Ketheric Thorm

General Ketheric Thorm is the Chosen of , and one of the leaders of the enigmatic Cult of the Absolute and serves as one of the main antagonists in Baldur's Gate 3. 
== Overview ==
Once the governor of Reithwin Town, personal tragedy, loss and grief drove him down the path of darkness and violence, the eventual result of which was his defeat in battle a century ago by the combined forces of the Harpers and druids of the Emerald Grove. Now, risen from the grave to lead the Absolute's forces as their general, he seeks to destroy Baldur's Gate, spread the cult of the Absolute, and have his daughter with him once again.
=== Background ===
Risen from the grave a hundred years after the events that led to his downfall, Kethric Thorm serves as the main antagonist of Act 2 of the game, being introduced during Act 1 through dialogue and in-game notes first. As the party searches for ways to cure their tadpole situation, many clues point towards Moonrise Towers and Ketheric himself and the party is ultimately tasked with bringing him down in order to rid the Shadowlands from its curse.
By exploring Moonrise Towers, through subsequent battle with him, and later exploring the Illithid colony under the stronghold, the party discovers there is an elaborate conspiracy behind the tadpoles in their heads. Ketheric's alliance with and is also exposed, along with his plans to secure all three Netherstones for himself . Also in the process of the fight against him, it's revealed it was that brought Ketheric back from the dead. With Thorm dead, the party now have one of the Netherstones that power the trio, and the clues to their next destination: Baldur's Gate.
=== Gameplay ===
* Ketheric Thorm is a level 11 Undead boss that retains some features of his past life as a Half-Elf, and one of the main antagonists in the game.
* He can be found throughout Act 2, while being referenced through dialogue and notes in Act 1.
* Fighting him is required in order to obtain his Netherstone and proceed with the story.
* In combat, he is most similar to an Oathbreaker paladin, able to cast a form of Smite with his attacks, as well as having access to Aura spells and able to raise Undead minions.
* Despite his status as a boss, Ketheric can still be disarmed, knocked prone or affected by other types of weapon abilities.
* True to his skill as a general, Ketheric commands his allies to focus their attacks on targets he deems especially troublesome via Deadly Orders.
* The outcome of the quests relating to the Nightsong, as well as dialogue checks, can influence the encounters with him.
==Description==
===Appearance===
Ketheric has straight, grey hair kept shoulder-length and tucked behind his pointed ears. His countenance is severe, face wrinkled both by his glare and age, and he keeps a thick, full beard that connects to his hair. Ketheric wears a simple circlet with the skull of Myrkul, and an extravagant, well-crafted suit of armor that marks him as the Chosen of the Lord of Bones. His Netherstone rests on his chest, secured by an ornate gold cage.
=== Personality === 
Though best described as a man tormented and transformed by grief, his daughter speaks of a loving, doting father while she was growing up, one who had the admiration of his subjects for being just and fair, full of love for his wife who he adored more than anyone else. Tragedy, however, would turn him into a bitter, wrathful man, willing to cleanse Reithwin from any Selûnites to spite the for abandoning him.
Whatever the man he once was, the Ketheric the party encounters is a callous one, evident by his dismissal of and the goblins, ordering their torture and execution for failing him. Though courteous when needed, he will quickly condemn the party to death should they defy his orders. Above all, however, he is ruthless and relentless in his pursuits, willing to burn the entire world just to be reunited with his daughter.
Though his loss and anguish moved him to change his patron god twice in search of relief, he proved to be an ardent believer of each while serving them: for Selûne, he built Moonrise Towers in her honour, for Shar, he built a grand temple under town in her name and for , he amassed a great army ready to raze Baldur's Gate to the ground. 
Through it all, he kept close to him, showing that deep down a small part of him still remembers the man he once was.
