Readers from gamejag will know that there are actually supposed to be pictures to accompany these bio's, but I haven't figured out any way to link to them on here. Nevertheless you can view them by visiting my livejournal page (the link is now in my profile) and entering the scrapbook.

Baldur's Gate Heroes
Secret Files & Origins:
Imoen

Thank heaven for little girls
they grow up in the most delightful way!
Those little eyes so helpless and appealing
one day will flash and send you crashin' thru the ceilin'

- From the film Gigi

Name: Imoen Winthrop. She's not especially fond of the Winthrop part. She's tried before to get people to start calling her 'Crimson Shadow', but it's never caught on. Instead names like 'annoying little red haired brat' seem to be far more popular and less pretentious.
Occupation: Crime fighting adventurer.
Nationality:Citizen of the USA (could have said American but we get sick to death of listening to Canadians whine about how it's a continent and not just one country).
Hometown: Baldur's Gate
Height : 5'4"
Eyes: Grey
Hair: Red
Interesting Factoid: Cats are like Kryptonite to Imoen. Around them she loses all of her powers to quip and tell jokes that are entirely inappropriate in the situation.

It started like something out of a Dickens novel; one dark and stormy night a little more than twenty years ago a mysterious man left a tiny infant on the steps of the Candlekeep Orphanage for Girls (there is a Candlekeep Orphanage for Boys as well, but the two were segregated after some of the boys were caught asking girls to do hand stands for them so that they could look up their skirts). The nuns tried to find out what they could, but were unable to discover the identity of the man or anything about the infant they'd been entrusted with. And so it was they were left with no choice but to raise the child themselves and they named her Imoen.

At first it seemed Imoen was a highly impressionable child, or if not impressionable just plain stupid; she was once rushed to hospital after drinking a tin of paint, because she thought that since it was green it would be good for her. But as she grew a little older her imagination started to blossom in ways which everyone but Imoen found quite regrettable. She didn't seem able to comprehend that, yes, while it was commendable to have grasped aspects of plumbing at such a young age, it actually wasn't terribly funny for the person using the toilet when the water started shooting upwards. Instead she concluded that those people had no sense of humour; though whether they did or not was hardly relevant to the fact that whenever they caught her they would put honey in her hair and leave her outside close to a bee hive.

It was perhaps for this reason that Imoen started learning how to sneak around and slip into and out of places unseen and in time to pick open locks. The nuns and the priest were horrified when statues and cups started disappearing and reappearing some place else. Of course, just because they were religious people didn't mean that they weren't capable of reasoning and measures started to be taken to restrict Imoen's movements. This only caused the red head to further refine her skills.

One day, a girl named Ellie was overjoyed to have finally made contact with her actual relatives; an uncle who had also sent her a gift of her mothers photos and jewellery. The girl was so happy and insisted on showing it to everyone. However, jealousy overwhelmed Imoen and that very night she stole the photos and the jewels but rather then merely hiding them in a place where they could be found again she destroyed the photos and flushed the jewels away. And, for once, she completely got away with it. Rather than privately celebrating her accomplishment however, Imoen saw how utterly devastated Ellie was and so her own heart filled with pain; she had never wanted to hurt anyone before. From that day on, she resolved to only use her powers for good.

No matter how nice she was however, the other girls in the orphanage never forget the pranks she'd pulled and would continue to make her pay for them for the remainder of her stay. All except for one girl who had always stood up for and protected her; Diana, who would later become the saviour of the entire city of Baldur's Gate. She was the only one who always believed that Imoen really was a good person and not just a trouble maker. The two became close, like sisters, and continued to see each other every day even after they had both left Candlekeep. They had promised to always be there for each other.

That was when they were fourteen; Diana left to receive special tutelage and live in the home of Gorion, the very patron who had originally brought her to the orphanage, and his family whilst Imoen was adopted by old puffguts Winthrop and helped him to run the British Pub he owned in the city. Winthrop would import British newspapers and show only British TV. The pub was so authentic that Imoen soon had to learn how to use just about any object as a weapon to fight off hooligans who were embittered by the defeat of whatever team they supported, the privatization of the railways and the importation of American brands and products that were causing local small businesses to fail. Although on the whole American's themselves were okay because they weren't French or German, so it was okay for Imoen to work there even though her national sport was just a fancy version of Rounders and she had rather odd ideas about the game of Football.

Imoen was happy with Winthrop and his family. It didn't bother her that her own origins were a mystery because she felt that between Winthrop and her best friend, Diana, she had everything she needed. But she was to lose it all.

One day, while Imoen was sleeping over with Diana, Gorion received a letter that changed the usually calm man's mood entirely. He told his foster daughter to pack up, for they were leaving the city immediately. Imoen was to return home; but instead she decided to follow them and find out what was going on. Because of that, she witnessed Gorion's murder. A giant in black armour cut him down in the streets while Diana ran and Imoen remained hidden in the shadows frozen by fear, knowing she was powerless to do anything. The giants eyes seemed to glow, made all the more ominous by the rain that night which made them into beams. But when the light of the sun forced back the night, the day met each other and swore that they would get revenge.

First they met up with Khalid and Jaheira, the people Gorion was originally intending to meet up with anyway, and from there travelled the world in pursuit of the armoured figure. It transpired that Khalid and Jaheira, along with Gorion in his younger days were members of the Harpers Guild; a group of 'Heroes' who had banded together to protect the world. The journey was an awakening for Imoen and her friend, who discovered that everything they thought they knew was wrong. They fought against cyborgs, mutants, supercomputers that had gone mad from loneliness, things that were supposed to have been extinct for millions of years, actual real life werewolves and demons who had possessed people's bodies (which Imoen would later discover were what certain aliens called 'Rauko' – beings from another dimension who fed from the energy of creatures from our material universe. When a Rauko is able to infect a host completely the results are disastrous).

Diana took all this in her stride though, and after a while it was mutually agreed upon that she was the leader of the group. Imoen certainly had no problem with this; Diana had always being the more mature one. Stronger, more level headed even in the face of all these impossible things. And yet, as they travelled together Imoen felt that something was wrong. Diana and Jaheira would often talk together in private, taking pains to make sure that Imoen couldn't overhear. She was sure however, that if Diana was keeping things from her then she must have a good reason and that whatever it was she would tell her when she was ready. Imoen remained steadfastly loyal until the very end, having complete trust in her friend.

And after all their travelling, they eventually ended up back where they started; Baldur's Gate. There, the popular and charismatic Sarevok, whom they now knew was the murderer of Gorion, was running for Mayor. He was almost certain to win too, but there was one thing on his agenda that voters weren't aware of; he intended to kill every last one of them. Why? Well, insanity was a good enough explanation for Imoen. Why make things any more complicated?

The vendetta was already personal for Imoen, but now it was even more so; suspecting they would return, Sarevok had also murdered Winthrop and his family so that the group would have no place to stay within the city. He was soon humiliated and exposed for the murderer he was in front of the entire world. But Sarevok wasn't done yet, which Imoen and Diana were glad of. Imprisonment wasn't enough for him; so long as he lived they would never forgive him.

Sarevok retreated to the lair he had constructed for himself beneath the city, the spot he had chosen for the final confrontation. The armor he wore was pretty much indestructible, but it had a flaw; the in built weapons and shielding needed a lot of power. For it to work for any great length of time at all he really needed to carry a nuclear generator around with him. Since that might have been a bit unwieldy, he had come up with a type of transmitter that would 'beam' power from any location. So far however, it only worked within the confines of his lair.

Imoen's job was to shut down the transmitter while the others kept Sarevok busy; once she had they would be able to land the killing blow. She had to fight one of Sarevoks lackeys along the way, but tried her best to hasten the process. But, in the end, she was too slow...

By the time she'd returned to where the battle was taking place, Khalid and Dynaheir were already dead. So, at least, was Sarevok... but Diana, who had landed the killing blow with her sword, had suffered fatal wounds of her own and died in her child hood friends arms. For a long time, Imoen would has been perplexed by the smile on Diana's face as she did so; as if she'd been released from something.

For the next few months, while Diana was being praised as the saviour of the city and people were making a statue in her honour (which the red head has never been interested in seeing) Imoen's grief caught up with her and she fell into depression.

Perhaps, if she'd been faster, stronger; if she'd defeated Angelo more quickly... but, what about Diana? Why had she not used her most powerful weapon... why did she die with a smile on her face as if she wanted it; as if she wanted to break her promise?

Eventually, Imoen would try to put all these things behind her and to lead an ordinary life in an ordinary world; but at that, she was even more of a failure then she had been as a hero.

But then, she started to have a series of strange dreams, about a bald English man with a leather fetish and a project called ELF... when a Japanese man showed up and revealed that the project did actually exist, then she knew through instinct what she had to do; track down the Englishman and knock off his head for messing with her dreams like that.

As an adventurer, Imoen tries to avoid meeting opponents head on, unless she's backed up with a lot of guns. The truth is she's a pretty weak fighter. She is naturally very agile but not really trained; she relies on stealth and her own resourcefulness. She tries to disarm opponents by pretending to be slightly dumber than she actually is, or to get into their heads and force them to make mistakes. If the situation is really desperate, she will try her wits. In any case, there doesn't seem to be any building on Earth that she can't find a way into.