Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Hypothesis: Why Our Tadpoles Are Such Sexy Beasts

So I have been busy doing what I call an "obsessive librarian" run, where the point is not so much to complete any quests but to collect all books, correspondence and other documents lost in the world, classifying it by significance and creating my own Pepe Silvia Conspiracy Board, and the working hypothesis is in: our tadpoles are valuable because they are an unholy experiment to bring dead gods back to life. The PC, the companions, and any other "True Soul" that you encounter is carrying a dead god larva in their brain. That's why some characters like the Hag won't touch it and why others, like Raphael, would LOOOOVE to strike a deal with a literal god.

All of that is good and well, but what proof is there and how solid is it?

'tis very flimsy, and you might accuse me of smoking mugwort, but here it goes:

1) The opening cinematic is highly suspicious, from a visual / mythical point of view. Illithid Dad enters a domed chamber with a central tadpole nursery that, to me, looks a bit like an Italian baptismal pile (AKA As the first city that the nautiloid destroys looks a lot like real world Florence, that might be a visual reference to that era (there are more). The pods are disposed around it almost like holy sarcophagi, or sacred sculptures.
Illithid Dad is also very careful, almost respecful in the way he manipulates the tadpoles and the vessels (that's you and Lae'zel), and he even stays to make sure that both of you are fine before leaving the chamber. Not a proof of godliness in and of itself, but close. This chamber also looks much cozier than the Matrix-like Illithid factory that you find later, where you can turn a lady into an Illithid with a lever (I think that's a separate kind of experiment that they had running).

The whole tadpolization looks like a twisted version of Mary's Annunciation; there's Lae'zel, a literal Iron Maiden with incredibly high virtue (by the githianky standards), kidnapped by her culture's equivalent of a demon, implanted with her culture's equivalent of the Devil. In classic D&D AND in most painting of the Conception, the moment where Mary gets pregnant with God is depicted as the words of the angel snaking into her ear. Here we have a baby tadpole sliding into your eye.

You can also see that this particular nautiloid and Illithid Dad have been traveling and suffering for a long time -- his mates are dead, and he seems regretful and sad when he looks at them. He's also devoted to bringing the nautiloid somewhere, and not so much with actually fighting his pursuers. Dare I say... "pilgrimage"?

The way the nautiloid crashes also raised all kinds of flags -- the nautiloid is basically a giant seashell, and you, your companions -- and the larvic god you carry -- are depicted as emerging from the water -- much like Venus / Aphrodite in classical mythology and the Biblical prophecy about the Antichrist that was made famous in film The Omen.

The reason why you are so precious is that the other tadpole gods were destroyed by the githianky dragons; you and your companions are the very last carriers of dead gods wanting to be reborn.


2) Full-circle storytelling is one of the most elegant, simple and satisfactory ways to craft a story -- particularly one with as many branches as BG3. That means that the MC must finish the adventure at the same place that they started it, but armed with the knowledge and experience to be able to solve the question it asked. The game is designed so that the very first quest in your path is the Overgrown Ruins, where you can find Jergal, the reluctant ex-god of the dead, now scribe of the dead, and a bunch of books about gods, dead gods, forgotten and forgetful believers, etc. This is curious -- why include all the info about dead gods if it has nothing to do with you? Unless... YOU are technically becoming a dead god. If the game's structure is circular, at the end you will have to decide whether to

3) Jergal and Korilla (Raphael's warlock) insist that your life / skin is very valuable. But... why? Well, because it's keeping a dead god alive, and your souls are getting slowly entwined. Not ideal.

4) Daisy's Character Creation: Yes, Daisy IS the tadpole but they are also dressed as gods in classic mythology: the flowing tunic in purple, a royal/godly colour, the bare feet, the godlike jewelry with saphires, which in game are associated with mourning. The way Daisy talks to the MC is untadpole like, and full of wording associated with faith and belief. Daisy is "looking for you, where are you". Daisy "Chose You". Daisy wants you to be a "beautiful weapon" (much like a Templar). The other True Souls also talk in religious terms about the Absolute.

