I can't take things seriously that begins with an hashtag A bunch of internet trolls rotted together mobbing some women, was there any more to it ?
There were alot more to it, according to some people who like to conjure up ridiculous conspirecy theories. Mostly though, it just showed how many boys and men still think women are inferior. It's quite disgusting really.
I would like to note that such subjects as the gamergate and the men-women relationship are not for this thread. You can discuss them in the off-topic section of this forum.
And apologies that my first act on this forum is some serious threadromancy but I have read a few opinions about Mr Adrian's canon status and finally plucked up the courage to share my thoughts... oh and apologies in advance for this very long and mostly boring post. Oh and spoilers for the whole saga follow...
As a bg player from first time round (before ee), I had my head-canon charname for coming on 20 years - for those interested, his name was Bael, a human cavalier who romanced Jaheira, hung out with the canon party, became fallen in Hell, redeemed himself with a little help from shadowkeeper before the final showdown with ascension Melly, then gave it all up for a mortal life with J. So all pretty standard (although in retrospect, I get that paladin doesn't really fit charname's upbringing).
I had heard and read a little about the bg novels and Mr Adrian on wikis etc. but I hadn't read them per se, neither do I ever intend. The idea that charname was a senseless, sexist oaf just never appealed. In effect, I was content with my head-canon / alternate universes etc. solution and Bael was my guy.
So I admit I was a little heartbroken when I heard about WOTC's murder in bg module, which seemed to cement Abdel's canonicity in a way that has never been attempted with the NWN protagonists or other FR crpgs. It niggled at me that Bael was no longer Gorion's ward and I admit I finally succumbed, bought ee and SoD and decided to do another full playthrough to create a new head-canon. RIP Bael.
Having just finished last night (hence my interest in the topic) my solution was broadly as follows and a little different from those posted previously:-
(TL:DR - I get that the following boils down in a sentence to "keep the name / gender then make the rest up as you want" but I think the hopefully unique part is the attempt at an in-universe explanation for the discrepancies between the games/book canon)
As with any canonicity debate, I think it is hard to have a head-canon reconcile at all if it deviates too far on the absolute basics from the source canon. So, sadly, I felt compelled to create a male, CN, human (which I think only makes sense anyway given charname's age) fighter (berserker as it fits pretty well with the whole Bhaal essence blood rage thing) called... Abdel Adrian, with good STR, DEX, CON and CHA, crappy WIS and middling INT (my first departure from the hated books).
From that point though, I was playing the game and it is impossible to reconcile the game with the books in any meaningful way (nor would I want to). So from that point, the events in the games (as I played them) formed my new head-canon. Along my travels through the saga, I picked up all the various companions and made sure to do their respective side content but made sure I always returned to the canon party to face off with the big bads. My Abdel was in no way a trained mercenary before leaving ck, he was actually rather nice to Immy - oh and Khalid was not a total dick... and minsc was bald. Again, I put myself though the torture of romancing Jaheira as another broad parallel with the books and made sure to side with Bodhi (in game explanation - she new more about Irenicus and could get me to SH faster) but mostly, the adventures of my Abdel bore little relation to book Abdel.
Importantly, for my take, along my travels... I encountered the master bard, Volo several times, the first in Nashkel as a lowly level 3 berserker where Volo got his first impression of my Abdel - all muscles and plate armour. This was also the impression my Abdel gave the citizens of Baldur's gate when he squared off in single combat with Sarevok - all swords and blood-rage - every bit the Conanesque Abdel of the books.
A key departure came later though, whilst going through SoD, when I decided that all that tutorage from Gorion and the innate power awakening in Abdel's blood shouldn't go to waste. So, with help from Dynaheir, Edwin and Baeloth, my Abdel began studying as a mage. No longer was my Abdel the bone-head meat shield of the books but a sophisticated, soon all powerful, berserker/mage... because power gaming.
