Talk about a romance narrative ambush
It wasn’t supposed to go like this yet, somehow, here we are. Artorius, my Tempest Domain cleric fresh out of performing heroic deeds that involved, among other things, saving a dump truck-load of people, vanquishing a bunch of sociopathic villains, and generally drawing on his deity-bestowed godly power to be the saviour of the hour, is not finding companionship and a moment of solace from the challenges ahead with his fellow cleric and—in my role-playing plan for Artorius—obvious romantic interest, Shadowheart. He is in fact now necking with Lae’zel, who Baldur’s Gate 3 has dubbed his « hot githyanki girlfriend ».
Yep, this was definitely not the narrative I envisioned for Artorius when I rolled this character and started my first full play-through of Baldur’s Gate 3. My original thinking was thus: Artorius, a veteran, world-weary half-elf Tempest Domain cleric who, against his will, is dragged into the narrative events of Baldur’s Gate 3 during a crisis of his own faith, bonds with the other religious zealot in his party, Shadowheart, despite her being in service of another deity, Shar. This, I imagined, would eventually lead to complications in a relationship, no doubt exacerbated by Shadowheart’s own personal agency and mission in the game, but that would be interesting in terms of story.
Now though, despite even initially rejecting the, how can we say it, very forward Lae’zel in terms of knocking boots, and pursuing Shadowheart romantically, Artorius finds himself making out with the pale yellow, leathery-skinned, black-eyed Lae’zel, who has professed her obsession with him and he with her.
