A few weeks ago, Larian Studios gifted Baldur’s Gate 3 players with the new closing party: Anyone who has finished a run can meet their companions again and see what has become of them. But one of the new endings for the strong Karlach moves fans to tears.
What celebration is it about? Anyone who has completed Baldur’s Gate 3 can attend a very special party at the invitation of the rickety Lazarus. Six months later you can meet all your companions there again and drink to the adventures with them.
Depending on your decisions in the game and especially towards the end, Astarion, Gale, Shadowheart and Co. have different stories to tell. In order not to give you any spoilers, we would like to keep the details confidential.
Below we will look at a specific ending to the Companion Karlach. If you still want to avoid spoilers, you should exercise caution.
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This ending for Karlach makes the players cry
Which ending for Karlach is affected? From the moment you pick up Karlach until the end, she fights with the infernal machine in her chest. The devil Zariel had it placed there to make Karlach her obedient servant.
Karlach’s quest series and their romance revolve primarily around getting the machine under control – if not even getting rid of it.
Unfortunately, you can only cool down the machine and strengthen it again and again. This delays the inevitable further and further, but after the fight against the Absolute, Karlach’s time in Faerûn is finally exhausted.
You can make various decisions, but one chain of decisions causes Karlach’s machine to overheat and she eventually dies.
Why isn’t Karlach at the party? Karlach is dead in this particular ending. But since Lazarus isn’t just some cranky old man, but the original god of death, that shouldn’t stop them from coming. But Karlach doesn’t want to.
If you talk to Lazarus at the party, he will tell you that Karlach’s soul is in the so-called Fugue Plane. All souls who did not worship a specific god during their lifetime gather there. It is located in the middle of the Astral Sea.
Lazarus, speaking to you about Karlach, says:
On the Fugue Plane, her soul shines so brightly that it pains the gods to look at her. Remember that everything changes and everything comes back together. You will be reunited with her.
Like so many dialogues at the celebration, Lazarus gives the player a spark of hope here: Even if Karlach has died, we haven’t seen the last of her yet.
How are the players feeling about it? Karlach is one of the friendliest and most popular companions. The players react correspondingly dejected to this ending – after all, it is more bitter than sweet.
They let their feelings run wild in a thread on Reddit:
In another comment, user SzyszkaFanatic on reddit laments that the patches and Karlach’s new ending have simplified their original dilemma.
MeinMMO demon Cortyn described the original and unsatisfactory ending of Karlach in his own post. There were exactly two options here: Karlach goes back to Avernus alone and looks for a cure or she dies directly after the fight against the Absolute.
At the end of August 2023, Larian Studios released a patch with a new ending that lets you or Wyll go to Avernus with Karlach. There is a lasting hope here that Karlach will eventually get rid of the infernal machine in her chest.
What do you think about it: Are you an advocate of Karlach’s original ending or are you keeping your fingers crossed that she will find a solution in the new ending with you or Wyll? Does your fate affect you after death as much as the other players? Write it to us in the comments.
By the way, the boss of Larian Games recently announced that Baldur’s Gate 3 should never come to Xbox Game Pass, that’s only fair.