When do you think you know?

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When does the PC (as in the character, not the person playing the character) know that the PC, Imoen, and Sarevok are all children of Bhaal?

Now, there are obvious cut off points here. Your PC absolutely knows about himself by the time he reads Gorion's note in Chapter 6 of BG1. Similarly, you know for sure about Sarevok when you read his diary in Chapter 7 of BG1. Finally with Imoen, you find out for sure in Chapter 4 of BG2.

But obviously, in all three cases the PC has to have suspicions prior to this. For the PC, normally someone doesn't attempt numerous assassinations of you without any reason at all. For Sarevok, no one would ruin a huge economic juggernaut without good cause (barring insanity or incompetence) and with Imoen, a reasonably intelligent PC should be able to understand that there must be some reason for Irencus taking Imoen despite his initial interest in you.

So the question becomes, when do you think the PC first suspects the true parentage of the three primary Bhaalspawn in the BG series?

My personal opinion is that your PC can probably figure out both himself and Sarevok by Chapter 5 in BG1, although probably not for Imoen until Chapter 1 of BG2 at the earliest. One notable disconnect in the storyline is that Sarevok shows no interest in Imoen at all throughout the entirety of BG1. Which is kind of strange, given that in ToB he seems to know that Imoen is a Bhaalspawn, although I suppose that could be explained by him learning about Imoen while in his state of relative undeath.

[ July 24, 2006, 20:21: Message edited by: Aldeth the Foppish Idiot ]

 

I do not know BG1, but I guess PC and Imoen have no idea about Imoen being a Bhaalspawn too, till JonBon declares it boldy upon the re-capture of the PC.

 

I concur, the first declaration of Imoen is given by Jonny.

 

Yeah, if you want to know when you know "for sure," you've already answered your own question:

You may have hunches prior to those times, but you certainly don't know for sure.

 

OK, I edited the previous title - I'm looking for when you have your initial suspicions. It is true that you don't know "for sure" until someone comes out and tells you, so we're looking at BG1 chapters 6 and 7, and SoA Chapter 4. But there are hints that are dropped before that.

I also find it rather ironic that Gorion decides to settle in Candlekeep of all places, where the prophesies regarding the Bhaalspawn are recited continuously by the monks, despite the fact that he is raising one of said Bhaalspawn. I guess that would ensure that you would understand what the prophecies meant at the time you learned of your heritage, but it still seems a rather odd pick. Certainly the PC could have been instructed in this outside of Candlekeep.

 

I don't believe <CHARNAME> would really have any clue about his/her parentage -- it is really just too fantastic and bizarre to believe. The dreams and powers gained are clearly some kind of divine intervention -- which is not too unheard of given many of your companions have unique powers. I would assume the PC simply believes that some greater power is interested in the struggle and rendering aid. However, once the revelation about parentage sinks in, connecting the dots to Sarevok should be pretty quick for a reasonable intelligent PC (especially given the opening movie). I think chapter six is where divine lineage is first truly suspected.

Hints about Imoen start in Irenicus' dungeon/lab. While his interest in taking her could be quick thinking (forcing you to come to him), I tend to believe it is just another piece in the puzzle. Follow that with the dreams and comments by Bohdi and I believe <CHARNAME> should have a good idea the Imoen is also 'little sister' during chapter three.

Of course, Grok, the bhaalspawn fighter with a combined intelligence and wisdom of 10 or less will not even be able to read the journals, barely even remembers his antagonists' name, and will never draw any conclusion about parentage of anyone (he's still unsure where babies come from).

 

Perhaps irony was the whole point. The last place you'd expect someone to hide a Bhaalspawn is a place that's fascinated with them. And I suppose that you're right, when the time came, <Charactername> would have some background and context about who he/she truly is, to help in the process of accepting the idea of being a child of the God of Murder.

Or, mayhap, the developers couldn't resist the opportunity to do some foreshadowing--insert a bunch of sages cryptically speaking about some prophecy that you later learn has everything to do with the story, with you. I think this is the most likely reason; it was an effective plot device.

 

Actually, I think it's obvious that they don't. Both games are predicated on the character being a patsy, so IMO it's possible that they couldn't figure out that Imoen was female unless she outright told them. Particularly obvious are the possible responses you have when Irenicus is talking about Imoen being "like you". Both responses indicate complete obliviousness; you have no other choice. (This irritates me to no end. )

Sarevok is certainly possible to figure out from what Tamoko says about you being similar, but I think that's the only one that you can have suspicions about. BG1 doesn't even mention Bhaal outside of Candlekeep (IIRC), so there's no real way you could know anything. (Yes, the ogre magi in Baldur's Gate mention the 'Lord of Murder', but I always took that as some overblown title for a chieftain or something like that.) That singing is a definite tune-out annoyance, and I even go so far as to avoid that section of the grounds if I can.

There's nothing really indicating that the Bhaalspawn saga has anything to do with what you're going through, not counting metagaming knowledge that if it weren't important to the storyline they probably wouldn't bother putting it in there, or preknowledge from having played the game before.

 

Plus at the beginning of ToB, Sarevok complains that Charname has no idea of his/her true power:

That's pretty self explanatory... The PC is being fantastically dense whenever the Taint is mentioned.

 

Right after the second time through candlekeep for Sarevok. The last dream sequence flat out tells you that Sarevok is your brother. At least that's how I interpreted it on my first playthrough.

On my first BG2 playthrough the Immy=Baalspawn thing came out of left field for me. I knew something was up, but didn't think Bioware would be so cliche.