All of this drama makes me want to play Sandrah all the more. Am I a glutton for punishment? I played Saerileth all the way through once, but haven't been able to get through Chloe. Maybe it's similar to how some people enjoy watching The Room. I don't necessarily "like" all the mods I play, but I have "fun" exploring their content. And that's what this game is for, to have fun. I deal with screaming schizophrenics and suicidal people all night at work, I want to have fun when I'm wide awake at 0300 at home!
Well in ye olden days this mod's creator was known for using alts to post publicity reviews of her own mod which often included 'mistakes' like that to make them appear genuine. I don't think subtledoctor's theory (if that is it) applies in this case though; it's been a while and the posts in question really don't seem her style.
I wasn’t solely commenting on the comments on the mod shown here.
I personally think it’s not even necessary to bring out the old fake account conspiracy theories again anyway - it makes the most sense that the majority of Sandrahphiles seem to either be non-proficient in English or just don’t care about spelling, grammar or punctuation.
Meu avó sempre diçia que unha verdade eterna é que sempre toparás un ñaçeiro que cré que todo sabe só porque fala únha linguaxe menos ca tí.
As a native Brazilian I must say that I wasn't able to understand what you just wrote.
Seems like Portuguese to me but I'm not certain.
Galician/galiçiam/galego, os dois têm a mesma origem (both have the same origin) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language
ed: Translates as something like:
Meu avô sempre disse que você sempre encontrará alguém que acredite que saiba mais em sua língua quando a verdade é que eles conhecem uma língua menos que você
Funny thing is that many associations preach that both are the same language, called galego-portugués. And as you can see... I just have to say that I can understand portuguese the same as you can understand galego XD
Because of its similarities to Spanish/Italian, I was able to understand about 80% of that! So cool.
Exactly, modern galego has the "Ñ" from spanish but also the "Ç" from french and portuguese, and many similarities with both in grammar and ortography. I think you can safely say español-galego (spanish-galician) the same as portugués-galego (portuguese-galician) even if the latter were the same language in the 14th century... But I am pretty sure a portuguese or a spaniard will struggle to understand fully, and vice-versa.
Huh. I realized it was Gallego, because I adore northern Spain, but I always thought it was closer to Portuguese than that. What does "ñaçeiro" mean? A cognate with necio, maybe?
Huh. I realized it was Gallego, because I adore northern Spain, but I always thought it was closer to Portuguese than that. What does "ñaçeiro" mean? A cognate with necio, maybe?
Well, I do not know how to translate it, not even to Spanish. It is a word that does not exist in any other language like "morriña" or the German words "Fernweh" or "Blitzkrieg"
I loosely translated it before, but I will try to explain it.
So, my grandpa was a smuggler in his youth. In fact, all the people in his village and surrounding areas near the frontier with Portugal and France were smugglers. It was post-war and the frontiers were closed tightly (Think Cuba). So if you want oil, food, medicines, car parts or even lightbulbs you will have to traverse the frontier and get them. In those times the people in my grandpa's village spoke Galician and also Portuguese, French and possibly German because they use those languages to trade and work outside Spain and Portugal was far near than Madrid. The only people that spoke Spanish on a daily basis were the preacher, the doctor and the cops because that was the only language they knew, unlike the rest of the people.
Normally those came from the south, places where only Spanish was spoken, and they expect that it was the same in here. So they did not bother learn the language, even a word, and often mocked the villagers when they reply in their flawed Spanish (even if most of them almost never use it besides talking to the cops or the priest) and even flogged them if they catch villagers speaking Galician with their own family (there are documented cases of that).
So entire villages full of multilingual people had to learn one language and speak only one language that only a few people in his village speak and also be mocked because they do not speak like a native.
They also expect to have the same food (olives, something that does not grow here), the same clothes, the same drinks, the women behave and dress in the same way as in his hometown. They even made a point of not speaking a single word in Portuguese or Galician, only spanish, even if they do not have any problem to use "menage-a-trois" "bestseller" "marketing", etc. They even use spanized names for towns (Viana del Castillo/Viana do Castelo, Salvatierra/Salvaterra do Miño o Sanjenjo/Sanxenxo are my all-time favorites) That I know for a fact because I met them and his families, and they are still the same.
