Characters / Neverwinter Nights 2

The cast of Neverwinter Nights 2, Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir, and Mysteries of Westgate. Mostly unrelated to the characters of Neverwinter Nights.

Beware spoilers.

General character tropes

• Badass Crew: All player parties tend towards this.
• Hero of Another Story: Examining the idea of heroes is the main theme of NWN2. So it's not surprising to have the player encounter characters who count as this. From the party members (especially Shandra, who even has a similar background to the Knight-Captain), to all of the major antagonists (particularly Ammon Jerro) the game shows how while the Knight-Captain is still a special case which might justify his or her being the Player Character, there are other characters who have traits that make them cases also.

Player Character

The Kalach-Cha / Knight-Captain / Spirit Eater

"Know this name our enemies have draped upon you — this Kalach-Cha — its sound travels far, even reaching the ears of my people."

— Zhjaeve

The player character of the first two installments of NWN2 is at the beginning of the story just a Farmboy/Farmgirl who is, for all intents and purposes, completely insignificant. The only unusual thing about your character is that regardless of what race your are, you're an orphan who was born during a climactic battle between the forces of Neverwinter and the demons of the chaotic planes in which their mother died. Your real father, unknown. The character is raised by a particularly grumpy half-wood elf, with whom you don't particularly get along. Sounds like the perfect set-up for The Hero's Journey? You'd be right.

Shortly after the village festival that's part fair, part coming-of-age ritual, your swampy hometown is attacked out of nowhere by githyanki and duergar. While everyone is dumbstruck by the seeming randomness of it, your father knows a little something about what's going on and without informing you on all the details, tasks you with removing a single silver shard from the swamp and taking it to Neverwinter, where his half-brother — who you've never heard of before — lives. Along the way you encounter allies and enemies and eventually discover that you personally are more intricately tied to the events going on in the Sword Coast than your adopted father let on.

Later on, in Mask of the Betrayer, after being knocked unconscious and dragged to Rashemen away from your friends and allies following the climactic Final Boss of the previous game, you discover yourself possessed of an ancient curse that causes you to hunger for and devour spirits and souls. Curing yourself or embracing the power of the "curse" is up to you.

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• Abusive Parents: Daeghun isn't implied to physically abuse you, but several characters call him out on emotional abuse and neglect. As it turns out, it's related to how you came to be his foster child.
• Badass Bookworm: Wizards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks.
• Badass Cape:
  • An actual plot point no less. The cloak you receive at the beginning of Act III marks your position as a Knight of Neverwinter.
  • And if you win all the four contests in the prologue, you'll receive the non-magical Harvest Cape that increases your Charisma score.
• Badass Normal: Fighter, Barbarian, or Rogue.
• Barbarian Hero: If you picked the Barbarian class, oddly enough.
• Blood Knight: One of the possible dialogue options in the base game boils down to, "Two dragons? HAH! Perfect, I LOVE A CHALLENGE!"
• The Call Knows Where You Live: It turns out one of the shards of the Sword of Gith is buried in your chest, which is what drew the Githyanki to your village.
• Calling the Old Man Out: They have several opportunities to voice their displeasure with Daeghun's particular brand of parenting.
• The Captain: You get promoted to Knight-Captain by Lord Nasher for services rendered, and are awarded Crossroad Keep and it's surroundings to rule.
• The Casanova: As a background trait, though this has no in-game effect beyond a few comments in West Harbor and giving you a few skill bonuses.
• Character Alignment: In-universe. This is a game based on Dungeons & Dragons after all. Any, although non-evil is at least implied for the original campaign given that the King of Shadows is canonically defeated by the time Mask of the Betrayer starts. But then again, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Evil Versus Evil resulted.
• Chick Magnet: Or Dude Magnet, if female. A ridiculous amount of guys/girls show interest and get Ship Tease with them.
• Cool Sword: The Silver Blade of Gith, no less! Fairly important as it becomes tied to you, fate, mind, body and soul after its reforging.
  • Power Up Letdown: Despite its coolness and plot-relevance, it's not as effective as crafted weapons, especially in the original campaign.
• Cruel Mercy: You can dish out a particularly nasty one to Kaelyn in Mask of the Betrayer. Defeat her Crusade, kill her siblings, kill her grandfather, and then leave her where she fell, alive, mortally wounded, and utterly heartbroken, for demons to collect. Unlike most examples, the dialogue when you say you'll spare her after all this makes it clear you're doing it to be cruel, not merciful.
• Cultured Badass: Possibly, if you have a high Lore skill.
• Deadpan Snarker: Optional, of course, given the medium, but this option certainly exists.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: A number of examples from the King of Shadows to Kelemvor's paragon, but the standout example has got to be the very casual, easy way in which you can eat Myrkul in a truly epic example of both Death by Irony and Karmic Death.
• The Dog Bites Back: One of the reasons you can give for your Face–Heel Turn in the expansion is that you're sick of being yanked around by cosmic forces.
• Doom Magnet: In both the first and second games this is entirely justified. In the original campaign, you have a shard of the Silver Sword of Gith embedded in your chest, which the githyanki and Ammon Jerro both want but which can't be removed without killing you. And of course, the King of Shadows naturally wants to take you down as a threat. In Mask of the Betrayer, your ability to eat souls makes you a target for both those who see you as an abomination as well as for those who want your ability for themselves.
• Doomed Hometown: Zigzagged. Not only is West Harbor attacked at the beginning of the game, it's completely destroyed at the end, too. However, in the canonical ending the inhabitants survived and rebuilt.
• Empowered Badass Normal: If a KC of a non-spellcasting class takes levels in a spellcasting class. Also happens when you receive the Illefarn ritual powers and, later, courtesy of the spirit-eater curse.
• Even Evil Has Standards: You can be Evil-aligned and still oppose the King of Shadows and the Spirit-Eater Curse on ethical or logical grounds.
• Face–Heel Turn: It's possible to ally with the King of Shadows at the end of the original campaign, and to manipulate and revel in your curse in the expansion.
• Farm Boy: One from a swamp, to be exact, but the intent is there.
• Frame-Up: The second act is kicked off by Luskan framing you for the destruction of the village of Ember.
• Friend to All Children: There are several opportunities, whatever your alignment, to be nice to orphaned children.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Half-elf and half-orc are both playable.
• Happily Married: The good epilogues of Mask of the Betrayer have you marrying your love interest.
• Heartbroken Badass:
  • If male, evil, and romanced Safiya, then she will be devoured by One-of-Many in the epilogue of Mask of the Betrayer. You hunt it down, kill it, and then never take another lover again.
  • Also, you can cite your feelings for Casavir or Bishop as why you can't return Gann's, even if you've learned of/witnessed their fates by then.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: This game uses the variant where your name will appear in subtitles, but not get pronounced.
• The Hero: You'll save the realm, regardless of alignment. Motivation, attitude and collateral damage, however, are largely up to the player.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Optionally, in Mask of the Betrayer. Choosing to bind Akachi to your soul and stay in the realm of the dead forever.
• Heroic Willpower: Mask of the Betrayer centers around this, especially if you’re going the good route while fighting the dreaded Spirit Eater curse.
• Humanoid Abomination: As the Spirit-Eater, you are required to devour sentient beings' souls to survive. You can end or exorcise the curse, or master it and take this trope up a notch.
• Karma Meter: Added bonus in that it's got two axis, incorporating both Black-and-White Morality and Law Vs Chaos rather than just the former, as in traditional D&D. Fan consensus is that the former is implemented well in the original campaign but the latter is not, with some (but only some) improvement in Mask of the Betrayer.
• Large Ham: A lot of the potential character voices seem to be channeling BRIAN BLESSED. Even the female voices.
• Love Hurts: A lot of the romances end or can end in ways that inflict max emotional pain. Romanced Elanee or Casavir? In Mask of the Betrayer, you get to hear that they died in the collapsing temple. "Romanced" Bishop? You get betrayed because of his Commitment Issues, then he dies, then he's absorbed in the Wall of the Faithless. And if you're evil and romanced Safiya, One-Of-Many eats her.
• Manipulative Bastard: If you're Evil and have a high Bluff skill, you can completely and utterly deceive Kaelyn into Blind Obedience in Mask of the Betrayer.
• Multiple Endings: Somewhat sloppily in the first game, with you either defeating the King of Shadows only to experience a rather unpleasant Rocks Fall Everybody Dies situation or join up with him to kill your former allies for no particular reason. In Mask of the Betrayer, most fans think this was done much better, though some still wish you could have destroyed the Wall of the Faithless for real. Obsidian didn't even bother trying to implement it, on the assumption Wizards of the Coast wouldn't allow that past concept stage.
• Never Found the Body: In the good ending of the original campaign, no one knows what happened to you. It turns out that Nefris had some gargoyles magically rescue you from the collapsing temple and drag you to Rashemen. In the evil ending of Mask of the Betrayer, the gods rally to destroy you, and after the battle your fate is unclear... but Kelemvor notes that you've become a creature even the gods fear and suspects that you still walk the planes.
• Plucky Girl: Female PCs will often come across as this. Shandra even lampshades it, stating with no small amount of surprise that she would never have guessed you had such a rough life from the way you act.
• Rags to Riches: You eventually become a minor noble and gain command of your own castle. Not bad for a kid from a swamp.
• The Reveal: That you have a piece of the Silver Sword of Gith in your chest, and that as part of the Spirit Eater curse, your soul currently resides in the Wall of the Faithless. Instead, your body is being partly inhabited by whatever is left of Akachi the Betrayer.
• Sore Loser: You can take losing contests quite badly, if you wish. For example, one of the options if you're defeated in a "battle of the bards" is setting the winner on fire and stealing his lute.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Bishop, if female and choosing him over Casavir. Their feelings for each other are not enough to defeat his Commitment Issues, and he betrays the PC, then dies, then has his soul absorbed into the Wall of the Faithless.
• Superpowered Evil Side:
  • The Spirit Eater mechanic, if you're evil, is meant to be powerful but ethically repugnant if various characters are to be believed, but unfortunately it ends up living to its name as a curse all too well. On the other hand, if you're good (in which case it's supposed to be bad), it ends up being Cursed with Awesome, since you can gain a few of the benefits while reducing the negative impact significantly.
  • In summation, the difference between indulging the hunger itself, or using it pragmatically is also the difference between Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome. Hedonistic self-indulgence against practical restraint? Deep stuff.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: In the evil ending, the spirit-eater's final motivation to devour Akachi is this: they're so sick of being a Doom Magnet that they no longer care what happens, only that they can get revenge on everyone who wronged them.
  Red Woman: I do not know what you would become, only that it would be terrible, an abomination! The power of a god, wed to the hunger of the wall! You must not!
  Spirit-Eater: After so much suffering, that sounds like a fitting reward. There are many who need to answer to me.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: His romance may have been cut, but there's still plenty of opportunities for Bishop and the female PC to express romantic interest in each other. In fact, you can even cite your feelings for him as a reason for turning down Gann in Mask of the Betrayer. But, since his romance was cut and he's ultimately absorbed in the Wall of the Faithless, simmering feelings and sexual tension are all you get.
• The Unreveal: In Mask of the Betrayer it's pretty obvious early on that you've been cursed with something that requires you to eat spirits, though you aren't told this in so many words until the end of the first act. More significant might be the "revelation" that Akachi's punishment by Myrkul is the source of the curse - which a reasonably intelligent player can figure out pretty quickly from the various hints dropped through the game.
• Villainous Glutton: If evil and indulging in the Spirit-Eater Curse, the player becomes this, as high Craving almost requires eating everything to cross your path.
• Warrior Therapist: You were already good at this game in the Original Campaign (especially with Khelgar and Neeshka, not to mention the trial) but it's exaggerated in Mask Of The Betrayer where you verbally fight against Physical Gods and win. It goes so far, you'll be seen as a Messianic Archetype by angels, gain the respect of absolutely everyone you meet and generally come out as the kind of person who starts legends on your path.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Due to having the Spirit-Eater curse, the Knight-Captain can do this to others. Also due to having the curse, his/her soul is displaced from his/her body and stuck in the Wall of the Faithless.

Original Campaign

Party members

Bevil Starling

"We were risking life and limb for that? None of this make any sense."

— Bevil regarding the silver shard from the ruins outside West Harbor.

Voiced by: Jason Griffith

Bevil Starling is either your best friend or an implied crush, depending on which gender you are. Either way, he doesn't stick with you for long, serving as the obligatory Guest-Star Party Member at the beginning of the game to help you run through the basics of how to play the game. For the most part, Bevil's an upstanding, if somewhat naive, young man with no particular interest in leaving the swampy home that you and he live in.

Later on, you discover he survived the third destruction of West Harbor and you can hire him as a captain in your own personal army, though he doesn't join your party. He also shows up in Mask of the Betrayer as a manifestation of your psyche during The Very Definitely Final Dungeon located within your soul.

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• Can't Catch Up: This is why he can't join your party even when he rejoins the story later in the game. By ordinary standards he's highly skilled, enough to immediately get a Sergeant rank, but by that point the Knight Captain and company have a dozen or so levels on him and most of the foes they face could kill him in one hit.
• Childhood Friends: With the KC.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: The Githyanki treat him to this to find out where you're going and what you're doing with the shards. He refuses to tell the other villagers about it and feels very guilty for cracking.
• Guest-Star Party Member: He follows you up until you leave West Harbor. Then shows up later to join your army, though not as a party member.
• Old Friend: When you meet him again, by which point you've been away from the village for quite some time and generally moved on to bigger things.
• Lawful Good: His in-universe alignment.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A mild mannered fighter who acts as a Guest-Star Party Member in the prologue but decides adventuring isn't for him, voiced by Jason Griffith. He's basically Pavel from the first game, although he gets a bit more characterization later on when you can potentially recruit him into your army.
• Took a Level in Badass: When he turns up the second time - and you can talk him into taking another.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: It's implied if you're a woman by at least one character that Bevil has a crush on you, especially if you chose the Flirt background. If you ask him about it, he gets flustered and winds up saying something to the tune of By "No", I Mean "Yes". Nothing comes of it, but there it is.
• White Sheep: Bevil is the only decent Starling kid. His older brother Lorne became a stooge for Luskan (and slaughters a whole village in magical disguise to frame you), and his younger siblings are way too eager to hear the details of their dogs ripping dwarves apart.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: How he sees the world beyond West Harbor is at odds with the one you end up with, which is full of people who can be brutal and selfish.

Amie Fern

"Fool girl."

—Tarmas's estimation of his apprentice Amie's role in the story

Voiced by: Stephanie D'Abruzzo

The other Guest-Star Party Member at the beginning of the game, Amie is a wizard's apprentice, the only one in West Harbor (unless you choose a magic user as your base class). Considered a bit odd but pretty, Amie bonded with both you and Bevil early on. If you're a woman, she's your best friend; if you're a man, she's implied to have romantic feelings for you (particularly if you take the Lady Killer background trait).

She dies within the first hour. However, she does reappear in Mask of the Betrayer as an aspect of your persona during The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.

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• Bullying a Dragon: You'd think she'd be smart enough to keep well away from somebody that's giving her master a hard time. But no, she attacks him, and he one-shots her.
• Chaotic Good: Her in-universe alignment. She's very sweet but not above sneaking some spells out of her master's spellbook while he isn't looking, or defying a direct order to help.
• Childhood Friends: Again, with the KC.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Gets utterly owned by that githyanki mage.
• History Repeats: Her parents chose to fight in the Battle of West Harbor even though they were simple farm villagers with no combat training or weapons of note, and and clearly outmatched by the demons and shadow legions. Amie also jumps into the fray during the attack on West Harbor, and shares her parents' fate.
• In the Blood: Tarmas claims her parents died in the battle of West Harbor because they chose to fight to protect their home (despite being simple farmers) instead of running for their lives like other sensible villagers. He claims Amie shares their fate.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Charged into the fray to assist her master, getting herself killed in the process. She inherited it from her parents.
• The Pollyanna: She lost both her parents at an early age, but doesn't seem broken up about it that much. Justified because she was very young when it happened and has had time to come to terms with it.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Implied with a male KC. Not that anything comes of it.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She dies in the beginning of Act 1 and you hardly had any interactions with her in the Prologue.

Khelgar Ironfist

"Some take pride in craftsmanship, or in hunting, or in haggling for the best price on a blade or other piece of steel. Me? Talking with my fists is my art form."

— Khelgar Ironfist

Voiced by: Adam Sietz

The first potential party member you run into, Khelgar is a dwarven fighter originally encountered not far from West Harbor. After helping him out with a gang of roughnecks (by beating them all to death and/or unconsciousness) and the first wave of githyanki, Khelgar decides to tag along with you because you attract fights everywhere you go, and he wants in.

Despite being more than a little thick-headed and stubborn, Khelgar is loyal and has his own reasons for being off on an adventure with some random Chosen One from the swamps. Khelgar was kicked out of his clan for abandoning them during an attack by fire giants, and they haven't forgiven him yet. Aside from wanting to rejoin his clan, Khelgar also aspires to be a monk, since the first people who ever beat him in a fight were a group of travelling monks.

He survives the final battle with the King of Shadows by way of being pure badass. In Storm of Zehir, he has joined the Neverwinter Nine and watches over Crossroad Keep in the Knight Captain's absence. Later on chronologically, in the best ending of Mask of the Betrayer he is present at the Captain's wedding to either Safiya or Gann alongside Neeshka or Aldanon.

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• Bald Head of Toughness: He is a bald, battle-axe wielding, dwarven fighter who is built like a Mighty Glacier with high Strength and Constitution base stats. Unless you've built your character for durability too, he'll be the only character of your initial party capable of taking hard hits.
• Bar Brawl: It's a hobby of his, one he discusses with you.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: What he becomes if you complete his quests.
• Blood Knight: He's probably the most fight-happy of your entire party, fitting for the first character you recruit.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Post-Character Development.
• Character Development: All the party characters undergo some, of course, but Khelgar's personal quest is tied up in it. In order to become a monk, Khelgar has to overcome three trials. They involve overcoming his Fantastic Racism, making good with his family, and developing a sense of justice. Passing all three trials and talking to the priest of Tyr changes his alignment to Lawful Good and resets his class to monk. Fortunately, he keeps all his experience and is able to return to his current level.
• Comically Missing the Point: When he first tries to join the monks they say, among other things, that his Fantastic Racism proves he's not ready yet. He responds that he can't be a racist because he's adventuring with a tiefling and an elf, and you know what those types are like! Even before then, when you try to explain to him that a monk's lifestyle is about more than fighting, such as uniting body and mind, he takes this to mean it also involves head-butting.
• Crutch Character: He's a solidly-built fighter with excellent Strength and Constitution for his level, and as a dwarf he's able to use dwarven waraxes (a 1d10 one-handed weapon that only dwarves can use naturally) right out of the gate. Unless the player is built for taking damage as well, he'll be the only member of your initial party (you, himself, Neeshka and Elanee) who can take any hits, and his feat selection lends itself to good offense as well. Once you get Casavir, though, he is slightly outclassed as a tank due to not having Casavir's paladin perks and the Construct can make him near-superfluous through its raw stats. Making him a monk allows him to transition into a new role as a pure damage dealer with all the other perks a monk brings to the party, though it also means he can't use the Hammer of Ironfist, so there are pros and cons.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: That of the stereotypical dwarf sidekick in a lot of fantasy media. He distrusts elves and tieflings, drinks like a fish and enjoys fighting to a fault, but it is for these exact reasons that he ends up getting the shaft from his own people. As his clansman Khulmar puts it, he's become so enamored with fighting that he's forgotten the importance of having a reason for it, and his distrusting attitudes don't win him any points from those party members who happen to be a tiefling and an elf. His Character Development as part of his personal quest serves as a Reconstruction — finding a reason to fight, putting aside his prejudices and making good with members of his clan whom he wronged through his selfishness.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Making him a monk unfortunately relegates him to being a fairly mediocre one; his ability scores, which worked so well for a tanky fighter, are poorly distributed for a monk, he's locked out of using the Hammer of Ironfist — a late-game, dwarf-exclusive Infinity +1 Sword — and a bunch of his old equipment is now unequippable, forcing you to shell out cash for monk-suitable equipment to replace it. That said, you can definitely make him work as one by crafting +8 versions of the Belt of Agility and Periapt of Wisdom and selecting appropriate feats. The monk class also has nifty special features such as immunity to disease and poison, very fast movement and automatically getting Knockdown and Improved Knockdown for free.
• Establishing Character Moment: You meet him just as he's about to deal with the fallout of a Bar Brawl, proving his status as a Boisterous Bruiser by mentioning that he'd stopped at the inn explicitly for that reason.
• Fantastic Racism: He doesn't mean anything by it, but he takes umbrage with Elanee and Neeshka... because they're an elf and a tiefling respectively. You can help him realize that he's not giving them a fair chance.
  • If you ask her about Elanee specifically he'll mention that one of the reasons for which he tolerates her is because as a Wood Elf he considers her less stuck up than moon or Gold Elves, and also because her ancestors supported his in an ancient battle that took place within FR's own internal mythology, which subverts the traditional Elf v. Dwarf rivalry in most conventional fantasy fiction.
• Foil: Potentially to Grimgnaw from Neverwinter Nights 1. Dwarven monks are fairly exotic; but while Grimgnaw is also thoroughly atypical for his race, Khelgar is a decent example for Our Dwarves Are All the Same.
• Hypocritical Humor: "Prejudiced? I'm not prejudiced! By the gods, I even travel with a back-stabbing tiefling of all things, and you know what her kind's like!"
• Informed Equipment: Lampshaded by Khelgar when he's wearing the Belt of Ironfist and says no can one can see it, but it's there.
• Lawful Good: In-universe, if you change his class. Enforced, since 3.5 edition rules require monks to be some flavour of Lawful (a manifestation of discipline and focus) and Khelgar is a good guy.
• Luke Nounverber: Khelgar Ironfist.
• Mugging the Monster:
  • One day, Khelgar was in a pub, and saw a group in the corner keeping to themselves and drinking water. He decided to avenge the insult they were showing the tavern's fine ale by starting a brawl with them. Some time later, when he regained consciousness, he found out they were Sun Soul monks. The experience inspired him to try to become a monk himself.
  • He also got a taste of it from some thugs who picked a fight with him outside the tavern you travel to near the start of the game. As he puts it, they probably expected him to just hand over all his money without a fight, which just goes to show they didn't know him too well.
• No More for Me: Played for Laughs. After you're attacked by a blade golem, he remarks that if that was the beer, he's gonna stop drinking.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: A more nuanced example than most. He is a stereotypical dwarf, but therein lies the rub: the Ironfists kicked him out because he took his love of beer and battle too far and became a drunken thug who failed to live up to the more positive parts of this trope, namely reliability, selflessness, clan honor and dignity. His Character Development consists of him coming to understand that, sometimes with help from the player.
• Neutral Good: In-universe, his starting alignment. This manifests itself in admiring the player taking good actions (like siding with the City Watch and doing good deeds for free) while mostly enjoying a good fight — especially one that lets him do good in the process.
• Noble Bigot: Becomes this after character development.
• Oh, My Gods!: His "swear" emote is, "By Tyr's right buttock!"
• Stone Wall: Most players use him as a tank for his time as a fighter, and admittedly he is well-suited to it.
• Square Race, Round Class: The player can point this problem out the first time they hear he wants to be a monk. Putting aside that his stats are not ideal for it, there's also the fact that his quick temper and fight-happy personality clash heavily with the traditional monk ethos of detachment and eschewing violence unless forced into it.
• Took a Level in Badass: He was always pretty badass, but Storm of Zehir shows that he's become one of the Neverwinter Nine.
• Unexplained Accent: He has the traditional Dwarvish "bad impression of Scottish" accent, but nobody else in his clan has it.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: His relationship with Neeshka has shades of this in the latter half of the game.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Basically holds this view towards a tiefling protagonist; he's a bit suspicious of you at first, but apparently fighting side-by-side in a bar brawl goes a long way to winning him over. Hence, he considers you alright for a tiefling while still being leery of Neeshka.

