Whenever i see people with large compounds underground or in mountains that must have taken millions of man hours to make with rediculously complicated mechanical traps or doors a part of my brain starts screaming, "WHO MAKES THESE THINGS?" "CANT YOU JUST RENT AN EVIL STORAGE UNIT?" Theories: he is a mage so he enchants the dice and actually wins at thouse impossible gambling games right outside. - hes the head of an evil corporation -he actually summons gold therefor being evil contributes to inflation. -he invented the shamwow! -he found out how denarises hold makes its money -he has a black market, and rackets protection money. -thouse vampire types are always loaded ... borrow borrow -... more to come
Irenicus develops a process for cloning Pleasure Slaves, etc. for the loathsome Despots of some exotic locale that just happens to be blessed with fabulous Gold or Mithril resources. Then, after some years developing connections, orchestrates a Coup d'Etat backed up by his own Arcane Powers and Bodhi plus Minions, Zombies, Golems. He insures that the new regime stays in place and in return requires no more than exclusive FREE TRADE!!!!
However, his situation there collapsed somehow and he has recently relocated, loaded with money and assuaging his grief -- hence the Cowled Wizards seeming ignorance. And then he heard about the Baalspawn thing.....
Definitely agree that RP possibilities for players so-minded would be vastly improved with some kind of interesting back-story for J. Irenicus. There must be some sort of sound basis for his evident conviction that unlocking the Powers of a Child of Baal is a reasonable course of action for his personal history/narrative.
I suppose Irenicus started by carving in his place in the sewers by arcane power alone, than proceeded to amass money/power/stuff with the help of his sister... I don't know about canon, but Cowled Wizards in BG seems to me like a bunch of fools so their ignorance at Irenicus doesn't bother me at all (especially since the guy was probably famous in arcane circles as Jonoleth and kinda had different looks about him)... but this reasoning breeds more questions: 1. how come no church nor the Order know anything about an evil vampire cult/guild of assassins since every time they would make breakfast, there could be over a dozen or so bloodless corpses lying around the streets of the city? 2. how would a meeting between sewers neighbours go? JI - hello boys, I know I just carved out a big portion of your turf here but I'm a level 29 evil wizard with anger management issues so suck it Mind Flayer/Illithid - ... Unseeing Eye - ... 'just stares' Mekrah - anyone seen my mirror? pretty please?
1. how come no church nor the Order know anything about an evil vampire cult/guild of assassins since every time they would make breakfast, there could be over a dozen or so bloodless corpses lying around the streets of the city?
Depending on the size of the city, a few corpses more or less probably wouldn't be noticed. Given no hospitals and the shocking level of poor in evidence, it would take a LOT of dead to really be noticible, and the Guild was taking 'steps' not to be noticed. However, Aran Linvale knew, so it was not zero.
2. how would a meeting between sewers neighbours go? JI - hello boys, I know I just carved out a big portion of your turf here but I'm a level 29 evil wizard with anger management issues so suck it Mind Flayer/Illithid - ... Unseeing Eye - ... 'just stares' Mekrah - anyone seen my mirror? pretty please?
Depending on the relative power involved, who's to say that the Illithids blinked? Consider that your party of adventurers can fairly take out an entire city of Illithids. Would Irenicus really be less of a threat to them?
Regarding questions about not recognizing his rise to power, he went around the Sword Coast quite a bit. He apparently spent some time near Baldur's Gate while going under the name Icarus. And he hid his identity from all but the Elves for centuries, so he is apparently quite adept at keeping his real intentions hidden.
I'd say he probably started out as a noble and then used his wealth and magic to parlay that into a larger fortune. Add in his "Sister" and her penchant for empire building on the shadier side of the law and I am sure he never wanted for money.
What does anyone do for money these days? Fast food worker, lawn mowing service, retail employee...all these options are available for someone without a resume.
Regarding questions about not recognizing his rise to power, he went around the Sword Coast quite a bit. He apparently spent some time near Baldur's Gate while going under the name Icarus.
You can charm the fat spider woman in BG1 and talk to her, she'll mention how her appearance is the result of a failed dalliance with one "Jon Icarus", a mage of considerable power. Apparently that name is originally what Irenicus was supposed to be called during BG1 development, and it got changed later - the EE left it in as a sort of ret-con alias.
@supposedly Yep, easiest way is to use the ring of human influence.
@Lord_Tansheron in the EE she called him Irenicus and I didn't even charm her first, think it was patch 1.3 that changed it. It's the small things that show you the though that goes into things
Comments
Theories: he is a mage so he enchants the dice and actually wins at thouse impossible gambling games right outside.
- hes the head of an evil corporation
-he actually summons gold therefor being evil contributes to inflation.
-he invented the shamwow!
-he found out how denarises hold makes its money
-he has a black market, and rackets protection money.
-thouse vampire types are always loaded ... borrow borrow
-... more to come
However, his situation there collapsed somehow and he has recently relocated, loaded with money and assuaging his grief -- hence the Cowled Wizards seeming ignorance. And then he heard about the Baalspawn thing.....
Definitely agree that RP possibilities for players so-minded would be vastly improved with some kind of interesting back-story for J. Irenicus. There must be some sort of sound basis for his evident conviction that unlocking the Powers of a Child of Baal is a reasonable course of action for his personal history/narrative.
I don't know about canon, but Cowled Wizards in BG seems to me like a bunch of fools so their ignorance at Irenicus doesn't bother me at all (especially since the guy was probably famous in arcane circles as Jonoleth and kinda had different looks about him)... but this reasoning breeds more questions:
1. how come no church nor the Order know anything about an evil vampire cult/guild of assassins since every time they would make breakfast, there could be over a dozen or so bloodless corpses lying around the streets of the city?
2. how would a meeting between sewers neighbours go?
JI - hello boys, I know I just carved out a big portion of your turf here but I'm a level 29 evil wizard with anger management issues so suck it
Mind Flayer/Illithid - ...
Unseeing Eye - ... 'just stares'
Mekrah - anyone seen my mirror? pretty please?
Regarding questions about not recognizing his rise to power, he went around the Sword Coast quite a bit. He apparently spent some time near Baldur's Gate while going under the name Icarus. And he hid his identity from all but the Elves for centuries, so he is apparently quite adept at keeping his real intentions hidden.
I'd say he probably started out as a noble and then used his wealth and magic to parlay that into a larger fortune. Add in his "Sister" and her penchant for empire building on the shadier side of the law and I am sure he never wanted for money.
Where was this in the game? I never knew that
Can you charm the guy in De Arnise keep instead of killing him?
@Lord_Tansheron in the EE she called him Irenicus and I didn't even charm her first, think it was patch 1.3 that changed it. It's the small things that show you the though that goes into things