by theygamesBaldur’s Gate 3 is undoubtedly my favorite game of all time. I love playing tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, but there’s something even more magical about watching its characters and world come to life digitally as they do in Larian Studios’ latest. From mystical myconids to voracious vampires, DnD is home to all fantastical creatures. It’s also home to all flavors of budding romance – whether it’s cosmic space sex you desire or a Twilight-esque experience, love comes in all varieties.
In all of my trillion Baldur’s Gate 3 playthroughs so far, I’ve only succumbed to one BG3 companion‘s charm: Astarion, my dearly beloved. I love Astarion. I would lay down each one of my Tav characters’ lives for him, and possibly even my own. He is the embodiment of my deepest desires, dating all the way back to my childhood obsession with movies like Fright Night, Interview with the Vampire, and The Lost Boys. If a book, film, or game has a vampire in it, I’ll be there.
Unfortunately, this means that I’ve lacked a fresh romantic spark in each one of my subsequent playthroughs following my first fateful run of the fantasy game. I always pick Astarion, and I always go through the same dialogue options with him. The cutscenes are striking, as is he, but I’d love for at least one of my Tavs to feel the touch of literally anyone else. Anyone else except for the other current Baldur’s Gate 3 romance options, that is.
There are two other characters that aren’t available to build a relationship with, aside from Orin, of course, that caught my eye: the Drow twins. Yes, Nym and Sorn Orlith, those Seldarine Drow twins you come across in the city brothel. Sure, you can spend one wild night with them and even get some of your companions involved if that’s the sort of ménage à trois experience you fancy. The thing is, I want something more than transactional relations.
In the short amount of time I got to spend with Nym and Sorn, I felt there was some hidden, unexplored depth there. The two mention escaping the Underdark to work in Baldur’s Gate due to the matriarchy’s mistreatment of Sorn. They both find their new lives as sex workers fulfilling, with Nym seeing it as a therapeutic way of life and Sorn seeing it as an exciting one. In other words, he’s kinky.
So kinky, in fact, that the bondage running rampant within the Drow of the Underdark wasn’t cutting it for him. In a way, he reminds me of Astarion – a man who sought freedom and knows how to get a bit wild. I was hooked on him and his sister almost instantly and devastated to learn that building a romance with either is impossible.
Perhaps our Tavs could hear word of the twins while exploring the Underdark, or catch them for a drink in the Elfsong Tavern, or bump into them while perusing about the Blushing Mermaid. There are a million unwritten scenarios in my head with the Orlith twins, but I suppose it just goes to show how well-written the entire game is. Once you spend even a fleeting moment with a character, you may find yourself falling head over heels for them.
In my own headcanon, my Lolth-Sworn Drow is whisked away by Sorn’s untamed spirit or held close in Nym’s serene embrace. We all want what Dame Aylin and Isobel Thorm have, and I can’t help but feel disappointed that we can experience a greater fraction of it with the Emperor, a literal mind flayer, than we can with some of the game’s best characters like Nym or Sorn Orlith.
So, yes, Baldur’s Gate 3 players are thirsty. Some may even say too thirsty. No one can say that the thirst isn’t easily remedied though, as one long sip of the Drow twins would quench it. Nym tells us that Sharess’ Caress is an “oasis of calm.” Please, Larian, let me be her or her brother’s new oasis of calm within the unforgiving chaos that is the Forgotten Realms.