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.

The illithid at the helm values you only in so far as you are useful to him. As soon as Lae'zel and my character killed the devil he was fighting, he turned red and attacked, announcing that he no longer needed us.

As soon as Lae'zel and my character killed the devil he was fighting, he turned red and attacked, announcing that he no longer needed us.