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The Dark Urge
 | This article contains sensitive content, including brief descriptions of realistic or graphic violence, cruelty toward animals, and sexual violence. |
 | Spoiler warning: The following content contains unhidden spoilers. Read at your own risk. |
| The Dark Urge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Role | Special Origin |
| Information | |
| Race | Any, White dragonborn (default) |
| Class | Any, Sorcerer, Storm Sorcery (default) |
| Background | Haunted One |
| Hometown | Baldur's Gate |
| Family | Bhaal ("father"/creator) Orin the Red (Bhaalspawn relative) Sarevok Anchev (Bhaalspawn relative) Unnamed foster parents Minsc ("uncle", determinant) |
| Character | Origin |
The Dark Urge is an established character as well as a special origin in Baldur's Gate 3. Suffering from amnesia, the Dark Urge remembers little but glimpses of their own past.
| “ | My rancid blood whispers to me: kill, kill, and kill again. My ruined body yearns to reap death in this world, and when this foul Urge calls, it possesses my whole being. Injured beyond repair, I know nothing besides this; I must resist this Dark Urge, lest it consume my mind. I must discover what happened to me, and who I was. Before my twitching knife-hand writes a tragedy in blood. |
„ |
| — The Dark Urge, fearing their dark desires in their Introduction cinematic. |
Description
Prior to their amnesia, the Dark Urge was a much more cold and calculated individual than their bloodkin, Orin the Red.[1] They believed in killing for killing's sake, preferring practical and simple methods over flair and grace, and took issue with extravagant or needlessly creative killings.[2][3] They were deeply loyal to Bhaal and never disobeyed him.[4][5]
History
Early life
The Dark Urge is a Bhaalspawn, but unlike other Bhaalspawn, they weren't born – Bhaal created them from a piece of his dead flesh.[6][5][7] They are the only Bhaalspawn who had the guarantee of murder, the Urge, woven into their blood.[8]
The Dark Urge grew up outside the Cult of Bhaal, and was at some point taken in by a poor couple in Baldur's Gate. They had a relatively peaceful childhood for a time, before succumbing to the Urge and murdering their loved ones and foster parents.[9][10]
The plan
Eventually, the Dark Urge became the leader of the Cult of Bhaal, and pledged to end all life in existence for their father Bhaal.[4] At some point, fellow Bhaalspawn Orin the Red joined and became their second-in-command.[11]
Enver Gortash contacted the Dark Urge after reestablishing worship of Bane, and the two formed an alliance upon discovering common goals. They were visited in their dreams by Bhaal and Bane, who named them their Chosen and commanded them to ally with Ketheric Thorm, the Chosen of Myrkul. Gortash and the Dark Urge hatched a plan to steal the Crown of Karsus in a heist at Mephistopheles' Vault by having Helsik open a gate to Mephistar for them.[11][12]
After the heist was successful, Gortash suggested that they use the Crown on the elder brain located in the illithid colony below Moonrise Towers. The Dark Urge agreed to the plan so that they could fulfil their pledge to their Lord: They would create an army of soulless mind flayers, and with the help of this army they would exterminate all life — including, as the last being alive, their own. Fully intent on eventually betraying the other Chosen, the Dark Urge joined Enver Gortash and Ketheric Thorm at Moonrise Towers.[4][11][13]
Betrayal
At Moonrise Towers, the Dark Urge was treated like a god,[14] and although nobody knew their name or rank, they were shown the utmost respect.[15] The three Chosen initiated a raid on the mind flayer colony, and successfully used the Crown on the colony's elder brain, enslaving it to their will.[11] At some point during this, the elder brain came to respect the Dark Urge and intended to go along with their plan, impressed by their unmatched cruelty.[16]
After the Dark Urge put the Crown on the elder brain, they were soon betrayed by their sister Orin the Red, who was jealous of Bhaal's favouritism.[17][18] The Dark Urge had their skull pierced and opened with a dagger, and was infected with a tadpole that began to eat their liquidating brain, resulting in their amnesia, as well as them becoming the first True Soul.[19][20][21][22]
The Dark Urge was found by Kressa Bonedaughter who, impressed with their willpower and resistance to the elder brain's influence, began to study them. She would cut them open and put them back together repeatedly over the course of several days in the mind flayer colony, during which the Dark Urge was unable to speak or do anything but attempt to inflict violence on themself or others.[23][22]
Noticing his wife's obsession and hoping to snap her out of it, Kressa's husband, Maghtew Budj, arranged for the broken and amnesiac Dark Urge to be sent off on the Nautiloid Ship, where they would soon wake up with no memories of themself, or of their past.[24][25]
The Urge
The Dark Urge's unique quest, The Urge, has two distinct paths: The character can either resist their urges, or embrace them.
