Talk:Aylin/Cut content

Archival copy of the reddit datamining post

Unhiding a million spoilers line by line is a pain in the ass, and reddit is more susceptible to link rot than most sites

datamining post by labotor

 **MINOR AND MAJOR ACT1 DATAMINING SPOILERS**
Datamining

*edit: agh, formatting got messed up - gonna fix it real quick

So, yeah, spent a day on and off digging through some files - found some interesting stuff I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. Want to put down a few disclaimers first though:

    If some of this stuff has already been uncovered and posted somewhere; my bad! I'm not really active on reddit nor do I frequent the forums, so most datamined content I learn of comes from Chubblot's and Harbs Narbs' videos.

    Speaking of which, I'm not going to write about anything they've already posted unless its for context. I assume that if you're reading this, you're already aware of videos by said creators. I might reference some other reddit posts too.

    Sadly, Larian wasn't messing around when they said they've scrubbed Patch 6 clean of a lot of unimplemented content; so most of this just comes from Patch 5. Just to be sure, I unpacked and indexed both Patch's files. I do wanna warn that I was a little lazy and didn't unpack models/textures from Patch 5, I just couldn't be arsed - so I might have made things a little bit harder for myself to figure out but ah well, that's on me haha

    And a final warning; this contains both minor and pretty major Act 1 spoilers! There are some minor random tidbits as well, but most of this pertains to the Act 1 areas we haven't visited yet and their respective characters (Moonrise Towers, Creche K'liir and the Shadowcursed Lands).

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With all that out of the way, here goes - I will try to keep this concise (future me here: this failed) and order it from minor to major spoilers:

Misc.:

There's just one thing here, and I think it's hilarious - Aradin's full name is Aradin Beno and his mercenary group is called The Beno Boys.

"Aradin Beno. Leader of the Beno Boys. Adventurers for hire 'n' all."

I'm sorry but this just sounds like the name of either a male stripclub, or a boyband - either way I love it a lot, please don't change a thing about this Larian.

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Githyanki Creche:

So, didn't find much here that we weren't already aware of - but some lines stood out, because they mention specific characters and perhaps story beats. We also meet the leader of our favorite githyanki patrol fight again, Voss:

*Kith'rak Voss, Qudenos and many githyanki are defending the creche against several cultists who are led by the Butcher and by Orin.*

Some stuff goes down, including this Orin lady being straight up a badass:

*Orin runs towards the dragon. She athletically leaps atop its head and forces a tadpole into the dragon's eye.*

*With that, the dragon flies away through the broken wall, taking Orin with it.*

The specifics of this confrontation between The Absolute's forces and the githyanki aren't entirely clear, but Voss seems to gtfo - I can only assume because his red dragon got tadpoled mid-fight.

*As he sees the player and the cultists arrive, Kith'rak Voss hurries up and jumps through the portal.*

It's reasonable to assume he went into the Astral Plane, but let's entertain the notion that perhaps he wanted to lead the Absolute's forces elsewhere - thanks to a super helpful older datamining post ( https://old.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/jrrn5b/spoilersdatamininganalysis_so_i_opened/), we know that the portal can lead to any of these locations:

Astral Plane, Feywild, Shadowfell, Avernus, Echoes, or Barovia

That was it for the Creche section! One thing I want to note is that this possibly doesn't actually happen in Act 1, and rather much later. It's not that it's crazy to assume that perhaps we meet The Butcher earlier than expected, but I have my doubts about this because of this:

|Debug - Click to make the Radiant Sun blast the creche|

*You will come with us to the portal once the Radiant Sun fires.*

I vaguely remember Chubblot talking about this in his Patch 5 video, and it could definitely be that after we've reached Baldur's Gate and potentially teamed up with The Butcher - we actually revisit the Creche and attack it together. Anyway, moving on.

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Shadowcursed Lands:

There are some characters that link this together with Moonrise Towers, but I'm going to leave that out for now because it pertains to spoilers from there.

