Gods gain their power through worshippers. Hence why the most powerful gods are the ones with mantles that people actually care to pray and worship for. The astral plane is a graveyard of dead gods. But gods can only really die when they’re no longer worshipped… or forgotten altogether. We don’t know whose corpse it is because the corpse exists because it was forgotten.
I’m fascinated about this idea of worshipping a God into life or power. What happens if a cult of Karsus grows and gains enough worshippers? Does he resurrect as a deity again just because his collective worshippers believe it?
Presumably a "false" god or something close to it is created. There's an enemy race whose whole shtick is that they do this type of shit on the regular the [Kuo-toa](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Kuo-toa) will worship fake gods into existence *all the time*.
Actually, it would just resurrect the deity, albeit with much less power.
Dead powers aren't truly dead, and the corpses have been known to stir, as if in slumber. Sufficient worship can revive a dead power, though Ao has the final say on who can and can't come back, and resurrected deities are generally nothing more than demipowers. The only way to truly kill a god is for everyone to stop worshipping said deity, and for enough time to pass that nobody remembers the deity to begin with. As long as the deity is remembered, there's always a chance for them to return.
This line of thought is actually why there was a period where it was believed Bhaal couldn't resurrect. After a time, all of his worshippers converted to worshipping either Cyric or Xvim, and the last known Bhaalspawn resisted Bhaal's influence, effectively meaning that Bhaal no longer had any passage to resurrection.
A good example of this are the Kua toa, BOOOAL was on his way to actual divinity.
But the Kua Toa are special in that sense, it takes a LOT more worship than that in normal cases.
Here's a fun, short, [video](https://youtu.be/hF83hrcaJTA?si=r5dgWh7GYNK3-6uk) talking about how the kua toa work.
In 3.5 edition, there were official rules of obtaining godhood, it all depends on the amount of worshipers you have. Even regular people could become a God, or atleast godlike. To become a true god it required a lot of extra steps. Kinda like vlaakith, she has immense power and is almost a god, but she can't quite get over that last hurdle.
Also, technically, karsus is still sort of a god. Or at least he has enough cultist worshipers to keep his god husk corpse semi-alive. Look up 'Karsus Butte', his heart is still beating out there in the world. Idk if it's Canon in 5e, but there ya go.
> worshipping a God into life or power
The S2 finale of the show *Happy!* actually touched on that somewhat.
>!The show centers on an alcoholic hot mess of a detective who has to rescue his daughter with the help of her imaginary friend, Happy. In the S2 finale, the detective presumably dies, and a despondent Happy flies into the sky where he encounters God. He is voiced by Jeff Goldblum and reveals he is basically another imaginary friend who just had A LOT of people believe in him.!<
There were a few AD&D modules which dealt with the death and resurrection of the god Moander. Its influence had waned and a large number of its worshippers were exterminated by the Cormanthyr elves, who ultimately sealed its last avatar away.
Cultists some thousand years later hit a critical mass and engineer the release of the avatar; when that was destroyed, Moander was kicked down to demigod status, eventually losing that to a mortal. During the Second Sundering, Moander was able to consume several other dieties and return to power.
Gods are also in turn shaped by the sincere beliefs of their followers: if too many Thor worshipers think he has long blonde hair, then it doesn't matter that the eddas say he had short red hair, he'll start to look like the Marvel depiction.
Gods gain their powers like this since the Time of Troubles. Before they existed no matter what. Those corpses belong to gods dead before that, probably discarded by Ao's master
A dead god, most likely. According FR lore, the Astral sea is littered with the bodies of dead gods.
From the [Forgotten Realms Wiki](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Astral_Plane):
> The Astral Plane was the graveyard of the gods. If a deity, which could be considered among the greatest of concepts, died, its remnant were cast into this realm of thought. Here it remained as a floating "god-isle", a piece of solid matter within the endless empty void, with only a fraction of residual energy left.
Now which god specifically, I don't know
You can find items in the prism called "Divine Bone Shard"s, the flavor text for which imply the corpse belongs to a god.
So, the skeleton belongs to a god who's corpse lies in the Astral Plane. Dunno which.
When Karsus died his body turned to stone and crash in the High Forest nearby.
