Wyll Ravengard

a shrine, a love letter, a tribute to the Blade of Frontiers

this page is a celebration of Wyll Ravengard, first of his name, only son of Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard, the Blade of Frontiers, the Blade of Avernus, defender of the people, the pride of the Gate, the Heart of the Gate, dork supreme, king of whimsy, and the best Baldur’s Gate 3 character!

The Blade of Frontiers

classwarlock gendermale alignmentneutral good racehuman age24 background folk hero

str 9-1

dex 13+1

con 15+2

int 14+2

wis 110

cha 16+3

proficiencies animal handling +2arcana +4intimidation +5survival +2

actor Theo Solomon Lanre Malaolu (Early Access)

stats are referenced from the digital deluxe character sheet and idle champions

Wyll: On my best days, I've even lived up to the name.

personality traits

The very picture of selflessness, Wyll has never put himself before anyone in his life. Even his very pact was a personal sacrifice made to bring others out of peril.

bonds

Wyll is enchanted to be unable to speak freely of his pact with others, his tongue bound by Mizora. Its true nature is sealed within the Cambion alone.

ideals

Wyll always tries hard to see the world in its best light, but life isn’t often the fairytale he dreams it to be.

flaws

The existence of the pact is a secret to all but Wyll’s angered father. If it were to be known by those who look to him as a hero, he fears no living soul would trust him again.

out of context wyll

Provoke the Blade... and suffer its sting!

Wyll's intro scene of stabbing a goblin with a flourish

WYLL — What’s wrong - is the plant getting to you? You look sicker than a drunk derro.

TAV — It’s the flower - my magic is gone.

WYLL — From what I’ve seen, your talents extend well beyond magic. Trust me - you’ll be fine.

TAV — True. My powers will return if they’re meant to - like a pet cat. Or maybe a feral one.

WYLL — In that case, I’ve got just one thing to say - ‘Meow’.

the romantic

You are the red of the sunrise, the yellow of high noon, and the orange of sundown.
If you were a song, I’d never stop singing;
if you were a psalm, I’d never stop praying. You make a damn fun dance partner, too.

—Wyll “Prince Charming” Ravengard

Wyll’s the sort of prince-type I would have once dreamed of marrying. When I was about thirteen.

—Astarion, trying really hard to be sarcastic about it but telling on himself instead

Wyll poises to blow a kiss to the player

GIF by bladeofavernus

WYLL — Mm - Lae’zel, do you believe in love at first sight?

LAE’ZEL — I hardly believe in love at all.

WYLL — Oh.

LAE’ZEL — But I do believe in carnal pleasure.

WYLL — Oh!

RIP wyllzel flirt banter you will be missed

[Romance scenes] are actually my favourite scenes [to do.] I love the romance scenes. Because on the exterior, Wyll is a warrior, he’s a slayer of monsters and beasts, and that’s what you get when you look at him. But he’s got this emotional pool within him, and you get to access that in the romance scenes, these tender moments, […] how vulnerable he can be.

—Theo Solomon in an interview with Dan Allen Gaming

Wyll: Really? Oh dear - am I blushing? I must be blushing.

WYLL — I’d been letting my mind wander. Wondering what it would be like to... well, to hold your hand. To dance with you. To smile coyly, and have you smile back.

TAV — I want that too, to be honest.

WYLL — Really? Oh dear - am I blushing? I feel like I’m blushing. Thank you, for giving me the chance to show you the best of me. I won’t let you down.

Wyll and Ajax in the Act 1 tiefling party
by babeoffrontiers

Rana and Wyll in the Act 2 romance scene
by bladeofavernus

Blight and Wyll
art by droodle-bug

Ember and Wyll in Wyll’s new kiss animation
by leopardmuffinxo

the indomitable

In Forgotten Realms lore, fiend warlock powers are an avenue to corruption, commonly used to serve the dark interests of their patron; in this case, it’s Mizora who is a constant influence to him for the seven years since he’s been pacted.

However, Wyll not only fights against becoming evil but he also uses his powers for good. He makes the conscious choice to help and protect people, usually at the expense of himself. For seven years, he’s struggled with that possibility of corruption from Mizora always looming over him, whilst also dealing with the grief of losing his family and the only life he’s ever known. At the young age of seventeen.

Despite it all, he resists and defies his fate. He soldiers on, doing good and helping people using the warlock powers that damned him and his soul.

WYLL — How’s it feel to be back [in the city]?

DARK URGE — I don’t remember it. But I’m afraid of who might remember me.

WYLL — No one knows better than I do the deep shadows haunting Baldur’s Gate. But I also know you can find light if you know where to look. And this I promise: you can always look to me.

Okay the thing is that it would have been SO easy for Wyll to turn to the dark side, as it were. When he was exiled he had nothing but a blade and a demon in his ear. He knows he did the right thing and was punished for it, and then he was set loose. The fact that Wyll spent seven years with a devil as his patron and only consistent companion and still remained good is a testament to his determination, grit, and strength of character, not dullness of it

—blog-of-frontiers

I see the hunger in your eyes, and I see how it worries you. It worries me, too. But you are stronger than the hunger. You can resist, you will resist. I’m sure of it.

