Baldur's Gate 3 cast reveal where the custom character term TAV really came from

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If you've played Baldur's Gate 3 for any significant amount of time, you'll know the name 'Tav'. It's the default name that the game assigns to custom characters you create. You can change the name to whatever you want, but for some, 'Tav' became a bit of a meme associated with the game.

During the Baldur's Gate 3 panel here at London's MCM Comic Con, the assembled voice cast and voice directors revealed what it's based on - and if you're a dog lover, it's extra cute.

Inside the halls of Larian Studios, the codename for Baldur's Gate 3 was 'Gustav'. As the game was being developed and they needed a default name for custom characters, they borrowed the name 'Gustav' but shortened it to 'Tav' to avoid confusion internally. But where did the name 'Gustav' come from? According to the Baldur's Gate 3 cast, it's the name of Larian CEO Swen Vincke's dog.

So... all the custom characters in Baldur's Gate 3 are named after a dog.

This isn't the only canine wordplay in the game, as the studio's name - Larian - is an ode to another of Vincke's dogs, named Lar.

This now makes the segment of the game where you can pet and scratch a dog behind the ears make a lot more sense, doesn't it?

Read about the full Baldur's Gate 3 panel from MCM with our liveblog, and come back in a few weeks as we'll be sharing the full panel on-demand for free.