My second encounter with Volo came much later inside the under-siege and rather miserable city of Saradush where he told Abdel that he was going to publish the epic story of his saga. Now in my head-canon (and in game) my Abdel was not particularly impressed by or nice to Volo and soon, having been given the task of stopping the rampaging Yaga-Shura and saving the populace (including Volo)... he got horribly distracted by a big dungeon, demon prince, assault on heaven, assault on the shadow-realm, brisk foray into Thayan fighting pits etc... and he rather forgot about the crazy giant and his assault on the poor Saradushians. When Abdel finally did get round to slaying the brute, oh dear... pretty much everyone in the city was dead (and Volo, poor guy, was thoroughly upset).
So off my Abdel went to kill the remaining members of the five, face his destiny, his personal demon's etc. and showdown with Melly for the throne of Bhaal. As a last nod to the books and for consistency with the pnp module, Abdel again rejected godhood and settled down for a life with J (who did NOT die fighting Abazigal because she was moderately competent). But, oh dear, (head-canon time) with the loss of Bhaal essence, Abdel took a bit of a hit on the power front and lost all his mage levels (because reasons... they were tied to the Bhaal essence etc.) - back to boring old berserker for Mr Adrian. Off he then went, as per official canon, back to ck then to bg to become Marshal and eventually Duke whilst Jaheira shuffled off to the woods with her harper friends to raise little Abdel.
Meanwhile, Volo, who is pissed that Abdel took so long with Yaga and basically failed to save any of the poor Saradushians, decides to write his novels and they are... rather slanderous... Of course the basic details are the same so Abdel would be broadly recognisable to his readership (at least to the citizens of bg whom Volo considered his core audience for this epic). Of course, the citizens of bg weren't very fond of Abdel anyway at the time of Volo's writing, following that whole kerfuffle with Skie in SoD, so the picture of Abdel as a mindless strongman revelling in death was pretty plausible. It was only later the bg citizens came to love Adrian, by which time Volo's spurious accounts were in wide circulation.
Volo's books were sexed-up, largely invented trash but sadly... as no-one bothered to draft an alternative accurate account, as the years past, they took on their own measure of historical significance. After 100 years, who was to say what really happened? Just as Shakespeare unfairly immortalised Richard III as a scheming cretin, so Volo (who would sometimes scribe under the pen-name of Phillip Athans) made an official hack at the history of Abdel Adrian...
The rest is history... and hopefully... what it leaves is a game head-canon charname in my Abdel Adrian that doesn't conflict with anything official from WOTC - QED - Problem solved.
Then again, if you want your charname to have a different name or be a dwarf, your s**t out of luck.
Comments
And apologies that my first act on this forum is some serious threadromancy but I have read a few opinions about Mr Adrian's canon status and finally plucked up the courage to share my thoughts... oh and apologies in advance for this very long and mostly boring post. Oh and spoilers for the whole saga follow...
As a bg player from first time round (before ee), I had my head-canon charname for coming on 20 years - for those interested, his name was Bael, a human cavalier who romanced Jaheira, hung out with the canon party, became fallen in Hell, redeemed himself with a little help from shadowkeeper before the final showdown with ascension Melly, then gave it all up for a mortal life with J. So all pretty standard (although in retrospect, I get that paladin doesn't really fit charname's upbringing).
I had heard and read a little about the bg novels and Mr Adrian on wikis etc. but I hadn't read them per se, neither do I ever intend. The idea that charname was a senseless, sexist oaf just never appealed. In effect, I was content with my head-canon / alternate universes etc. solution and Bael was my guy.
So I admit I was a little heartbroken when I heard about WOTC's murder in bg module, which seemed to cement Abdel's canonicity in a way that has never been attempted with the NWN protagonists or other FR crpgs. It niggled at me that Bael was no longer Gorion's ward and I admit I finally succumbed, bought ee and SoD and decided to do another full playthrough to create a new head-canon. RIP Bael.
Having just finished last night (hence my interest in the topic) my solution was broadly as follows and a little different from those posted previously:-
(TL:DR - I get that the following boils down in a sentence to "keep the name / gender then make the rest up as you want" but I think the hopefully unique part is the attempt at an in-universe explanation for the discrepancies between the games/book canon)
As with any canonicity debate, I think it is hard to have a head-canon reconcile at all if it deviates too far on the absolute basics from the source canon. So, sadly, I felt compelled to create a male, CN, human (which I think only makes sense anyway given charname's age) fighter (berserker as it fits pretty well with the whole Bhaal essence blood rage thing) called... Abdel Adrian, with good STR, DEX, CON and CHA, crappy WIS and middling INT (my first departure from the hated books).
