Lae'zel

Lae'zel
Cover artwork
Role	Origin character, companion
Created by	Kevin Vanord
Voiced by	Devora Wilde
Information
Full name	Lae'zel
Race	Githyanki
Class	Fighter
Background	Soldier
Hometown	Astral Plane

Lae'zel of crèche K'liir is an Origin character and a recruitable companion with the Soldier background. She is a githyanki and a Fighter first appearing during the Prologue.

A ferocious warrior zealously devoted to the Lich Queen, she will do whatever is necessary to end the terror of the Illithid and prove herself to her queen. She can be first found on the Nautiloid during the prologue where she serves as a temporary companion, and properly recruited at the start of Act 1 and romanced by characters of any gender.

“	Who am I? Your only chance of survival.	„
	— Lae'zel introduces herself.

Overview

For a full overview of Lae'zel's starting features, see the articles Fighter, Battle Master and githyanki.

Background

A fierce warrior from crèche K'liir, Lae'zel is a follower of Vlaakith, the Lich Queen of the githyanki. Sworn to obey her queen and serve as a blade against the Illithid, she was captured on her quest to present a Mind Flayer head to her queen. Now, tadpoled and with few options at hand, she must find a way to rid herself of the parasite and finally prove herself as a worthy warrior to the Undying Queen. How she does it, and whether or not she remains loyal to Vlaakith, is something she can decide throughout the game.

Starting class

Lae'zel starts as a Fighter, with a focus on two-handed weapons as is githyanki tradition. Upon reaching level 3, she will default to the Battle Master subclass, allowing her to control the battlefield and subdue foes with great martial skills.

Special features

Lae'zel does not have any special features unique to her. Being the only githyanki companion, she can, however, make the most out of all the githyanki exclusive passives and abilities from their racial equipment found throughout the game.

Personal quest

Lae'zel's personal quest is The Githyanki Warrior, spanning all acts of the game. In it, she will explore the strong feelings of duty for her people and her zealous devotion to her queen, and begin questioning where her loyalties should truly lie.

Lae'zel's companion quest ties into two further, separate quests. In Free Lae'zel, the party finds her trapped in a cage by a pair of tieflings, and must decide how to proceed. During Help Kith'rak Voss, Lae'zel must consider a proposition that promises to change the fate of her people forever.

Recruitment

Recruitment statistics
Medium Humanoid
Level 1
Stats
Armour Class	16
Hit points	12
Movement speed	9 m (30 ft)
Weight	75 kg (150 lb)
Initiative	+1
Ability scores
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 17 (+3) 13 (+1) 15 (+2) 13 (+1) 12 (+1) 8 (-1)
Proficiency bonus	+2
Saving throws	Str +5 Dex +1 Con +4 Int +1 Wis +1 Cha -1
Features
Great Weapon Fighting	Reroll once when landing a 1 or 2 on damage rolls with Two-Handed melee weapons.
Martial Prodigy	Additional proficiencies
Opportunity Attack	Automatically attack an enemy moving out of your reach

Lae'zel can be recruited as a temporary companion during the Prologue on the Nautiloid by agreeing to fight with her when encountered. She can then become a permanent companion during Act One.

Prologue

• Lae'zel is first encountered on the nautiloid during the prologue. While escaping from the ship, she joins the party as a temporary companion. She leaves the party after successfully escaping. If Lae'zel is chosen as an Origin, she will be replaced in this encounter with Losiir.

Act One

• Lae'zel is encountered again a second time in the Wilderness near the Roadside Cliffs at X: 242 Y: 370. She has been captured in a wooden cage by two tieflings, Damays and Nymessa. If the player is able to free her, she can be invited to join the party.
• If she dies aboard the Nautiloid, her body will be found at the beach starting area. She can be brought back to life and recruited.
• If players progress further to the Emerald Grove and trigger the attack scene at the gates, she will break out of her cage and disappear, killing Damays and Nymessa if they are still alive. She can then be found later on and be recruitable again.
• After breaking out of the cage, she has been refused from joining up with the party until this point, she will show up when the party encounters the githyanki near the Mountain Pass. If she doesn't turn hostile during the encounter she can be recruited at the end of the battle. If she dies during it as an ally or neutral, she can be resurrected and still join.
• If players miss all the recruitment opportunities above, or refuse her, she can be found again one final time near the first waypoint in the Rosymorn Monastery Trail where the crèche is located for a final recruitment opportunity.

