Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Gale is Karsus: a theory/adventure for a BG3 prelude TT campaign I will DM

What does everyone think of this story? Feel free to help me out with story alternatives if something doesn't make sense. Thanks so much for your patience with this text wall! I appreciate the feedback.

The Idea:

Gale, is actually Karsus reborn (edit: millennia later. I need help w the math) as a human wizard. Everyone thought he had died petrified, but his essence/soul and personality actually transferred elsewhere (at some point). Why and how? Because right at the end he retained some divine power/ability and - just like with Mystryl/Mystra - a similar thing happened to his essence (or a part of said essence), and he was reborn as Gale, a human wizard....many, many, many, many, many years later (like more than a millennium and a half? Edit: Again, I'm not sure on the math... Karsus died in -339 DR and then would be reborn as Gale somewhere around 1460 DR). We can even tie this in with the Neverwinter Nights adventure in 1372 DR as a part of this story... which he wouldn't remember at all.... at first.

The Gale backstory as a prelude adventure for BG3:

At the age of 17-ish, Karsus (now reborn as Gale of/in Waterdeep), became self-aware of who he actually was, and his entire past life as Karsus formed into memory. Plagued with nightmares, he suffers the awful memories of Karsus' Folly again and again: of how his reckless actions had caused the fall of Netheril and the death of countless innocent people. Not to mention what happened to Mystryl.... Ashamed and humbled, Gale wants a chance to redeem himself due to his actions as his past incarnation as Karsus. So, he goes out adventuring with a group of adventurers (this is obviously the adventure part of the campaign, where the DM slowly reveals this information to the players, when they encounter an NPC called Gale and he - temporarily or not - joins the group.)

Now, the players don't know any of this (and I'm still trying to fill in the blanks as to how all this develops), but at some point during the adventure, young Gale attempts to reconnect with Mystra, but instead of just apologizing to Mystra, he ends up accidentally falling in love with her this time around. This makes him feel loved and all-powerful, so his egocentric sense of Self turns to Narcissism again and he becomes arrogant yet again.... buuuut out of deep shame, Gale never tells Mystra who he really is. We sort of know the rest from BG3: Mystra eventually rejects him, he tries to win her back by getting that piece of Weave from the book in the Astral Plane (w the help of the players - this is a big part of the adventure itself - but that ends up being a black mass of Shadow Weave that lodges itself in his chest, etc. etc.

The Mystery:

Did Mystra know all along? Or did she eventually find out? Was the shadow weave black mass in Gale's heart Mystra's punishment (or tragic irony?) for his past actions as Karsus, and for his current actions of omitting of his real identity and trying to deceive her? The thing is, Mystra and Gale actually DID fall in love.... so she may actually feel hurt, but does ultimately love Gale still. Or perhaps a punishment (as a catalyst to force him to REALLY redeem himself), so that he never again falls prey to his narcissistic tendencies that lead him to yearn for unlimited power? Maybe this remains a mystery entirely, not sure...

How the campaign ends:

It ends with Gale accidentally getting all the adventurers killed (or stuck in the Astral Plane) and with the mass of shadow weave lodged in his chest.... and then he even gets kidnapped by Mindflayers.... which leads into the beginning of BG3.