These Baldur’s Gate 3 Secrets Change EVERYTHING

[@FiguringOutFantasy]

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[@GAMER32231]

no one gives a shit about your trash mobile game, bot.

[@SokkingBTtulaj]

Little trivia: Cazador is not only afraid of Minsc because he's a legendary warrior but because he dealt with a much more powerful vampire lord and her brood before, Bodhi from BG2. Plus in BG2 Minsc was a ranger specialized in two-handed swords who had VAMPIRES as his favored enemy. So the lore assumption is that Minsc is an uncorruptable, 2 handed sword wielding beast who has vampire killing as a hobby and expertise.

[@azel7056]

Hahahha I absolutely love that Trivia💀

[@SokkingBTtulaj]

@@azel7056 Oh, btw Minsc also made it out alive from the realm of the vampire lord Strahd, who's D&Ds version of Dracula and has his lair in an prison realm, called the Domains of Dread, meant to keep evil gods imprisoned but also houses powerful bad guys like Strahd the vampire lord, Kas the general of Vecna, a Rune master of the Twisted Rune, and Hazlik the exiled red wizard.

[@Anotherguy1st]

True, but just being evil would have been enough of a reason for Minsc.

[@KollbjornYT]

Cazedor's biggest offense was sharing a VA with Commander Lightfeather. The Great Pigeon General didn't deserve that insult

[@EALoArt]

Sorry I'm dumb, what is VC? I'm stuck at venture capitalist or voice chat. Is it voice cast? Again I do realize the problem is me.

[@KollbjornYT]

@@EALoArt You're fine. It was actually me cause I accidentally typed "VC" instead of "VA". So for the sake of us both "Voice Cast" LOL

[@madstheghost4130]

One of the scariest things in the Szarr Palace, in my opinion, was Cazador's diary entries where you see him growing more and more obsessed with Astarion the longer he is missing. Just seeing an already unhinged man devolving more and more into madness makes one wonder how he was taking that frustration out on the others.

[@clarencewalters338]

I love how Raphael is mad at Mephistopheles for not using the crown. The fact that Big M made an entire intricate plan on HOW to use it to dominate means that he put immense thought into it and said "yeah honestly? I can see this going wrong fast, no". If an Archdevil seemingly has the means to rule the planes at his fingertips and decides not to use it, you may want to take that as you sign that there's DEFINITELY a reason for that.

[@ravenblood1954]

The answer is overextension. That’s a lot of work where everyone will team up to oppose you. Even if you win, that sort of war would be so devastating as to salt the universe

[@clarencewalters338]

@@ravenblood1954 I know, it was just hubris for Raphael to think himself better than his dear pops

[@ravenblood1954]

@@clarencewalters338 I think the hubris was assuming it would even matter if he was. Winning a war of that scale wouldn’t have been worth it. He could have been the best administrator and tactician in the universe, but a war would still need to be fought, against beings that command the might of the supernatural. Collateral would have been unavoidable. What was the saying? “A fools reach often exceeds his grasp”?

[@sylvialc8066]

Probably realized that the brain would break free of control (like it does in the game) which would mean losing everything you worked for

[@onlycorndog6322]

8:21 A bit of a mistake here. Mephistopholes came up with the plan to enslave an Elder Brain using the Crown of Karsus, the same plan which the Chosen of the Dead Three used. But he wasn't involved in the Grand Design, which is the Mind Flayers' overall plan to restore their fallen empire and enslave the cosmos.

[@megaairsoft15]

Came looking for this comment

[@FiguringOutFantasy]

Thanks for the clarification. I was a bit clearer about it in my previous video on the emperor, but I seem to have summarized it poorly here!

[@onlycorndog6322]

​@@FiguringOutFantasy No problem! In context you're obviously talking about the Dead Three's plan and not anything to do with the Illithids, so it's not a big deal. Just figured I'd point out that you may have gotten some terms mixed up. Great video though!

