The Dark Urge is a character from the 2023 role-playing video game Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios, a title set in the Forgotten Realms universe of Dungeons & Dragons.

[1] Early on, the development team had wanted to include a character that would be a "Bhaalspawn", a child of the setting's God of Murder Bhaal, in reference to the protagonist of the previous Baldur's Gate games.

After the game's early access release in 2020, Baudelaire "Beau" Welch, who had just been hired, suggested to instead modify the concept and make the character "a deranged leftover".

Welch felt that the player was already thrown "a million different names and words and proper nouns" to remember, and the better approach would have been to instead have them feel "There's a fucking voice in my head making me do things I don't want to do."

[4] Welch wrote the character as a "dark counterpoint" to the main storyline, and pose a question as to why players were compelled to do evil acts in a video game.

A goblin-like butler to the Urge, Fel would visit the player at night, acting as an element of their past the character couldn't recall but would encourage them to engage in atrocities in a playful manner, with Welch feeling "players aren't going to ever play an evil character unless they're actually having fun with it - unless they feel a real reason to be encouraged to do it".

Roberts, whose voice lines were intended to fit Rogue class characters, also provided the opening narration for the Dark Urge.

He enjoyed the positive reaction it had received, and acknowledged fan's comparison of the monologue to Shakespeare, stating that he wanted to maintain that character dilemma, and portray the Dark Urge as someone not knowing where they were from but with an overwhelming feel of something they had to fight.

Introduced as an amnesiac afflicted with violent compulsions to harm others, during the course of the game the Dark Urge is revealed to be a Bhaalspawn crafted directly from Bhaal himself.

[11][12] If the player accepts Bhaal's favor and they take control of the Elder Brain, the Dark Urge will use it to enact their original plan to kill all life in the world.

She compared the role of Withers to a chorus member of a Greek tragedy, and alongside the expanded dialogue and involvement with the game's villains provided "an inexplicable weight" to the character's decisions.

[14] Cat Bussell in an article for TechRadar praised how the Dark Urge affected the concept of the game as a whole, undermining the sense of control and player agency usually provided.

She closed with stating that "knowing that you are only a bad dice roll away from turning into a blood-hungry serial killer offers a distinctive kind of horror", appropriate in particular for the Halloween season.

They further found it "delightful taking the time to peel back the layers and explore Baldur's Gate 3's branching paths", and enjoyed how the community had taken to portray the character in a humorous manner as they dealt with their internal struggle.