Baldur's Gate 3 leads shut down popular community theory that the RPG's most mysterious characters was originally a totally different character

gamesradar.com:

Baldur's Gate 3 developers have decisively shut down speculation surrounding The Emperor.

Be warned: spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3's third act follow!

Speaking to IGN in a new interview, lead writer Adam Smith and game director Swen Vincke refute the idea that The Emperor was initially written as a very different character. The outlet had apparently read a rumor from a datamine that the squid was meant to be a "totally different character."

"No," said Smith, shutting down the speculation straight away, confirming that The Emperor was always a Mindflayer from the start. "Yeah, it was at the very core story. It was part of the core story from the get-go," adds game director Vincke of The Emperor's form.

Vincke also says it was always the plan to have The Emperor's true identity be none other than Balduran, the founder of Baldur's Gate 3, when the character was originally a human being. "He was always the twist," Vincke adds of the late-game reveal, adding that Larian "struggled" in the beginning with elements like The Emperor's voice. 

The Baldur's Gate 3 director says he might even know where the rumors originated from. "The bit that may have been found is the ways that he manipulates you. We removed a bit of that because it didn't work," says Vincke, pointing to The Emperor's very secretive nature.

"A strong design principle behind the entire game is that if we do something, it has to resonate throughout the feature that's there... you have to be able to use it everywhere," Vincke continues. "If it's narratively there, it should be persistent, true to the end. And that particular bit, even if it looked great and it sounded great, it just didn't work, you didn't see it. So we removed it as a result of that."

Larian