It's still so surreal that Larian started off as a company making games inspired by DnD and has now progressed to being the developers for the official DnD game.
Mort, dude, getting sponsored by Larian is absolutely incredible. It's been incredible to see you grow so quickly. Hope both you and your son are doing well.
I have a lot of affection for the Gith, mostly from having Dak'kon as a companion in Planescape: Torment. The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon is possibly my favourite piece of lore from an RPG, which talks about the history of the Gith and the Illithid.
Same. I really wish the githzerai was a playable gith subrace in BG3, but I guess it would require too much work for proper reactivity and would add another layer to the game's already complex lore.
For someone like me who is completely new to Baldur's Gate and the general Dungeons & Dragon world, it would help immensely to see a video like this that hopefully explains the relationship between the Grinch (The Githyanki) and Mindflayers. I haven't seen the video yet but will do it in a few hours, later tonight, when I'm home and have time, but will save this one in the "Watch Later" category.
The video speeds over certain details. Essentially: the gith were once humans long ago, from a different planet. When the Mind Flayers came to their planet in ancient times, they were kidnapped and enslaved. And then, they were subjects of selective breeding. They bred them to grow the tastiest, most psionically nutritious brains. They bred them to reproduce asexually (this is why they have humanoid genitals despite not using them for reproduction). By the end of it, they were no longer recognizable as human. They were cattle. However, breeding them to have psionic brains would be the mind flayer's downfall. When Gith was born, she possessed a powerful psionic mutation which disrupted hive mind communication. She bided her time, she prepared her people and organized them, then she unleashed her power. Slaves were freed from domination, illithids could no longer communicate. Within just one year countless elder brains were slain, such that the illithid empire crumbled and the survivors went into hiding. The Gith people took their leader’s name for their own. But then divisions began to form: Gith wanted to hunt down the remaining mindflayers, and then establish a multiplanar empire such that the gith could conquer the multiverse. Zerthimon argued that this would end in the same kind of tyranny their people just escaped. The Gith race split: the Githyanki are those who followed Gith, and Githzerai are those who followed Zerthimon.
Bro me to... it's insane all the world lore and character/race lore in this world. I've only played *DnD* like twice for 30 mins so I knew nothing of DnD coming into Baldurs Gate 3 and never played the first 2 games. I've been watching ton of videos on lore and the stories of the first 2 games
All the way back to the start, but with the recognition you deserve for the years or work you’ve put into your channel. Looking forward to the Baldur’s Gate 3 lore supercut.
All I know about DnD comes from video games, tabletop never got as popular in my country as in America - Gith lore was quite well explored in Planescape: Torment (as a side content) and Neverwinter Nights 2 (main content), although I am still grateful for this vid, it's informative and to the point, while not being an hour long. Also congrats on Larian noticing you! Well deserved!
A god damn Larian sponsorship awesome! Fun fact for anyone despite the appearance in the game in the table top goblins have dagger like teeth and no lips
Mind Flayers have always been my favorite DND enemy faction, (Maybe because CoC is my favorite TTRPG) so having them play such a prominent role in BG3 is great. My first playthrough has been mostly pure evil with the sole goal of getting most of my party to have as many tadpoles as possible. Just started Act 3, so looking forward to the fallout.
So cool Larian sponsered you in a lore video! I hope they do the same in a future Divinity game. By the way, congrats on your first video with 1 million views!
Just so you know, you are feeding my Mindflayer video addiction. I don't get tired of hearing (potentially) the same information from different voices. Please tell me more about the Grand Design and the 6 tentacled mind flayer royals and the one mindflayer prohesized to ruin them all or whatever. Don't forget about their method of reproduction. That's the good stuff. P.S I have run out of mindfflayer lore videos to watch, anyone know any D&D story video channels with the Mindflayers front and center.
Oh I would LOVE to know what Tiamat gets out of the deal with the Githyanki. Is it just because dragons get tadpoled too? At least in the BG3 intro cinematic the red dragon looked extremely pissed off when the nautiloid escaped for the final time. Is there lore on how the dragons travel between planes? Oh lord this rabbit hole.
What makes Gith unique is her ability to completely disrupt and neutralize psionics thanks to a genetic mutation unknowingly granted by the experiments mindflayers performed on the race as whole. Presumably Tiamat wants that nearby. Theres also a bit more too it that involves the current gith ruler Vlaakith and her role in it. As a funny sidenote, mindflayers actually made the same mistake again that led to the creation of the duergar dwarves who also revolted against them.
