She looks amazing without the weave effects - her face model is beautiful and very detailed. Shame it's totally hidden by the astral stuff lol

LOL! I can't unsee this now...

​@@seltythey used motion capture cgi. I wonder what the actress name they paid for this lol

It's kinda funny once you realize she's actually the third Mystra (as in Mystril, Mystra and Midnight) and probably the most unwilling, petty and morally questionable of all the incarnations of the goddess of magic. Truly a human given the powers of a god.

But that's just the thing Gale mentioned, isn't it? Whatever else Mystra may be, she is the Goddess of Magic first and foremost. She is capable of compassion and even love, but not if it threatens her domain. As the Goddess of Magic, the Weave is her first and most important priority. She will do whatever it takes to keep it intact and to govern the rules of magic as used by the mortal world. When you threaten the Weave, as Gale did, you incur Mystra's wrath, even if she was your former lover, because you are infringing on the very reason she exists. The very thing that gives her purpose. And when you do that, she will default to her state of protecting it and doing what is necessary to achieve that, disregarding any feelings she may have had for you before that. A mortal's emotions run deeper and more diversely, because they aren't tied to just one single aspect of the world. They have the ability to choose their own path. In my opinion, this was a great example of how true neutral Mystra really is. She is not inherently evil, but if you threaten her or her domain in some way, she will come down on you with great fury and vengeance. Likewise, if you do things that benefit her domain, she will shower you with gifts and loving attention. If you ignore her domain altogether, she will ignore you in return and has no beef or interest in you, one way or another. But whatever her feelings to whichever mortal, it all comes down to their connection to the Weave. Because Mystra IS the Weave, in a sense. That's her way of perceiving the world. Like any other god, she knows only her domain and how to maintain it, which gives her greater power than any mortal could ever hope to have, but also makes her point of view on mortals very narrow. She sees the world and its inhabitants only in the way they affect her domain, whether positive or negative and responds in kind. Unlike mortals, who are capable of feeling complex and often times conflicting emotions, to a god, things are a lot more black and white. In Mystra's case, true neutral is the best way to describe her alignment and I thought this conversation reflected that pretty well. She cares for Gale, yes, but only to a certain extent. If he threatens the Weave or defies her, she will snuff him out and move on to the next mortal that grabs her attention, with nary a second thought. The fact that she could be moved to consider her own form of forgiveness towards Gale at all is most likely due to Elminster speaking on Gale's behalf, at least in part.

Greek God is exactly the read I got from her too!

@@Xylarxcode that was really well said!

Another thing to keep in mind is that Midnight TRIED, once, to be good. She tried to encourage acts of good and discourage evil, as her alignment was actually Neutral Good, and was nearly stripped of her position for it, because her job, her entire purpose, is to protect magic, spread its knowledge, and encourage its development. By trying to encourage morality, she actually harmed several other gods and crowded in on the purpose of others. In order to fix things, she not only had to focus back to solely being the goddess of magic, but give up her true love forever. Interestingly, the three goddesses of magic have all held different alignments. Midnight was/is neutral good, Mystra was lawful neutral, and Mystryl was chaotic neutral.

Yeah , Gale’s default is angry, I believe. In this video he was “ soft” because of the romance scene I triggered before the audience. I don’t know how to change him otherwise. He seems so upset and angry, and didn’t listen to what Mystra was warning him about (he always was enough it breaks my heart), I had to reload my saves and figure out the best order for these scenes.

@@Liz-xq2wi I mean he shouldn't listen to her, she literally wanted to disintegrate him on spot after finishing the quest line. Haven't you played as gale?

there are 2 kinds of women, the ones that like gale and the ones that think they can fix astarion.

i played as gale, i romanced shadowheart, turned her good, rejected mystra as a lover but became her chosen. why trouble yourself with the annoyances of godhood, when you can be the chosen avatar of your god and live happily ever after with a cute half elf?