We're going to meet quite a few interesting characters here. Specifically, at The Last Light Inn. Seems to be implied that this is one of the few places protected from the curse - we might know by who, but again, connected to Moonrise Towers so I will get back to that later.

First, The Harpers. The game has already dropped numerous hints about The Harpers' visit to the initial wilderness area we were in, and The Last Light Inn seems one of their base of operations - or at least where they congregate:

"The Harpers? I know of them. They're in the Last Light."

If you watched Chubblot's video, we know that Halsin can temporarily leave our camp to meet with Jaheira - who is a Harper. It's most likely to talk about The Absolute problem, there is a letter she has sent to a different character asking for intel:

"Jhaam, Like a phoenix from the ashes, Grymforge has risen from the dead. I've word of a drow cultist gathering duergar in the old city's halls. That the Absolute means to recruit them, I've no doubt. Yet it's what they might seek amidst the ruins that most troubles me. You've not failed me yet. Go to Grymforge, cling to shadow - and bring word of the cult's intentions to Last Light. I will be waiting. - J"

Now, this could just be because of the alliance the druids and Harpers had to fight back Ketheric Thorm and his Dark Justicars - but someone in a discord server also pondered whether Halsin himself could be a Harper. While I couldn't find any confirmation, I just really like this theory so wanted to quickly throw it in here :)

The last thing I can say on The Harpers is that there might be a lot of members we can meet at the Inn; I found about 16 Harper names total. I haven't checked if they're perhaps characters we already know (I didn't recognize any, but my BG1 & BG2 knowledge is barebones, and my D&D knowledge is not that much better) - if you're really interested, just ask, I will provide the list.

Moving on. Next person we meet, is everyone's favorite goading devil; Raphael. And there seems to be more to it than just him wanting to collect on our souls (and tadpoles).

"I'll give you Raphael - so long as the innocents he's hiding among aren't harmed."

He seems to be in a pickle, and it could be that he is asking us for help - perhaps planning to make a compromise relating to his earlier offer. We are asked to visit The Last Light Inn via one of his warlocks:

"Raphael is in an old tavern on the surface - the Last Light. Do as you will."

"Raphael's warlock? Pass him a message: shove off."

It could be the same warlock we met under... embarrassing circumstances. You know who I mean if you've ever let yourself get caught by Priestess Gut (or got the video recommended to you via yt hehe).

Anyway, that's all for this part.

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Moonrise Towers:

Ho boy, this one is gonna be difficult to write; prepare for a lot of rambling.

First things first, the reason why I initially even started looking through the Patch 5 files is because I was immensely curious about one character; one of the Absolute's chosen, specifically the one described as "a pale young woman, with even paler eyes". There are already potential candidates for who the other two can be - Ketheric Thorm is most likely "the armored elf":

"We did not expect a True Soul. Chosen Ketheric sent you?"

And there's a sound byte from this video, at 39:25, that specifically describes him as "The Absolute's chosen": https://youtu.be/MAu2ErA0RPc?t=2365

The "handsome young man, with a quick, easy smile" could potentially be the Deva that has been uncovered - I initially threw out this theory in a discord server as just a wild guess, but later when Chubblot's Patch 5 video released, he drew a connection between the two via shared, unique assets. There isn't anything else I could find on this mystery guy, but I'm putting all my eggs in the "deva" basket for now.

And now, here's my potential candidate for the third in the trio - a drow that goes by Disciple Z'rell. First off, this character is described as being "as blind as a bat" - which could explain the very pale eyes:

"You seen that Disciple Z'Rell? Blind as a bat, but I swear she sees right into yeh."

Secondly, these lines signify both her importance to the cult, and hints at a pretty interesting connection to her blindness via the scrying eyes:

"Disciple Z'rell holds command in Moonrise Towers where she speaks with the Chosen. I will introduce you to her."

"Disciple Z'Rell's sent out those floating eyes all down the coast."

