Yeah, the request has existed for a very long time, I thought the romance with Gortash would have been added sooner or later, considering Larian paid so much attention to the possibility of all sorts of disposable love affairs, and this wouldn't have been a disposable affair, but a much more fulfilling and interesting story. I mean, it's really interesting how Enver's character would have been revealed in the romance, how he would have behaved with the DU, and it should have had an impact on him. Even without much of an impact, just an extra scene to color the story of the game. It's hard to say now how much Larian will further improve the game and when they decide to release patch 9, but it seems to me that periodically reminding them about Gortash should be done anyway, after all, your suggestion is clearly not one of those that are difficult to implement or require any great expense or overcoming special technical difficulties.
It's hard to say who would have remained “moral” in Gortash's place. His parents sold him into slavery to Raphael, in the House of Hope we can learn how he was treated there, yet he himself managed to escape from there and rose from the bottom to become the Duke of Baldur. Only because of intelligence and that very “immorality”. Had he been moral, there would not have been this story, if you remove Gortash from The Dead Three's plan, there would be nothing. He was the main driver of this story. I liked Orin and Ketheric as well, I especially sympathized with Ketheric. He wasn't a “villain” in the trite black and white sense of the word, he was someone who had everything taken away from him. The love and meaning of his life. And he tried to get it back by all means, but you could see how much it devastated him, he spread his arms and fell into the abyss almost with relief. By the way, Larian had plans for Ketheric, he could have been as an extra companion in the camp if the hero would have managed to convince him, but that too unfortunately didn't come to fruition. But the only connection DU has is with Gortash, and that context really deserved more realization in the game.
You would think! I keep hoping that modders will tackle it, but it seems like a missed opportunity for Larian. There was so much potential context wise with the interactions that currently exist between DU and Gortash as well as through the lore we find in letters and books. Even without being a full fleshed romance like those with our companions, it would have felt significantly more meaningful than the one night stands because there was that history there. I think there could have been some really interesting parallels tied in from the time the Dead Three were adventuring together as mortals— had Orin not interfered, would Gortash and Durge have been successful or would they have succumb to the same follies as their predecessors? I can definitely see the two having spent many evenings together debating philosophy, indulging decadently while hatching their diabolical schemes.
I only said patch 9 because they said no smooching in patch 8 either.
So this wheel will keep squeaking (politely), haha.
Oh and absolutely. Given Gortash’s upbringing, I think is both sad and understandable that he ended up the way he did. Of course not all victims of trauma will end up being bad or evil, and a few rare folks may be able to turn their traumas into something good. But I do like that Larian included such sympathetic villains because I think in order to prevent people from becoming monsters, we need to be aware of and eradicate the circumstances that cause it. For Gortash, nothing good was going to come out of being raised by Raphael— devils are always the embodiment of evil and if they’re not, they’re no longer devils. There was no “good” in The House of Hope for Gortash to emulate or aspire to. That and being
regularly tortured by Nubaldin
, Gortash truly only knew cruelty and likely wanted to protect himself from ever submitting to that again. I think I brought up in a discussion elsewhere that considering Gortash’s upbringing, he likely had no friends as a child or anyone who truly loved him, which is just sad to think about. This is why I think a romance with the DU could be so powerful— it would have been the first time in his entire life that someone actually cared about him as a human being.
I really do think Larian did a great job with the Chosen— it just feels like they didn’t get enough screen time considering how integral they are to the plot. I didn’t think about that with Ketheric right away, but you’re so right— reminds me a lot of Dracula from Castlevania. Getting Ketheric as a companion and offering him redemption would have been such a powerful story telling tool, like how we can offer Loghain a chance of redemption in DAO.
I still sincerely hope Larian will consider adding Gortash as a LI for the DU. Contextually, it just makes so much sense and would be an opportunity to expand upon both the DU’s background as well as one of the game’s primary antagonists. It would be great for the DU to get more recognition from the other Chosen, but the connection between Gortash and the DU was clearly the deepest.
