Two of the most callous races fromDungeons and Dragonsthat made it intoBaldur’s Gate 3are the ever-popular drow and the astral-exploring githyanki. Both have been faithfully adapted, and although the gith get a starring role thanks to the abrasive Lae’zel and a plot based around their conflict with the mind flayers, the drow get some decent exposure too. Minthara is a potential ally, despite not being a mascot or an Origin Character like Lae’zel.
Minthara and Lae’zel are great examples of their people, with both being knowledgeable about the history of their races and thus able to give the player lore drops from time to time. Minthara is often seen making cruel remarks, while Lae’zel usually goes about her business with a metaphorical sledgehammer, yet both are layered enough to show vulnerability about their fears and traumas. They are an interesting duo, especially when put in a party together, where they can have a rare interaction that shows the key difference between the drow and githyanki.
Minthara Proves Drow Are Crueler Than Gith
Not Even Lae’zel Agrees With Drow Practices
As seen inBessie Bloodbath’s video on YouTube, Minthara and Lae’zel can have a discussion about when training should begin for children if they are in a party together. Theseparty interactions happen randomly between two companions while wandering the Sword Coastand can cover many topics, from Shadowheart and Halsin pondering what animal the Sharran would be if she were a druid to Astarion and Karlach talking about thetiefling’s Infernal Engine heart. They can give insight into the characters, contain bits of interesting lore, and simply add entertainment to the journey.
Baldur’s Gate 3: How To Recruit Minthara
Thanks to a giant Patch 5, good-aligned Baldur’s Gate 3 players can now recruit Minthara. However, recruiting her involves some very specific steps.
This particular interaction shows differences between gith and drow training. Minthara mentions that drow begin mortal combat as soon as they can hold a sword, which is even more cruel when considering thatelves can live hundreds of years and don’t need to start so young to gain decades of experience before becoming adults. On the other hand, gith are not risked until they are thirteen, saying that it isn’t worth wasting"battle flesh before it is primed.“Although still cruel, at least throwing a thirteen-year-old into mortal combat is better than pitching babies against each other.
Minthara goes even further, stating thatbabies can have their resilience against poisons tested while they are in the womb. This process can’t be good for both the baby and mother, yet Minthara says this so casually, and she could have been on the receiving end of this testing when she was yet to be born. Although Lae’zel is often seen as abrasive, cold, and somewhat cruel (unlessshe is romanced and softens), even she is surprised at this, exclaiming"Tsk’va"after Minthara’s comments, which is essentially a githyanki curse word.
People In BG3 Are Afraid Of Drow For A Reason
Even Seldarine Drow Are Feared On The Surface
Anyone who has played a drow inBaldur’s Gate 3knows that their reputation precedes them, especially in Act 1. Even the more friendly Seldarine drow get clumped in with their cruel, Lolth-sworn kin,with goblins trembling in their boots whenever a drow Tav tries to have a conversation. This interaction between Lae’zel and Minthara is but one example of how cruel drow are, and they need to be, considering the dangers of the Underdark that the party experiences toward the end of Act 1.
In Act 1, the game presents players with a choice between theMountain Pass or the Underdark, but the party can do both to get the most XP.
Minthara mentions the cruelty of her people constantly, and does so in such a casual fashion that it is almost comedic. She explains thatif a drow has a third-born son, the baby is killed, since a third male child is considered useless for both fighting and reproduction purposes. Although gith aren’t particularly bothered about killing their own, it is done to cultivate the strongest of their people, but the drow will kill their own before they even get the chance to prove their strength because of preexisting prejudices.
One Race Receives The Most Hate In Baldur’s Gate 3
Complicated politics lead to a lot of discrimination in Baldur’s Gate 3, but everybody seems to have it out for one race in particular.
The second half of Act 1 is also a good demonstration of the differences between gith and drow.Nere, a drow True Soul, decides to kill the deep gnomes purely because they annoyed himwith their failure, while the gith in the Mountain Pass kill one another to cull the weak and can be persuaded out of murdering one another. Thegithyanki egg in the Crecheis a good example of how soft some gith can be, since they can be persuaded to let the party have the sole egg in the nursery to give it a chance at life.
The Key Difference Between Drow And Gith In BG3
The Drow Are Schemers And The Gith Are Militaristic
Drow are obsessed with power and are known to kill and scheme against each other in order to get an edge over their rivals. The petrified drow in the Underdark, Dhourn, is a good example of this, since he and two other drow (Xargrim and Filro the Forgotten) were scheming and fighting to try toget to thee Adamantine Forge. Gith do fight each other, andBG3can end with a civil war between those loyal to Orpheus and Vlaakith’s forces, but this is due to a difference in ideals rather than specific gith, like Voss, vying for power.
10 Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Quests You Probably Missed
Baldur’s Gate 3 is absolutely packed with quests large and small, and there are likely plenty of great ones players accidentally missed out on.
Fundamentally, the difference between these two races is how they function. Despite the dangers of the Underdark, the drow still perceive their greatest enemies as each other, with Minthara mentioning that she was still a baby when someone first tried to assassinate her. The gith prepare their entire lives to fight the mind flayers, andtheir cruelty is all based around preparing their soldiers for brutal warfare against a deadly enemy, similar to how various media often portrays the Spartans of Ancient Greece.
With the githyanki and drow both being perceived as cruel on a surface level,it would have been easy forBaldur’s Gate 3to portray them in a similar way, since the drow don’t get the screen time that the gith do throughout the three acts. Instead, Larian has remained true toD&Dlore and has made sure that, although both races are known to be quite callous, the reasons for this behavior are very different inBaldur’s Gate 3. The gith are cruel to fight for a better tomorrow, but the drow are cruel because they are a people cursed with in-fighting and a lust for power.
