Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Shadowheart second act theory

I don't remember where did I see it, but someone said that Sharrans kidnapping and brainwashing Selune worshipers to do dirty jobs for them isn't something new. A Selune's chosen had been through this.

It could be fascinating, if they handle well the personality clash that will ensue within her when her memory is restored. Meaning, she shouldn't just revert to her old self willy-nilly. I mean, the trauma alone of the whole thing, coupled with all she did while brainwashed, should turn her into a wildly different person than who she was before, and anything less would just be downplaying it.

Well, hopefully, if she finds out she's in fact a brainwashed selune follower, there will be a climax scene of complete madness, desperation and call for vengeful retaliation. The actress is good and I am sure she can deliver it perfectly.

Exactly.

Maybe I shouldn't have said personality. I'm not talking about a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation here, I'm talking about Shadowheart at 18 and Shadowheart at 28, you're the same person but your life experience as turned you into a cynical nihilist who is able to seek comfort in the tenets of Shar. Your personality doesn't have to change when your alignment does, but your world view does. You could expect her to be snarky, but now she might make jokes that are cruel and mean-spirited.

That said the more interesting part of this angle is how it creates a character who has to reconcile two versions of themselves after they thought they had moved on from that stage of their life. Or if she's a Selunite, she'll have to choose whether what was inculcated through torture by Sharists is in fact more true to her beliefs than what she believed before.

I recognize that I'm just one anecdotal person, but I would *LOVE* that. If done well, I believe it would be powerful and brilliant.

My only concern is that I don't know how to reconcile it with her being a player character, where her personality is under the control of the player.

Yeah it does seem pretty dramatic (in a good way) for an NPC, but for a PC that and alignment in general the game has to rely on roleplaying by the player to make it work. I'd like to see a game try it.

My thoughts on how the game could do it is through the narrator, she describes the world from your PC's perspective, we could have a narrator for SH POV that is like it is now, but later after getting your memories back, our narrator's descriptions take on a more sinister slant, perspective informed by years of experience we're not really privy to.

I think a latent split personality is at least as likely as a sleeper cell Manchurian candidate. In act 2 we meet Moonshine, her alter ego, who's super friendly (most of the time). We learn that Shadowheart is the heavy drinking nihilistic depressive personality, while Moonshine (in an ironic twist) is all about temperance, manic flights of levity and ill-advised beneficence lol. A Janus faced embodiment of both aspects of the Moon basically. In chapter 1 we see the dark side, and in chapter 2 the light, and in chapter 3 will we come to understand the harmonious relationship between the two, as we decide to date both Shadowheart and Moonshine at once. Cool. I'm just waiting for all the symbols on her armor to illuminate so we know we're in Act 2. Shadowheart screams "Noooo! get me out of this thing!" but she can't stop it, she grabs her temples and shakes her head while a soft white light envelopes the room... her dour expression and general comportment slowly fading away, replaced by a big smile. And then she hugs us.

​If that was their initial plan they should back way off it, and come up with something a bit less, how do you say, predictable? Cause I see that one coming a mile off and will almost certainly hate it for feeling so staid and convenient and full of artifice.

When actually playing Shadowheart as a Protagonist, I imagine the same sort of thing will be conveyed, just in a more POV sort of way. Basically you're playing a Cleric of Shar and Selune at the same time, in the same body, and so you must somehow resolve the Cosmic conflict internally. From among 3 choice dialog options. Dark, Light, and 50% grey hehehe

Oh oh and in chapter 3 she probably gets the ability to phase back and forth between personalities at will. Just so the player can experience being neutral good and neutral evil at once, with access to two opposing domains, depending on which button they push on the fly heheh.

I only put it out there in the hopes that they might 'double' back and consider not doing that. Cause it seems pretty hard to pull off as anything other than a joke.

yeah, that kind of trope using split personalities is a little too 'comic book' for my tastes. I'm very interested what our POV as the origin characters will be, having history, I want to know how they intend to set it up for us to roleplay.