gate zone

Btw I think it's really funny that you can blitz through BG3 with under a month of rests while on my BG1 file there's a cool 252 days between Ismene packing to leave Candlekeep and her finally battling Sarevok in the Temple of Bhaal

*clutching my head due to a throbbing psychic headache* AUGH!!! I'm shifting... into BG1/2 mode.......

Anyway do you guys ever think about the fact that the Dead Three Chosen you get in the game are two older men who chose as adults to follow evil gods and start cults and one young woman who has never been allowed to know anything else. I think about that.

It is so much less of a joke than you might think. I'm very much an "Orin is easily the most interesting of the Dead Three Chosen" truther and I think that even if she doesn't get the focus that Ketheric does and is just not presented very well by the game all the material is there to see it. I don't think I ever posted a manifesto besides my swap AU rant but like. She's the child of one of the most legendary Bhaalspawn to ever live, who simultaneously is the most legendary failure among the Bhaalspawn. She's raised, unknowing, as a sacrificial lamb to enable her mother (her father's favorite pawn) to rise to power. She survives attempts on her life from a very young age. She resists attempts at being controlled- and god does it speak to her skill and creativity that the reason she doesn't have her own little immortal butler is that she managed to kill hers and keep him dead. She's a false chosen one in this weird gothic family situation with a declining, incestuous bloodline pushed further towards decay by the arrival of the Dark Urge, who usurps whatever she could have possibly earned. The world rejects her and her vision relentlessly, but she refuses to be rejected or broken down. She keeps the faith and she believes that her way isn't just valid, it's right.

And another thing! People will take DUrge's word that she's worshipping Bhaal wrong and doesn't understand her faith or her god, but I think that's completely untrue! Putting aside the fact that the Dark Urge seems to have had a kind of unending flop era for those who could see it and canonically lost Bhaal's favor, I think Orin is incredibly fucking knowledgeable, the game just doesn't give you a lot of context to understand just how engaged she is with the cult's history and the nuances of the faith because it's bad at implementing its references to the original games. Orin is responsible for all these sacrifices around the city that are hidden in weird locations, right? With weird, cryptic poems attached to the killings? That's not a frivolous or self indulgent art project (well, maybe a little self indulgent). The characters she's referencing are a group of Bhaalspawn who conspired against his plot of resurrection to instead usurp his throne and seize the powers of the god of murder. Orin is creating her own ritual executions of traitors to the faith. Bhaalspawn of the past have been failures, have been disloyal, have attempted to take that which was not theirs instead of playing the parts they were given. Orin is affirming with these wildly difficult sacrifices that she distinguishes herself through her devotion, her skill, and her ability to excuse that which strikes against Bhaal. Her decadent killings would strike fear into the hearts of onlookers- fear which is an essential part of the faith of Bhaal.

And I don't think she's an idiot, either! She nearly killed Bhaal's Chosen- did kill them on a non-DUrge run. She's able to rule the cult despite some pretty powerful dissent. She's able to infiltrate Gortash's domain without being noticed until she chose to reveal herself (with typical dramatic flair). She's a pretty exaggerated character, but the game leans into the cartoonish and the other villains tend to match her energy in their own archetypes.

I feel like this isn't comprehensive but you get the gist, I think she's super interesting and fun. She deserves a lot better than to be treated as uniquely flat or reduced to DUrge's whiny sister or the Durgetash third wheel in fandom. Besides, she's so fucking fun. Who doesn't love someone that hammy? And her lookalike tricks in Rivington just rule. Highlights of the act.

TLDR I love Orin and I'll die on the "she's super interesting actually" hill