Odd lore discrepancies in BG2 (elves sleep, can't see in the dark, etc)
taltamir
Member Posts: 288
I am noticing some odd lore discrepancies. Those are mostly amusing but occasionally bother me.
So far the 2 most obvious lore discrepancies I have notices are:
1. All 3 romanceable females are elves, and all 3 apparently sleep, even though elves do not sleep.
2. Aerie random banter contains a complaint about not being able to see monsters in the dark. Even though elves (and practically every other race other than humans) has infravision
So far the 2 most obvious lore discrepancies I have notices are:
1. All 3 romanceable females are elves, and all 3 apparently sleep, even though elves do not sleep.
2. Aerie random banter contains a complaint about not being able to see monsters in the dark. Even though elves (and practically every other race other than humans) has infravision
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The infravision thing is definitely somewhat out of place, it's even mentioned in the racial description, isn't it?
If, on the other hand, infravision is something magical instead of based on infrared waves, well then they can define it however they want... :-)
I've never heard that before. Well, you learn something new every day, I guess.
Warm blooded animals like mammals have a much narrower body temperature range, and usually don't get adjusted with the environment too much. Hypertermia and especially hypotermia is rare in warm-blooded beings, unless the environment is freezing, in which case the body can't keep up its natural temperature and AFAIK this condition is quite deadly for warm-blooded beings. I've heard a snake will be sluggish and almost like frozen in snow, but when it melts it can recover later. A human frozen in snow, will ofcourse be dead in almost all cases. Although hypotermia helps some people survive if they are drowned in extremely cold waters. It is suggested that the freezing cold drops down the brain metabolism so the brain, usually exceptionaly vulnerable to damage from lack of oxygen, can survive for longer amounts of time. There are cases of children who survived being drowned and underwater for long periods of time, thanks to the freezing temperature of the water they were in.
If a human is in a relatively cold room, he will flare up in infravision with bright oranges and reds, when compared to dark and blue of the room. If a turtle is in the room, after some time its body will be the same temperature with the room, and he will blend in with the blue colors of the room in infravision, so I guess it will be harder to detect.
...or I've watched Predator movies one too many times when I was a child :-D
It also wont be able to operate efficiently at a very low temperature (ie, move swiftly, etc).
It also wont ever be as active in general.
So the idea that something cold-blooded being active but having a very low temperature is just wrong. As is the idea that a cold blooded animal can regulate its own temperature irrespective of external inputs. Or that something can sit in the darkness without any body heat at full efficiency and/or jump to full efficiency.
Here is a wiki graph: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Homeothermy-poikilothermy.png/250px-Homeothermy-poikilothermy.png
Infravision is perhaps the single most useless ability in the Baldur's Gate series. I appreciate that it's useful in PnP and lore-friendly, but Aerie missing it doesn't bother me.
I had thought that Elves did sleep it was just called something different because it served other/different biological functions than sleep?
"Father, why do people start glowing when it gets dark."
"Oh that's easy, you just have infra... Death! Oh goodness me child, why did you not inform me of this sooner? Infradeath is one of the most lethal diseases in existence!"
"Infradeath is lethal? Wow, however could I have possibly guessed that? Now if we could stop wasting time on the obvious, what am I supposed to do?"
"There's only one cure I'm afraid: a regular diet of vegetables. Oh, and you must clean your room as well."
"Wait, what? How could the state of my room possibly have any influence on this sickness?"
"I thought you wanted to stop wasting time on the obvious, but clearly someone has been neglecting their studies. You've spent much time in your abode, enough so that your very soul has magically imprinted itself on the space within. By leaving it in disarray, you create a weakness in the bond you share, a weakness the Infradeath exploits to cause catastrophic explosive discombobulation. I've seen it once before on my travels, and the image of it still haunts me..."
"Yeah, I'm starting to think I should get a second opinion..."
"There's no time for that! Get to your room while I advise the cooks on your upcoming change in diet. On a completely unrelated side note, mages are immune to Infradeath. Just in case you want to decide what profession you wish to study. Now go!"
It was this particular incident and its aftermath that made Charname dedicate themselves to the pursuit of knowledge.
I don't have my books handy atm, but it's something to do with what amounts to an elf hive-mind type thing related to the Elf-soul (it's also why they're nearly impervious to charm effects, there's a ton of interference). Instead of sleeping, they tap into the Revery which restores their stamina while they remain fully awake, and does twice as fast as sleeping does, and never suffers any ill effects due to resting in armor or low quality surroundings (such as a human sleeping on bare ground would).
As for infravision, there is really no need to complicate things. Infravision is hard to implement in computer games, since you as the player of the game, can see the enemies while your character can't. You have to add gameplay rules for both normal and night vision, maybe add some small disadvantage to dice rolls of humans when they operate in low light, treat them totally blind in pitch black darkness.
undead & constructs are still invisible to infravision, if i remember correctly
The three possibilities are:
1. They are room temperature, in which case they are not invisible but merely harder to distinguish from the surrounding (but still possible, because not everything is the exact same temp and they move)
2. They show up as a black "hole" that is shaped like a skeleton or a golem on the background of color (since everything else has color)
3. They are magically transparent to infrared light causing it to pass right through them. Something it most certainly does not to do skeletons or rocks without magic.
I sincerely doubt it is #3.
There was also the "On Death's Door" optional rule. Your character passed out at 0 hit points, but would bleed out from their wounds (unless they were bandaged), losing 1 hit point per round until -10 hit points were reached, at which point you were dead irrevocably and would need a raise dead/resurrection spell to be alive once again.
Irenicus is last seen being tortured by demons in hell, and some characters say things (IIRC imoen) like "I hope you burn in hell" or some such.
Even though the D&D cosmology doesn't work that way. That is also how it is in 3e