Neeshka

"Someone who doesn't play the odds doesn't last too long in my experience. Well, except me."

Voiced by: Robyn Kramer

A tiefling rogue that the Captain and Khelgar encounter being threatened by a group of corrupt soldiers. After helping her fight them off, she agrees to tag along, mainly for the thrill of adventure. Neeshka is fiery, feisty, and more than a little mischievous. She takes the Fantastic Racism she often gets in stride, barely letting it get to her. However, her fiend blood makes her vulnerable to certain dark magics, which Black Garius tries to take advantage of in the final battle. Whether or not he succeeds in this depends on Neeshka's influence. Canonically, Neeshka survives the original campaign's final battle due to her great agility. In the best ending of Mask of the Betrayer, she is seen attending the Captain's wedding along with Khelgar.

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• Action Girl: Of the sneaky, backstabby variety.
• Apologetic Attacker: If her influence is high enough that she likes you, but not so high she can turn on Garius, she'll sob and scream apologies as she's forced to attack you.
• Born Lucky: She would have been killed by the Fort Locke guards if you just hadn't happened to be walking by, and the guards just hadn't happened to get greedy and attack you. She's also one of the few to escape the collapsing final dungeon, with Ammon even describing her as blessed to be dodging as well as she was. Her patron deity is also Tymora, god of luck and fortune.
• The Cameo: In MotB's best ending.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Mild example. She pouts and gets upset if a male Player Character compliments Elanee or Shandra.
• Cute Monster Girl: Looks like an ordinary, pretty girl but for her horns and tail.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She may not be very heroic but Neeshka is nowhere near as evil as many make her out to be due to her heritage.
• Despair Event Horizon: If her influence is low, she crosses it when Garius kidnaps her. She already saw little value in the Realms already, but with you being a terrible friend on top of it, she decides there's nothing worth saving at all and joins him willingly.
• Friendless Background: Due to Fantastic Racism lobbed against her for being a tiefling.
• Heroic Willpower: If her influence is high enough, she'll resist Garius's Mind Rape through sheer willpower.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: During the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, Black Garius captures Neeshka and proceeds to torture her and attempt to bind her to his will.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: You can break Garius's control over her by making such an appeal to her.
• In the Blood: It's suggested her demon blood makes her feel antsy and impulsive, which manifests in her rampant kleptomania. (Considering the other ways demon blood can direct tieflings, that's beyond mild.)
• Kleptomaniac Hero: She sometimes makes an off-hand remark about taking something from you or another party member.
• Loveable Rogue: For all her sneaking, thieving and greedy ways, Neeshka is charming and considers you a good friend if you put the effort into getting to know her.
• Parental Abandonment: She's pretty sure her parents abandoned her as a baby due to her being a tiefling.
• Plucky Girl: Life kicks her in the teeth a lot, and sometimes its her own fault. But she always dusts herself off and carries on.
• The Power of Friendship: It lets her endure torture and throw off direct mind control if your influence with her is high enough.
• The Power of Love: Implied to also be the case in the above scenario if the Player Character is male.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Tieflings have a tendency towards evil due to their ancestry, but Neeshka is a Kleptomaniac Heroine at worst and can only go evil because of a geas placed on her by Black Garius.
• Ship Tease: With a male PC. She was intended to be a love interest but her sidequest, like Bishop's, was cut due to time. You can still see hints that she's interested in him, though.
• True Neutral: In-universe. Rather than being a compromise-seeking activist, Neeshka comes off as a voice of rational self-interest and non-involvement, expressing distaste for the player joining the City Watch and getting annoyed about the player stopping to help a couple for free (even though the job involves rescuing two little boys, which Elanee chews her out for).
• Uneven Hybrid: Tieflings are humans with an evil outsider (normally a devil or demon) as an ancestor. Neeshka is specifically one-quarter devil (Lawful Evil outsider), and her grandfather is implied to be Ammon Jerro's pit fiend ally Mephasm.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Seems to become this with Khelgar after his Character Development.

Elanee

"I don't know. She's got pointy-ears but doesn't smell of the Lower Planes, so she's probably not a tiefling. And she's too tall to be a halfling — and too thin. Plus, she hangs out with animals, so she's an elf."

— Neeshka, asked to describe her companion.

Voiced by: Ursulla Abbot

A young elf that is part of the Mere of Dead Men's Druid Circle. She follows the Knight Captain during the early parts of his/her adventure, and ultimately reveals herself by helping the party fight off a group of Bladelings and Duergar. She then explains how the Mere has of late become corrupted and barren and that her Circle has been destroyed, and believes that joining the Captain is her best bet to find out the cause of it.

In Chapter 3, she learns that her Circle has actually survived, but have, with a single exception, become twisted and corrupted by the King of Shadow's influence. After being forced to kill them, Elanee will either continue to stay with the group, or decide to leave with the survivor in an attempt to find a new home, depending on her Influence.

Her fate at the end of the official campaign depends on the PC's choices. If the PC has low influence with her, then she leaves with the only other survivor of the Circle of the Mere earlier in Act III (you can kill her or let her go). If the PC is male and romances her, she sacrifices her life to save him from the Collapsing Lair. Otherwise Ammon mentions that he last saw her pinned by a chunk of debris, not moving, and whether she dies is left ambiguous.

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• Action Girl: Via her druid spells, or turning into something with lots of claws and teeth. And later by turning into an elemental.
• Broken Bird: If you have low influence with her and let her leave unharmed, the epilogue of the OC mentioned that she becomes this. Elanee help lost travelers escape the swamp. People are grateful to her, but couldn't help noticing how sad she was.
• Broken Pedestal: If you have low influence with her and decide to kill her, she says she regrets ever caring about you.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She has a big crush on you if you're a male, and there's something there even if you're female, but struggles to communicate her feelings for a long time.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: At times with a male PC, becoming annoyed if the player has kind words for Shandra or shows favoritism to Neeshka.
• Combat Medic: As she is the only divine spellcaster available for the majority of the game, until you recruit Zhjaeve, you're probably going to end up packing much of her spell list with "Cure Wounds" unless the KC is a divine spellcaster him/herself.
• Country Mouse: Admits to feeling a little bit lost in Neverwinter, having lived in the Mere practically since birth.
• Friend to All Living Things: She's very compassionate to every animal the party meets, and is very upset over the state of the swamp.
• Ghostly Goals: Elanee becomes a Type B if you kill her. The epilogue of the OC mention that Elanee's ghost lures lost travelers into the swamp and she take great pleasure watching them drown.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Provided the player of MotB doesn't say that she left the party after the corrupted Circle incident, she dies shielding you from falling rubble in the Collapsing Lair if you romanced her.
• Left for Dead: If she wasn't romanced, Ammon Jerro last saw her pinned and unmoving beneath a fallen pillar, but whether she's alive or not is unknown, and we never find out.
• Loyal Animal Companion: As a druid she has a badger named Naloch as her companion.
• May–December Romance: With a male PC, being several years older than you no matter what race you are.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She'll go into shock after killing the remnants of the Circle if your influence is low, and subsequently leaves your party.
• Nature Hero: As a druid many of her spells revolve around controlling flora and fauna, and even weather. She can also shapeshift.
• Neutral Good: In-universe. While as a druid she is expected to emulate the balance of nature and her values sometimes prove dissonant to civilized characters, she's adamant that the corruption of the King of Shadows is an unnatural disturbance of, rather than a natural shift in, the balance of the Mere, and will otherwise disapprove of evil acts performed by the PC.
• Parental Abandonment: Both her parents died long ago in the Mere of Dead Men. She was adopted into the local druid circle and eventually became one of them.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: Either she died pinned down by a pillar of rock in the final dungeon, or she was left alive in a position she is unlikely to have survived for very long.
• Really 700 Years Old: She's an elf, after all.
• Sole Survivor: When you speak to her, she reveals that when she was just a child, her people were cut down by orcs and she was the only one to survive. The druids in the swamp found her and trained her as a druid.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: She can communicate with animals as a druid class feature, which allows you to communicate with animals under specific circumstances. Notably, unless you are a druid or ranger (or drow) yourself, you need her to befriend Kistrel the spider.
• Stalker with a Crush: With a male PC. Unusually, the stalker part came before the crush. She was assigned by the Circle of Merdelain to observe the Kalach-Cha as he grew up, and eventually started to feel affection for him. Said affection can turn into love during the game, depending on the player's choices.
• Stalker without a Crush: If you're female. She still came to care greatly for you, but more in terms of loyalty than romantic interest.
• The Stoic: She never really gets frazzled except after the incident with the corrupted Circle.
• Tsundere: Slightly Type A, for the male PC. She has clear affection for him, but trouble expressing it.
• Unkempt Beauty: Companion dialogue suggests that she has dirt on her face or in her hair, and doesn't wash often. She's still attractive.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Another druid class feature. Depending on what level you recruit her at, though, she may not know it until you level her up.

Qara

"My problem is people keep telling me what to do, and I don't need to hear it anymore. I can handle myself. I know my powers, and I don't need somebody telling me how to use them."

— Qara

Voiced by: Jenna Lamia

A vain, arrogant sorceress that the party encounters picking a fight with two other mages. After resolving the situation one way or another, Qara accidentally burns part of the Sunken Flagon, and is forced to join the party by Duncan in order to pay off the damages.

Qara is self-obsessed, arrogant, and more than a little pyromaniacal. She genuinely believes that she is the most powerful magician in Faerûn, and expects everyone else to treat her as such. Her over-inflated ego, along with her general disdain of wizards, causes her to frequently butt heads with Sand.

She canonically died in the original campaign's final battle, either having been killed by the party after betraying them (either due to low influence or automatically if Sand stays on the good side), or by having her head split open by a falling rock.

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• Aborted Arc: Her conflict with her rivals from the Academy was set to evolve into a Black-and-Gray Morality conflict, such as two of the students who fought her planning to take out the player and their companions, before killing Qara next. It was also planned that she could learn to destroy the Animus, a doppelganger of her designed to destroy her, by learning to show restraint as she was constantly advised to do. As it is, the arc sort of fizzles out after you destroy the Animus and the mage who created it.
• At Least I Admit It: If the KC points out that Qara isn't so different from her bullies, Qara retorts that at least she has the guts to insult the girls to their faces, not whisper about them behind their backs the way they do to her.
• Black Magician Girl: She's a sorceress but lacks the grace or charm necessary to be a Lady of Black Magic, so she is this by default.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Her conflict with Jochris ends up being this. Say what you will about Qara, but Jochris offered his own students as apprentices (and possibly slaves) to the Arcane Brotherhood to get revenge on Qara for threatening his daughter. A shame you don't get to fight him.
• Blood Knight: She may not go looking for fights, but she's way too eager to jump into them, and loses influence if you opt for a peaceful solution.
• Chaotic Neutral: In-Universe. More than anything else she just wants an excuse to use her powers; give her the chance to let loose and she'll fight for you to the bitter end no matter who you're fighting against, but restrict her and her opinion of you will remain low.
• Chaotic Stupid: For all intents and purposes. She would rather incinerate everything and everyone rather than other alternatives to solve a conflict.
• Deadpan Snarker: She gets a few fantastic hits in on other characters. Particularly the scene during Act I where she inserts herself into an argument/insult contest between Khelgar and Neeshka and shows them both up completely. At times she also has a knack for snarky commentary rivalling that of Sand.
  Qara: [When Casavir and Elanee agree about sensing an evil aura] Great, now the druidess has an echo.
  Qara: [Commenting on your trip through the Orc Caves] From bloodthirsty orcs to creeping around in tunnels filled with corpses... this just gets better and better.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Went on a fiery rampage after finding out some students were insulting her behind her back, claiming they "attacked" her first.
  • If she allies with the King of Shadows, she tries to destroy the world because you didn't agree with her.
  • Note she can be on the receiving end of this as well. Just ask Jochris.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Assuming she didn't turn on you, her skull is crushed by a falling boulder during the escape.
• Drunk with Power: Her comments about what using arcane magic feels like suggests it's an emotional high she's constantly chasing, which would certainly explain some of her trigger-happy behaviour.
• Everyone Has Standards: She is absolutely horrified by the zombie-mages in the orc caverns — even moreso because they were made from the corpses of her fellow Academy students.
• Face–Heel Turn: Turns on you and joins the King of Shadows if her Influence is lower than Sand's.
• Fantastic Racism: Discredited. Most sorcerers are discriminated against by wizards claiming they are undisciplined and dangerous. Qara is both those things and actually looks down on wizards for having to learn to use their magic.
• Fiery Redhead: According to her character description, though in-game it looks more like brown. Also, emphasis on fiery.
• Genre Savvy: In one specific instance — if you bring her along for one of Khelgar's personal quests, she's reluctant to go into an old dwarven clan hold for the following reasons:
  Qara: And in case anyone here fell asleep in cultural studies, we all know what exploring old dwarven holds digs up — traps, monsters best left undisturbed, and lots of explorers' bodies. Let's not add to the mystery.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Dummied Out content would have shown her to be even more powerful than she seems in-game. Unfortunately, they didn't fully account for the change, and if her loyalty is greater than Sand's he'll refer back to it and declare she's a bigger threat to the world than the Big Bad.
• Hot-Blooded: Not quite literally. But she sure does love fire.
• Jerkass: She goes out of her way to aggravate everyone, inside the party or out, and has very few moments where she acts otherwise.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As a sorceress, she learns spells by a mixture of experience with casting and simple intuition and gut instinct, not through books or studying; as such, it would be pointless for her to try studying or learning about magic besides some rudimentary study of common spells and their effects, because the sorcerer class' magic-learning curve is more automatic and restrictive than that of the wizard.
• Jerk Justifications: Her reason for betraying you is that you didn't let her do whatever she wanted with her powers (namely, burn everything in sight).
• Kill It with Fire: Her preferred method of problem solving. It can be annoying, because her pyrotechnics have a tendency to destroy loot chests and the loot inside, though good micromanagement can prevent this. It should also be noted her patron deity is Kossuth, the elemental deity of fire.
• Mugging the Monster: For all their talk of practicing restraint, the mages Qara is enemies with seem awfully happy to push her to the point where she moves past passive-aggression and actively attacks them.
• Never My Fault: Potentially two instances when you first meet her.
  • Claims she's the victim of needless bullying, though the player can respond that she's quick to insult them right back.
  • She also brushes off Duncan calling her out for fire to the Sunken Flagon by saying it's the fault of the wood from the rafters catching fire, not her for recklessly shooting fire in the first place. Thankfully, Duncan's having none of it, and strong-arms her to work to pay him back for the damages.
• Pet the Dog: If you take her to the Orc Caves she'll discover zombie-mages being made from the corpses of her fellow Academy students and vows to stop the Shadow Priest who created them, which is the most heroic thing she does in the entire game. Also, if you have high influence with her, she'll offer to fight Lorne for you in Act II.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Her name is only four letters long, but her ego is the size of an ocean.
• Smug Super: She's the most powerful member of your party in terms of pure magical damage output, so some of that ego is justified.
• Sociopathic Hero: Doesn't seem to understand that reacting to every slight with a fireball to the face creates more problems for herself and others than it solves, and is more forced to be on the hero's side than following voluntarily.
• Spoiled Brat: Her father is the headmaster of the Neverwinter Academy. In fact, it's implied in cut content that one of the reason Sand hates her is that her father fired him.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Tends to treat fellow party members this way, but may end up treating the player slightly less terribly if enough influence is gained.
• Unequal Rites: She's a sorcerer who really doesn't like wizards. To the point that the determining factor in whether she sides with you during the final battle is whether Sand does. Sand is offered the choice to turn before she is, and if he stays with you, she will turn on you no matter how high your influence is.
• Unskilled, but Strong: As a sorcerer, she naturally has incredible magical power, but she doesn't bother refining it.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Qara's preferred solution to her problems is to blast everything in sight. This works about as well as you'd expect, even having a hand in her being drafted into the party.

Grobnar Gnomehands

"'Kalach-cha' . 'Kalach-cha' . Well, it's not Gnomish, Elvish, Dwarvish, Orcish, Goblin, or Draconic — well, unless the 'k' is silent, but that would make it "gizzard stone" or the equivalent."

— Grobnar demonstrating a surprising command of language.

Voiced by: Andy Pang

An... eccentric gnome bard the party encounters shortly after arriving in Neverwinter. He is a self-proclaimed writer, mechanic, and general storyteller. He decides to join the party because he believes they're on a grand adventure.

While not very good in combat and deeply annoying as a character, Grobnar actually is a mechanical genius — he repairs the Construct and makes it functional.

He canonically died in the final battle, in a futile attempt to save the Construct from a falling pillar.

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• Butt-Monkey: Everyone in the party makes fun of him, short of Casavir, Zhjaeve, and Shandra. Only Shandra protests his treatment, and very weakly at that.
• Chaotic Good: In-universe. He's a complete kook who seems to wander the countryside before he joins your party, but he's also jolly, good-hearted, and very friendly to everyone he meets.
• Cloudcuckoolander: An absent-minded goofball prone to Comically Missing the Point who is searching for the Wendersnaven, a race that is apparently invisible and intangible and (as far as anyone else can tell) fictional.
• Genius Ditz: Believe it or not, he is a mechanical genius, as well as several other types of genius, and is capable of some surprising feats of engineering if he's with the party at the appropriate moments.
• Luke Nounverber: Although it's more like Luke Nounnouns.
• Omniglot: Based on the instance where he tries to translate "kalach-cha", we can infer that he speaks at least six languages, not counting Common.
• Our Gnomes Are Weirder: He's a rock gnome and a ditz in almost every sense of the word.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Bishop and Neeshka are better archers than him, while Qara, Sand, and Ammon Jerro are better spellcasters. However, if you yourself are a bard, you completely blow Grobnar out of the water in terms of musical and magical talent.
• The Pollyanna: Everything reminds him of a song. Even, apparently, getting crushed to death by rocks.
• Quirky Bard: Even by D&D bard standards, since his base stats are mediocre at best and his skillset leaves something to be desired.
• Stupid Sacrifice: He genuinely thought his three foot tall body could save the Construct from a story-high stone pillar. Long story short, it didn't.

Casavir

"I do not have faith in a city or a nation, but the people within it."

— Casavir

Voiced by: Paul Schoeffler

A paladin of Tyr who was formerly part of Neverwinter's paladin order, but left in frustration over the order's inability/unwillingness to help the commonfolk. Since then, he has taken it upon himself to protect the innocent, and has formed a tight-knit band of mercenaries to help him in this. He first meets the party when they're investigating orc activity in the region, and offers his help in this. After the orcs are routed, he decides to stay with the party.

Casavir is reserved and takes his duties as a paladin very seriously. He follows his code of conduct to the letter and holds himself to an extremely high standard that he admits he doesn't always meet. This inevitably puts him at odds with the openly selfish and ruthlessly pragmatic Bishop, not helped by the fact that they form something of a Love Triangle with a female Knight-Captain.

Mask of the Betrayer suggests that he died in the final battle of the original campaign, his back broken in an attempt to hold a door open to allow the party to escape. However, Storm of Zehir strongly implies that he managed to survive the Collapsing Lair, albeit severely wounded. His current whereabouts are unknown, but it is suggested that he has been captured by Luskan.

