It’s currently unclear whether Baldur’s Gate III will be connected to the story of the original games or if it will just share the same setting. The only brief trailer that has been released for the game has shown mind flayers as the main antagonists, which means that Bhaal might not be involved at all.
There is a moment in the initial reveal trailer for Baldur’s Gate III that shows a Lovecraftian squid monster in the skies above the city of Baldur’s Gate. It turns out that the thing in the sky is not a living being, but rather, a ship. Larian Studios has confirmed (via Rock Paper Shotgun) that the thing in the sky is actually a Nautiloid, which is a spacefaring vessel used by the mind flayers in the Spelljammer campaign setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
Spelljammer was a campaign setting for the second edition of Dungeons & Dragons that combined fantasy and science fiction concepts together. It was possible for the players to acquire vessels that were powered by magic, which were known as spelljammer helms. An arcade spellcaster could use the helm to move their ship through space. There were various different kinds of ships in the Spelljammer universe and the mind flayers had their own type, which was known as Nautiloids.
Nautiloids resembled colossal monstrous snails that had their shell repurposed to house a crew. The Nautiloids were staffed with mind flayers, who acted as intergalactic pirates by using their psychic powers to disable the enemy from afar.
Spelljammer never took off at the time, but it has gathered a cult following over the years and there are many people who would love to see the campaign setting adapted for the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
The official adventures and campaigns that have been released for the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons have tried to shake up the formula, with scenarios such as Curse of Strahd relying on random clue & item placement and Tomb of Annihilation giving the players a massive island to explore. Spelljammer and its unconventional setting would be a perfect fit for the new kinds of stories that can be told in Dungeons & Dragons.
If Wizards of the Coast is intending to bring back Spelljammer, then what better way than to use the ships as one of the key elements in Baldur’s Gate III. The official Dungeons & Dragons books have rarely referenced Spelljammer, but that has changed recently with Baldur’s Gate III and the recent Waterdeep: Dungeons of the Mad Mage, so it’s possible that Spelljammer could be returning as an official campaign setting in the near future.
Baldur’s Gate III is currently in development for Google Stadia and PC.