If they resist the Urge and reject their legacy, Bhaal will drain them of their unholy blood resulting in their death, only for Withers to intervene directly and bring them back to life.
If they embrace the Urge and accept their legacy, they will become Bhaal's Chosen yet again.
Past relationships
Sceleritas Fel
The fiend-like creature Sceleritas Fel served the Dark Urge and joined them during a series of grisly murders in Baldur's Gate. Sceleritas was deeply devoted to the Dark Urge and found great pride in serving them, even sharing in the Dark Urge's more intimate moments and thus able to reveal to the player that the Dark Urge was a necrophiliac before Orin's treachery. The simple question of serving another Bhaalspawn like Orin made Sceleritas so queasy that he asked for the "bucket of Bhaal" to vomit in.
Orin
The Dark Urge had a turbulent relationship with their blood-kin sister Orin. Orin however was far more obsessed with the 'beauty' of the kill, believing that the 'thousands' of murders that Dark Urge committed actually were an affront to Bhaal, declaring she would wipe out this stain and dishonor from Bhaal's Temple. Her entire belief in Bhaal is that method of killing and build up to the moment of death is just as important as the death itself. This is later used against her by Sarevok Anchev, her own grandfather, who states that Orin has never understood what Bhaal actually wants: "Our lord does not care for beauty. Bhaal cares only for death. Death in numbers. Death in droves. It is a lesson Orin will only learn in death." By contrast the Dark Urge always did and was Bhaal's favored child because of it.
This continued favoritism shown towards the Dark Urge would eat away at Orin, who became more and more bitter that even the worshipful masses of Bhaal's temple, the Bhaal cultists, would begin worshiping the Dark Urge, in turn seeing it as worship of a false idol. It was all too much and eventually Orin, in a mad fit of rage, stabbed the Dark Urge in the back of the head, splitting open their skull and then forcing a mindflayer tadpole inside the open wound. This unintentionally created the first True Soul. Afterwards, Orin would go on to usurp control of the Bhaal temple while dumping the Dark Urge's body into the section of the Moonrise Towers illithid colony controlled by the cultists of Myrkul. The Dark Urge was discovered there by Kressa Bonedaughter, a Myrkulite necromancer that repaired the Dark Urge's injuries and began experimenting on them unaware of who they were.
