This article contains spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 and the Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus adventure module for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.Baldur's Gate 3 takes place in the Forgotten Realms, one of the most popular settings for Dungeons & Dragons adventures. The Forgotten Realms' cosmology contains hundreds of planes of existence, some of which players can visit in Baldur's Gate 3, but few are more dangerous to mortals than the Nine Hells.
The Nine Hells are also referred to as circles or layers, and begin with the first and highest circle, Avernus. Avernus is the entrance to the Nine Hells, a torment that all travelers, invaders, petitioners, and doomed souls must endure to descend to the lower circles.
The First Circle of Hell
Avernus is the largest of the Nine Hells, and fits the classic vision of an infernal realm; raging volcanoes dot a land of lifeless and blasted rock, while rivers of blood and lava wind between vast, viscera-soaked fortresses. There is no sun or stars, only an endlessly roiling sky of dark clouds, lit by flashes of fire and an eternal reddish glow.
As the gateway between the Nine Hells and the Abyss, Avernus serves as the primary battlefield of the Blood War, the eternal conflict between Devils and Demons. The Lawful Devils and Chaotic Demons have been fighting for control of their respective homes since the beginning of time, throwing millions of monsters, soldiers, and slaves into a never-ending meat grinder. Avernus has been stained by this eternal battle, with blood soaked into every inch of the land, and the only major settlements being the vast fortresses of the Devils.
Although Avernus is the primary battlefield of the Blood War, commanders on both sides are always looking to the other realms for ways to end the permanent stalemate, and Blood War skirmishes can break out anywhere that Demons and Devils meet. It's one of these schemes that leads to the events of Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, a popular Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition adventure module which thoroughly explores the blood-soaked first circle.
Avernus in Baldur's Gate 3
The story of Baldur's Gate 3's takes place a short time after the conclusion of Descent into Avernus, and begins with players taking an unwanted trip to Avernus. Stranded on a mind flayer nautiloid, players take their first steps in Baldur's Gate 3 while hurtling through Avernus, pursued by both Githyanki dragon-riders and the combatants of the Blood War. Although the game's tutorial section ends with the nautiloid returning to the Sword Coast, it won't be the players last encounter with Avernus.
The descent in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus refers to the fall of the holy city of Elturel, a Sword Coast city dragged into Avernus by the scheming of the Archdevil Zariel. Although Elturel has been returned to the surface by the start of Baldur's Gate 3, all Tiefling residents have been driven out of the city due to their fiendish heritage. Players will encounter a large group of these Tiefling refugees early in Act 1, and can hear for themselves the story of Elturel's descent into Avernus.
Soon afterward, players will get a chance to learn more about Avernus by encountering the Tiefling Barbarian Karlach, one of Baldur's Gate 3' s Origin characters and a potential companion. A slave-champion of Zariel in the Blood War, Karlach saw the nautiloid's arrival as a chance to escape her servitude and the endless violence of Avernus. Although she was implanted with a tadpole in the process, she did successfully escape, and when players meet her she is still being pursued by the vengeful agents of Zariel in the mortal realm. As players grow closer to Karlach and complete her personal quests, they'll get the opportunity to learn even more about Avernus and the horrors of the Blood War.
Baldur's Gate 3 is out now for PC with a PS5 version coming September 6. An Xbox version of the game is also in development.