We Should’ve Seen Baldur’s Gate 3’s Orpheus Twist Coming

pulls off a major narrative gambit with Orpheus's story, but when looking back at the game, it could hardly have communicated what was coming more clearly. Among the many strengths of, one that stands out in particular is how much work goes into foreshadowing and littering relevant lore across the world. It would be easy to have countless dangling threads in a world as vast and varied as Faerûn, but although not every single tease ultimately goes somewhere, very little is wasted on the whole.

One corner of that ends up getting a lot of attention is the culture of the githyanki, who are introduced when Lae'zel first shows up aboard the Nautiloid at the beginning. It's not much of a surprise when Lae'zel starts insisting that the party head to the Githyanki Creche, as she establishes herself quickly as someone who doesn't take no for an answer. The initial promise of the Creche is that it could hold answers for the party's tadpole infection, but as that starts to look less and less likely, the real benefits of visiting become clearer.

It's ultimately revealed that the githyanki play a huge role in the central plot of the game, as their rightful heir to the throne Orpheus is imprisoned in the Astral Prism that holds the party's tadpoles at bay. Occurring at the transition point between Act 2 and 3, it's a cool, climactic moment that answers lingering questions and ups the stakes once more, an impressive feat when following on the tail of the huge showdown with Ketheric Thorm. The same scene reveals the true identity of the dream guardian, setting up an interesting moral dilemma for the party to address.

There's so much to discover in virtually every moment of that thinking ahead rarely seems all that appealing, but sitting down to map out future possibilities during Act 2 might well show just how many lines point to Orpheus. There's value in setting up key elements of githyanki culture for Lae'zel's story, and casting doubts on Vlaakith's legitimacy sets up a