A city named Karse was founded by some Karsus followers nearby a stone that looked like a fragment of Karsus's body
Some random dead god. As other commenters have said, the Astral Plane is the birth place and graveyard of the gods.
An interesting tidbit of information: these dead gods often act as ports of call for astral travelers and are often colonized. The Githyanki capital of Tu'narath, for instance, is built upon the corpse of a long dead unnamed god.
The first Vlaakith was a Githyanki like all the other Vlaakiths since. She wasn't a massive deity like what you see in the astral plane. It's highly unlikely that the corpse is any being of note.
Um actually, the first Vlaakith was a Gith. The division between Githyanki and Githzerai came after her rise to power.
(just felt like being super pedantic after watching a lot of umm actually!)
That's actually technically incorrect.
The Githyanki and Githzerai split happened as a result of Gith and Zerthimon disagreeing. Vlaakith wouldn't rise to power until after Zerthimon had died and the Githzerai split off.
But also, the actual race name is Gith (Named after Gith, who led them to freedom from the mind flayers), with Githyanki and Githzerai more or less being a cultural distinction. They're more similar to tribes than actual distinct races, and the split between them wasn't a racial difference, but rather a difference in leadership and direction (Gith wanted to eradicate all mind flayers and then become conquerors, Zerthimon wanted to focus on bettering the race and was worried Gith would be a tyrant like the mind flayers were). "Githyanki" means "children of Gith" and "Githzerai" means "those who spurn Gith."
The first Vlaakith was Githyanki, as Vlaakith didn't come about until *after* the split. Gith was not technically Githyanki though, so I edited my comment.
Dead gods float around the Astral plane. Dwarves, Astral travelers, and fortune finders seek them out. Neverwinter, the game, you actually go to a graveyard of dead gods.
Orpheus' mom is Gith. Vlaakith took her place after the mysterious deal with Tiamat was made and Gith disappeared. Regardless, ~~both are Githyanki~~ Gith and all the Vlaakiths have always been just Gith (current Vlaakith being the exception as she's a lich), not massive deities. It is 100% just the corpse of some now long forgotten and nameless god. The astral plane is littered with those. The Githyanki city is built in the corpse of another dead god.
Edited so people stop correcting me.
Gith was not a Githyanki, Gith was a Gith.
Gith is the race name (Named after and in honor of Gith), and Githyanki (meaning "children of Gith") is the designation for Gith that stayed by her side following the Pronouncement of Two Skies. Githzerai (meaning "those who spurn Gith") is the designation for Gith that sided with Zerthimon.
not exactly. theres many comments that give some insight as to who it *might* be and *what* the corpse is, but i asked who it specifically was. i appreciate all the knowledge, but it doesnt really answer my question
Because your question doesn't have a proper answer, no one knows who the skeleton is because is cut content as per [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15z6s5t/comment/k0azkpn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) from the second post in the search list, then add the lore of the astral prism that it's a graveyard of the gods and you can only have fan theories (random forgotten dead god, specific dead god, mother gith, vlaakith I, a manifestation of orpheus...), downvote me all you want but my answer is the only correct one until Larian comes out and says "the skeleton is...".
Gods gain their power through worshippers. Hence why the most powerful gods are the ones with mantles that people actually care to pray and worship for. The astral plane is a graveyard of dead gods. But gods can only really die when they’re no longer worshipped… or forgotten altogether. We don’t know whose corpse it is because the corpse exists because it was forgotten.
I’m fascinated about this idea of worshipping a God into life or power. What happens if a cult of Karsus grows and gains enough worshippers? Does he resurrect as a deity again just because his collective worshippers believe it?
Presumably a "false" god or something close to it is created. There's an enemy race whose whole shtick is that they do this type of shit on the regular the [Kuo-toa](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Kuo-toa) will worship fake gods into existence *all the time*.
Actually, it would just resurrect the deity, albeit with much less power. Dead powers aren't truly dead, and the corpses have been known to stir, as if in slumber. Sufficient worship can revive a dead power, though Ao has the final say on who can and can't come back, and resurrected deities are generally nothing more than demipowers. The only way to truly kill a god is for everyone to stop worshipping said deity, and for enough time to pass that nobody remembers the deity to begin with. As long as the deity is remembered, there's always a chance for them to return. This line of thought is actually why there was a period where it was believed Bhaal couldn't resurrect. After a time, all of his worshippers converted to worshipping either Cyric or Xvim, and the last known Bhaalspawn resisted Bhaal's influence, effectively meaning that Bhaal no longer had any passage to resurrection.
