Story
In Act I, the Shard-bearer's story resumes after the defeat of the King of Shadows. The player awakens alone in an underground barrow in Rashemen,[4] where he meets Safiya, a Red Wizard of Thay. The player follows Safiya to the Veil Theater in the nearby town of Mulsantir, hoping to find Lienna, an acquaintance of Safiya's mother, who is supposed to provide the player with some much-needed answers. Unfortunately, the player finds that the theater has been attacked by Red Wizards, and Lienna has been killed. At the back of the theater, the player finds a portal to the Plane of Shadow, a dark reflection of the Prime Material Plane, where he defeats the Red Wizards who murdered Lienna. Upon returning to the Prime Material Plane, the player finds that the spirit-god Okku has besieged Mulsantir, demanding the player's blood. The player confronts Okku and defeats his spirit army. At the end of the battle, the player learns that he has become a spirit-eater, an accursed being who must feed upon feys and elementals (and sometimes mortal souls) in order to survive.
In Act II, the player meets a group of gargoyle-like creatures who reveal that Lienna and her "red twin" ordered them to kidnap the player from the Sword Coast. This plot was allegedly inspired by the Slumbering Coven, a sisterhood of hag oracles who dwell in an ancient flooded city. The player follows this clue to Lake Mulsantir, where he finds another portal to the Plane of Shadow. In this "alternate reality," the player enters the flooded city and confronts the hags. The Slumbering Coven reveal that Lienna, along with Safiya's mother Nefris, were responsible for the hero's current dilemma. They send the player to Nefris's Academy in Thay to discover her motive.
At the Academy, the player enters a portal to the Astral Plane where they meet Myrkul, the former god of the dead. Myrkul reveals that the spirit-eater "curse" originated as a punishment for his former servant, Akachi "The Betrayer", who once led a crusade against the realm of the dead. Akachi's empty and hungering soul now resides in the player's body, and the player's own soul has been displaced to the Wall of the Faithless, in the realm of the dead.
In Act III, the player meets the Founder of the Academy, and Safiya realizes that she, Lienna, and Nefris are all splinters of the Founder's soul, and that the Founder was once Akachi's lover. The Founder explains that, while Lienna and Nefris understood their identities, the truth was hidden from Safiya for her own safety. The Founder also admits that she is responsible for the player's plight – she wanted to use the player to end the spirit-eater curse (and Akachi's suffering, as well). She returns the silver sword of Gith to the player, which allows him to open the Betrayer's Gate and travel to the realm of the dead. There the player finds the City of Judgment, ruled by the current God of the Dead, Kelemvor Lyonsbane. As the player arrives, an army is assembling outside the walls, led by Akachi's captains from his First Crusade – Zoab, a fallen solar, Rammaq, a demilich, and Sey'ryu, a blue dragon. The captains recognize the player as Akachi's heir, and the player must decide whether to lead their crusade against the City of Judgment or to oppose them.
Depending upon his choice, the player character must assault or defend three key positions around the City of Judgment. After the battle, the player learns where his own soul is located and wrests it from the Wall of the Faithless. The player is then pulled into a dreamscape where he must battle Akachi's avatar, The Faceless Man, for control of his soul. After defeating the Faceless Man, Kelemvor narrates the ending, which varies based on the player's choices throughout the game.
