‘There wasn’t a dry eye in the house’ - Baldur’s Gate 3 writer reflects on including tribute to a fan’s father with Alzheimer’s
‘Really happy we got to honor the mighty mindflayer hunter’
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ABaldur’s Gate 3writer has reflected on Larian Studios’ decision to include a tribute in the game to a fan’s father who has Alzheimers, and said they’re “really happy we got to honour the mighty mindflayer hunter.”
As IGNreports, the origins of this story date back to 2020, when one player, who goes by the username Solfalia, took to the Larian forums tothank the developersfor releasingBaldur’s Gate 3in early access. They explained that the early access release would enable them to play the game alongside their father - something they were worried that they wouldn’t be able to do after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
Their post resonated with the people at Larian Studios, and in afollow-up postmade by Solfalia last September, they confirmed that a “super writer” had reached out to them to ask if the team could include something in the full release of the game to honor their father.
The tribute in question came in the form of an NPC named Golbraith, described as a legendary, retired mindflayer hunter, who can be found in a cellar in the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate. Solfalia wrote at the time: “Not only did Golbraith look like my father, but he had multiple lines of dialogue. Some really touching ones too (for me, at least). The different papers in the house were amazing, the stack of letters between Golbraith and his son put a lump in my throat. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t misty-eyed. The secret mind flayer hunter cellar was awesome.”
Solfalia added that although their father can’t play the game now, when they told him about Golbraith, “he loved every moment of it.”
As screenshots of this post have been doing the rounds on social media,Baldur’s Gate 3writer Rachel Quirke responded on Twitter / X, andwrote: “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when we read that letter, and I volunteered to write Golbraith. (I’m not super writer [by the way], and I’ll respect their privacy unless they want to reveal themselves). Really happy we got to honor the mighty mind flayer hunter.”
At the time of writing, the anonymous “super writer” seemingly hasn’t come forward. However, in a separate post,Baldur’s Gate 3’s director and the CEO of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke,added: “Super writer is an amazing human being.”
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Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
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