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

It is mentioned that Baldur's Gate is 10 days from the Emerald Grove. Even IF you go with the theory that every foot of the EA map is actually a mile, or something of that nature - which I have a hard time with because you can literally travel foot for foot (meter for meter) in Turn-Based Mode - even IF you go with that theory, there is still no reconciling that Halsin and Aradin and company were gone for over a month and a half just traveling to the goblin camp and then traveling back AFTER they got discovered and chased out.

It's just not executed well at all. For the first 200+ hours I'd played the game, I honestly thought that Halsin and Aradin and their group had left maybe, at most, a day or so prior to the game starting and that Kagha was just jumping all over seizing power for herself. "Well, Aradin's back without Halsin, so I guess I'm in charge now," was how I took it. And I thought a day or two was a stretch.

A month and a half? That's totally unrealistic without further explanation. That's why I came up with some sort of alternate story plot that I had to create for myself because the game doesn't really properly account for it. Even a journal or book or something that details the full story would be really nice.

I just worked up the following for my fan fic:

Aradin and Halsin and their group went to the goblin camp and they got there and saw that it was unexpectedly too full of goblins to just walk in through the main entrance. I chose this story arc because there seemed to be evidence that there were goblins in the area prior to them going to the camp, they just didn't think there'd be that many.

So, I developed the idea that they spent a bit of time just hunting for a way to get in. Then they finally found a secret way in, perhaps via a waterfall or something, but it was into an area of the temple you can't access in the game. It was in some sort of catacombs or lower levels beneath where Halsin was being imprisoned later, or something of that nature. Then they spent a month and a half hunting around down there searching for the Selune floor puzzle until, only a few hours before the nautiloid arrived, they were discovered. Brian, the dwarf, wandered too far up and ran into a goblin patrol, alerting the goblin camp that they were hiding down there. The goblins swarmed, and Aradin and his party had to fight their way out. They escaped and were chased all the way to Moonhaven where there was a final fight just outside the eastern entrance. That was where Halsin was captured and dragged back to the camp. Aradin and his surviving two party members continued on to the grove to escape, and the large raiding party split, some taking Halsin back while some continued on after Aradin and company.

That's the best I could come up with. I'll tell you, one of the reasons I created my fan fic was to try to make sense of the entire story, and it was REALLY REALLY hard. It took a LOT to try to piece it together to make sense. I had to do a LOT of stretching.

They're being thorough? They could have done all the things we've been doing, going through the village, checking out the old sights, maybe they went to the Underdark, then back again, then decided to go to the old temple. All while being sneaky to avoid the goblins, drow, and gnolls, oh my, who have been running rampant.
Travel time and distance is going to be the soft under belly of a lot of stories, especially when we're living in a world without any clear concept of time, or distance. We have one good standard of distance, 10 days from Elturel to BG, 10 days for a caravan of refugees along a well travelled road.

Going a foot per mile is not what I was getting at, the distances don't have to be uniform. Let's say it's a half-hour to go from the beach to the grove, a day to go from the grove to the village, and a week to go from the village to the temple. It's like if you have a node map, but worked into a diorama-esque play area.

Whatever the case, it's confusing, and isn't helped by not having any kind of passage of time mechanic.

It will be interesting to see how, or if, there's going to be a travel mechanic from map area to map area, or if it's going to be like DOS where all travel events were dictated by the story. So far the only map transition, going to the Underdark, has come with a cut-scene, but nothing definitively saying how much time passes. It's the same with the other cutscene, travelling by boat to the forge area, and it's possible that the elevator in the Grymforge goes very near to Moonrise towers, likely the same area travelling the broken road goes, and possibly the Creche route.

The text to The Mortal View: Eyewitness Accounts of the Bhaalspawn Crisis might have been updated.

At least I don't remember a direct reference to A Murder in Baldur's Gate before, but that might just be me hoping it's retconned away.

A new line has been added to the Book of Dead Gods.

new(?) journal in Harpy nest with references to Tomb of Annihilation

Also reading the I'm Sorry note in the harpy nest makes me pretty sure that Maggie Two-Fingers is the hag 'M' in BG.

