Author's Note:
I decided to post here more or less as a spur-of-the-moment decision, so I thought I'd lay out a few thoughts here.
I got into Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II a few years ago. I finished playing the series within a month of starting it. And as the final cutscene in Throne of Bhaal played, I suddenly wanted to re-tell this Charname's story. I've been working on this fic on and off since then, and I finally feel ready to put it out here.
I'm probably not doing anything new. Mostly I would like to give this game the novelization it deserved but never got, for reasons that the author Philip Athans discussed on the blog The Fantasy Author's Handbook. (Basically, he was only given an early story draft to work off of, and Wizards of the Coast took one look at his first draft and said, "Yeah, that's fine.") My goal was to stay true to the spirit of the game without necessarily trying to translate every single detail. It's like the scenic route on a highway: you'll still get to a place you recognize, but the path may take some turns along the way.
A few specifics:
- To flesh out this world, I drew on a couple of AD&D sourcebooks, historical data, and well-regarded mods, as well as the game itself. I generally defaulted to the game's version of places and spells, but not always. For example, Athkatla looks different than it did in the game, partly to make it feel like a bigger place.
- There are a few major divergences from canon. These were mostly done in order to try to tell a good story, and I tried to limit OOC behavior as much as possible.
- My main goal right now is to write the best I can while maintaining my posting schedule. I appreciate the feedback and reviews, but it'll probably be a while before I feel comfortable reading and responding to it. Thanks for understanding.
I hope you enjoy this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it - it's easily the most difficult and rewarding project I've ever worked on.
-C