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Balthazar is a major antagonist of the 2023 fantasy video game Baldur's Gate III.
He is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Z'rell) of Act II. He's also a major antagonist of Shadowheart's storyline, the Chosen of Shar.
Balthazar is a True Soul member of the Cult of the Absolute, serving as the chief advisor of one of the leaders, General Ketheric Thorm. He's a psychotic and intelligent necromancer who was assigned by Ketheric to find the Nightsong, only to end up missing. He's later found in the Gaunlet of Shar, where the Nightsong is located at.
He's voiced by Roger Ringrose.
Appearance[]
He is an undead human with an obese stature, shrouded by a hooded cloak adorned with the symbols of Myrkul, one of the Dead Three. He also has orange glowing eyes and has strange runes carved onto his face resembling the emblem of the Absolute.
Personality[]
He is shown to be a cunning and experienced necromancer, lavishing and egotistical in the way he describes the craft of experimenting with the undead. He doesn't seem to value his creations however, often losing his temper with his zombified minions. He is also shown to not care much for the wishes of his family, as he resurrected his deceased baby brother against his mother's wishes, and turned him into a grotesque flesh golem simply named 'Flesh'.
Biography[]
Before the Cult of the Absolute rose to power, Balthazar was the right hand advisor to Ketheric Thorm, and witnessed first hand his descend into madness from the loss of his wife and daughter. Ketheric blamed the aasimar Dame Aylin for the death of Isobel, and he schemed along with Balthazar to lure her into a trap. They told Aylin that there was a trapped soul into the Shadowfell that needed rescuing, but instead captured her and put her in a soul cage, which allowed Ketheric to feed off of her immortality for over a century, whilst constantly being killed over and over again by Dark Justiciars from the Shar Temple.
Ketheric eventually managed to resurrect his daughter with the help of Myrkul, one of the Dead Three, and he became his chosen to rule as one of the leaders of the Cult of the Absolute. Balthazar has also become undead by this point and an experienced necromancer, using his victims as thralls to work in their undead army. When Tav and the party go to investigate Moonrise Towers, they are told by Z'rell to 'prove themselves as true souls' by locating Balthazar in the Shar Temple and helping him relocate the Nightsong (Dame Aylin) to a safer place.
Once found, he believes the party are true souls and instructed them to help him open the door to the Shadowfell and reach the Nightsong once again, even giving them a bell to summon 'Flesh', a hulking mass of flesh that was once his younger brother. Once in the Shadowfell, he will follow behind and prepare to subdue the Nightsong ready for transport, which Shadowheart protests about because she believes it is her destiny to destroy the Nightsong. Balthazar will then get angry and summon a horde of skeleton warriors and mages to attack the party, at which point he will fight them until his death.
Alternatively, if he wasn't sought out in the Shar Temple and the Nightsong is freed, he will reappear in Moonrise Towers and help Ketheric fight the party on the rooftop.
Even after his death however, the extent of his experiments isn't fully revealed until Act Three when the player takes on the Steelwatch Foundry. A note on the side of a box reveals that Balthazar had been sending living brains and zombies to Enver Gortash to make into autonomous constructs, controlled by said brains, making him directly responsible for Gortash's rise to power.
[]
Balthazar on the Baldur's Gate 3 Wiki.
 Villains
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Recruitable Party Members Gods Demons Devils The Iron Throne The Shinning Crusade Bhaalists & Bhaalspawns Dark Alliance Cult of the Absolute The Sharrans Shadow Druids Vampires Others | ||