Of the two dozen companions that a player can take with him in the first Baldur’s Gate, five stand out. This is a classic game that became canon after its release Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Regardless of who the player takes with him in the first game, the sequel is built on the fact that these five characters traveled with the protagonist.
Of the two dozen companions that a player can take with him in the first Baldur’s Gate, five stand out. This is a classic game that became canon after its release Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Regardless of who the player takes with him in the first game, the sequel is built on the fact that these five characters traveled with the protagonist.
Imoen – the first companion who joins the main character. They are the same age and have been friends since childhood, ever since Imoen arrived in Candlekeep at the age of ten, accompanied by her guardian, Winthrop. He adopted the girl because her mother died during childbirth. They arrived at Candlekeep Fortress from Baldur’s Gate.
Since Winthrop was a simple-minded and cheerful man, he was never zealous in raising Imoen, although he protected her from dangers. As a result, Imoen grew up to be a "hooligan" – at least by the standards of the monks living in Candlekeep. This was manifested in the fact that she always found herself in the right place to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations or read other people’s letters, by the time the game began she had become an indispensable source of information about everything that was happening inside the fortress.
And according to another version, Winthrop himself was not like this all his life, and he has a rather dark past behind him, so he taught Imoen some specific skills at her own request.
Despite the fact that many sources indicate that Imoen cannot leave the group under any circumstances, according to numerous testimonies, she still leaves the main character if his reputation is too low. At the same time, in different versions of the game, from patch to patch, she behaves differently: sometimes she remains in place, and you can immediately re-attach her to the group, and sometimes she goes off in an unknown direction, never to appear in the game again.
Imoen became one of the most popular companions in the first Baldur’s Gate, which was a surprise to the developers since she was not originally supposed to exist. Her character was added to the game at the last minute so that in the first half of the game there would be at least one thief companion for the good protagonist.
Since there was no budget for voice acting for new lines, the basis for her character was an abandoned demo of an NPC guard named Pique. This is why Imoen does not have unique interactions with other companions. The model for Imoen’s portrait was his wife Dean Anderson, one of the developers.
And Imoen’s voice belongs to the American actress and singer Melissa Disney, which, according to her own statement, is a distant relative of that same Walt Disney. If you often take Imoen with you, you can listen to her sing, it evokes interesting sensations.
Jaheira together with her husband Khalid – old friends of Gorion, the protagonist’s adoptive father.
Jaheira was born in https://casinoprive.co.uk/ 1347, in the city of Zazesspur, in the capital of Tethyr. Her father was a local nobleman, and her mother was an elven diplomat. Jaheira was only a few weeks old when riots broke out in the city. By order of her mother, the maid took the child to the edge of the forest of Tethyr, where she died while crossing the pass. The barely alive baby was found by a group of elves, and until the age of ten, Jaheira grew up in the elven city of Suldanessellar, considering her aunt Feniyar as her mother.
When Jaheira was ten, her mother found her, but Jaheira did not accept her real family, and insisted on going to study at the temple of Mielikka, the forest goddess. Being a half-elf, Jaheira felt uncomfortable in an elven city, and therefore sought information about her human father. An agent of the Harper Order told her that her father had survived the civil war, and at the age of fifteen, Jaheira went in search of him to the Amnian city of Kechulla.
She never found her father, but she got used to life in a large and noisy human city, and was soon recruited into the ranks of the Harpers by one of the agents of this organization, Charessa Keel. During one of the Harpers’ missions, she had to work with another agent, a warrior named Khalid.
Khalid is a half-elf originally from Calimshan, a distant southern land. He was born into a merchant family, and was probably the unwanted, illegitimate child of an elf father and a human mother. His relationship with his relatives did not work out, so he was forced to enlist in the local guard. However, he could not succeed here either. Half-elves were not particularly favored in Calimshan, and they were treated with prejudice.
How and under what circumstances he was able to leave Calimshan and join the Harpers is unknown.
