Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios, 2023) represents a milestone in the evolution of narrative gaming. As both an heir to Dungeons & Dragons and a contemporary work of interactive storytelling, the game synthesizes centuries of myth, moral inquiry, and imaginative world-building into a playable form. This edited collection seeks essays that investigate how Baldur’s Gate 3 draws upon, reinterprets, and transforms literary and philosophical traditions—from the medieval and Renaissance periods through modern fantasy and posthuman theory—to create new modes of narrative, ethics, and embodiment. We invite contributions from scholars in literature, philosophy, game studies, media studies, and digital humanities, among other disciplines. 

This volume positions Baldur’s Gate 3 as an experiment in moral and narrative philosophy, asking what happens when ethical choice, metaphysical inquiry, and aesthetic form are modeled through code. As a living text, the game invites reflection on topics as diverse as the politics of race, gender, and embodiment in virtual and mythic worlds; the translation of epic, romance, and tragedy into procedural narrative; the reanimation of chivalric, Gothic, and theological traditions within digital fantasy; and the intersection of literature, philosophy, and technology as an evolving site of humanist inquiry.

We welcome essays that engage the game through theoretical, textual, or historical lenses, including but not limited to:

• Politics and Social Justice: Faerûn’s refugee crisis, structures of power and governance, ideology and hegemony.

• Race and Racialization: Fantasy’s racial metaphysics, monstrous others, and the politics of species.

• Gender and Sexuality: Queer and trans embodiments; desire, reproduction, and kinship in the multiverse.

• Embodiment and Disability: In-game limitations of character representation, diversity of body types and disability, accommodation and lack thereof.  

• Ecocritical and Environmental Readings: The Shadow-Cursed Lands, the Emerald Grove, and themes of environmental destruction, growth, and preservation.

• Virtue, Vice, and Virtù: Ethical systems, moral choice, and the will to power.

• Transhumanism and Philosophy: Souls, minds, and the posthuman in D&D cosmology.

• Literary Antecedents: Medieval and Renaissance allegory, Shakespearean tragedy, epic and romance, Gothic influence, science fiction, and modern fantasy.

• Procedural Ethics and Narrative Design: How game systems model moral reasoning, fate, or free will.

• Sovereignty and Creation: Divine authority, authorship, and the metaphysics of “the creator” (Mystra, the Absolute, the player).

• Theology, Mythology, and Cosmology: Religion and worldbuilding systems. 

• Affect and Emotion: Attachment, loss, care, and the phenomenology and psychology of play.

• Genre and Form: Adaptation, intertextuality, remediation, and the aesthetics of interactive storytelling.

• Comparative Game Studies: Connections to other fantasy gaming worlds, i.e., Ultima, Dragon Age, Final Fantasy, etc., comparisons to the tabletop game and/or the earlier installments of the video game.

• Game Mechanics and Modding: The creative and ethical implications of procedural modification.

• Pedagogy and Play: Teaching literature, ethics, and philosophy through Baldur’s Gate 3.

• Fan Cultures: Transformative works, fan fiction, streaming, and player communities.

Please submit by February 1, 2026:

• A 300–500 word abstract outlining your proposed essay, including methodology, theoretical framework, and key terms.

• A brief biographical statement (100–150 words).

Send materials to bg3anthology@gmail.com. 

Accepted contributors will be notified by March 15, and full essays (4,000-6,000 words) will be due June 1.

Please direct inquiries to Bridget Dolan at bdolan@odu.edu, David Prihoda at dprihoda@odu.edu, or Don Rodrigues at dtrodrig@odu.edu.