Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Timeline of Events

It was said that a company of Riders had once ridden into the Hells themselves—namely Avernus, the first layer—and from this story, the Hellriders were named.[1][2][8][14][15] The earliest known version told that it was to rescue one of their own, such was their great loyalty to each other.[2] A later version said that they rode through a gate to hunt down and slay devils that had been harassing the good people of Elturel.[8]

A third account expanded on this. In this story, fiends roamed the Fields of the Dead north and west of Elturel, stripping fields bare, slaying livestock, burning houses, and dragging folk away to an unknown yet horrible doom. As people lived in fear, Elturel's cavalry fought the fiends, riding wherever they must and enduring great casualties, but the fiends kept appearing in greater number. The High Rider of Elturel implored the people to pray to the gods for help. Surprisingly, help came—the rogue angel Zariel (desiring to destroy devils and demons and to have a mortal army to fight for her in the Blood War) came to Elturel the next day, declaring she'd found the gate in the Fields of the Dead west of Elturel through which the devils were pouring, and that she would lead the cavalry through to defeat them where they mustered. She rallied and trained an army of thousands, among them Yael, Haruman, Olanthius, and Jander Sunstar.[14][15] One early battle was to relieve Idyllglen from attack by Yeenoghu, gnolls, and demons.[16] When she thought them ready, in the Year of the Bow, 1354 DR, Zariel, riding her golden mastodon, led them out of the city, with the cheers and good wishes of the Elturians behind them, and embarked on the Ride, a glorious mounted charge through the gate into Avernus. Courageously, they battled the infernal legions of Bel, but the horrors of the Hells became too much for some. Jander and others turned and ran, sealing the portal and trapping the majority behind them. Though they were glorified as the Hellriders, they shamefully kept the secret of their escape and abandonment of the others, telling instead that Zariel and her army had been defeated and they were grief-stricken.[14][15] But they would be the lucky ones. Those still fighting through Hell grew twisted; Haruman crucified deserters on Coward's Way. The army was ultimately wiped out. Finally captured, Zariel swore fealty to Asmodeus, and vengeance on those who'd fled her.[14] The rest in Avernus were ultimately entombed in the Crypt of the Hellriders, their souls bound by oath to Zariel and haunting the place forever after as ghosts.[15][note 3][note 4]

In any case, the Hellriders were well-established and famous across Faerûn through the late 1350s, 1360s, and early 1370s DR.

In 1358-ish, when the Time of Troubles began, Ketheric was a Harper or a Paladin of Selune, or both. He came with a group of settlers who built Moonhaven and the Temple of Selune in the Western Heartlands. (A document in the Underdark mentioned the temple and settlement being built pretty much at the same time.) I think Ketheric had a family, and Shadowheart was likely his daughter. I'm thinking Shadowheart was a Cleric of Selune initiate, possibly one of the Initiates mentioned in the documents found in the Underdark. I think trouble started when one of the initiates discovered the passages into the Underdark and thought it was his duty to spread Selune's light into the Underdark. They stirred up trouble with the drow, and it was a massacre. The drow slaughtered the initiates and the surviving Selunites had to seal the tunnel. I'm wondering if Shadowheart was lost during this encounter; captured by drow who may have been Sharrans. Ketheric probably thought she was dead.

Either way, I think this event sparked Shar's interest in Moonhaven, and Ketheric was devastated by the loss of his daughter. I think this was the loss that grieved him so much and pushed him to become a Sharran. And so, he began to help the Sharrans establish a stronghold in Moonrise Towers, and they took Grymforge from the gnomes there who once owned it. They began to build their army of Dark Justiciars, the greatest army of Sharrans assembled, using the forge to create better weapons of war for them. They were planning a full scale invasion of all the surrounding lands. Normally, they operate in secret, but this time they would sweep the lands with their dark horde because it was the Time of Troubles, and Shar was even walking the world. With Grymforge, they were even making all those suits of armor that are similar to what Shadowheart sports when you first meet her. All the while, Ketheric's playing Emperor Palpatine, pretending to be a great guy in Moonhaven and with the druids and such. During this time, he maybe even kidnaps children from the school. Another theory I had was that Isobel was his actual daughter who died in the Underdark incident and Shadowheart is an adopted daughter that he kidnapped from Moonhaven. The actual daughter died, and he took Shadowheart under his wing as sort of a replacement.

