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While doing some bookkeeping work associated with my Baldur’s Gate 3 blog posts, I came across a prediction from a cultural ethnologist.

Background that you’ll already know if you read any of my BG3 posts in the past year: back in playthrough 8, I named a hireling after a friend of mine. The hireling was Arctic Druid Angela; hence my friend became “Real Angela.” In that playthrough, the character of Angela somehow became the protagonist of the story.

Real Angela and I have a mutual friend, Sabrina. (In fact, it was Sabrina who introduced me to her.) From my playthrough 9 write-up:

I told Sabrina the story of what I’d done with Angela, Karma, and Wings in playthrough 8. I shared how Arctic Druid Angela had become so significant a character in my mind that I wrote three pieces of fanfic about her.

Real Angela had only a passing interest in the adventures of Druid Angela. Real Sabrina was enthusiastic about the possibility of the same thing happening with Sorcerer Sabrina.

Among other things, Real Sabrina is a cultural ethnologist. She said that the process by which Arctic Druid Angela became “real” for me was akin to creating a spirit helper. She predicted that even though the story of Arctic Druid Angela was over, her spirit might continue to exist and have some influence.

Fast-forward to eight months later. Real Angela decides to start playing BG3 with me as her guide. We dub it playthrough 1/14. During that playthrough, I tell Real Angela the full story of Arctic Druid Angela.

Real Angela, upon hearing this story, wants to revive the skill set of Arctic Druid Angela in another character so she can see for herself. Her approach is more “Druid” than “Arctic,” at least in playthrough 1/14.

As Real Angela continues to play the game, by necessity she’ll have to become more familiar with the mechanics of spellcasting. I will “piggy-back” off of Sabrina’s prediction, and suggest that Real Angela may ease into spellcasting combos by following the Arctic Druid template: Start with skills she already knows (how to play a Druid’s Wild Shapes) and transition into spellcasting by switching from a Moon Druid to a Land Druid; that is, from from a shapeshifting Druid to a spellcasting one.

And thus a cultural ethnologist’s hypothesis are proved correct. Bravo, Sabrina!