How old is Anomen?
IsabellaGranger
Member Posts: 52
I've been wondering that for a while these days... It all began when I read in the wiki, that to become a full-fledged knight of the Order of The Radiant Heart, you need to be at least 40 years old; that information gave me goosebumps, seriously. Given that... the main female character is around 20 years old, and I've always thought Anomen was around 24-26 years old at most, making him fairly young and also, comprehensively arrogant and all of that. I've always thought that his attitude was more or less justified because of his backstory, and the childhood he had (and the fact that he was still pretty young, given that most characters tend to treat him as a young, inexperienced guy, calling him ''boy'' often); he even states he has little experience with women, which makes sense if he's in his mid-twenties and worked half of his life for the Order, restraining himself from a lot of stuff. This makes him a likeable character; being fairly young, only a few years older than CHARNAME, his attitude is comprehensible. But if he's 40 years old... This changes everything. This changes all of my perspective, in about every little thing about him. If he's 40 years old and behaves like that... it's no longer comprehensible, it's pathetic. If he's 40 years old and has that little experience in life, he automatically becomes an extremely, extremely but in heavenly proportions, immature dude. And to think a guy his age would be interested in a woman who's in her early twenties (or the equivalent to that in another race), being that way, behaving like that, makes the whole thing really, really creepy. Why would a girl want to romance a guy his age, even more considering his attitude? It all... makes me think about him in a totally different light, really. He doesn't look at all like he's 40 years old, nor his attitude seems to fit that, but then, why is he able to become a knight of the Order? He's still a squire, and a part of the Radiant Heart Auxiliary, but that test of his, is to become a ''full-fledged'' knight, or... whatever? I no longer understand this, he becomes ''Sir Anomen'' but mentions that he's Sir Ryan Trawl's companion, and serves under his mandatory still, but at the same time, he says that he will be able to have an squire or two and... My God. My ranger is romancing a guy who doubles her age, someone she has put up with his attitude because she thought it was understandable for a guy who was still in his mid twenties at most, someone who wants to sleep with her and... ... ... I'm having a crisis here.
Still, in the official Age Table for the different races, they put this:
Race - Full Age - Middle Age - Old - Venerable
Human: 15 - 35 - 53 - 70 - +2d20.
They never, ever direct to Anomen as if he's even middle age. Korgan, Keldorn, Mazzy, even Yoshimo if I'm not mistaken, treat him as if he was a pretty young man, inexperienced, even calling him ''boy'' as I mentioned, and his father is still alive, and doesn't seem to be even close to venerable, rather old instead, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to try to kill him, and come on, to think a father would treat Anomen that way if he's nearly 40 years old is just... pathetic. He has a young sister too, whose age is never mentioned, but the way he makes it sound, she would be just about full age, I think. Keldorn is a full-fledged knight of the Order, a veteran, and he seems to be around 50 years old. Anomen can never be around 40, I'm sure, but still, the whole thing doesn't make any sense! I can take him being up until 28 at most, but never 30 or 40... it doesn't make sense to romance him, his attitude doesn't make sense, the way other characters treat him doesn't make sense, but he can still become a knight... and supposedly, they ''aged'' his portrait, because he looked ''younger'' before... only that that's not true, like, at all.
Sorry for the block of text, really, but I'm very confused and... shocked about this thing. What do you think?
Still, in the official Age Table for the different races, they put this:
Race - Full Age - Middle Age - Old - Venerable
Human: 15 - 35 - 53 - 70 - +2d20.
They never, ever direct to Anomen as if he's even middle age. Korgan, Keldorn, Mazzy, even Yoshimo if I'm not mistaken, treat him as if he was a pretty young man, inexperienced, even calling him ''boy'' as I mentioned, and his father is still alive, and doesn't seem to be even close to venerable, rather old instead, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to try to kill him, and come on, to think a father would treat Anomen that way if he's nearly 40 years old is just... pathetic. He has a young sister too, whose age is never mentioned, but the way he makes it sound, she would be just about full age, I think. Keldorn is a full-fledged knight of the Order, a veteran, and he seems to be around 50 years old. Anomen can never be around 40, I'm sure, but still, the whole thing doesn't make any sense! I can take him being up until 28 at most, but never 30 or 40... it doesn't make sense to romance him, his attitude doesn't make sense, the way other characters treat him doesn't make sense, but he can still become a knight... and supposedly, they ''aged'' his portrait, because he looked ''younger'' before... only that that's not true, like, at all.
