Source
r/baldursgate•
ShadowLiberal

How much time passed between Bhaal's death and the start of BG1?

Title. Is there a canon answer to this?

I always assumed it was around roughly 2 decades given it's implied that the Child of Bhaal is a young adult at the start of the series.

But then I noticed that in Siege of Dragonspear your conversation with >!the imprisoned Priestess of Bhaal Madele!< seems to imply that Bhaal died a little under a decade ago. You have the following option in a line of dialog to her: >!You've been locked up for almost a decade, then?!<, and she confirms that's correct.

I believe the intro video at the start of Siege of Dragonspear also tries to imply that the events in Baldur's Gate 1 took place over the course of roughly 1 year, which farther shortens Bhaal's death to only 9 years prior to the start of Baldur's Gate 1 if we can trust the lore in Siege of Dragonspear.

But this is pretty clearly a problem, since it's well established that the Child of Bhaal has no memory of their mother, and only learns who she is in Throne of Bhaal, which means they couldn't have been more than a few years old when Bhaal died, otherwise they'd remember her. And obviously the child of Bhaal and other Bhaalspawn you meet aren't just barely a teenager either.

Posted Nov 1, 2023, 7:58 PM UTC

115
Sixin2082•

Bhaal dies in 1358, and BG1 takes place in 1368. The Harper raid to rescue the children happened before bhaal died.

47
Environmental_Fig942•

Wow! Thank you! Never had such a concrete answer on this before!

12
SreckoLutrija•

Wait, I'm a bit confused. So evil antagonist was like 20yo. Already made plans to become a duke etc... Thats super weird. I Always thought Abdel and Sarevok were 30 something... but they were damn kids 😭

3
B_Provisional•

I think Sarevok is more likely in his mid 20s. In Throne of Bhaal it is revealed that he had to escape from the Temple of Bhaal on his own since Gorion couldn't rescue all of the children. He was old enough to remember the events and old enough to travel on his own to a nearby city where he survived as a street urchin.

3
xler3•

imply that Bhaal died a little under a decade ago.

forgottenrealms wiki indicates that he died in 1358. baldurs gate 1 begins in 1368. so i guess that makes sense.

we can trust the lore in Siege of Dragonspear.

i don't think we should

it's well established that the Child of Bhaal has no memory of their mother, and only learns who she is in Throne of Bhaal, which means they couldn't have been more than a few years old when Bhaal died, otherwise they'd remember her.

can you elaborate more on this logic? i'm not quite following. you're born in 1347-1348 to a priestess and an absent father, gorion comes and gets you in 1349-1350 (idk), bhaal continues his breeding spree for another 10~ years, dies, 10 years later bg1 starts.

12
ShadowLiberalOP•

I thought that the Harper raid took place shortly after Bhaal's death (the scene in TOB explaining it always seemed to imply to me that the sacrifice to restore Bhaal was very imminent), which is the source of my confusion it seems.

Since people tend to not have any memories of being a baby I figured the child of Bhaal couldn't have been more than say 3 years old when Bhaal died.

4
Vreejack•

There is some conflict in the written material, you just pointed out some of it. This was discussed on Usenet when that was a thing. As far as I know there is no canon resolution.

3
Environmental_Fig942•

I always thought PC was 20, and thus Bhaal was killed around 20 or less years ago. I think something tells you you’re about 20, maybe one of the intros? I guess I always assumed he was killed shortly after PC birth, but there’s no reason why he couldn’t have simply been killed any time from mating until you were a toddler/young child (as often people start remembering more after that and by that stage you were with Gorion, who I think took PC as a babe?)

But now that I think about it, Bhaal can’t have impregnated all those females at the same time given he was walking the earth, so there’d have to be some older and some younger Bhaalspawn, but I don’t know where we fit amongst that…

12
KangarooArtistic2743•

It is funny that we never meet any 10 year-old Bhaal-spawn, which apparently *should* be possible.

But many cultures have considered 13-15 the age of adulthood, and if Bhaal's "happy time" lasted 20-30 years, we could assume the vast majority of Bhaal-spawn are young adults.

9
PonderFish•

They might have been the first victims. And we’re easy prey since children

4
loudent2•

if Bhaal's "happy time" lasted 20-30 years,

if Bhaal's "happy time" lasted 20-30 years,

I'm pretty sure the time of troubles didn't last that long.

1
BelgarathMTH•

The intro narration to BG1 does mention "...You have spent most of your 20 years of life..."

Let's Play Baldur's Gate 003 Prologue Introduction - YouTube

2
Environmental_Fig942•

Aha! Thank you! And thank you for the link!

1
B_Provisional•

Beamdog isn't wrong but the way they wrote the Priestess's dialog is a little confusing. The Harper raid and the rescue of Imoen and Gorion's Ward was supposed to be about 10 years before Bhaal died and the Cyric cult invaded the temple.

9
thetasteoffire•

Bhaal spread his seed around well before his death, in some case centuries - consider an elf protagonist, and the half-dragon in ToB. The protagonist's birth & mother's death aren't affected by when he died, as he had foreknowledge of his destruction, as outlined in Aluando's prophecies.

3
Imoraswut•

Bhaal was killed in 1358 DR, BG1 starts in 1368 DR. So 10 years

2
GardenSprings•

Bhaal was making kids for a long time, so your birt is not tied to his death in any way. It makes sense that you were born and broken out of the Bhaal cult around 10 years before his death, when the whole bhaalspawb highlander hunger games kicked off.

1