The Dark Urge: Difference between revisions

The Dark Urge is a Bhaalspawn, but unlike other Bhaalspawn, they weren't born – {{CharLink|Bhaal}} created them from a piece of his dead flesh.{{ref|name=Naaber|Dialogue option with [[Naaber]], after he wishes the Dark Urge a happy birthday. <br>''"I was sculpted from a slice of Bhaal's own dead flesh. I have no birthday."''|act3}}{{ref|name=felchosen|Dialogue with Sceleritas Fel, after becoming Bhaal's Chosen. <br>''"You were not conceived. Bhaal sculpted you from a drop of his own gore."''|act3}}{{ref|name=Devella|Dialogue option with [[Devella Fountainhead]] after she asks the Dark Urge if they know who their mother is, once they tell her that Sarevok is Orin's father. <br>''"I have a gut feeling Bhaal made me. I don't have a mother."''|act3}} They are the only Bhaalspawn who had the guarantee of murder, the Urge, woven into their blood.{{ref|Dialogue with Sceleritas Fel, after becoming Bhaal's Chosen. <br>''"No Bhaalspawn has ever borne the Urge, the holy guarantee of murder. It was woven into your blood alone."''|act3}}

The Dark Urge grew up outside the [[Cult of Bhaal]], and was at some point taken in by a poor couple in [[Baldur's Gate]]. They had a relatively peaceful childhood for a time, before succumbing to the Urge and murdering their loved ones and foster parents.{{ref|Memories regained after casting Heal on the Dark Urge after rejecting Bhaal. <br>''"Children darting their way through the city streets of the Gate, chasing one another. [...] Foster parents who cared for a lost Bhaalspawn?"''|act3}}{{ref|Memories regained from casting Heal on the Dark Urge without rejecting Bhaal. <br>''"A little Urge - not even an adolescent - stands with a tiny dagger atop a bloody heap. Two-bedroom cottage. Relative squalor. Poor part of the city. Indiscriminate whole-family kill. Baby's first murder spree."''|act3}}

Eventually, the Dark Urge became the leader of the Cult of Bhaal, and pledged to end all life in existence for their father Bhaal.{{ref|name=colonyletter||act2}} At some point, fellow Bhaalspawn Orin the Red joined and became their second-in-command.{{ref|name=memoirs|[[Memoir Notes with Recent Addenda]].|act3}}

{{CharLink|Enver Gortash}} contacted the Dark Urge after reestablishing worship of {{CharLink|Bane (God)|Bane}}, and the two formed an alliance upon discovering common goals. They were visited in their dreams by Bhaal and Bane, who named them their Chosen and commanded them to ally with {{CharLink|Ketheric Thorm}}, the Chosen of {{CharLink|Myrkul|Myrkul}}. Gortash and the Dark Urge hatched a plan to steal the Crown of Karsus in a heist at Mephistopheles' Vault by having {{CharLink|Helsik}} open a gate to Mephistar for them.{{ref|name=memoirs||act3}}{{ref|name=parentnotes|[[Scrapbook of Letters]].|act3}}  

After the heist was successful, Gortash suggested that they use the Crown on the elder brain located in the illithid colony below [[Moonrise Towers]]. The Dark Urge agreed to the plan so that they could fulfil their pledge to their Lord: They would create an army of soulless mind flayers, and with the help of this army they would exterminate all life — including, as the last being alive, their own. Fully intent on eventually betraying the other Chosen, the Dark Urge joined Enver Gortash and Ketheric Thorm at Moonrise Towers.{{ref|name=colonyletter||act2}}{{ref|name=memoirs||act3}}{{ref|The Dark Urge's dialogue with Gortash during his coronation. <br>''"We understood that if we were to unite, no one could stand in the way of the Dead Three. So unite we did. First we obtained the crown; then we enslaved the brain. From there, it was but a small step to the most successful religious hoax ever perpetrated."''|act3}}

At Moonrise Towers, the Dark Urge was treated like a god,{{ref|The narrator's statements when the Dark Urge enters the throne room in Moonrise Towers. <br>''"In another lifetime, you were greeted in this throne room like a God, not the living wreck you are now."''|act2}} and although nobody knew their name or rank, they were shown the utmost respect.{{ref|Dialogue with [[The Warden]]. <br>''"Your name, your place was kept from all of us last time, but you were to be shown the utmost of respect."''|act2}} The three Chosen initiated a raid on the mind flayer colony, and successfully used the Crown on the colony's elder brain, enslaving it to their will.{{ref|name=memoirs||act3}} At some point during this, the elder brain came to respect the Dark Urge and intended to go along with their plan, impressed by their unmatched cruelty.{{ref|name=elderbraindialogue|Dialogue with the Netherbrain at the Morphic Pool. <br>''"I respected Bhaal's child once, but not you, Gortash. [...] Your plan was devious, your cruelty unparalleled. I would have followed it, were your mind not destroyed by your sister."''|act3}}

After the Dark Urge put the Crown on the elder brain, they were soon betrayed by their sister Orin the Red, who was jealous of Bhaal's favouritism.{{ref|name=orinnotes|[[Blood-Envy for the Unworthy]]|act3}}{{ref|name=orinduel|Dialogue with Orin, when she is confronted by the Dark Urge in the Temple of Bhaal. <br>''"Husk. Maggot. A Bhaalspawn, slip-sliding in filth with these pigs. You don't deserve the Murder Lord's blessing."''|act3}} The Dark Urge had their skull pierced and opened with a dagger, and was infected with a tadpole that began to eat their liquidating brain, resulting in their amnesia, as well as them becoming the first True Soul.{{ref|Dialogue with Orin, when she is confronted by the Dark Urge in the Temple of Bhaal. <br>''"How you screamed as my knife slit your skull, your brain juices sticky and sweet. A little hole, big enough for the worm, your body a blood sack to feed it."''|act3}}{{ref|The narrator's statements when the Dark Urge confronts Orin in the Temple of Bhaal. <br>''"The day your tyranny should have engulfed this world, it was you who were the first to be enslaved. Orin's smile was the last thing you saw, her bright blade glinting as she chiselled into your skull. Her reckless digging left your mind shattered."''|act3}}{{ref|name=kressadialogue|Dialogue with Kressa Bonedaughter. <br>''"You were my very first, after all. I learnt everything about the parasites from you."''|act2}}{{ref|name=kressanotes|[[Mistress of Souls' Research Log]].|act2}}

The Dark Urge was found by {{CharLink|Kressa Bonedaughter}} who, impressed with their willpower and resistance to the elder brain's influence, began to study them. She would cut them open and put them back together repeatedly over the course of several days in the mind flayer colony, during which the Dark Urge was unable to speak or do anything but attempt to inflict violence on themself or others.{{ref|Dialogue with Kressa Bonedaughter. <br>''"I remember finding you close to death, beaten black and blue on the floor of this sanctum. It must have been a few hours after the tadpole was placed in your skull. How you got here was a total mystery, but I stitched you up just enough to keep you alive, then placed you within your crib. [...] We had such a close bond. I opened you up endlessly with my scalpels, and got lost in your insides. [...] It has never been the same with another... All the other victims who come here just meekly obey. You thrashed, you fought, you were indomitable."''|act2}}{{ref|name=kressanotes||act2}}

Noticing his wife's obsession and hoping to snap her out of it, Kressa's husband, {{CharLink|Maghtew Budj}}, arranged for the broken and amnesiac Dark Urge to be sent off on the [[Nautiloid|Nautiloid Ship]], where they would soon wake up with no memories of themself, or of their past.{{ref|[[Journal of Magthew Budj]].|act2}}{{ref|[[Clasped Book (Moonrise Towers)]].|act2}}