Explanation I read on reddit - seems fake? [SPoiler- don't come in if you haven't played bg1 + bg2]

Arthas

One guy asks on reddit: So Gorion knows that Imoen is also bhaalspawn, yet chooses to leave her in candlekeep.
Does he think that her heritage is still a well kept secret? Or does he leave her to die to assassins blades because she is so annoying?

And there is one answer:

There's two subgroups among the Bhaalspawn, there were those like the PC, Seravok, and the 5 who were born to clerics of Bhaal in his temples and the other type which are like reincarnations of Bhaal's scattered remaining essence, babies who had yet to be born at the time of Bhaal's death. The Bhaal taint isn't as strong in the latter group because they have less of it and because they weren't "blessed/baptized" by Bhaal's clerics shortly after birth.

I've long assumed that Imoen was in the latter group, and speculate that Gorion thought Imoen might be a Bhaalspawn but had no way of knowing for certain.



Where did the guy read these things? Are they confirmed?

lroumen

None of that rings any bells to me. I cannot remember that the 5 were better than the others for a real reason other than a potential individual strength.

semiticgoddess

I suppose you could justify it on the grounds that the only assassination attempts were on Charname, and Gorion assumed that since Imoen wasn't targeted, removing her from Candlekeep would only increase the danger for her. But it's also possible that Imoen being a Bhaalspawn wasn't intended until after BG1 was published, and so the developers never considered that question in the first place.

@Arthas: To answer your question, these things are not confirmed, nor is there in-game evidence for them. These are just fan theories. People come up with them to fill in holes in our knowledge, so whether they're "true" or not is largely a matter of preference. Fan theories also help us justify plot holes, which can paper over unrealistic parts of a story that break immersion.

Isewein

I always liked the idea of Imoen as a backup plan of the Harpers should Charname be killed / turn out too Bhaal-like for their liking (this is refrenced by the Wraith in ToB who mentions something about her having been his "secnd hope"). I certainly assume Gorion knew of her, anything else would be too much of a coincidence, but he purposefully did not raise her himself to make it appear less conspicuous. Then again, it may also have played into his decision that he had less personal attachment to her than Charname, considering how he was the former lover of Charname's mother.

The Imoen Romance mod offers a very neat and plausible backstory for Imoen, by the way. Essentially Winthrop turns out to have been an old adventuring companion of Gorion's, and when he came upon Imoen his old friend insisted that they move to Candlekeep for reasons of safety.

Of course, the Doylean explanation is that it simply wasn't set until after BG1, but that doesn't prevent us from forming our in-universe headcanon around it, does it?

Arthas

Thanks to each one of you

By the way @Isewein, please don't spoiler Imoen romance for these that have not played it.