This article contains spoilers for The Dark Urge storyline in Baldur’s Gate 3.
If you haven’t already gone through Baldur’s Gate 3 as the origin character option known as the Dark Urge, you’re missing out on an incredible storyline within the game – the potential for missing out on multiple, in fact, considering how vastly different this individual’s story can be when player choices are taken into account. Unlike “Tav”, the fully custom character option, the Dark Urge does exist in the canon events of the game, which means the lore behind this character is immense with an established background, prior relationships with characters existing in the game, additional scenes and dialogue, and more.
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It’s a popular option to play the game as considering it’s a completely different experience from playing as Tav, but you still have the option to customize the appearance and class for the character. That said, the default Dragonborn Sorcerer is a fantastic design and characterization, and is what exists within the game’s universe if you’re playing as Tav.
But where is the Dark Urge if you play as Tav?
As mentioned, the Dark Urge is part of the canon events of Baldur’s Gate 3 even if you don’t play as them, though that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re around to interact with. Unlike the other origin characters, the Dark Urge is not available as a potential party addition and your sole interactions with them will
You unfortunately only see the Dark Urge as a dead body marked “Fallen Bhaalspawn” in Orin’s chambers in the Bhaal Temple beneath the city if you’ve played as Tav, and you can’t use Speak With Dead on them to find out what’s happened, which means you’ll need to put in some more work to find out what happened to the intriguing origin character. If a dead body alone isn’t enough of an explanation, you can discover additional information about what happened to the Dark Urge by playing as them and hearing it for yourself with the opportunity for several reveals throughout the game.
But if you can’t stomach playing as a character whose “rancid blood whispers” to them “kill, kill, and kill again”, you can read more about some of their downfall from here on out.
Fallen Bhaalspawn
When the Dark Urge wakes on the Nautiloid their head aches and they’re suffering from horrific amnesia, unable to recall much of their lives before this moment aside for perhaps a name and an insatiable bloodlust. As the story progresses players may find themselves in the midst of interactions that imply they’re part of the larger picture in the game, including a unique greeting from the guard outside of Moonrise Towers that welcomes you back as if you’ve been there before.
It’s from this moment that things begin to fully form, memories stirring within the Dark Urge as they stand before Ketheric Thorm on his throne. As time goes on, you learn the Dark Urge is a Bhaalspawn crafted from the flesh of the Lord of Murder himself and that they were central to the entire Absolute plot, once being in the position of Orin the Red, a fellow Bhaalspawn, at the top of the Cult of Bhaal. As the Dark Urge’s body is found in Orin’s chambers this should give you a massive clue as to what happened to them – their blood kin Orin betrayed them and orchestrated their death far before it was intended.
As we see in a found item called “Prayer For Forgiveness”, a prayer penned by the Dark Urge to Bhaal, the intention from their creation was for them to be “the last soul alive.” The full prayer is pictured below.
One of the keys to knowing exactly what Orin did to the Dark Urge lies in speaking with Kressa Bonedaughter in the Mind Flayer Colony and reading the journals of her fellow cultists, particularly her husband Maghthew. While at the time the Dark Urge won’t remember Orin or that it was her that betrayed them yet, the dialogue with Kressa sparks a memory within them of them being in the Colony before and being ambushed.
Kressa recognizes the Dark Urges and reminisces on a time where they were captive at the Colony, when she found them close to death after being infected with a tadpole. According to Kressa she “opened them up endlessly” for her research as they were the first True Soul. Her husband Maghtew’s journal can be discovered as well, which in part reads: “I thought that getting that favourite creature dispatched would bring her back to herself, but she pines for that damned feral corpse with aching need.”
The next key lies in a reunion with Lord Enver Gortash, who is happy to see the Dark Urge return to the city, and he who reveals more of the character’s history and their involvement in the game’s canon events. If you’ve got Karlach in your party things get awkwardly quickly as he welcomes you with, “My favourite assassin. I’m so glad you have returned to my side.” Quickly, Gortash is adding more details to the grand picture of the Dark Urge, continuing with, “…your memories are quite lost, aren’t they? Orin told me she’d made a fool of you.” From there he fills you in as to how the Dark Urge helped orchestrate the Absolute plot and the intentions behind it, continually and fully emphasizing that you cannot trust Orin.
The Dark Urge’s “butler”, Scelaritas Fel, is the one to finally fill in the gaps in full with several dialogue options after you’ve killed Orin and he’s in your camp:
- “Your tedious sister believed she was ending you when she drilled the wee tadpole-cavern in your head. You were merely reborn … with a silver spoon in your brain. The first to be tadpoled.”
- When asked if the Dark Urge can get their memories back: “You do not have a charm placed upon you to clear your memory-stores, nor an enchantment befuddling you. Orin dug, Orin scooped, Orin dissected. Your brain is damaged forever.”
We would need additional confirmation to say with absolute certainty, but it’s entirely plausible that the additional context provided in the Dark Urge specific interactions is as applicable as the fact that they helped orchestrate the Absolute plot. After Orin infected them with a tadpole and created the first True Soul, they still would be left for dead in the Mind Flayer Colony and still experimented on by Kressa. From there, the options would be that the Dark Urge crashed on the Nautiloid and either died in full, leaving their body to be retrieved by Orin, or they made their way back to Baldur’s Gate after the crash where Orin was able to murder them once and for all due to their weak and confused state.
Either way, if you’ve opted to experience the game as Tav, the Dark Urge has been betrayed by their sister Orin, circumstances that ultimately lead to their lifeless body in her chambers.
Have you experienced Baldur’s Gate 3 as the Dark Urge? Chat with me about it on X @amazingspidrhan!
