#... sure

Let's start with a brief, somewhat comprehensive timeline to make sense of shit lmfao (trust me this will come in handy)

1331 Fines Creation 1331 Adoption 1345 Sarevok's Birth 1349 The Urge awakened for the first time 1350 Banishment to the Shadowfell 1350 Tamokos Birth 1358 Bhaals Death 1368 Tamoko's Death + Sarevok's departure in 69 1407 Sarevok's Death + Reincarnation 1434 Helena's Birth 1440 Fine's brief return to the Gate 1440 Calimport 1441 Sarevok returns with Helena 1444 Gortash's Birth 1461 Meeting Gortash in Calimport 1462 Return to the Cult 1462 Orins Birth 1467 Fine is anointed as cult leader 1467 Helena's attempt on Orin 1475 Meeting Gortash as Banite 1776 The Raids 1477 Murder Spree/Blood in Baldurs Gate (in support of Gort) 1480 A blossoming, toxic situationship 1482 Chosen 1483 Ketheric joins 1491 Bormul Incident 1492 BG3 happening

Now with that all out of the way, let's actually go and start at the beginning, namely the end of the original story. Its 1369, Bhaal, Tamoko, Irenicus, Amelyssan, the 5, etc. etc. are all dead, the Bhaalspawn crisis avoided, Gorion's Ward aka Abdel Adrian is the Hero of Baldur's Gate (......), now-normal-mortal Sarevok got a bit of Adrian's Soul nd dipped, yada yada we all know this story. Except I'm going with that particular Sarevok ending that mentions he leaves for Kara-Tur (specifically Kozakura) where he buries Tamokos body.

And this is where my bullshit begins; instead of simply going there to burry Tamoko he decides to stay. After all, he's very much infamous in Faerûn for no particularly great reasons and considering their own political issues, finding work as an experienced fighter and schemer in Kozakura was quite easy for him. So he did just that, lived there as a mercenary for a second or two, staying as long as his contract demanded but not a second longer and relishing in his newfound freedom. If all had gone according to plan, that is.

See, the Spellplague of 1385 affected all of Toril, and in Kozakura specifically it only amplified the already tense political situation, escalating into a full scale civil war, constantly fueled by the scheming and mingling of a Wu Jen Society. And boy oh boy did it trigger Irenicus former little toy when he saw some people trying to pull weird arcane bullshit again.

So rather than leaving Kozakura like many others, Sarevok stayed back, tried to be a good guy for once, ended up being allowed to join a local clan and just having the time of his life beating up a bunch of people for a better cause than his own had been. And then he fucking died lol. But not to worry, if any place has an abundance of spirit folk, yokai and other "nature if it was human" creatures, it is Kozakura. And if any place was in need of people capable of fighting, it was Kozakura as well. So good old Sarevok earned himself a new, now 100% confirmed Bhaal free body, alongside an extended lifespan.

Life simply continued this way for a while, and albeit the scars of the war were beginning to show in all aspects of life, it was still bearable and Sarevok felt good about being able to beat (one of) his traumas arse and protect something related to that true love of his that he fumbled harder than anyone else ever fumbled in all of history.

And then Helena was born. See, Sarevok may have kept mainly to himself, but even he couldn’t avoid the trap of a found family in the home he'd chosen for himself. So long story short, when shit got really fucking bad and everyone was considering "well we can't rly afford any more mouths to feed maybe we should close a few here or there" rather than stand by as he would've done once upon a time Sarevok decided to grow bhaals, snatch that kid of his friend doomed to be one of those closed mouths, and vanish once again. He was certain he could make it out of Kozakura and manage life somewhere else with or without a little bundle of shape-changing something after all, so that's exactly what he did.

He changed little bundles name and went along, back to his earlier days of just enjoying whatever he wanted (except now with a bit more responsibility in the shape of a lil kid), and just tried to raise this kid that had been unwanted by so many others, much like he himself once was.

But this is still my durgetash bullshit and the magnum opus of my insanity so 1440 hits and he catches wind of a funny rumor about a Bhaalspawn returning to his old turf. And as a survivor of Bhaals reign and the first iteration of the Bhaalspawn crisis, good old Sarevok was not having any of it. So he took that kid and went back to the home of his nightmares, like any reasonable guy who sought avoidance rather than therapy or accountability would. :)

Upon his return, however, he learned that those rumours were seemingly unfounded and the only known Bhaalspawn still roaming around in the vicinity of the Sword Coast was his good old half-brother Abdel Adrian. Who was, much unlike Sarevok, overjoyed to welcome back some family. Especially considering the fact he may or may not ended up receiving intel that Dad's old followers are back, if one is inclined to believe they've ever left that is. But eitherway, something is happening in this beautiful never-quiet coastal town and as the figure head of the opposition and kind of busy co leader of this cesspool that calls itself a city; "pretty pls Sarevok whom I've given a piece of my fucking soul how about you help out ur good old pal and brother here hmmm?"

To which Sarevok agreed. Less cuz of Adrian and more so because of the lingering effects of growing up the way Bhaalspawn tend to grow up. Besides he got fucked over beautifully by Bhaal and the temple and if he can get back at them even just the tiniest bit more that's absolutely worth it in his humble opinion.

