Baldur's Gate Lore and Backstory (requesting BG scholars' help!)

johntyl

[WARNING: Possible SPOILERS ahead for those who have not completed TOB]

Having just completed TOB, I was still left with several nagging queries that continue to puzzle me regarding the backstory of Baldur's Gate and the mainCHAR's(MC) history.

I have several questions that I hope BG scholars here are able to help me out!

1) If MC was saved by Gorion and his Harper gang from being murdered/sacrificed by MC's mother, a priestess of Bhaal, what about Imoen? Was she, like MC, one of the children that was also saved by Gorion during their infiltration into Bhaal's temple? If she is, why did Gorion only 'focus' on you - getting you out of Candlekeep and ensuring your safety, but NOT Imoen who is also a Bhaalspawn? Was she adopted from another place and at another time, and therefore her Bhaalspawn origins were kept in the dark from the Harpers?

2) Why is Bhaal or why does Bhaal, the Lord of Murder, adopt a Slayer form? Wasn't he an assassin back when he was a mortal? I always thought he should look more like the figure of MASK, the Lord of Shadows: agile, sinister, dark, death-like Voldemort-looking figure. Why does he look like a Pit Fiend - a devil?

These are the 2 most pressing questions I have amongst others. Looking forward to all your responses!

PaulaMigrate

1) In the vanilla game this issue is never clarified. There are mods that expand the game and provide more detail about Imoen, but those are despised by some as being *non-canon*.

e.g. There is a very large quest in the Sandrah Saga about Imoen's background and also why the heritage has different results for her and the protagonist,

2) The mortal Bhaal was originally an assasin, but your description fits more to Cyric, his successor in the game.
Bhaal appears in the trilogy in three avatars ; Kazgoroth, a shape-shifting one , Slayer, a human-sized one, and Ravager, a giant bestial form . Where these avatars come from is not explained but most likely they come from Jergal, his predessessor (read the Story of the Dead Three, the book you get from Elvenhair when you do his quest in Beregost)

Kamigoroshi

The bestial forms of the Slayer & Co. match Jergal even less. Given his previous existence as the ultimate ruler of life, death and undeath. He wasn't particular fond of his "job" back then. While he may have been a tyrant, violence or hot blooded rage wasn't a part of him.

Rather, it is worth to remember that Bhaal not only excelled in murder. But violent deaths in general as well. The Slayer may very well be an incarnation of his tendencies towards carnage. At least that's how I always saw it.

PaulaMigrate

Kamigoroshi said:

The bestial forms of the Slayer & Co. match Jergal even less. Given his previous existence as the ultimate ruler of life, death and undeath. He wasn't particular fond of his "job" back then. While he may have been a tyrant, violence or hot blooded rage wasn't a part of him.

Rather, it is worth to remember that Bhaal not only excelled in murder. But violent deaths in general as well. The Slayer may very well be an incarnation of his tendencies towards carnage. At least that's how I always saw it.

Agree, Jergal is a weak explanation, only that those are the old deities playing with the old fears and emotions of the mortals. And using avatars to stress that.

Or even much simpler, the developpers just wanted to illustrate someone/something really to fear and not use any animation already used before. A symbol for death, violence, murder. and carnage.

johntyl

PaulaMigrate said:

1) Where these avatars come from is not explained but most likely they come from Jergal, his predessessor (read the Story of the Dead Three, the book you get from Elvenhair when you do his quest in Beregost)

I've read that Story and also most of Forgotten Realm lore (whatever I can find on Wiki/videos/forums) but there's not much discussed regarding why he adopted those three forms you mentioned. For me, logic-wise, it's weird that two of his avatars - the Slayer and the bigger version Ravager - resemble demons/devils that look and sound pretty low-intellect (or maybe he is).

@Kamigoroshi That sounds fair. But to be honest, I never liked the Slayer form and have never used it during my entire game.

UnderstandMouseMagic

Imoen being a Bhaalspawn was put in after the original game I think. She was meant to be killed off.
It's been said here that she was even invented late in the development simply to help get Charname to the FAI.

So it's not so surprising nothing is mentioned or explained when you look back over the saga from the end of TOB.
I think you can make up anything you like to explain it. The developers did.

DJKajuru

I would venture to say that Bhaal's avatars are the personification of his own personality, I mean, even though he was (supposably) a human assassin, perhaps his despicable actions reflected on his own external image.