Upon progressing into Act II in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3, the player is greeted with a desolate, blue-toned wasteland. Trees are either barren or unnaturally red, caught in a perpetual statꦇe of autumnal-themed death, farms lie abandoned, and the very earth has torn itself apart. There are only two havens of civilization in the entire act: Last Light Inn and Moonrise Towers.

Aside from that, the barren battlefield has little to offer in the way of NPCs. Instead, Act II relies on environmental storytelling, shifting away from the heavy focus on dialogu🎃e that Act I cultivated. Because of this, the history and lore of the Shadow-C🦂ursed Lands has considerable gaps, but can be deciphered through notes and diaries scattered across the land!

What Are The Shadow-Cursed Lands?

The Shadow-Cursed Lands are a region located in the Western Heartlands of Faerûn. There are a couple of locations with🐬in the area that stand out in part🦋icular.

These areas are where most of the lore is consolidated, with Reithwin being the epicenter for most of the Shadow-Cursed Lands' history.

Paths wind around the region, interrupted by gaping chasms and enemies waiting to ambush you and your party from the shadows, ranging from twig blights to ghouls. These creatures and their corrupted natures are a result of the shadow curse.

What Is The Shadow Curse?

The shadow curse is a necrotic curse that rests on the land, sucking the life from whoever (or whatever) steps within it. Once the target is killed, the curse may occupy their corpses once they pass from the plane, turning them into one of the many roaming undead.

In fact, if one of your companions is left long enough without protection from a proper light source, they will return to attack you as one of these curs🔯ed creatures.

By the time Baldur's Gate 3's timeline comes around, the curse has infected the land for roughly one hundred years.

A History Of The Shadow-Cursed Lands

Once a center of trade by port, Reithwin is equipped with a Mason's Guild, hospital, and tavern. Various farms are scattered outside the township and many houses are fenced off, giving the impression of a thriving community between Baldur's Gate and Rosymorn Monastary.

Within the town of Reithwin lies Moonrise Towers, a building constructed by a Selûnite architect, Morfred, as a devotion to the goddess of the moon.

Selûne and Shar are twin goddess of the moon and night respectiv⛦ely. They loathe one another and their followers often war in kind.

The Thorm Family

The Thorms were the ancestral proprietors and protectors of the town. The region at large was Selûnite, with various Thorm family members running most of the major economic locations: the tavern, the hospital, and the tollhouse.

This put most, if not all, of the administrative power in the region in the Thorm family's hands.

Ketheric Thorm, a half-elven devotee to Selûne, was the head of the Thorm family. H🌳e married a woman named Melodia, and their union bore a daughter, Isobel.

Isobel Thorm is the only confirmed child of Ketheric. The tavern's owner, Thisobald Thorm, refers to him as "father," but this is likely either a result of the corruption of the shadow curse, or a term of respect acknowledging Ketheric's power.

Melodia, however, fell ill and died, leaving Ketheric to raise his dau🌃ghter alone. Isobel was brought up to worship Selûne as her mother and father did.

When Selûne's daughter, Dame Aylin, came to Reithwin as a result of the region's devotion, Isobel was quick to make a connection with the woman.

Isobel and Dame Aylin fell in love before Isobel died suddenly. The death of his daughter destroyed Ketheric, who was stil൩l reeling from the loss of his wife.

He questioned why the Moonmaiden (Selûne) did nothing to save his family, especially given his devotion and stewardship of her land, believing Isobel's death to be cruelty inflicted by the goddess' apathy.

Shar's Influence Over The Shadow-Cursed Lands

In a journal located in the Grand Mausoleum, Ketheric states that "forgetting was the only possibility" to cope with Isobel's death, and turned to Selûne's sister, Shar, the goddess of loss, to take the feeling away.

To Ketheric, the embrace of nothingness felt like a mercy. In a charred prayer book found in Moonrise Towers, presumably written by Ketheric, the man writes that his daughter's death taught him his purpose, which led to him "gathering the flock."

It can be estimated that after this was the incarceration of Dame Aylin to the Sharran Temple under the Grand Mausoleum. It may be reasonable to assume that Shar may have had something to do with Isobel's demise (to turn Ketheric to her worship and lead to the capture of Aylin), though this theory is unconfirmed by any in-game citation.

Ketheric Thorm began to raise an army of Sharran devotees to "punish the wicked," purging the town of Reithwin and the surrounding areas of Selûnites. This purging began to ar🌟ouse the ire of the druids and the Harper faction.

