I was just on Fanfics.com (a mediocre site that I go to whenever I'm bored and just want to read something, no matter how crappy), and found a Baldur's Gate II fanfic that involved an Imoen romance! Now, since Imoen and the protagonist are half - brother and half - sister, that sounds overall fairly sick to me. But then I got to wondering: IS there really a biological link?
At first I thought yes, because according to the intro, Bhaal manifested himself PHYSICALLY. That would mean that they had the same biological father, but then another thought popped into my head. Now, what I'm about to say shows that I 1)have WAY too much time on my hands, 2)paid attention in science class (for once, anyway!) and 3)think FAR too much about the story behind BGII!
If the X chromosome from Bhaal were transferred to each Child of Bhaal, then all of them would have at least one physical characteristic (eye color, hair color, attached or free earlobes, etc.) in common, right? However, MANY of them have nothing in common physically at all!
Maybe it really depends on what race and portrait you chose for your character (me, I chose Half - elf and used the Kivan portrait), but I'm genuinely puzzled by this! I posted this to see what other people thought: IS there a biological link?
Note: as a certain character in BGII once said, "Don't stretch yer brain thinkin'". I don't want this topic to be one of those 11 - page debates! I just want to know how people would react. It's still kind of a foggy idea to me, but I'm leaning towards the "There IS a biological link" side. There's just a little bit more evidence, in my opinion.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally Posted By: Ryndel

I was just on Fanfics.com (a mediocre site that I go to whenever I'm bored and just want to read something, no matter how crappy), and found a Baldur's Gate II fanfic that involved an Imoen romance! Now, since Imoen and the protagonist are half - brother and half - sister, that sounds overall fairly sick to me. But then I got to wondering: IS there really a biological link?
At first I thought yes, because according to the intro, Bhaal manifested himself PHYSICALLY. That would mean that they had the same biological father, but then another thought popped into my head. Now, what I'm about to say shows that I 1)have WAY too much time on my hands, 2)paid attention in science class (for once, anyway!) and 3)think FAR too much about the story behind BGII!
If the X chromosome from Bhaal were transferred to each Child of Bhaal, then all of them would have at least one physical characteristic (eye color, hair color, attached or free earlobes, etc.) in common, right? However, MANY of them have nothing in common physically at all!
Maybe it really depends on what race and portrait you chose for your character (me, I chose Half - elf and used the Kivan portrait), but I'm genuinely puzzled by this! I posted this to see what other people thought: IS there a biological link?
Note: as a certain character in BGII once said, "Don't stretch yer brain thinkin'". I don't want this topic to be one of those 11 - page debates! I just want to know how people would react. It's still kind of a foggy idea to me, but I'm leaning towards the "There IS a biological link" side. There's just a little bit more evidence, in my opinion.<hr></blockquote>

I think the sons/daughters of Bhall were formed like out of a mold sort of. Not the god Bhall and a mortal person doing it. I think sons/daughters of Bhall or formed.

I thought that the essence Bhaal manifested in each of the Bhaalspawn was a piece of his soul not a physical piece of himself. Recall that when your soul is taken you lose all your powers. Finish TOB and see if this doesn't sound right.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Sir Goulum:
I think the sons/daughters of Bhall were formed like out of a mold sort of. Not the god Bhall and a mortal person doing it. I think sons/daughters of Bhall or formed.<hr></blockquote>

No, it is clearly stated more than once in the game that the Bhaalspawn were born in the normal way, they all had a mortal mother who carried them and gave birth to them.

About the taint being spiritual instead of physical, I agree with Mossy. It isn't really said with that many words in the game, but I've always thought that practically all of the physical form of the Bhaalspawn comes from the mother. After all, Bhaal is a human god, so him giving his DNA as well as his spiritual essence to his kids would mean that there couldn't be any Dwarven, Elven etc. Bhaalspawn, only half-Dwarf/half-human etc. Besides, do gods even have DNA? They have avatars to manifest themselves in the prime material plane, yes, but the shape of that avatar is entirely up to the god's whim. They manifest themselves as for instance a patch of golden mist as often as they take the form of a well-shaped human warrior.

Is there quite the same distaste if the protagonist is female? Mmm...sisters.

<ducks head back below the parapet>

In the ToB forum there have been a couple of threads regarding an in game same-sex romance with Imoen that is been worked on. I've not checked it out for a few days, but it was coming along very well (and with a couple of twists).

the way i see it,bhaal probably possessed a male of whichever race he was going for and that genetic material was passed on as well as a bit of his spirit.

I suspect Bhaal simply posted the following in various newspapers:

WANTED: Young single woman, interested in forming temporary liaison with handsome, svelte, clever, dark, tall God of Murder. Object: good times. Am into leather. Race and profession aren't issues. Send replies via prayer. All prayers will be answered.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by fable:
I suspect Bhaal simply posted the following in various newspapers:

WANTED: Young single woman, interested in forming temporary liaison with handsome, svelte, clever, dark, tall God of Murder. Object: good times. Am into leather. Race and profession aren't issues. Send replies via prayer. All prayers will be answered.<hr></blockquote>

Now THAT'S funny.

JFYI, siblings do NOT necessarily have at least 1 common trait. If you check out my picture on Stealthy's Site (page 20, I think) you will notice that my 2 boys don't look alike at all. If you saw them separately, you would NEVER suspect they were brothers.

By the end of ToB, you'll find that Bhaal mated with quite a few creatures, many of which wouldn't be particularly DNA-compatible with humans. So it's safe to say both that magic was involved as an intermediary, and that there's not much of a DNA-related reason to avoid a liason with Imoen.

Morality is beyond the scope of this author.

-- Nifft

What is the exact url for this website?