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• Courtly Love: Casavir's romance with the female PC comes off as this until the night before the final battle. (Dummied Out content reveals he's failed at this before, as he had a private affair with Ophala before public discovery disgraced him.)
• The Dreaded: The orcs call him Katalmach, an orc word referring to those who lose themselves in battle, and one orc calls him a blight upon their tribes.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Minor case with Neeshka claiming she's allergic to him ("His aura makes my skin itch!"). She notably doesn't make the same complaint if the Knight-Captain is a paladin, and it has no effect on gameplay.
• Good Is Old-Fashioned: Embodies the ideals of knightly duty, honor, and chivalry.
• The Generic Guy: Many players find him bland and a little cardboard compared to Bishop. Among those that do enjoy him, many cite his voice acting as an aspect that puts a very world-weary and forlorn spin on an otherwise rather archetypal Paladin.
• Heroic Sacrifice: According to Ammon Jerro in Mask of the Betrayer, he broke his back holding open a collapsing doorway for the party. Storm of Zehir implies that he survived and was captured and imprisoned by Luskan.
• Hiding Behind Religion: Or the Paladin Order. If Casavir confronts Bishop over his "intentions" for the female KC, Bishop counters that Casavir has the same base feelings for women that he does (alluding to Casavir's Dummied Out backstory), but while Bishop is at least honest about his intentions, Casavir hides his lust and jealousy behind a front of chivalry and "protecting her honor."
• Informed Attribute: The orcs he fought in Old Owl Well call him "Katalmach," which means "one who loses himself in battle." There is literally no evidence of this anywhere in the (canon) game.
• Hunter of Monsters: Has been hunting orcs for weeks when you meet him.
• Knight in Shining Armor: What he appears as at first. Talking to him reveals he's more of a Knight in Sour Armor.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He's bitter about his former order's inaction in problems around Neverwinter and focuses on doing practical good.
• Lawful Good: In-universe. Paladins aren't allowed to be anything else. Casavir pointedly leans on the Good half, though, as is explicitly required of paladin codes in the game rules (the Knight Templar portrayal they often get is a mistake).
  • In-universe, this is integral to Casavir's personal struggle: To Be Lawful or Good? As well as balancing obeying his paladin vows with his personal desires. (Especially in regards to women, like Ophala and the female KC.)
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His Starter Equipment is a warhammer, full plate armor, and a heavy shield.
• May–December Romance: He looks to be anywhere from ten to twenty years older than the female PC.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: If the PC is an Elf, Dwarf or any other race with an extremey long lifespan
• Noodle Incident: Casavir can confront Bishop over his "intentions" for the female PC, only for Bishop to turn it back around on him and imply this is not the first time Casavir's feelings for a woman left him confused. The player never learns what this is. (Cut content reveals Casavir was involved with Ophala, a popular courtesan, before public discovery ruined him.)
• "Not So Different" Remark: Bishop claims Casavir's feelings for the female PC are no more noble than his own; the only difference is Bishop is more honest about his lust for her.
• The Paladin: Of the Tyrran church. Unlike many paladins, Casavir places far higher importance on Good than on Law. For example, when his order declined to intervene in a spate of orc attacks on the settlements near Old Owl Well, Casavir said Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!, left Neverwinter and went to fight the orcs on his own. He wound up with a band of mercenaries with similar views.
• The Rival: Casavir and Bishop are a study in opposites, Lawful Good and faithful versus Chaotic Evil and Faithless, armored hammer-swinging knight versus master archer and woodsman, sworn to defend others and fight for justice versus misanthropic sociopath. This makes them natural opponents. They were also supposed to form a Love Triangle with the female Knight-Captain but Bishop's half didn't make the final cut despite hints of this still being there.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: As noted, he got fed up with Neverwinter's inaction and set out to do something himself.
• The Stoic: The facial animations in the game are limited, but even so Casavir clearly comes off as this. His voice is almost always level and even, and he never seems to lose his temper—Bishop's the only one who comes close to getting a rise out of him.
• You Need to Get Laid: Bishop all but states this if Casavir confronts him over his interest in the female KC, sneering that those holy vows have left him with so much "pent-up frustration" under that armor that he needs to "drink from a wench's cup" to loosen up.

Bishop

"If you aren't willing to kill for it, how important can it be?"

— Bishop

Voiced by: Asa Seigel and Dave Walsh (Mask of the Betrayer)

A black-hearted ranger that the party first meets in the Sunken Flagon. He is initially a typical, if very assholish patron, but after Shandra is kidnapped by Zeearie, Duncan convinces him to help the party track them down by calling upon an old deal they made. Reluctantly, Bishop agrees, and afterwards stays on with the party for his own reasons.

Bishop is an interesting look at what it means to be Chaotic Evil. He genuinely believes that the concept of civilization and culture is a total sham, and is convinced that everyone, even him, is just a rabid animal waiting to strike. He despises being ordered about, but will grudgingly admit he respects the Knight-Captain if your influence with him is high enough.

Ultimately, Bishop's beliefs and free spirit are his undoing. During the siege on Crossroad Keep by the King of Shadows' army, he betrays the party by sabotaging the keep's gates and allowing the undead entry. He later shows up at the site of the final battle. If your influence with him is low, he will assist Garius in the battle, and will attempt to take control of the Construct. If influence with him is high, the Captain can appeal to his hatred of being someone's servant, and he will agree to leave in peace.

No matter what path is taken, Bishop ultimately dies, either by the player's hand or by being crushed by the collapsing castle during his escape. He makes an appearance in Mask of the Betrayer in a dream, where it is revealed that he has been bound to the Wall of the Faithless. After giving some last few snide remarks to the Captain, he is fully absorbed into the Wall, but not before hand over a fragment of Akachi's mask.

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• All Girls Want Bad Boys: The female Knight-Captain can choose him over the more traditional and good-natured Casavir.
• And I Must Scream: Mask of the Betrayer reveals that his soul was sent to the Wall of the Faithless after his death. Subverted however in that, given his extreme nihilism, he finds being consumed by the Wall to be a peaceful experience.
• Apologetic Attacker: If you have high Influence with him, he'll genuinely apologize for betraying you—but he'll still attack (unless you can talk him out of it).
• At Least I Admit It: Said verbatim at one point.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Possibly with a female Knight-Captain, an artifact from when he was going to be romanceable.
• Chaotic Evil: In-universe. He places great emphasis on his personal freedom and refuses to be bound by authority. That can include that of the bad guys as well. Note that he seems to place emphasis on others' freedom/individuality - as seen when he tells Casavir not to stand up to him on the female Knight-Captain's behalf and let her defend her own honour. He is also deeply misanthropic, firmly convinced civilization is a sham and that everyone, especially himself, is only out for themselves. He also just revels in violence and bloodshed.
• Child Soldier: Implied to have been very young when conscripted into Luskan's military.
• Commitment Issues: He tells the female Player Character that getting tied down isn't his style. At high influence, this fuels his betrayal—he panics when he realizes he is getting tied to her and scrambles to cut it while he still can.
• Covered with Scars: They're not on his model, but his character description says he has a lot of old cuts and burns. This is important.
• The Cynic: By far the most dour member of your party and convinced that everyone, especially himself, is out for themselves and nobody else.
• Deadpan Snarker: Count yourself lucky to say anything in his presence without getting a sarcastic drawl in reply, usually followed by a quick, half-assed Breaking Speech aimed at just about anything in the immediate vicinity, and god help any companion who tries to intervene.
  Bishop: So the farm girl's going to join our band? Good. We need someone to make up for the paladin — or at least to catch arrows if Grobnar's already dead.
• Debt Detester: He hates Duncan for saving his life after he destroyed his home village; he would rather have died there. He also hates you, because Duncan called in the debt to get Bishop to follow you. More than anything, he hates being obligated to someone. Anyone. For any reason.
• Death Seeker: Can be inferred from some of his dialogue when relating his backstory. Much later, in the Wall of the Faithless, he'll mock you if you try to free him and claim that he's the only one there not desperate to escape. He's glad to face oblivion, scared only of the pain he'll suffer on the way.
  Bishop: To forget and be forgotten - that's paradise. It's getting there that's the hard part.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: One of his core principles. Bishop practically despises anyone who does not share this sentiment.
• Exact Words: Born a Harborman and conscripted by Luskans when young. They were grooming him to be a double-agent, and his last act before he made the grade was supposed to be choosing a remote village in Neverwinter and destroying it completely. He chose his own village, and then tried to warn its inhabitants of what he was about to do, but they ignored him, so he burned it to the ground with everyone trapped inside. Including his Luskan trainers and handlers, which his familiarity with his home let him locate.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As evil as he is, he openly hates Luskan.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Believes everyone must be as vicious and self-serving as he is deep down.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: And one breaking the setting rules, no less. Rangers are divine spellcasters, which the Forgotten Realms setting requires to have a patron deity. The loophole is that it's possible one of the gods has chosen to grant him spells anyway (Malar would be a likely candidate given his beliefs), but that falls flat in light of him ending up in the Wall of the Faithless after the original campaign.
• Foil: Arguably to Daeghun Farlong, the KC's foster father. They're both skilled archers, trackers, and hunters (rangers) who suffer trauma from their younger days. However, while Daeghun's makes him very cold but still heroic and well-intentioned, Bishop's left him hot-blooded and evil to the core. The female KC can also serve as a Morality Pet for them, though.
• Foreshadowing:
  • He's openly contemptuous of a small village you pass filled with villagers hiding from attacking githyanki, and openly sneers that they deserve to die if they won't defend themselves. This ties into his feelings about his home village, who refused to flee when he warned them he was about to burn it down and wound up burning them all alive.
  • On three separate occasions Casavir, Bishop's ex Malin, and a mind-reading succubus can all warn the player of his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. They weren't kidding.
  • His cryptic conversation with Grobnar about the Construct's capabilities hint at his true motives.
  • He's an Flat-Earth Atheist and the loading screen will sometimes mention the Wall of the Faithless. Guess where you'll meet him in Mask of the Betrayer.
• Freudian Excuse: Was kidnapped as a child, brought to Luskan, and trained as an assassin, whether he wanted it or not. On the other hand, he never tries to use it as a defense for his actions.
• Green-Eyed Monster: If the female Knight-Commander has higher influence with Casavir than him, it's very heavily implied his jealousy of their relationship fueled his betrayal.
• Gone Horribly Right: Luskan "conscripted" him young to be a skilled assassin, cunning strategist, and remorseless killer. They got exactly what they wanted.
  • Bishop chose a remote Neverwinter village to burn to the ground as part of his initiation. He chose his own village. He tried to warn them of their impending doom before hand, but they refused to leave.
• Hates Everyone Equally. Teeters between this and Politically Incorrect Villain. While he makes lewd, sexist, and racist comments to other characters, it's clear he despises everyone and just says the most degrading thing any given moment to get a rise out of people.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam:
  • In the original campaign, he switches sides during the Battle of Crossroad Keep, but if your influence with him is high enough in the final dungeon, you can talk him into quitting the King of Shadows' employ. He dies no matter what, however: if you don't kill him, the Collapsing Lair does, and he ends up in the Wall of the Faithless.
  • In Mask of the Betrayer, he warns you of approaching demons and gives you the last piece of the Mask, hinting that he's started reconsidering his "everyone for themselves" worldview, but he's absorbed into the Wall before it can do him any good.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Well, he used to work for Luskan, but grew to be so disgusted by them that he left their service and now actively hunts them down. Then he'll join you, but will betray you to the King of Shadows. If your influence is high enough, you can talk him into sort-of heel-face-turning by walking away from the fight with Garius. Finally, if you choose to side with the King of Shadows, he'll come back and help you kill your former comrades, which can be called either a face or a full heel. For goodness' sake, Bishop, just pick a side and stick with it!
• I Am What I Am: His reason for betraying you if you ask Et Tu, Brute?.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Admits it up front. It's potentially one of the reasons he gives for betraying you to the King of Shadows.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Hates being tied down to anyone or anything, in any way. (His past, his Luskan captors, his debt to Duncan... his growing emotional attachment to a player with high influence with him...)
• Jerkass: Constantly prone to rudeness, cruelty and apathetic disinterest when speaking.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Frequently. His remarks really do make a lot of sense from a purely pragmatic point of view, as his character quote shows.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: If you pinch real hard the remnants of his romantic dialogue can arguably come off as this, though "gold" may still be overstating it.
• Lack of Empathy: He has no sympathy for anyone in particular, but he really has it in for the village you pass through while rescuing Shandra, saying that if they aren't prepared to fight for their lives, they don't deserve to have them in the first place. Part of it is projected guilt over burning his own home village alive after they refused to flee when he tried to warn them about what was to come.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: If the female KC chooses Bishop over Casavir, their relationship has shades of this since he's an emotionally damaged ranger who specializes in archery, tracking, and hunting like her foster father. Not that anything comes of it.
• Love Cannot Overcome: No matter how high your female PC's influence with him is, no matter what you say or do, no matter the implication he's truly developing genuine feelings for you, the best case scenario is that his Commitment Issues make him cut and run. And then a temple falls on him, and then he gets absorbed into the Wall of the Faithless.
• Meaningful Name: Bishop means "overseer," and he's a skilled tracker who's spent most of his life overseeing terrain to hunt for food or track down enemies.
• Mistaken for Romance: Though his romance was cut in the final game, if a female PC returns to West Harbor with Bishop in her party, then Georg will think he's her lover. (Hilariously enough, Georg thinks this even if Casavir is in the party.)
  Georg Redfell: Hnh. Looks like you picked up an admirer. Well met there, boy. You sweep her off her seat from some seedy tavern, did you?
  Bishop: (Joking) Oh, yeah, she wasn't even conscious when we were married.
• Mr. Fanservice: Rugged, handsome, cheerfully (if also bitterly) snarky and with a deep, gravelly voice. He is well-remembered for this reason.
• My Country Tis of Thee That I Sting: Grew up in a poor swamp village much like yours, and is very vocal about how much he hated it. Some cut dialogue implies poverty, crime, and drunkards filled it.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Do the math and one realizes his stats are just a bit higher than what is actually possible in-game for a human character of his level. Maybe he rolled well? He also doesn't have a patron deity despite casting divine spells. He also easily talks circles around Casavir even though the latter has a much higher Charisma score.
• Never Be Hurt Again: A possible interpretation of his core philosophy and backstory. After being "conscripted" and groomed into a Child Soldier by Luskan, and then burning his own village alive after they refused to flee, Bishop developed his aggressive Social Darwinist outlook and his intense hatred of being tied down to avoid ever being enslaved or tortured again. It's easier to believe the world is filled with predators and prey to avoid being prey again, and to believe the weak deserve to die to avoid feeling guilt over the massacre of his home village.
• The Nicknamer: A very sarcastic and condenscending example. For instance, he addresses you as "Captain" in way that's interchangeable with "Idiot".
• The Not-Love Interest: For female PCs. Like Neeshka, he was planned as a love interest in opposition to Casavir, but his Romance Sidequest didn't make the final cut of the game. Also like Neeshka, his feelings are still openly there, making for a Love Triangle that never gets resolved in his favor (you can have higher influence with him, which does openly change dialogue, but there's never a Relationship Upgrade and Casavir will always be the one trying to woo you before the finale).
• "Not So Different" Remark: He often hints that the two of you are more similar than you think. You're both swamp-dwellers, for one.
  Bishop: You see, for every West Harbor that gives rise to someone like you... someone great... there's a hundred like me, that end up going down the other path.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Ammon Jerro's Haven, if the female KC fails a charisma check with an imprisoned succubus and gets insulted for it, Bishop will actually stand up for her (contrary to his usual "our leader can stand up for herself" shtick). This is immediately lampshaded and earns him a Hannibal Lecture.
  Hezebel: How long has it been since you defended a woman as you have now? Shown a kindness? [...] Tell your "lovely" friend, who does not even realize what it means for you to defend her, to journey with her, what it meant when this... "Duncan" saved you.
  • This, along with his offer to fight Lorne for you, were hints that he's truly starting to fall for and could be redeemed by the female KC, but, alas...
• Perma-Stubble: A bit blurry due to the quality of his model, but this is clearly still his intended facial hair affect. (It's definitely present in the concept art.)
• Pet the Dog:
  • Well, he tried to, at least. He warned the villagers of his hometown that he was going to burn it down to kill the Luskans with him, in an attempt to let them get away. They didn't listen.
  • He gets several more of these if the Player Character is female and has high influence, like offering to fight Lorne for her, standing up to a succubus who insults her, or telling her to stay on the walls where it's safe during his betrayal.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Occasionally makes very lewd, sexist, and/or racist comments to other characters, although he Hates Everyone Equally.
• Pretty Boy: Downplayed. Despite his rugged, grizzled exterior, his character model and especially concept art give him a boyish, almost androgynous look. (Most fan art tends to play up the rugged, grizzled, "manly" part, though.)
• Psychotic Smirk: Though NWN2's facial animations are pretty limited, you can practically hear it in his voice every time he says something degrading.
• The Rival: Casavir and Bishop are a study in opposites, Lawful Good and faithful versus Chaotic Evil and Faithless, armored hammer-swinging knight versus master archer and woodsman, sworn to defend others and fight for justice versus misanthropic sociopath. This makes them natural opponents. They were also supposed to form a Love Triangle with the female Knight-Captain but Bishop's half didn't make the final cut.
• Savage Wolves: His animal companion is a wolf called Karnwyr who shares his master's alignment.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He may decide to give Garius a verbal flip-off and walk away from the whole thing if he likes you enough.
• Self-Deprecation: While eager to pounce on the faults of others, Bishop isn't above barbs at his own expense.
  Knight Captain: Forgive him, Alaine, it takes a dog to hunt dogs.
  Bishop: That's the truth. Ah - I think I'll like this journey.
• Self-Made Man: He was trained in stealth by the Luskans, but became a tracker, archer and hunter (read: ranger) due to practicality, such as having to hunt for food. He taught himself these skills.
• Shadow Archetype: Regardless of the KC's alignment, Bishop (a fellow Harborman from a small swamp village like yours) is a more feral, aggressive, less functional version of what the KC could easily have become. Some cut dialogue reveals he's bitterly aware of it:
  Bishop: For every West Harbor that spawns a hero, there's one that makes a hundred brigands, killers, and cowards. And then there's me. Who knows what I would have been? Not me. But I've got you to show me what could have been.
• Social Darwinist: Openly believes the concept of civilization to be total bull and that only the ruthless survive.
• The Snark Knight: He holds just about everything in disdain, including himself, and always has some kind of sarcastic barb up his sleeve.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: His romance has him and the female PC play out something straight from a tragedy. Inevitably, he betrays her, dies, and then is absorbed into the Wall of the Faithless.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: He is ruggedly handsome and the source of many a bitingly sarcastic remark.
• There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Predators and prey, and even those who think themselves predators must always watch out lest they become someone else's prey.
• Token Evil Teammate: He's the only person who joins your party in the Original Campaign who is genuinely Evil-aligned. Khelgar, Elanee, Grobnar, Casavir and Shandra are all good guys; Neeshka, Qara and Sand are all pretty self-interested but not evil; Zhjaeve is technically Neutral-aligned but clearly means well; the Construct isn't sentient enough to have any kind of alignment. The only other Evil-aligned party member in the game is Ammon Jerro, who isn't quite Evil so much as knee-deep in good intentions, evil methods territory. As such, Bishop stands out like a sore thumb.
• True Love is Exceptional: The remnants of his Dummied Out romance have shades of this, but especially for good-aligned female KC's. He's a black-hearted ranger who can fall for a kind-hearted KC despite admitting he likes a woman who's "mean and sharp-tongued", but alas...
• Tsundere: Very, very Tsun-Tsun for the female Knight-Captain.
• Unwanted Assistance: He really doesn't like that Duncan helped him survive the burning of his hometown and holds it over his head as a debt.
• Where I Was Born and Razed: Burned his village to the ground to try and kill the Luskans with him.

Sand

"A hedge wizard, somehow set up a shop in the Docks, but it's telling enough he can only run a business down here in the crack of Neverwinter. Got a dry wit, and he'll always rub you the wrong way, so his name's well-chosen."

— innkeeper Duncan Farlong describing Sand

Voiced by: Fred Berman

A skilled, but somewhat haughty elven wizard that runs a magic shop in Neverwinter. He first appears when the Knight Captain tries to learn the secret of the shards, but Sand is unable to give much help aside from pointing them in the direction of someone who can help them. Later on, when Garius' henchmen accuse the Captain of slaughtering the town of Ember, Sand is chosen as their assistant and lawyer. Once the Ember Trials are resolved, he decides to assist the Captain in their quest.

Assuming Sand remains loyal to the cause during the final battle (depending on relative Influence, either he or Qara will join the King of Shadows), Sand canonically survives the final battle by transforming into an iron golem, rendering him impervious to the falling debris of the King of Shadows' lair.

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• Brandishment Bluff: If the Knight-Captain brings Qara for their first visit to his shop, Sand will grumble about her being there and Qara will threaten to burn down this shop, prompting Sand to casually bluff that the walls have magical wards that will drain her powers if she does. Qara hesitantly backs down. Sand then explains there are no such wards, which she would have known had she paid better attention in school.
• The Cameo: Makes an appearance at the Knight-Captain's wedding in some versions of the MotB epilogue.
• Deadpan Snarker: In a game filled with these, Sand stands head and shoulders above the rest. He'll even mouth off to the King of Shadows if he stays loyal.
  • His response after Duncan implies he's a petty hedge wizard: "You have no appreciation for my talents - and after all I've done for you. To think you could survive a fortnight without my ale purgative - why, you would be buried in the tombs with the rest of the Neverwinter traitors - a betrayer of barkeepers everywhere."
• Defector from Decadence: Left Luskan's Hosttower and now has to spend the rest of his life in hiding from them.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: He'll warm up to you if you make the effort.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Arrogant and acerbic though he may be, Sand is a genuinely brilliant and accomplished wizard, and his frustration of being kicked down the ladder (fired from the Academy, blacklisted from Blacklake) and his talents underappreciated by Neverwinter's elite can be understandable.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: His introduction scene doesn't quite square with how he acts later on. He has a much more casual (but just as snarky) speaking style, and has an "overdeveloped sense of smell" schtick that is never mentioned again.
• Everyone Has Standards: He once studied in the Arcane Brotherhood, despite knowing how awful their wizards can be. It eventually became too much for him, so he packed his gear and left.
• Face–Heel Turn: If your influence with him is lower than with Qara, he turns on you at the final battle, considering her a bigger potential threat than the King of Shadows.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It's implied that he's at least a somewhat jealous of Qara for being naturally gifted and powerful with magic, while he's had to work and study for it his whole life. Tellingly, his chosen field is Transmutation, meaning he tries to turn himself into powerful and fantastical creatures.
• Insufferable Genius: He's got a huge opinion about himself, but also has the skills, intelligence and wits to back it up.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Smug, snide, and acerbic though he may be, Sand is usually right about things. Lampshaded by Duncan, of all people.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He generally ends up doing the right thing, but only if he gets to insult people and moan about it first.
• Lawful Neutral: In-universe. An interesting take on the alignment, too.
  Sand: There are laws, and there is right and wrong. Although you may choose to live your life somewhere in between, I do not believe you are guilty of this [crime] and if [Luskan] should get a hold of you, you will be killed. I believe people should answer for their crimes, but it must be just.
• Maybe Ever After: Combined with a bit of Retcon. If the female player never romances anyone else all through NWN2 & MotB and tells Ammon-Jerro in MotB that they miss Sand, in the MotB epilogue it's possible to eventually reunite with him in the same end slide reserved for other love interests. This was almost certainly added following his unexpected Fan-Preferred Couple reception in the base game, with many players wanting him to be a love interest (along with Bishop) more than Casavir.
• Meaningful Name: It even gets a nod in-universe.
  Duncan: Got a dry wit, and he'll always rub you the wrong way, so his name's well-chosen.
• Pet the Dog: If the player honestly thanks him for representing them at their trial, he's genuinely touched and warmly returns the sentiment, saying he's happy to do this for you too. (Mostly to spite Luskan, but still...)
• Properly Paranoid: He believes Qara to be a potential threat. In dummied-out content, it's revealed that she really is holding back a a large part of her powers. And, you know ... she may end up siding with the King of Shadows. The later point is rendered moot, though, given that he himself will side with the King of Shadows if she doesn't.
• Really 700 Years Old: He's an elf end his appearance suggests that he has lived for a long time. He also states that he's at least some hundred years at one point.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Elves are generally shorter than humans and he's the only wizard companion in the official champaign.
• The Snark Knight: And one of the game's most prominent!
• Squishy Wizard: Serious artillery (and less prone to destroying loot chests than Qara), but keep him away from anything sharp. However, his school of specialization, Transmutation, specializes in buffs, and he can potentially armor himself well enough to compete with the group's tanks.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Well, short and snarky, but whatever.