Funny thing is that they also expected the Portuguese traders to speak Spanish, and they were frankly annoyed when they have to grab a Galician to do the talking for them because the Portuguese did not comply (Yes, the cops and the priest were the best clients of my grandpa, even if he has to give them a cut).
Well, those were the original ñaçeiros.
Even if that does not happen anymore, the word still stands for people with that kind of mentality.
And just for the record, even if I have my opinion I do not care about politics, who-was-worse, who´s daddy is best, who deserves independence or not, I am just talking about the word and those far away times. I am tired of all this political nonsense. And there are ñaçeiros from all places, not only from Spain.
Also, most of those medicine and food smugglers became drug dealers in modern times, my grandfather and a few had the good sense to grab their money, flee and start anew before those dark times.
Another word I´ve never been able to translate is "Riquiño". A pity because I love that word.
Riquiño/a is someone you find attractive, but he/she is not.
When someone is not exactly "handsome", or "pretty", not "charming", not "interesting", not "hot" by any means, even annoying most times, but you like him/her and you do not understand why.
Mainly you use riquiño when you like someone and you cannot fathom the reason, and usually, you are the only one that finds him/her remotely attractive.
Aaaaand yeah, galician people felt the need to create a word for that.
Ok, while Im running my third installation of EET I have some time to write in here... Yeah, three times the charm, eh? Well, I had installed this dreadfull Sandrah Saga Mod simply because of its description on EET...and after getting to nashkell and rescuing Dynaheir...I just had to quit and uninstall and delete and set up a fresh EET install without this abysmal "content"... I really couldnt believe that I would be the only one to take offense on "Sandrah"...and a quick googlesearch brought me here. Yeah... whats to say? It is...by all means... the absolute cumulation of every possible bad aspect of a Mary-Sue character.
Now, the scope might seem impressive for this mod...and I bet a lot of work went into the creation...yet the execution is simply subpar on every level.
1. The Writing: OMG. What happened here? The totally unsympathetic, neglected, introvert, sexually repressed author went on a fullblown powertrip, creating that monstrous creature "Sandrah" to not only steal away the protagonists position in the story, surpass every other character in the game, is constantly maximally positivly reinforced by unnecessary NPC-banter while at the same time turning any biological material she is looking at into a sexslave, pandering to all her desires... Yeah. This must be one of the worst characters I have ever witnessed in any media.
On the bright side: compared to this the last season of GoT doesnt seem so bad at all anymore.
To the unknowiing just one example: You all remember that lovely time when you entered Feldpost Inn in Beregost and that brutish drunkard Marl is verbally abusing you out of nothing? Well...as a real hero you tend to deescalate that situation with some witty words and...by painting a portion of the Feldposts Inn walls in a fresh new coat of deep red paint! Right? Wrong! This interaction is now completly solved by "Sandrah", with a single line, because after that she immediatly gets 4 full textboxes to present herself as gods gift to humanity...oh, praised be her beauty, martial prowess, intellegence, wisdom and elegance (which is actually exactly what the text praises about her in unneeded lenghty words). So in short: a small interaction with a random NPC to show how the world reacts to Charname and how even good intentions might not always leed to a good outcome...is totally taken out of your hands and replaced by a very forced section to admire "Sandrah"... and that is how every single interaction with this hellspawn turns out...and you have at least one interaction with her every 3-4 minutes, either your Charname or one of your companions (because...with this mod installed, Charname is just another NPC to accompany the great "Sandrah" in order to make her look even better besides you).
2. The technical stuff: As I am willing to admit... yes, the technical implementation is actually not bad. I did not encounter buggs with this mod. Its just all so very unrefined and unbalanced. The itemazation coming with this mod is pure crap, all the Items are severly overpowered, specially for the level you are gaining them, they lack proper Itemdescriptions (there are NONE stats given! N-O-N-E! You actually have to guess what the gameplay effects of the items are or read it out of the feedbackscreens... considering the rest of the technical implementation, that sloppy oversight is hard to understand). The "Banter-Triggers" are also very badly, oddly placed. They are all over. Everywhere. At times I couldnt move my characters across one screen without triggering 2 Banters. And its all in the style of Nr. 1.; not a single deviation. Pacing is totally off, there is absolutly no feeling for when certain conversations/Banters would be appropiate. There is no turning it off/shutting her up. Sandrah comes with a custom AI-Script it seems, she is using her weapons, armors, rings (yes, she start with all that highly magically powered, of course!) at the beginning of a fight...and than? She stands around. Not attacking. Why, I wondered? No idea! I gave her the command to attack...still nothing. I gave it again. And again. And than she moved to join the fight, hooray!