While Jaheira and Khalid were doing their job, the two of them had to cross almost all of Amn, and during this journey they fell in love with each other. After returning to Kechulla, they married and continued to work for the Harpers.
In 1368, Jaheira and Khalid began to investigate the iron crisis plaguing the Sword Coast. They stayed at the Friendly Hand Inn, where they were contacted by Gorion, who asked them to look after his adopted child if anything happened to him. This is where the player can find them.
Jaheira always travels with Khalid, so if the player asks one of them to leave the party, the other will follow. They also leave the squad if the main character’s reputation becomes too low. At the same time, Jaheira is a true neutral character, and therefore she also does not like it when the player’s reputation is very high. With a reputation of 17 or higher, Jaheira does not leave the squad, but still begins to whine.
Khalid has always been a less popular companion than Jaheira – mainly due to poor stats. Since Jaheira leaves after him when he is removed from the group, players were forced to come up with ways to get rid of Khalid in an unconventional way. In general, there are two such methods – send Khalid to certain death – then Jaheira will utter an upset remark and move on as if nothing had happened, or first take him alone into an empty room, and then kick him out of the group. Then Khalid will not be able to approach to initiate dialogue, and Jaheira will remain in the protagonist’s squad.
The voice of Jaheira is performed by actress Heidi Shannon, and the voice of her companion, Khalid, is played by Jim Meskimen.
AND Dynahair, And Minsk originally from Rashemen, an eastern country with a harsh climate and no less harsh morals.
At the age of ten (I think this is a significant number) children in Rashemen are tested for magical abilities. Dynaheir passed this test and was therefore recruited into Wychlaran – the Rashemen army of witches, one of the most powerful magical organizations in all of Faerûn.
After ten years of training, Dinahair became an "etran" – the younger sister. She could return home and become a fortune teller, priestess or medicine man.
However, she preferred another option in order to earn the title of “khatran” – to carry out dajemma – a journey to a distant country, the purpose of which is self-knowledge and knowledge of the world. Dajemma is an ancient tradition of Rashemen, and by the time of the events of the game it had degenerated almost into the state of tourism. However, Dinahair got the “old” version of dajemma – a long and dangerous journey. According to tradition, an etran going to dajemma had to take a bodyguard with her. Minsk became Dinahair’s bodyguard.
This dajemma was their joint one – after returning, Minsk was supposed to join the Ice Dragon berserker lodge. It took them almost a year to get from Rashemen to the coast of Swords. During this journey Minsk suffered a head injury which affected his mental abilities. He could continue his journey, but now Dinahair was forced to guard him.
They crossed Dragonworld and ended up in northern Amn. Possibly Dajemma Dinahair was involved in espionage activities. One way or another, in the Western Cloud Peaks region they were ambushed by gnolls. Dinaheir was captured, and Minsk was able to flee to the nearest city, Nashkel, and then return with reinforcements in the form of the main character and his squad.
At what point Minsk met the tame hamster Boo is unknown. However, the origin of Boo is, in principle, shrouded in mystery, which will probably never be revealed.
Just like Khalid and Jaheira, Minsk and Dinaheir do not travel alone. However, nothing prevents the player from killing one of them before taking another into the group, or doing the same as with Khalid and Jaheira. If Dynaheir dies in battle, Minsk can go into a berserk state, attacking everyone nearby, including friends.
Minsk is probably the most popular character from the classic game, and maybe the entire game. His image is copied by cosplayers, a separate comic book has been written about his adventures, he appears in other works in the Forgotten Realms universe, and references to him are even in works that are not related to the Forgotten Realms.
His voice actor was Jim Cummings – without exaggeration, the legendary voice actor, who was the voice of Tigger and Winnie the Pooh in most Disney cartoons. During his career, Jim voiced more than five hundred different characters.
Dynahair became the voice Jennifer Hale, in 2013, entered the Guinness Book of Records as the woman who voiced a record number of characters in video games.
P.S.
I hope I didn’t screw up the layout this time. And, by the way, the Stopgame editor has become much more. no, MUCH more convenient than before. 🙂
