After the potentially long and arduous process of creating your character in Baldur’s Gate 3, then finalizing your class, race, and background, you would think you’re finally ready to get started on your adventure. However, you’re hit with yet another character creator, but this time for someone named the Guardian. Little is explained about who this is meant to be or why you are able to customize them. Will this be an ally? Perhaps an antagonist? You will hear their voice early on in the game, but won’t encounter them. If the mystery of this character is eating away at your mind more than the Mind Flayer parasite, here’s the answer to who the Guardian is in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Note: We will refrain from spoiling as much as possible, but will by nature need to divulge some information you don’t learn until deeper into the game.

The Guardian is a mysterious force that you first interact with mentally. After escaping the Nautiloid crash, you will start to get telepathic messages from it when you take long rests. This won’t occur every night, but it will happen as you make progress in the story. The Guardian seems to show up after situations in which you use your Illithid powers, which stem from the parasite in your brain. This makes sense as the Guardian reveals first that it allowed you to survive the crash and is against your quest to remove the parasite. It claims the power it grants you is too advantageous to get rid of.

Now, knowing that the parasite will turn you into a Mind Flayer would make the entire concept of keeping it an obvious mistake, though the Guardian claims to be able to prevent this from happening if you use its powers to save the world. Later on, you learn the Guardian is also infected with a parasite, which you probably guessed anyway, but that is how it gained the power to stop the Mind Flayer transformation. However, the Guardian needs your help after hinting that it is being hunted by some force or being.

The Guardian essentially boils down to a character pulling you in a different direction with a different outcome. Do you choose to trust it and embrace the power of the parasite, or reject it and stick to your quest of finding a way to remove it? We won’t spoil how things play out, but there are clear benefits and drawbacks to each choice for your character, as well as how your relationship with the Guardian will play out.