So Sarevok does end up finding the remnants of the cult, which are objectively doing "not good"™️ but surprisingly not that small in number and he decides that this won't be an in and out gone and done typa thing and resorts to the thing he does best; scheming. And as luck would have it he's wonderfully prepared for it. Because he may no longer be a Bhaalspawn, but once upon a time he was. And with no precedent to dispute his hypothesis, who's to say the taint won't return in a second generation? With no Bhaalspawn left to dispute his claims, who would out Helena as a fraud?

So Sarevok returns to the Cult, Helena his "daughter" in tow, remorseful about his "betrayal" and ready to give it his all in serving Bhaal again and definitely not just to do his best to destroy the faith from the inside (because fuck you Bhaal) and stop any attempts to resurrect the kinky murder lord immediately (because again, fuck you Bhaal).

And it would be so nice if the story ended here wouldn't it? So very nice. But alas. This ain't about him. And there's more Bhaalspawn around. 2 more to be precise.

20 years pass. Tiny Helena isn't quite so tiny anymore, and Sarevok regained some station thanks to her. And gods, how he missed it. Holding sway over people, having people listen and obey, clinging to his word like lives depend on it. As much as Tamoko wished to believe it was solely the rotten blood that caused all of their misery, perhaps he had always been a little rotten himself. But of course, this time he won't repeat his mistakes, he still holds onto his plan. This is, after all, to spite Bhaal and control the temple from acting out again. He's simply taking a more pleasing approach. One without nearly as many casualties. Adrian would understand, if they had been talking still. If he knew.

Anyhow, moral decay aside, generally speaking things were going swimmingly for Sarevok. A few hicups here and there couldn't be avoided, like when a boy and an imp showed up in front of the temple claiming that the boy was Bhaals long lost masterpiece, but lucky for Sarevok, his newfound brother was rather perceptive and it wasn't too hard to string him along. Perhaps the nativity from being isolated for longer than most humans lived contributed to that nativity, but today's Sarevok would probably find an explanation why he'd been the mastermind behind it all anyway.

And honestly with how he'd been managing things, it could've proceeded smoothly if not for this tiny, minor issue of Helenas pregnancy. The cult as it was now placed blood purity above all else. After all, with Bhaal missing and most of his spawn eradicated, a pureblooded Bhaalspawn was about as close as they could come to their god. And the boys arrival alone had been enough to highlight how important this belief had really grown within their ranks, and how easily opinions became divided.

But then again, this too wasn't an issue good old Sarevok couldn't navigate around. If this issue was the purity of Bhaals essence there's one handy way to get around it; eliminate the sources that could taint it. If Helenas true identity hadn't been revealed even after decades had passed it was unlikely it would be revealed now, and if the boy had a change of heart and exposed what Sarevok had done he'd ruin his own credibility alongside Sarevok's anyway. So he placed his bets and proceed to claim fatherhood. His consciousness did sting a tad bit but Tamoko would understand, he'd convinced himself of that. After all if this would lead to Bhaals certain destruction, it was worth every little white lie.

And well, from here on out, its pretty much the story everyone knows. Under Sarevok's careful guidance "Elli" learns how to resent Bhaal properly and how nice this particular flavour of power can be, both keep pushing off that destruction of the cult they're both definitely still pursuing, trust them, they'll do it tomorrow. And then Helena dies, one of them gets involved with a burly armed Banite and the other one is too busy feeling vindicated for suffering so much in his past to still care about anything else.

At least until Viekang grows a backbone (nah jk it's Viekang and I love how miserable he is; he was simply strung along by another branch of bhaalists cuz yeah that faith is bigger than just the Gate even if BG3 loves to forget that and not everyone falls for Sarevoks bullshit), Bhaal is resurrected and decides to visit his little failures. Like geniunely visit. Cuz yes the gods can casually drop by. And they do. Especially when the people they're about to visit can do fuck all.

Anyway after a brief visit from daddy dearest Sarevok is done. Bhaal knows what he did. He knows Bhaal knows. He failed everything he sat out to do and more, and again it happened because he was drawn into a false safety by his own hubris and realising that just absolutely crushes him. Theres no coming back from being destroyed like that twice. "Elli", unlike Sarevok, is a bit more rebellious (thx nativity); however he too is quickly put in place the second the world's greatest dad displays how little control "Elli" actually has. Especially over his own body. No the Urge was no unhappy little accident like he told himself, that was just the beginning.

Also because I can; yes Bhaal knows Orin is a complete scam. Yes he indulges it anyway. On one hand it's blatantly rubbing into Sarevok's and "Elli's" face that he's the one in power here, no matter what they try, if Bhaal decides it's the truth, it will become the truth, and also because it's just easier. Bhaal after all is an incredibly cruel and manipulative arsehole who knows how to turn a situation in his favour. He's perfectly aware of the power he holds and how to use it effectively, and I love that for him. Cuz he is murder personified and death, especially of that kind *is* cruel and malicious. Also, a nice little loyal puppet that doesn't know any better and already dedicated herself to him? For free? Without him having to do anything special? He'd be an idiot to turn that down. Besides if his other kid fucks up again (I mean theres a track record of that) he already has a spare ready. Thanks, Sarevok, "Elli", dad's finally proud of u guys :)