[@er8066]

Mephistopholes didn't exactly come up with the plan himself. He had in his possession a book/portfolio a mad alhoon named Blue Apex wrote. The theory that by mass tadpoling and pausing the ceremorphosis with powerful magic, one could kick start the grand design. Whether Mephistopholes wanted to use the Crown of Karsus for this is uncertain, but what is certain is that Gortash found these plans while also stealing the crown with The Dark Urge. They just wanted to use the crowns power to dominate the brain and the mindflayer colony on it's own but the plan changed when Gortash read that book the alhoon wrote. Gortash claims it was his idea to come up with the "religious hoax" aspect of the plan in his memoirs. Whether that is true or not is uncertain also... but he and The Dark Urge did orchestrate that aspect of the plan. Oppertunity made all these seemingly unrelated things come together to make the plan. Mephistopholes only really has credit in this plan as being the person who owned both items used to create The Dead Three's chosen's plan.

[@er8066]

@@FiguringOutFantasy Mephistopholes didn't exactly come up with the plan himself. He had in his possession a book/portfolio a mad alhoon named Blue Apex wrote. The theory that by mass tadpoling and pausing the ceremorphosis with powerful magic, one could kick start the grand design. Whether Mephistopholes wanted to use the Crown of Karsus for this is uncertain, but what is certain is that Gortash found these plans while also stealing the crown with The Dark Urge. They just wanted to use the crowns power to dominate the brain and the mindflayer colony on it's own but the plan changed when Gortash read that book the alhoon wrote. Gortash claims it was his idea to come up with the "religious hoax" aspect of the plan in his memoirs. Whether that is true or not is uncertain also... but he and The Dark Urge did orchestrate that aspect of the plan. Oppertunity made all these seemingly unrelated things come together to make the plan. Mephistopholes only really has credit in this plan as being the person who owned both items used to create The Dead Three's chosen's plan.

[@Hyullian]

that segue into Cazador using his 11 years of impalement to play Raid Shadow Legends took me out lmao

[@fightingfalcon777]

So, the thing with Araj is actually something you only learn outside the game through Forgotten Realms lore. Her House Oblodra did a lot of experiments with mind flayers, which indicates that her blood may have been foul from ingesting illithid blood or some other experimentation

[@MissOtaku18]

You can also mention it to Astarion if you play as a Lolth-sworn Drow!

[@MarinaCorbi]

@@MissOtaku18 You can mention it if you play as any kind of drow, not just Lolth-sworn.

[@mysryuza]

Ooooh that’s why her blood was so rank!

[@Asgaardiangatekeeper]

I just assumed she did some crap to her blood, like Gale did. Didn't realize that the experiments were specifically with Illithids.

[@2g33ksgamingttv3]

​@Asgaardiangatekeeper yep, her house was wiped out because they were trying to blend their bloodline with mind flayers to tap into psionic power

[@ShandoraTheExplorer]

If you play as a Drow you have insight in the Oblodra family name. The family has been experimenting with Mindflayer blood and if you ask Astarion if that could be why her blood smells so bad he says that yes, that could be one explanation.

[@azel7056]

Ahhh I remember that, When I was playing as a Drow, Love that little bit lore

[@coregoon]

Not only that, all drow can use some magic, but in House Oblodra all also had access to psionics (the same source of power the mind flayers use). Lotta weird rumors about them because of this; like breeding with mind flayers, which isn't possible without some weird magic, or psionics. During the Time of Troubles (134 years before BG3), when all the gods were made mortal and manifested in Faerûn, magic went a bit wonky because of the death of the previous goddess of magic, and since psionics doesn't rely on the Weave House Oblodra was suddenly the most powerful House in Menzoberranzan. They capitalized on that. Later that year, after magic stabilized, House Baenre seemingly wiped out House Oblodra completely for this offence.

[@SecularFelinist]

I thought Astarion was only savagely beaten by the Gur, not dead. "Given my choice was 'Eternal life' and 'Bleed to death in the street...'"

[@lisasantiago943]

I found Chamberlain Dufay in his coffin "dead", picked him up and carried him outside and dropped him in the sunlight. 5 mins later he was a crispy critter.

[@chibiktsn3]

I know something I'm going to try when I get to the mansion!

[@moonelfe]

haha I did the same 😂

[@TheOddityFair]

Cazador might have genuinely seen himself as a kind master compared to Velioth. When Cazador broke the rules to meet a friend, he was impaled for 11 years. But when Astarion broke the rules by letting a mark go, he was only entombed in a coffin for 1 year. He also appears to have genuinely seen his spawn as some kind of twisted family. As seen w/ his niece, family does appear to be important to him. That won’t stop him from hurting them, but given what happens when you talk to his corpse, I get the impression that Cazador was someone who couldn’t really be alone. (Also, this is NOT a defense of Cazador, just my analysis.)

