Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion A companion named Helia who did not make it into the game

I really have no idea. Who thought it a good idea to scratch such a cool character concept for a second elven druid - without story involvment in act 3, mind you.

Her name recalls the Heliades in the Argonautica, the ones who turn to poplar trees in the Phaethon myth. They maintained the Solar chariot before it crashed with the thunderbolt, so there's another riff on the riding hood riff.

"All around, the Heliades (Daughters of the Sun), encased in tall poplars, utter their sad and unavailing plaint. Shining drops of amber fall from their eyes onto the sands and are dried by the sun. But when the wailing wind stirs the dark waters of the lake to rise above the beach, all the tears that have collected there are swept by the overflow into the river."

and in Ovid...

"His sister's too, the three Heliades, wept sad tears, their futile tribute to the dead, and long lay prostrate on their brother's tomb, bruising their breasts and calling day and night Phaethon who never more would hear their moans. Four times the waxing crescent of the moon had filled her orb, in their wonted way, wailing was now their wont, they made lament, when Phaethusa, eldest of the three, meaning to kneel upon the ground, complained her feet were rigid, When Lampetie, her lovely sister, tried to come to her, she found herself held fast by sudden roots; the third, reaching to tear her hair, instead plucked leaves. One, in dismay, felt wood encase her shins and one her arms become long boughs. And while they stood bewildered, bark embraced their loins and covered, inch by inch, their waists, breasts, shoulders, hands, till only lips were left, calling their mother. She, what can she do but dart distractedly now here, now there, and kiss them while she may. It's not enough. She tries to tear the bark away and breaks the tender boughs, but from them bloody drops ooze like a dripping wound. ‘Stop, mother, stop!’ each injured girl protests; ‘I beg you, stop, the tree you tear is me. And now, farewell!’ The bark lapped her last words. So their tears still flow on, and oozing from the new-made boughs, drip and are hardened in the sun to form amber and then the clear stream catches them and carries them for Roman brides to wear."

???? means of the Sun, and Lathandar is pretty much Sol Invictus in the FR setting, so maybe Bard who works that angle, raised by wolves? hehe

Oh and for a another there is the visual phenomena called parhelia, where refraction makes the sun appear in a triplet when setting or rising. They're called "sundogs."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

In Arcadia Lycaon was transformed into a wolf as a punishment by Zeus for breaking the laws of xenia. Then Apollo and Leto both have those associations.

"The descendants of Deucalion, who founded Lycoreia, followed a wolf's roar; Latona came to Delos as a she-wolf, and she was conducted by wolves to the river Xanthus; wolves protected the treasures of Apollo; and near the great altar at Delphi there stood an iron wolf with inscriptions. (Paus. x. 14. § 4.) The attack of a wolf upon a herd of cattle occasioned the worship of Apollo Lyceius at Argos (Plut. Pyrrh. 32; comp. Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 124)

Leto and then later Rhea Silvia both have the she-wolf thing going, especially in the medieval retellings, which fit well with the werewolf stuff. Those are from real world mythology, but pretty much all syncs up with Greenwood's FR setting right?

I don't know, but seems like they could do something with it. For a visualization, I think they could redo the halfling models to dial back the bobble head and give a couple phenotypes for the body, then use that character as the showcase. Just make sure her cape doesn't clip! heheh

I mean, yeah, halflings need a bit of an overhaul imo - like Niara showed in her halfling thread.
And I guess pretty much everything in FR can be traced back to real life mythology... or Tolkien, who drew his inspiration from real life mythology

I can tell you: the fans. People liked Halsin, so he was turned in to a party member later.

Yeah, I know that, but I still think, it was a bad idea. If they want to implement everything the fans want, then the game will really become a dating sim.

Eh. I think it's bad to generalize from the Halsin dissapointment to the rest of the game. The game got so much better after EA feedback.


Gale was miserable manipulator in EA that I took efforts to avoid. I kinda like him now.

It was really difficult to save the girl from Khaga's snake. Now most people can save Arabella

When you finished killing the paladins of tyr you wondered if you did the right thing - that encounter has been improved.

And I could list a dozen others.


To my mind Larian's mistake was misinterpreting the numbers they were getting. "no uses tadpole power" =/ make tadpole powers cost free. It's fun to resist temptation. Indeed what does resisting mean if you aren't tempted.

People didn't like Wyll =/ let's cut out half of Wyll's story so he says next to nothing . . .

Off topic but I am neither interested in Halsin nor am I offended by him. But that's always been the case - he never intrigued me the way he did others.

I didn't think, I had to write to my statement, that it was sarcasm, since it was so over the top. But to clarify: I was being sarcastic.

But I still think, that if Helia was scratched for Halsin, than it was a very bad change. But let's not make this thread anotehr 'Halsin is creepy' thread, we have enough of those. He was just brought in here, because it is possible, that he is the reason, Helia was scratched - possible, I don't know, if that was really the reason.

My mistake then

No worries, I could have used a smiley or so. I did wrote that in a short break during a DnD session.

I trust the developer has their legitimate reason to cut her off.

I don't see how the imaginative Helia this thread has conjure better than Halsin.

I don't. What sparks that degree of trust and confidence in you, all evidence to the contrary?

Larian have frequently shown their willingness to misinterpret data or extrapolate feedback into the shape they Want it to make, without any insightfullness, and use it to jump to the conclusions that they most want to draw, even when those conclusions are completely unsupported. We saw this time and time again during their data feedback during the EA, and it never improved.

