Originally Posted by autistichalsin
[quote=Filia]Minthara? Halsin's first introduction to her is her having him tortured in bear form while trying to track down his Grove and murder everyone there. AND this ultimatum only happens when the Rite of Thorns is carried out, meaning that Halsin lost his home and loved ones forever because of Minthara. "But she was brainwashed!" Okay.

Halsin is 350 and was a sex slave as a "young Druid." Minthara's exact age isn't know, but she's somewhere between 225-300, because she was alive for the fall of House DeVir and was old enough to understand it but young enough that it left "quite an impression" on her. Halsin VERY likely was kidnapped while Minthara was a young adult from the most prominent Lolth-sworn house in the Underdark. He would have heard about the evil deeds she committed all the way back then. (Such as, you know... owning slaves. Something he barely escaped himself.) And notice that in the ultimatum, never once does Minthara actually apologize for what happened to him (because that's not who Minthara is). She doesn't even explicitly say she won't harm him; she says she "has no quarrel with" him. She turned from Lolth because Lolth rejected her first, not because she disagrees with literally anything Lolth says (she still supports slavery and the subjugation of men).

I don't know where you're even getting that from.
There's zero indication in-game that either of them heard of the other prior to Grove business. Even then, only Halsin heard of her name (likely from Goblin guards). If you play as Drow and refuse to kill Minthara (one of your own kin) for him, he goes on to rant about general racist stereotypes and sentiments about dark elves, not even remote hint of personal connection.

In release version of the game she only has one lead - Liam - young mercenary newbie currently tortured by Spike. Dialogues with Gut and Ragzlin show they distrust and dislike the drow and Gut's note she drops on death proves that they were, in fact, hiding that bear in cage was a druid as they were plotting against her (plot thread that went nowhere, ofc).

From Early access I can only recall the datamined line from her at the goblin party mentioning that the druid was sent to Moonrise (likely a reference to now cut/rewritten Ketheric vs Halsin plot), but there was no more to it. (I suspect in this scenario he could've been tadpoled? We'll never know)

Also let's not forget that it was Ketheric's idea to destroy the Grove, not Minthara's. He saw them as a potential threat, so he threatened Shadow Druids into submission, provided them with "gifts" (likely tadpoles) and used them for that plot with Kagha (so he'd win even if Minthara's attack fails). Letter "Taking the Groves Off the Table" at Moonrise confirms it. Minthara in Act 1 is pretty much a hyperbolized husk of her past self so Halsin blaming her yet telling us prior that "Innocents enter Moonrise, True Souls come out" is rather hypocritical and unfair. She has been wronged equally, if not more, by Ketheric, Orin and the rest of the cult. Imagine awaiting your inevitable brainwashing for days, while seeing your drow subordinates, who came with you there to destroy the cult, being either tadpoled or killed and processed for food.

Last edited by AlexZebol; 04/03/24 01:09 PM.
#JusticeForMinthara