Bhaal and his Temple
The Dark Urge commanded great respect, admiration, and devotion from the devotees at the Temple of Bhaal in Baldur's Gate. They inspired them with their sheer ruthlessness, staggering amount of victims, and the intelligence of their schemes and planning.[26][27]
Bhaal himself loved the Dark Urge the most of all his children as he had personally handcrafted the Dark Urge's body from his own flesh, and filled them with blood directly from his body, thus making them the perfect child in his eyes.[28] This also stands in contrast to the other Bhaalspawn who were born from myriad dalliances with mortal women of various races during the Time of Troubles, as such the Dark Urge is considered a pureblood Bhaalspawn.[3] Bhaal's uncharacteristic level of love and concern for the Dark Urge is shown in the amount of attention that the Dark Urge receives from Bhaal, even after losing their memories. Most chaotic evil gods (including Bhaal) would discard a Chosen if it was no longer useful such as Myrkul did with Ketheric after his defeat, but Bhaal went to great lengths to restore the Dark Urge to their former place, and made sure to guide and reward them until they returned to the Temple.[29][30]
This seems to indicate that Bhaal felt an amount of paternal pride and love for his child, at least as much as the malevolent deity was capable of displaying.[31]
Enver Gortash
Originally a relationship built on mutual respect for one another, the Dark Urge and Enver Gortash would come to ally with one another after discovering common goals. It appears that they were instructed by their patron gods to reach out to each other to establish their alliance and devise a way to return the Dead Three to prominence in the Sword Coast.[11] This led to them sharing coded correspondence with each other as they discussed the failures of previous Banites and Bhaalists and how they might avoid them.[12][32]
Over time, this relationship seemed to develop from an alliance of necessity to one of mutual benefit and even respect. This was because the Dark Urge and Gortash found themselves admiring each other's intelligence, ambition, ruthlessness and practicality, traits that both of them highly valued. They also found common respect in each other's abilities. The Dark Urge admired Gortash for his planning and foresight. Meanwhile, Gortash respected the Dark Urge for their efficiency and ability to handle matters personally.
Gortash and the Dark Urge first worked together to retake the Dark Urge's ancestral torture racks and the bones of one of their relatives from the Hall of Wonders. They later also teamed up to raid Mephistopheles' Vault to steal the Crown of Karsus.
When Orin betrayed the Dark Urge, Gortash was unaware of what had happened, only knowing what Orin had told him of the situation and that she had made a fool of the Dark Urge. However when coming face to face with the Dark Urge for the first time since the betrayal, Gortash appears genuinely happy to see the Dark Urge, interrupting the ceremony for his elevation to Grand Duke so that "I can greet a most honoured guest. Crawling back from their bloody disgrace - it's my favourite assassin! Gods, you're a sight for sore eyes." He will also confide in the Dark Urge the entire plan the two of them hatched for creating the cult of the Absolute and how much he has come to despise Orin, who he sees as a childish poser compared to the brilliance of the Dark Urge: "It was all going so well - until you vanished. Orin informed us that henceforth she would speak for the temple of Bhaal, and act on their behalf. But she made a mess of things. Unlike you, she cannot control herself."
Later after Orin's death at the hands of the returned Dark Urge, Gortash showed genuine relief and sincere congratulations upon their return. He also was eager to maintain an alliance. Once the Dark Urge proved their independence and intellect one more time, Gortash readily agreed to divide the stones to ensure their alliance remained strong.
It is possible that the Dark Urge and Enver Gortash found in each other the closest thing either of them ever had to a friend.
The Absolute
The Absolute, an Illithid Elder Brain evolved into a Netherbrain from the power of the Crown of Karsus, actually had a fairly positive relationship with the Dark Urge who it views as the Kingmaker that crowned it. This also extended to admiration for the Dark Urge's desires and methodology, even admitting that had they still been in charge of the conspiracy of The Dead Three, it would have gone along with their plans more readily, stating: "Your plan was devious, your cruelty unparalleled. I would have followed it, were your mind not destroyed by your sister. But with you gone, the three pitiful Chosen fought like children in your wake. I gave them power to harm one another with while I crafted my design." While this could be the Netherbrain simply humoring the Dark Urge who was trying to bind it and thus lull it into a false unease, it is made clear the Absolute feels no threat from the Dark Urge in this moment and has no reason to lie as it believes it is right at the cusp of ultimate victory and the culmination of The Grand Design.
Gallery
The origin's default appearance
Sceleritas Fel, The Dark Urge's guide
The origin's default appearance in Larian's Release Showcase.
The origin's appearance in Blood in Baldur's Gate.
Promotional art
See also
- The Dark Urge (Origin) a spoiler-free page that lists player interactions as the Dark Urge.
Related Literature
Notes
- The Dark Urge is a cannibal.[33] They can also eat the cooked dwarf meat from the Goblin Camp.