[@DepressionOfMyCat]

Yeah, in my opinion Vellioth was much more of a sadist than Cazador, he even killed Cazador's friend infront of him. For Cazador torture seems more like a tool to not lose control. I'm quite sure Cazador once was a very different person but the vampiric curse and his trauma broke him.

[@TheOddityFair]

@@DepressionOfMyCat Which makes it even sadder if Astarion ascends. You see that he’s just as controlling & power mad. However, he probably sees himself as a kinder master too, considering how he gives Tav a drop of his blood. But, he’s just perpetuating the cycle like Cazador did.

[@DepressionOfMyCat]

​@@TheOddityFair ye, cycle of abuse. It’s pretty scary how Astarion can send 7000 souls to the Hells without any remorse and still wants to live in the same castle as all the other vampire lords, making people disappear while plotting to take over Baldur's Gate. He even mentions wanting to keep Cazador’s skull, just like Caz did with Vellioth. And in the epilogue, he’s even wearing the same colors as Cazador. It really makes you wonder how he’d change once he unlocks all his vampiric powers

[@TheOddityFair]

@@DepressionOfMyCat Yes, power corrupts. While playing as Karlach, when he tries to turn her, her blood actually burns him. This infuriated him, & he dumbs her. I’m sure he thought he was completely invincible after ascending, but learning he wasn’t throws everything into question. What was it all for? The 7,000 souls, the scheming, the broken relationships, etc. This power was suppose to be worth loosing it all. It was suppose to make him feel safe. But it didn’t. But he can’t face that, & so he lashes out & doubles down.

[@pagetvido1850]

I wonder how long it took Cazador to track down his curation of Astarion's favorite victims. It must have taken forever to figure out which cage a victim as old as Sebastion was in. I suppose he then had to telekinesis the cage over or something. I do find the idea of Cazador sifting through his victims like a shelf stacker in a disorganized storage warehouse quite funny.

[@kennedyflint6140]

I'm convinced that the reason cazador kept all the spawn starved was to act like a birth control for the spawn, since the spawn can reproduce if they consume enough blood. And the threat to a vampire is another vampire, given the history dhampir have about revenge towards evil vampires and also having immunity to most of the weaknesses that vampires usually have; would def make them a threat. Especially if the parent is enslaved.

[@Profsona]

19:48 i assumed the poison had silver or a similar ingredient in it which would magically harm a werewolf in addition to poisoning it but leave a vampire alone. Thats just my guess though.

[@rhynlock11]

Still if you try to cast speak with death it says the corpse is too damaged to talk so maybe it is destroyed on the inside

[@darkpaladin9130]

Personally I think the poison that the chamberlain and werewolf lovers drank contained some amount of silver alloy

[@jthomas669]

It's not a person named "bonecloak" it's the dwarf couple that you meet in the underdark. They have a shop in baldur's gate where they sell potions and compounds. The shop is called "Bonecloak's"

[@yabiyabi]

"11 year does not sound as bad of torture if you play raid shadow legend" Spoken like a true vampire spawn

[@Deufurth]

Dufay: likely he either had two potions of Feign Death, intending at one point to give one to his lover, or because he's technically undead, the potion has a different, while still lethal, effect

[@firefi1960]

Haven't watched it yet, but from what i know Something Something "hurt people hurt people" and the importance of breaking a vicious cycle. You may have been treated terribly, but if you let yourself treat others terribly then you're being just like your abuser, and then the people you abuse will go on to abuse others. Be kind and loving even if you're treated with hatred. Especially so. Because the biggest way to say "Fuck you" to an abuser is showing that the scars they leave won't affect how you treat others. They can't control you.

[@ShadowFox10587O]

The issue with that is how vampirism works in dnd. It's not just physical changes it corrups mind body and possibly soul. It basically makes you evil(literally changes your alignment to evil). It apparently twist and corrupts your desires so whoever they were before they were turned they aren't the same after. Add prior trauma or emotional instability on top of that and they're often going to be even worse. If they hated you as a mortal they're REALLY going to hate you as a vampire. They're predisposed to being evil so a good vampire is either extremely rare or just nonexistent lore wise.

