character don't cares about senseless slaughter and leaves a trail of corpses behind them? What would be his reaction to be courted by a character that choose peaceful solutions? Would he try to convert a romanced character or will he accept the different approachs to pain? Does the pain infliction play a role in the intimate too or is it something that concern other aspects like being a tool for meditation and prayers? And so on. Obviously this could functional only if there's a solid and skilled to support all the narrative.

[Indeed my struggle with romance in video games is that they often have weak narratives, there's no a proccess, a lot is based on approval systems, the climax of the relationship is the engagement or the sex scene, there're no nunaces between proper romance and physical relationship, there's no description of what happen after the engagement, the couple is established and that's all, no fights, no discussions, no repercussions, the actions that happen after the establishment of the relationship doesn't influence it, and so on.. ...

In BG3 my issues are with the fact that high approval get to automatically being hit on by the companions even when the main character has followed a just friendly or neutral dialogue path with them].

I can agree about our differences but I have to return to this -- the reason I think differently about this is that while I get the feeling you think of Loviatarans as being just about physical pain and the moment of it, the Loviataran lore as I know it paints them as being all about every kind of suffering and anguish, from banal things like heartbreak and being betrayed by friends to life-altering things like life crises or ptsd. And an eye broken beyond repair is going to bring so many times more kinds of suffering than one that didn't get permanently marked. If they make a full recovery, did you even damage them particularly much? If they get restored, even if you can "break it again", you lose out on all the suffering they will feel for the rest of their lives. There is no perfect wound without a scar to make them remember it forever.



Ilmater was mostly a bondage joke, but if I were to make a thing out of it, I could easily see there being sects of flaggilants and religious pain-seekers within it -- the Ilmataran equivalent of sin-eaters, people who devote themselves to punishment out of some belief that it metaphysically spares others from suffering, somehow. But I don't think Ilmater would approve of frivolous masochism, maybe even regard such sects as heretical.

As for Sharess, if you want a deity that would understand and encourage the sexual and arousing parts of bdsm, that would be her garden. She is very much the deity of hedonism of all kinds, not just the ones entirely pleasurable. Loviatar to me would be more the deity of anti-bdsm, or just sadism, the victims gaining anything from it would be against her purposes. If anything as far as she relates to sex she is the deity of sexual predators of all kinds.