But you need to understand the limitations.

Honestly I'm not happy with any of the Embrace!DUrge endings because they're either just outright depressing or still underdeveloped (looking @ you dominate ending), but for the time being I'm probably going to go for the Destroy -> Prison -> Bad Epilogue sequence.

If only so I can have Shadowheart visit Veszeth in prison, in the hope she can find just a little bit of the person she couldn't (but wanted to) say she loved left inside the now fully possessed Vesz. But she doesn't, and little by little her visits become even more infrequent, each failure driving her even closer to Shar, eventually writing them off as a loss entirely.

As long as my actions can be thought of honouring Shar, or honing skills in her service, there's a great deal of flexibility to be had.

You can frame many acts as service to the Dark Lady if you put your mind to it. Seduction can be a worthy form of subterfuge. A snatched moment can practice the art of stealth.

RESISTING THE URGE TO KILL SHADOWHEART

Lady Shar's followers honour her with an act of wickedness carried out in her name. Then, they feast, knowing they carry the Nightsinger's blessing anew.

BALDUR'S GATE III (2023)

You glance piteously upon your false bride. You are Bhaal's stallion. Many of your own Bhaalspawn have been born to die in this half-year. Your new children will become the tyrant's horde — why do you spare even one thought for your forsaken mate? Our issue would be perfect... Your darling would never agree to breed a spawn with you. The defiance begets death. And neither Selûne nor Shar will claim her in the end. Bhaal wants her more than those graven gods.

EPILOGUE: SHARRAN SHADOWHEART & EMBRACE!DARK URGE

Lady Shar respects cunning, and that's exactly what you and I will need to demonstrate if we want this to continue. Rules are perhaps not always made to be broken, but they are always intended to be bent.

And now we feast? Yes, but I'm afraid I forgot to bring any food.

MAY I HAVE A KISS?

"You know, if you want something... I think you should take it."

is veszeth okay with shadowheart not wanting the word love to enter their relationship?

omg thank you for this question bc I've been wanting to talk about this.

They are, actually. Love — or at least, the word — not entering the equation isn't just something that is better for Shadowheart, it's better for them too. Shadowheart being a Justiciar and being expected to dedicate everything to Lady Shar is by no means a strange concept to them — they have to do the same for Bhaal as his scion, his High Primate. For the both of them, everything else comes second to their faith and their duties, and they both understand that they cannot ask the other to put their duties to their gods second.

It is canon that Bhaal will allow an Embrace!Dark Urge to spare their partner from the slaughter, because, as Sceleritas puts it: "you will always need to make new Bhaalspawn" (this is, of course, if you're taking it at face value, but Sceleritas has little reason to lie to an Embrace!DUrge, imo.) That very intention is what got their wife Zilvala killed pre-BG3. Love not entering the equation, their relationship never being able to be a relationship in the way the majority would describe it, is a way to save Shadow from that fate and that in itself is the greatest act of love Veszeth could possibly do for her.

I still haven't reached the end of the game, so I can't say how the epilogue will change things, but my guess is Shadowheart will break it off, and Veszeth will be at peace with that. The Dark Urge route is, at the end of the day, a very bloody tragedy — and what Veszeth doesn't want, in that tiny slither of thawed heart of theirs, is for Shadowheart to end up being a significant player in that part of the tragedy.

darkheart size difference....Good.

this is shadowheart while veszeth talks about the underdark btw

Thinking about how when I (NB 85) choose to accept my father's (M, immortal) offer to become his Chosen and have my life defined by him because I do not know and cannot be anything else, it's all "I can't believe you'd do this!!!" from my GF (F, 48) but when she accepts her deity (F, immortal) and becomes her Chosen, it's all "I am so blessed to have the wisdom of a goddess to guide my very thoughts" and I'm the asshole for suggesting her goddess is manipulating her when I've been through the cycle myself?