If you’re looking for ideas for more videos a lot series on the history of the forgotten realms setting/universe would be cool! It’s changed so much over the years it’s hard to keep track for us casual fans.
could you do a video of characters in 3 that appeared in 1 and 2? couldnt find any after a quick search on RU-vid. (I know there's the full story recaps, but only interested in the reappeared characters)
Does the lore explain why the Emperor turns his back on your and runs to the elder brain the second you decide to try the Orpheus path? Even if he's been manipulating you until that moment, what can he potentially gain out of it? I can understand if he runs on his own or something, but getting back to thralldom?
I think this is explained in game. Spoilers obviously. The Emperor was bound to the elder brain known as The Absolute. When he was taken to Moonrise and changed, he bound to it, but was able to break free with help. Gortash found him and returned him to the brain, enslaving him again. He was sent to find the Astral Prism, along with other Mind Flayers, and was the first to locate it. Once he got his hands on it, it released him from the power of the brain and he had freedom once again. Separate from the Prism, he would return to the brain anyway. He also likely figures that Orpheus would kill him the first chance he had when he woke up. he had no choice, because once Orpheus awoke, he'd be enthralled again and killed if he stayed. Returning to the brain gives him a chance that he'll be free again if the brain is defeated or find another way. Staying meant he'd die no matter what. I suppose it's possible Orpheus could have kept him shielded from the Absolute, but the Emperor assumes that Orpheus would kill him right away instead, both for being a Mind Flayer and for keeping him enchained.
As far as I've read, the Emperor's self preservation trumps everything, like the situation with him pre-emptively striking first on Ansur. I think the Emperor believed he had a chance of escaping the Elder Brain once again versus being certain that Orpheus would destroy him as soon as he was released from captivity. That's kind of what I've gathered though from what I've seen and read on a few different threads.
Also Orpheus seems to know what you did in a astral prism, which mean he might know Emperor antics, without ability for latter to persuade him thus consider Emperor not worthy living and not an truly independent ghaik. I guess if we had Omeluum in place of Emperor Orpheus might not kill him.
@@jonk8916 Right, but why not make a run for it instead? Is the Netherbrain range unlimited or something, so he would risk everything on the off chance that someone defeats the brain (and conveniently decided to let him live afterwards, even though the practically backstabed everyone), instead of running? I can understand him being reluctant to stick around once Orpheus is free, but was running back to the Netherbrain the next best option? To me at least, makes no sense, and was a huge WTF moment.
@@darius9534 Well sure, but as with the above argument, wasn't running away an option? Not to mention Orpheus was very quick to make a compromise "for the greater good", so he might have even spared him until the brain is dealt with. Which again gives him plenty of wiggle room.
Yeah an Ulitharid is the catalyst and what becomes the consciousness of an elder brain, they don't feature in BG3 so I didn't want to get deep into it but there's a message on screen when I mention that part explaining where to find more info about it
Mind flayers dominated them in one of their early plots to rebuild their empire after their fall by the gith. That's actually what made them their own distinct subrace, they were originally a clan of shield dwarves before being experimented on by mindflayers. Then like the gith before them they rose up and escaped. Since then they've built kingdoms in the Underdark where they constantly come into conflict with basically everyone outside of the occasional alliance here and there.
Nice lore deep dive, thanks for sharing. Illithids, like Beholders and Mimics, are D&D natives. Unlike Dwarves, elves, vampires, liches, minotaur, dragons, gods, demons, hobb... err... halflings, and all the others, which have their origins in mythology or other fictional resources. It is wise of Hasbro/Larian to focus so strongly on their own intellectual properties. Game of the year? I think so.
My favorite bit of lore is that they're travelers from the end of time, going back to 'correct' the mistake they made that lead to their downfall. They're basically stuck in a time loop because Mind Flayers are (as you can see in BG3) extremely arrogant and self-serving. They just can't learn from their mistakes, so they just build up the empire, lose the empire, then when nearly extinct they go back in time to try again. Over and over and over. Every campaign, every setting, every thing in existence is basically just another reality in which they are trying to correct their mistake. Also worth noting in an insanely creepy way: Mind Flayers have a strange relationship with Aboleths. Aboleths have extremely powerful memories, and their children inherent the memories of the parents, so forth and so forth. Therefore, Aboleths remember a time before the gods, in the primordial oceans of world. They've seen the rise and fall of countless civilizations. But the freaky part is they're terrified of Mind Flayers. Why? Aboleths don't know where the Mind Flayers came from. They have no memory of their origins. This gives credence to the theory that Mind Flayers are time travelers who travel back in time, remade their empire, lost it, again, and are now hurtling towards the inevitable time loop. It creates all sorts of freaky time paradoxes, which makes the Mind Flayers all the more interesting.
