Baldur’s Gate 3 is a captivating game that has elements based on Dungeons & Dragons, which is, perhaps, the most popular fantasy tabletop game to ever exist. The game grants the player the option to pick from one of 11 races to play as, with many subraces to pick from as well. Baldur’s Gate 3’s races are more than just for show or for combat, as many of them carry heavy narrative importance.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Should You Help Pandrina
Should the player help Pandrina in BG3?
The player’s race can heavily affect how they are perceived by others and how others will communicate with them, as some races face heavy discrimination by others. This all makes BG3 an interesting game that players can experience differently based on what race they choose.
Lolth-Sworn Drow and Seldarine Drow
While customizing their character in BG3, the player might’ve had their attention caught by the Drow Race. This race has two available subraces: The Lolth-Sworn Drow and the Seldarine Drow. Upon closer inspection, the player might come to realize that, unlike other subraces, these two have no differences in skills or anything.
The difference between The Lolth-Sworn Drow and the Seldarine Drow comes into play in the narrative side of the BG3.
To make it simple, Lolth-Sworn Drow are the “evil” subrace, while the Seldarine Drow are the better ones. Going back in history, Drows are technically just dark Elves. In a way, Drows should be no different from an Elf subrace, sometimes referred to as Dark Elves. This split happened due to the elven gods Corellon Larethian and Lolth, who used to be husband and wife.
Lolth-Sworn Drows worship Lolth, their goddess matriarch. These Drows are known for their cruelty – endorsing slavery, killings, and many other atrocities. Their society functions under a matriarchal rule and female Lolth-Sworn Drows are more favored by the goddess, and some of her followers can convince and bring spiders to their side.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, players will meet an important Lolth-Sworn Drow who has rejected Lolth and instead chosen to follow the Absolute, which would be none other than Minthara, a possible companion for the player.
Despite rejecting Lolth, she is still quite evil, and if the player is playing as a Lolth-Sworn Drow and meets her, they have the option to show disdain towards her for betraying Lolth.
Seldarine Drows are the non-evil version and, in Baldur’s Gate 3, they are often the parents of the Half Drow children, as they are more likely to come in contact with people of the surface and mate with them compared to the Lolth-Sworn Drows.
Demonization of Tieflings
Tieflings are a race of people players will familiarize themselves with quite early in BG3 as they will be an important plot point of the game’s Act 1. The main reason for the way they’re hated is their connections to devils from the nine hells. This even shows in their devilish appearance, having horns and a devil’s tail.
Many Tieflings became refugees after the City of Elturel was taken into Avernus and the blame was, of course, placed on the Tieflings who then had to leave due to the hostility against them. Due to this, they take refuge in the Emerald Grove, which causes tensions with the Druids. Depending on what the player does, the Druids can kill all the Tieflings.
In the Druid’s Grove, the player might even find some papers containing heavy anti-Tiefling sentiments, such as them being called cursed beings, that they spread corruption with them, and reports of people being afflicted with darkness because of them.
Wyll also mistakes Karlach, a Tiefling, for a devil, and wants to kill her for that. The player can guide him away from this idea and save Karlach.
The Githyanki’s Harsh Culture and The Existence Of Githerzai
The Githyanki are a heavily militaristic race of people, and they also happen to be quite isolated. They live in the Astral Plane, but they raid and pillage the material planes often.
The history of the Gith race is quite heavy. For millennia, they were enslaved by the Mind Flayers. They fought for their freedom and now they still seek to destroy any remaining trace of the mind flayers.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Lae’zel Build
Lae’zel is a powerful companion that players would do well to use at her full potential.
Fans that are unfamiliar with DnD might not know that Githyanki are but a subrace of the Gith. Another subrace is the Githerzai, who the player gets a small glimpse of in BG3, but is quite easy to miss. During Act 2, in the Mind Flayer colony, players might come across the Waking Mind. If the player does as it wants, they will gain the Githerzai Mind Barrier, which would signify that this humanoid brain is a Githerzai brain.
Githyanki and Githerzai are quite at odds with each other, as the Githerzai are less militaristic and more focused on spiritual enlightenment, while the Githyanki are militaristic and more prone to violence. It would be great if, with further updates of Baldur’s Gate 3, they introduce more Githerzai elements.
From what’s available in the game, players can see that Githyanki are discriminated against. However, the Githyanki themselves are also quite discriminatory to others as well, and they often want to go through the violent path, as can be seen with Lae’zel and her disdain whenever the player chooses to not be violent.
Half Races and Their Situation
Baldur’s Gate 3 has quite a few half-races in it. The most notable ones of them are the Half Elf with its own specific subraces, notably, the High Half Elf, the Wood Half Elf, and the Drow Half Elf. The player also has the Half Orc race available.
Typically, those half races are created with the union of a human and whatever race makes up the other half, indicating that humans were more often down to mixing with other races, here, specifically, Elves, Drows, and even Orcs.
Half Races have a hard time with not truly having their own community, and they might sometimes be referred to with derogatory terms such as Half Breeds, but not much beyond that.
Typically, when playing as a Half Drow, for example, people on the surface might assume the player is a full Drow, however, Drows can immediately tell that they’re not a full-blooded Drow.
Why Dragonborn Do Not Face Much Discrimination
Many players going into the BG3 game might be surprised to realize that the Dragonborn, a race that pretty much looks like a humanoid dragon, faces little discrimination, unlike other monstrous races in the game like the Tiefling. This is especially surprising because of how few Dragonborn people there are in the game.
Lore-wise, this is most likely due to how intimidating a Dragonborn is. These Dragonborn people are quite big, and have a dragon-like head, making it harder for others to read their emotions or guess what is on their mind. This discourages people from getting on their wrong side.
Besides that, Dragonborn are quite a proud race, valuing their unity and clan above all else.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available to play on PC and PlayStation 5.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Dungeons and Dragons inspired RPG developed and published by Larian Studios. Featuring both a single player and cooperative element, players create their character by selecting a starting class, take on quests, level up, and engage in turn-based combat using the D&D 5th edition rule set.