== History ==
===Governor of Reithwin===
A devout worshipper of , Thorm lived with his wife Melodia and daughter near the town of Reithwin as governor of the region. Such was his devotion to the Moonmaiden that he would commission a local mason, , to construct a grand bastion in her honour: Moonrise Towers.
Yet disaster struck the Thorm family when Melodia passed away, leaving Ketheric to raise their daughter alone. With a child in his care, Ketheric persevered, and though doubts plagued his mind, he kept the Selûnite ways. As Isobel grew older, their happy years had a sour note: he disapproved of a budding relationship between his daughter and an immortal Aasimar visiting the town, , daughter of Selûne.
The conflict would be cut short, however, as tragedy would befall Ketheric once more, and his daughter Isobel passed away.
=== Conversion to Shar ===
Grief-stricken and unable to cope with his loss, Ketheric Thorm renounced the worship of the and turned to , the Lady of Loss.
Moonrise Towers, once a bastion of Light, turned into a symbol of darkness and grief; Thorm systematically erased all Selûnite trace of the town, forcing all believers of the Moonmaiden to convert to Shar, flee, or die. Those who remained devout to Selûne did so in secret, arranging a even as Sharran spies began to infiltrate their gathering places.
In Ketheric's downward spiral into darkness, Shar compelled him to build an army of Dark Justiciars beneath his home town in order to cleanse the world of Light. Ketheric lured Isobel's lover, Aylin, whom he had once quarreled with under Selûne, and trapped her in a prison. He had the immortal demigod serve as a perpetual sacrifice for Dark Justiciar initiates – a design of his closest confidante, the necromancer . 
As terror gripped the town he had previously served so faithfully, the Harpers, a loose organization that roots out villainy, saw that Ketheric had committed "Murder, Slavery, and Desecration of Temples Most Holy." They began to seek an alliance to end his reign.
Reithwin soon became the site of a wintertime battle between Ketheric's army and the combined forces of the Harpers and druids of the . Ketheric's Justiciars repelled the combined forces, and the Harpers . All the while a was struck with beneath the town by the Selûnite-in-secret as well as and his merregons; they then worked to annihilate Ketheric's Dark Justiciar army. 
In the end, the Sharran army was defeated, , and finally Ketheric himself perished . And yet, before the final blow was struck and his defeat was sealed, he unleashed a Shadow Curse upon the land - a curse that would persist long after his demise, afflicting all battle survivors and any remaining inhabitants who did not flee. His body was later buried in the Thorm Mausoleum.
=== Chosen of Myrkul ===
More than a hundred years later, Thorm would be brought back from the dead by as General Ketheric Thorm. The God of Death tasked the general to form an alliance with the apostles of the other two of the Dead Three and bring death to the world, offering in payment the resurrection of Ketheric's daughter Isobel.
After reviving his daughter with help of Balthazar, Ketheric's plan at a family reunion failed. When the revived Isobel saw his broken visage, she fled into the darkness, protected by her goddess Selûne. The town had been ravaged by Ketheric's death rattle, the Shadow Curse. Looming over the town for a century, all within had either died outright from it or been twisted into horrific monsters.
Undeterred, empowered by Myrkul, and granted immortality by the Nightsong, Ketheric began amassing an army of followers of the Absolute in order to march to Baldur's Gate and sow destruction. 
Tasked with the recovery of the mysterious artifact, the only object capable of thwarting the Dead Three's plans, he ultimately fails and falls at the hands of the party.
== Involvement ==
Though the party learns about Ketheric during Act 1, his involvement in the Cult of the Absolute is only explored during Act Two, allowing them to meet Ketheric himself at Moonrise Towers either before or when it's sieged.
===Act Two===
====Moonrise Towers throne room====
The Party's first encounter with Ketheric Thorm starts with the general judging members of the Absolute's forces from the Goblin Camp, including , , and if any of them are still alive. Should Minthara be alive, he will send her to the dungeons to be punished, and is left with the goblins. then attacks him out of fear and desperation. Even when impaled and nearly decapitated by her with a halberd, he shrugs off the wounds as if they were minor annoyances; Ketheric then kills her to make an example of the futility in resisting him. He will leave the fate of the remaining goblins to the party.
