What parts of Baldur's Gate 1 are non-canon?
TethorilofLathander
Member Posts: 427
Besides the obvious ones like the PC's age etc.
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Jaheira comes with him (she is fairly different in the books than in the game) along with Khalid, Xan, Xzar and Montaron. Of them I'm pretty sure only Jaheira survives. Imoen and Minsc only show up in the second book (for seemingly no reason) and are portrayed much different from their in-game selves aswell.
The whole book is bullshit. I might consider forgiving all the random alterations if it was at least well-written, but it very much isn't.
While you can say whatever you like is the actual canon of your Forgotten Realms setting (believe me, after the gutting it got in 4e I sure do change things) the accepted accounting of events regarding Abdel Adrian (the Bhaalspawn) are those from the novels, not the game.
But, in the grand scheme of things the canon about the Bhaalspawn makes little difference on the realms as a whole. Bhaal was dead and thanks to Abdel not ascending he remains so and there are no new deities added to the setting as a result until 1479 DR. Apparently in the new adventure "Murder in Baldur's Gate" Abdel fights his half brother Viekang to the death. The winner of which is yet to be determined in the canon, and this results in Bhaal being resurrected as the new god of murder.
Unless you play a game in the areas mentioned in the book during that time period (so, Baldur's Gate, Athkatla etc. around 1368 DR) there isn't much of an impact thankfully. Since I play pre-spellplague in all of my campaigns (that is to say there was no stupid spellplague) the fact that Abdel becomes a Grand Duke of the city doesn't really matter. Apparently he is one of many grand dukes that are yet to be determined because the fluff for 4e is greatly lacking.
Basically he and Storm take it upon themselves to save the Realms and pose as repairmen (not making this up) to infiltrate keeps and whatnot. They're known as Elgorn and Stornara Rhauligan, "repairers of ever-crumbling stone, plaster, tapestries, and wood" when they infiltrate Suzail where they spy on the War Wizards of Cormyr.
They are basically finding powerful magical items and artifacts that they feed to the Simbul to try and restore her sanity. In so doing he resurrected a descendant of his known as Amarune Whiteweave. When Manshoon finally stripped away all of Elminster's contingency spells (without him or Storm knowing somehow) Elminster's body was destroyed. They put his soul or essence into this Amarune Whiteweave with an old spell they discovered that used to belong to Azuth (the god of wizards).
So, Elminster is basically just a voice in Amarunes head now and he's taken it upon himself to do his best to train her in the ways of wizardry (even though his grasp on wizardy was all but shattered by Mystras death... makes sense) so she can protect Cormyr from Manshoon and other evil things! NEATO!
He's actually one of the pregenerated characters you can import in BG1 and 2. The Fighter's name is Abdel.
Canon in the eye of the beholder... minus the whole turn into a statue thing
1) Do Elminster's appearances line up with his timeline?
2) Why are Minsc and Dynaheir going on their dejemma at quite a late age (from appearance)?
3) Is Shandalar's ship between Baldur's Gate and Ulgoth's Beard or actually within the city?
4) How many guards & Flaming Fist does Baldur's Gate have? I've read they have 300 Flaming Fist but also read somewhere that it's more towards thousands.
5) Is Boo really a miniature giant space hamster? (OH GOD, IT HAS BEGUN :P)
And we can't forget the moment when the son of the god of murder pukes into the open mouth of a corpse.
It's rather poetic when you don't think about it.
I guess their recruitment levels can vary depending on how severe criminal activity is, with vagrants being the #1 priority.