Summary
Baldur’s Gate 3can often be an irreverent game, the player character and their companions react to horrific violence and other tragic events with biting one-liners and the textbook sarcasm you’d find present in your average Dungeons & Dragons game. Heck, when The Dark Urge murders an innocent musician at the party camp, Gale is only a bit put off by the whole thing, but he doesn’t care enough to look into it any further.
It’s not all rainbows on the Sword Coast, though. There is potential for some heartbreaking moments throughout the game, especially if you’re a fan of certain characters. Recently, the Baldur’s Gate 3 community came together in aReddit threadto discuss the most devastating, heart-wrenching, and tear-inducing in-game books and notes that can be found.
The Most Tragic Letters In Baldur’s Gate 3
The most-upvoted reply refers to theCrumpled Noteyou can find on the corpse of a defeated Ketheric Thorm, chosen of Myrkul. The note simply reads, “Papa, I love you. LOVE FROM IZ.” This is obviously a message from Ketheric’s daughter Isobel. The unexpected death of Ketheric’s wife Melodia and his daughter Isobel turned the Half-Elf from a devout Selunite to a follower of Shar, the Lady of Loss. Eventually, he would turn from Shar to Myrkul, the god of the dead, successfully using his new patron’s powers to resurrect his daughter.
Ketheric’s note is so tragic because despite all of the evil and suffering his actions have caused, everything he did was done out of a misguided attempt to bring his beloved family back. The requited love Isobel has for Ketheric shows that he was a good father and husband before the harsh realities of the world and some divine intervention corrupted him.
‘Dear Mam’, an unsent letter found on the remains of Bluenail, a novice of Viconia DeVir’s Sharran cloister, is also a popular choice. The letter reveals that Bluenail regrets joining the cloister, but she doesn’t think it’s possible to leave, and she fears that Viconia can sense her hesitation. As the player reading the letter will likely have killed the novice, it makes everything even sadder.
The Arcane Tower is a lonely location, made all the lonelier by the correspondence from the tower’s owner, Lenore De Hurst, the player can read. Lenore and her partner Yrre lived in the Tower until the two had an argument and Yrre departed, leaving Lenore with her pet dog Myrna and a construct named Bernard. Myrna would also eventually die, pushing Lenore to program Bernard to constantly remind her that she was loved as her loneliness grew. Eventually, Lenore left the Tower to run an errand in Baldur’s Gate but never returned.
The emotion of this sad tale peaks in ‘Letter to Yrre’, a letter Lenore left for her former partner when she left for Baldur’s Gate in the event that Yrre returned while she was away. Lenore admits that he still loves Yrre and misses her so much, and pleads with Yrre to wait for her return. However, a note scratched in a different hand at the end of the letter tells a sad story: “I waited, I waited until Tarsahk. I’ll always wait for you, but you didn’t come.”
Finally, if the player romances Gale and he sacrifices himself at the end of Act 3, he will leave aheartbreaking notefor the player.
[I hope] that in the time since I left you, you have lived a life of beauty, happiness, and wonder. That is what I will picture when the time comes. Only you. You were all I ever needed. You are calling to me - I truly have run out of time. But you will not - that I promise. When this is over, your life begins anew. Treasure it, as I treasured you. That is all I ask.
Yours forever, Gale.
There are several other very sad letters and notes in Baldur’s Gate 3; a game that, despite the constant horniness and irreverence, can and will still bring a tear (or many many tears) to your eye.
Baldur’s Gate 3
WHERE TO PLAY
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.