@@ElectricalExistence I mean this pairing actually does sound cute af. A shy goth girl and a tall nerd, two socially awkward people h*lding h*nds

Just think of it this way - by having Gale stroke Mysra's self absorbed ego, he gets to spend the rest of his life living happily with your character and his beloved tressym; two individuals who actually love him and make him feel like he's good enough.

this is the third incarnation of mystra afterall I wonder if thats why they are so different

not to mention those facial animations... ugh

Part of me wonders if that's how she presents herself to Gale, because that's what he finds most appealing. Like how the Emperor does with the Tav

@@grungehoneybee Its interesting because form what I've experienced in-game, Gale seems to be the only one that refers to his own spirit guardian's gender - a woman. Everyone else seems to exclusively use they/them pronouns (or 'it' in Lae'zel's case) when referring to them or a pretty non-specific term like "dream visitor" or "golden paladin". Haven't played as origin Gale yet, but I've always assumed that as a party member his 'dream visitor' appears as a slightly more mortal looking version of Mystra.

​@@violetbluejay I'm almost sure Astarion also referred to the dream visitor as a "she"

She looks like a evarege milf. And this is who Gale did never shut up about. . mmmeehhh. " I`d rather gaze into your eyes then hers" Wow! That`s the hell of a line from your boyfriend. If you wan`t you partner endlessly talking about his fucking ex, than gale is a perfect option. "No pressure, love, but my ex is a goodess, u know"

Yeah she looked soo... average imo, like a regular person not a goddess

@@Robul96 did you want more VFX ? I mean it's kinda like Greek Gods. Sometimes less is more.

interesting, i thought she was intentionally hideous, inside and outside, to call it average is a praise not deserved @@Robul96

Pretty sure God's appear like that for a reason, hard to convince someone they have much of a choice when they're talking to like a giant manifestation of magic.

Interesting. I did the same thing, and he was more irritated and cautious when talking to Mystra.

I prefer it when he goes to the conversation with a neutral intent. Something about him begging for forgiveness, and being all 'I won't let you down!' really rubs me the wrong way after all that has happened. With a neutral version it feels like he is approaching it more from a 'negotiations' perspective and keeps his cool. And at the end he still is cured of the orb, without the need of groveling at her feet.

i played as gale, if yo ureturn the crown she takes the orb out and you can be her chosen or her lover again, unless you wanna stay with your romanced character and just be her chosen, or maybe defy her and keep the crown/control the brain.

I think he only stops obsessing over the crown if you convince him that it's not worth it in his Act 3 romance scene.

@@probablyanoldgod320i didn’t romance gale and he stopped obsessing over it near the end

Karsus died by taking the place of the one god he shouldnt without proper preparation, the moment you ascend to God of Magic you need to get the weave back in order instantly or... get Karsus Folly'ed and destroy your weave.

They did technically use an elder brain in the game to actually wear the crown, nobody dared to wear it as mortals.

@@aukun4992 Karsus apparently had the mentality of a spoiled brat as well. A genius by wizard standards, but did not think wisely. In an environment and culture where one's worth was to prove oneself by creating new spells over the course of years and become a master arcanist or a lich (which Karsus was), he wanted to take it to its ultimate apex and become the god of magic. There was no way he was ever going to fix the weave after jumping into Mystryl's role for a second.

@@TheKnightOfSmite The wizards of old are more akin to sorcerer's due to how innate magic was to them, Karsus Folly is a very sorcerer thing to do by itself... followed by the knowledge that they were winning, but he still decided to risk his people for pride.

True, also I'm not sure the Netherese were winning, the world looked in a pretty bad situation, the Phaerimm were growing stronger, there was an undead Lich Lord rampaging and killing entire surface nations and adding them to his army because he felt the Netherese had wrecked the world beyond redemption. The elves had cloistered themselves from the outside world and the human kingdoms that remained were agitated by the Netherese that looked down on them. Karsus taking godhood also added to what he saw as "he could fix these problems in a snap" but.. not as simple as it sounds.@@aukun4992

yes, because comparing appearance and pitting women against each other is what helps the most (sarcasm)

@@SapphoForAphroditeTo be fair, to the gods, the concept of gender isn’t exactly the same as ours: they can choose to manifest in whatever form they want, and some of them make a point of changing their gender because of how little it matters to them (we stan a gender-fluid Corellon, and my Tav was actually an enby.) I prefer to think that Tav isn’t jealous, however, because Gale says he loves them, he’s loyal, and he genuinely expresses that he no longer sees Mystra in the same way he did before, and he prefers the beauty of their warm touch to the grand but impersonal love Mystra offers.

Karlach dislikes Mystra for the predicament she put Gale in. She even says a deity like Mystra is not worth worshipping if she relies on others to basically be used by her, sexually or intellectually. Although it came out that Gale absorbed the Karsus weave and it was much more complex than that, the point remains she didn't tell him or warn him of certain things (as Gale would expect from a couple). Once he'd fulfilled his purpose, she was happy to let him crawl in the dust for trinkets to absorb and vanish off until she needed him to nuke himself at the Absolute- a threat. That's why he also wants to look for the Crown of Karsus, because Gale even says that's why Mystra is noticing him, because now he's a threat, though you can convince him not to forge the crown.@@SapphoForAphrodite

@@SapphoForAphrodite As a woman: stfu, it isn't that deep. No further argument.

@@SapphoForAphrodite You're only lying to yourself if you think women do not do this when discussing their partner's exes. As judgemental as men can be when it comes to a woman's looks, women are far worse/very catty when it comes to other women they feel threatened by (whether there's an actual threat there or not).

It hasn’t escaped my notice that Astarion has two very distinct, very well-made scenes for Act III. I won’t say he’s the devs favourite, but there definitely seems to be more content for him.

​@@Liz-xq2wi it might be just he got them first, but then the devs realised they didn't have enough time

@@Liz-xq2wi ever since the game was in early access, astarion and shadowheart have been the most popular characters. i guess that's why they have more content and reactivity.

Yeah, I feel like Astarion has something to say all_the_time while others don't. Oh well, after this first playthrough with Gale romance I'll do one with Astarion's. Glad I like his character a lot

@@adri_144 I agree. Shadowheart and Astarion seem the most complete characters out of all of them.

Which is ironic considering THIS incarnation of Mystra used to be a mortal herself.

MR. ASMODEUS, I FOUND THE ATHEIST SIR, I LOOK FORWARD TO MY PROMOTION!

I agree, I dislike her intensely and I did not want to take Gale to see her at all. I was certain he’d either decide he still loved her, or she’d demand that he return to her when they saw each other, and I was so afraid he was gonna dump me for her but I didn’t care if that meant it kept him alive 😭😭

@doctorcrabs2465 I mean, I am an atheist, but this isn't atheism. Atheism is simply disbelief in the existence of the divine. What I said in my original comment is that I acknowledge that Mystra and other deities like Selune, Shar, Lathander, and the Dead 3 are Gods. I just also acknowledge that Gods are typically major ass holes.

@@elitegamer9310 I think doctorcrabs is just joking. But yes, even good gods in the D&D universe can be assholes.

He'd be no threat to her even if he "transcended". In fact, one of his endings is him ascending and trying to usurp her power over the weave and getting smacked down with little effort. Being a god in this setting isn't about power and privilege. It's a job. And if you don't do your duty, Ao the overfather will smack you down with such a force you'll think you were a bug under a heel. And Mystra's job is guarding and maintaining the weave. That means anyone trying to seize or change it is automatically on her shit list and probably about to get wrecked. And frankly, considering how destructive all previous attempts at stealing Mystra's weave were, Gale taking her place would have went poorly for damn near everyone. And then he'd still get stuck enforcing the same rules she did, because Ao can and *has* smacked down the entire panteon at once before.

And just so you know, previous attempts to seize the weave from Mystra ended with her "dying" (her incarnates that rose up afterwords are basically different people- though they share a few similarities) and entire civilizations being destroyed as a consequence of magic either failing or going completely out of control. a god dying has the potential to be quite apocalyptic. It's also why some really important things, like the sun, have more than one deity governing over them. If there are no sun gods, the sun just stops existing- but if there are three (which there currently are), then one dying isn't that big a deal (which also happened).

And also- just to be clear, Mortals becoming gods isn't that strange in this setting- though usually they take up the mantle of a recently dead one. Current Mystra is actually one, her mortal incarnation being a woman named Midnight. All three members of the dead three- Bhall, Myrkul, and Bane were others. As is Kelemvor- though with those four they basically were given mantles by their predecessor, Jergal (who got sick of being a god of death and basically bartered away the lionshare of his divinity) I think Cyric was too? But I'd have to double check.

This whole thing isn't about her not wanting to be overthrown, it's about protecting the Weave. She knows the Crown could control the Weave, potentially destroying it.

@@ThetaSigma-vu1sk One thing to keep in mind is that she kind of *is* the weave. It's actually part of her being. Siezing control of the weave means effectively killing her. so it's not like she lack in motivation to do her job and make sure the weave is maintained and un-screwed with.

pretty much all the companions were stronger before trhe start of the game and they were weakened by the orb or the tadpole thats how they explain them having amazing feats while still only being lvl 1

I'm pretty certain that when he mentioned that he was once "the greatest wizard of all time", was no exaggeration. Imagine being so skilled at your craft that a god took notice of you and make you their representative (and had a love relationship), that's how powerful he was.

I think I remember people calculating him at or around lvl 20 (usual level archmages are in FR, keep in mind, Elminster there is lvl 39, which is 19 levels beyond what players can even get in D&D 5e)

14:03 my heart just skipped a beat ❤

He was an archmage and had level 9 spells

yeah it would've been nice if elminster showed up at the end instead of asking me to swallow the tequila worm

could have*

I pondered this a lot. All I could come up with was a Gandalf comparison where the temptation of taking the power would have been too great for him. Elminister has certainly made selfish decisions before. 😮

elminster doens't have the artifact though and emperor probably woulndt want to help him perhaps

There wouldn't be a game then would their genius. Games starts with a level 100 character Game Over

Apparently she’s also a knock-off Ciri and Isobel, so may as well add one more white-haired half elf to the list.

That's a Selunite robe, I think you can get them in Act 2.

typical old wizard.

He is, unironically, this realm's version of Gandalf. If you're interested, there is an interview with his creator/the man based on him on Rekeita Law's channel. www.youtube.com/@RekietaLaw

dollar store Gandalf

Elminster is literally just horny Gandalf.

@@Liz-xq2wi But he's surprisingly chaste in this game.

I want to see Zariel

It wouldn't make much sense, however. The deities you meet are greater deities that have been present since the dawn of existence of the realms. Eilistraee is a very minor deity in the scheme of the drow and the realms.

LOL, me too - I was ready to sass that horrible woman! (may have ended up being smitted, but it would have been worth it to tell her off). XD

Honestly that should award an achievement, considering how much Gale tries to shove his dick in your face as soon as you look at him during act 1 D:

I didn't romance him as durge, but i did in my non-durge playthrough. There is the weave scene in Act 1. The point where you can really mess up your romance with him is if you accept Wyll's dance. If you never got that romance scene with Wyll or denied him, then you should receive the Act 2 scene with Gale if you long rest after the first time you visit Moonrise Towers. Starting the Gauntlet of Shar before getting that scene will deny you the scene. The Act 2 scene either ends in a conversation declaring his friendship or confessing his love to you. In Act 3 when you get to Baldur's Gate you should got to Sorcerous Sundries and do the Vault, after getting the Annals of Karsus and exiting the Vault you should get a conversation trigger with him, where he tells you he wants to talk to you about something that night. At that point it's recommended you immediately long rest and talk to him at camp BEFORE talking to Elminster, because when you talk to Elminster and get the quest in this video before talking to Gale after the vault you will lose the ability to see the Act 3 scene. His romance is scripted very odd, i hope they clean it up a bit. I had to reload quite a few saves to make sure i got all my romance scenes with him.

Apparently Gale has some bugs, trying to romance him doesn’t work sometimes, trying to not romance him it still comes up sometimes. I hope they’ll patch it soon.