—Wyll to the Dark Urge the night after they spared Isobel

“You have conquered your urge. You have taken back your own soul.”

I always really love how Wyll is so steadfast with his moral compass and principles. No matter how much he loves you, he can and will leave you if you go too far, because his duty to defend the people always comes first.

I also think about how he learned that from his father. How that lesson was driven in when he signed a warlock pact with a devil at 17 and his father banished him for it.

No doubt Wyll knows his father loves him, but he also believes his father was right to banish him. And though Wyll took that lesson to heart, his exile didn’t turn him jaded or bitter. He’s still the same Wyll who loves love songs and heroic stories. He has so much love to give and it shows!

It shows in the way he still believes in second chances and will wholeheartedly support you if he knows you’re willing to help yourself. He doesn’t doubt that you can strive to be good and do good. He’ll be there for you every step of the way.

Even so, Wyll is not naive. If you go too far in doing evil, he won’t hesitate to strike you down even if it kills you. You are not more important than the safety of the people. He will not damn the world for you. And I think that’s beautiful!!!

babeoffrontiers:

as much as i love corruption arcs, there’s something so sexy about a character that can’t be corrupted, to the point that he un-corrupts you instead

commander-yinello:

I love a man with a moral backbone so strong. He will support you through heaven and hell, but he won’t stand for you becoming a serial killer or something similarly horrifying. That’s a good man right there.

hiriaeth:

And he has been corrupted both in body and spirit, and his story is about resisting this change instead of succumbing to it. At his core the corruption can’t reach him in significant way even when his body is changed against his consent. I do love the way he can reach people especially traumatized people because of his own trauma and show them a different way or hold space for them to reach more ethical conclusions.

DARK URGE — I am born of the Lord of Murder. I am Bhaalspawn.

WYLL — Hells - it explains so much. Listen to me. I knew another like you - Gorion’s Ward, one of Baldur’s Gate’s great heroes. Bhaal’s blood ran through their veins too. They burned away their own darkness with their own inner light. They chose courage, they chose honour - and so can you.

I know when I’m being led down a dark path. I can’t stop you from taking it. But I can’t join you - no matter how much you mean to me.

—Wyll, on negative approval with a romanced player

the devil

KARLACH — I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe what you did. Been a long time since someone stuck their neck out for me like that. How can I thank you?

WYLL — I’m just glad you’re all right. I save my sword for monsters.

KARLACH — I’m glad you saw me for who I am. And - and I think I can see who you really are, too. A hero.

Wyll gazes longingly at the player after a kiss

GIF by bladeofavernus

At the start of the game, Wyll has an oathbound mission to hunt down a devil named Karlach. Little does he know, he’s been misled by his fiend patron Mizora. Karlach is not a devil, but an innocent tiefling caught in Zariel’s Blood War. She escaped Avernus to pursue her freedom.

Thanks to the tadpole connecting Wyll’s and Karlach’s consciousness, Wyll realizes the trap Mizora had laid down before him. And for most likely the first time in his life, Wyll stays his blade and spares Karlach, breaking Mizora’s orders to hunt down an innocent person.

As punishment for saving a life, for doing the right thing, Mizora transforms Wyll into a devil. In an instant, Wyll’s body is dragged through the layers of Hell and emerges with a set of horns and ridged skin.

The physical change causes him distress, rightfully so, with the tiefling refugees no longer seeing him as the heroic Blade of Frontiers, but a devil. Wyll fears he may never redeem himself and earn back the trust of the people he wants to protect.

Wyll in the Devil Form mod

A man looks in, a devil looks back. I might never get used to it.

—Wyll, when examining a mirror after his transformation

ASTARION — Poor Wyll gave you the benefit of the doubt and it earned him a set of horns. Not that they don’t look flattering on him. Almost everything does.

KARLACH — They do look pretty good, don’t they?

ASTARION — They do! Honestly, that man...

Wyll says 'Hm. It's still me, I guess. Sort of.'

Wyll says 'The whole gang is here. Wish I'd had time to polish up the horns.'

Wyll’s perception of his self image/horns from Act 1 to the Epilogue

—bladeofavernus

the exiled and the estranged

Wyll insists that it’s his choice to make the pact and to leave the city. Because owning it as his choice means he can rationalize some sort of control over it. Acknowledging it as anything else would mean that he was forced into it. That it’s not actually his fault. That it’s Mizora’s fault—which he does acknowledge—but more importantly that his father did him wrong. And that idea just Does Not Compute. So. Rather than realizing and accepting that his father is human and made mistakes and hurt him, Wyll would rather just take all the blame and make it his choice.

Being on the road constantly fighting battles meant he probably never had to sit down and think about the Implications of what happened to him. Add the fact that he literally could not speak the truth for seven whole years. He had to fill in the gaps. More and more rationalizing to make it make sense to others and to himself. It’s free emotional repression!

ULDER RAVENGARD — My son, you sold your soul to save Baldur’s Gate - and I cast you out for it. You gave yourself to the Hells’ eternal fires so I might walk free. By the gods, can you ever forgive me?