Third, to confirm both her race and gender, enjoy this love letter a goblin wrote to her:

[This scrap of paper smells like worg-piss. Most of the words are struck-through.] Lovely Disciple Z'rell, I ain't never been to the Underdark. Grikka says there's beasties down there that make an ogre look like a baby gnome, but I says if anythin' as lovely as you grows among all the tasty mushrooms down there it's the best place there ever was. [In larger text, the writer has scribbled across his own work: "Do drow like being compared to mushrooms? probably."]

If you aren't aware (I wasn't either until I started looking into it lol), there's a subset of drow called Szarkai. From their wiki:

Szarkai, meaning "ghost spiders", were albino drow.  Although extremely rare and a subject of mystery, they could easily  pass as normal elves, making them ideal spies for the drow noble houses,  able to operate freely in the surface world. 

So, there you go - my best guess as to who the mystery "pale young woman, with even paler eyes" could be. I probably wouldn't have even found this if a certain someone didn't suggest that the pale eyes could be caused by Blindness, so thanks to that person! If they're reading this, you know who you are :)

EDIT: Informed by a helpful user that the placeholder model for the "pale woman" is a human, and not elf, like I misremembered. They also told me about a different potential candidate, named Madam Canduhallow. A pale woman in Baldur's Gate that is in charge of a funeral's home, and has some references to Myrkul. Super interesting, and I guess it'd make sense that we wouldn't meet 2 of the 3 chosen so soon in Moonrise Towers. Was told to credit Chubblot for unearthing the model!

Still gonna keep this Z'rell part in, but just a disclaimer!

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With that out of the way, here comes the part that was a little more convoluted for me to figure out - and I'm gonna issue an *actual* final warning. This section contains major spoilers for the Nightsong quest specifically. Seriously, if you want to keep at least a little surprise for when this area gets implemented (and it's most likely the first of the 3 that will), you can stop reading here.

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If you're gonna continue, please bear with me as I try to write this out lol - while i'm drawing most my conclusions based on the information I could find (there's actually quite a lot of Patch 6 stuff in here btw), I am also filling in gaps with my own assumptions. What I most worry about getting wrong here is the exact timeline, so take that with a grain of salt.

First things first, the big players in this questline:

- Ketheric Thorm

- His daughter, Isobel

- The Nightsong

- Ketheric's necromancer, named Balthazar

- and not as major, but still want to mention him; a Flaming Fist soldier called Marcus

So, I want to first actually start off with Isobel - she's kind of the catalyst for a lot that happens with this quest.

Isobel, like mentioned, is Ketheric Thorm's daughter - she is a Selunite living in the Last Light Inn (she is the character I left out there, for reasons you'll see). It seems to be implied that she is currently the one protecting the Inn from being affected by the curse. But it is also taking a toll on her.

"I've been studying the curse ever since, searching for answers. Trying to restore the damage my father has wrought upon this land."

"Isobel's tough - though she was tougher at the start. I've rarely seen a cleric so in tune with her goddess, but the curse is taking its toll."

"I owe you an apology, Isobel. Ketheric has indeed returned. And can't abide a Selûnite defying him so openly, it seems."

Now relating to that last line, her father orders one of the True Souls - the Flaming Fist soldier named Marcus - to kidnap her and bring her to him. You will have the choice of either aiding in this, or warning Isobel.

"There's something you should know: Marcus, the Flaming Fist, is a True Soul. He's planning to kidnap Isobel."

"Marcus could have killed you, Isobel - taken us all out with one stab. Why did he try to kidnap you instead?"

|Debug: click to get Ketheric's task to kidnap Isobel|

"Attack Isobel and capture her."

If you bring her there without her dying, she will be put in a room at Moonrise. (Note: If you warned her, I assume she maybe just voluntarily traveled to Moonrise Towers to stop her father's plans - there's a line that implies this but I will circle back it for a different reason).

