Imoen

Imoen was a young female human who was raised in Candlekeep. She was also a Bhaalspawn, though this remained unrevealed for some time even after it was revealed that the other ward of Gorion living in Candlekeep was one. Imoen travelled with them for a time before the prophecy of the Bhaalspawn was fulfilled.

The Novels
Imoen grew up in Candlekeep together with Abdel Adrian, becoming friends with him in spite of his often cruel teasing of her. When he left out into the world to become a mercenary, she stayed behind. They met again at least after he had killed Sarevok, as they were both captured by Jon Irenicus and the Shadow Thieves. Irenicus was aware that they were Bhaalspawn and wished to turned them into avatars of Bhaal in order to use them to attack Suldanessellar. They found themselves imprisoned along with Jaheira who had been with Adrian, and some others whose reason for being present in the dungeon is not known. The deal between Irenicus and the Shadow Thieves went sour, there was some fighting, and Adrian escaped, but Imoen, Jaheira and Irenicus were all detained by the Cowled Wizards and taken to Spellhold. Adrian came to rescue them soon after, but ran straight into Irenicus's trap. Both he and Imoen were transformed into monsters that slaughtered everyone present except Jaheira, forcing even Irenicus to flee. Imoen escaped the asylum with the two others, ending up in the Underdark. There, they encountered the silver dragon Adalon, who disguised them as drow so that they might infiltrate Ust Natha and recover her eggs. During their stay there, Phaere ordered Imoen to sleep with her, which she seemed to find quite palatable. After the three had escaped the Underdark, Imoen was eventually captured by Irenicus, who finally turned her into an avatar of Bhaal as per his plans and sent it to attack the elves of Suldanessellar. Fortunately, Adrian was able to save her by ripping the avatar to pieces, revealing her underneath. She subsequently helped call him back from "hell", which was achieved by calling his name and digging the ground until his head came up.

Later, after she had escaped and left Irenicus far behind her, Imoen joined Abdel in killing Illasera, a female Bhaalspawn, one of the five that wished to bring their father back after Sarevok's death. She was subsequently killed before all of the Five were destroyed.

The Game
Imoen is an NPC in the computer roleplaying games Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. In these games Imoen was the protagonist's first companion after the murder of Gorion. Using her skills as a Rogue, she followed the pair as they left Candlekeep after "accidentally" reading a worrying letter on Gorion's desk the day before. During her early adventures, she began training as a wizard and continued on that path for the rest of her adventuring career.



Despite her battle experience during the beginning of the Bhaalspawn crisis, she still managed to maintain her innocence, likely due to her minimal Bhaalspawn essence. After she was captured by Jon Irenicus, his experiments on her Bhaalspawn side warped her, giving her a peculiar fascination with death that she knew was not right. When they escaped from Irenicus' dungeon, she was captured along with the Exile by the Cowled Wizards and as soon as Irenicus had broken free in Spellhold and dealt with his captors, she was his first objective. A fate debatably much worse than what her former mage-jailors had in store for her. The Exile was to use her as a guinea pig to test his soul-stealing device. It was successful and he gave her Bhaalspawn essence-imbued soul to his sister, Bodhi. Once Bodhi had been killed, Imoen suddenly discovered that the emptiness that she and the protagonist had shared since losing their Bhaalspawn essences was gone for her, replaced by the familiar feelings of what she used to be like. If the protagonist could kill Irenicus, then the same thing should happen.

When Irenicus was finally dead, Imoen could be summoned in the protagonist's "Pocket Plane". When given the opportunity, Imoen willingly gave up her Bhaalspawn essence, not wanting any more to do with it. Regardless, when the party split up, she went off on her own first back to Candlekeep but then further north and eventually became both a Harper and an Archmage, associating with others like her such as Elminster and Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, occasionally seen to be telling them to stop being such stick-in-the-muds. She grew in power and influence, spawning rumours that she founded her own theives guild which operated from Tethyr to Neverwinter but when asked about it, she cheerfully avoids the subject.

Novels

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

Games

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