Mind Flayers are a dangerous part of the great catastrophe threatening the Sword Coast in Baldur’s Gate 3. For good reason, they have been considered absolute enemies from the start. The role-playing game features a candidate who is meant to question this attitude towards the monstrosities – and for the player base as well as MeinMMO editor Caro, it is not the obvious choice.
Spoiler Warning! This article contains spoilers about your Dream Warden and the end of the second to the third act. Those who have completed Baldur’s Gate 3 or do not care about spoilers can read on without worry.
Players of Baldur’s Gate 3 quickly realize at the start of the game: The Mind Flayers are real nasty types. They enslave the innocent, infect their captives through the eyes with biting larvae, and then cruelly turn them into tentacled monstrosities that hunger for brains.
The Monster Manual of Dungeons & Dragons also makes it clear that one should not mess with the lawful evil creatures:
Mind Flayers, also known as Illithids, are the scourge of all thinking creatures across countless worlds. They are psionic tyrants, slave drivers, and interdimensional travelers as well as cunning puppeteers who exploit entire peoples for their own twisted goals. […] The Illithids are connected by a collective consciousness and devise plans that are as far-reaching and evil as their unfathomable thoughts can conceive.
Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual – English Edition (Page 130)
For me, it was quickly clear based on the first Mind Flayers encountered in the game that I feel little sympathy for the tentacle monsters. However, a candidate in Baldur’s Gate 3 made me question this attitude. And no, it’s not the reveal of my Dream Warden, who turned out to be an illithid Emperor and suddenly became a bit too touchy, definitely not. For me – and for a large part of the community – there is only one name that deserves the title of the best Illithid in Baldur’s Gate 3. That name is Omeluum.
Here you can see the animated short film for Patch 8 of Baldur’s Gate 3:
The Emperor should not waste another second trying to convince me
I want to quickly emphasize that I absolutely cannot stand the Emperor, the Mind Flayer that one can actually be seduced by. Not at all. He is not only a liar and manipulator, but also a petty traitor who throws his entire mission out the window if one does not side with him.
Since I experienced this betrayal during my first playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3, my former Dream Warden has been completely off my list. I would never again side with such a loser and spent all future playthroughs skipping or rejecting every scene with my “oh so great” Dream Wardens.
With the Emperor, Baldur’s Gate 3 did not turn me into a fan of the Illithids. But all that changed when I encountered him. My good, my fine, my absolutely perfect Omeluum. And it’s not just me who thinks so:
Without being dramatic, but – my Tav would die for Omeluum
You first meet Omeluum in the second half of the first act in the Underdark, where he, along with his colleague Blurg, is studying the local ecosystem on behalf of an order of scholars. After managing to free himself from the collective consciousness of the Elder Brain, he devoted his life to research and the goal of improving the world. His current mission is to search for a means to temper the Mind Flayers’ appetite for brains, which would also help him better fit into society.
Omeluum is not only a friendly and helpful researcher, he is a living Green Flag.
Omeluum has become one of my favorite NPCs in all my playthroughs of Baldur’s Gate 3, someone I look forward to every time. Even in the third act of the game, where you are supposed to rescue the prisoners of the underwater prison, I would rather sacrifice the entire crew along with my own life than leave Omeluum behind. Though he heroically emphasizes that one should rather focus on the others and that he would sacrifice his death for it, I would never allow that.
In fact, I would recommend that everyone send at least one character of your team in Omeluum’s direction. Those who want to rescue as many prisoners as possible will anyway get close to his corridor. Subsequently, one can teleport with Omeluum to safety, even in the last round before the prison is blown up.
With Omeluum, Baldur’s Gate 3 made me judge Mind Flayers less harshly than at the beginning. However, he only showed me again how terrible my former Dream Warden actually is in comparison. Our editor-in-chief at MeinMMO sees it quite differently: The new evil endings in Baldur’s Gate 3 finally allow me my dream romance, for which I only have to suppress a continent