"Isobel, go to your room and don't let anyone in except me or her." (I just realized this could also just be referring to her room in the Inn when Marcus attempts to kidnap her. Oops. Minor detail anyway.)

Something is up with Isobel - she tells you a story of a girl's death, and an angel. You will soon figure out that she is the girl in the story.

"You're Isobel Thorm. The daughter who died in that story."

What seems to have happened, is that Balthazar (the necromancer) had killed Isobel.

"Was Balthazar the one who killed you, Isobel?" "...the same man that killed me. Balthazar."

It's hard to see if this is via Ketheric's orders, but there are lines that imply he didn't know of this:

"But Ketheric turned to darkness when his daughter Isobel died."

"In Ketheric, I see my errors made manifest. He did not fall - he was pushed. His grief was twisted by shadow, but none could deny my hand gave that grief shape."

Also an interesting line, he used to be a Selunite, like his daughter - clearly meaning he turned to Shar out of grief:

"At least, the shell of my father. There's nothing left of the man that championed Selûne."

Either way, what we do know is that he ordered Balthazar to resurrect her some long time after, and keep her soul trapped - possibly together with his own:

"My father. After a century, he somehow brought me back."

"Brought back by the same man that killed me. Balthazar. Standing next to my father with a smile on his face."

"You are bound to Ketheric's soul cage, taking his regenerative powers for yourself."

She ran away to the Shadowcursed Lands after this happened, where then our involvement with the quest picked up:

*You see Ketheric standing before Isobel, although the memory is hazy. His words are unclear, but his tone is not - he is pleading with her.*

"I didn't know. Gods, he didn't say a word to me. I ran away because it was Balthazar that brought me back. As I ran, I heard my father shouting... but I'd seen enough. There was no saving him."

"I ran until I found Last Light. It was like a second home to me, once."

So, now the Nightsong - first just want to establish how she exactly fits into Ketheric's plan so things don't get too confusing, because personally, it's been a while since i've really heard looked into her (and I'm going out on a leg here and I assume i'm not the only one). Going to explicitly credit Chubblot here, because i'm just gonna recite the stuff he found line-for-line back in his November 2020 video (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0MN5qbkhPM):

"Shar is the Nightsinger, and I am her Nightsong."

"I am her instrument, transforming the faithful into Shadows."

"I drink their sorrow, their loss, their grief..."

"...then I vomit it back into the world."

"I've been here for centuries. Thousands of Sharrans came here seeking my kiss."

"All of them are shadows now."

"That is Shar's only reward."

She was captured by Ketheric and turned into the Nightsong - but she wishes to break free from this:

"I want to sing my own song, not Shar's, not Ketheric's!"

"I was captured, by Ketheric Thorm - Shar's chosen."

"He... turned me into this creature."

"Find Ketheric! Kill him, so I can be free!"

Here is where things get spicy.

So, who was the Nightsong before?

"Aylin Silverblood. My true name. Nightsong was only ever a curse."

"What would I have told her? That my father murdered her fellow Harpers, but that I can surely be trusted?"

It seems that she was a part of the the Harpers that originally fought against Ketheric and his army! I can't be completely sure that the Harpers line is referring to her, but I have a feeling it does based on the next part.

Because boy, it gets spicier:

CINE: Isobel's eyes fill with tears as she drops down to the ground, throwing her arms around Nightsong's shoulders in a tight embrace. Shaking, almost fearful, Nightsong returns the embrace - the first kind touch she's had in a hundred years.

CINE: Nightsong smiles too, but she's lost looking at Isobel, completely tuning out everyone else around them. Isobel leans in, resting her brow against Nightsong's and closing her eyes, Nightsong's hand clutched to her chest."

CINE: Nightsong draws back from the hug, looking Isobel in the eyes. Isobel helps Nightsong to her feet. As the two of them stand, they keep their hands linked.

"A hundred years. Isobel, light of my heart, where were you? (choking up) I found your body, I...."

Isobel and the Nightsong were lovers! You can evidently reunite the two in what will probably be a very touching scene.