So I disabled that script and assigned her the very basic "Attack Melee" Script, pretty much disallowing the automatic use of spells, abilities, potions and so on... she didnt really care. And why would she? After taking the spot of the Protagonist of the game, why should she than conitnue to listen to players commands? She kept playing to her own rules and custom script. Yey.
The dog she spawns for you? Yes, its a strong companion. Its not really part of that mod, though, its an old mod integrated into hers. And it completly annoys you everywhere you want to go, because everytime you want to go somewhere, doggydog will block your protagonists way. Can you somehow get rid off him? I havent fouind out how... the whistle to summon him did not have the option to unsummon him....but I got rid of him eventually, he wasnt following me anymore at the gnoll-fortress.
Now, because "Sandrah" is having the spot as the most unbelievable protagonist of all times, she of course is involved in quests with pretty much every companion and a lot of regions you visit... and all these quests are coming with quest-related items, of course. Which are cluttering your inventory! Great! Its not like I wouldnt know hot to fill this up otherwise, right?
So... yeah, I will just end this short review/warning of/against "Sandrah Saga" with the summary of what TV-Tropes defines as Mary Sue, as I cant really express it any better myself:
"The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing.
She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal."
TL;DR: This mod is very bad fanciction! Get away from it! NOW!
So in short: a small interaction with a random NPC to show how the world reacts to Charname and how even good intentions might not always leed to a good outcome...is totally taken out of your hands and replaced by a very forced section to admire "Sandrah"... and that is how every single interaction with this hellspawn turns out...and you have at least one interaction with her every 3-4 minutes, either your Charname or one of your companions (because...with this mod installed, Charname is just another NPC to accompany the great "Sandrah" in order to make her look even better besides you).
I think this is the thing I hate most about the writing and someone's given me an example that allows me to put my hatred into words. It isn't just bad on its own, it ruins interesting parts of the original writing and removes any sort of nuance or consequence in favor of shallow wish fulfillment, which is something I don't even see to this extent in the worst mods I've ever used. I'd go as far as to say that adding this mod to the game actually takes content away from the game.
That's an interesting point, actually. Like coating can make a cake delicious but too much coating might turn it too sweet and destroy the original taste.
As for the Sandrah Saga - since there are people who like it (and I am sure they are not alts), i'd say be aware of what you are installing (as it is true for all mods, really) and do not play it if you don't like it.
EDIT: Oh, and be aware that almost all crossmod content you'll find in the game, including extentions of existing mod quests, are probably not authorised by the original authors.
you know it's a good thing i'm not knowledgeable on how to installl eet. so i'll never have to play this mod ever.
Are you aware that EET and Sandrah Saga are two completely unrelated things/mods? EET is a platform which combines BG1EE, SoD, and BG2 (also IWD1EE in future) into one game which offers much 'continuous' playthrough experience. It has nothing to do with "Sandrah Saga".
I just want to point out that EET is a great tool and has nothing to do with this topic on its own. I am quite happy that I do not have to go through each seperate modinstallation on its own and that I can play a campaign, starting in BGI with BGII UI and enhancements in place.
That Sandrah is abysmal as a mod is clearly a problem of the Sandrah-Saga mod and not of EET.
you know it's a good thing i'm not knowledgeable on how to installl eet. so i'll never have to play this mod ever.