Sorry for the block of text, really, but I'm very confused and... shocked about this thing. What do you think?
Post edited by IsabellaGranger on
5
Comments
I don't think there's much else to say about this.
It's clear from his story that he has a few years' experience, but not many years. Mid to late 20s seems to me to fit.
On the other hand, the devs at both Bioware and Beamdog have often clearly ignored the story when they issued the official choices of portraits for the protagonist, some of which are clearly much older than 20. Furthermore, the story itself doesn't really allow for the range of playable races which the rules permit - a human at 20 may be a young adult setting out on his/her own life, but (for example) an elf at 20 is still a kid and won't be an adult until 100 or so.
All in all, it's best to ignore age considerations in BG, so many inconsistencies have crept in that it's FUBAR.
Anomen is also of an unusually high level and is a nobleman, two things that would make any organization want him as a member.
"So what has this squire been up to this week?"
"Well, he and five of his friends destroyed a beholder colony, killed a red dragon, destroyed the slavery ring in the city, wiped out a shadow thieves guild, and it looks like he has been their front line warrior against a coven of vampires."
"..."
"Sir? How many points does this award?"
"Make him a knight, now."
"But sir, he is only twenty-"
"You fool! If we don't get him then the Knights of the Purple Pantaloons surely will! Hmm...his friends, are any of them Paladins by any chance?"
"Indeed sir."
"Good. Give me a day to come up with some 'tests' for him. Ha! Keldorn is getting old you know. This is exactly what we need to show the city how relevant our organization is. Write this down, will you? We should also make a statue for Keldorn. Squeeze what blood we can get out of that rock."
---
Why let someone like that go?
The O of the RH are downright dodgy with the way they treat their youngsters.
Why oh why does any squire hoping to become a Knight have to hang around a sleazy joint like the Copper Coronet to get work?
You know, the place with the very obvious slaving operation going on?
In the slums?
What's the betting that 90% of jobs on offer would be suspect/criminal?
Yet the RH appears to be OK with this???
And it's not the first time we've met young men hanging around hoping for jobs, Ajantis BG.
They must lose hundreds of potential knights judging by the way they seem to treat them. That Anomen came up trumps must be a rare occurance.
By deliberately sending candidates into situations where they might be tempted by a wide variety of sins and crimes, the Order can see which ones are (or more to the point, aren't) committed to being Lawful and Good.
First, you're going to spend the next two years in the most popular brothel in town. If you touch any of the girls, you'll be permanently banned from the Radiant Heart. Here's a Ring of Human Influence to hotten up your looks, and 500 gold to pay for anything you might want. Anything."
*Twelve months later*
"We've been keeping a close eye on you and you haven't committed a single sin. Congratulations! Wow, you look like a mess. Now all you have to do is get through the next twelve months with your five new succubus roommates."
No wonder why Anomen hates women.
Sleezy yes, misogynist definitely.
But mainly chronic insecurity....................... and BTW that's my boyfriend you're talking about (lol).
Misogony: A hatred of women.
In summary, Anomen is a land of (regrettable) contrasts.
To become a member of the senior branch of the Radiant Heart, you'd have to be either 40 years old or at least be held in high regard. Apparently Anomen is in his early or mid 20's, which means he is a member of the Radiant Heart Auxiliary, the junior branch, and because his father didn't sponsor him to become a knight, Anomen isn't held in high regard to be a member of the senior branch despite his young age, which means he has to prove himself in the junior branch to become a member in the senior branch like Ajantis had done. Is that so hard to understand?