The one stick in my wheel is that the Companions don't have a Daisy; instead, they dream of their past masters / lovers / business partners / queens and the dialogue options are VERY different. For instance, Dream!Cazador is the opposite of seductive to Astarion, so I don't know how this would fit my theory.

5) So, who is the Absolute? I think that the Absolute are the Dead Three who came back to life through Illithid technology; while Minthara, Raz and Gut are NOT the Absolute, they create a pattern and they use their iconography. I also believe that some Illithids were not in complete agreement about bringing these three back (IDK, out of self-preservation?) so they balanced it out by bringing all the other dead gods back as well.
I don't know why so many characters think of the Absolute as a "her" though.


I'm pretty new to D&D, so if any of you veterans would like to take this (flimsy) theory for a spin and see how it would fit in the larger universe, I'm all eyes.

People think of the Absolute as a she because Sassa is very certain in her belief that the Absolute is a she.

Interesting theory but aren’t all the dead gods already back? WotC basically reconned everything they messed up in 4e by bringing back almost everything in 5e.

Indeed they are.

Yeah, sure, but how exactly are they back? What are the mechanics behind it? How do they plan to become relevant to Faerun? Maybe... through heroic, almost miraculous deeds?

Probably related, but there is a lot of overlap between Illithid reproduction, Bhaalspawns in the previous games, githianky child rearing practices and different "True Souls" trying to kill each other. Illithid tadpoles eat each other in the nursery, and the ones who survive are chosen to be implanted, Bhaalspawns killed each other, Lae'Zel explains that she killed her own cousins to prove her worth, the Absolute's True Souls are pitched against the survivors of the Nautiloid... (suggesting that the Absolute's tadpoles do not particularly like the new tads on the block). In turn, their adult forms are eventually devoured by a larger, more powerful and domineering entity (an Elder Brain, Bhaal himself, Vla'kith, and whatever the Absolute is).

It **would** make sense for a god or an entity to attempt the ultimate devouring -- a god itself, AKA, you if you go that way. I guess that a way to resist this pull would be to create strong ties with your companions, much like the tiefling kids and even the goblin children stick together. Keeping in touch with the real world and real people, so to speak. IDK.

I like this, whether it turns out to be accurate or not.

Just to throw more ideas out:

The cinematics suggest the mind flayers are dying. There were already many mind flayers who were dying before the attack and crash. Perhaps the tadpoles is their last ditch effort to survive as a species?

That may require godlike power. And we know in Faerun, the number of worshippers increase the strength of a god. Maybe the mind flayers are trying to elevate their own god through tadpoles. Mortals have ascended to godhood in Faerun.

Yes! Even the first time I watched the opening I felt really bad for that lonesome mind flayer. Poor guy (really!). All his friends are dead, he has to take care of a whole ship on his own, the nursery, the elder-y brains in jars, escaping githianky and then fighting off all the devils and cambions who try to kill him on sight. Then he tries to VERY GENTLY mind control a bunch of fishermen to survive and gets offed for his efforts. Then he gets taken to a stinky goblin camp, his cadaver interrogated by people who clearly can't properly interpret mind-speech, and probably burned. If anyone deserved an afterlife upgrade, it's him.


I think that I like the idea of having different gods in each tadpole because the powers that you get are different depending on your class -- it's not a "one size fits all" murdery power, besides the "repulsion" one with Omeluum.

A lot of gods died long before the Spellplague during the Time of Troubles (the events that led up to BG1 and 2). Bhaal was killed. Mystra was killed and passed his mantle on to Midnight. Cyric killed a whole bunch of gods and took their portfolios, many of which then got taken back off him and shared out (Myrkul's got handed off to Kelemvor, for example). Lolth escaped the Time of Troubles by killing herself, but instead of having kids with mortals like Bhaal did she just had lots of spiderlings who she kept in her nest the whole time until one of them emerged the survivor and became the new Lolth.

Not to mention that the Githyanki city is built on the corpse of a dead god in the Astral Plane.

