Bishop

"I doubt you'll survive but I will - and I'm never on the losing side."

- Bishop

Bishop was a skilled and deadly ranger from the Sword Coast North. During the Shadow War, he notably traveled with the Kalach-Cha and aided them in their quest before eventually betraying them at the Siege of Crossroad Keep.

Description
Bishop was an attractive human, despite his rough lifestyle and poor hygiene, giving him a ruggedly handsome appearance. Bishop lived a full and dangerous life, the signs of which when he met the Kalach-Cha were his numerous scars and burns that ravaged his skin. His ruffled hair and touch of facial hair were brown, as were his eyes, which contrasted with his pale white skin. These features, and more, added to his feral appearance, which was accentuated by his tendency to sniff the air like a wild animal or constantly look over his shoulder, as if expecting an ambush or betrayal.

Typically, Bishop dressed as if on the hunt, which he often was. When the Kalach-Cha met him in the Sunken Flagon, Bishop was dressed in leather armor and armed with a longbow and longsword, with his hands constantly on one or the other. Bishop was also rarely without his beast companion Karnwyr, a wolf with whom he'd bonded as a ranger.

History
Bishop was born and raised in Redfallow's Watch, a small village within Neverwinter's sphere of influence. A troublesome youth, Bishop reputably hated his home and left it at an early age. After leaving his home, Bishop joined the military forces of the northern city Luskan, serving within their ranks for several years.

Destruction of Redfallow's Watch
Bishop returned to his home some years before the Shadow War, as a test of his initiation into a Luskan assassination squad. Ordered to destroy a Neverwintan village, Bishop chose Redfallow's Watch as the target, seeing an opportunity to destroy his hated home. However, Bishop had in fact intended to leave the villagers alive and use the event as a trap to kill the Luskans hiring him.

However, the plan went awry and although Bishop tried to warn the villagers of the imminent danger, his words were held in little regard, and so both the village and its inhabitants, along with the Luskan assassins, perished in the flames. Additionally, Bishop was severely wounded by the Luskans before their demise and left to die.

Guilt-ridden and self-loathing, Bishop waited eagerly for the liberation death would bring, only for his life to be unexpectedly saved by the half-elven adventurer Duncan Farlong, depriving Bishop of his deliverance from life. Additionally, Duncan let Bishop know that he understood what he had done and blackmailed him with the knowledge, insisting that the ranger was now indebted to him. Not wanting his part in the destruction of Redfallow's Watch revealed, Bishop accepted Duncan's claim and went to stay at the Sunken Flagon, where Duncan resided.

The Shadow War
Bishop did little of significance until a short while before the Shadow War, drinking and sleeping at the Flagon in the meantime. He spent a small amount of time wandering the frontier, sometimes alongside the ranger Malin, who was his sometime lover during their hunting of Luskan soldiers.

His adventuring days returned, however, when a group of githyanki sword stalkers under the command of Zeearie launched their assault on the Flagon in order to capture Shandra Jerro, who they believed would lead them to the shards of the Sword of Gith and the others searching for them. Rising to help in the defense of the inn, Bishop was shortly thereafter forced into assisting Duncan's foster kin, the Kalach-Cha, as the latter attempted to rescue Shandra from the githyanki.

Though Bishop was reluctant to take on the task, he proved useful in the search, using his expert tracking skills and familiarity with the territory surrounding Luskan to track the githyanki to their base of operations within an ancient Illefarn ruin. There, the Kalach-Cha and their other companions were able to rescue Shandra and kill Zeearie, ending the threat the githyanki posed. Although his debt was fulfilled, Bishop nonetheless, perhaps out of a personal fondness for the Kalach-Cha's skills as well as a deep resentment towards Luskan, chose to aid the Kalach-Cha afterwards. His aid could have been accepted, not least due to his skills, but he would be a constant irritant to the other companions of the Kalach-Cha, particularly the paladin Casavir, with whom he shared a sharp dislike, or Grobnar, whom he deemed useless. For the group as a whole, Bishop would prove a source of discomfort due to his openly selfish, immoral, and wildly chaotic evil deeds.

