Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General The Emperor on the Nautiloid

So the Emperor is clearly the rotten sneak who tadpoled us. He's got that unique mind flayer head, you know. (Not to mention the giveaway outfit.) They changed all the other mind flayer heads to be more rounded while the Emperor's remained a bit more pointed.

This fella tadpoled us at the start of the game. It's probably on the Nautiloid that he entered the artifact and set all of this in motion.

Also, notice the mind flayer beside you when you inevitably fall out of the crashing ship. That's the Emperor with the same head. I remember wondering for so long why the mind flayer was there if the mind flayer had been killed in the fight with the commander. But it was never the same mind flayer. It was the Emperor all along. And that shady creep probably used telekinesis to pry loose a bit of the ship to hit us in the head, knocking us off the ship.

He was in front of our faces the whole time.

Can you post screenshots (if possible) so we can compare? It’s a very intriguing theory.

But Durge spoilers

I never figured out how to post screenshots.

Another thing to point out, consider how the mind flayer who tadpoled us looks at the dead mindflayer there while leaving... *before* the githyanki attack. Who killed that mind flayer? The Emperor after having broken free because Shadowheart brought the artifact onto the Nautiloid.

I always thought that the mindflayer from the cutscenes is the one who's dying under that debris at the start.

No, that mindflayer is the one you can use Speak with Dead on in Dror Ragzlin's chamber.

Note: that mindflayer under the debris disappears from that location after a certain point. It's gone, for instance, if you go into the dank crypt and then go back to search for it. That's because the goblins have taken the body back to Dror.

What I'm sure about is that the mindflayer who's staring you in the face when you get yeeted out of the ship, and the dying one are one and the same. The outfit, head shape and eye colour all line up.

Emperor is not the same Mind Flayer that tadpoled us.

The Mind Flayer that tadpoled us has red eyes. Emperor has purple eyes.

I think it always *used* to be the Emperor, becasue in the intro cinematic from eons ago, you see a far more elaborate Flayer Armor, very similar to that which the Emperor wears. Now, back then he was probably the OG Illithid Emperor and it suddenly makes sense that he goes to find a band of heroes to control, infiltrate the human world and free the Elder Brain.


However. If you do the Speak-With-Dead thing on the Flayer that lies Dror Ragzlin - The Hobgoblin leader in the Gobbo base - he tells you he was the one responsible.