That said, it doesn't make much sense for the Illithid to be trying to resurrect gods. Ilsensine is their patron deity and they don't even recognise it as a divine power, more as... the perfect ideal to which they aspire.

They are known for venerating their children however - the hatching pools are one of their most closely guarded sites, and having one on a roving ship is rather unlikely.

My personal theory is that the ship was a research vessel and the tadpoles aboard it were the only survivors of the project that hadn't been seeded yet. A project to create illithid sleeper agents who could gather information from the surfacers, telepathically relaying it back to their kin in the underdark, much the same as Ilsensine plumbs the minds of surfacers from its nest in the Caverns of Thought.

Every one of those gods you mentioned are already back. They came back in the Second Sundering. It was basically WotC fix for all the unpopular changes they made in 4e.

I'm not sure that I can respect Ilsensine as a god, the holy symbol in that link looks like the face my toddler makes when she tries to swallow a whole ball of ice cream in one go and realizes that she's failing miserably.

I agree on the "research vessel" part, and given how eager the hag and Volo are to give you spy eyes, it makes sense that this is paralleled with an Illithid plot. That said, I don't think that the plot is very succesful if you don't access the tadpole's powers; in a way, the telepathic connection with other tadpoles only seems to work at close range -- unless you count the dreams. Think of it as bluetooth tethering vs. 4G.

I think it's a little less of a leap to assume he is weak because they are being hunted and attacked by Gith, not because of some species wide cancer of anything.



He was not alone on the ship -- you pass by several Illithid corpses which appears to have been killed by imps, and there's a second Illithid at the helm who appears in the cut scene where he is killed by the imps as you enter the room.

The cinematic has the mind flayers dead before they reach Baldur’s Gate and before Avernus. It’s possible the gith killed them already but seeing the nautiloid was undamaged up to that point, I think that’s unlikely. The gith probably found their location because they abducted Lae’zel. Not that she’s meant to be important but that just says the mind flayers encountered the gith.

But yes, you could be right. It’s fun to toss out theories.

I think the scene where the woman in the pod changes at the switch of a lever is significant.
Maybe the plan was to enter "sleeper cells" of special, leadertype people in Faerun society and have them all morph after a few years when they are in positions of power, all at once.

Maybe... although I'm not sure that Gale and Astarion would qualify as "leaders" or "leader-potential" at least in the state they are when they are abducted. Besides, they are seen taking randos from the street in the opening cinematic (personally I play my Tav as a rando all the time, much more fun that way).

Good theory, i like it honestly ... there is only one tiny problem i have with that:
1) Minflayers start their life by eating each other, i never see or heared even one that showed any compasion to others.
2) Personaly i was unable to detect litteraly any emotion behind that tentacled "face".
3) Not sure by this, but i believe that Mind Flayers usualy stick in collonies only under control of Elder Brain, otherwise they tend to be more solitary, maybe bcs of their canibalistic habits? O_o

Dunno ...
I was also wondering about that Illithid, and i presumed he is either lone survivor of some greater battle ... but he have no signs of damage, and also have in posession nautiloid ... so that seemed unprobable.
Or he was simply the one who killed the others.

I do like this idea. I have been thinking for awhile now that the Illithid made some sort of demonic bargain to create the tadpoles but I could not theory craft what there end goal might be. That could explain why they went into Avernus to make a deal so that they could rise back into power. I do have some question of there motives, not every god would want to help them. Maybe they are trying to create an avatar for there god Ilsensine?

But most of those deaths had nothing to do with 4e? Time of Troubles was around as far back as 2nd edition at the very least. What about Moander? Is he back too?


Pretty sure that he dipped into Avernus because he knew the devils would attack the githyanki and he hoped to lose them there. Reeks of evasive action rather than anything else.

Time of Troubles is long past and either the gods returned or are gone permanently. We are in 5e now. No, I don’t think Moander is back and he most likely won’t be considering he’s not mentioned in 5e. I don’t think Moander will have anything to do with BG3 if that’s what you are hoping.

Well you're the one insisting that gods who died in the ToT are back because of the 4e retgone...