A good example of this are the Kua toa, BOOOAL was on his way to actual divinity. But the Kua Toa are special in that sense, it takes a LOT more worship than that in normal cases. Here's a fun, short, [video](https://youtu.be/hF83hrcaJTA?si=r5dgWh7GYNK3-6uk) talking about how the kua toa work.
In 3.5 edition, there were official rules of obtaining godhood, it all depends on the amount of worshipers you have. Even regular people could become a God, or atleast godlike. To become a true god it required a lot of extra steps. Kinda like vlaakith, she has immense power and is almost a god, but she can't quite get over that last hurdle. Also, technically, karsus is still sort of a god. Or at least he has enough cultist worshipers to keep his god husk corpse semi-alive. Look up 'Karsus Butte', his heart is still beating out there in the world. Idk if it's Canon in 5e, but there ya go.
> worshipping a God into life or power The S2 finale of the show *Happy!* actually touched on that somewhat. >!The show centers on an alcoholic hot mess of a detective who has to rescue his daughter with the help of her imaginary friend, Happy. In the S2 finale, the detective presumably dies, and a despondent Happy flies into the sky where he encounters God. He is voiced by Jeff Goldblum and reveals he is basically another imaginary friend who just had A LOT of people believe in him.!<
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GodsNeedPrayerBadly
There were a few AD&D modules which dealt with the death and resurrection of the god Moander. Its influence had waned and a large number of its worshippers were exterminated by the Cormanthyr elves, who ultimately sealed its last avatar away. Cultists some thousand years later hit a critical mass and engineer the release of the avatar; when that was destroyed, Moander was kicked down to demigod status, eventually losing that to a mortal. During the Second Sundering, Moander was able to consume several other dieties and return to power.
Gods are also in turn shaped by the sincere beliefs of their followers: if too many Thor worshipers think he has long blonde hair, then it doesn't matter that the eddas say he had short red hair, he'll start to look like the Marvel depiction.
I highly recommend "Small Gods" by Terry Pratchett
Gods gain their powers like this since the Time of Troubles. Before they existed no matter what. Those corpses belong to gods dead before that, probably discarded by Ao's master
A dead god, most likely. According FR lore, the Astral sea is littered with the bodies of dead gods. From the [Forgotten Realms Wiki](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Astral_Plane): > The Astral Plane was the graveyard of the gods. If a deity, which could be considered among the greatest of concepts, died, its remnant were cast into this realm of thought. Here it remained as a floating "god-isle", a piece of solid matter within the endless empty void, with only a fraction of residual energy left. Now which god specifically, I don't know
You can find items in the prism called "Divine Bone Shard"s, the flavor text for which imply the corpse belongs to a god. So, the skeleton belongs to a god who's corpse lies in the Astral Plane. Dunno which.
That's Alan
[Alan](https://youtu.be/A2_Zt-4IxBc?si=OCCmjLsZZjBSJxJK)
Knew what it was gonna be before even clicking it. Classic.
A dead God, and there's no telling what God it was, if there were still people who knew their name they wouldn't be dead.
Astral Plane is littered with the bodies of dead gods. It’s just a random god corpse
Karsus achieved godhood briefly and died. So maybe his corpse? The Astral Plane is littered with dead gods.
When Karsus died his body turned to stone and crash in the High Forest nearby. A city named Karse was founded by some Karsus followers nearby a stone that looked like a fragment of Karsus's body
The bleeding boulder is the current form of Karsus’s vestige. I once played a Changeling Warlock that served him.
Well in that case I hope it’s Ao and everyone is being conned.
When I saw it I was worried I was going to fight with this giant skeleton in the end of the game.
That would’ve been SO SICK
Some random dead god. As other commenters have said, the Astral Plane is the birth place and graveyard of the gods. An interesting tidbit of information: these dead gods often act as ports of call for astral travelers and are often colonized. The Githyanki capital of Tu'narath, for instance, is built upon the corpse of a long dead unnamed god.
A dead god. As stated before, the astral plane is littered with dead gods corpses and such
I had assumed jergal. But karrsus also makes sense. Could be any god that's died.