Are you aware that EET and Sandrah Saga are two completely unrelated things/mods? EET is a platform which combines BG1EE, SoD, and BG2 (also IWD1EE in future) into one game which offers much 'continuous' playthrough experience. It has nothing to do with "Sandrah Saga".
i know they are different mods. my statement does not seem to infer that i think they are the same mod. all i said was that as i don't really know how to do an eet install i am less likely to use sandrah
1. The Writing: OMG. What happened here? The totally unsympathetic, neglected, introvert, sexually repressed author went on a fullblown powertrip, creating that monstrous creature "Sandrah" to not only steal away the protagonists position in the story, surpass every other character in the game, is constantly maximally positivly reinforced by unnecessary NPC-banter while at the same time turning any biological material she is looking at into a sexslave, pandering to all her desires... Yeah. This must be one of the worst characters I have ever witnessed in any media.
On the bright side: compared to this the last season of GoT doesnt seem so bad at all anymore.
To the unknowiing just one example: You all remember that lovely time when you entered Feldpost Inn in Beregost and that brutish drunkard Marl is verbally abusing you out of nothing? Well...as a real hero you tend to deescalate that situation with some witty words and...by painting a portion of the Feldposts Inn walls in a fresh new coat of deep red paint! Right? Wrong! This interaction is now completly solved by "Sandrah", with a single line, because after that she immediatly gets 4 full textboxes to present herself as gods gift to humanity...oh, praised be her beauty, martial prowess, intellegence, wisdom and elegance (which is actually exactly what the text praises about her in unneeded lenghty words). So in short: a small interaction with a random NPC to show how the world reacts to Charname and how even good intentions might not always leed to a good outcome...is totally taken out of your hands and replaced by a very forced section to admire "Sandrah"... and that is how every single interaction with this hellspawn turns out...and you have at least one interaction with her every 3-4 minutes, either your Charname or one of your companions (because...with this mod installed, Charname is just another NPC to accompany the great "Sandrah" in order to make her look even better besides you).
Yep, he also does the same with quests like the fishermen and the priest of Umberlee, or reveals some major spoilers about characters like Viconia, with information that you only know in BG2 (and I think you only have access to that info if you romance her, if I remember correctly).
Also, you have to romance her or she goes away (Romance her while she bedded the entire sword coast, in front of you, with full details in all its glory). Custom companions in this mod are also there only to show the good points of the main character, Shandra, with little to none characterization. I think you cannot even recruit them without the MC (and with MC I mean Shandra) or have little to no content without this character.
I do not like this kind of character or the way are portrayed some canon and mod characters in this mod, but plenty of people seem to like it ( see fanfiction.com), just be aware of what you are downloading.
As stated before, this mod takes for granted you are an experienced player, so do not play this mod if you have not played the BG series extensively because you will be submitted to lots of spoilers and cut content!!!!
Also you risk your character turn to alcoholism to cope with all this nonsense.
Comments
I can't really blame them though, the name is awful.
I personally think it’s not even necessary to bring out the old fake account conspiracy theories again anyway - it makes the most sense that the majority of Sandrahphiles seem to either be non-proficient in English or just don’t care about spelling, grammar or punctuation.
As a native Brazilian I must say that I wasn't able to understand what you just wrote.
Seems like Portuguese to me but I'm not certain.
Galician/galiçiam/galego, os dois têm a mesma origem (both have the same origin)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language
ed: Translates as something like:
Meu avô sempre disse que você sempre encontrará alguém que acredite que saiba mais em sua língua quando a verdade é que eles conhecem uma língua menos que você
Thanks.
Exactly, modern galego has the "Ñ" from spanish but also the "Ç" from french and portuguese, and many similarities with both in grammar and ortography. I think you can safely say español-galego (spanish-galician) the same as portugués-galego (portuguese-galician) even if the latter were the same language in the 14th century... But I am pretty sure a portuguese or a spaniard will struggle to understand fully, and vice-versa.
The forumites have upon the rubbles of this torn down multiple account echo chamber, build a Gallego dialect discussion group.
The echo hurt my ears, and the Gallego dialect is so much more soothing to the ears. So thanks - please carry on.
Well, I do not know how to translate it, not even to Spanish. It is a word that does not exist in any other language like "morriña" or the German words "Fernweh" or "Blitzkrieg"
I loosely translated it before, but I will try to explain it.