Although proving useful in many circumstances, such as tracking down the Circle of the Mere or Ammon Jerro, Bishop ultimately proved treacherous. At some unknown time, Bishop forged a deal with Black Garius, a powerful Luskan servant of the King of Shadows, bargaining his companions' lives for his own. During the Siege of Crossroad Keep, after having deceived Grobnar into giving him the override commands for the Construct, Bishop betrayed the Kalach-Cha, sabotaging the gates of Crossroad Keep and fleeing as Black Garius entered to finish his attack. However, in spite of Bishop's betrayal, the Kalach-Cha succeeded in repelling the assault and readied themselves for the counterattack into the King of Shadow's fortress within the Vale of the Merdelain.

During the subsequent attack on the fortress, Bishop revealed the motivations behind his betrayal to the Kalach-Cha, also unveiling the nature of his debt to Duncan and the way in which the incident had shaped his nihilistic and selfish philosophy. He would not survive his encounter with the Kalach-Cha, though the circumstances are unknown. Bishop may have carried through his course, helping Garius in his fight with the Kalach-Cha. Alternatively, the ranger might have been convinced to abandon Garius, perhaps due to feelings towards the hero, though he would be subsequently killed during the collapse of the structure after the King of Shadows' defeat.

Afterlife
After Bishop was killed, he was brought to judgment before Kelemvor in the City of Judgment on the Fugue Plane. Due to his Faithless nature, Bishop was condemned to the Wall of the Faithless for his soul to be gradually sapped away for all eternity. During a vision induced by Gannayev and the Slumbering Coven, the Kalach-Cha encountered Bishop in this condition during their travels through Rashemen. Bishop would confess his acceptance of his fate, even relishing the ultimate oblivion it granted him, and his former companion would watch as he was devoured by the Wall for good. Although the Kalach-Cha might have interpreted this as a falsehood created by the Slumbering Coven, Kelemvor would later confirm the ranger's fate to the hero.

Behind the scenes
Bishop, who was voiced by Asa Seigel in the original campaign of Neverwinter Nights 2 and Dave Walsh in the sequel Mask of the Betrayer, was initially intended to have a larger role in the story. Various hints indicate Bishop was a possible romance option for the player character (the Kalach-Cha) if female, such as his offer to run away with the player when the latter is tried for the destruction of Ember and his offering of information on Lorne Starling, who served in the same assassination squad as he did.

Bishop is unusual for a ranger in Neverwinter Nights 2 as he lacks a patron deity, which in both the game and the 3.5 ruleset was illegal for player characters. Although deities were not added to the game until very late in the development cycle, this was likely done for storyline reasons, particularly given his fate in Mask of the Betrayer.

In a deleted conversation, Bishop reveals that his home village was called Redfallow's Watch in the Mere of Dead Men. Redfallow's Watch is mentioned by Elanee as being swallowed by the swamp, and it is also where Sir Nevalle was knighted. This gives Bishop a parallel to the player character, perhaps intentionally. In the final conversation with Bishop, at the end of the game, he states: "For every West Harbor that gives rise to someone like you... someone great... there's a hundred of me, that end up going down the other path."

There's also another deleted and very humorous conversation path with the githyanki sword stalker at the entrance to the githyanki caves. A deleted conversation path brings up the githyanki apparently being mostly female and matriarchal, with low opinions of males. If the player is female, one of the responses, that "men have their uses", leads to the githyanki offering the main character a "painless death" if she offers Bishop as a pleasure slave, much to his horror. Were the player to decline the offer, she'd gain influence with Bishop and he requests that if he ever became that desperate to just "go ahead and kill him."

Bishop was originally planned to be a romance option if the main character was female, but this was not implemented in the final release of the game, owing to time constraints. However, some related content still remains. If the main character's influence is very high early on, he will extend offers to run away with her, doing the same prior to the siege of Crossroad Keep. Bishop and Casavir also fight over the main character's affections. When Bishop reveals the true story of his life in the main character's final encounter with Black Garius, he admits feelings towards her that hint towards love and/or affection.

Appearances

 * Neverwinter Nights 2
 * Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer