Name The Bhaalspawn (perhaps slightly spoilerish)

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There's long been a split in Alaundoism between fundamentalists, who believe that "a score" must be taken literally, so there are only 20 actual Bhaalspawn, and the liberal/reformed wing who hold that "a score" really means "a whole honkin' lot of 'em"

 

Another thought could be that the bhaalspawn have been breeding themselves, creating more and more. I know that PC is a direct result of Bhaal, but Abazigal had a son. The timelines don't really match up in the very least in this game as a dragon like Abazigal would take 1-2 thousand years to become an epic encounter and humans are full mature by 18 (half-orcs by 15, elves by 100+?).

Of course he didn't get it on with everyone at the same time, but the time of troubles didn't last quite that long.

 

So true, but perhaps Bhaal has started spreading his seed a thousand year before Time of Troubles. Starting with the strongest and longest-living races such as dragons and elves. Human, half-orc and kobold offsprings might have been his last attempts.

Hmm, does the game clarfiy anything about this? 'one such deity foresaw his own death, and walked the land before the cataclysm.' does this mean Bhaal always knew about Time of Troubles and his coming death, so he started to...reproduce...waaay before Time of Troubles..secretly?

 

The Time of Troubles is when the Gods were made mortal - Bhaal foresaw this MANY years before the event occured.

So yes - he knew and did this in secret.

Also consider Abazigal is half-god. The PC is an adult at 20 whatever race you pick. Plus Abazigals son doesn't appear to be a Bhaalspawn. Neither is your child if you have one.

 

Yeah, they (your child/ren and Draconis) are not Bhaalspawn, but they do possess some taint.

One of the NPCs remarks about whether your child with Aerie possesses the taint or not.

It probably isn't anywhere near exact as now, lets see, you would be 1/2, so your child would be 1/4, but I think they would have some sort of genetic trait or taint, passed on to them, just as you did. Though as they are the next generation, it is considerably less that yours.


And yeah, Bhaal foresaw his death during the time of Troubles so he planned for his resurrection.

TOB and SOA seem at odd with the time line, TOB says you were born during the time of troubles, (You are a product of the Time of Troubles....) when in fact you should be 20 (or maybe 30) by the time of the TOT.

 

Emphasis Mine.

From the biography i draw three conclusions:
i) Since Bhaal was made flesh his offspring were most likely sired through sexual intercourse, the fact that Bhaal was in different forms with each partner doesn't change the fact that all bhaalspawn have the same biological father. so romancing imoen is incest.
ii) Bhaal had been producing offspring for decades/centuries/millenia before the Time of Troubles.
iii) Most of his offspring were intended to reach maturity and cause destruction, this means only a handful were born to members of his faith and were (intended to be) sacrificed at birth.

 

A product simply means you were created BECAUSE of the Time of Troubles. Plus in the game the Time of Troubles has already happened. It is set after it all. Otherwise there would be no Cyric, Waukeen would not be missing and there wouldn't be comments about Helm not doing his duty or helmites getting defensive.

Many children were indeed designed to create the most destruction possible. But mainly to ensure they also died swiftly. I don't think any Bhaalspawn was designed to die of old age. Amellysan wouldn't have been able to do the ritual if she was ancient herself or dead waiting for the rest of the people needed to croak

As for the taint... geneic traits would be carried over that's given, even Bhaal was mortal once. But what about the taint itself? It's a spiritual mark, part of the persons soul. Would a child actually gain a fragment of its parents soul? When you grant Sarevok a piece of your soul he admits he is no longer a Bhaalspawn for the essence within him passed long ago when he died the first time.

Also at the end of the game the Deva will claim the essence of Bhaal from Imoen... not from your children? You could argue it's inconsequential. But I don't think Devas would be sloppy about gathering ALL the taint of Bhaal "But there's some around the Sword Cost that looks like it will be hell to clean up..."

 

Your third conclusion is drawn rather shakily from what you quoted, but my main problem is not with that one. The problem is, specifically, with the first one.

Simply, for all Bhaalspawn to have the same biological father, the father couldn't have different genetics in each case. It may be the same mind/soul/whatever behind each of the impregnations, but the only way for your first conclusion to be the case would be for Bhaal to have assumed one form and kept that one unchanged the whole time. This conflicts with your second conclusion as spending all that time in avatar form would hardly be a serious option.

However, if we were to assume that each time he took avatar form he took exactly the same one, surely he would take the risk of being recognised. Additionally, his task of impregnating women in various cultures would be easier if he assumed a form they would find attractive. As different cultures have different standards to judge attractiveness on, this would mean taking on different forms. Different forms means different genetics and so, biologically, the father could not be the same one for every Bhaalspawn.

 

The best example for this i can think of are True Dragons in the tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons. Most True Dragons posses the supernatural ability to take humanoid form, in this form they can reproduce with other humanoid species, although they can only impregnate, they can't be impregnated themselves.
The offspring of these True Dragons are all born half dragon, irregardless of the humanoid form the dragon parent was assuming. Something of them remains and supercedes the humanoid species they were at the time.
I'd say the same is true with Bhaal, that a gods blood/dna/spirit/whatever overrides the genetic material of the form he has taken. It just doesn't manifest physically like a dragon, at least not initially, there aren't any half-slayer or half-ravager children running around.

Imoen was human and 'Abdel Adrian' the official protagonist of Baldur's Gate novelisations was aswell. So there is at least the possiblity that both characters mothers were impregnated by Bhaal in the same human form.
I suppose then it depends on what race you decide for the PC on your next play through as to whether it is incest.

 

I can see your point, but if it doesn't manifest physically, how can we say they have the same biological father (which is all about physical manifestation)?

I would agree with this. While I (obviously) don't believe that romancing Imoen necessarily means incest, you are right that there must be a chance (however small) that Bhaal was in the same form for both impregnations. I guess whether this happened or not should be left to the player's own imagination- I hear incest works for some people out there.

 

that's it my next char will be named Fritzl

Basement's gate 2 : Nope, your still not getting out!

 

well i don't think it does, you have a list of 20 and a score is only 30 the 10 your missing kinda accounts for the ones sacrificed at birth, i mean lets face it Bhaal was a lesser god by the time he started getting freaky with his priestesses so most of his worshipers would have split and as we know <CHARNAME> was rescued from being sacrificed at birth by Gorion as the mother was a priestess of Bhaal so whats to say others weren't rescued by other people and were only killed in later life by the hunters of the Bhaall spawn.

 

A score represents 20, not 30. Just thought I'd point that out.

 

Ahhh.... my mistake then.
thats a bit buggered up then, i mean surely there were more and 20 and that means that Allundo ain't that wise unless he was reffering to the most significant.

BTW whats Mellissans kinda thing anyway, is she a child of Bhaal or what?

 

Melissan is not a child of Bhaal. She was one of his high priestesses.

 

To sort out the whole "score" problem, I was chatting with my Linguistics/English/Literature Prof./Teacher/Whatever-you-want-to-call-educators as this has actually come up in a very old plays, where it literally meant "a line" as in a continuation of, such as in a family line or as in many problems.

So it does depend on what you classify as English now-a-days, and since Shakespearean words have become part of the language, why not the other definitions of Score. In any case I don't think the developers dove that deeply into their wording

 

Are any of the elven and dwarven refugees in Saradush Bhaalspawn? Why would they be refugees in the same town as the refugee Bhaalspawn if they weren't? If they weren't Bhaalspawn why didn't they run the other direction from Bhaalspawn related problems when Bhaalspawn gathered in Saradush?