Shandra Jerro

"Well, if it had been the Captain doing it, the cat would be lost, the tree burned down, and the old lady would be traveling with us now."

— Shandra remarking on the "adventures" of the Knight-Captain's self-appointed apprentices.

Voiced by: Rachel York

A simple farmgirl from just outside Highcliff, Shandra Jerro at first seems like just another NPC, until the githyanki abduct her to use her in the search for her grandfather's Haven. Having lost her farm thanks to getting caught up in the Knight-Captain's business, she joins up with the Knight-Captain's party as a fighter.

For a time she acts as a free extra party member , but during the assault on Ammon Jerro's Haven, she realizes that the man they have been chasing is in fact her grandfather, and that her blood is the key to undoing the spells that make Ammon Jerro nigh-invincible. After undoing the spells, he kills her in a fit of anger, not realizing who she was.

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• Action Girl: After Taking a Level in Badass she proves quite effective with a shortsword.
• Action Survivor: She is forced to become badass when it becomes clear to her that the world isn't going to let up on her.
• Badass Normal: As a human fighter, she has no spells or supernatural powers, but still proves quite capable in combat.
• Chekhov's Gunman: You meet her very briefly in a small quest near the beginning of the game, then promptly forget about her. Learning that she's Ammon Jerro's granddaughter comes as a shock, to say the least. She also has a pivotal role in your trial. Lampshaded when you learn of her significance:
  Neeshka: Shandra Jerro? You mean the girl with the flammable barn?
• Deal with the Devil: Makes one to save the party.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Initially, she's rude to the PC because she blames them for the loss of her home and her farm. If they apologize, she will as well, and becomes steadily warmer so long as they keep her influence high (not a difficult task). She's even one of the few who will ask about them and their life!
• Dual Wielding: She has the Two-Weapon Fighting line of feats, and her default weapon loadout consists of two shortswords.
• Farm Girl: When you first meet her, she's just a ordinary farmer with no skill in combat.
• Had to Be Sharp: She wants no part of adventuring, it's just that terrible things keep happening to her. It was toughen up or die.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Spills large amounts of her own blood to sabotage Ammon Jerro's fiend bindings, and is slain by him in retribution.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Despite her sometimes world-weary manner, Shandra ultimately holds close to her ideals and hopes to find such devotion in others as well.
• Loved by All: Not quite all, but Shandra is the most well-liked member of the party, having no stand-out rivalries like Khelgar-Neeshka, Qara-Sand, or Casavir-Bishop. The only conflicts that might arise are jealousy-inspired ones if the PC is male. And Elanee and Neeshka will still be upset by her death. Heck, even Bishop seems angry about it.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Her final words include telling Ammon Jerro that he is her grandfather (possibly give or take a few generations).
• Naïve Newcomer: Naïve in the sense that she doesn't quite know how to be an adventurer. When you approach her the first time after she joins the party, the first words out of her mouth are "Did I do something wrong?"
• Neutral Good: In-universe. She's simply a good-hearted farm girl trying to survive in the Forgotten Realms. Then she sacrifices her life and probably her afterlife to save the world.
• Only Sane Man: By far the most normal member of your party. Most of them seem quite fond of her.
• Plotline Death: As above.
• Plucky Girl: She loses her farm and her house, and what does she do? She takes a level in badass and becomes a mercenary.
• Rasputinian Death: Already dizzy from loss of blood, she's impaled with an ice spike, set on fire, and blasted apart by eldritch magic.
• Ship Tease: She has quite a bit with a male PC.
• Sixth Ranger: While the maximum party size is normally four, she acts as a mandatory fifth party member in chapter II.
• Took a Level in Badass: Literally. Starts out as a repeatedly Damsel in Distress, then turns into a shortsword-wielding Badass Normal.
• Tsundere: Type A. Grobnar will inadvertently reveal that she was really worried for you during the duel with Lorne. If you ask her about it, she vehemently denies it.
• Unkempt Beauty: Her biography and a NPC painter describe her as this.

Zhjaeve

"Know that I am Zhjaeve, one who carries the knowing Circle of Zerthimon in mind and hand. Know that I aid the Kalach-Cha in shielding your community from the doom that comes."

— Zhjaeve introduces herself

Voiced by: Lisa Emery

A githzerai cleric and zerth that was imprisoned in Crossroad Keep while it was under Garius' control. She is one of the only people who truly knows what is happening, and helps the Knight Captain learn about the King Shadows, its origins, and how it can be stopped.

Whether or not she survived the destruction of the King of Shadows' lair is completely unknown. Not even Ammon Jerro knows what happened to her.

It's commonly theorized that her lack of a patron deity indicates she's actually a psion, not a cleric. Or that since she's part of the Circle of Zerthimon, she worships the githzerai god-king.

---

• Demoted to Extra: She's a big part of the latter half of Act 2, where she helps the KC acquire their Infinity +1 Sword and perform the Illefarn rituals necessary to defeat the King of Shadows. By Act 3, her only meaningful contribution to the plot is that she can recite the True Names of the Shadow Reavers to destroy them — and even then, that crucial responsibility can be off-loaded to Ammon Jerro, thus reducing her to an extra healer/divine caster for your party.
• The Generic Girl: She has knowledge necessary to advance the plot, but besides that she generally has no standout character traits besides her Verbal Tic.
• Informed Equipment: She sticks with her default look no matter what type of armor you give her.
• Lawful Neutral: Her in-universe alignment. The githzerai mostly hold themselves aloof from the concerns of other races and even other planes, but also require much mental discipline just to survive their home plane of Limbo.
• Ms. Exposition: She's there to fill in the gaps in the story that no one else is in a position to fill.
• Never Found the Body: Ammon Jerro has no idea what happened to her. Lore-minded fans have noted that high-level githzerai can plane-shift once per day, so it's entirely possible that, quest completed, she returned home to Limbo.
• Pardon My Klingon: She uses "illithid" as a curse. Given her people's history with the mind flayers, this is an appropriate use of the word and a pretty grievous insult.
• Religion is Magic: Although her class is listed as cleric, she mentions that githzerai don't have conventional clerics, and her role as a zerth simply approximates to a priest class.
• Slave Race: Her people, the githzerai, were once slaves of the illithid. The reason it's being mentioned is that she's clearly still got a sore spot about it, see Pardon My Klingon above. This is also the reason she doesn't have a patron deity — githzerai don't take them because it reminds them too much of their slavery.
• The Smart Guy: She has a very high Wisdom score and serves as
• Stripperiffic: Borderline example since according to sourcebooks githzerai traditionally rely more on agility than armor anyway.
• Support Party Member: Clerics may have a reputation as excellent melee fighters, but that's not how Zhjaeve is built. She has 20 Wisdom but only 10 Strength. Needless to say, she's better off sticking with casting unless you can find a Strength boosting item for her.
• Verbal Tic: Know that like a certain other Githzerai, Zhjaeve puts emphasis on words relating to knowing and will. Know that she begins pretty much every sentence with the word know. Know that you will get tired of this. Know that she doesn't care.

Ammon Jerro

"Ammon Jerro? Oh, he was a court wizard of Neverwinter decades ago."

— Aldanon's woefully inadequate description of Jerro

Voiced by: Murphy Guyer

A former court wizard of Neverwinter, Ammon Jerro first became aware of the King of Shadows twenty years before the story starts. He tried to warn people about the threat that it posed, but to no avail. Unwilling to let the threat grow unchecked, he vowed to stop the King of Shadows... no matter what.

In a climatic battle twenty years before the story begins, Ammon Jerro battled the King of Shadows in West Harbor at the head of an army of demons, and wielding the Silver Sword of Gith. While his demons fought the undead, he dueled the King of Shadows. He managed to win, but the explosion of power released by the King of Shadows' death throes shattered the Silver Sword and sent Ammon Jerro to Hell.

Having made his way back to the Prime Material Plane, Ammon Jerro again plans to fight the King of Shadows by seeking out the shards of the Silver Sword, and binding demons to his will. The party encounters some of his demons and manages to track down his Haven thanks to his granddaughter, Shandra. When the party and he finally face off, he kills his granddaughter in a rage at her unbinding his demons. After realizing his mistake, Ammon Jerro agrees to join the party to defeat the King of Shadows. If the player character's influence with Shandra was high enough, it is possible to make Ammon Jerro admit that his methods of combating the King of Shadows were flawed, and beg Shandra's forgiveness.

Ammon Jerro survives the end of the original campaign, and potentially has a minor role in Mask of the Betrayer. The party encounters his body at the Academy of Shapers and Binders, and with a bit of clever dealing can recover his soul and restore him. He explains that he managed to follow the player character during his/her kidnapping, and is the one to provide details about the fates of your companions from the OC. He joins the player for a small amount of time in chapter two, and also sends demonic reinforcements to aid the player in the final chapter of the expansion.

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• Arson, Murder, and Admiration: He admits he admires the man who became the King of Shadows, due to his willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his homeland. He's still going to stop him, though. His choice of words may imply he sees some similarities between them.
  Ammon Jerro: There is a certain... sympathy... I have for such a man. Someone willing to make that choice. [...] He cast aside his people, his ties to his family, and ended up suffering for it while trying to protect them. Such motivation is not hard to understand.
• Bald Mystic: Ammon Jerro, a warlock, trained with the Red Wizards of Thay while gathering knowledge to defeat the King of Shadows and has their customary tattooed scalp, choosing to wear the bald look with a Beard of Evil.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: If you don't state it outright, someone else will. You learned the first four parts of the Rituals of Cleansing necessary to fight the King of Shadows and his army, he gained the fifth and you can't obtain it yourself because the statue necessary to gain it was broken by a Shadow Reaver; as he wryly notes, you need each other to fight the King of Shadows at full strength.
• Cassandra Truth: He tried to warn Neverwinter about the threat posed by the King of Shadows. They didn't listen to him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: During your fight at Haven, cutscene dialogue implies he's handing your party's asses to you. The real fight isn't nearly as hard.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: He's unstoppable in cutscenes (in part due to his demonic army and the Reality Warper powers of his Haven), but the Warlock character class mechanically isn't very strong. Zhjaeve, a cleric and the other character capable of the I Know Your True Name trick against the shadow reavers, is far more destructive.
• Deal with the Devil: Many bargains struck with devils and demons, as well as binding them and siphoning their power directly.
• Demoted to Extra: Reduced to an unvoiced NPC in Mask of the Betrayer, due to his voice actor not being able to come back for the sequel.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He had a family before he became a warlock, which seems to have been part of his initial motivation to stop the King of Shadows. He claims that all his kin have died out in the years before his return. As it turns out, he's not entirely correct... initially...
• Even Evil Has Standards: Hates the King of Shadows so much, he's one of the few characters guaranteed to stay with you, no matter how little influence you have.
• Evil Versus Evil: His quarrel with the King of Shadows is this taken up a notch. He has a more even-split conflict with the Githyanki as well.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: The King of Shadows poses a grievous threat to the Sword Coast, and everything Jerro has done, he has done to stop him.
• Fallen Hero: He was apparently a much better man before becoming a warlock.
• He Who Fights Monsters: After realizing that no one took his warnings about the King of Shadows seriously, he decided to act on his own. In order to combat the horde of undead under the thrall of the King of Shadows, he turned to the infernal powers for an army of his own.
• I Did What I Had to Do: If you confront Ammon Jerro about all the evil he's unleashed in his war against the Big Bad, he's wholly unrepentant unless you had high influence with Shandra, in which case you can make him realise his mistakes.
• I'm Going to Hell for This: He tells the player that although they don't get to kill him, they can rest assured he has bigger problems to worry about — like all the bad karma he's built up and all the demons and devils out for his blood.
• Informed Equipment: You can equip him with armor other than his starting set, but his appearance will not change.
• I've Come Too Far: On several occasions he states this is why he's still fighting. If he ever backs down and stops fighting, the King of Shadows will more than likely destroy Neverwinter and pose a grave threat to the entire Sword Coast... but it will also mean that Ammon Jerro has given in, and everything he did will have been for nothing. He will never allow it.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: As noted, he is merely delaying the inevitable backlash he will incur for all his misdeeds.
  Ammon Jerro: Whatever punishments you think I deserve, I will suffer a thousand-fold — well beyond anything your small mind can imagine.
• Karmic Jackpot: If you convince him of the wrongness of his actions, he apologises to Shandra for killing her and begs for her forgiveness. In return, he gains a magical amulet she left behind.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction to killing Shandra — even if you don't persuade him he was wrong, he is sad she died by his hand and wishes he could have gotten to know her.
• Neutral Evil: In-universe. Whatever kindness or good intentions he had have long ago dwindled, leaving a desire for power and an ego that refuses to be defeated; whatever depravity he must commit or beneficence he must sacrifice, if he believes it will get him closer to winning, he will do it. It creates a curious kind of loyalty. No matter what Ammon will refuse to betray you to the King of Shadows, no matter how little influence you have.
• Older Than They Look: His age is indeterminate but he's at least old enough to be the thirty-something Shandra Jerro's grandfather. Or great-grandfather, or great-great-grandfather; Shandra apparently isn't sure. Likely justifications are that, a) mages have a tendency to live longer than regular humans anyway, and b) lots and lots of contact with other planes where time can be a little weird.
• Power Tattoo: He got his while studying with the Red Wizards of Thay. Although this does not explain why they glow.
• Reality Warper: Only within his Haven, thanks to the vast amounts of enchantments on the place that are keyed to his bloodline.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: His rejection of Black Garius' offer of joining forces with the King of Shadows is pretty damn awesome.
  Ammon Jerro: You could promise all that and more, Garius. But for all your empty promises, I have seen the one I follow accomplish so much more. And Garius, for mentioning Shandra to me, I shall enjoy watching you die.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everything he's done, he's done to protect Neverwinter and the world at large from the King of Shadows, who has the power and resources at his disposal to destroy the city if not stopped.

The Construct

"Oh my, this is a marvelously constructed... er... construct. To think of the enchantments that must have been inscribed on its core... fascinating!"

— Grobnar squeeing

A Blade Golem that was sent by Garius' followers to dispose of the party while they were investigating Githyanki activity in Neverwinter. The party manages to drive it off, severely damaging it in the process, and later come across it during the assault on Zeearie's lair. Grobnar, fascinated with the machine, convinces the Knight Captain to confiscate it in hopes of repairing it. Once Crossroad Keep is reclaimed from the Shadow Priests, and after a rather lengthy sidequest, Grobnar is able to repair the construct and make it better than ever.

In the final battle, if Bishop fights alongside Garius and Grobnar's influence is low, Bishop will sabotage the Construct, making it turn against the party. With a high enough influence however, Grobnar reveals that he found a way around that.

Canonically, the Construct was destroyed in the final battle when both it and Grobnar were crushed by a fallen pillar.

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• Blade Below the Shoulder: Of the blade-instead-of-forearm variety.
• Dumb Muscle: Although the Construct is mute, it's got an Intelligence of 13. It's just as smart as Elanee, and smarter than Shandra, Khelgar, Qara, Bishop, Casavir, and even Grobnar. Admittedly, this is mostly so it can take Combat Expertise.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: It is probably the last party member the player will acquire without outside help, and joins at the turn of the tide.
• Golem: A metal variety, complete with attached weaponry.
• Optional Party Member: Reactivating it requires a series of sidequests.
• Team Pet
• True Neutral: In-universe. It's a barely sentient suit of armor, so it can't really be anything else.

Non-Party Characters

Daeghun Farlong

Voiced by: Jim Murtaugh

Your foster father, who has raised you since you were a baby. He's cold, haughty, and not very fatherly.

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• Abusive Parents: Emotionally distant, often absent, and at times outright neglectful.
• And I Must Scream: The evil ending leaves Daeghun killed and raised several times for the player's amusement, before finally being killed and stuffed into a pillar with his mouth left open at the surface, silently screaming in eternal agony.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The good epilogue of the main campaign has him refusing to believe you're dead and setting out to search for you. In the good epilogue of Mask of the Betrayer, the two of you have a happy reunion.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: In keeping with the game's examination of heroes, Daeghun exists to show the long-term emotional consequences of adventuring. Years of going on daring adventures slowly picked off his friends over time, and years of watching his friends die one by one weathered his emotional well-being and led to the cold, distant, emotionally reserved man that raised you.
• Foil: One could consider him one to Gorion from Baldur's Gate. Each is the foster father of the player's character, a skilled former adventurer and Retired Badass who knew the player's mother. However, while Gorion is always gentle and affectionate to the player and succumbs to Mentor Occupational Hazard right at the beginning, Daeghun lives on, but is aloof and emotionally distant, addressing even the player in a cold and professional manner.
• Heartbroken Badass: After years of adventuring, one day he realized that of their original party, only he and Esmerelle remained. Weary of death, he decided to settle down in West Harbor with his wife Shayla. Then she and Esmerelle died during the King of Shadows' assault on West Harbor, and he never really got over it.
• Hope Spot: After years of watching his friends die one by one, Daeghun retired from adventuring to settle down with his wife Shayla. Soon they were joined by his heavily pregnant friend Esmerelle. Over time he forgot his grief and became content... Then the battle of West Harbor came and killed them both.
• Ice King: Even to you!
• Interspecies Romance: If the locket bearing the sigil of a halfling goddess in his trunk is any indication, it's strongly implied that wood elf Daeghun's late wife Shayla was a halfling. (Which could help explain why they were unable to bear children.)
• Irony: Cut content reveals that Esmerelle asked Daeghun's wife Shayla to look after you if she ever died or went back on the road, since she didn't think Daeghun would make a very good father. Ironically, Daeghun ended up fulfilling his late wife's promise to raise you.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a hero with the best of intentions, but he is often rude and condescending, and frequently inconsiderate of others' feelings.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: He and his wife Shayla wanted children but couldn't, while the PC's single mother Esmerelle got knocked up despite being unable to settle down.
• The Lost Lenore: The death of his wife Shayla haunts him to this day, and is a huge part of why he's such an emotionally distant and neglectful father figure. (Though you're the child of his friend Esmerelle, both she and Shayla died trying to save you during the battle of West Harbor, so you're a living reminder of all he lost.)
• No Sense of Humor: You yourself can Lampshade this during the prologue.
• No Social Skills: Not even to you. This is also why he sends you to deal with the merchant in the prologue and Neverwinter to uncover the mystery of the shard in Chapter 1, since you were raised in a human village and thus understand their ways better than he ever could.
• The Not-Love Interest: To the KC's mother, Esmerelle. They were close friends and adventure buddies, but were never romantically involved. Daeghun married a mutual friend named Shayla, and Esmerelle got pregnant by an unknown man the player never meets or learns anything about. Daeghun is, for all intents and purposes, the closest thing to a father you've ever had despite never being romantically involved with your mother.
• Raised by Wolves: Raised by wild elves, which are so insular and feral compared to most races that Daeghun is really not good with people.
• Retired Badass: He used to be an adventurer. He has since settled down in West Harbor, but maintains his formidable archery skills.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: He's the exact opposite of his brother Duncan.
• The Stoic: Neither his face nor voice betray much emotion.
• Tell Me About My Mother: Trying to get Daeghun to talk about Esmerelle is like trying to pull teeth from a stone statue, much to the KC's potential frustration.
• This Is Unforgivable!: He's not happy to meet Ammon Jerro in the field because Ammon's demon army laid waste to West Harbour during the events of Act II.
• True Neutral: His In-Universe alignment (it's in the game files but not mentioned in-game).

Duncan Farlong

"Well now, if it isn't my Harborman kin! What can Uncle Duncan do for you?"

Voiced by: Steven Scott

Daeghun's half-brother, an innkeeper in Neverwinter. He allows you and your companions to stay at the Sunken Flagon for free during your adventures.

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• The Alcoholic: Sand claims he's one, though it's thankfully never seen.
• Cool Uncle: A Retired Badass like Daeghun who's also friendly, helpful and lets you and your friends stay in his inn rent-free.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Downplayed. Like Daeghun, Duncan demonstrates some long-term negative emotional repercussions of adventuring. But while Daeghun's grief led to him becoming an Ice King, Ducan's led to him becoming The Alcoholic.
• Good Is Not Soft: Managed to strong-arm both the Chaotic Evil Social Darwinist Bishop and Smug Super Qara into honoring their debts to him, which they wouldn't tolerate for anyone else. He may be friendly, but he's no push-over.
• Hot-Blooded: His character bio explicitly states him to be "expressive and passionate".
• Informed Attribute: Duncan's supposedly an alcoholic and the Sunken Flagon a really seedy place, though thankfully neither are really shown. Duncan is warm and friendly to you, and the Flagon looks pretty decent. (It only really has Bishop hanging around to give you an idea of what kind of place it is.)
• Mood-Swinger: Can go from very friendly to shouting angry very quickly.
  Shandra: Well, the innkeeper certainly runs hot and cold.
• Noodle Incident: Something happened between him and Bishop that led to the latter owing Duncan a favor, which he uses to force Bishop to join the party, but neither will elaborate. It turns out he saved Bishop's life after the Where I Was Born and Razed incident. Bishop really, really, really despises him for it.
• Papa Wolf: You may be his estranged half-brother's foster child, but Duncan immediately welcomes you as kin and is as fiercely protective of you as if you were his own.
  • When you first meet Qara, Duncan is furious with her for setting fire to his tavern mostly for putting you in danger.
  • It's implied he held Bishop's debt over his head for years, but when Shandra is taken to Luskan territory and you need to go after her, Duncan doesn't even hesitate to call in that debt to make Bishop help you.
• Retired Badass: He's left the adventuring life behind him to keep an inn.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Just compare his tropes to Daeghun's.
• Tell Me About My Mother: Duncan's more willing to talk about Esmerelle than Daeghun, though he feels awkward about it since he feels Daeghun should be the one to tell you, not him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Implied to have this sort of relationship with Sand. They trade insults all the time, but Ducan trusts Sand at the end of the day.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: You can't invite him back to your keep, and no mention of him is made in the game's epilogue.
• You Owe Me: Keeps Bishop on a leash by holding some debt from years ago over his head. Duncan saved his life after witnessing him burn his own village down, and implicitly threatens to report him if he strays too far out of line. Bishop detests him for it.

Lord Nasher Alagondar

Voiced by: Gregg Martin

A former adventurer and the ruler of the city-state of Neverwinter.

For tropes which apply to him in Neverwinter Nights, see here.