The party can visit him before the finale by going on the top floor of Moonrise Towers. If noticed attempting to go through the door that leads to him, everyone around it will turn hostile. 
While speaking to NPCs such as , , and , it will be revealed, to some capacity, that a magical relic grants Ketheric immortality. Assisting Balthazar will reveal that sometime between his life as a Sharran and his time serving Myrkul, Ketheric Thorm had discovered the and used it to render him unkillable.
====Atop Moonrise Towers====
The party may encounter him again at the top of Moonrise Towers during the siege and, if so, are granted a quick exchange with him before combat. Should Isobel be dead, he will recount his life story, and his sacrifices, blaming the party for her death, but not punishing them, as he wishes to keep up the façade of the Absolute's judgement. If was saved, she will interrupt the conversation and combat will soon begin. Otherwise, the encounter begins as normal.
Once his health drops to around 25%, Ketheric will flee down into the Mind Flayer Colony. 
If, however, the party chose to let Balthazar take the Nightsong in the Shadowfell, Ketheric will offer the party to pray at the altar of the Absolute. Doing so will skip the fight at the top of the tower and the party will instead end up imprisoned in a pod in the Mind Flayer Colony, where Balthazar is tasked with recycling the party into zombies and retrieving the . It's then necessary to break out of the pods and defeat Balthazar to continue. 
Eventually, the party finds Ketheric having a conversation with and , revealing the true form of the Absolute. The party will then engage Ketheric once more and when he falls, the last portion of the fight will begin, this time against the . 
If asking Ketheric to repent by passing multiple Persuasion and/or Intimidation checks, both atop Moonrise Towers and in the Mind Flayer Colony, then the first half of his fight in the Mind Flayer Colony will be skipped as Ketheric gives himself to Myrkul. 
Defeated for good, Ketheric's body will contain the .
== Combat ==
Ketheric serves as the main antagonist of Act 2 of the game and must be fought thrice in it. His defeat marks the end of the act and allows the party to proceed to their next and final destination: Baldur's Gate.
=== Loot ===
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== Related Quests ==
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== Related literature ==
=== Act 1 ===
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* , results of a Harper investigation, and the genesis of the plans to attack Ketheric with the Emerald Enclave
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=== Act 2 ===
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* , disillusioned Reithwin citizen hopes for Ketheric's death on the eve of the Harpers' attack
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* , a Mason finds that the masonry has been raided, and everyone inside taken
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* , Melodia's deathbed letter
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* , Selûnite resistance member asks Raphael to kill the Dark Justiciars
* , a letter from Lord Gortash, describing the crash of the nautiloid and urging Ketheric find the Mysterious Artefact
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* , aasimar Harper records the first death of Ketheric, and the beginnings of the shadow curse
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* , a book which shows how Ketheric deals with those he regards as enemies
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* , a letter from Ketheric to , explaining in general terms how his invulnerability stems from the Nightsong
=== Books by Ketheric Thorm ===
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=== Notes by Ketheric Thorm ===
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==Achievements==
==Gallery==
Ketheric Model.png|Ketheric's model
Kethericthorm.jpg|In-game
Edward-vanderghote-ketheric.webp|Character portrait by Edward Vanderghote
alena-dubrovina-kethericportrait-1.webp|Character render by Alena Dubrovina
Early_Chosen.png|Early Design of the Chosen
==Notes and References==
== External links ==
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Category:Undead
Category:Half-Elves
Category:High Half-Elves
Category:Characters
Category:Characters in Moonrise Towers
Category:Characters in the Mind Flayer Colony
Category:Characters in Act Two
Category:Bosses
Category:Followers of the Absolute
Category:Followers of Myrkul
Category:Authors
Category:Paladins