So, my grandpa was a smuggler in his youth. In fact, all the people in his village and surrounding areas near the frontier with Portugal and France were smugglers. It was post-war and the frontiers were closed tightly (Think Cuba). So if you want oil, food, medicines, car parts or even lightbulbs you will have to traverse the frontier and get them. In those times the people in my grandpa's village spoke Galician and also Portuguese, French and possibly German because they use those languages to trade and work outside Spain and Portugal was far near than Madrid. The only people that spoke Spanish on a daily basis were the preacher, the doctor and the cops because that was the only language they knew, unlike the rest of the people.
Normally those came from the south, places where only Spanish was spoken, and they expect that it was the same in here. So they did not bother learn the language, even a word, and often mocked the villagers when they reply in their flawed Spanish (even if most of them almost never use it besides talking to the cops or the priest) and even flogged them if they catch villagers speaking Galician with their own family (there are documented cases of that).
So entire villages full of multilingual people had to learn one language and speak only one language that only a few people in his village speak and also be mocked because they do not speak like a native.
They also expect to have the same food (olives, something that does not grow here), the same clothes, the same drinks, the women behave and dress in the same way as in his hometown. They even made a point of not speaking a single word in Portuguese or Galician, only spanish, even if they do not have any problem to use "menage-a-trois" "bestseller" "marketing", etc. They even use spanized names for towns (Viana del Castillo/Viana do Castelo, Salvatierra/Salvaterra do Miño o Sanjenjo/Sanxenxo are my all-time favorites) That I know for a fact because I met them and his families, and they are still the same.
Funny thing is that they also expected the Portuguese traders to speak Spanish, and they were frankly annoyed when they have to grab a Galician to do the talking for them because the Portuguese did not comply (Yes, the cops and the priest were the best clients of my grandpa, even if he has to give them a cut).
Well, those were the original ñaçeiros.
Even if that does not happen anymore, the word still stands for people with that kind of mentality.
And just for the record, even if I have my opinion I do not care about politics, who-was-worse, who´s daddy is best, who deserves independence or not, I am just talking about the word and those far away times. I am tired of all this political nonsense. And there are ñaçeiros from all places, not only from Spain.
Also, most of those medicine and food smugglers became drug dealers in modern times, my grandfather and a few had the good sense to grab their money, flee and start anew before those dark times.
Edit: Typos, etc.
Riquiño/a is someone you find attractive, but he/she is not.
When someone is not exactly "handsome", or "pretty", not "charming", not "interesting", not "hot" by any means, even annoying most times, but you like him/her and you do not understand why.
Mainly you use riquiño when you like someone and you cannot fathom the reason, and usually, you are the only one that finds him/her remotely attractive.
Any ideas?
Now, the scope might seem impressive for this mod...and I bet a lot of work went into the creation...yet the execution is simply subpar on every level.
1. The Writing: OMG. What happened here? The totally unsympathetic, neglected, introvert, sexually repressed author went on a fullblown powertrip, creating that monstrous creature "Sandrah" to not only steal away the protagonists position in the story, surpass every other character in the game, is constantly maximally positivly reinforced by unnecessary NPC-banter while at the same time turning any biological material she is looking at into a sexslave, pandering to all her desires... Yeah. This must be one of the worst characters I have ever witnessed in any media.
On the bright side: compared to this the last season of GoT doesnt seem so bad at all anymore.
To the unknowiing just one example: You all remember that lovely time when you entered Feldpost Inn in Beregost and that brutish drunkard Marl is verbally abusing you out of nothing? Well...as a real hero you tend to deescalate that situation with some witty words and...by painting a portion of the Feldposts Inn walls in a fresh new coat of deep red paint! Right? Wrong! This interaction is now completly solved by "Sandrah", with a single line, because after that she immediatly gets 4 full textboxes to present herself as gods gift to humanity...oh, praised be her beauty, martial prowess, intellegence, wisdom and elegance (which is actually exactly what the text praises about her in unneeded lenghty words). So in short: a small interaction with a random NPC to show how the world reacts to Charname and how even good intentions might not always leed to a good outcome...is totally taken out of your hands and replaced by a very forced section to admire "Sandrah"... and that is how every single interaction with this hellspawn turns out...and you have at least one interaction with her every 3-4 minutes, either your Charname or one of your companions (because...with this mod installed, Charname is just another NPC to accompany the great "Sandrah" in order to make her look even better besides you).