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• Big Good: Reprises his role as such from the original Neverwinter Nights.
• Character Development: From the first game. While in the first game he was willing to execute an innocent man to appease Neverwinter's rioting masses, this game he seems to have learned his lesson and goes to bat for you to keep you from being wrongfully executed, even if it risks war with Luskan.
• The Good King: Though technically the ruling lord of a city-state rather than a literal king, he fulfills this role in Neverwinter. He cares deeply about his people and is no slouch in either statecraft or battle.
• Idiot Ball:
  • After the war in the previous game, one clause of the peace treaty allowed Luskan to extradite anyone they consider a criminal from Neverwinter. He regrets signing it when the PC is framed for murder.
  • Minor case in Storm of Zehir. Making Khelgar Ironfist a member of the Neverwinter Nine? No problem. But putting him in charge of Crossroad Keep? Surely there were more politically adept candidates. The Knight-Captain's seneschal Kana, for instance, or maybe Sir Neville. Khelgar himself notes that it was a bad idea.
• Lawful Good: In-universe. Not mentioned in-game but this is his alignment according to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. In-game he's a Reasonable Authority Figure who wishes to rule well and keeps his people's best interests in mind, but rules by law rather than by decree and follows said law even when inconvenient.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Doesn't believe Luskan's claim that the KC destroyed Ember for one second, arranges for them to be squired so they can have a chance at a fair trial within Neverwinter, and basically does everything in his power to ensure they receive said fair trial, regardless of the KC's alignment or criminal record. (You can be a Chaotic Evil member of a Docks gang and he'll still go to bat for you.)
• Retired Badass: Used to be a member of the Northern Four Adventuring Troupe before he became ruler of Neverwinter. The Troupe's history is detailed in the in-game book of the same name.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: In addition to laying various intrigues and magical preparations against invasion by Neverwinter's northern rival Luskan, he personally leads Neverwinter's main army in the Battle of Highcliff in Act III, and is badly wounded in the process.

Aldanon

Voiced by: Milton James

A wizard who lives in the Blacklake District. He has an eccentric demeanour that hides a considerable knowledge of the world around him. Getting into the Blacklake District to talk to him about the shards they carry forms the crux of Act 1's storyline after the player reaches Neverwinter. Later he comes back as a major supporting player and ally of the player.

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• Absent-Minded Professor: He's an undeniably brilliant and knowledgeable man, but he's prone to going off on tangents and appears to have some memory issues.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He seems to suffer from this around books.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He only has a very small role in Act I, which is consigned to exposition and comic relief. He comes back later during Acts II and III, where he becomes a Distressed Dude, joins the Knight-Captain at Crossroad Keep, correctly determines the location of Ammon Jerro's Haven and is able to read and discover the secrets of the Tome of Iltkazar. During the grand finale, he casts a powerful teleportation spell that transports your entire party into The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's completely oblivious to Luskan's attempts to use him to get into Ammon Jerro's Haven, and once he's kidnapped he doesn't even realise that's what happened.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: As barmy as he is a lot of the time, he is still a smart guy and a lot of the things he says are correct, useful and helpful.
  Aldanon: Well, no good comes from tinkering around with ancient powers... all this ritual nonsense doesn't sound very wise.
• Crazy-Prepared: After his mansion wound up in the Blacklake District following the rebuilding of Neverwinter after the war from the first game, he found there were a lot of people who wanted his home. Since then he has taken to putting wards up at the entrance to his home to keep them out and magical traps around the interior to deter thieves.
• Distressed Dude: Around the middle of Act II, when Garius kidnaps him to help with his plans at Crossroad Keep.
• Ditzy Genius: Intelligent enough to figure out the nature of the shards you carry (for reference, Sand cannot) and possessed of a great deal of knowledge regarding the githyanki, but also rather prone to distraction, forgetfulness and general bumbling.
• Ignored Expert: If you can believe it. He tried to warn Black Garius that his ritual to harness the King of Shadows' power was a dumb idea that wouldn't work the way he wanted it to; Garius ignored him and look what happened.
• Money Is Not Power: Remarks that people trying to get his house offered him exorbitant sums of money, all of which he turned down because he had no use for such things.
• Mystical White Hair: Adds to his old wizardly look.
• Neutral Good: His In-universe alignment, although it can only be seen using the editor.
• Non-Action Guy: He's a feeble old man, for starters, and while he is a wizard he specialises in the school of Divination, which is primarily concerned with teleportation magic, long-distance reconnaissance and information-gathering. Unsurprisingly, he has to resort to indirect means to protect himself such as magic wards outside his home. Still, his chosen field of expertise does make him the ideal candidate to discover things that no-one else can, and eventually he is able to send you and your more battle-ready casters into the heart of the King of Shadows' domain.

Kistrel the Spider

A large spider with an unusual coloration and disposition for its kind. Encountered deep underground near Ember, a kindly Kalach-Cha can befriend it under the right circumstances.

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• All of the Other Reindeer: Describes itself as an outcast among its kind, presumably for its gentle nature.
• Androcles' Lion: Completing its sidequest earns you its gratitude and gives you the option to adopt it as your pet.
• Badass Cape: If you befriend it, it will make one for you using its magic silk. It's a nifty one too, granting the user Freedom of Movement and minor Spell Resistance.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Remain nice to it all the way through and it will eventually thank you for your kindness by weaving you a cloak from its own silk.
• Blue Is Heroic: It has an overall blue colour scheme and is the only NPC spider in the game that's ever friendly to you.
• Gentle Giant: It doesn't want to fight you and will happily be your friend if you let it.
• Giant Spider: Try to fight it instead of befriending it and you'll learn quickly that it's still a giant, fearsome arachnid.
• It Can Think: It's smarter than you'd think, if still an animal by nature.

The King of Shadows

Voiced by: Adam Sietz

An ancient being of pure magic and a contender for the worst threat the Sword Coast has ever known.

In the ruins of an Illefarn city, you learn that he was once human, a great hero and patriot who sacrificed himself in an arcane ritual to create a Guardian to protect Illefarn from invasion by Netheril, becoming a Pure Magic Being who drew his power directly from the Weave. When the Netherese archmage Karsus tried to usurp Mystryl as deity of magic, his power source was interrupted, forcing him into the Sadistic Choice of either dying, in which case he could no longer protect Illefarn, or drawing power from Shar's Shadow Weave. He chose the latter. Illefarn tried and failed to destroy him repeatedly, but their final attempt, hiring the great wyrm Nolalothcaragascint, succeeded in damaging him badly enough he was forced to retreat to the Astral Plane.

According to Mask of the Betrayer, he was canonically destroyed by the Knight-Captain—which admittedly is a bit of a Foregone Conclusion since the endings where this doesn't happen don't allow the expansion to actually take place.

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• Absurdly Dedicated Worker: His job is to destroy enemies of the Illefarn Empire. He continues to try to carry out that function a couple thousand years after Illefarn has fallen, partly because of him.
• Beard of Evil: Either this or Fangs Are Evil, depending on what you interpret the white vertical lines on the bottom half of his mask to be.
• Big Bad: Of NWN2.
• Black-and-White Insanity: His job is to destroy enemies of the Illefarn Empire. Attempting to attack him, a guardian of that empire, means you are an enemy. An awful lot of entities wind up attacking him for silly reasons like his very presence being inimical to life. Just about all of them, in fact. Solution: destroy the world. Subverted if you take him up on his We Can Rule Together offer and he wins; he claims the former heartlands of the Illefarn empire (which is basically the Mere and everything north as far as Crossroads Keep) and then just sits there guarding it with his undead army. He never actually planned to do more than that; the idea he would destroy the world was based on speculation that he would want to kill everyone descended from Netheril and it turns out that he doesn't really care about them one way or the other.
• Black Magic: When the 12th level spell Karsus' avatar interrupted the Weave, the Guardian was faced with the Sadistic Choice of either death (in which case he could no longer protect Illefarn), or changing his power source to the Shadow Weave and taking on the corruption that would entail. He chose the latter and became the King of Shadows.
• Casting a Shadow: He's not called "The King of Shadows" for nothing.
• The Corruption: He is implied to be one of the reasons the Mere of Dead Men is full of undead (the other being that part of Myrkul's essence ended up there after Mystra killed him). He also drives the senior members of the Mere's druid circle insane.
• Dark Is Evil: Naturally.
• The Empath: Has the power to sense your feelings and motivations.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The King's original name is lost to the ages. Even the ghosts in the Illefarn ruins don't remember; one of them mentions this was done deliberately as part of the ritual.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Garius plans to steal his power and usurp him, but beings like the King of Shadows are not mocked. The ritual was designed from the beginning to make him and his followers into The Undead; after it was botched, Garius and his followers died and were brought back as the Shadow Reavers.
• Flaw Exploitation: Dialogue from his followers suggests this is how he convinces mortals to serve him; it's outright stated that he lured Black Garius to become his dragon by playing on his ambition and greed. This and his status as The Empath are likely the reason he makes a We Can Rule Together offer to an evil PC and only an evil PC — he's playing on their lust for power, and knows a good or neutral PC doesn't have sufficient character flaws for him to exploit.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Once he was a patriot of the Illefarn Empire, an ordinary man with a girlfriend who lived an unremarkable life. After that, he became a guardian for his beloved empire, with no ambition or desire save to continue protecting and serving it. Now, he is the commander of an army of shadow-infused undead who poses a threat to everyone around him.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Became exactly the kind of evil he originally wanted to protect his empire from.
• Humanoid Abomination: Resembles a large man made of pure blackness.
• If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: If the player accepts a place at his side, their first task as his new general is to slaughter their party members, turning their True Companions into a Quirky Miniboss Squad. Afterwards, the King raises them from the dead to serve as the player's followers in evil.
• Lawful Evil: In-universe. He'll uphold his directive of "protecting" the Illefarn Empire and its descendants by any means necessary, even if it means manipulating, conquering, killing, and blighting out all life in the region to do so.
• Me's a Crowd: During his fight he possesses the statues surrounding his arena and spawns clones of himself less than a quarter of his true height.
• Noble Demon: He still acts to protect the Illefarn Empire, years after its destruction. All his misdeeds are done in their name.
• Physical God: His battle with Nolaloth, a planar-travelling crystalline dragon of godlike power, is said to have 'spanned the planes' and inflicted untold destruction on the entirety of the Sword Coast. When you meet Nolaloth himself, he describes the King as 'a Power'. In the end, it takes nothing less than an ancient ritual specifically designed to reverse the processes that created him in the first place along with the weapon of the Githyanki's own demigoddess to destroy him.
• Pure Magic Being: All that's left of him.
• Still Fighting the Civil War: This, as it turns out, is his motivation: he was created to protect Illefarn. Illefarn hasn't been a functioning kingdom for well over a thousand years by the time the story takes place, but he's still determined to try to keep its borders clean of outsiders... which is everything.
• Tragic Villain: There is a very sad story behind the King of Shadows, made all the sadder for it being almost completely forgotten.
• The Undead: His armies are largely comprised of these, because his essence and powers sap the life force from mortals, which isn't a problem for skeletons, zombies and suchlike. Given that the Mere of Dead Men has ample dead bodies to offer him, he has a large renewable source of manpower too.
• Walking Wasteland/Enemy to All Living Things: He drains the life-force of whatever he approaches or approaches him, be it animal, plant, spirit, flesh, or otherwise. Thus, his servants tend to be undead, though he makes use of mortal agents as well.
• We Can Rule Together: If the Knight Captain is evil, he will offer him/her a place at his side, taking Garius' place as the leader of his armies. The player can still reject it, of course.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The King of Shadows was, and still is, to an extent, a regular man who made the ultimate sacrifice to become an immortal guardian. Years after the collapse of his empire, he genuinely believes his duty is still active and valid. Everything he does, he does in the name of his long-dead homeland.

Black Garius

Black Garius when he was human.

Voiced by: Christopher Murney

The Dragon to the King of Shadows, he is a Luskan mage and the Master of the Fifth Tower.

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• Bald of Evil: He's evil and doesn't have a string of hair on his head.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Garius thinks he's so evil but he's really just The Pawn of a far more terrifying being.
• Demoted to Dragon: Played With. Technically he was already The Dragon, but his death and resurrection turns him from a Dragon with an Agenda to a legit Dragon who is fully loyal to his master.
• The Dragon: To the King of Shadows.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: He is much more active than his master, who never leaves his home in the Astral Plane. Garius is responsible for nearly all the problems that the PC has to contend with and is even scheming to usurp the King of Shadows. Ultimately subverted when Garius is killed and resurrected as a Shadow Reaver who is fully loyal to the King of Shadows.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: He serves the King of Shadows while also planning to steal his power for himself. His attempt to do so fails spectacularly. Afterward, he is resurrected as a lich who is fanatically loyal to his master.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: He's stupid enough to fall for this trope twice.
  • Ammon Jerro reveals it was Garius who released him from the Lower Planes to uncover information about the Silver Sword of Gith and the ritual to obtain the King of Shadows' power. Jerro escaped from the Arcane Brotherhood quite easily.
  • Then there's the ritual itself. It was never designed to give him the effects he was hoping for; one of the shadow priests more or less admits it was designed to turn him into an undead minion for King of Shadows. Even if it had not failed so spectacularly, he should have known better than to think his master had not planned for his treachery. It's entirely possible the "failure" was actually the spell working as intended.
• Hate Sink: He's a prominently featured antagonist who treats his own underlings like dirt, isn't loyal to his own master or nation and spends the final portions of the game trying to lure your True Companions away from you. It's clear he's an easy target for hatred.
• The Heavy: He may answer to someone else, but Garius is the most active villain in the story and one the PC spends most of their time fighting against.
• Humanoid Abomination: After being turned into a Shadow Reaver.
• Our Liches Are Different: As the leader of the Shadow Reavers.
• Mind Rape: Tortures Neeshka, then abuses her diabolic blood to magically bind her.
• The Starscream: His plan was to harvest the King of Shadows' power for his own gain. His death at the hands of the Knight-Captain threw a wrench into the plan; he was revived as a Shadow Reaver under the King's direct control.

Shadow Reavers

Voiced by: David Pittu, Ariel Winters and Chris Peterson

Seven powerful undead spellcasters, who serve as enforcers for the King of Shadows and command his undead armies.

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• Achilles' Heel: The King's power protects them from death, but reciting their True Names from a scroll renders them vulnerable to destruction. It takes a while to charge up.
• Always Chaotic Evil: They are all insanely evil.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: They make regular undead look like a bump in the road.
• Back from the Dead: But they Came Back Wrong. They are the reanimated corpses of Black Garius and his closest followers. Not how they pictured acquiring the power of the King of Shadows, certainly.
• Casting a Shadow: A part of their powers.
• Dem Bones: More or less. Their bodies are skeletons infused with shadow.
• Evil Gloating: Oh god, so so much.
  Shadow Reaver: Do you remember me? I am the one who tasted the lifeblood of those in Castle Never, whom you swore to protect. You should have learned then that I cannot be destroyed. Submit, and your ends shall be quick. Defy me, and you shall die for days.
  Shadow Reaver: You shall die, like all the rest. But I will not soil myself with your blood. (Proceeds to revive the army of Golems that his enemies had just gotten finished destroying)
• Elite Mooks: They're the most powerful of the King of Shadows' servants.
• Evil Is Hammy: They tend to speak in loud theatrical tones.
• I Know Your True Name: Their big weakness, which are read from a scroll by Zhjaeve or Ammon Jerro.
• Mook Promotion: Garius, notably, has the power to render lesser undead immune to sunlight, and to empower them so that even the weakest skeleton hits like a truck.
• Our Liches Are Different: Although they are distinct from actual liches in-game, they certainly give this impression, as powerful undead who are immortal but for a single weakness. Functionally, they seem like a half-way point between Liches and Demiliches.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad. Three of the remaining Shadow Reavers fight you together in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• The Undead: They're all undead skeletal wizards.

Mephasm

A pit fiend in the service of Levistus the Still Lord, master of the Fifth Circle of Baator, and one of Ammon Jerro's fiendish allies. He is initially encountered in the githyanki stronghold along with the hezrou Zaxis, attempting to breach the chamber where the githyanki leader Zeeaire kept her portal to the Astral Plane. He voluntarily gives up his true name to the Knight-Captain so s/he can return him to Baator. He is encountered again at Ammon Jerro's Haven, as one of several greater fiends bound in summoning circles and powering the place. The player can later talk Jerro into helping him/her summon the fiend at Crossroad Keep. Mephasm is unfailingly polite to the Knight-Captain and takes a degree of interest in the party's welfare, though nobody doubts that his motives are less than altruistic.

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• Affably Evil: Very polite in all of his dialogue.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Prefers to take the form of a purple-skinned half-elf when conversing with the player character.
• Deal with the Devil: Late in the game you can summon him in order to trade magical trinkets with him. You can also offer to sell him your soul, but he has no interest in purchasing it.
• I Know Your True Name: He agrees to tell you his true name the first time you meet, because someone using it to banish him is the only way he can return to Baator. The second time you meet him, you can offer to use it again, but he admits it won't work again because the enchantments holding him are too strong.
• Lawful Evil: In-Universe. Conceptually baatezu (devils) are Lawful Evil personified. They follow their contracts and deals to the letter as a matter of honor, but always, at least try to compose them in such a way that they come out ahead in the end. (However long that may take, and given their immortality they can afford to wait.)
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He is strongly implied to be Neeshka's devilish grandfather, both from his own remarks and those of other fiends in the Haven.

Mask of the Betrayer

Party Members

Safiya

"If you enjoy tense situations, my affiliation with the feared magocracy of Thay should prove endlessly amusing."

— Safiya

Voiced by: Julianne Grossman

A Red Wizard that appears to help the Knight Captain when he/she awakens in Rashemen, and the first party member gained. She claims to have been sent by her mother, the leader of a prominent Thayan academy, to help the Captain for unspecified reasons, but there may be ulterior motives to her task that not even she is aware of.

Unknown to her, she along with her mother and aunt are three fragments of the soul of Akachi's lover, now the Founder. She was planted in the Knight-Captain's party as part of the Founder's plan to end the Spirit Eater curse.

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• Artificial Human: Safiya is an aspect of the Founder, created alongside Lienna and Nefris as part of her plan to end the Spirit Eater curse.
• Badass Bookworm: A well-read wizard who is no slouch in a fight either.
• Badass Teacher: Badassery is a necessary trait for survival in a Thayan magical academy - and she's an instructor.
• Bald Mystic: A bald magician, Safiya is a full-fledged Red Wizard and a senior instructor at a Thayan Wizarding School.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Has her moments. One can certainly read losing influence with her for calling a younger Rashemi witch charming (and not just for a witch either) as this for example.
• Cool Teacher: This also. One of the least vicious and ruthless Red Wizards anywhere, and she obviously loves teaching. She even begins teaching you a few basics in concentration and logic if your influence gets high enough - so her idea of best protecting you is making you one of her students. Her optimistic endings establish that she took back the Academy of Shapers and Binders from her rivals, and it became that most anomalous of places in Thay: a place where magic is studied for its own sake rather than as a route to personal power.
• The Cynic: Whenever you bring up religion or the Rashemi or...a lot of things, actually. She's a pragmatic, critical thinker down to her core by birth and upbringing.
  Safiya: (about Kaelyn) That servant of...I've never trusted people of faith. They live their lives divorced from reason.
  Safiya: (about Gann) People who talk overmuch about the value of dreams usually want to sell you something.
• Deadpan Snarker: Never let it be said that Safiya lacks wit, as her character quote shows.
• Familiar: Has a unique familiar in the form of Kaji, a gargoyle-like flying homunculus and one of the earliest constructs she ever animated. Kaji is advanced enough to serve the party in place of a stopgap rogue, i.e. picking locks and tripping traps, but not enough to speak in complete sentences. Though in fairness, Safiya was apparently quite young when she created him. The Child is a better rogue, but only evil parties are likely to recruit him.
• Hearing Voices: Safiya reluctantly admits to hearing voices inside her head that aren't her own, though they seem to be benevolent. (She recounts a time when she was about to use a spell that would have fatally backfired and the voices suddenly became much louder, breaking her concentration and saving her life.) They turn out to be the voices of Nefris, Lienna, and the Founder.
• The Hecate Sisters: Safiya represents the Maiden (with Nefris as the Mother and Lienna as the Crone).
• Hot Teacher: Noted as good-looking in her character description.
• Master of One Magic: Despite the name, Red Wizards of Thay focus intensely on one particular school of magic. Safiya focuses on Transmutation at the expense of Illusion and Conjuration.
• Merger of Souls: In the endings where she survives, the Founder's split soul is reformed into one consciousness in Safiya's body after the Founder dies.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: If your primary exposure to Red Wizards in the past has been Edwin, then Safiya seems to be going out of her way to show they're not all like that.
• Naytheist: She rolls her eyes at Kaelyn, is not the least bit unwilling to say that she thinks the people of Rashemen are credulous imbeciles for worshipping spirits, and will almost always react badly if the player character tries to comfort her with any variation on the phrase "Have faith." This seems to be a Red Wizard trait. The Founder's experiences and opinions probably influenced her, as well.
• Nonhuman Sidekick: Her homunculus familiar, Kaji.
• Prestige Class: Notable as the first NWN2 party member to have one.
• The Power of Creation: Safiya's specialty.
• Power Tattoo: All Red Wizards have them.
• Reincarnation Romance: The PC is carrying around the soul of Akachi, and she was split off from the soul of the Founder, who was Akachi's true love. Thus, this is definitely in play if the male PC romances her.
• Second Love: Depending on your choices.
• Squishy Wizard: Though like Sand, she has a variety of buffs that increase her durability and strength in combat.
• Stereotype Flip: Unlike the majority of Red Wizards, Safiya is far more interested in learning and teaching than in accruing personal power.
• True Neutral: In-Universe. Primarily concerned with her own affairs, not with others', good or evil.

Gannayev-of-Dreams

"My crime? It is a serious one. You see... I am too handsome to look upon."

— Gannayev-of-Dreams

Voiced by: Crispin Freeman

Better known as Gann, this young hagspawn is a Rashemi Spirit Shaman that the Captain encounters while searching for allies against Okku. Abandoned by his parents at birth, the wild spirits of Rasheman raised him as their own. Interestingly and unusually, Gann is quite a Pretty Boy, a trait he takes great pride in. As a Spirit Shaman, he is capable of walking in the realm of dreams, which can come in handy at various points in the game.

It is later learned that his mother actually truly loved him and his father, and was forced to abandon him by the Slumbering Coven. Upon discovering this, he implores the Captain to kill the Coven in retribution.