Should the party proceed inside the crèche without having recruited Lae'zel, she will be disappear from the mountain pass. When players proceed to the Shadow-Cursed Lands, they will find her as an Undead there, having went the wrong way when trying to find the crèche.

Approval

See main article: Lae'zel/Approval

Lae'zel prefers direct approaches and is focused on quickly finding a solution to the tadpole infection, without wasting any time. She approves of direct solutions to problems, as well as not getting involved in petty issues unnecessarily. Displaying feats of martial skill and being resolute also sit well with her.

Lae'zel dislikes acts of mercy and compassion, showing submission, respect or diplomacy when force is also an option. She doesn't agree with helping others for the sake of benevolence, despises showing weakness and will vehemently disapprove of any form of neutral or positive interaction with Illithid of any sort.

Romance

See main article: Lae'zel/Romance

Lae'zel can be romanced by characters of any gender. At first only about sex, the relationship will eventually turn more serious as Lae'zel starts seeing them first as an equal, then as a partner.

Description

Appearance

Lae'zel has yellowish-green skin, with black accents under her ochre eyes, cheeks and neck. Her scars, most prominent of all one that runs from her nose to her chin, give her the mean look of a seasoned warrior. Black bumpy mottles adorn her face on her cheeks and like all githyanki, she has a small nose and her ears are long and pointed, with ridges protruding on the outer edges. Her hair, kept shoulder-length, is brown and straight, with a few adorned braids running along the side of her head and a small bun on her back. Though shorter than the rest of the companions, and with a wiry, though muscled frame, she stands proud and intimidating.

Personality

Lae'zel is depicted as xenophobic, arrogant, and quick to anger. Proud of her race, she frequently makes comments to the party detailing githyanki customs and the nature of her people, often as a means to illustrate githyanki superiority. She can be rough in her expressions and often cares little for the feelings of others. In her mission to remove her mind flayer parasite, she does not hesitate to intimidate or harm those who would step in her way. She is fiercely loyal to her queen Vlaakith, desperately seeking to prove her worth to the Lich Queen. Over time with the party, she becomes more accepting of her companions, though never losing her biting edge. Despite her often brutish behaviour, she is keenly observant with people and frequently understands the feelings of party members. Lae'zel isn't above pragmatism either, willing to go along with a plan she disagrees with or work together with someone she dislikes, as long as the party stand to benefit. Still juvenile to her people, she also shows some youthful stubbornness at times.

When romanced, Lae'zel will slowly begin to soften up to her partner, and start enjoying the small things together with them, even seeing worth in Faerûn as a place to live in.

History

Creche K'liir

Lae'zel is reserved when it comes to herself, and shares only fragments of her past before the conflict against the Absolute.

She hails from crèche K'liir, also known as Stardock, a githyanki enclave on an asteroid in the Tears of Selûne, an asteroid cluster near the namesake moon. There, Lae'zel received the customary githyanki martial education, with lessons on how to battle, raid and plunder in the name of Vlaakith. This brutal training instilled a hatred for illithid in her, as well as turn her into an ruthless warrior who would do anything to accomplish her missions. The indoctrination further gave her a racial superiority complex, and contempt for races other than githyanki.

During her time in the creche, she and her clutch battled beholders in a nearby asteroid and infiltrated a neogi spelljammer, laying waste to its crew. Tested by battle, but still considered a youngling by her people, she wished to prove herself to Vlaakith by presenting her a severed head of an illithid. Lae'zel is captured by the nautiloid during this mission, and is tadpoled in a cruel mockery of their ancestral feud. Kept in a pod, she awaits ceremorphosis, doomed to her fate.

Involvement

Prologue

Lae'zel can be encountered during the battle aboard the nautiloid. Having escaped her pod, she will ambush the party as they attempt to find an exit. Seeing as they are free from illithid influence just like her, she proposes a temporary alliance until they find a way out. After the ship crashes at the Ravaged Beach, she disappears leaving the party to fend on their own.