- According to Sceleritas Fel, the Dark Urge is a necrophiliac.[34]
- The Dark Urge has much in common with the protagonists of many other party-based RPGs, such as being an amnesiac and having a hidden connection to the villains of the game that is revealed over time.
- Notably, the protagonist of the previous Baldur's Gate games was also a Bhaalspawn.
- Even after being freed of the Urge, the Dark Urge still has access to unique, violent dialogue – with the Urge references removed – suggesting that at least part of the Dark Urge's available actions could be the result of their own character, rather than simply Bhaal's influence.[35]
- Immediately after the Dark Urge is brought back by Withers, the character can revel in their freedom to be evil without the Urge, and take joy in having fooled everyone that they are innocent.
- The character can also embrace their goodness, which illustrates the virtue of a good-aligned Dark Urge, as they (and the player) truly choose to be good.
- Even if the Dark Urge gets rid of their father's blood, the Netherbrain still refers to the Dark Urge as "murder incarnate". This may be in reference to Ed Greenwood's - the creator of the setting - revelation, prior to the game's release, that a Bhaalspawn can never fully remove Bhaal's essence. (https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1396624159363448832)[36]
- In a campaign where the Dark Urge isn't chosen as an Origin Character, the player can find the corpse of an NPC with the default appearance of the Dark Urge Origin, simply called "Fallen Bhaalspawn", tortured and murdered by Orin. The Journal of Magthew Budj still references Kressa's obsession with the "pet" she used for her experiments, and the plot to have it sent to the Nautiloid Ship. Likewise, notes penned by the Dark Urge themself that refer to their collaboration with Gortash and a letter that berates Orin for her incompetence can be found regardless of whether the Dark Urge Origin has been chosen.
- If he is recruited, Minsc considers himself to be the Dark Urge's uncle. While at the campsite he says: You are of the same blood as our old friend: a Bhaalspawn, and as close to Minsc as if they were his own kin. That makes Minsc your uncle.
References
- ↑ The Dark Urge's dialogue with Gortash during his coronation.
"Unlike you, [Orin] cannot control herself. [...] Look at you - cold-blooded as ever." - ↑ Dialogue with Orin, when she reveals she has kidnapped a party member and the Dark Urge tells her she is being melodramatic.
"Better to be dull and brittle? A mind-mangled beast, no talent, no beauty in your atrocities." - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Concerning Orin the Red.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Prayer for Forgiveness.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Dialogue with Sceleritas Fel, after being told to kill Isobel.
"You were never disobedient before your little accident." Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; name "felchosen" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Dialogue option with Naaber, after he wishes the Dark Urge a happy birthday.
"I was sculpted from a slice of Bhaal's own dead flesh. I have no birthday." - ↑ Dialogue option with Devella Fountainhead after she asks the Dark Urge if they know who their mother is, once they tell her that Sarevok is Orin's father.
"I have a gut feeling Bhaal made me. I don't have a mother." - ↑ Dialogue with Sceleritas Fel, after becoming Bhaal's Chosen.
"No Bhaalspawn has ever borne the Urge, the holy guarantee of murder. It was woven into your blood alone." - ↑ Memories regained after casting Heal on the Dark Urge after rejecting Bhaal.
"Children darting their way through the city streets of the Gate, chasing one another. [...] Foster parents who cared for a lost Bhaalspawn?" - ↑ Memories regained from casting Heal on the Dark Urge without rejecting Bhaal.
"A little Urge - not even an adolescent - stands with a tiny dagger atop a bloody heap. Two-bedroom cottage. Relative squalor. Poor part of the city. Indiscriminate whole-family kill. Baby's first murder spree." - ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Memoir Notes with Recent Addenda.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Scrapbook of Letters.
- ↑ The Dark Urge's dialogue with Gortash during his coronation.
"We understood that if we were to unite, no one could stand in the way of the Dead Three. So unite we did. First we obtained the crown; then we enslaved the brain. From there, it was but a small step to the most successful religious hoax ever perpetrated." - ↑ The narrator's statements when the Dark Urge enters the throne room in Moonrise Towers.