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• Boxed Crook: He actually doesn't mind prison too much (especially since he's messed with the runes that keep him from dream hopping), but he was getting a little bored.
• The Casanova: He puts his high Charisma score to exactly the use you think. It's possible to resolve Anya's sidequest by making him out-sweettalk an idealized version of himself.
• Chaotic Neutral: In-universe. Mostly takes the form of being selfish and capricious, though not actively malicious.
• Character Development: Bringing closure to his past and learning what love really means, as well as taking responsibility for his mistakes.
• Cute Monster Guy: Gann is a stark contrast to most other hagspawn, who are usually brutish and ugly (there are several examples proving this). Gann lampshades it.
  Gannayev: Do I look like a hagspawn? Come now.
• Dream Walker: Primarily naughty dreams.
• Druid: Gann's a Spirit Shaman, a spontaneous spellcasting variation of the Druid class that can fight and commune with supernatural spirits.
• Girl of My Dreams: Gender-flipped. Not the PC's dreams, but he does quite like showing up in the dreams of young women for unchaste purposes.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Hagspawn are offspring of hags and human males.
• Handsome Lech: Gorgeous. Charming. Totally irresponsible.
• Hidden Depths: Frequently deflects questions with humor and snark (or flirtation), but beneath that he's terribly afraid of letting anyone get too close, lacks any direction for his life, and has depths of rage that can be a little frightening.
• Insufferable Genius: Although he does take jabs at his ego quite well.
• Lady Killer In Love: Should the Knight-Captain pursue a relationship with him, he falls well and truly in love, going so far as to convert to the worship of Kelemvor to stay with the player character in one of the endings. Some of his endings also have him settling down with a girl you help during the main story.
• The Lancer: Both in story and gameplay terms. His preferred weapon is a spear.
• Living Dream: Gannayev claims he's one at first, but he'll admit to just being a hagspawn after some prodding and a successful Diplomacy check.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: As Gulk'aush (Gann's mother) puts it, Gann drifts "from creature to creature, spirit to spirit, finding no dream that has touched [him]."
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: More obvious in his artwork.
• Lovable Rogue: Well, spirit shaman, anyway, but he fits the stereotype.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: 99% of hagspawn are ugly brutes. The reason he isn't is because his parents actually loved each other.
• Naytheist: He acknowledges the presence of gods in the Realms, but refuses to devote himself to any of them, or actually acknowledge them as gods at all, preferring to venerate the local spirits. This causes some minor crises of faith in the later parts of the game, and one of the endings as well.
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: The Wall of the Faithless, however, he adamantly refuses to believe exists, even though one of your companions (Kaelyn) is personally familiar with it.
• The Nicknamer: Usually poetic (he calls Kaelyn "songbird" and Okku "Old Father Bear"), sometimes imbuing them with a taunting affection, like when he calls his jailer "my matron-of-the-cell".
• Parental Abandonment: He hides it, but he's enormously resentful of his parents for leaving him until he learns why.
• Power Perversion Potential: He's called "Gann-of-Dreams" for a reason. Given his Handsome Lech tendencies and there you go.
• Proud Beauty: Gorgeous and excruciatingly aware of it.
• Raised by Wolves: Wolf spirits at that!
• Really Gets Around: Goes with being a Handsome Lech, really.
• Second Love: If you so choose.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: A fact he is well aware of. In fact, when you first meet him, he says he's in the Mulsantir prison when first met for the crime of "being too handsome to look upon". He's actually there more or less voluntarily — hiding from his numerous admirers. In his case, it really is a curse; the guy is a pariah among both humans and hagspawn because of it.
• Square Race, Round Class: Hagspawn are not known for their spellcasting abilities (for the unaware, they're basically the region's half-orc equivalent). Of course, Gann is no ordinary hagspawn.
• Tailor-Made Prison: Unlike the classic iron bars of the others prisoners', Gann's prison is a windowless room in which every surface is covered in runes. They're supposed to keep him from his usual late-night dreamsex activities, but a PC with a high enough spellcraft skill can notice that Gann's messed around with them a bit.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome/Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Well, tall, blue, handsome and snarky - rather as if someone took a good-looking human and colored him blue.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Upon discovering that Gannayev's mother let his father escape, the her hag sisters hunted him down, tore him apart, and force-fed Gann's mom bloody chunks of him - all in front of infant Gann. Gann naturally - and probably fortunately - remembers none of this.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Gender-flipped, and justified. Because his conception was consensual and his parents were actually in love, he came out very handsome instead of ugly like most hags and hagspawn.

Kaelyn the Dove

"I will fly to them, and I will grant them wings as I have. I shall release them from the curse their death has become. "

— Kaelyn the Dove

Voiced by: Cat O'Connor

A half-celestial cleric of Ilmater that the Captain recruits for the struggle against Okku. The party meets her in the Shadow Realm version of Mulsantir, attempting to discover secret information on Kelemvor and Akachi the Betrayer. In exchange for helping her obtain this information, she agrees to aid the Captain.

Kaelyn was originally a devout servant of Kelemvor, god of death. As time went on she began to question her faith, specifically regarding the Wall of the Faithless. No longer able to shepherd the souls of the dead to a Fate Worse than Death, she left the Kelemvoran faith and attempted to forcibly tear down the Wall. Though she failed and was cast down into Faerûn, she still wishes to see the Wall destroyed.

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• Abstract Apotheosis: In Kaelyn's good ending, she becomes the symbol of hope for all the victims of the Wall of the Faithless.
• Animal Motif: Doves, as a symbol of peace. And ironic, as she's already led one Crusade against the City of Judgment and will lead another in some shape or form.
• Animals See in Monochrome: Quite literal in her case — her all-black eyes can only see in black and white. Played with, in that her celestial father said this is a function of her belief rather than her heritage or her actual eyes.
  Kaelyn the Dove: Spectra of color are something I know only from text, not from experience... my eyes do not perceive color as you do. There is only black, white, and little else.
• Badass Boast: Gets in a few thanks to her absolute conviction that she will cast down the Wall of the Faithless:
  Kaelyn: It is only a structure. It will not survive time and faith. It will not survive me.
• Barred from the Afterlife: She's not dead, but she notes that she's unable to return to Mount Celestia, which she should be able to travel to and from freely. The deeper implication is that she won't be allowed in after she dies and is doomed to the Wall.
• Big Sister Mentor: To her siblings in the Menagerie.
• Bittersweet Ending: She has exactly one ending that isn't a downer, and it's this. If you fight for the Crusade and don't become guardian of the Wall, she's able to repeatedly pry a few souls free in guerilla strikes, and becomes a symbol of hope to the Faithless. However, she's still a Fallen Angel with no hope of reconciling with her home or an afterlife, fighting a doomed war.
• Black-and-White Morality: Both figuratively and quite literally; she's mentioned to be colorblind.
• Blind Obedience: At high influence values, an evil Knight-Captain can lie to her with a subpar Bluff - and still get away with it, because she trusts you so much that she knows you're lying but chooses to ignore it. It misses an Influence gain, but it's still pretty horrible; One-of-Many loves it especially.
• Broken Bird: If she and Rammaq survive and you didn't become guardian of the Wall, she will try to team up with him for another Crusade. He instead leads the Menagerie into an ambush, which ends with her siblings being dragged into hell. This is what makes Kaelyn give up her Crusade and return home, and she's said to never speak again, lest her words lead more to their doom.
• Church Militant: Being a cleric and all, though she's built more for casting than combat.
• Combat Medic: As a cleric, she comes equipped with a variety of healing spells and buffs.
• Crisis of Faith: She was initially a cleric of Kelemvor, but she suffered this when her compassion for the Faithless conflicted with her faith's hard stance on the Wall. Unlike many cases of this trope, she instead converted to a different religion - namely, the faith of Ilmater, the god of sacrifice and ending the pain of others.
• Determinator: Her quest sets her against all the laws and powers she was born to serve - and many others - but she hasn't let that stop her.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Her desire to tear down the Wall has one simple, very fundamental flaw: it is a major structure in the Land of Judgment and its destruction would likely shake the planes, at best. Furthermore, it would need to be replaced by some other method or way of handling Faithless souls, but if you ask her what she has in mind, she admits she has no idea.
  • Happens in the epilogue where she conscripts Rammaq into her Crusade. She takes a demilich at his word, with evidently no backup plan or contingency, and as a result gets blind-sided by a betrayal that ends with her siblings being dragged into hell.
• Dissonant Serenity: She never raises her voice, which can be a bit creepy depending on what she's talking about.
• Downer Ending: Many. From "least bad" to "worst":
  • If you help defend against the Crusade, you crush her, her siblings, and her Crusade, but you can allow her grandfather to take them back to Mount Celestia. In this scenario, Kaelyn comes out with everyone she loves alive, but is utterly humiliated and disgraced.
  • If you sacrifice yourself to end the Curse, via binding it to your soul, you become guardian of the Wall. Because you're now her main opponent, Kaelyn is never able to get her Crusades off the ground, and she and her siblings become fugutives.
  • If you fight for the Crusade, don't become guardian of the Wall, and don't kill the demilich Rammaq, he ambushes her siblings in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue and drags them to hell. This breaks her spirit and she returns home to carry out a vow of silence for the rest of her days.
  • If you help defend against the Crusade, as before, you crush Kaelyn, her siblings, and her Crusade...but you can instead choose to kill her grandfather when he tries to rescue them. Then you leave her there, mortally wounded but alive and weeping in utter anguish, for demons to collect.
• Fallen Angel: In all of her endings, her wings eventually turn black. In her best one, she is still perceived as a savior of forsaken souls, and sees her wings as a symbol of her cause.
  Myrkul: You are an angel left to walk the earth, with only her burning need for justice to keep her warm. A fairy tale with a bright beginning and a fiery end, I think.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Kaelyn says she's a doomguide but has no levels in that class, nor does she have any of the prerequisites. Forgivable since the doomguide class wasn't added as a prestige class until Storm of Zehir. It's also possible she was de-leveled for rebelling against Kelemvor.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Human/angel.
• Hero Worship: Of Akachi, who led the first Crusade against the Wall. This is actually combined with an In-Universe Draco in Leather Pants, as to Kaelyn he is a purely heroic figure who turned against his god for the sake of the Faithless. In actuality, he was a high priest of Myrkul who supported the Wall up until it affected someone he loved. Trying to point this out to Kaelyn nets you an Influence loss.
• Hypocrite:
  • Claims that her intent isn't to bring the Wall down by force, but to persuade Kelemvor into taking it down...by assembling a large force and threatening him with it. You can call her on this, and Myrkul will.
  • She preaches that she wants to save souls from the Fate Worse than Death on the Wall, but would rather the protagonist unleash the Spirit-Eater Curse back onto the realm, dooming who knows how many souls to a Fate Worse than Death, rather than bind it and themselves to the Wall. To give you an idea of how heinious it is: choosing to release the curse is something One-of-Many approves of.
  • While she fancies herself a protector of the innocent, she is remarkably silent for many of the horrible deeds the protagonist can do; for instance, she only speaks out against you feeding people to the uthraki when you try to do it to Anya, after you've already sent several innocents to them. In fact, if you're evil and have high Bluff, it's possible to convince Kaelyn to blindly and happily go along with whatever you say and do.
• Knight Templar: She is utterly devoted to what she thinks is a just cause, to the point that she can be blinded by her own Pride, her image of Akachi, and an evil protagonist's true nature, as well as ignore the pain of those right in front of her.
• The Magnificent: Her last name, as a result of being part of the Menagerie. If the player wants, and lacks a last name of their own, they can assume one with her.
• Moral Myopia:
  • In the "Sacrifice" ending. Kaelyn's whole goal is to save souls from being devoured by the Wall. Yet, when the protagonist binds the Spirit-Eater Curse and themselves to the Wall as their best attempt at saving souls from being devoured by the curse, she's upset solely because it interrupts her crusade.
  • She will ignore almost any suffering the protagonist inflicts on others, especially if they consistently pass Bluff checks, as long as they don't let her Influence drop to -75. But should they threaten her personal hobby horse by defending the City of Judgment from the Crusade, then she permanently turns on them.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members: If you accept Kelemvor's offer and agree to defend the City of Judgment against the Third Crusade, Kaelyn will abandon you, effectively replacing you as the Crusade's de facto leader, but Araman will join you in her place, having come full circle as a cleric of Kelemvor, the same god Kaelyn abandoned. The battle for the city plays out effectively the same but from the opposite perspective, right up to battling Kaelyn instead of Araman at Eternity's End.
• Neutral Good: In-universe. Gentleness, compassion and honor are all built right into her very essence. Interestingly, knowing that she is a creature made above all to do good causes her to stumble into thinking if she believes it to be good, then it must be.
• Non-Indicative Name: Someone called "the Dove" would be peaceful and gentle, right? Right. Originally she had that name because she was the mediator of the Menagerie. But when she began the Second Crusade, she declared war upon the gods.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kaelyn would like you to believe she's a righteous warrior, daring to fight against the gods themselves to tear a monstrosity that inflicts horrible suffering on poor souls. Yet, throughout the game she consistently fails to actually stand up to a true evil that's right in front of her — the Player Character (if you so choose, of course). An evil protagonist can do absolutely monstrous things, up to and including sending a whole family of innocents and a mentally-ill young woman to be eaten by cannibals, and Kaelyn will simply stand by and let it happen. She only occasionally raises protests, and even if you trigger her departure by dropping her Influence to -75, she won't try to fight you, she'll just leave and let you keep doing your thing.The only times she does fight you are if you achieve the "Devour" ending and become an unholy Humanoid Abomination, long after you have likely painted the land with blood, and if you refuse to aid her Crusade. This paints an unflattering picture that Kaelyn cares more about being right than doing right.
• The Paladin: Technically not in gameplay, where she's a cleric, but as a holy warrior and the Frontline General of at least one crusade who broke faith with her god over a To Be Lawful or Good crisis of conscience, clad in heavy armor with a shield and warhammer, she more than looks and acts the part. While her stats definitely emphasize spellcasting, as an epic-level cleric and in terms of the spells she starts out having memorized, she's easily capable of buffing herself into one of your most capable frontline warriors. If she lags behind Okku or One-of-Many, that's only because they use monster stats rather than being anything approaching being a legal character.
• Pride: Kaelyn's Fatal Flaw, besides her black-and-white view of the world. She has been alienated from her family, her friends, her home, her faith, and her afterlife, in her single-minded crusade against the Wall... and she refuses to listen to anyone who tries to dissuade her from it, holding fast to her belief that it must be brought down and that she will be the one to do it, no matter the cost. She further claims that doing so will be righting a cruel injustice, which is actually true. Though, as horrible as the Wall is, its purpose is not to administrate justice; it is to punish those who do not worship the gods, thereby ensuring that the gods have the faith they need to keep the world running.
• Sherlock Scan: Though she's not particularly worldly, one of Kaelyn's gifts is gaining extremely disturbingly accurate insight into someone's basic personality, just from looking at them. One dialogue path has her pick up and point out most of Gann's hidden issues with a momentary glance, one of the few times Gann is noticeably blind-sided. A case of Gameplay and Story Integration, as she also has absurdly high Wisdom.
• Single-Issue Wonk: Normally mild-mannered, but just mention the Wall of the Faithless, and she'll go on quite a tear — always soft-spoken and gentle, but insistent.
• Stereotype Flip: She's a cleric, the only companion who worships a god (Ilmater), and a celestial with wings — but she's bent on tearing down the wall, an act that could well see the Planes crumble or start a war between gods and mortals.
• Tranquil Fury: She's outraged to the point of obsession by the injustice the Wall represents, but she never raises her voice, not even to shout her Battle Cry.
• Unreliable Narrator: Her hatred for the Wall of the Faithless and Pride definitely color her accounts. In one case, she gushes over Akachi as a heroic man who bravely defied the gods for the sake of justice, when the actual facts are he was one of Myrkul's favored high priests who was extremely loyal and only tried to tear the Wall down because it affected someone he loved. In another case, she claims that the Wall affects everyone, even people who haven't heard of the gods; in actuality, the afterlives of other realms (such as Eberron and Dragonlance) function very differently and the people there, who don't know of the Forgotten Realms gods, aren't affected by the Wall at all.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: They're completely black, like the eyes of a bird. Gann quite likes them... mostly because they're reflective enough that he can admire himself in them. On the other hand, the party's comments on their strangeness reveals some interesting facets of their characters. In particular, it turns out that Kaelyn is color-blind. Which is to say, she sees everything in black and white.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: It's so obvious to her that the Wall is evil that she believes she can just ask and it'll be taken down, because surely it's equally obvious to everyone else, as she thinks it was to Akachi (who is her idol). Myrkul takes enormous glee in tearing apart these misconceptions one by one.
• Winged Humanoid: Downplayed in that her wings are non-functional (i.e. she can't fly). They do allow her to move faster and shield herself from sun or rain.
• Womanchild: Despite her enormous Wisdom score, she's idealistic to the point of naïveté; prone to Black-and-White Morality and almost pouting when she doesn't get her way. Myrkul claims that even before she went on her crusade, her Grandfather went to Kelemvor and made appeals on her behalf, citing that she hadn't yet learned the rules like a parent making excuses for a wayward child. Kaelyn calls this a lie, but it's such a painfully accurate description of her one can't help but think Brutal Honesty is being invoked. Kelemvor and her Grandfather can later confirm that it is true.

Okku

"I am a god of bears. What is there not to understand? ...I jest, little one. You smell of distant lands. No doubt the spirits of Rashemen are a puzzle to you. In life, I was a bear of flesh and bone. In death, my bond with the land has called me back."

— Okku, asked to describe himself

Voiced by: Darryl Kurylo

A powerful bear spirit that is the sole guardian of the Spirit Barrow. He first appears attempting to stop the Knight Captain and Safiya from escaping the Barrow. Although driven off, Okku soon afterwards amasses a spirit army outside Mulsantir, demanding that the Captain face him in combat. Despite the Captain's attempts at peace, Okku strangely insists that the Captain must die. After a heated battle, Okku is defeated and begs that the Captain kill him before the Curse consumes him. If the Captain chooses to suppress the curse's hunger, Okku will be shocked that they have not given in to their hunger, and offers to help the party as part of a compact he made with a previous Spirit Eater long ago.

Okku's clan barrow is the prison the Knight-Captain awakens in at the beginning of the game. To ensure the curse never threatened the world again, the previous Spirit Eater crafted the prison and spent his last days there in the hopes that once he died the curse would be trapped in the prison and never spread to another person. Okku, out of respect to his friend and a sense of duty to end the curse, remained within the Barrow to watch over and guard the prison against interlopers. The curse had disastrous effects on his clan members, most of whom went feral or mad due to the curse's influence.

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• Bears Are Bad News/Beary Friendly: Once you get to know him, it turns out he's a Gentle Giant most of the time. He's soft-spoken and intelligent, known to crack the occasional joke, and a fiercely loyal ally for a good-aligned Knight-Captain, but antagonize him at your peril.
• Beary Funny: On occasion. See him scare a spirit badger by roaring louder than him, or threaten to eat people. It's funnier than it sounds, if you are into Comedic Sociopathy.
• Blood Knight: He doesn't go out of his way to pick fights - but he likes fights and tends to solve problems by ripping them in half. Much of this can be explained by his being, well, a large bear. How else would anyone expect him to solve problems?
• The Comically Serious: He definitely has a sense of humor, but it doesn't always translate well across the spirit-mortal/bear-humanoid divide (and vice versa).
• Deity of Human Origin: Or bearish origin, rather. Okku was once a bear of higher-than-usual intelligence, strength and ferocity that attained minor godhood by the virtue of being an exemplar of what it is to be ursine. This often occurs with animals of Rashemen. He would probably rate rank 0 on the divine ranks scale from Faiths & Pantheons.^note Rank 0 are extremely minor deities, weaker than even demigods like the Red Knight - basically, they're immortal and that's about it. They're still distinct from mortals, who don't have a divine rank at all.
• Gentle Giant: In his kinder moments, anyway.
• Gold and White Are Divine: Brown as a mortal bear, he gained that coat of brilliant colours when he became a spirit.
• Hero Antagonist: When you first meet him.
• I Owe You My Life: Assuming you didn't eat him after defeating him. The Spirit-Eater before you did likewise.
• Lawful Neutral: In-universe. He's generally friendly, but he has a very rough side and no issues with solving problems through violence, and his motivation is to uphold his final duty.
• Mercy Kill Arrangement: In one particular conversation you have with him, you can give him permission to rip out your throat if you ever lose control of the Spirit Eater curse. He promises to do so, and to not take any enjoyment from it.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members: After defeating him at Mulsantir, if you devour his spirit, his power is such that a kind of metaphysical husk is left behind. If you bring this husk to the crematorium in the Death's God Vault in Shadow Mulsantir, the spirits trapped there can escape into the husk, becoming the companion One of Many.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: In a rare case of this working in your favor, he is from a special race (Fey), has powerful natural weapons and armor, and starts with way higher stats (including a Strength in the low 30s) than a fighter of his level should have. This is to balance him out, as Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards is now in effect and it helps him stay even with the casters, and he can't use items and levels up by himself, meaning he needs the brute strength.
• Natural Weapon: Being a bear, he can't use much in the way of equipment, so he fights entirely with teeth and claws.
• Physical God: Very physical. He might be a spirit, but the wrong end of his jaws still hurts like hell.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: He's very prideful, both of his nature as a bear and his nature as a demigod-bear.
• Remembered I Could Fly: Going along with the general theme of "memory" in the story, he doesn't actually gain levels; he already had all his powers from the get-go, being a bear-god and all. He's forgotten them in the years since, and him "levelling" is just him remembering his prior powers.
• Sour Supporter: He is initially quite skeptical that the Knight Captain can end the Curse without succumbing to it, but prove your willingness to resist the curse and he'll warm up to you considerably.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: He wants to contain the Curse by any means necessary and put it back in its ward. Sparing him subverts this, as he decides to let you prove you can control or even end it.
• Team Dad: As the oldest, most old-fashioned, and most generally paternal of the group.
• Unskilled, but Strong: In terms of his overall playstyle. He doesn't have anything resembling the versatility of his three caster counterparts or One-of-Many's Multiform Balance or whatever crazy build the Knight-Captain's been cooked up with. He can't use items, and he levels automatically without player input. The only thing he can do is hit hard - so he hits really, really, really hard.

One of Many

"Here is a soul so old, so broken and fragmented... it is not even worth devouring. One would gain more sustenance chomping at the air."

