Baldur’s Gate 3 hides spicy reference to first game’s companion

One of the fabled heroes from the Bhaalspawn Saga is referenced in Baldur’s Gate 3, but only in a rude book that the player can find.

Baldur’s Gate 3 occurs over a century after its predecessor, but the cast from the original game can easily be alive, considering how D&D is filled with long-lived races and magical means to stop the aging process. This is why Minsc is still a playable character, as he was frozen in time for decades.

Despite this, not all Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 companions appear in the latest entry. There is a reference to Xan, an elven Enchanter who joins the party in the first game and wields an incredibly powerful Moonblade sword in combat, but you must look hard to find it.

In Baldur’s Gate 3, you can buy a book in the titular city that details an illicit encounter between Xan and his Moonblade. This encounter presumably occurs in a story in which he never joined the party in Baldur’s Gate 1 and was left in the Nashkel Mines.

This is just one of the many spicy books the player can read in Baldur’s Gate 3, many of them referencing different aspects of the series’ lore, as well as different parts of D&D, including the adventures of Elminster and Volo that likely won’t see print in real life.

The fans on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit love finding these Easter Eggs, especially when they reference classic party members that don’t physically appear in the game.

Larian Studios has confirmed it’s not working on Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC or the next entry in the series. This means that another studio has the chance to bring Xan back, as his elven longevity means he can easily still be alive in the current timeline.

What he thinks about his appearance in the world of literature is anyone’s guess. Hopefully, he hasn’t been reading much lately.