'No interplanetary boundaries can contain her rage': Baldur's Gate 3 lover and reigning wrestling champ Athena defends her title in the Ring of Honor as Karlach made flesh
If you told me a year ago that a character from a Baldur's Gate game would have an officially-sanctioned crossover with a major wrestling event, I'd have given you the blankest of stares. But, here we are—Karlach from Baldur's Gate 3, everyone's favourite mammoth tiefling lady, has made an appearance in the Ring of Honour.
In case you're unfamiliar, Ring of Honour has historically stood with titans like WWE (in which Athena fought as Ember Moon), and while it had a brief shut-down in 2022, it's since been picked up again. Athena herself has had a prolific career in wrestling spanning almost two decades.
Over the weekend, Athena fought to keep her title as the women's champion (a crown she's held for over 482 days, with a win streak of 48 matches) against Hikaru Shida. I shan't spoil the result of the match here, though I'd like to note that Athena entered the ring rocking out to Plush's "Athena", holding a greataxe, with flames roaring in the background. Fittingly, it's metal as hell.
Samantha Béart, Karlach's voice and mocap actor, gave a shout out to the entrance on Twitter: "Thank you [Athena] for berserking Karlach from Faerun to Earth. No interplanetary boundaries can contain her rage. You just made my whole weekend." Larian CEO Swen Vincke also sent his congratulations her way.
Meanwhile, Athena herself gave a "massive thank you" to both Larian and Wizards of the Coast for letting her cosplay the character on stage. Adrienne Palmer, as she's known outside the ring, has a long history of playing both videogames and D&D. She's shown up on livestreams with Aabria Iyengar (a DM and player on both Dimension 20 and Critical Role), among others.
The surprisingly common crossover between famous wrestlers and D&D nerds shouldn't surprise me anymore—there's a lot of overlap between kayfabe and roleplaying, naturally. But there's a difference between 'hey, did you know this wrestler plays D&D?' and 'here's a woman named after the Greek goddess of war, striding onto stage as Karlach, the barbarian with an infernal engine for a heart'. What a time to be alive.