Upon killing shadows in the area, a 'shadow vestige' may be dropped. Clicking on it will lead to a snippet of the person's life being read to you. A couple of vestiges around Reithwin will detail the Selûnites' persecution.

The persecution led to a mass conversion to the worship of Shar, turning the region into a hub of Sharran activity. This changed the values of the town, leading people to turn on each other, reporting neighbors and friends to the Dark Justiciars (high ranking officers in the Sharran faith) as detailed in the &qu💦ot;Punish The Wicked" quest given to the player by He Who Remai♑ns.

In the hospital, notes can be found scattered around the location that detail how the head surgeon, Malus Thorm, had started forbidding the nurses to work on anyone who was not of the Sharran faith. Malus is classified as an elf, likely making him Ketheric's uncle.

A note from a nurse can be found, begging the outside world to intervene and help, but, clearly, nothing ever came of it. This nurse, Sister Lidwin, is still kicking around as an undead, and can 🌠be traded with if you pass ꩵa successful Charisma check.

The War Between The Harpers And Sharrans

Ketheric's crusade continued down into the Underdark, where he took over the Grymforge and populated it with Dark Justiciars, who would go on to kill Dame Aylin over and over to become Dark Justiciars. This conqu🎉ering concerned t♋he Harpers and druids, who began to build small pockets of resistance in and around Reithwin.

The war left its scars on the land, and Jaheira and Halsin fought directly against Ketheric's Dark Justiciars. His killings ramped up, and a Selûnite resistance started to form, as detailed by a note in the Potter's Chest.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Investigati𝓰ng the Selûnite resistance reveals that Morfred, the architect of Moonrise Towers, was contacted by Raphael, to whom he subsequently sold his soul to stop Ketheric's reign of terror. Yurgir, a devil from the Nine Hells, is sent to decimate the remains of Ketheric's army.

Morfred can be found in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:House of Hope, where he will relay this story.

Ketheric And The Shadow Curse

With a new resistance poppi🅠ng up every time he turned around, and the Nine Hells getting involved, Ketheric was fighting a losing battle.

As he was struck down, he unleashed a powerful curse provided by Shar, cloaking the land in shadow and undeath.

The Thorm family that remained were twisted and warped into further corrupt versions of themselves, and almost everyone in the region died within minutes of the curse enveloping them.

With the necrotic shroud over the land, the shadow curse finally began in earnest, twisting the fey spirit of the land, Thaniel, into a literal shadow of his former self. In this 🐓state, he goes by Oliver, and they function as two halves of the same spirit.

Nothing grows and everything remains in a stasis between dead and perpetually dying.

Art Cullagh, a Flaming Fist operative who was sent to investigate the killings and Sharran presence, encounters Thaniel and is trapped with the spirit. Halsin's quest involves his retrieval.

Ketheric was struck down and resurrected by Myrkul, one of the Dead Three. Somewhere between Ketheric's alliance with Shar and his encounter with Myrkul, Balthazar, a powerful necromancer, enters the scene as an advisor.

Myrkul agrees to bring back Isobel, so, once again, Ketheric swears himself to a new god and binds himself to Dame Aylin's divinity to ensure his repetitive resurrection.

This is the reason Shadowheart is bei🐎ng sent into the🦩 Sharran Temple at all. Shar likely wants her to eliminate Dame Aylin to punish Ketheric for his betrayal.

Last Light Inn

As a result of her father's deal, Isobel is resurrected but, horrified at what her father has become, flees into the darkness. Selûne blesses Isobel, her cleric, with the ability to traverse the shadows unh꧒armed.

She arrives at Last Light Inn, where the Harpers, led by Jaheira, find her during the investigation into Ketheric's return.

The Current State Of The Shadow-Cursed Lands

The shadow curse endures until the player and their party engage with Halsin's quest. The Cult of the Absolute holds the most power in the reg🅷ion, enduring under the conditions.

They could be speculated to be using the shadow curse as a buffer between their cult activity and the Harpers, and a shield from any curiosity from the Flaming Fist of Baldur's Gate.

Ketheric has returned to Moonrise Towers, where he operates part of the cult and acts as Myrkul's chosen, the third in his line of godly allegiances. The Harpers have taken up residence in Last Light, and various enemies wander the shadows, waiting for the few travelers that pass through.

Using pixies as sources of light, Balthazar has created moonlanterns, lanterns designed to permanently allow people to cross through the land unfettered by the darkness.

This remains the only way to traverse the Shadow-Cursed Lands safely, unless the Heroes of Baldur's Gate lift the curse and set the inhabitants of the land well and truly free.