— One of Many

Voiced by: S. Scott Bullock and Steve Blum

A mysterious spirit entity actually made of many souls in a Mind Hive. One soul is in charge of the rest, dictates their actions as an entity, and is referred to as "the One"; the others are "the Many". The One can be switched with any other soul from the Many, lending the creature different powers and attitudes. If the Knight Captain chooses to devour Okku, you can offer Okku's pelt as a shell for this creature in the Dead God's Vault.

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• Assimilation Backfire: If One of Many is in your party when you meet the dead god Myrkul, they'll ask you if they can eat Myrkul. Given that unlike the Knight-Captain's Spirit-Eater curse, One of Many adds consumed souls to its collective, Myrkul will take control and try to devour the spirit-eater, resulting in a Superboss.
• Badass Boast: By proxy, and for you. It gives an impressive one to Kelemvor in the Devour Akachi ending if it is with you: "Fool! It is my [spirit-eater's title here] who will hound the gods' steps. And they shall know fear!" It is absolutely accurate.
• The Brute: One of the souls is an orc known only as 'The Brute'.
• The Cameo: Reappears in Storm of Zehir in a Random Encounter if it survived Mask of the Betrayer.
• Card-Carrying Villain: It downright exults in being evil.
• Creepy Child: The soul leading the Mind Hive is a small boy, killed for burning a temple of Myrkul and attacking his family.
• Evil Counterpart: Well, Okku isn't necessarily "good", but One-of-Many functions as one to him. They use similar mechanics, including being a unique race and levelling automatically. They also both push the player in the direction of a specific playthrough; Okku makes Suppression easier, while One-of-Many pushes in a Devouring direction.
• Expy: Like Darth Nihilus, it is a black ragged shadow, an Undead Abomination which arose following an unconscionable number of deaths. It drains the lives of the living and speaks in distorted, unearthly tones. It's not as one-to-one as Nihilus and the Faceless Man, but Obsidian has always had a predilection for playing with tropes from their previous games. Nihilus and his Sith Assassins in turn draw on the ragged, not-quite-alive Transcendent One and the shadows which dog the Nameless One's steps in Planescape: Torment, and in the Dead Money DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, the hungry, shadowy, cannibalistic zombies known as the Ghost People fill a similar conceptual space.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Depending on which personality you allow to take control of the Many, its function in the party will change. The Child personality allows it to serve as a rogue, the Brute personality functions as a barbarian, and the Madwoman as a warlock.
• For the Evulz: This is One-of-Many's most consistent motivation; pretty much the only thing its collective consciousness can agree on is that causing pain for giggles is really fun.
• I Am Legion: It even consistently refer to itself using collective pronouns.
• Mind Hive: An amalgamation of souls extracted from the victims of Myrkul's death priests; primarily rapists, murderers, heretics...and even a few innocents. Some of Myrkul's priests are there too, thanks to the acolytes of Cyric inflicting some ironic justice. Thanks to all those years crammed in the Furnace, none of them are very sane.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members: The only way to recruit One of Many is to bring the husk of the dead Okku to the crematorium in the Death God's Vault below Shadow Mulsantir. There, the angry spirits of Myrkul's dead enemies have been imprisoned in the furnace for ages, but they can escape by taking up residence in the pelt, becoming a kind of undead spectral abomination, apparently unique in all the Realms. Don't do this, and the lack of an Okku corpse means that the crematorium has to be dealt with in other ways, none of which can result in it. Basically, think of Okku and One-of-Many as the embodiment of the choice you made at the end of the first act.
• Neutral Evil: In-universe. There are no redeeming features whatsoever to One-of-Many. Even its loyalty to the main character comes only from recognizing power that could destroy it forever, and fearing/desiring/hating that power all in equal measure.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When the player character meets Myrkul in the Astral Plane, One-of-Many demands the right to consume Myrkul as vengeance for the suffering of its collective souls in the Furnace. If allowed to do so, Myrkul seizes control of the Many, and tries to use it to devour the player character.
• Obviously Evil: Friggin' look at the thing! Pretty much every scene involving One-of-Many is a reminder to the player of just how horrible they are for creating it, and allowing it to continue to exist.
• Speaking Simlish: Uses a strange Voice of the Dead that any mortal creature can understand, but doesn't sound anything like any living language. Each of the different Ones has its own unique voice set — the Child is high and mocking, the Brute is low and fierce, and the Madwoman is mad with grief and pain. There's a fourth, the God, which is deep and echoing with power.
• Superboss: If one allows it to consume Myrkul. Also, in Storm of Zehir, where it can be faced as a Random Encounter — and, while not as powerful as it is after having absorbed Myrkul, is still very, very powerful.
• Token Evil Teammate: You have to commit a very evil act to even recruit it, so you know exactly what you're getting if you do.
• Undying Loyalty: Despite being Neutral Evil, One-of-Many will pretty much never leave your service; the only way to get it out of the party in-game is to go through the above Assimilation Backfire and then pull a You Have Failed Me. In one of the endings, the player is only able to get rid of it by ordering it to devour itself.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Kaelyn calls the player out for creating an abomination. Its entire narrative purpose, really, is to impress upon the player what their evil might lead to.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Like the Captain, it can absorb souls, but instead of devouring them, it adds them to its Mind Hive - thus their memories and personalities are retained, not obliterated. This can backfire.

Non-Party Characters

Araman

"Faith and blood are the strongest ties of all... stronger than comradeship... purer than the intrigues of love."

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore

A mysterious Red Wizard who usurped Safiya's mother as leader of the Acadamy of Shapers and Binders for unknown reasons. He seems to have a vendetta against the Knight-Captain.

Araman is actually the brother of Akachi the Betrayer. His original name was Eveshi. Centuries ago, the two infant boys were laid on the doorstep of Myrkul's temple to be raised there. Akachi became Myrkul's most proud and devoted disciple, and Eveshi/Araman — though never as great — followed in his brother's footsteps, always in aid and loyalty. When Akachi chose to rebel against Myrkul for the sake of his lover, Araman joined him in the Crusade, but when it failed, he repented on bended knee to Myrkul and swore never to betray him again. As a "reward", Myrkul made him immortal and gave him the task of hunting down the Founder and killing her. His takeover of Thaymount was so he could access a portal that would lead him to the Founder's Sanctum. Before he can reach her, however, the Knight-Captain's party confront him and Araman is ultimately killed. He is later seen on the Fugue Plane, defending the City of the Dead.

Araman is a jaded, depressed man. To this day, he believes firmly that Akachi's betrayal of his god for his love was madness, and believes that no good could come of upsetting the order of the Planes; his regret for turning against Myrkul has long become a greater conviction that Akachi was wrong. He takes no pleasure in what he does, instead seeing his actions as necessary to maintain balance in the world.

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• Anti-Villain: He believes that protecting the Wall is the right thing to do and takes no pleasure in it.
• Bald of Evil: As per standard Red Wizard hairstyle (or lack thereof).
• Big Bad: The game sets him up to look like one for a while, but he's actually more of a...
• Disc-One Final Boss: Araman and the Red Wizards that he leads spend a good chunk of the narrative as the Knight-Captain's main antagonists. Once they're dealt with, however, the focus shifts over to dealing with the after-effects of Akachi the Betrayer's legacy and ultimately the Faceless Man, who is essentially the ghost of Akachi himself.
• Doorstop Baby: He was left alongside Akachi on the steps of Myrkul's temple and the two brothers were raised together by the clerics.
• The Dragon: To Myrkul originally, and now to Kelemvor.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Though only arguably evil (he no longer has a choice but to do what Myrkul demands of him) Eveshi once loved Akachi too, enough to turn against his god. And he still loves Akachi, trying to reach out to the remnant of him in the spirit-eater, deeply regretting the Crusade and what its consequences did to his beloved brother.
• Killed Off for Real: Assuming you continued the Crusade, he makes a Last Villain Stand after Kelemvor agrees to let you try and get your soul back, and dies fighting you on the Fugue Plane, where there's no coming back.
• Lawful Neutral: In-universe. All he does is his job, and only because he believes he must.
• Optional Party Member: Should the player decide to betray the Betrayer's Crusade and side with Kelemvor, Araman joins in place of Kaelyn, who leaves the party.
• Power Tattoo: Again, Red Wizard.
• Unexplained Recovery: Subverted when he reappears on the Fugue Plane. You did kill him in the Academy, but since you're attacking the plane of existence that serves as the afterlife's sorting area for souls and he's a priest of the god of death, there's a pretty obvious explanation for encountering him.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was Akachi's brother, Eveshi. Akachi gave him the nickname "Ahrraman", which meant "laughter", when they were both children, because Eveshi was always giggling, even during solemn masses and sermons. That bright little boy is one of the very last things left of Akachi, but only in memory and dreams. Araman himself has long crushed any light or sweetness in his personality.
• Walking Spoiler: There's not much that the Spirit Eater finds out over the course of the game that Araman couldn't have told them, but he's not about to do anything that might help the Founder's pawn complete her plan.

The Slumbering Coven

"The longer we sleep, the stronger our web. And we take dreams from other minds, adding them to our own. From the dreams of mortals, we salvage much..."

Voiced by: Jennifer Darling

A coven of Rashemi hags who gather dreams and ancient knowledge. While undeniably evil and depraved, most of the people of the nation grudgingly accept their presence due to their wealth of ancient knowledge. The Knight-Captain's party is directed to visit them as a source of information about the Spirit Eater curse, but the Coven, fearing that the Captain will lose control of the curse and devour them, betray the party and dump them in a prison under the lake.

The Coven turns out to be directly responsible for Gann's childhood abandonment. When it was discovered that Gann's mother had sired a child with a human, and worse, loved both the man in question and the child, the Coven offered her a choice between the life of her child or that of her lover. She chose to spare her son, and was forced to eat her lover alive, the act of which drove her completely insane. Gann is less than pleased to discover this and insists that they die, but the Coven claims that their deaths would rob the world of priceless knowledge and beauty. Ultimately the Captain chooses their fate. In either case, the Coven do end up telling the party the next destination: Thaymount Academy.

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• Deep Sleep: They are permanently dreaming.
• Dream Stealer: The source of their knowledge, and the payment they extract from their guests.
• Dream Walker: Just like Gann, though on a considerably larger scale.
• Knowledge Broker: They drag knowledge from the dreams of mortals, whom they believe will simply die and forget, to add to their enormous collective dream.
• Necessarily Evil: How they view themselves. You can disagree, whether from your own sense of ethics, to exact justice for Gann and his parents, or out of no more than naked spite, and shred their collective dream before destroying them.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Many of the guests are dreaming, trapped inside their own minds as their bodies slowly wither away.
• Neutral Evil: In-universe.
• Numerological Motif: Nine hags in three groups of three.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: As valuable as their knowledge may be, killing these cruel and vicious beasts is nevertheless extremely satisfying.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The hags are so fearful of the spirit-eater turning the curse on them that they dump the Knight-Captain into the Skein almost as soon as the character enters their chambers. If, somehow, the Captain wasn't sufficiently pissed off about that, there's plenty more down there to motivate a Captain of any alignment to turn on the hags. They would have been better off treating the spirit-eater like anyone else.
• Talking in Your Dreams: Meeting them requires you to navigate the dreams of several other visitors, solving (or ignoring, or worsening) their troubles. Despite everyone involved being fast asleep, these interactions seem to have real-world effects. In addition, on the trip you meet Bishop during his last moments in the Wall of the Faithless. The hags clarify afterwards that yes, the encounter was real, and Bishop has now been fully consumed by the Wall.

The Faceless Man

The embodiment of the Spirit-Eater curse, dealing with the Faceless Man is the only way for the Spirit-Eater curse to be ended. Its origin is a mystery that drives much of the backstory, and discovering it provides the key to freeing the Knight-Captain. Spoilers follow.

The man known as Akachi was once the high priest of the now-dead god Myrkul, who once was god of the dead. When his lover, the Founder, died without pledging herself to a god, her soul was condemned to the Wall of the Faithless and Akachi chose to rebel against his god to save her, storming the Fugue Plane with an army to tear down the Wall and free every soul inside. This became known as the First Crusade, and earned him the title "the Betrayer". Though he succeeded in freeing the soul of the Founder, his Crusade failed, and as punishment he was bound to the Wall himself in her place. Myrkul, seeing an opportunity to spread misery (and to remain alive-in-death by exploiting the Forgotten Realms' early God Needs Prayer Badly system) decided that Akachi had not suffered enough, and so inflicted a real Fate Worse than Death on him. He ripped Akachi out of the Wall once he was stripped of his mind, his humanity and everything that had made him a person, and left with an insatiable hunger for souls: the Faceless Man. The Spirit Eater curse is Akachi's parasitic ravenous remnant, attaching itself to people and condemning their souls to the Wall in his place. Over time, his victims are slowly "digested", devouring spirits to hold off the encroachment of the curse, but needing more and more spirits to hold off the hunger. At last they cannot sate themselves and die in madness, and the curse transfers itself to a new host.

At the end of the game, the player character recovers the stolen soul from the Wall of the Faithless, but must then battle Akachi for control over it. Depending on what whether or not the three fragments of the Mask of the Betrayer were recovered in the game, the Knight-Captain can choose to restore Akachi and end the Spirit-Eater curse, subdue Akachi and spend eternity on the Fugue Plane, hurl Akachi out of their soul so that they are cured but the curse still exists, or devour the Faceless Man and become a power to shake the planes.

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• Big Bad: In as much as there is one for the game (and that's pretty arguable), the Faceless Man is it. The game ends when he's defeated and he's the direct cause of most of your troubles. It's revealed, however, that he has no mind, memory or identity, only instinct — he can't be held responsible for what his curse makes him do.
• Chaotic Evil: In-Universe. The Spirit-eater is pure elemental hunger.
• Doorstop Baby: He and his brother were left on the steps of Myrkul's temple as infants to be raised by the clerics. Akachi grew to become Myrkul's Chosen, equally beloved of and devoted to his god.
• Eldritch Abomination: He's an insane ghost who forces his current host to eat souls, becoming a conduit for an outright metaphysical force of hunger for identity. When manifesting through its host, it appears as a glowing, floating mask with Combat Tentacles whipping around its edges.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In life, he was high priest of a Religion of Evil, but his entire sad state is a testament to how he put unselfish love above his god or himself.
• Expy: As is common in Obsidian titles, the villain is a deliberate reenvisioning of a character from one of their own previous games, in this case Darth Nihilus. Both are Chaotic Evil abominations that used to be people, and were turned into said abominations though perverse means involving the death and suffering of countless of others. The Spirit Eater is feeding on souls in similar fashion to Nihilus feeds off the Life Energy of others as well as the Force itself. Both are shadowy and strangely featureless if not for their sinister masks. The primary difference is that the Spirit Eater is a blind parasitic spirit, while Nihilus is capable of independent action. The use of masks and shadows as a motif are common throughout Obsidian's work: Planescape: Torment's shadows, the aforementioned Nihilus and his Sith assassins, and Fallout: New Vegas's Dead Money's Ghost People, and even the masked Mind Hive the Faces of Nerat in Tyranny.
• The Faceless: It's not just his name; he is always depicted either with a mask or simply as The Blank. This is actually essential to the curse — he is constantly driven to fill his own lack of self with the souls of others.
• Horror Hunger: The spirit-eater curse compels its bearer to seek out and devour the souls of others, a hunger which can never be sated and which eradicates the consumed souls, denying them an afterlife or any possibility of resurrection.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Wears the titular Mask of the Betrayer, a tentacled, many-eyed creepy-Cool Mask. Subverted in that rather than being worn to intimidate others, it's actually the last remnant of his lost humanity, a memory of the masks his people used to wear when he was alive.
• Meaningful Name: "Akachi" is an Igbo given name meaning "the hand of God".
• Original Position Fallacy: Akachi was the Chosen of Myrkul, meaning he had to have been at the very least complicit in condemning souls to the Wall, but it was only once the Founder, his lover, was condemned that he did anything about it. The Founder believes it was because of her that he came to truly care about the injustice of the Wall and the cruel order of the planes... but also that he might have been better off if he hadn't. Akachi himself obviously isn't talking.
• Power of the Void: The Faceless Man is spiritual emptiness contained within a living body (the player character's, currently), and what it wants - the only thing it wants - is to fill itself and be whole. Unfortunately, that's impossible because of the curse; the spirits it devours only ever fill it for a little while before they're gone, leaving it even emptier than before.
• Sadistic Choice: The player character can deduce that the spell-backfire which killed the Founder and sent her to the Wall might have been Myrkul's doing, because her death allowed him to test Akachi's faith. Akachi had to choose between devotion to his god and devotion to his lover. He chose the latter, and as far as Myrkul was concerned, he chose poorly.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With the Founder.
• Tragic Monster: It's hard not to feel sorry for him once you realize what — or rather who — he is.
• Walking Spoiler: A regular blizzard of white text.
• Was Once a Man: You see that floating husk with a huge maw and tentacles? That thing that looks some hideously large tick with multiple eyes? It was once a living, breathing man.

The Founder

"But what do good or evil matter in the face of love? Love will break an oath, shatter a man's faith, and outlive gods."

Voiced by: Susan Silo

The woman who founded the Thaymount Academy of Shapers and Binders several centuries ago, and an incredibly dedicated wizard who didn't believe there was any such thing as "impossible" - only deeds that had yet to be done. She died long ago, but rumors abound of a sanctum beneath the Academy where her greatest work and experiments still reside. Araman is seeking either her or her sanctum, and overthrew Safiya's mother as the head of the Academy to aid his search.

She was Akachi's lover and had no respect for the gods; when she died during a backfiring spell, her soul went to the Wall of the Faithless. Akachi turned on Myrkul and marched upon the Fugue Plane, leading the Betrayer's Crusade to rescue her, and he did - but Myrkul's judgement led to Akachi becoming the spirit-eater, and the Founder returning to life knowing he would suffer forever.

So determined was she to free Akachi that she did not die, remaining beneath the Academy in her Sanctum and searching for ways to save her lover. She made many discoveries that none could repeat, including a portal into the Astral Plane, a way to completely reforge the shattered Silver Sword of Gith, and a way to split her soul that gave each piece a body and a life of its own. Three such fragments are known to exist, currently: Nefris, the researcher, the ruthless logician and the mother, who became headmistress of the Academy; Lienna, the artistic mind, the dreamer, who ran the Veil Theatre and crafted amazing masks for its troupe; and Safiya, the innocent soul, the creative mind, filled with love, who was raised as the daughter of Nefris and became an instructor at the Academy. The Founder worked her will in the outside world through each of these fragments - and it was by her order that the Knight-Captain became the latest bearer of the curse. Her greatest goal is the end of Akachi's suffering, and she will sacrifice anything and anyone to make it happen... almost.

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• Affably Evil: She comes across as a kindly old lady, despite the horrible deeds she has committed.
• Anti-Hero: Or Anti-Villain as it's up to you whether she's a hero or a villain. However, whichever she is, she's right on the borderline. She wants to end the curse, definitely a noble thing, and she's motivated purely by love. But she specifically chose to curse you (for your connection with the Silver Sword of Gith), freed the curse from its makeshift binding in Okku's barrow, put you in terrible danger, and has done many extremely questionable things to achieve her goal.
• Badass Boast: If you spare her, she'll say this:
  The Founder: Love is stronger than any justice meted by a mad god. Let that be Myrkul's legacy to the planes; that in the end, his cruelty broke before a mortal's resolve!
• Death by Irony: If you drain Myrkul he will allow you to consume her soul as well, inflicting possibly the most horrible fate possible upon both her and Akachi.
• Determinator: She never gave up on any task she put her mind to, and when you add The Power of Love to the mix, well...
• Easily Forgiven:
  • You can forgive her or at least state you won't kill an old lady for inflicting you with the curse. This will result with a massive influence boost with Safiya.
  • Alternatively, you can absorb her if you have the means to do so. Just don't bring Safiya along.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Like Akachi, she has done many terrible things and feels little remorse or regret, but her true unselfish love for both Akachi and Safiya is her redeeming quality. Safiya's creation is an effort to preserve all that she believes Akachi loved about her in an innocent. Though she knows she and Akachi can never see each other again even if she wins, at least there'll finally be an end to his pain.
• Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep"/Spell My Name with a "The": The only way she's every referred to is as "the Founder". Or "the Red Woman."
• Badass Bookworm: She was a mage-scientist, and one of the most brilliant who had ever been.
• Love Hurts: Oh boy, does it.
• Love Makes You Evil/Necessarily Evil: Her primary defence for her actions is that she did everything for love.
• Mama Bear: There is one thing - and only one - that will induce her to attack the player character, who bears Akachi's essence, in anything other than self-defence. By extension, the one thing she loves as much as she loves Akachi himself. It's Safiya. Threaten her and the Founder will die in defence of her "daughter".
• Naytheist: She doesn't have a high opinion of the gods, to say the least.
• Opposites Attract: Sceptic mage-genius and a devoted disciple of Myrkul?
• The Power of Love: Damned, redeemed and drove her all at once. It will even prevent her soul from being devoured by the spirit-eater, because the spirit-eater is Akachi and even as he is he would never harm her. Unless, that is, the player also devoured Myrkul - then Akachi's love is overcome by the spite of Myrkul, and he's forced to obliterate the person he gave up everything and suffered eternally to save.
• Power Tattoo: Still a Red Wizard.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Akachi. In the event that you restore his identity and end the curse forever, they'll still never be together, even in death.
• Walking Spoiler: Rule of Three. It's just that kind of game.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Like Ammon Jerro, she has an admirable goal, but she will do anything to achieve it. That includes sacrificing you.
• What the Hell, Hero?: You get the opportunity to call her out for inflicting you with the curse. She replies bluntly that she would sacrifice a hundred more like you if it ended Akachi's curse.

Myrkul, the Lord of Bones

Myrkul, or rather what's left of him.

"In everything you do, spirit-eater... you stoke the embers of my soul."

Voiced by: S. Scott Bullock

The former god of the dead, and creator of the Wall of the Faithless and Spirit-Eater curse.

Myrkul was a member of the Dead Three along with Bane and Bhaal, a trio of evil epic-level adventurers who, centuries ago, challenged the original god of the dead, Jergal, for rulership. Ironically Jergal had grown tired of his job and divvied up his portfolio voluntarily. Bane chose to become the tyrant of the living, Myrkul the ruler of the dead, and Bhaal death itself, while Jergal chose to simply be the archivist of the dead.

Fast forward several hundred years (we'll skip Akachi's rebellion since it's described above), and the Dead Three get back together in 1358 DR (the Year of Shadows) to steal the Tablets of Fate from the Overgod Ao. An infuriated overgod casts the entire pantheon down to Toril, only allowing them back if the Tablets are recovered. During this period, Myrkul is killed by Mystra, and Bhaal is slain by Cyric. (Bane is killed by Torm, but gets better about ten years later.) As happens with all dead gods, Myrkul's corpse was set adrift in the Astral Plane, which holds the multiverse together.

