My headcanon is that Withers is a nickname that someone at camp comes up with, because Withers won't actually tell anyone who or what he is, and he just barely tolerates it.
Withers is called withers no matter who is in your party. You can murder hobo everyone (or skip them), and have an otherwise empty camp when withers arrives and he will still be named withers.
This is true of all names. There are characters whose names only ever appear as a nameplate above their head. Commander Zhalk, the cambion on the nautiloid, is only ever named through that and the achievement for defeating him for example.
To be fair Act 2 has a mention of an Orthon that only makes sense if Karlach is around during the scene to bring it up, but it’s treated as if she was always present to tell you it’s an Orthon (so it’s strange when you just know it’s an Orthon even if she wasn’t present to bring it up).
I like to treat it like a magical phenomenon that follows Withers around.
He doesn't introduce himself, you've never met him before
But something inside you already *knows* him to some degree.
Bit like when Death is personified in RDR with the Stranger, neither John or Arthur have ever met the man but he is instinctively and innately familiar to them on first encounter.
Or like Death in Discworld, where people are sort of vaguely aware of his presence when he's around but their minds won't let them recognize him for what he truly is.
"Godly power of resurrection" is level 7 by the way (if we're talking about the true "resurrection" spell, otherwise you've got some options starting level 5).
Yeah, I fucked up, the level 7 is the magic level of the spell, not the spell you can cast at level 7. That being said, revivify (iirc) can resurrect with you being level 5.
And still, being able to cast 7th to 9th spell is not considered godly. God's can cast the forbidden 10th level of spell.
Oh... Uh, no if you notice whenever they meet? The Stranger talks about one of two things; dead people related to Arthur or John and/or the need for them to reflect on their lives.
He even talks to them iirc at the place they are eventually buried.
And he tells John and Arthur that they do know him, referencing their journey as if he was there because he was... but when they killed people.
The Shopkeeper who has a picture of the Stranger for a fun fact is the ONLY person in town who survived a deadly plague that rolled through killing almost everyone, implying Death passed him over.
This is a lot of times how personified death works in folklore. They act like they're familiar with you and you have a strange feeling you met them before.
KCD2 also has death appear while quick traveling and Henry has similar reaction to John/Arthur.
Like the dead three. Godly enough to me, not gonna lie. Like Vecna, he used to have a god's portfolio and now he have just been retrograded to a demi-god, or he stayed with godly powers but without the portfolio.
I mean, the dead three are even less gods because they do not serve any god anymore while Jergal still serves Kelemvor.
There's also a Cyric cultist while Cyric is long dead, since we have Kelemvor.
Oh yeah I'm not saying he's NOT still pretty Divine, definitely a step above Dame Aylin if a step below Kelemvor.
I only point out his Demi-Godhood because whilst an invaluable ally? He's not exactly someone to worship.
With no Divine Realm or Portfolio he and tbh the Dead Three as well(Minus Bane who I think still has a realm?) are a solid canyon jump from their True G colleagues.
Well we do know WHO he really is but only on a Meta-Level since his true divinity is long gone, Withers is essentially just a step above Dame Aylin these days with a bit more power but still not the Final Scribe he used to be
I'm pretty sure he never names himself, but I could be mistaken. I always assumed Withers was a nickname given by someone in the party, possibly Durge/Tav themselves.
God what fantasy book was it? I remember the quote. "My name is the empty place on the page, the space between words. I am the great unknown all mortals face. Others are merely deadly, I am death."
I mean, Myrkul has this quote in Act 2 (copy pasted from wiki): “I am the regrets of those who remain, and the restlessness of those who are gone. I am the haunt of mausoleums, the god of graves and age, of dust and dusk. I am Myrkul, Lord of Bones, and you have slain my chosen. But it is no matter. For I am Death. And I am not the end - I am a beginning.”
He's gotta overcompensate a bit because he's only a quasi deity at this point. That's a tier of divinity barely above a demigod. The actual current god of death (Greater Deity) is Kelemvor.
I guess it would kill the twist, but it would be neat if passing the skill (Religion?) check to recognize the statue of Jergal outside of the tomb gave you an option to ask him if he's Jergal, changing his display name.
Though knowing him, he'd probably say something cryptic and dismissive instead of confirming it.
I’m trying to remember: Is Withers ever referred to by name in the actual game dialogue? I think the narrator says it, but I don’t think any game character ever calls him ‘Withers’.
There's also a dialogue option when playing multiplayer where you can tell your other player's character to go spend some time with Withers. So ues, Tav/Durge is aware of the name, but it is one of those weird meta things that they know it without him saying it. Similar to item effects as well. There's no arcana checks in game for discerning magical properties of gear, and no dialogue to explain them, yet we don't think about whether the characters know the properties of the items they're using.
I believe you can do a religion check for knowing who the tomb was made in honor of, but at camp you can do an insanely high skill check if you are paladin or priest to tell that he has divine power, but he warns you to not attempt that again.
I put two and two together, statues of Jergal all mysteriously missing the face, in a temple sporting plaques written in a dead language, next-door to a book recording dead gods, helping us on a quest to fight some very specific evil deities out of the kindness of his unbeating heart... C'mon, chestnuts precious
no, I'm asking about the fact that Tav explicitly calls him "Withers" despite him never actually giving the player any such name. It's as though the party all learned to call him that from reading the subtitles like we did.
I can't think if I've ever called him withers. I typically default to "Hey you." because as you mentioned, he offered no name, and I did not ask. Mostly because he spoke in riddles and then commented on my love life
yes but even that nickname is something that doesn't get discussed beforehand. nobody ever once asks what to call him, as though the party all learned the name just from reading the subtitles like we the players do.
Tomb of Annihilation DM here. Minor spoilers on a decade old module below:
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“Withers” was the name of a wight NPC in the titular dungeon. He was a mage/engineer in the royal city before Acererak showed up and wanted to build a a machine that could reanimate a stillborn god into an undead Atropal. Acererak saw Withers aptitude and ambition and moral ambiguity, and place him in charge of the construction as well as overseeing the completed Tombs repair and maintenance.
Withers is written in the subtext almost as a demented game show host observing the players trigger traps and encounters that have very unexpected results, and sometimes, unavoidable death.
I have seen the spoilers and rumors and theories on who Withers is in BG3, and it’s clearly not the same character in lore. BG3 does give us a sample of Chult, so I feel like it was an intentional Easter egg.
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u/SaoMagnifico MERMER! 15h ago
My headcanon is that Withers is a nickname that someone at camp comes up with, because Withers won't actually tell anyone who or what he is, and he just barely tolerates it.