Baldur's Gate 3's Dark Urge writer is sorry they "fumbled" this fan-favorite ship

Baldur's Gate 3
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

A former Larian Studios developer has revealed that they didn't anticipate Baldur's Gate 3 fans to fall head over heels for one of the game's primary antagonists, least of all ship them with the Dark Urge.

Baldur's Gate 3 is arguably one of the best role-playing games ever made, from its fantastic story-telling, replayability, and accurate rendition of Dungeons & Dragons. But among the game's most dedicated fans, it's the game's in-depth romance system that keeps them coming back for more. 

In the game, you can choose to get down with a vampire, a shapeshifting druid, a sad wizard, and even the devil himself. Yet, some players are determined to romance the non-romanceable Gortash, one of the game's main villains, with many shipping the character with the Dark Urge due to their narrative link.

Unfortunately, no matter how much fans plead for a Gortash romance, Larian Studios has confirmed it won't be adding any additional romance to the game in a future update. However, former romance and companion design lead Baudelaire Welch has revealed that they are in full support of the fan-favorite pairing.

Speaking in a recent interview with Eurogamer about the creation of the Dark Urge, Welch revealed that they hadn't anticipated the community ship between the character and Gortash, and wished they'd seen it coming.

"I believe in the Dark Urge x Gortash ship wholeheartedly, but I never saw it coming," Welch said. "I think we always imagined that Gortash was going to be an 80 year-old man over the course of development, and then we saw his [character] model and it was like, 'Oh!'."

"I so, so, so wish that I had seen that coming and added some optional hints of reactivity into that whole thing."

The writer said that if they could do things differently, they would've had more Dark Urge moments throughout the game, like in cutscenes, but a lot of the work regarding main story beats had already been completed by the time they took the Dark Urge into development

Larian is, however, planning to release Patch 7 next month, which will implement additional Dark Urge endings for players to experience. 

Following up on X / Twitter later on, Welch responded to a fan, saying: "Sorry I fumbled the aging scene band frontman x bad dragon you guys, at least you know I ship it - seeing durgetash stuff is perhaps my favourite fan content." 

You might also like...

Read more
Baldur's Gate 3
Don't panic! Baldur's Gate 3 players on PS5 who were affected by the accidental release of Patch 8 can fix their game using this easy solution
A Dragonborn warrior, Tiefling rogue and Halfling mage preparing for battle next to a sign saying "Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked"
First Dungeons & Dragons VR trailer teases a beginner-friendly tabletop game – but I’m just begging for a custom game mode
A screenshot of the party members from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 blends Western gaming sensibilities with JRPG panache in 2025’s weirdest role-playing game
Balatro x Assassin's Creed
Balatro is now available on Xbox Game Pass and its latest free update adds Assassin's Creed, Fallout, and Civilization crossovers
Two players ride dragons in Split Fiction.
Hoverboards and farting pigs: Split Fiction is shaping up to be an unhinged split-screen co-op adventure for the ages
Various World of Warcraft goblin characters and car on city scape backdrop
'We clearly need to have a car', Blizzard developers open up on the philosophy behind World of Warcraft's massive new Undermine(d) update
Latest in Gaming
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
With discounts of up to 95%, these are the biggest deals I've managed to find in the Steam Spring Sale
WWE 2K25
I've spent days in the ring with WWE 2K25, and it's like a five-star match ruined by the Million Dollar Man
Asus ROG Ally using Steam
I think Asus could be the perfect partner for an Xbox handheld – but I have questions
NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, March 15 (game #643)
Rainbow Six Siege X promotional art.
The Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X 6v6 mode might finally pull me away from Black Ops 6
Atelier Yumia
I was already sold on Atelier Yumia as an RPG, but I wasn’t expecting it to have my favorite crafting system in all of gaming
Latest in News
Three iPhone 16 handsets on show
Apple could launch an iPhone 17 Ultra this year – but we've heard these rumors before
Super Mario Odyssey
ChatGPT is the ultimate gaming tool - here's 4 ways you can use AI to help with your next playthrough
Ray-Ban smart glasses with the Cpperni logo, an LED array, and a MacBook Air with M4 next to ecah other.
ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from Twitter's massive outage to iRobot's impressive new Roombas
Brad Pitt looks over his right shoulder with 'F1' written behind him
Apple Original Films will take you behind-the-scenes of a racing cockpit in this new thrilling F1 movie trailer
AI writer
Coding AI tells developer to write it himself
Reacher looking down at another character from the Prime Video TV series Reacher
Reacher season 3 becomes Prime Video’s biggest returning show thanks to Hollywood’s biggest heavyweight