We’re missing two major things in our Baldur’s Gate 3 party: a short companion and a bard. Well, as it happens, Larian had planned to give us both in the form of a single character: Helia.

Helia was datamined from the game files long ago, revealing that she would have been a bard, a halfling, and a werewolf. However, she was scrapped mid-development, leaving us with only the taller races in our party and no bard, unless you played as one or respecced a companion.

Despite being found so long ago, there are still fans mourning the fact that she never made it into the final game. Over on Reddit, players are speculating about how she would have meshed with the rest of the crew – and how she almost definitely wouldn’t have gotten along with Astarion.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Fans Miss Helia: The One Who Got Away

“Still a shame we never got her. A short character who was also a werewolf?” says Reddit user DIO_over_Za_Warudo. “The banter between her and Astarion would have been hilarious.”

“Not having a bard companion and not having a little guy companion are two of my biggest gripes with BG3,” says dykejoon. “Helia, you visit me in my dreams.”

In general, many fans have a larger issue with all the humans and elves in our party. “If I was disappointed by one thing then it was the companion races, we could have used waaaay more variety,” says Razgriz-B36

“Having a total of three short races available and not one short companion is just sad, same for the lack of Orc or Dragonborn companion.”

It’s unclear why Helia was cut. Some speculate that Halsin took her place, since her recruitment would have been similar to his. However, she has dialogue referencing him, so they were at least both in the game at the same time. It’s possible that Larian just decided to re-use her introduction with Halsin, scrapping an original plan for him.

In any case, ongoing development for Baldur’s Gate 3 has ceased, so we’ll be getting no new companions. At the very least, development ended by adding cross-play and photo mode.