From that point though, I was playing the game and it is impossible to reconcile the game with the books in any meaningful way (nor would I want to). So from that point, the events in the games (as I played them) formed my new head-canon. Along my travels through the saga, I picked up all the various companions and made sure to do their respective side content but made sure I always returned to the canon party to face off with the big bads. My Abdel was in no way a trained mercenary before leaving ck, he was actually rather nice to Immy - oh and Khalid was not a total dick... and minsc was bald. Again, I put myself though the torture of romancing Jaheira as another broad parallel with the books and made sure to side with Bodhi (in game explanation - she new more about Irenicus and could get me to SH faster) but mostly, the adventures of my Abdel bore little relation to book Abdel.
Importantly, for my take, along my travels... I encountered the master bard, Volo several times, the first in Nashkel as a lowly level 3 berserker where Volo got his first impression of my Abdel - all muscles and plate armour. This was also the impression my Abdel gave the citizens of Baldur's gate when he squared off in single combat with Sarevok - all swords and blood-rage - every bit the Conanesque Abdel of the books.
A key departure came later though, whilst going through SoD, when I decided that all that tutorage from Gorion and the innate power awakening in Abdel's blood shouldn't go to waste. So, with help from Dynaheir, Edwin and Baeloth, my Abdel began studying as a mage. No longer was my Abdel the bone-head meat shield of the books but a sophisticated, soon all powerful, berserker/mage... because power gaming.
My second encounter with Volo came much later inside the under-siege and rather miserable city of Saradush where he told Abdel that he was going to publish the epic story of his saga. Now in my head-canon (and in game) my Abdel was not particularly impressed by or nice to Volo and soon, having been given the task of stopping the rampaging Yaga-Shura and saving the populace (including Volo)... he got horribly distracted by a big dungeon, demon prince, assault on heaven, assault on the shadow-realm, brisk foray into Thayan fighting pits etc... and he rather forgot about the crazy giant and his assault on the poor Saradushians. When Abdel finally did get round to slaying the brute, oh dear... pretty much everyone in the city was dead (and Volo, poor guy, was thoroughly upset).
So off my Abdel went to kill the remaining members of the five, face his destiny, his personal demon's etc. and showdown with Melly for the throne of Bhaal. As a last nod to the books and for consistency with the pnp module, Abdel again rejected godhood and settled down for a life with J (who did NOT die fighting Abazigal because she was moderately competent). But, oh dear, (head-canon time) with the loss of Bhaal essence, Abdel took a bit of a hit on the power front and lost all his mage levels (because reasons... they were tied to the Bhaal essence etc.) - back to boring old berserker for Mr Adrian. Off he then went, as per official canon, back to ck then to bg to become Marshal and eventually Duke whilst Jaheira shuffled off to the woods with her harper friends to raise little Abdel.
Meanwhile, Volo, who is pissed that Abdel took so long with Yaga and basically failed to save any of the poor Saradushians, decides to write his novels and they are... rather slanderous... Of course the basic details are the same so Abdel would be broadly recognisable to his readership (at least to the citizens of bg whom Volo considered his core audience for this epic). Of course, the citizens of bg weren't very fond of Abdel anyway at the time of Volo's writing, following that whole kerfuffle with Skie in SoD, so the picture of Abdel as a mindless strongman revelling in death was pretty plausible. It was only later the bg citizens came to love Adrian, by which time Volo's spurious accounts were in wide circulation.
Volo's books were sexed-up, largely invented trash but sadly... as no-one bothered to draft an alternative accurate account, as the years past, they took on their own measure of historical significance. After 100 years, who was to say what really happened? Just as Shakespeare unfairly immortalised Richard III as a scheming cretin, so Volo (who would sometimes scribe under the pen-name of Phillip Athans) made an official hack at the history of Abdel Adrian...
The rest is history... and hopefully... what it leaves is a game head-canon charname in my Abdel Adrian that doesn't conflict with anything official from WOTC - QED - Problem solved.
Then again, if you want your charname to have a different name or be a dwarf, your s**t out of luck.
And then never speak of it again.