Imoen

Imoen was the foster daughter of the innkeeper Winthrop. She was raised in Candlekeep but is the daughter of Bhaal, a dead deity, the God of Murder. She traveled with Abdel, Yoshimo, and Jaheira during the time that Jon Irenicus tried to gain immortality, but after Yoshimo died at her hands when she turned into the slayer, she became one of only three companions.

History
During the time that Irenicus had taken over the Tree of Life and was planning to use it to become immortal, he kidnapped the Bhaalspawn girl, Imoen, who had been an old friend of Abdel's at Candlekeep. This kept Abdel in a position similar to father when it came to protecting her, but Irenicus brought out the spirit of the Ravager, or the Slayer, the spirit of Bhaal in the girl and transformed her into Bhaal's avatar. This had not been the first time, because when she had been put in a cage at the asylum of Irenicus, she had turned into such a figure, along with Abdel and began attacking and killing people. But this time Irenicus had gotten control of her and used her to kill many of the people of Suldanessellar. Abdel slew the creature and pulled Imoen out of the carnage. He then went to pursue Irenicus and was sealed in hell. 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. During that scenario Illasera had brought arrows that could pierce even Abdel's flesh and wound him. They had runed carved into their sides. Abdel defeated her by turning into the previously mentioned avatar Bhaal and starting to eat her, after she had been crushed nearly to death in a tight and fatal "bear hug". The fact that Imoen is a child of Bhaal has left her prone to violence and she turns into Bhaal's avatar many times.

NPC
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.

Appearances

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