Good point! Her manner really is revealing. If you slept with Gale, afterwards he’ll say something to the effect of realising in hindsight that Mystra treated him more like an amusement or a trifle than an actual intimate partner, though he still does regret hurting her. I’m not really sure I understand the second part of your comment, but BG3 is set significantly after the Spellplague. BG3 is set in 1492, so about 13 years after Elminster found her as a bear, and 5 years since her full return.

@@Liz-xq2wi oh thx so this Mystra is not Midnight anymore is what i have to understand? I don’t know the exact mechanism of deities dying but staying kinda the same person or becoming someone else altogether. Anyway what I was trying to imply is that Mystra being previously a mortal would make her more…human so to speak? Having the experience of what being a mortal implies would give her a different perspective than other gods and so her having a mortal significant other is more believable. But here the way we see her acting with Gale contradict my statement by being mostly emotionally empty towards him and acting more like a robot than a feeling being. Frankly to me it shows how « otherworldly » gods are next to mortals, their perspective is so alien compared to us that they can’t really relate to us like we do to them outside of worshiping…and well…to them we are just faith batteries used to maintain/increase their own power. ( only Lolth is different in that regard being crazy enough to pit her own followers against each other while knowing that her power depends enterly on them).

@@mikevm3375 You're welcome! I actually knew very little D&D lore before playing BG3, so a lot of this is new to me, as well. I've never particularly cared for wizard or Mystra errata (I'm a dirty sorcerer or cleric main), so everything with Gale was especially novel. With forty years or so of lore to catch upo, there's a lot to parse. Ah, I get what you're saying now, and I think you've made another good point. I don't know if "Midnight" Mystra would have been kinder and more humane to a mortal lover like Gale, but I definitely got the sense while playing the game that Mystra is otherworldly, as you put it. Even if some of her mystique is removed by witnessing Gale's audience with her, her motivations remain occluded. Since her domain is the stabiliy of the Weave, I guess it makes sense that it is her primary concern, but her involvement feels almost tangential to the main threats of the game's plots. Especially interesting is that Midnight killed Myrkul before, but in BG3 Mystra doesn't intervene when it comes to Bane's, Bhaal's, and Myrkul's Chosen. I guess Ao wouldn't be happy if she did, but it definitely seems like she only cares what they are up to because they are using the Crown to achieve their goals. It really makes me believe it when Gale says he prefers looking into his mortal lover's eyes because they are "capable of tenderness, and feeling". It also broke my heart when, during one of his romance scenes, he states that the best possible version of himself would be a version ascended with the Crown of Karsus; he really does seem to think he's unworthy without the power that attracted Mystra's favour. I think being involved with Mystra really messed him up in some fundamental ways. His is a cautionary tale, perhaps, that it is best for mortals not to get involved with gods because mortals can't possibly emerge from the encounter the same person that they were.

@@Liz-xq2wi well put! The way a lots of gods are portrayed, even the morally good ones, tends to show them as selfish being more akin to A.I. than anything else. You have to take into account that they can have multiple avatar at the same time ( the stronger they are the more they can have), have multiple train of thoughts even outside of it and every time their name is uttered by any mortal they can see the place it happens, who did it, what happened in said place weeks in the past and, more scarily in case of greater deities, weeks in the future. So having said that it doesn’t seem weird that they are totally on another level from mere mortals. I find it kind of disturbing imagining such being courting a mortal to be frank…to them we are less than an ant intellectually speaking. Regarding Mystra, you have to take into account that even if she is one of the morally good gods ( previously she was a neutral ones but midnight was good leaning so it changed) her main goal is the propagation of the arcane before anything else. To the point of having one of her main chosen being a freaking dracolich ( not sure about the chosen part but she at least condone his existence even if it’s evil as shit) who is probably the stronger wyzard in faerun just because he works tirelessly to develop new spells. Anyways kudo to Larian, managing to grasp the emotional indifference of such a being in front of painfully human Gale was really well done.

She's a Goddess, what do you expect? They do not have the typical feelings, emotions, and morale that we come to expect from beings like humans. They think and act in their own belief in their own world for their own goals and amusement.

She still sucks, the gods have serious ego issues.

Me too. The guy deserves it, honestly.