At least finaly it was explicitly told that Sazza was captured yesterday.

Yeah. They sure did. Gotta play through again, cause that just doesn't make sense.

Lenore left a letter to Yrre the Sparkstruck, asking him or her to wait for her return, also mentioned, Yrre is responsible for all the lightning themed magic items we've been finding it seems, or possibly Lenore and Yrre together.

Lenore left 2 Alturiak 1481, Yrre waited til Tarsahk

So add Yrre to the tertiary actors

Either it's been a while or they've added some 'Enthralled Cultists' to the Nautiloid, they're wearing pendants that look like the Dead Three emblems

Are they new or have I just been breezing past them the last few patches?

They are certainly not new ...
Nor are those pendands, but they were more subtle in the past.

As if you compare iron and gold with jewels.

Just wanted to pop in to say I enjoyed this discussion in this thread, and I think it speaks to something the game is currently doing quite well.

Now, trying it all together and delivering satisfying reveals/resolutions is obviously the key bit that Parian has to do, but it's certainly promising. The game does lay things out pretty well in doses between character chat, key notes presented to read, as well as the more general books and such.

Having said all that, it seems pretty clear to me that ShadowHeart being resurrected out of her time and being a Dark Justicar of some sort is a very strong likelyhood. Her memory suppression, strong emotional response to children, armour, response to historical triggers, etc points clearly down the path.

I find it hard to convince of a character history where these things are present where SH is actually of the current time. What the details end up being will be interesting to explore, but however they move around the edges the core path seems pretty locked in.

The bit that fits the least clearly from my plays of EA so far is the timing of when everyone was on the Nautiloid, and when they got their tadpoles. The idea that there are several different paths for different characters - some captured by the means shown in the opening cinematic, some captured as a response to raids on the Nautiloid, some stowing away (?) - makes it tricky to work out what's going on there.

So correct me if I'm wrong, but the general situation we open into is:

Nautiloid is on some mission. It has on board the artifact known as the weapon, which is in SHs hands, though she is restrained.
Tav, and LZ are already on the ship, in pods, and we assume also Astarion, SH, Wyll, and Gale. There is evidence of an internal battle on the ship recently, which seems to have been taken back under control, and so Tav and LZ get the treatment.
I'm assuming that SH, Gale, Wyll, and Astarion either receive the treatment now also, or have had done previously.
It's unclear who knows what about the weapon, but it seems that the ship is known to have it, and more Gith soon attack. In the pursuit the ship runs through the hell's, before finally jumping back (presumably heading home to Moonrise Towers) and crashing.

This questions, how does SH end up on the ship, and have posession of the artifact, seems the most tricky to answer.
Gale & Tav at this point have "just standard captures" possibilities.
LZ has the "captured in a failed earlier attack on the ship" possibility, or a "captured when/if the ship initially stole the artifact" possibility.
Karlach has a story of when she joined, though the timing there makes the treatment question a bit odd.
Astarion and Wyll are a bit coincidental with their links, so I'm not quite sure what to make out with them... But it's less obviously awkward than SH.

With SH one answer could have been she was serving on the ship on the behalf of the absolute, but that doesn't all line up with the "mission from Shar' and 'return to BG' side of things.

I'm curious if I've missed any clear answers to the situation.

Glad you got something out of it. There have been a few theories about Shadowheart around; her being connected to the ancient temple, being a brainwashed Selunite, being kidnapped by the Dark Justiciars 300 years ago etc. If you haven't checked them out here are a few I remember, My first post on the forum was about what connection between BG:II and BG:3 having a follower of Shar might entail (not much) but Shadowheart is probably the most interesting player in the story we've got, not especially because she's the one holding the macguffin.

The question of where everybody is, when they're implanted, and when they were taken is all the more interesting when you consider we'll be able to play as all of them. I'm guessing, everyone will have convenient 'memory loss', so a character like Astarion will mention "how did I get here, I was in Baldur's Gate", without really getting into the details of how he was taken.