"In another lifetime, you were greeted in this throne room like a God, not the living wreck you are now." - ↑ Dialogue with The Warden.
"Your name, your place was kept from all of us last time, but you were to be shown the utmost of respect." - ↑ Dialogue with the Netherbrain at the Morphic Pool.
"I respected Bhaal's child once, but not you, Gortash. [...] Your plan was devious, your cruelty unparalleled. I would have followed it, were your mind not destroyed by your sister." - ↑ Blood-Envy for the Unworthy
- ↑ Dialogue with Orin, when she is confronted by the Dark Urge in the Temple of Bhaal.
"Husk. Maggot. A Bhaalspawn, slip-sliding in filth with these pigs. You don't deserve the Murder Lord's blessing." - ↑ Dialogue with Orin, when she is confronted by the Dark Urge in the Temple of Bhaal.
"How you screamed as my knife slit your skull, your brain juices sticky and sweet. A little hole, big enough for the worm, your body a blood sack to feed it." - ↑ The narrator's statements when the Dark Urge confronts Orin in the Temple of Bhaal.
"The day your tyranny should have engulfed this world, it was you who were the first to be enslaved. Orin's smile was the last thing you saw, her bright blade glinting as she chiselled into your skull. Her reckless digging left your mind shattered." - ↑ Dialogue with Kressa Bonedaughter.
"You were my very first, after all. I learnt everything about the parasites from you." - ↑ 22.0 22.1 Mistress of Souls' Research Log.
- ↑ Dialogue with Kressa Bonedaughter.
"I remember finding you close to death, beaten black and blue on the floor of this sanctum. It must have been a few hours after the tadpole was placed in your skull. How you got here was a total mystery, but I stitched you up just enough to keep you alive, then placed you within your crib. [...] We had such a close bond. I opened you up endlessly with my scalpels, and got lost in your insides. [...] It has never been the same with another... All the other victims who come here just meekly obey. You thrashed, you fought, you were indomitable." - ↑ Journal of Magthew Budj.
- ↑ Clasped Book (Moonrise Towers).
- ↑ Dialogue with Sarevok.
"You were once Bhaal's favourite. You worshipped Him the way that he would wish - your blood-lust innate, your thirst for butchery unslakable. But you were foolish enough to think yourself untouchable. You didn't see Orin rising through the ranks. You were blinded by her artistry, her devotion - you believed she worshipped you as much as all the others." - ↑ The narrator's statements when the Dark Urge remembers they are a Bhaalspawn.
"Memories flood back - snatches of your story, written in the blood of a thousand victims. Years spent in worship of Bhaal, leading his savage congregation in prayer, sacrifice, and slaughter. You were their Master, and he was yours. A cruel Master, a Dread Lord... a devoted Father." - ↑ Dialogue with Bhaal's Avatar after killing Orin.
"You are my spawn. Your veins course with my unholy blood." - ↑ Dialogue that plays when the Dark Urge remembers they are a Bhaalspawn.
"Your Father loves you best. You have already made us so proud." - ↑ Dialogue with Sceleritas Fel, after killing Isobel and becoming the Slayer.
"Try on your new jimjams! They're a present from Father, it would be rude not to." - ↑ Dialogue with Bhaal's Avatar after killing Orin and accepting Bhaal.
"My Chosen. My Slayer. Violence incarnate." - ↑ The Dark Urge's dialogue with Gortash during his coronation.
"We discussed in depth the failures of our predeccessors and how to avoid them." - ↑ Eating a Noblestalk Mushroom prior to meeting Sceleritas Fel.
"A babe. Brained by your hand. The fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day. Especially in winter." - ↑ Possible dialogue in first encounter with Fel.
"My, my. We will be reintroducing necrophilia to your schedule in no time." - ↑ As discovered in numerous possible dialogues in Act Three.
- ↑ Potential dialogue after siding with the Emperor and then climbing up to the Netherbrain.