Baldur’s Gate 3 Developer Reveals NPC Based on Her Grandmother

This article contains some spoilers for Act one of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Larian Studios writer Rachel Quirke recently responded to a player on Twitter who was discussing their encounter with the character Auntie Ethel, an older woman you can stumble across during Act one of the game.

The NPC sports a thick Irish accent and isn’t afraid to speak her mind, while also delivering some hilarious dialogue as the player pointed out. But it turns out that Auntie Ethel is actually “loosely based” on Quirke’s real grandmother (via PC GamesN).

“Fun fact – Auntie Ethel is inspired by my grandmother! Or ‘Nana Juju’ as we call her,” explained Quirke. “When I told her I’d written a character loosely based on her, she said: ‘Well, it’s about time someone did.'”

For those who have yet to meet Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3 may want to stop reading here, because the thing that makes this new fact sort of funny is that after a series of quests, the player and their party will discover that Ethel is actually a terrifying swamp witch in disguise.

When a Twitter user responded to Quirke’s post saying, “Good you said ‘loosely’,” the developer joked, “Oh, make no mistake – Nana Juju would absolutely take Auntie Ethel in a fight.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 has had a massively successful launch in its first two weeks on PC, quickly becoming one of Steam’s biggest games of all time. The PS5 version of Baldur’s Gate 3 is set to launch on September 6, but players who pre-ordered can preload their games two days early, which wasn’t the case for the PC release.

Good news for current players, hotfix four has been reinstated after it was rolled back for causing crashes, so players can now load their previously inaccessible save files.

Baldur’s Gate 3 beginners may want to check out our best class guide if you’re just getting started. If you’re looking for something different, here’s our list of the best PC games you can play right now.