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 Games
Imoen is a party NPC in the computer roleplaying games Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. She is the protagonist's first companion after Gorion's murder.

Biography
Imoen was the player character's closest friend and nearly only peer when they were growing up in Candlekeep. She was brought in much like them, an orphan adopted by Gorion, but ten years later in life. Of her past, even less is ever mentioned than of the protagonist's. She was close to Gorion, but preferred the company of the innkeeper Winthrop, possibly due to her own carefree and not very serious nature. She seems to have picked up thief skills even when already living in the citadel; a remark of hers suggests that she was in the habit of pickpocketing the monks there.



Imoen left Candlekeep at the same time as the protagonist, when both were about twenty. Gorion had received a letter from Elminster that warned him that Sarevok, who knew the player character was a Bhaalspawn, would move against them soon, and prompted them to leave to seek shelter elsewhere. Though she cannot have understood much of the letter, Imoen followed the pair after reading it, and witnessed Gorion's murder by Sarevok's hand. After this, she joined the protagonist and stuck with them faithfully until the end of the conflict with Sarevok.

During the campaign against Sarevok, the player character's Bhaalspawn nature was revealed, explaining both Sarevok's interest in them and their strange dreams and developing array of spell-like abilities. Imoen, however, was beset upon neither by Sarevok nor her own Bhaalspawn essence; her good cheer and innocence temporarily protected her from the influence of the latter, and almost no-one knew or suspected that she shared the taint. One person who did, or at least found out, was Jon Irenicus, who captured the whole party, killing or imprisoning the rest but conducting painful experiments on the protagonist and Imoen in a hideout below Waukeen's Promenade in Athkatla. His goal was to extract the two Bhaalspawn's divine souls to counter the curse put upon him and his ally Bodhi. He put Imoen through some mental torture, including forcing her to watch as he dissected her friend Khalid, in order to bring out the taint in her. This left her confused and with a peculiar fascination with death she herself found disturbing.

Before Irenicus could complete his experimentation, his hideout was attacked by Shadow Thieves, who rightly saw him as an ally to Bodhi's vampire thieves' guild that was competing with them. Irenicus proceeded to destroy most of them single-handedly in a prolonged battle, but right at the beginning of it, Imoen's cell was damaged, and she was able to slip free. She went on to let out the player character, and they escaped together. They also found Jaheira and Minsc of their old companions trapped nearby. The remaining two party members, Khalid and Dynaheir, had both been killed. Making their way through Irenicus's twisted dungeon, the group also ran into Yoshimo, who claimed to have been captured like they.

When the group finally made it out of the dungeon, it was to find Irenicus battling a number of assassins, after which he turned his attention to them. Imoen attacked him with magic just before a group of Cowled Wizards teleported in to stop the magical disturbance and arrest those responsible. After killing several of them in a matter of seconds, Irenicus conceded to go with them, but only under the condition that Imoen be taken as well. Since all arcane spellcasting in Athkatla without a license is forbidden, the wizards complied, teleporting away with their prisoners. The two were examined, pronounced deviants, and taken to Spellhold.

After languishing in the wizard asylum for some time, with no sign of rescue by the player character, Imoen was again approached by Irenicus, who by then had taken control of the entire institution. He set up a complicated, technical ritual that parted Imoen of the majority of her soul and infused it into Bodhi. Imoen was left nearly senseless, alternating between morbid dullness and aggression.

When, after a series of adventures, the protagonist finally arrived at Spellhold, the mage captured them and repeated the same process as he had done with Imoen, stealing their soul for himself. He then ordered Bodhi to dispose of their entire party and Imoen. Imoen regained her senses around this time and naturally asked to join the party again when a chance to escape presented itself. They got out of Spellhold because Bodhi wanted to hunt them for sport in the dungeons below but was driven away when the player character's uncontrolled taint caused them to transform in to the Slayer. Imoen, not possessed of such strong Bhaal essence or willpower, suffered no such dramatic effects. Her soul was eventually recovered when Bodhi was destroyed.

Imoen also appears in a number of the player character's dreams during Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. At first, she seems to represent herself, speaking dreamily not unlike the way she does after Irenicus's treatment. During Irenicus's ritual to steal the player character's soul, she appears in a dream sequence where they have to lure a representation of Bhaal within themselves to her sight in order to defeat it, and seems to represent their own independent soul. Finally, after the player character has already turned into Slayer unwillingly, their dream features a version of Imoen that speaks for the uncontrolled taint within them, telling them to become a mindless killing machine; after this, the protagonist gains the ability to assume the form of the Slayer of their own will.

Imoen may, if so chosen, follow the protagonist on into Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, or be summoned into their party in the Pocket Plane. There, she may also be used to donate an insignificantly small portion of her soul to resurrect Sarevok. During this story, her Bhaalspawn essence will finally begin to show the same way as her sibling's, in the form of disturbing dreams and urges and developing powers. (These show up through dialogues with the player character; in an unmodified version of the game, they don't activate properly.) At the end, she will willingly relinquish her share of the essence of Bhaal.

If Imoen is with the party at the end, her ending story tells she will go on her own first back to Candlekeep, but then further north, and eventually become 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 grows in power and influence, spawning rumours that she founded her own thieves' guild which operated from Tethyr to Neverwinter - but when asked about it, she cheerfully avoids the subject.

Traits and Abilities
Right from the first, Imoen is a very useful party member. In Baldur's Gate, she starts out as a 1st-level thief, meaning that the player is free to develop her thief skills as they see fit. She also has very good abilities overall, including high charisma that may be helpful in getting positive reactions from NPC's, and high intelligence that allows her to dual-class as a mage. In Baldur's Gate II, that's just what she has done, retaining enough thief skills to deal with traps and locks tolerably even as the difficulty of the game rises. As a mage, she will eventually grow truly powerful if taken through the game and expansion. Her level as mage does not lag much behind single-class wizards.

If the popular mod Ascension is installed, Imoen will begin to gain her Bhaalspawn abilities as the game goes on in the Throne of Bhaal, like the player character does in Baldur's Gate. In the final battle against Amelyssan, she will gain the ability to turn into Slayer, which makes her fairly powerful.

Imoen is cheerful and friendly, sometimes intentionally childish, and often annoying in a way befitting a little sister (though she's not significantly younger than the player character). Facing Irenicus and her Bhaalspawn essence makes her more troubled and uncertain, but the innocence that allowed her to avoid the effects of the taint never really disappears, even if she becomes more jaded at the same time. She's loyal to the player character and will usually stick with them no matter what, given the chance.

Voice Acting
Imoen is voiced by Melissa Disney.

Games

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