Yup, try convincing pre-flayer karlach to use the astral tadpole and she WILL make you feel bad for it, straight up asking if 10 years in hell wasn't enough. Just because she seemed okay with it when there wasn't much choice and the illithid "I'm so cool" made her happy doesn't mean it's a good ending for her at all.
Personally I think that Wyll should be the one to become a mindflayer, at least if he failed to break his pact with Mizora, as losing his soul means he cannot end up as a lemure in the hells.
I have a theory: At the end of the game, after the credits, Withers talks about how Mind Flayers lose their souls after transforming, then insults the Dead Three for thinking nobody would notice. I think that the Dead Three are actively stealing the souls of people as they become Mind Flayers, consuming them to increase their power. Since Mind Flayer's are so different to humanoids, they can likely exist without souls, however because they can become Liches, they historically MUST have had souls, as Liches can only revive by binding their soul to a phylactery. So, if the Dead Three soul-stealing can be evaded then Mind Flayers can have souls, which I think happens to Omeluum (by chance) and your companions (because of Orpheus's protection). This does, however, mean that the Emperor does not have a soul, as he transformed without soul-protection. This also explains why he's so manipulative, and did terrible things in his backstory.
the best end for karlach i think. lives the rest of her life happy, never to see the hells again and free from the worries of the time-bomb in her chest.
The worst possible thing that could have happened to her. She lost her soul just so she could "live" as a GHAIK
Yup, try convincing pre-flayer karlach to use the astral tadpole and she WILL make you feel bad for it, straight up asking if 10 years in hell wasn't enough.
Just because she seemed okay with it when there wasn't much choice and the illithid "I'm so cool" made her happy doesn't mean it's a good ending for her at all.
Personally I think that Wyll should be the one to become a mindflayer, at least if he failed to break his pact with Mizora, as losing his soul means he cannot end up as a lemure in the hells.
I have a theory: At the end of the game, after the credits, Withers talks about how Mind Flayers lose their souls after transforming, then insults the Dead Three for thinking nobody would notice. I think that the Dead Three are actively stealing the souls of people as they become Mind Flayers, consuming them to increase their power. Since Mind Flayer's are so different to humanoids, they can likely exist without souls, however because they can become Liches, they historically MUST have had souls, as Liches can only revive by binding their soul to a phylactery.
So, if the Dead Three soul-stealing can be evaded then Mind Flayers can have souls, which I think happens to Omeluum (by chance) and your companions (because of Orpheus's protection). This does, however, mean that the Emperor does not have a soul, as he transformed without soul-protection. This also explains why he's so manipulative, and did terrible things in his backstory.
the best end for karlach i think. lives the rest of her life happy, never to see the hells again and free from the worries of the time-bomb in her chest.