Tavs and Durges
Welcome... Here is a page dedicated to each Tav and The Dark Urge that I've played in BG3 because I want to type about them. Some information is embellished based on personal headcanon because it's MY FUCKING GAME DUDE I GET TO DECIDE WHAT IS AND ISN'T REAL!!!
You may be wondering, wtf is a Tav and Durge? These are casual names for custom player characters in the game Baldur's Gate 3. "Tav" is the default name for the fully custom character option. "The Dark Urge" (shortened to Durge) is both the default name and the term for a customizable character with a unique pre-set origin of The Haunted One that has unique gameplay and dialogue options. BG3 is a Dungeons and Dragons video game and as you can imagine it's choices are extremely deep and thus no two player characters will ever be exactly alike.
Tav
Tav - Campaign Completed
My first character to be made and to have a completed campaign. He generally tries to do the right thing, though sometimes his definition of the right thing isn't universal. He's a bit morally gray, gobbling up tadpoles in order to power up for fights. He pushes his companions to do the right thing, and they do the same for him, preventing him from going any farther with the dark tadpole powers.
Tav is deeply beloved to me and getting a happy ending with all my close origin companions made me emotional. I'm very glad I have a ton of saves and can revisit him when I'm feeling sentimental.
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His eyes used to match, the human-looking eye is a prosthetic from Volo after a parasite-extraction attempt resulted in one of Tav's eyes being gouged out with an icepick.
I romanced Shadowheart and it was very emotionally fulfilling. Tav pushed her to do the right thing, but never told her what to do. All of her choices were her own, and all of her choices were that of free-thinking and healing from her cult upbringing, disobeying and even attacking the cult of Shar.
Tav and Shadowheart are married in the end-game and continue to go on adventures together, though all much lower stakes than the dead three controlling a Netherbrain.
Their relationship is open. They are both dedicated to each other forever, but are open to bringing others into the relationship. Most notably, Halsin. While Tav, Shadowheart, and Halsin have all consumated their relationship together, at one point even engaging in a fivesome, Halsin is closest to Tav and their relationship is deeply romantic rather than an occasional sexual encounter like it is for Shadowheart. Past the events of the game, Tav and Halsin are in a long-distance relationship and they visit each other often. Tav is also deeply close to Astarion. The relationship between the two is certainly something different from friendship, bunt it is not an official dating-thing either and they've never even kissed or anything like that, but still. Astarion lives as an adventurer, a sort of night-time mercenary. He is visited by Tav and Shadowheart sometimes.
Tav gobbled up Tadpoles and is utterly stuffed with brainworms, but he never consumed the Astral-Touched Tadpole. He trusted The Emperor for a long time, even becoming sexually intimate after growing familiar. But in the very end, Tav refused to trust The Emperor with the three netherstones. Tav and Orpheus, who became a mindflayer himself, teamed up to take down the Netherbrain. The Emperor was NOT killed in the battle, and his wherabouts are unknown.
The fates of other companions that were relevant enough for me to recall are as follows:
For friends Karlach and Wyll, Karlach's heart was repaired as much as it could be in the mortal plane, but she eventually returned to Avernus with Wyll, though the two have found a way and are creating a plan to fully repair her heart so they can both return to the mortal plane. I think they're dating, but we didn't pry.
Dirge
The Dark Urge - In Progress
Dirge is a dragonborn bard who awoke one day in a mindflayer pod with no memory of his former self. All he knows is that he really, really wants to paint the world with people's entrails, and that he really, really doesn't want to actually do that.
He fights to resist his Dark Urge but sometimes he fails. He will never forgive himself for what he's done, but deep down, he hopes one day he can move past it and heal, and perhaps make up for his wrongs by leaving the world a little better than how he found it.
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This campaign is still in progress, but so far Dirge is resisting his Dark Urge. He begrudgingly indulged at first, being excessively violent and absorbing tadpole powers, but as time goes on, he wants to be as good as his companions, he wants to be the person they know he can be. He smushes and then throws all tadpoles off cliffs.
He is romancing Wyll. The two are close and Wyll gives Dirge close and loving encouragement, knowing Dirge is capable of doing better than whatever his past could entail.
Ryld
The Dark Urge, Drow Half-Elf Wizard - In Progress
While Dirge is a redeemed Durge, Ryld is a hopelessly evil and self-indulgement Durge. Playing as this gender ambiguous elf makes me feel sick. It makes me think that maybe human brains aren't equipped for going like over a hundred combined hours of bonding with these incredibly fleshed out characters and watching them grow and change for the better just to turn around and not only reset their progress but to actively manipulate them and make them worse. Like. I don't think our simian minds are capable of processing and disconnecting from that. Fiction isn't reality, but it's impact on our real minds that exist in reality can be... real.
Honorable mentions; Honor Mode Fails
So honor mode is basically like an official nuzlocke challenge. It's a super hard mode and then it has only one save file so you can't shamelessly savescum like usual. Also, if your party wipes, that's it. You either accept defeat and have that campaign deleted or you continue it as a dishonorable custom run.
Myildrik: Black dragonborn monk. Defeated by the owlbear parents because I didn't realize there were fucking TWO OF THEM in honor mode.
Last updated June 4, 2024