WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3.
In Baldur's Gate 3, which is available in early access, players can encounter five companions, one for each major class, with their own motivations, backstory and secrets. The Cleric and healer is Shadowheart, a snarky Half-Elf on a sacred mission to reach Baldur's Gate for the glory of her goddess, Shar, who is considered Evil in-universe. Shadowheart is so devoted to Shar that she chose to suppress most of her memories, which she believes she will recover when she reaches her destination.
However, Patch Four came with a wealth of dataminable sound files, single sentences linked to the different companions. Some of these phrases are combat barks, while others express the characters' opinions on different objects and people. Others are clearly part of elaborate dialogue trees, waiting to be reassembled in future updates. At first glance, Shadowheart's lines were mostly barks, but surprisingly, some are incantations to Selûne, the Good-aligned Moon Maiden, and the sister and rival of Shar. In other words, Shadowheart can be heard praying to her goddess' greatest enemy.
The following datamined lines call Shadowheart's loyalties into question:
"I would strike through -- but in who's name?"
"In the Moonmaiden's name."
"The Moonmaiden smiles upon me."
"Selûne, arm me with your silver light."
"I am Her seventh, cloaked in silver."
"Cower from her light!"
In any other game, who Shadowheart worships, and how that might change over the course of the story, wouldn't be particularly important. However, the Origin Characters have deep ties to Baldur's Gate 3's developing plot. The main beats of Act One (which is all that is available in early access) hint at a vast conspiracy to replace citizens and key political and religious figures with mind flayers -- an "invasion of the body snatchers" so to speak. This involves abducting a person, implanting them with a mind-flayer tadpole and then taking them to a special place to neutralize their powers and make them subservient.
This "special place" is Moonrise Tower, a religious hub that was devoted to Selûne. The starting area bears the markers of this focused worship. The name of the blighted village is "Moonhaven," the Druid Grove has many murals depicting the victory of Selûne over Shar a long time ago and the Owlbear's nest is a Selûne place of worship -- and it's the only one that remains intact (at least until the player character arrives).
Additionally, the goblins have set their camp over a desecrated temple of the Moon Maiden. However, the goblins didn't destroy these places -- Dark Justicars (Shar's Templars) did. Shadowheart is trying to follow their trail to get help, and this trail is leading her to Moonrise Towers.
There's also the matter of Shadowheart's lost memories. Why would her memories endanger her mission if she is as devoted to Shar as she believes? Could it be that she's able to draw on Selûne's waning power and that she might be the key to defeat the new Absolute -- or at least to force whoever is at Moonrise Towers to remove the party's tadpoles? Or could she be an avatar or a descendant of the goddess herself, which is not an unlikely event in the Baldur's Gate universe? In any case, these lines make Shadowheart's missing backstory all the more intriguing.
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