SPOILERS Gale can confront Mystra with the power of the Crown of Karsus and try to overthrow her. But you overestimate Gale/underestimate Mystra. Their fight is short and she easily beats him.

bro what 😂

@@Vebian Don't you agree?

yup

you've been watching way too much Prn

Ha. Well... You aint wrong.

I think to get the other boat scene you have to not give the book to him, but I’m not 100% sure. I haven’t played the game since patch 4 since, yeah, his romance just keeps getting wonkier and wonkier.

Just did this part of the game recently and I gave him the book. I was really worried about locking him out of the romance/good guy route but it seems that long resting after meeting Mystra, you're able to get the romance scene and convince him to stop trying to reforge the crown.

Ooof, yes, Shar was so on point 👌

Not a mod! It’s the Selûnite Robes. They are light armour with an AC of 11 but no special effects. There is a set in Isobel’s Room at the Last Light Inn, and another set I believe in Ketheric’s room.

​@@Liz-xq2wiU can get one with stats if you kill Isobel. Look's just the same. Or you can kill Karlach in the begging and loot the same drip, but with red and black color, and yeah, it have cool stats too

@@mercdavey4811As much as I respect drip, I don’t think I could kill Isobel or Karlach unless I’m doing an intentionally evil playthrough. But thanks for the information!

Elminster? He's a high-level mage, and the chosen of a God.

being a chosen of Mystra stops your aging and gives you exclusive powers most spellcasters cant easily get on a permanent basis. the open ruler of Waterdeep is also a chosen and her sister (also a chosen) rules another city called Silverymoon.

Isn't Laeral also one of Mystra's daughters?

@@Liz-xq2wi she is the one in Waterdeep. There used to be 7 genderbent Jesus sisters who were chosen of Mystra but 4 of them are dead

@@blazingshadow2669 Syluné, the Witch of Shadowdale (dead); Alustriel, the Lady of Silverymoon; Dove, ranger and Knight of Myth Drannor (dead); Storm, the Bard of Shadowdale; Laeral, Open Lord of Waterdeep; The Simbul, Witch-Queen of Aglarond (dead); and Qilué, Priestess of Eilistraee (dead). Though for the Chosen of Mystra, being dead isn't so much an issue as it would be for most people.

It’s interesting how her appearance seems to really have people split! I agree with you, I think she’s a very beautiful woman who fits in well with the lore of the character. But there are quite a few people who think she’s either ugly, or underwhelming because she doesn’t have the ethereal, otherworldly beauty of a goddess like Shar. I’m really glad Chauntea was not in the game tbh.

​@Liz-xq2wi mystra has a magic look to her and that is how she should look larian had a task ahead cause mystra in the law never has one look to her apart from beautiful human woman with intense blue eyes with her skin and her hair that was every color of the rainbow and glowed. So I say they did a fantastic job plus mystra is not the goddess of beauty. Anyway each to their own. 😂

There’s a set of the robes in Isobel’s room at Last Light, and a few other places I can’t recall off the top of my head. I never realised how much of a lot goblin I am.

Looks like a skyrim character tbh lol

No, that's Elminster

yes it is

she literally an asshole if you play this quests with gale as playable character she literally wants to disintegrate him

God's default state in dnd is groomer lmao, when working with their specific devoted, like Shar.

@@Momofan69 I didn't know that.

She is a goddess

@@Nokipan The fact that Mystra is a goddess just doesn't matter. Mystra has been killed more than once in the past. The current Mistra is the fourth in a row. The first died during the ascension of Karsus, when this archmage of Netheril cast a level 10 spell. The second was killed by Helm during the Avatar Crisis in 1358 DR. The third, Midnight, was killed by Cyric in 1385 DR. All gods, even the great ones, are mortal. And the Dead Three, by the way, also clearly proves this.

Maybe you are right

​@@MrAkeron level 10 spell? It was level 12, and it won't work anymore. Yes, the gods are technically mortal, but only among themselves, after Netheril time rules were imposed and mortals can't really kill a god anymore

@@alexfoudraine5886 incorrect. In 1352DR Midnight killed Myrkul near Waterdeep and Cyrik killed Bane. Mortal able to kill gods, even before reaching divinity