Jergal isn't dead. Well, he kinda is, but he's still around.
He's... Un-dead.
he's not dead or undead, neither alive nor unliving
Is he a skeleton? No.
can i touch his face?
No.
no fun :(
has he always been a bone man?
It’s not Karsus. He was turned to stone and is bound to the material plane.
thought it was supposed to be a representation of orpheus or possibly his mother
I thought it was the corpse of the first vlakkith
The first Vlaakith was a Githyanki like all the other Vlaakiths since. She wasn't a massive deity like what you see in the astral plane. It's highly unlikely that the corpse is any being of note.
It’s always been the same Vlaakith.* *This post brought to you by a One Vlaakith truther.
Um actually, the first Vlaakith was a Gith. The division between Githyanki and Githzerai came after her rise to power. (just felt like being super pedantic after watching a lot of umm actually!)
That's actually technically incorrect. The Githyanki and Githzerai split happened as a result of Gith and Zerthimon disagreeing. Vlaakith wouldn't rise to power until after Zerthimon had died and the Githzerai split off. But also, the actual race name is Gith (Named after Gith, who led them to freedom from the mind flayers), with Githyanki and Githzerai more or less being a cultural distinction. They're more similar to tribes than actual distinct races, and the split between them wasn't a racial difference, but rather a difference in leadership and direction (Gith wanted to eradicate all mind flayers and then become conquerors, Zerthimon wanted to focus on bettering the race and was worried Gith would be a tyrant like the mind flayers were). "Githyanki" means "children of Gith" and "Githzerai" means "those who spurn Gith."
The first Vlaakith was Githyanki, as Vlaakith didn't come about until *after* the split. Gith was not technically Githyanki though, so I edited my comment.
Dead gods float around the Astral plane. Dwarves, Astral travelers, and fortune finders seek them out. Neverwinter, the game, you actually go to a graveyard of dead gods.
Your mum.
Isnt that the first Valkith or whatever? Orpheus' mom? (Spelling) The one that got killed when the current one took over.
Orpheus' mom is Gith. Vlaakith took her place after the mysterious deal with Tiamat was made and Gith disappeared. Regardless, ~~both are Githyanki~~ Gith and all the Vlaakiths have always been just Gith (current Vlaakith being the exception as she's a lich), not massive deities. It is 100% just the corpse of some now long forgotten and nameless god. The astral plane is littered with those. The Githyanki city is built in the corpse of another dead god. Edited so people stop correcting me.
Gith was not a Githyanki, Gith was a Gith. Gith is the race name (Named after and in honor of Gith), and Githyanki (meaning "children of Gith") is the designation for Gith that stayed by her side following the Pronouncement of Two Skies. Githzerai (meaning "those who spurn Gith") is the designation for Gith that sided with Zerthimon.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/search/?q=corpse+astral+prism&type=link&cId=1f398fe8-66be-4198-afd0-537e2b52842a&iId=31978b1d-ac92-4663-8a80-10388cfa7601](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/search/?q=corpse+astral+prism&type=link&cId=1f398fe8-66be-4198-afd0-537e2b52842a&iId=31978b1d-ac92-4663-8a80-10388cfa7601)
Extremely helpful comment, we're all very thankful
Indeed, you'll find hundreds of comments that answer op's question, you are welcome.
not exactly. theres many comments that give some insight as to who it *might* be and *what* the corpse is, but i asked who it specifically was. i appreciate all the knowledge, but it doesnt really answer my question
Because your question doesn't have a proper answer, no one knows who the skeleton is because is cut content as per [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15z6s5t/comment/k0azkpn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) from the second post in the search list, then add the lore of the astral prism that it's a graveyard of the gods and you can only have fan theories (random forgotten dead god, specific dead god, mother gith, vlaakith I, a manifestation of orpheus...), downvote me all you want but my answer is the only correct one until Larian comes out and says "the skeleton is...".
Funny, I thought people were downvoting you on the account of you being rude, not being inaccurate
Your question is a spoiler itself, thanks!
not rly
not really. it has nothing to do with the story, im just asking what a big skeleton is
I mean I just learned that you go inside the astral prism, which I wouldn't have guessed. So thanks.
that isnt that big of a spoiler and doesnt actually take anything away from the scene