Nalia de'Arnise

"When asked about her past, Nalia is a bit hesitant. She comes from a wealthy land-owning family headed by Lord de'Arnise, and while she speaks of her relatives with affection, the fact of her upbringing seems to embarrass her at the same time. Nalia clearly identifies more with the 'poorer classes'... but also looks upon them with the eyes of the privileged. She has been educated and taught the magical arts, as per her dead mother's wishes, but Nalia states that her years of sneaking out of the castle have taught her the other side of life as well. She still has much to learn about life beyond her caste, however, and she knows it... and she is sure adventuring is the answer. "

- Character description from the Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn computer game.

Nalia de'Arnise is a young Amnian noblewoman of a particularly charitable bent. She has learnt some rogue skills in the process of sneaking out of her home to help out those less well off, something her guardians did not much approve of, especially as her mother had died of an illness contracted during such charity. Besides of this, she is a capable mage. Nalia lived in her family castle with her father and aunt until it was attacked by trolls and yuan-ti. Her father was killed during the attack, leaving her as a female heir little chance to legally inherit the castle without finding someone suitably martially inclined to act as its new lord (or lady).

Nalia is one of the potential party NPCs in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (and, consequently, in Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal as well). She can be found in the Copper Coronet, pleading others to help her as she has helped them, looking for someone to help her defend her castle against an attack. She will recognize the player character's party as adventurers and ask them for help, although she won't reveal the attackers are trolls until after reaching the castle. Regardless of how soon the player heads out there, the castle will have been breached already, meaning that the new task is to retake it. TorGal, the leader of the trolls, will reveal that they were hired by someone else to attack the castle, but not who it was. Lord de'Arnise, Nalia's father, has been killed in any case.

If the player character is a fighter (and not a multi- or dual-class fighter who has already accepted one of the game's class-based "strongholds"), Nalia will ask them to act as the new lord of the castle. Otherwise, it will fall to the Roenall family. That will not be enough for Isaea Roenall, though, who was supposed to marry Nalia but whom she can't stand. He will later kidnap her from the party by quasi-legal means, and the only way to get her back is to dig up some of the abundant dirt there is to be dug up on him, proving his dishonesty in general. In any case, Nalia is willing to leave home to go adventuring with a decent party after her father is killed.

Nalia is appalled at the unfairness of the class system in her country and others like it, and consequently very preoccupied with helping the needy, to the point of critisizing charity that is too small. She insists that she does not "go slumming", and thinks she is really in touch with the people she's trying to help, but she has some difficulty shaking off the feeling of superiority she was raised with, and is seen as well-intentioned but not so good as she thinks she is.

Rather like Imoen, Nalia has some minor thief abilities, but has dual-classed into a mage early on. As her thief abilities become less and less able to deal with the increasing challenges presented in the game, which starts to happen almost immediately, she becomes more like a pure mage, albeit with the ability to use some light weapons. With the thief levels really not taking up any experience to speak of, she's certainly one of the most powerful arcane spellcasters in the game, matching Edwin in potential levels if not in sheer number of spells.

Games

 * Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
 * Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal