The third act ofBaldur’s Gate 3sees the player’s party enter the Lower City and square off against the remaining Chosen of the Dead Three: Orin the Red and Gortash. While Gortash plots to take control of the city in the name of Bane, Orin’s goals are more destructive.She serves the murder god, Bhaal, and aims to spread chaosby killing important figures across the area. By the time the players arrive, she has already started her killing spree.
Warning: The following article includes spoilers for the third act of Baldur’s Gate 3.Several Bhaalist killers are on the loose in Act Three, including Dolor the poisoner, butOrin’s kills are easily identified by the calling cards she leaves behind. Each bears her name, signed in blood, as well as a cryptic bit of writing that may seem unrelated to her target at first. Playing the previousBaldur’s Gategames or being more broadly familiar with the lore of the Forgotten Realms, however, can illuminate the connection between these murders and characters from past titles.
Orin’s Murder Sites Can Be Found Throughout The Lower City
Locating The Scenes Of This Bhaalspawn’s Murders
Orin is responsible for six murder scenes, all set up in elaborate dioramas. Some are connected to the list of murder targetsthe Bhaalist assasinsare hunting, likeone in Alexander Rainforest’s basement and another in Franc Peartree’s home. However, most are found hidden in unmarked locations: beneath the Open-Hand Temple, in a nameless house near Basilisk Gate, inside the abode of Lavernica the gardener, and finally, within the Undercity in front of the Temple of Bhaal.
In addition to their lore implications, each of Orin’s murder scenes contains a piece of Dribbles the Clown, which can be returned to the Circus of the Last Days for a reward. It’s unknown if Orin directly murdered the clown or if one of the Bhaalist doppelgangers carried out the deed.
While Alexander Rainforest and Franc Peartree were definitely targeted intentionally since they were interfering with the Bhaalist’s business, the other murder victims seem to have been chosen for completely different reasons. It wasn’t that they posed any threat themselves or represented some larger group that Orin wanted to target; rather,they physically resembled characters from pastBaldur’s Gategames, and Orin used them as allusions to those characters.
Each Murder Commemorates A Previous Servant Of Bhaal
Six Effigies For Six Past Characters
Each of the six murder scenes is intended to reference a Bhaalspawn of the past; specifically, the six from theThrone of BhaalDLC forBaldur’s Gate 2:Shadows of Amn. This DLC saw players fight through five Bhaalspawn, each with different ways of killing and different reasons for doing so, to eventually reach the expansion pack’s main boss.The notes Orin leaves behind at each effigy call out the Bhaalspawn they reference by nameand seem to almost be mocking these other followers of the murder lord.
The effigy below the Open Hand Temple references Ilasera, a Bhaalspawn who favored attacking at range using her keen eyes. Orin cut out the eyes of the bodies present here, and pierced them with throwing spears. Another, referencing the Drow warlord Sendai, is made up of a great many mutilated bodies of Underdark dwellers, meant to evoke the army that Sendai commanded.
A third scene includes three Dragonborn bodies and a scroll capable of controlling dragons,meant to mirror the pride and subsequent fall of the dragon Bhaalspawn, Abazigal.There is even one containing the body and heart of a giant, meant to reference Yaga-Shura, the fire giant who tried to attain immortality by removing his heart.
Three of these figures, Ilasera, Sendai, and Amelyssan, appear as echoes of their former selves on the Murder Tribunal. They will join Sarevok in fighting the player if you refuse to become an unholy assassin. Abazigal also appears as an echo, but only for unholy assassins, and acts as a merchant selling powerful Bhaalist gear.
The two remaining effigies are a little different. One is made forBalthazar, the very same monk thatBG3’s necromancer took the name and torso of.He betrayed Bhaaland tried to end his line, and seems to have invoked even more of Orin’s fury than any of the other Bhaalspawn she references.
Finally, close to the Temple of Bhaal,there is an effigy of Amelyssan, whom Orin seems to respect. She was the mastermind villain in theThrone of BhaalDLC, who pretended to be on the player’s side until the end, and was puppeteering the acts of the five others. Appropriately, she’s depicted as a corpse holding the chains of five others, all of whom are rigged to explode when the player approaches.
Orin’s Theatrics Contrast Her To Another Bhaalspawn Character
How Sarevok’s Granddaughter Does Things Differently
Orin is a jealous and bitter follower of Bhaal, as any player who has gone through aplaythrough as the Dark Urgeknows, and it seems like she harbors some resentment towards each of these dead characters. Orin considers herself the truest of Bhaal’s followers and denigrates others who let their own desires get in the way. In reality,she is just as self-motivated, seeking the admiration and love of her father/grandfather, Sarevok.Orin’s theatrical methods of killing are meant to get his attention and prove her talent, but the Dark Urge notes her folly in their personal journal:
“Bhaal will never care that you waste your time, posing your corpse-dollies. Bhaal doesn’t care whether you give him the corpse of a pauper or a king. At the end of the day, all Father wants is death in droves, death in numbers. To sap away the life of this dull world as swiftly and widely as we can. You plan, you plot, you prevaricate, and you waste his time. Bhaal doesn’t need us to think. He needs us to kill.”
Sarevok’s killings in the previousBaldur’s Gategames were dramatic and large-scale, butOrin seems more intent on creating art from her killings than accomplishing her objectives. These murder effigies act as Easter eggs to reference the previous game’s characters, but they also act as characterization for this game’s Bhaalspawn villain.
Orin is more complex as a character than most give her credit for, and these murder scenes show just how much she will do to earn the adoration of Sarevok. It’s almost sad to see howthis violent, sadistic murderer vies for attention like a neglected child,but it does explain why she felt the need to usurp the Dark Urge inBaldur’s Gate 3.