But I will say that if you don't see how a companion of a race we don't have represented, and a class we don't have represented, would be a better choice to run with over one who is another Elf (in our party of several elves and halfelves), and another Druid (in our party with an established figure druid already available), then I don't feel as though you are really thinking very hard. Assuming nothing else about the character than what we specifically know was planned, that alone is a big motive for her inclusion.

To reiterate to others about focus here (and because there's enough about the Halsin travesty already), this is mostly focused on the inclusion of this character that we missed out on, not necessarily about her replacing or over-writing a different one we did get.

As Niara said, she is a halfling and a bard, two things, that are currently not represented as companions. We have elves and two druids, one of them without story and only there because as fan service .
ANd how can you not see, how a companion with an actual storyline would be better than a sex offender?
So tell me, why is it ok to campaign for a character, that doubles down on races and clases, but not for a character that is unique and promises an interesting storyline?
If you don't like halflings and/or bards, then this is probably not the thread for you, but we are to campaign for her as much as we want.

This thread can also be used to talk about halflings in general.

I agree that Halsin needs improvement but from what I understand this Helia talking point revolves around she is not elf nor another druid and has a complete story. Allegedly.

And literal pages upon pages of speculations, wishlist and head canon... and more presumption that Helia is automatically better than Halsin because Halsin is "Sex Offender", which I believe a hyperbolic reaction over romance trigger mess and over analyzation of his dialogue lines.

It's not to say I don't want more companion. More companion is good, better system for companion implementation is good. Better written Halsin, is also good.

That being said, to circle back to my original post, usually Developer has reason to cut her off, you might disagree but it's ultimately their art, no matter how good you think "x" is, if the Artist doesn't think it belongs within their art, it will not be in their art.

I personally would rather Larian to focus on ironing the game, not to add more Variables and potentially break new things within the game.

I will be joining fylimar in the club of hyperbolic reaction then. To me he reminds me of every horrible experience I have ever had around rape culture, which creates sex offenders and trivialise victims' experiences. It's not just romance triggers, it's his entire personality that was added after EA. How he reacts to rejection. How he tries to revise previous conversations to say something completely different from what he actually said. How he assumes consent instead of establishing consent first. And he is supposed to be a good aligned character. So yes, I think pretty much ANY companion would have been preferable and better.

The rest is just stating the obvious. The creators made decisions that we don't agree with. Why are we discussing anything if the end of any argument or discussion anyone might have is "That's what the creators decided, so it's right!"

Well maybe go to the Halsin thread and talk about improvement there, we are here to talk about Helia' and if you don't like it, feel free to not participate.

Others campaign for the absurdest companions without getting a lashout, as long as those companions are conventionally'hot'.
I know, that you are biased here, I saw your post in the Alfira thread: you want the tiefling ' bard'. I can retaliate with: maybe the Devs should focus on polish what is there, instead on making a new companion. Fact is, Alfira is not a bard, fact is, she has no ties at all to the story.
So maybe, just maybe rethink, what you have written here?

I am sorry, I thought this was a thread to discuss between merit and demerit about Helia implementation which I have concerns about.

I wholeheartedly apologize I didn't know disagreement wasn't allowed or will be "retaliated" with non-sequitur opinion.

I'll be cooperative and join the choir.

Helia good. Halfling good. Halsin bad, Helia better. We want Helia. Please Larian make it happen.

Oh, of course, be sarcastic, if you don't have arguments. My problem with your statement is, that you advocate against a companion in this thread, but want Alfira as a bard companion in the other thread - I mean, it is pretty obvious, where you come from 'Shut the Helia crowd up, so that we get the hot tiefling'. At least it looks like that to me.
You didn't bring a good reason apart from 'The devs probably have a reason for that' - which honestly can be said as well about Alfira.

If you want to argue that Halsin isnt that bad and Helia sounds like an uninteresting character to you. Go ahead, disagreements are fine. I think everyone have been very clear that their thoughts around Helia are opinions and nothing else.

But you are using a genetic logical fallacy when you argue that something is or isn't right on the basis that it comes from the creator. If creators are always right, then there's no point arguing anything.

I actually feels so bad for you that you feel strong emotions towards this speculation because I don't.

Yes, the same logic can be applied to Alfira and it bother me none.

No, I don't want to "Shut the helia crowds up, so that we get the hot tiefling". You're seeing phantom of your own imagining.

My reason isn't just because "Developer has their own reason", but also because new companions means new variables. Just like adding sub-class and new race, and best believe I will posting similar concern that Larian should focus more on fixing and adding supplemental content instead of adding race/companion/class.

I want to argue that instead of Adding Helia (or new race, or new sub-class), we should push Larian to iron their game.

Helia isn't uninteresting character. I simply don't know what else there is to here apart from the initial premise and the following headcanon, wishlist and imaginative construct that follows the initial information of this thread.

I'm not arguing what is wrong or right with that argument.

I am arguing temperance. Video game is also a form of Art beside entertainment. Larian has publicly stated that "cut content" wasn't cut without reason. I simply trust them with that. However that doesn't mean I automatically think helia is bad and their fanbase must be nuked out of existence. I just think we should focus on more reasonable path to push larian to "fix" their game, because performance issue still happens and many still complain that existing storylines seemingly disjointed.