As for what the nautiloid, a lot of people have taken the dead mind-flayers in the intro to mean some kind of discord among the illithids. I'd always just assumed it was because we were entering the scene in the middle of their fight with the gith that show up later. Having rewatched the intro recently the very first image we see is of a group of illithids kneeling before a figure holding a staff(?), this image also reminds me of what the dead mind-flayer in the temple conveys when asked about "The Absolute". If there in fact is some kind of schism within Illithid society maybe this is the cause. Though the idea of mind-flayers being indoctrinated into a cult kind of sits wrong with me.

And then there's the 'weapon', it's called a Gith artifact, it has infernal writing, it's stolen by Sharran commandos, and everybody is looking for it. I made the assumption that because Lae'zel doesn't appear to have ever left creche K'liir that her being taken might have also been during the same episode that Shadowheart was taken, Shadowheart also has a clear mistrust of Githyanki, possibly because she's recently stole something from them. It's all speculation but it's how I'm trying to fix things together.

Another thing to consider though, if the nautiloid knew of the artifact then they probably wouldn't have futzed around before returning it to Moonrise, so the amount of time between when the game starts and when they captured most people can be toyed with.

Is the general premise that the Nautiloid being an absolute controlled vessel, used to voyage around and do missions for them, under doubt? My assumption was that the FYers on the ship know the weapon is there, and only freak out when the ship doesn't make it back to Moonrise. I'll grant a little leeway that Elturel is on the way to Moonrise and that the opening cinematic stop there can be considered consistent with them heading back in a direct path. There's also the fact that SH is under extra security on the ship - which leads to the assumption that they know she has the weapon.

It could speak to a three way conflict where the Shar/SH group, the Gith, and the Nautiloid all taking place prior to the opening cinematic - likely in a battle to control/acquire the weapon at LZ's home. The dead on the ship when Tav is tadpoled are not product of an internal conflict, but the result of that mission.

The Nautiloid came out ahead fromt hat conflict (enough to extract itself) and was then returning back to Moorise. LZ and SH having been acquired in that conflict, thus being tadpoled at the same time as Tav. As the Nautiloid returns back it picks up some more conscripts from Elturel - which could include other MCs like Gale and Wyll (?) - before the pursuit from the Gith sends them into Avernus and Karlach jumps aboard, is presumably subdued and quickly tadpoled also.

That would them put the origins as:
SH - Captured in regard to raid/activity around the artifact.
LZ - Captured in regard to raid/activity around the artifact, but too lowly to know about the artifact itself.
Karlach - Hops aboard in Avernus
Wyll/Astarion/Gale - Either true souls in service to the absolute, whose control was broken during the battle and crash, or captured from Elturel during the opening cinematic. In the case of the former, convenient amnesia of the period in the absolute's service would seem likely.

I've not played much with Gale at all, so I don't know what clues he has, but Wyll is pretty awkward to fit in given his history - the chronology of which makes no clear sense to me still.

Tav also doesn't quite fit in given the generic BG background.

[*]Tiamat

• Imprisoned god of the Chromatic Dragons
• Ancient pact with Githyanki, the result of Gith travelling to Avernus, disappearing and leaving Vlaakith in charge
• Reason for Red Dragons allying with Gith
• Former ruler of Avernus, Zariel is current ruler, specifics of transition never made clear in continuity.
• Currently Imprisoned in Avernus

[*]Gith

• Along with Zerthimon, liberator of 'The People', who would come to be known by her name
• Disappeared after travelling to Avernus to forge an alliance with Tiamat
• Her sword, The Silver Sword of Gith, has appeared in lore a few times
• Possibly connected to the Gith Artifact, possibly inside the Gith artifact

Adding Tiamat and Gith to the Primary Players tab based on the theory crafting going on here: A Theory

Also considering what we can learn from Shadowheart, clearly the Gith started out in possession of the artifact
[*]Illithids

• In possession of Gith Artifact, Artifact nullifies Absolute's influence.

[*]Githyanki

• In possession of Gith Artifact, Artifact nullifies Absolute's influence.

The Artifact nullifying Mind-Flayer control is the big reason for it possibly being involved with the Gith revolt against the Mind-Flayers eons ago.