[QUOTE="smerlus"][QUOTE="Video_Game_King"][QUOTE="smerlus"] John Irenicus and Lady Aribeth de Tylmarande are true villians, not cliche cardboard cut out ones.
Video_Game_King
Wait, who?
The Major Villain from Baldur's Gate II and a Paladin from Neverwinter Nights.
OK, and how exactly were they good villains? I'm not into PC gaming, so don't throw insults towards me regarding the screenname juxtaposed with my other posts.
I used to think Sephiroth and Kefka were really bad ass but I realize they just look cool and are really just plot devices thrown in there with very little depth or actual character.
Sephiroth goes his whole life being trained as a special ops soldier and is at the top of everything he does, but once he finds out a little bit of info about who he is, he switches personalities and loyalty in a split instant.
Kefka was just a maniac the whole time and was such a cop-out for a villian.
Both of these characters did horrible things but for no real reason.
GodMode saw this and did a blog on how good these characters are using Wikipedia for backstory and his own personal opinion summing it up in the end.
Let's just say that Irenicus was an Elf that was pursuing a God's power and so was stripped of everything that made him an elf such as his immortality and his appreciation for life, love and beauty. While in his lab you find out that he had deicated years upon years to try to feel love and beauty again by cloning his lover, making a recreation of her room and even trapping dryads in his place. When none of this worked he left everything, every little human test to rot and die, causing many of them to go insane over the years. He turned his attention to trying to get his immortality back.
He's extremely powerful yet doesn't just go around slaughtering people and spoiling his plan. In fact he outright kills a bunch of wizards and then quickly surrenders to them even though it's apparant he could just slaughter a whole town. His plan doesn't piece together until probably the last chapter even though the whole game is filled with clues as to what he's doing.
Aribeth is what Sephiroth's character should have been. She's a Paladin that worships the God of Justice and falls in love with the high cleric of her sect. She's the body guard to the King of Neverwinter and she was in charge of finding a cure to the plague.
Well I wont name any spoilers but it turns out her fiance is used as a scapegoat for the cause of the plague and is hanged for it. This causes Aribeth to question if there is really Justice. The next chapter puts her in charge of your character but by talking to her you can tell that something isn't right. She keeps having reoccuring nightmares and feels guilty and betrayed by what transpired. She's able to become a love interest to the main character if your main character is male.
To make a long story short, she defects and ends up leading a rival army to destroy the city of Neverwinter. It's a very similar thing as what happened to Sephiroth except that Aribeth's change occurs gradually and not after a split second and she all of a suddent doesn't want to destroy the whole world but just those that wronged her. To see this change occur gradually is much more satifying.
In the expansion pack, you can find her as a dead spirit that has given up hope and is quickly fading. You can recruit her by declaring your love for her or offering her the chance of more revenge.
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