WYLL — There’s nothing to forgive. You wanted to protect the city. I only ever wanted the same.

ULDER RAVENGARD — You are a better man than most, and a better son than I deserve.

The tragedy of Wyll and Ulder isn’t that Ulder is some irredeemable monster. It’s that every parent is flawed, and Ulder has made so many concessions in his life to protect Baldur’s Gate, do what is good for Baldur’s Gate, that while Wyll was doing everything in his life for his father, and his father alone—Ulder was still doing everything for this city he’s devoted his life to. Because he believes in this broken system and his broken ass corrupt Flaming Fist more than he believes in his own son’s innocence.

Wyll believes in fairy tales because his father believes in fairy tales and he loved his father, his father was his world, and even at 24, he’s not ready to admit his father was wrong or made mistakes. Even when he says people like his father—politicians—are always making mistakes, lol.

They were close. And his father loves him. And that makes what Mizora did all the more evil and despicable. Ulder may have given up his son—but he also lost him.

Could you forgive yourself if you lost a child that was so good, and sweet, and loved you as much as Wyll loved Ulder?

Mizora tricked them both. She knew what she was doing. She was isolating him. On purpose. That’s what abusers do!!! They make you rely on them. They take away all the good people and good things in your life until you’re left with nothing.

Ulder was flawed. But he gave Wyll fairy tales, and he let him have fairy tales.

And everything, everything, everything, that Wyll loves about himself came from his father!!!

—limpfisted

Wyll’s greatest fear is to not be wanted or not be needed. Because he’s such a protector of the people, and he’s so selfless, and he’s always the guy who steps up to the plate. [...] If he couldn’t fight, or he couldn’t defend people from anyone, I think that would be his greatest fear.

—Theo Solomon in an interview with Dan Allen Gaming

brb taking him to therapy

there's something about the loneliness of being an only child that wyll has, further exacerbated by his 7 year exile and a devil on his shoulder who further isolates him, and the fact that his identity as the blade disallows people to see him as a person

—babeoffrontiers

You were exploited, you were bound. I was not. This was a path I chose, thinking I knew all the terms. I thought wrong.

—Wyll to Astarion when discussing how to get out of his pact

Stephanie Chafe describes Wyll's scars as if claws or sharp nails had grabbed his face

the design for Wyll’s scars are meant to “be a physical, intimate sign of the contract between him and his patron.”

from Stephanie Chafe’s artstation (post)

Suffering in silence is still suffering. And he’s had to deal with a lot of silence these past seven years.

He can say the most beautiful words to support you and tell you how much he loves you, how devoted he is to other people, how proud of them he is -

But when it comes to himself: I just did what was right. What’s done is done. Let’s keep moving.

—limpfisted

The first stanza of Mitski's The Deal superimposed on Mizora offering Wyll another pact

The second stanza of Mitski's The Deal superimposed on Wyll looking down in despair

—The Deal, Mitski

the whimsical

Haters mad Wyll can experience childlike whimsy

—cetra

KARLACH — Think the bar is open?

WYLL — I intend to find out. But we should scout around first, see who’s in need of help.

KARLACH — You’re good at staying in character, I’ll give you that.

It’s like I always sometimes say - you can’t summon dead ogres, no matter how hard you blow.

—Wyll, after blowing Lump’s War Horn

Cat dancing with Wyll's horns superimposed on it

I think the biggest disservice bg3 fans do to Wyll is by making him out to be the ‘normal’ guy. He’s easily the most unhinged person there. He’s like ‘look, Father! Would a catastrophic disappointment do THIS?’ And gets one of his limbs turned into a giant tentacle or smth to save a box of kittens. Exposed to Mizora and didn’t become a misogynist. I heard him say ‘huzzah’. I want to study him.

—disteal

So two halflings walk under a bar...

—Wyll, unprompted

Art of Wyll with long hair and smiling sweetly

art by droodle-bug

WYLL — I’m reminded of a book father kept hidden in a drawer. ‘The Salty Mermaid’. Do you know of it, Shadowheart?

SHADOWHEART — ‘Fabian ran his calloused fingers along Allura’s scales. Her tail quivered in response...’

WYLL — ‘‘Taste me,’ Allura pleaded. Fabian smashed his lips against hers and their tongues twisted together like two eels in the Sword Sea.’

SHADOWHEART — The pinnacle of good trash - even I can’t forget that one too easily. Your father is a man of fine taste.

Wyll and Shadowheart both saying just the weirdest shit

—wheretheresawyll

SHADOWHEART — So. Wyll with a ‘y’ - why?

WYLL — ‘Y’, that’s right.

SHADOWHEART — But why?

WYLL — Why ‘y’? A great-uncle’s name, my father said. But I just figured he couldn’t spell.

the delayed punchline on wyll repeatedly going “as my father always said, *insert wild bullshit no one has ever said before*" is very good. over 2/3rds of his life was spent with everyone around him knowing his dad damn well, but you dont. its tongue in cheek for wyll, but you arent in on the joke until you finally meet him in act 3 and hes the most blunt, no-frills man possible. no fucking way he said any of that shit. i love wyll

—lesbianralzarek