Astral Plane has no passage of time for natives and extremely slow passage of time relative to their native plane for outsiders to it. Combined with colour pools, dead gods and dream portals, it is very possible/probable that its a combination of: Gith time hop to after rebellion over/where they left to hunt them down + Gith hopping to technically their past to hunt those Mind Flayers that went to the past already to try remake/fix their Empire.
@@ANDELE3025 holy shit this hurts my head lol. I'm about to go on a deep dive to learn more about *Mind Flayers & Gith* ... any videos you would recommend for someone who's brand new too *DnD* and the *Baldurs Gate* universe? I've only played *DnD* for about 30 mins total a couple times and never played *Baldurs Gate 1 or 2* so I am now learning about tons of lore and history of this *Universe*
As a D&D Planescape nerd I want to add two things: 1) Ilsensine is a "deity" of sorts of Mindflayers, living in the Outlands. Nobody knows its plans... But I bet it isn't happy with the BG3 situation. 2) Cranium Rats! Rats with clearly visible brain matter. They are spies for the Mindflayers (although there is a hive mind in Sigil that broke free from the illithid control with the help of a gith ratcatcher). You actually can meet cranium rats in the sewers under Baldur's Gate... (and if you're anything like me you'll kill them on sight).
When comes to the sbubjest of Gith most people will no doubt think about dak'kon form Planescape torment ( and for good resaons, he's wey well written character ), tho that choice is kind of ironic - he supposed to be outcast among his people, yet he established most of the modern D&D lore about them.
Sounds kind of like a certain drow. People do love the outcasts. (Sometimes a little too much. The number of spelling variations on Drizzt I used to see in MMOs... 😂)
I second this. I've never been into min maxing, especially in RP heavy games like Baldurs Gate. Obviously everyone can play their games how they like, but it's annoying to see so much content for this game revolving around "broken OP builds" or "best class/party composition" or whatever, while being genuinely hard to find content that leans more towards RP. Even just interesting RP builds, or unusual dialogue choices and story outcomes would be cool to watch. But everyone always goes for the same choices to get the highest numbers, and the most perma buffs and what not. Ugh... anyway, rant over.
I wish Githzherai were playable, would be interesting to see reactivity, some people confusing them with Githyanki and Lae'zel being pissed off. Dak'kon in Planescape:Torment was a very interesting character. There is even a popular fan theory about Zerthimon being Nameless one (he was the one who gave Dak'kon this Circle of Zerthimon), but it's just that, fan theory.
Man, you did really well covering them in a timely manner and hitting all the major points. Like many others, the Gith and Mindflayers have always been one of my favorite settings. I am sp happy to keep seeing this channel grow. You should link those lore videos in the description or the comments lol.
Fantastic Morty son, I love a bit of Morty lore !! Even better that Larian recognise what you did on the DOS lore and chose you to cover some lore!! ❤💀
Yes, they do, just like preety much all living beeings in DnD. As for trust, well, vast majority ( almost all ) of them are evil, self-serving, manipulative and fanaticaly racist. Neutral of even good ones exists, but are RARE
I would love more lore videos like this. There was so much content in the game that I had no idea what they were talking about. I had to keep Googling things to fully understand.
3.5e got really weird with Illithids by the end of their run. Monster Manual 5 has some crazy mind-flayer based things in it. Personally, I like The Far Realm as their origin.
If bg3 doesn't win game of the year, i'll lose my mind...i know it ain't perfect, but it's the best of the best, considering what's currently on the market
Id add that we actually know that Elder brain is spawned from Ulitharid - very rare more powerful mind flayer that eventually takes about half of orthers and leaves to settle new colony eventually becoming Elder Brain.
There is a message on screen when I talk about it pointing people to the Ulitharids if they want more elder brain info, but they don't show up in BG3 so I didn't want to confuse people too much.
