SPOILERS shed some light on the guild war please.

simples

so there's the shadow thieves who have quite a big base of operations in athkatla, which makes sense. it's a large port town, lots of opportunities to pilfer and smuggle goods in/out, going from gems to weapons to even slaves.

then there's bodhi's rival vampire "guild". nowhere in the game do i see any evidence of them actually doing any of these things. so why exactly are they after the shadow thieves specifically?

two reasons i can think of:
1. they use the slaves as a steady source of food (though one would assume they'd keep their food close to where they live)
2. they want to use the shadow thieves to strengthen their own guild, but then again, couldn't they just take any poor guy and make him into vampire?

it's been a while since i've played, but i was just thinking about this and can't remember it being explained in the game.

Lord_Tansheron

1. is definitely one reason. But not the main one.

[Spoiler]Irenicus mentions that Bodhi supplies him with Shadow Thieves to experiment on. He even uses their lives to fuel certain spells, such as the one in Spellhold that steals your Bhaalspawn essence (and stole Imoen's, too). That's essentially why Bodhi set up her "guild", though you're of course right that the vampires also need a steady stream of humans to feed on.[/spoiler]

simples

ooh that's right, forgot about that. but why call it a "guild war?"
and it still begs the question: why the shadow thieves?

edit: i mean look at what's his name in the bridge district, he just killed the people who wouldn't be missed

PK2748

Thieves living as part of an underground economy aren't really missed by the authoritues

ithildurnew

Like a lot of plots in CRPG's, it's better to not start asking too many questions about the storyline of BG2... while some answers will result in you nodding and saying 'Ahhh, that makes sense!' there are others that will make your head explode at the silliness.

It'd be nice if the gaming industry (like the internet) grows up (perhaps an oxymoron) enough so that such generalizations aren't valid, but the reality is $/reaching certain demographics, publishers' deadlines, etc. are the final arbiters more often than not. The reason why the IE games are such classics are because the original devs really tried to prioritize passion/love of the genre more than most... but alas in the end they too make less than ideal choices when pressed for time and such (i.e. Imoen's personality shift in Spellhold, much of the latter parts of SoA, most of TOB... etc)

Lord_Tansheron

simples said:

but why call it a "guild war?"

That's the official label. The public blames the piles of dead people (see the scene in the Bridge District) on fighting between the Shadow Thieves and a rival "guild". They don't know it's really just a nest of vampires. Heck, even the Shadow Thieves only (strongly) suspect as much, which is why Aran sends you to investigate.

simples said:

and it still begs the question: why the shadow thieves?

Because an illicit organization is easier to pick a fight with. They're less likely to openly admit what's going on, less likely to allow the extent of the slaughter to become public knowledge, and less likely to call in help from authorities etc. If the vampires went on a killing spree on the Promenade, the city would intervene, call in reinforcements, alert the Cowled Wizards etc. etc. Much more of a hassle than ravaging thieves and murderers who can't or won't turn to professionals for help.

simples said:

edit: i mean look at what's his name in the bridge district, he just killed the people who wouldn't be missed

Yes, but he also only killed a few people. That's nothing compared to the slaughter the vampires cause. Irenicus and Bodhi need a LOT of bodies. You can't just cover that through beggars and paupers. Not to mention that since Irenicus is after their life essence, it's likely that he's not interested in weak, sickly people. Same might go for vampires, not sure if they enjoy feeding on a syphilitic hobo.

simples

@Lord_Tansheron alright good point, thanks

Jarrakul

It's probably also the case that the Shadow Thieves, being another criminal organization, were also well positioned to find out about the vampires and become a threat to Bodhi and her children if the thieves found out what they were up against. So the vampires simply took preemptive action, and began thinning the Shadow Thieves' ranks before they could marshal their forces and become a serious threat.

elminster

PK2748 said:

Thieves living as part of an underground economy aren't really missed by the authoritues

Depends on the locale. In athkatla's case some of the council of amn are linked to the thieves guild. So while they won't care if it happens to a few thieves it becomes their problem when this happens at a larger scale.