[@nobrainzane]

if you go into the encounter with araj and astarion as a drow, you can recount to him that her family supposedly did experiments with the blood of mind flayers, which explains why her blood smells and tastes so horrible, from what i remember!

[@alexnonya5905]

Wow, why dont you have more subs? These vids are top notch. There are a few things that are wrong but its minor and the comments are quick to clarify.

[@FiguringOutFantasy]

Thank you for the kind words! I see this as a community effort at the end of the day. I try my hand at the research, and the awesome commenters fill the gaps that I missed. 😎

[@schela7215]

The Obladoras are a fallen house of Menzoberanzan known as psyonics, they did their fair share of experimenting on mindflayers, which a Drow TAV will point out, the Obladoras had Vampiric Mindflayers in their dungeons ..... do they were fun

[@TeamLexana]

I always assumed he was a creepy pedo, lol. The fact that he turned his 13 year old neice and was keeping Leon's daughter so close, kind of like she was meant to be his first new spawn after he ascended.

[@TeroTheShortOne]

Y'know, you're one of the only people who I've seen talk about Dalyria and what she seems to have done to Victoria. IIRC, Cazador had a compulsion on all the spawn to leave her alone. That means he dropped it only on Dalyria to see what she would do (betting someone told him about her diary entry), or he compelled her to do it before leaving for the Rite. Either way, I don't think Leon would be in a forgiving mood if you let the spawn go and he found out what happened to her once they got to the Underdark. If she was compelled, I feel bad for her, but also don't think Cazador would have needed to compel her based on what we find in her diary. If Dal did it on her own after figuring out the compulsion to leave Victoria alone was gone, no mercy.

[@FiguringOutFantasy]

I thought the spawn’s conflicts with each other was the most interesting part of exploring the Szarr Palace!

[@flamesofhellstudio]

A story of generational trauma. And if you do things in a certain way, you can put an end of the continuation of that generational trauma. Or you can have it continue, depending on whether or not you want an ascended Astarion.

[@mysryuza]

After playing through a Durge run, I realized something. Astarion has runes on his back and he stands as the last puzzle piece to Ascension, but he was able to carve the same runes on Cazador’s back and achieve it himself. Wouldn’t that mean Cazador could have grabbed another spawn to the same thing like he did to Astarion? Or is Cazador just that attached to him? Or does using other spawn require a replacement for that spawn to make the Ascension to work? How do we know he didn’t have extras?

[@Asgaardiangatekeeper]

That's just another plot hole, to file under Act 3, where the entirety of the games plot shit the bed in stunning fashion. If anything, the ritual should have just killed Astarion anyways and ascended Cazador. If Astarion copied the contract word for word, the end results shouldn't change.

[@ReplicatorFifth]

In a journal you find in the mansion one of his servants, Chamberlain Dufay, says Cazador plans on using him in Astarion's stead. He planned on faking his death by buying a potion (you find in his office) that applies Feign Death and then bought an identical looking acid potion. He clearly drank the wrong one. There is also implied that the spawn are preferred to be attached by the victims they bring to Cazador (maybe Cazador has OCD and preferes that). 1000 victims for each spawn. Thus he couldn't just zombiefy Dufay as a replacment like he does to Astarion at the Gur camp

[@lVideoWatcherl]

No, Dufay must've drunken the right potion. His lover, a Werwolf, found the other potion and died drinking it, there's even a note about that next to her.

[@MettaFTW]

by that time i imagine it's to prove a point. he took everything from Astarion once, and he would do it again just to watch him lose. realistically, yes, he probably could have had a replacement, but that wouldnt have hurt Astarion, he wouldnt have suffered for his insolence, he might consider his escape a victory in some capacity, and every day he didnt come back that became more unacceptable. we know cazador loved the sound of his pain the most, and i could see him being petty enough to hold off on his all powerful ascension just for the right cherry on top.

[@Nathan_Coley]

"What's he hiding?" EVERYTHING

[@aidanjackman8576]

YESSSS!! thank you for covering the vampire lord’s secrets :)

[@caiacw]

Very nice video! I personally loved Astarion’s quest and I’ve explored Cazador’s mansion multiple times, but I hadn’t noticed certain things you talk about in this video. Thank you!