The Githyanki Warrior

See main article: The Githyanki Warrior

The Githyanki Warrior is Lae'zel's personal quest. It is added to the journal upon recruiting her and spans all three acts of the game.

Act One

Once properly recruited into the party, Lae'zel discloses that her people know a way of getting rid of tadpoles and that they must find a creche. As the party explores the Wilderness, they eventually find a tiefling named Zorru in the Druid Grove who confesses to having run into a group of githyanki near the Mountain Pass. When reaching this location, the party will find a group of githyanki led by Kith'rak Voss skirmishing against a squad of Flaming Fist. Quickly dispatched by Qudenos, Voss' mighty red dragon, the commander turns to the party and interrogates them on the whereabouts of a Mysterious Artefact. Shadowheart and Lae'zel's presence can influence the outcome of this encounter, but regardless of the outcome, Lae'zel will be angry that they're no closer to a cure for their parasites.

Back at camp, Lae'zel will confront Shadowheart over her artefact she carries. Shadowheart is reluctant to part ways with the object, and mockingly suggests a duel at dawn. Later that night, the party will be woken up by a struggle between Shadowheart and Lae'zel, the latter pinned to the ground with a knife at her neck. The argument can be defused, in which case both parties agree to set their differences aside for the moment.

The clues left by the githyanki and the corpses of their victims point to Creche Y'llek in the nearby mountains. Upon reaching the Rosymorn Monastery, the party finds githyanki dealing with looters, indicating that they're in the right place. Once inside, exploring the creche can lead to an encounter with Ghustil Stornugoss at the infirmary. She quickly diagnoses the party as being infected with tadpoles, and prompts them to use the nearby zaith'isk, a device used not for healing, but rather purification through death. The machine ultimately fails and Stornugoss flees to inform the inquisitor. An audience is then granted with Ch'r'ai W'wargaz, an inquisitor dispatched to the creche to help them find the mysterious object Voss was after. The inquisitor quickly reveals that he knows about the party and that they hold the artefact the githyanki are after. Whatever the outcome of this encounter, Vlaakith herself will appear through a projector and reveal that the object is an Astral Prism designed to contain somebody. She demands they kill the prism's inhabitant and earn her gratitude, opening the way inside. Within the prism, the party finally faces the Dream Visitor and must make the decision to spare or kill them. Upon exiting, if W'wargaz remains alive, he will turn on the party at the behest of Vlaakith, along the rest of the creche.

At camp, Lae'zel can be found mulling over the events at the creche. Betrayed by her people, she believes it must be a test of faith from Vlaakith, yet seeds of doubt have been planted in her mind. Voss will appear shortly after, asking to be heard. If given the chance, he will reveal that Vlaakith is a pretender and that the true son and heir of Gith, Orpheus, still lives. Voss leaves not long after, but not before asking the party to meet him at Sharess' Caress in Baldur's Gate. Lae'zel can be guided down one of two paths here: remain loyal to Vlaakith, or reject the Lich Queen and find Orpheus. Whatever her choice, the next stop is Baldur's Gate.

Act Two

At the end of Act 2, the party will be ambushed at their camp by githyanki monks. The Dream Visitor explains that they are under attack, and opening a portal to the prism, urges the party to aid them. Inside, they find a Mind Flayer attacked by the same githyanki monks, the illithid quickly reaches out to the party, revealing that it is the Dream Visitor. Forced to aid it, the party dispatches the githyanki and the mind flayer shares that it used the guise of the Dream Visitor to support them in their travels. Calling itself the Emperor, he explains that the githyanki assaulted the prism in order to liberate its prisoner: Orpheus. Orpheus' power, combined with that of the Emperor, are everything keeping the party from becoming mindless thralls to the Netherbrain, as such, they have no other option but to side with him for the moment. Lae'zel will share her disbelief, explaining that all githyanki have been told that the Gith's son died to battle thousands of years ago, another one of Vlaakith's lies.

Act Three

Arriving at Baldur's Gate, the party can proceed to meet with Voss at Sharess' Caress as pacted. There, they will find Voss pleading with Raphael, the latter simply dismissing him. Raphael will then explain that he has the means to free Orpheus and that he is willing to assist Lae'zel and the party, for a price. Raphael's deal can be agreed to, in which case he will give the party the Orphic Hammer. Alternatively, he can be refused and his home, the House of Hope, can be raided in order to find the hammer. Whatever path chose, Voss will await in the Lower City Sewers for news of the hammer.

