In Baldur’s Gate 3, there are quite a few companions to recruit as you proceed to wage war on The Absolute, and what’s more, they’re all optional! Trust me — you don’t want to go it alone, if for no other reason than you’ll be absolutely swamped when it comes to the boss fights. I think the point is that you theoretically could, and I find that to be incredibly neat.
If you’re anything like me, you get really attached to fictional characters, and sometimes, when it comes to romancing said fictional characters, you have a tendency to be down apocalyptic. In my premier run of Baldur’s Gate 3, that character was Shadowheart.
I’ll admit; at first, I was very unsure about the character who would go on to make my heart swoon every time she said anything nice about me — we’re not gonna unpack that here — but, by the third act, I was head over heels for this religious zealot with severe parental issues. So, let’s seek to answer the question of the day: Who is Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Who is Shadowheart?
Shadowheart is a cleric of Shar, who is a dark goddess in the world of Baldur’s Gate 3. In the opening chapter of the game, you can rescue her from a nautiloid pod, and almost immediately, she expresses some distaste for Lae’zel, who is your third party member in the prologue. This is eventually revealed to be because she’s stolen a Githyanki artifact called the Astral Prism.
In fact, there does seem to be some bad blood between the Githyanki and — well, everyone, but that’s neither here nor there. If you choose to romance her as I did, you learn more about her upbringing, how she was supposedly saved from a wolf attack by her newfound sisters in Shar, and to be honest, if you know where her arc is going, it’s quite twisted how she was able to be molded into an obedient servant by the people who were supposed to be her family.
As you continue through the story, you may find yourself seeking to clear Shar’s Gauntlet, a dungeon beneath the Thorm Mausoleum where Shar’s elite Dark Justiciars once trained. In the lead-up to this, she tells you that she’s always wanted to become one of these Dark Justiciars, but it’s always felt like she’s been held back by her superiors. So, as you make your way through Shar’s Gauntlet, and it becomes ever-so-likely that Shadowheart will become one of these Dark Justiciars, her ultimate choice becomes clear.
I don’t want to spoil her character arc more than I already have — I am sure there are folks out there reading this who will be thankful for that. If so, trust me when I say that her arc is one of my favorites in Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s an arc with themes of redemption, deconstruction, and of choice: whether to continue down the only road you’ve known, or to carve a new path, no matter the consequences nor how much it hurts.
