yes...very true....but there's also established lore to account for, or you might as well just make your own world from scratch.
Lore discrepancies are a MASSIVE issue for me, and utterly destroys immersion for me. Some of the areas in BG2, I'm kind of ok with, since they're feasible. It's mostly Athkatla, Trademeet, and the druid grove that annoy me the most. The rest I can sort of go with, since they're all possible, but those 3 directly contradict established lore.
Athkatla as covered above. All of Trademeet is basically Goldspires torn out of Athkatla and thrown east, with a bunch of random crap thrown in to fill the hole it's removal left. And the Druid grove should be slightly north-west of D'narise Keep. Chauntea's temple is in the middle of a druid grove, and there's no way 2 large groves would exist in such a small geographic area.
For me, I've never been intimately familiar with the campaign settings in Faerun, despite having read a lot of the books. So When I played BG2 back when it was first released(13 years ago! almost to the month!), I had no problem with the setting. But if I tried to do a PnP campaign, I think I would be disturbed by how different it was. It's really important to get these kinds of details right.
And since Helm, Lathander, and especially Talos have NO substantial populations anywhere in Amn, they wouldn't have open temples to those gods.
If I may, I beg to differ on that. In the "Threat From The Sea" trilogy of novels a good chunk of the action in the first novel is set in Baldur's Gate and Athkatla, in the latter city the protagonist visits Waukeen's Promenade, The Copper Coronet, which is very much the same as in BGII and a temple of Lathander; the only difference being the location, by the docks rather than a dedicated temple district, so as the novels are considered canon there were certainly temples to Lathander, which to me makes perfect sense as the place is a trading port with visitors from all over Faerun who have different gods.
Novels are only considered Canon if they don't directly contradict an official source book.
The only time novels are out right canon, is when compared to a video or player-run game. As in, if your player's kill off Elminster, the results don't matter, since nothing you did in that game will ever be considered official canon. Just as no elements of a novel that directly contradicts an official lorebook will ever be canon.
It's why Twinkle and the Jeweled dagger in all official media are JUST +5/+4 defenders with no other special powers, despite in the novels, Twinkle being a +1 Danger-sense scimitar (brought up twice in the book he acquired it), and Entreri's dagger being a +4 vampiric dagger (shown REPEATEDLY in nearly every book he's in), that have never stated, shown, or even hinted to be defenders, and clearly have completely different powers. (the exact modifiers being from Salvatore himself when asked what they would be if implemented accurate to the novels in a game).
A trading port would only have chapels to gods involving trade. Shaundekal usually has a shrine at every every caravan office or way-station. Valkur and/or Umberlee almost always have chapels at docks. Most markets have at least a small shrine to Waukeen.
While it's not unheard of for gods to have small shrine in other god's temples, Athkatla has no significant populations of Lathander worshipers and would never have a open temple by official source, which means that element is either completely non-canon or they met in another god's temple in front of a small offering shrine to Lathander.
(there is no difference between Athkatla 2nd edition and Athkatla 3rd edition in the official source books, so those novel were completely ignored).
Again, I disagree there and the general consensus is that novels and sourcebooks hold equal weight and validity as far as canon is concerned, certainly some sources may contradict others and at that point it comes down to individual interpretation but as far as there being no temples to Lathander in Athkatla the one in the books I mentioned was was a dedicated temple
- the protagonist spends a considerable amount of time there recovering from a fight he became involved in at The Copper Coronet -
though if it was The Dome of the Rose or not I don't recall. Though I wouldn't call that particular establishment insignificant and NB: the reference to a shrine to Talos too.
Again, I disagree there and the general consensus is that novels and sourcebooks hold equal weight and validity as far as canon is concerned, certainly some sources may contradict others and at that point it comes down to individual interpretation but as far as there being no temples to Lathander in Athkatla the one in the books I mentioned was was a dedicated temple
- the protagonist spends a considerable amount of time there recovering from a fight he became involved in at The Copper Coronet -
though if it was The Dome of the Rose or not I don't recall. Though I wouldn't call that particular establishment insignificant and NB: the reference to a shrine to Talos too.
Again, I disagree there and the general consensus is that novels and sourcebooks hold equal weight and validity as far as canon is concerned, certainly some sources may contradict others and at that point it comes down to individual interpretation but as far as there being no temples to Lathander in Athkatla the one in the books I mentioned was was a dedicated temple
- the protagonist spends a considerable amount of time there recovering from a fight he became involved in at The Copper Coronet -
though if it was The Dome of the Rose or not I don't recall. Though I wouldn't call that particular establishment insignificant and NB: the reference to a shrine to Talos too.
Again, I disagree there and the general consensus is that novels and sourcebooks hold equal weight and validity as far as canon is concerned, certainly some sources may contradict others and at that point it comes down to individual interpretation but as far as there being no temples to Lathander in Athkatla the one in the books I mentioned was was a dedicated temple
- the protagonist spends a considerable amount of time there recovering from a fight he became involved in at The Copper Coronet -
though if it was The Dome of the Rose or not I don't recall. Though I wouldn't call that particular establishment insignificant and NB: the reference to a shrine to Talos too.
Wut
Yes?
Sorry, I misunderstood something and reacted hastily.
We got a funny old fat lady pic, so it was worth it.
Comments
The only time novels are out right canon, is when compared to a video or player-run game. As in, if your player's kill off Elminster, the results don't matter, since nothing you did in that game will ever be considered official canon. Just as no elements of a novel that directly contradicts an official lorebook will ever be canon.
It's why Twinkle and the Jeweled dagger in all official media are JUST +5/+4 defenders with no other special powers, despite in the novels, Twinkle being a +1 Danger-sense scimitar (brought up twice in the book he acquired it), and Entreri's dagger being a +4 vampiric dagger (shown REPEATEDLY in nearly every book he's in), that have never stated, shown, or even hinted to be defenders, and clearly have completely different powers. (the exact modifiers being from Salvatore himself when asked what they would be if implemented accurate to the novels in a game).
A trading port would only have chapels to gods involving trade. Shaundekal usually has a shrine at every every caravan office or way-station. Valkur and/or Umberlee almost always have chapels at docks. Most markets have at least a small shrine to Waukeen.
While it's not unheard of for gods to have small shrine in other god's temples, Athkatla has no significant populations of Lathander worshipers and would never have a open temple by official source, which means that element is either completely non-canon or they met in another god's temple in front of a small offering shrine to Lathander.
(there is no difference between Athkatla 2nd edition and Athkatla 3rd edition in the official source books, so those novel were completely ignored).
Silke has dialogue that only triggers in chapter 7 and only if you've helped her (so not killed her).
I believe she's in
Basically you can discuss with her what you are up to (including mentioning the assassination of the grand dukes). She basically brushes you off.
Though to be honest I haven't played a playthrough where I've actually helped her (and not killed her) in years. So I'm not 100% sure about it.
Anyways you can check for yourselves in Near Infinity. Silke.dlg, States 13 - 24.
We got a funny old fat lady pic, so it was worth it.