Even Baldur's Gate veterans haven't seen much of the Githyanki before. One of the more overlooked races in Dungeons & Dragons, they only made a brief appearance in Baldur's Gate 2, and even that didn't give us much of an understanding of Githyanki culture. Despite this, they've been part of the lore since the first edition, so Larian Studios had a lot of history to draw upon when creating Lae'zel. And, as we now know, a lot of unique Githyanki words and phrases.

Speaking with our lead guides editor Meg Pelliccio, Lae'zel actor Devora Wilde takes us through her portrayal of the Githyanki fighter - and all the struggles she faced along the way. One of the greatest hurdles was the Githyanki language, as she had to understand all of these new words to ensure she was saying them correctly in conversation. Because of this, she strongly supports the idea of a Githyanki Duolingo course - and even volunteers to coach it herself.

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Sitting down with us at WASD, Wilde explores her portrayal of Lae'zel, and how it's made her an expert in the Githyanki language.

"I could be the voice of Duolingo, I'd love that," says Wilde. "I'll be the worst motivator as well." Wilde also says the phrases she'd teach would be "completely violent", so not particularly useful in everyday conversation.

It sounds like a Githyanki Duolingo course would have come in handy for everyone on the Baldur's Gate 3 team, as Wilde says that even directors struggled to keep up with all the different pronunciations.

"The directors had a big glossary of the Githyanki words, so whenever I would have to speak it [...] they'd be like 'This is what it means, this is how it's phonetically written'," explains Wilde. "[Lae'zel] says some phrases over and over again, so in the end I got used to it. Sometimes, I'd be like 'Excuse me, I don't think that's how you say this Githyanki word.'"

Even after so much practice though, some sentences never came easy. "I think it's when she's mixing the Githyanki with the English, that was sometimes a struggle," says Wilde. "If you had to get the line out quickly, you had to make the line sound natural. You can't make it sound like she's just learning this language now."

Despite this, Wilde says it was more of a "blessing" than a struggle to play Lae'zel. And who knows? Now that she's helped introduce more fantasy fans to the Githyanki, maybe there will be some real interest in getting that Duolingo course off the ground.

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