Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Avernian Flying Fortresses

This seems like solid theory ...
Especialy if Karlach will be Origin character, in order to give her the same start, she have to be in the Pod during attack on Yartar ...

That would mean those Gith who were attacking Nautiloid were not attacking it "randomly" but were chasing it from its previous visit in Avernus ... where they draged Shadow, Karlach and possibly even Lae'zel.
Even tho Lae'zel was probably kidnapped elsewhere, since she would probably mention some tie to either the box, or Shadow allready ... and she seemed quite unaware of both.

Even the idea that the illithid responsible for our tadpoles serves the Absolute is supposition; our tadpoles are distinctly different, even from other 'true souls', and it's not too far fetched to think that our illithid might have been working against her.

That said, the Absolute is probably either an Illithid creation set as a ploy for a plan... or else it's Tharizdun up to his usual tricks again ^.^

It should go without saying a lot of this is conjecture

I don't think the Mind-Flayers serve the Absolute, I think they're getting something in return, lost knowledge or some such (I remember that WotC made a point of mentioning in interviews how making Nautiloids was lost to the Illithids). Though the dead Illithid in the temple does seem to connect the Absolute with Mind-Flayers...maybe, the unknowable aberrations' motives and thought process can be hard to peg sometimes

I liked one of the early theories about the Githyanki Artifact being an infernal puzzle box containing a contract between Vlaakith and Tiamat for the service of red dragons, but more than that I don't have any good ideas about it. The only thing we really know is that it blocks out the influence of the Absolute.

Hmmm let's see.

The Absolute, we do know that consists of an entity at the top of the Ranks (I'm going to guess Vecna, we can certainly discuss that), and right below, is what I consider to be the new incarnations of the Dead Three, I think Myrkull's incarnation is the female pale elf communing with the Goblin priestess trying to read you. Since the Absolute is responsible for the "true souls" creation, they'd need a tadpole supply, hence an Ilithid colony. Now, as we see in the very first trailer, Baldur's gate is ravaged, what seems to be the aftermath of our ship's invasion, yet we witness a rapid case of ceromorphosis, which means the same tech used in our Nautiloid through Avernus.

https://prnt.sc/rvUCmVULFC3Z

At the very start of the trailer we see prominent the mark of the Absolute on Baldurian city walls which either means it got marked by the second wave attack, or the Absolute has been long operating in Baldur's Gate under the guise of the Dead Three cults, or both? Now as we see at the end the city seems to have been visited right after the first attack by other mind flayers employing a faster? version of the tampered tadpoles as we see the Ilithid levitating up the sky revealing another working Nautiloid and an army of freshly made Ilithid.


Now I have to kinda agree with you that the Ilithid inserting us the tadpoles might be a double agent, thinking an agent of Shar, as I feel like she is trying to destroy the Absolute. We know for a fact that the tadpoles in our brains are tampered with Shadow Magic, specifically Netherese. Now that's a very specific stench. The Shadow Weave is only accessible through worshipping Shar, and as Sharran worship was the state religion of the empire of Netheril, we can safely confirm the tampering of our tadpoles is to her knowing.

Considering the little tweaks here and there to the lore that have occurred even during the EA, I'm not sure how seriously to take the teaser trailer that was made who knows how far into development. Because of the dreams we do know that the tadpole is interested in destroying Baldur's Gate, and the Sword Coast afterwards.

About our tadpoles being different from other True Souls, I'm not sure where you're getting this from, apart from every other True Soul we meet having been to Moonrise Towers, what else is there?

There's references to Netheril a few times in the EA, including a book on a ruined city, I don't know enough about FR lore to earnestly work it into a good theory.

If I am not mistaken, the Shadow weave is no longer functional. Shar may be attempting to reform it and our slimy wizard friend’s little curse may be a key.

Hag tells us, no?

I get you, Halsin says that our tadpole isn't like normal, I took that to mean compared to normal ceremorphosis. Does he mention it specifically being different from the other true souls?

The Shadoweave, the Shadowfell, Shar and the Netherese who also are related to it, have under gone a few changes through the editions, so I can't really say one way or the other.

edit: the Hag mentions removing a tadpole before, but I didn't get the impression it was a true soul. Our tadpole is drenched in shadow magic, I'm assuming that all of them are.

This wouldn't be the first time that shadow magic and Illithid tadpoles have been put together.
2e had a monster called a mozgriken, which was a Svirfneblin gnome infected with a tadpole, them put through a ritual involving shadow magic.

Svirfneblin are usually not good tadpole hosts, Gnomes in general aren't and can produce odd results, but using a different ceremorphosis processes, they can turn Gnomes into a useful creature. As already mentioned, Netheril was all about the shadow magic, and they had some of the best and most powerful magic users for their times, so if I needed some shadow magic rituals for some reason, that would probably be the place I'd go.

The ultimate question really remains, what is the ultimate purpose behind our modified tadpoles? We don't know. We're clearly similar to the true souls, but not quite the same.

I still like my Illithid sleeper agent theory, even if it has holes in it.

The Hag explicitly says it's "Netherese Shadow Magic", very setting specific terminology here. Shadow Magic in FR is magic created by the Shadow Weave. Yes, up untill now I don't think we have many references in 5e besides the but one we certainly have is that the main Puppeteer behind the events of 5e is indeed I wouldn't be suprised if we come across such stractures further in the game.

Anyways, one thing or the other, Shar is definitely aware of the tampering with the tadpoles and I wouldn't be surprised if the

Not all of them. We can confirm inside the goblin fortress, while confiding to the goblin priestess as she communes with the absolute about our tadpoles and reading our minds, that there's a tadpole inside every "True Soul's" brain, but somehow none of them seems to be aware of the fact.

I don't think that's what it means. They're brainwashed at Moonrise where they 'meet' the Absolute or something. A few of them mentioning being changed there to their glorious selves. If you play a Lolth-sworn and grill some Drow about their new faith they'll give you a pretty good picture of it.