I kind of lost my marbles when I first uncovered this - completely by accident mind you. I think I was originally looking for any reference to Shadowheart's potential real name (obviously futile) and found Aylin Silverblood instead. The results I got were:

"The angel in my story about Ketheric. That was Aylin." <-- Why I didnt mention the angel she was talking about.

"He didn't understand. It doesn't matter when... (fearful, as if worried Aylin's feelings might have changed) ... I still love you so much."

"They called her Nightsong, but she told me her name was Aylin."

"Aylin. She... she's alive. I knew she had to be, I..."

"I was dead, Aylin. For so long. It was Balthazar - he trapped my soul, he-"

Now here is the only part of the timeline I'm a little lost on; it was implied that Isobel's father became a Shar worshipper after her death, yet she and Aylin were secret lovers while Ketheric and Dark Justicars were already in battle with the Harpers. Perhaps he was already a Shar worshipper when Isobel was alive - there seems to be something about her mother being dead - probably before she was then.

| Tomb of Ketheric's wife. |

So Ketheric turned into a Shar worshipper when his wife died, but he really plunged into the deep end when his daughter was found dead - there seems to be a line that implies Aylin was framed as his daughter's killer and it's probably the reason she was turned into the Nightsong.

"It is why I couldn't leave your body, even when they came. Balthazar and that Sharran witch told your father that I was to blame."

"You killed my daughter, then you stand before me and lie? I'll see you suffer tenfold what my Isobel did."

I think I wriggled my way out of inconsistency haha, but if i've overlooked something, do let me know - it's quite difficult to piece all this together with a bunch of out-of-context lines!

Before I wrap this post up with possible endings for the questline, I just want to sprinkle in some other lines that could signify alternate order of how the questline can unfold:

Suppose you go to Moonrise first and haven't met Isobel, and side with the Nightsong - perhaps warning her that you were tasked to kidnap Isobel - she will teleport you to the Last Light Inn:

CINE: Nightsong teleports the party to the plaza in front of Last Light. As she looks around trying to familiarize herself, Isobel notices your arrival from the balcony. Her reaction is pure shock, followed by an immediate rush down the stairs.

From here on, Isobel voluntarily leaves with you to help stop Ketheric while the Nightsong stays behind. It's a little weird that the Nightsong is just... able to leave - but perhaps you've already freed her and just need to stop Ketheric now?

"I... we need to get close to him, don't we? And Aylin can protect Last Light in my absence."

If you didn't meet with the Nightsong, or perhaps did and just haven't freed her - you will just proceed to the Last Light on your own on Ketheric's orders and kidnap/warn Isobel. Nothing really major, but just an interesting tidbit!

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Okay, to wrap this stupidly long post up - I'm too tired to go into possible endings for this questline, I assume they're pretty easy to gleam from all this info. But I will leave some interesting lines here:

|There is a glimpse of Isobel's ghost, as she takes her Father with her to the afterlife.|

|There is a a glimpse of Isobel's ghost terrified and in agony. Both Isobel and Ketheric will disappear.|

It seems that killing Ketheric before unthethering Isobel from him will send both to the afterlife. But I also couldn't find anything anything about Isobel living through the questline. So, as much as my heart wants Isobel and Aylin to have a happily ever after, it doesn't seem to be in the cards for them. Though I will keep my hopes up!

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THAT'S IT. I want to apologize for how much I rambled here, but I hope it's at least clear and easy to understand. For people that made it through this; thanks for reading! Let me know what you think, or maybe tell me about stuff I potentially missed!

Edit: added disclaimer on the Absolute's Chosen part of the post, thanks u/Drummermean for pointing it out!

Edit2: Uh, for whatever reason I used creche k'liir as the title for the first section, when it definitely wasn't about that one haha. Didn't notice until 2 days later, oops. Fixed now.

Capranaut (talk) 19:35, 29 September 2026 (CEST)