2. The technical stuff: As I am willing to admit... yes, the technical implementation is actually not bad. I did not encounter buggs with this mod. Its just all so very unrefined and unbalanced. The itemazation coming with this mod is pure crap, all the Items are severly overpowered, specially for the level you are gaining them, they lack proper Itemdescriptions (there are NONE stats given! N-O-N-E! You actually have to guess what the gameplay effects of the items are or read it out of the feedbackscreens... considering the rest of the technical implementation, that sloppy oversight is hard to understand). The "Banter-Triggers" are also very badly, oddly placed. They are all over. Everywhere. At times I couldnt move my characters across one screen without triggering 2 Banters. And its all in the style of Nr. 1.; not a single deviation. Pacing is totally off, there is absolutly no feeling for when certain conversations/Banters would be appropiate. There is no turning it off/shutting her up. Sandrah comes with a custom AI-Script it seems, she is using her weapons, armors, rings (yes, she start with all that highly magically powered, of course!) at the beginning of a fight...and than? She stands around. Not attacking. Why, I wondered? No idea! I gave her the command to attack...still nothing. I gave it again. And again. And than she moved to join the fight, hooray!
So I disabled that script and assigned her the very basic "Attack Melee" Script, pretty much disallowing the automatic use of spells, abilities, potions and so on... she didnt really care. And why would she? After taking the spot of the Protagonist of the game, why should she than conitnue to listen to players commands? She kept playing to her own rules and custom script. Yey.
The dog she spawns for you? Yes, its a strong companion. Its not really part of that mod, though, its an old mod integrated into hers. And it completly annoys you everywhere you want to go, because everytime you want to go somewhere, doggydog will block your protagonists way. Can you somehow get rid off him? I havent fouind out how... the whistle to summon him did not have the option to unsummon him....but I got rid of him eventually, he wasnt following me anymore at the gnoll-fortress.
Now, because "Sandrah" is having the spot as the most unbelievable protagonist of all times, she of course is involved in quests with pretty much every companion and a lot of regions you visit... and all these quests are coming with quest-related items, of course. Which are cluttering your inventory! Great! Its not like I wouldnt know hot to fill this up otherwise, right?
So... yeah, I will just end this short review/warning of/against "Sandrah Saga" with the summary of what TV-Tropes defines as Mary Sue, as I cant really express it any better myself:
"The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing.
She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal."
TL;DR: This mod is very bad fanciction! Get away from it! NOW!
As for the Sandrah Saga - since there are people who like it (and I am sure they are not alts), i'd say be aware of what you are installing (as it is true for all mods, really) and do not play it if you don't like it.
EDIT: Oh, and be aware that almost all crossmod content you'll find in the game, including extentions of existing mod quests, are probably not authorised by the original authors.
Are you aware that EET and Sandrah Saga are two completely unrelated things/mods? EET is a platform which combines BG1EE, SoD, and BG2 (also IWD1EE in future) into one game which offers much 'continuous' playthrough experience. It has nothing to do with "Sandrah Saga".
That Sandrah is abysmal as a mod is clearly a problem of the Sandrah-Saga mod and not of EET.
i know they are different mods. my statement does not seem to infer that i think they are the same mod. all i said was that as i don't really know how to do an eet install i am less likely to use sandrah
Yep, he also does the same with quests like the fishermen and the priest of Umberlee, or reveals some major spoilers about characters like Viconia, with information that you only know in BG2 (and I think you only have access to that info if you romance her, if I remember correctly).
Also, you have to romance her or she goes away (Romance her while she bedded the entire sword coast, in front of you, with full details in all its glory). Custom companions in this mod are also there only to show the good points of the main character, Shandra, with little to none characterization. I think you cannot even recruit them without the MC (and with MC I mean Shandra) or have little to no content without this character.
I do not like this kind of character or the way are portrayed some canon and mod characters in this mod, but plenty of people seem to like it ( see fanfiction.com), just be aware of what you are downloading.
As stated before, this mod takes for granted you are an experienced player, so do not play this mod if you have not played the BG series extensively because you will be submitted to lots of spoilers and cut content!!!!
Also you risk your character turn to alcoholism to cope with all this nonsense.