[@FiguringOutFantasy]

Thanks for the kind words! I’m thrilled that I could point some new things out to you.

[@yousefgargawi9559]

your videos are crazy dude. how you don’t have more subscribers is beyond me

[@jefthereaper]

My guess to why the chamberlain's body is not burned by acid: 1: Either he is under the effects of the feign death potion and we can't tell because its supposed to be indiscernible. 2: He starts out inside the coffin, and I doubt the game engine can apply a visual effect to the body while its "stored" (non-existent in the 3D environment) when the level loads. The body only actually "spawns" in the environment when you take it out of the box, and its likely it would have been to much extra scripting to apply the effect that way. Much like another oversight that really bothers me. Where all the vampire spawn have red glowing eyes and sharp shark like teeth. While this is somewhat inspired from the official D&D art, it really clashes considering Astarion is also just a spawn, and should thus also have those glowing eyes and shark teeth. It also just make recognizing vampire spawns painfully easy in the game (even if you weren't running around with the Daylight spell on you at all times) It would have been nice if all spawn had their own variant of "disguise self" on them as a passive, so they would switch between looking like a regular version of their race with any color of eyes and normal teeth. Then switching to the red eyed, shark teeth variant in combat/while effected by daylight. (same for Astarion getting those features during combat after his vampire identity is revealed to the party.)

[@genieknight6375]

Is there a chance that the more starved a vampire the more dramatic their features can be as there hunger plagues them? Kind of like losing control over ones own psyche? I imagine getting out of that situation Astarion would've been able to finally eat his fill and recover.

[@tollefjacobsen281]

New video from one of my new favourite KZbinrs? It’s a good day❤

[@MoonPrincess28]

A small correction, Astarion wasn't dead when Cazador found him, he was going to die but hadn't yet. Astarion only accepted Cazasor's help in desperation to live.

[@Suchega_Uber]

Pardon my dumb ass, but wouldn't that just mean that Dufay isn't actually dead, just under the effects of a feign death potion? Another person said tossing him in the sun burned him, which would make sense since you wouldn't expect a corpse to burn in sunlight.

[@nancycariker-moon9890]

Someone in the comments said that but on my first (totally ignorant of lore) run, I also took the body and dropped it in the sunlight outside the castle…and nothing happened. I ended up taking the body back to camp and leaving it in the chest. With other bodies. Because I wasn’t sure if I would ever need them (no, wasn’t necromancer or durge…just an idiot)

[@Suchega_Uber]

@@nancycariker-moon9890 I wonder what the difference was between the two playthroughs.

[@alexandertiberius1098]

He doesn't burn in the sun, I don't know why people say that.

[@chibiktsn3]

I thought I figured out everything this location had to offer, but I totally missed the werewolf!

[@nancycariker-moon9890]

I’m stunned that I missed that!

[@ColanCleansr]

Favorite part of this video is skipping the ad

[@C0smicRae]

So to be ascended means absolute solitude no wonder he's so upset ascend him and also join him in a romance become his spawn and detect his thoughts when you're in your little Palace keep together

[@gobbiwasabi]

WAIT MEPHISTOPHELES IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GRAND DESIGN?!?!

[@FiguringOutFantasy]

Kind of sort of… I phrased it incorrectly in this video. He was the original creator of the idea to enslave an elder brain with the crown of Karsus, which gortash and them had taken over for themselves to enact the grand design.

[@alexandertiberius1098]

​@@FiguringOutFantasythe grand design is just what the squids call the ilithid empire's total dominion, the three chosen weren't even infected, so likely weren't working towards the grand design, they just got played by that elder brain.

[@dougtheheavy]

Great video, dude.

[@FiguringOutFantasy]

Thank you! 😎

[@ShaggyShagz13]

Skip ad 6:12 Fk Raid.

[@Sakira198]

Ey yo, they're straight up sith lmao.

[@babytoe2228]

Let’s not advertise lol

[@roborob4296]

whos astarion? hes missing in my play through since my friend said "this gay guy tried to grape me during my sleep" so he killed him ain act1. this game really wasnt meant to be played multiplayer lol

[@arthurwilliams4249]

What the fuck are you talking about