At some point in camp, Vlaakith will appear once more before Lae'zel, commanding her to bow before her and accept her decree to kill Orpheus. If she previously rejected her, Lae'zel can be convinced to kneel to her queen and accept her once more. Lae'zel can also be inspired to remain true to herself and reject the Lich Queen for good, siding with the true heir of the Gith.

With the hammer at hand, the party must bide their time until they can access the Astral Prism and Orpheus once more, as the Emperor refuses entry. This opportunity presents itself when confronting the Netherbrain at the Morphic Pool. Attempts to control it fail, and the Emperor pulls the party inside the prism in order to save them. Here, they can decide the Prince of the Comet's fate: staying loyal to Vlaakith and allying with the Emperor will result in the mind flayer consuming Oprheus' brains in order to absorb his essence. The party will then confront the Netherbrain with the Emperor as an ally. Alternatively, the party may reject the Emperor's offer, causing him to join the Netherbrain, and free Orpheus. Orpheus will be initially hostile, but sensing the dire situation the world is in, will join the party. He can furthermore decide to sacrifice himself to become illithid, or remain githyanki due to the sacrifice of a party member. Whatever the case, Orpheus will join the party against the Netherbrain in the final battle for Baldur's Gate.

Endings

War against Vlaakith

If Lae'zel betrayed Vlaakith, allied with Voss and freed Orpheus, she will join the revolutionaries and bring the fight to Vlaakith. Should Orpheus have become illithid, and was given a mercy killing, Lae'zel will call Quulos, one of Orpheus' dragons, and join Voss as they prepare to battle the Lich Queen. In the Epilogue, when spoken through her astral projection, she will mention that she and Voss are soon meeting Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith, leader of the githzerai, and is hopeful they can form an alliance and unify the Gith once more.

Ascension

Should Lae'zel remain loyal to Vlaakith, and fulfilled her decree to slay Orpheus, she will be welcomed back to Tu'narath, the Lich Queen's seat of power. There, she is ascended by the queen herself, a ritual reserved for only the mightiest heroes of the githyanki. A scene shows Vlaakith on her throne, welcoming Lae'zel nonchalant. From the shadows, githyanki zombies stare lifelessly as Lae'zel approaches and the queen uses her psionic powers to force Lae'zel to kneel using her silver sword, grinning as she does. The camera slowly leaves the chamber as the doors close, Lae'zel's fate sealed. Withers can be asked her whereabouts in the Epilogue, to which he will reply that she has ascended as she wished, but he can sense her presence no longer. He implies that she may have been consumed by the queen, as the rumours go, yet he cannot be certain.

Quest rewards

• Silver Sword of the Astral Plane — granted by Voss for showing him the Orphic Hammer as part of the quest Help Kith'rak Voss

Interactions

Act Two

• Once Orpheus is revealed to be the being trapped in the Astral Prism, Lae'zel can be spoken to. She'll share her disbelief, and tell the party more about the long thought dead Prince of the Comets.

Loot

Lae'zel can be killed and looted. She will have the same items as her starting equipment except for her underwear.

Starting equipment

• Camp Supply Sack
• Keychain
• Alchemy Pouch
• Longsword
• Shortbow
• Githyanki Half Plate
• Githyanki Boots
• Lae'zel's Clothes
• Lae'zel's Underwear
• Tasteful Boots
• Scroll of Revivify
• Potion of Healing x2

Achievements

The Lich-Queen's Wrath
Ally with Voss against the githyanki God-Queen. Good luck.

Gallery

• 

  Appearance in the character creator.

• 

  Portrait by Edward Vanderghote.

• 

  Base model.

• 

  Camp clothing model.

• 

  Underwear model.

• 

  Early Access model.

• 

  During the intro cinematic.

• 

  Appearence pre-release.

• 

  During Early Access.

• 

  Promotional art.

Notes

• Can be spoken to with  Speak with Dead.

External links

• Lae'zel on the Forgotten Realms Wiki
• Lae'zel's official 5E D&D Character Sheet on D&D Beyond (PDF)