Either way, I think he met Shadowheart for the first time (or again) at Grymforge during this time, and she was one of the Dark Justiciars from Baldur's. In 1372, they began to settle near Moonhaven, and they began to harass the locals. Roa and Halsin chased them away, and they decided to return in force. After a series of raids, on 20 Nightal, the final raid occurred. Ilyn Toth was killed, the last survivors of Moonhaven were captured and taken away, the town was destroyed, and the Temple was probably raided and destroyed shortly after that. We can know that Dark Justiciars were the raiders because we can now even find a helmet in Blighted Village that is clearly a Dark Justiciar helmet that is broken. You can find an almost identical helmet in Grymforge, and it's labeled as being a Sharran helmet.

After Moonhaven's destruction, Halsin and Roa and the Harpers finally decide that it's time to put an end to Ketheric, which is why the above document indicates that "still we did not act until his light was all but snuffed." In other words, they didn't do anything until it was pretty much too late. There may have still been some good in him, like Anakin Skywalker, but regardless, they didn't do anything until "his light was all but snuffed." So, I think it was only after Moonhaven and the temple were destroyed that the druids and Harpers acted, banned together with the Hellriders (for there is another document indicating Hellriders aided in the assault on Moonrise), and they marched on Moonrise Towers. I think during the fighting at Moonrise, Ketheric was killed, and so was Roa, and the land became cursed by the Shadow Curse as a final retribution for the conflict. I also think that Shadowheart is the Unclaimed who fought as a champion of the Dark Justiciars, and she was killed; forgotten in Kelemvor's House of the Dead by Shar and never claimed... or perhaps Shar was just biding her time and planning to use her later...

So why does Shadowheart start the game with the Dark Justiciar armor and no memories? I think she was resurrected in her Dark Justiciar armor, possibly during the Second Sundering. She was wearing it loud and proud because they all were when fighting the druids and Harpers. She was killed in it and therefore resurrected in it. Whoever resurrected her gave her a single mission; get the Gith Weapon and bring it to Baldur's Gate. Since she doesn't remember anything, she wouldn't really question what year it was or anything. She would simply act upon her belief that she was a follower who lived in Baldur's Gate and who had her memories stripped to protect her mission. Therefore, I think SH was finally claimed by Shar, so to speak, or one of her followers, as a champion to try to steal the Gith artifact.

This would explain why Larian has her in obvious Sharran armor in the beginning of the game. Her people didn't equip her in it and send her on a secret stealth mission, as we might presume. She was raised from the dead in the armor and then given the mission. She just took with her what she had. Either that, or another thought I had was that this whole thing with the Githyanki Weapon has actually been going on since 1372, and she was already on the quest to get it when she died. And so, once resurrected, she simply continued her mission as if she'd never stopped, not realizing that more than a hundred years had passed since it was given to her. I think it's probably the first, more likely, if I'm even remotely close.

One final note. If my above theory is correct, then it would be understandable to some degree that people might not recognize Shadowheart's armor as Sharran. I still think a Religion roll should be made for it, but if it was armor only used during a single conflict some 120 years in the past, it might not be quite so obvious to the common person of Faerun. Granted, big black orbs are still a bit Shar-ish, and druids in the grove should recognize it because it's painted on their walls in the inner sanctum, but others like Astarion and especially Lae'zel and Wyll might not. Gale probably would recognize it, but as someone mentioned, he might just be keeping that to himself as his own little secret ammunition. The point, here, is that these could be explanations as to why she's wearing the armor, and why people don't outright think she's a Shar cleric. It was 120 years in the past, and especially with the addition of Grymforge, it does seem like all those suits of armor were special Grymforge Sharran armor. Once Ketheric was defeated, Sharrans didn't wear that armor anymore, because they're a secret society. So, over time, the memory of the armor was mostly lost.

But again... Religion roll or History roll. One of the two. Makes sense. And druids in the grove should be suspicious of it. Like, "Hey. Where'd you get that Sharran armor? It's on the murals in our inner sanctum."