Summary

• Baldur's Gate 3 is set in the Forgotten Realms, a setting designed for tabletop D&D with a rich lore.
• Kar'niss is a drider with a tragic backstory, but he finds purpose in the Cult of the Absolute.
• Players can interact with the drider in different ways, but allowing him to guide them to Moonrise Towers reveals more about drider lore.

There's a lot of backstory behind some of the most obscure events in Baldur's Gate 3, but one NPC might have the weirdest lore of all. Taking place in the Forgotten Realms setting, which has spanned multiple editions of Dungeons & Dragons, there's a ton of arcane lore going to the very center of its story. The uninitiated might not know it, but characters like Volo, Gortash, and Elminster have long, detailed histories in the tabletop setting. Major events like the githyanki-illithid war are well documented, and each member of the Forgotten Realms pantheon has a defined dominion, and a devoted contingent of worshipers.

But even the strangest, one-off NPCs can have a ton of lore to back them up. There's one character the party may come across during Act Two who has a fascinating backstory. But his appearance isn't always guaranteed, and his background isn't alays revealed. Here's everything to know about BG3's oddest tragic figure.

Who Is Kar'niss In BG3?

Kar'niss is a drider, a half-drow, half-spider hybrid, met during Act Two in the Shadow-Cursed Lands. His unique appearance and unusual manner of speaking may cause some to peg him immediately for a villain, but in truth, he harbors a far more tragic backstory. Most drow worship the dark goddess Lolth, also known as the Spider Queen - Lolth herself also has a humanoid top half, with the legs and abdomen of a spider. Lolth's domain is chaos, trickery, and war, which is why drow receive so much hate in Baldur's Gate 3.

However, not even Lolth's disciples are safe from her desire for conflict. When they reach a certain degree of power, Lolth-sworn drow are required to undergo a rite of age: the Test of Lolth. This usually involves a duel to the death between two of Lolth's subjects, with the victor gaining the Spider Queen's blessing and the vanquished merely dying. However, if a drow fails the Test of Lolth by any other means, Lolth punishes them by turning them into a drider.

This is what happened to Kar'niss: he was clearly a powerful adherent to Lolth, and was set to partake in her Test. For one reason or another, he failed; perhaps he got cold feet and declined to participate, or refused to kill his opponent. The transformation into a drider is painful enough, but things only get worse from there. Driders are imbued with constant feelings of hatred and fear, and, like vampires, must drink blood to survive, which causes them to lash out at anyone and everyone around them. As a result, they're often cast out from drow society, much like Kar'niss was here, and forced to live alone.

But somewhat uniquely among driders, Kar'niss managed to find a new sense of community in the Cult of the Absolute. By the time he appears in Baldur's Gate 3, Kar'niss seems to have replaced Lolth completely with the Absolute; he's the only individual to refer to it with feminine pronouns, like he once did his goddess. Whether he considers them one and the same, or simply can't fathom worshiping anything other than a goddess is unclear. What is apparent, though, is that the Cult of the Absolute has given him a purpose: his job is to guide wayward True Souls to Moonrise Towers.

How To Deal With Kar'niss In BG3

Depending on their companions, their method of arrival in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, and their alignment, there are several ways the party can interact with Kar'niss in Baldur's Gate 3. If they arrive via the Underdark entrance, they're likely to come across the Last Light Inn before they meet Kar'niss. That means they'll have a chance to side with the Harpers, and if they do, they'll be ambushed by Kar'niss and his followers somewhere between the Inn and Moonrise Towers. In this case, the party will probably kill him without a second thought, and consider him just another grotesque oddity of the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

However, if the party meets Kar'niss before siding with the Harpers, which is more likely if they arrive via Rosymorn Monastery, they'll have the chance to sway Kar'niss to their side. If they have a Spider's Lyre, they can play it to summon Kar'niss, and ask him to guide them. Otherwise, if they happen upon Kar'niss and the other cultists he's guiding to the Towers, they can introduce themselves as True Souls. This allows them to his party, or simply to convince him to fork over his Moonlantern. Either option makes it possible to cross the Shadow-Cursed Lands, but these are not by any means the only methods possible.

There are two Spider’s Lyres in the game: one is possessed by Minthara, and the other by Nere. The party can either recruit Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3, convince Nere to give up his lyre, or loot one off either NPC after defeating them.

Getting the Moonlantern can be interesting, as it allows the party to proceed to Moonrise Towers on their own time. It also opens up an opportunity to release the pixie in Baldur's Gate 3; she's trapped inside, and can be freed for a different kind of reward. But by far the most interesting approach, and the most revealing in of drider lore, is convincing Kar'niss to lead the party to Moonrise Towers. He's an excellent tour guide, and will narrate the entire trip, providing a little more insight into the drider mindset.

The Absolute constantly speaks to Kar'niss - or at least, that's what he believes. He refers to the party in the third person, as if describing them to an unseen presence whom he constantly addresses as "her Majesty." He becomes frustrated if the party strays out of the Moonlantern's light, and curses the fallen Harpers they along the way. When they finally arrive at Moonrise Towers, he explains that his queen is calling him to her side, and rapidly scales the tower walls to pay tribute in the Absolute's chapel.

Kar'niss' devotion to the Absolute may even sur his devotion to Lolth. While he failed the latter's test, he seems to be completely in the Absolute's thrall, and would clearly do anything it requests of him. Whether the Absolute is actually in with him remains to be seen. It may even be Lolth getting in his head, cozying up to the Absolute in an effort to claim greater power as other gods have been known to do. Either way, Kar'niss is clearly of great service to the cult, a fascinating Baldur's Gate 3 character with complex motivations only apparent in the context of the wider Forgotten Realms lore.