I don't think this is the thread for this but, Gale asked and pleaded with Mystra to show him more (like, let him read the books and not just show him that there's a library) and she told him to be content. He got the book to bribe her, the orb ate Gale's magic and she cut their connection before it could feed from the Weave. The radio silence was because he had gotten dangerous to her. She explains this in act 3, although I am not sure if she goes into this detail in every version. I don't know of dialogue in which they mention having a falling out previous to this.

The timeline isn't the motivation though, which I'd say is that he feels insignificant as a mere human wizard. This sense that he feels like his life can only have meaning if he does something grand - either explode and save the day or get godlike powers - is present in basically all of his conversations that deal with the orb. So no, I wouldn't say that he just wants power like a cartoon villain, he feels he needs power with a capital p - be it that of a god or an explosion - for him to be a meaningful influence on the world, ordinary brilliant wizard doesn't cut it. And it's the same feeling of insignificance that made him ask for Mystra's secrets in the first place. I mean, even his bliss isn't to be powerful, it's to be wise, which translates into his story as that he needs to learn about the true nature of his orb in order to have any kind of future. I hope that explains my point of view well enough and we can let it rest now. Not that I wouldn't like to discuss this further. Gale's relationship with power is super interesting. I just really don't want to be the culprit of thread-derailment again.

As for Wyll, I might have to do his act 1 dialogue again, but I don't recall that he states that he wants to be free of Mizora. The player suggests it to him and he agrees, in act 2 it's again the player who starts to initiate breaking his pact. To me he also sounds mostly annoyed that she's toying with him again at this point. During the party conversation when Karlach is dead he brings it up himself that he cannot be the hero he wants to be as long as he is under Mizora's control. He sounded like he didn't have a big problem with his pact before because until this point he didn't think that Mizora could use him against innocents - at least not big enough to actively try to get himself out of it. Her treating him badly is tolerable for a good cause, her sullying his integrity is where he apparently draws the line. I also don't think that he especially wants to be a warlock. It's more that whenever Mizora pushes some urgency on him, his convictions falter.

Last edited by Anska; 07/05/25 06:41 AM. Reason: Took some edges out.