The Knight-Captain runs across his decaying corpse during his/her escape from the Academy of Shapers and Binders via the Astral Plane. After interrogating Myrkul on various points to the player's satisfaction, s/he is given the opportunity to serve up an Ironic Death with the Spirit-Eater.

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• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Exploited. The Knight-Captain can work out that one motive for Myrkul's creation of both the Wall of the Faithless and the Spirit-Eater curse was as insurance against his own death: since deities in the Forgotten Realms draw power from people's belief in them, as long as people feared Myrkul's creations and memory, he could never truly die. The Knight-Captain may turn the Spirit-Eater on him, but even then his essence will not entirely fade from the Astral Plane unless the Spirit-Eater curse is put to rest as well.
• Death by Irony: If you choose to eat him. A fact he lampshades with surprising glee.
• Deity of Human Origin: He was an epic-level adventurer centuries ago.
• Dem Bones: He used to be a more typical Grim Reaper type, but these days his essence is confined to his skull. You must actually climb his spinal column to speak directly to him.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Did You Just Eat Myrkul?
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In a strange way, Myrkul loved Akachi, who was his most favoured and devoted follower (as much as an evil god who's also generally an asshole could). Killing and condemning the Founder was Akachi's chance to prove his own devotion, but he chose to turn his back, and Myrkul was a jealous god. Thus was Akachi branded the Betrayer.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: He's certainly evil and sounds very raspy.
• God Is Dead: At this point he's essentially the ghost of a god, after being killed by the mortal wizard Midnight (the current Mystra) during the Time of Troubles. What you're talking to is the remnants of his consciousness, set adrift in the Astral Plane. And even that can be destroyed, if you know how...
• Greater-Scope Villain: He's essentially the source of all of the Knight-Captain's problems, given how he's responsible for Akachi becoming the Faceless Man and is therefore indirectly responsible for the curse that the player has to contend with.
• The Grim Reaper: Unlike Kelemvor, he fully fit the "god of death is horrible" stereotype: canonically Neutral Evil, he loved creating The Undead and his temples were places of fear, torture, mass murder, and price-gouging for funeral services.
• I Have Many Names: As befitting a god, he has a few titles. In his case, they are "Lord of the Dead," "Lord of Bones," "Old Lord Skull," "the Reaper," and "the Deathless Lord of Death."
• It's All About Me: He has no problem in creating a curse that has erased countless beings from existence in order to prolong his own, and the punishment he inflicted on Akachi was so horrible in part because his favourite disciple dared to love another.
• Jerkass God: Not as Jerkass as Cyric was during his brief tenure as god of the dead, but that's not saying much. For instance, he took a special pleasure in crafting punishments for his enemies and didn't care if other, innocent people were caught up in them. The Slumbering Coven claims that even in his dreams within death, he's still obsessing over how to most painfully punish old slights. What he did to Akachi was unutterably cruel, and with your help he can inflict even further suffering on the Betrayer by enforcing your command to devour the soul of the Founder.
• Neutral Evil: In-universe.
• Retired Monster: More like "technically dead" monster.
• Villain Has a Point: As cruel as Myrkul is to Kaelyn, he doesn't lie: her quest is doomed as long as she remains naïve. The Wall and the gods are not administers of justice and passionate arguments based upon that premise, no matter how strongly felt, will not move Kelemvor any more than they moved her Grandfather. The Betrayer's Crusade was a war, and war demands much more than pride and self-righteousness — more than she might be willing to throw away.
  Ritual and circumstance are not easily undone, little bird. And they are rarely accomplished by peace. Will you lead the living to slaughter and die for those already lost? What a sacrifice for you to demand of those who blindly follow you!

Kelemvor, the Lord of the Dead

"Bring down the Wall, and mortals will see they cannot be held to account for their faith. On that day, mortals will put faith aside. And the gods will bring vengeance upon them all."

Voiced by: Roger Bumpass

The Forgotten Realms' incumbent god of the dead, ruler of the Fugue Plane and unwilling administrator of the Wall of the Faithless.

Formerly a human mercenary named Kelemvor Lyonsbane, he was the victim of a bloodline curse whereby he would transform into a werepanther if he ever did anything purely out of the goodness of his heart. During the Time of Troubles he adventured with a wizard named Midnight and a thief named Cyric. All three became deities due to the fallout from the Godswar: Midnight was briefly inhabited by remnants of Mystra, goddess of magic, after she was slain by Helm, killed Myrkul, and ascended to become the new goddess of magic (also named Mystra), while Cyric murdered Bhaal, god of murder, and took on the portfolios of lies, murder, and death.

Kelemvor had a rougher time, becoming trapped in the sword of the thief god Mask for a time, but eventually overthrew his former companion Cyric and became Lord of the Dead. In contrast to the greedy and cruel Myrkul and flatly insane Cyric, Kelemvor views himself as a guardian of the dead: his priests are slayers of The Undead and provide comfort to the living.

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• BFS: His favored weapon is a bastard sword called Fatal Touch.
• Cool Mask: Presumably meant to make him completely impassive-looking.
• Deity of Human Origin: Kelemvor started out as the mercenary Kelemvor Lyonsbane, and replaced Cyric as god of the dead only six years before Mask of the Betrayer. He struggled at first with the impartial judgement required for the mantle, but has since largely come to terms with it.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: In stark contrast to his predecessors Myrkul and Cyric, Kelemvor and his worshippers work to ensure that the dead rest peacefully, and that the living understand that death is neither to be feared nor sought. This is at odds with the architecture of many of his temples, since most (including the one in Mulsantir) are repurposed temples to Myrkul or Cyric. And note that this doesn't make him in any way friendly - he is still bound by his role to be impartial and impassive.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Kelemvor refuses to let you continue the Crusade after you reclaim your soul, but not because he likes the Wall. He tried to take it down after his apotheosis, but the rest of the pantheon wouldn't let him because it provides a threat that keeps most people worshipping, thereby feeding the gods and through them providing the magic of the Realms.
• I Have Many Names: Again, from being a god. His other titles include "Lord of the Crystal Spire," "the Great Guide," and the somewhat inaccurate "Judge of the Damned".
• Lawful Neutral: In-universe. He acts to enforce the laws he lay down and that were laid down for him as god of the dead.
• Narrator All Along: He's narrating cutscenes from the very start of the campaign, but you don't find out that the voice has a name until you reach the Fugue Plane.
• What the Hell, Hero?: You can pick Kelemvor as your deity while making your character, same as any other god. If you do so, and then decide to lead the Crusade against his city, Kelemvor has a few choice words to say about it. Honestly, he's remarkably patient about it, considering what Myrkul did to Akachi for the same crime.

Storm of Zehir

Main Characters

The Main Party

An individual, or group of up to four adventurers, who sail on the ship The Vigilant from the Sword Coast to Samarach. Shipwrecked after a storm, the party must work quickly to arm themselves with whatever is at hand to defend against a mob of batiri enraged at a linguistic mistake made by the famous Volothamp Geddarm. After defending themselves, the survivors are captured by Samarachan soldiers, but fortunately are freed by Sa'Sani, the owner of the merchant who commissioned the vessel. She suspects the Vigilant was sabotaged, and hires the player to investigate.

Thus begins a lighthearted tale of adventure, discovery and merchant finance, set in both the familiar Sword Coast and the exotic Chultan penninsula.

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• An Adventurer Is You: The entire point of the game. Or, half of it.
• An Entrepreneur Is You: The other half.
• Featureless Protagonist: Four character slots, infinite possibilities to fill them since, like in Icewind Dale, you design your own party from scratch. A lore-minded player could create a Multinational Team, a group of old friends who fought in the Shadow War, or anything in between. Downplayed in that the game unlocks additional dialogue and RP options depending on party members' and cohorts' stats, so they're not completely featureless but they are considerably less-developed than the other campaigns' parties.
• Hero of Another Story: It is generally accepted that the PCs' adventures here take place before or during the Knight-Captain's adventure in Mask of the Betrayer.

Volothamp Geddarm

Volothamp Geddarm, or Volo for short, is the most famous traveler in all the Realms, as well as a powerful wizard and the author of a number of travel guides to all the Realms. While some of his exploits are certainly exaggerated, if not outright fabrications, Volo is nevertheless VERY well traveled, and boasts a wide array of knowledge about, well, everything, even as he constantly thirsts for additional experiences and knowledge.

A fellow passenger aboard the Vigilant, after the ship was wrecked Volo attempted to negotiate with the batiri who came to investigate the wreckage. When negotiations inevitably failed, Volo bought the main party as much time to prepare for their attack as he could. After the battle, he is taken into custody with the survivors until freed by Sa'Sani. He stays in the merchant company's headquarters, presumably to stay near Sa'Sani, and hands out a few small sidequests in the first part of the game. Volo also asks that the player report to him about the locations the party visits to use as material for his next book.

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• Chaotic Good: In-universe. Not mentioned in game, but according to the Forgotten Realms sourcebooks this is his alignment.
• Gentleman Adventurer: Doesn't quite come across here, but Volo's character does take inspiration from Around the World in Eighty Days.
• Interactive Narrator: He narrates the opening and closing cinematics. After he finishes the latter, you can bluff or threaten him into changing the ending.
• The Münchausen: Exactly how many of Volo's claims as to his adventures is not known, but even with that taken into account he's had a fabulous career.
• Villainous Crush: Inverted. He has one on Sa'Sani, even after finding out she's a disguised yuan-ti.

Sa'Sani

The owner of a fairly new merchant company, Sa'Sani is the one who hired the Vigilant, the ship that the player party sailed south on. When the ship is wrecked off the coast of Samarach, Sa'Sani decides to use the player party, indebted to her for saving them as they are, to investigate the odd circumstances and coincidences building up around her. Later, after accusations of consorting with the Yuan-ti are leveled at her, she moves her base of operations north to Crossroad Keep.

As it turns out, Sa'Sani is not guilty of working with the yuan-ti, she is one. Her original goal was to place agents in key positions in Samarach and the Sword Coast, but Zehir and his House Se'Sehen supplicants derailed those plans. Her ultimate fate is left up to the player to decide; if she is not killed she can either fade into obscurity if the company does poorly, or become either a harsh businesswoman suspected of arranging "accidents" for competitors if allowed to follow her natural business instincts, or a celebrated engineer of change and social progress if the PC makes her promise to not harm anyone during her reconstruction of the Sword Coast.

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• The Atoner: You can make her into this.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Sa'Sani is a ruthless businesswoman and doesn't hesitate to get rid of competitors without making to much fuss. However, you can her attitude to a more benevolent one.
• Cute Monster Girl: Volo is attracted to her, even after he finds out what she really is.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sa'Sani is only interested in profiting from the Sword Coast, not conquering it for the sake of an evil snake god.
• Good Feels Good: If the player extracts a promise from her, she can realize this and come to regard her human identity as her true self.
• Lawful Evil: In-Universe, presumably her original alignment.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She is a princess of the Yuan-ti House Sauringar.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Sa'Sani makes a point of explaining her actions to the main party, and trusts them with a huge amount of discretionary powers in her company after seeing how capable they are.

Cohorts

Umoja

A Chultan druid of Ubtao, the guardian deity of the Chultan jungle, with a deinonychus for his animal companion. He's found in the Samargol market and can be recruited for free since he figures joining an adventuring party is a good way to suss out the rather vaguely described Mission from God he received.

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• Bilingual Bonus: "Umoja" means "unity" in Swahili.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Chult is the equivalent of sub-Saharan Africa.
• Hooks and Crooks: He happens to have a personal sickle weapon.
• In Harmony with Nature: Being a druid, that's not surprising.
• Large Ham
• Mission from God: He was dispatched to reasonably civilized Samarach from his usual haunts in the Chultan jungle because his god Ubtao sensed a threat to Chult brewing. Ubtao was correct on everything but the scale of the threat.
• Nature Hero
• Neutral Good: In-universe.
• Stereotype Flip: Large Ham instead of whining about balance.

Inshula sar Mashewe

A Tashalan ranger staying in Samargol while her sister recuperates from wounds sustained in a hunting accident. You can hire her, or you can let her read tarot cards (possibly stacking the deck) which will convince her to join you for free.

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• Blue Blood: She and her sister are scions of a rich Tashalan merchant clan that specializes in the manufacture and export of fine wines.
• Dual Wielding: Oddly though, the devs used the two-weapon ranger build, but gave her a crossbow for her starting weapon.
• True Neutral: In-universe.

Lastri Kassireh

A lightfoot halfling swashbuckler, and captain of the ill-fated Vigilant. You can recruit her after rescuing her and her second mate from the batiri, as she hopes to earn enough money to buy a new ship.

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• The Captain: For the prologue. The epilogues indicate she bought a new ship from the riches earned off her association with the party.
• Drowning My Sorrows: First thing she does after she's rescued from the batiri is get shitfaced drunk.
• Hobbits
• The Napoleon: Especially evident in the prologue, during which you can hear her barking out orders to crewmen twice her height and threatening to have them flogged if they do not comply immediately.
• Swashbuckler: Her actual character class.
• True Neutral: In-universe. She's basically your average blue-collar halfling trying to make a living, and has no time for morality.

Chir Darkflame

A svirfneblin^note deep gnome wizard being held captive by mind flayers in the Underdark Market in Samarach. You can recruit her by killing the illithids (and the rest of the market), then freeing the captives.

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• Chaotic Evil: In-universe.
• Luke Nounverber
• Squishy Wizard: Not really a well-built character. Most notably she took the Toughness feat (+1 HP per level) at first level rather than Spellcasting Prodigy.

Finch

A half-elf bard found in taverns throughout the Sword Coast. You can recruit him after clearing him of trumped-up theft charges in Neverwinter.

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• Chaotic Good: In-universe.
• Clear Their Name: He's wanted for theft in Neverwinter. Turns out a nobleman thought Finch was cuckolding him (he wasn't; the wife was just a friend and admirer), and accused him of stealing a priceless Lantanese timepiece.
• Call-Back: The original campaign referred briefly to a bard named Finch who kept losing his hat. This is him.
• Half-Human Hybrid: A half-elf.
• Horny Bard: Subverted: he is a bard, but not a horny one. He was falsely accused of theft by a Neverwinter nobleman who thought Finch was cuckolding him, but insists he and the wife are just platonic friends. The wife corroborates this and gets her husband to withdraw the complaint, permitting the Player Party to recruit him.

Soraevora Aeravand

"Follow me, as an arrow from Sehanine's bow!"

A sun elf favored soul of Angarradh, the queen of the elven gods. You meet her in the throne room on your first visit to Crossroad Keep.

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• Chaotic Good: In-universe.
• Enemy Mine: If a drow character insults her, she replies that she's none too pleased either, but she has her orders from her goddess.
• Large Ham
• Mission from God: Traveled overseas from Evermeet on orders from her goddess. Angarradh saw the rise of the Zehiric cult and, being a good deity, decided to intervene.
• Really 700 Years Old: Par for the course with elves, but subverted in that she's old enough to show it on her face (looks to be maybe in her forties or fifties if she was human).

Grykk Bannersworn

A half-orc paladin of Torm, currently staying at the Wailing Wench Tavern in Neverwinter. He'll join you if he likes you (which requires good party members and/or party members that worship Torm), or if you pay him 1000 gp to "prove your sincerity".

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• Half-Human Hybrid: A half-orc, although his voice doesn't sound like that of a typical half-orc.
• Lawful Good: In-universe. It's a paladin class requirement.
• Large Ham
• Luke Nounverber
• Nice Guy: He's very well-mannered when he speaks.
• The Paladin
• Square Race, Round Class/Stereotype Flip: He's a half-orc paladin. Normally that would be a bad idea, since role-playing potential aside half-orcs take penalties to Charisma, which is the crux of all paladin abilities outside of straightforward attacking or divine spellcasting. Grykk, however, makes it work, thanks to getting extra attribute points to fill in for the penalty.

Belueth the Calm

A very mercenary aasimar rogue and member of the Shadow Thieves of Amn, staying at the temple of Waukeen in Neverwinter. She'll join you upon receipt of 5000 gold, though you can talk her down to 3000.

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• Cool Mask: Wears a jet-black domino as a symbol of her devotion to the thief-god Mask.
• Neutral Evil: In-universe.
• Only in It for the Money: Unique in that she's the only cohort who just wants loot. Though subverted in the epilogues: she grows to hate the Snaketongues outright and makes a new career out of hunting and killing them.
• The Quiet One: She doesn't say much and mostly answer with just one word.
• Square Race, Round Class/Stereotype Flip: Belueth is an aasimar, who are usually Good-aligned because of their angelic heritage and have the paladin as their favoured class. She, however, is an Evil-aligned rogue associated with the Shadow Thieves — ironically, something you'd expect from a tiefling (who are descended from demons and have rogue as a favoured class).
• Uneven Hybrid: Aasimar are mortals, almost always humans, descended from a good-aligned outsider, typically a deva.

Septimund

A human doomguide of Kelemvor, Lord of the Dead^note You may remember him from Mask of the Betrayer. Septimund is found in Port Llast, where he is investigating nightly incursions by undead from the nearby graveyard.

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• BFS: Favors a bastard sword, also known as a hand-and-a-half sword.
• Call-Back: Nya, a throwaway NPC in Port Llast in the OC, was an old flame, and returns in SoZ as the necromancer raising the dead in the graveyard.
• Lawful Neutral: In-universe.
• Married to the Job: He and Nya were in love, but he was too devoted to his work as an undead hunter to make it work.
• What the Hell, Hero?: It's possible to summon the ghost of an ancient leader of Port Llast and talk him into using an army of undead to help drive the Luskan occupiers out of Port Llast. But if Septimund is in the current party, he'll react with outrage, leave the party and run back to town to warn them.

Quarrel

A half-drow warlock found in West Harbor. You can recruit him after a sidequest.

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• Chaotic Evil: In-universe.
• Dramatic Irony: In Quarrel's motivations. He idolizes Ammon Jerro as a warlock, but seems blithely unaware that Jerro turned to the dark arts for love of country, not personal power.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Half-drow.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Wants to follow in Ammon Jerro's footsteps as a warlock, dealing with fiends for power. However, he seems to have missed the fact that Jerro turned to the fiendish planes (primarily) for love of country, not personal power.

Ribsmasher

A human monk whom you can find imprisoned in a secret shrine to Shar. If a single character could be singled out as the game's Plucky Comic Relief, it would have to be this guy.

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• Ascended Extra: He first appeared in a couple of dungeons in the Original Campaign, the events involving him being fairly crazy (and a little bit awesome).
• Ax-Crazy/Blood Knight: Utterly obsessed with breaking and smashing everything in sight — especially ribs.
• Bare-Fisted Monk
• Hahaha No: If you ask him if there's a reason why he laughs so much, this is his response.
  Ribsmasher: HA! ... (with a unusually calm voice) no.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Ribsmasher is a walking screwball comedy/slapstick film — utterly unhinged, insanely violent and absolutely hilarious.
• Large Ham/Laughing Mad: Seriously, every line he has involves yelling at the top of his lungs (often about smashing ribs) and/or laughing. For example, when you ask him how he got locked up in the shrine, he responds:
  Ribsmasher: WRONG TURN! HA!
• Lawful Neutral: In-universe. The Lawful part is because monks have to be some flavour of Lawful to demonstrate their discipline and focus; the Neutral part is because he's too insane to be anything else.
• Luke Nounverber: Or just Nounverber, if you want to be pedantic.
• Meaningful Name: Name? Ribsmasher. Occupation? Smashing ribs.
• Riding into the Sunset: Sort of. His "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue has him running out of Crossroad Keep after the victory celebration screaming at the top of his lungs about how there were "more ribs to smash!"
• Stereotype Flip: Somehow, he doesn't seem like the meditation-and-inner-peace-kind of monk.
• Warrior Monk

Mysteries of Westgate

Characters

Rinara

A half-elf rogue. You'll meet her at the start of the campaign.

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• Big Damn Heroes: She returns to help you and brought stakes to finish off the vampires.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: After abandoning you, she realizes how much loot she can get her hands on if you beat the vampires, so she returns to help you.
• Dual Wielding: Favors a pair of shortswords.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Half-elf.
• Only in It for the Money: The only thing she cares about is her hidden stash and getting more money.
• 10-Minute Retirement: After leaving the party, she reasoned that the vampires may have amassed a big fortune after taking over the Night Masks, so she returns to help you when you go deeper in the dungeon.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When she realizes that the Night Masks have been taken over by vampires, she freaks out and abandon you.
• Token Evil Teammate: Unless you too are evil, of course.

Mantides

A human fighter, formerly a paladin of Lathander the Dawnbringer. You'll meet Mantides in the Black Eye Tavern in the Harbor Loop. Regardless of what you say to him, he'll offer to join your party.

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• The Alcoholic: Waste his days at a tavern drinking until you meet him.
• BFS: His weapon of choice.
• Deal with the Devil: If he kills a certain man in cold blood during his personal sidequest, he gets an offer from the church of Shar to become her champion. The player can talk him out of it... or talk him into going through with it.
• Fallen Hero: His backstory is that he fell from being a paladin because he lost his faith in his patron god, which is picked up and pointed out by Charissa. He can also wind up killing a man in the arena and getting further.
• The Paladin: He used to be one, but violated the code of conduct and lost his powers. He can become one again, or be turned into a blackguard instead.

Charissa Maernos

A human cleric of Tyr. You meet her the first time you enter the the Morningstar Haven in the Arena District.

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• Black-and-White Morality: Her philosophy, which is hardly surprising, given that D&D universes work like that by default.
  • White-and-Grey Morality: After some Character Development.
• Blue Blood: Scion of a disgraced line of Waterdhavian nobility.
• Clear Their Name: Has been trying to clear her family's name for several years.
• Jerkass: Charissa insults all your party members, thinking she more righteous than them.
• Lawful Good: In-universe - though a glance at her Karma Meter indicates she's pushing the envelope on both sides of the scale.
• Token Good Teammate: If the player is evil and corrupts Mantides into a champion of Shar, Charissa stands as the only good guy in the party.

Sir Peregrim

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• Dem Bones Becomes a tattered skeleton after his death.
• Failure Knight: When he realized they are overwhelmed by vampires, he abandoned his sacred charge, Elandra. It was ultimately futile, as he was killed and forced to protect Elandra's spirit as an undead.
• Sinister Scythe: His weapon is a scythe +4.

Elandra

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• Our Banshees Are Louder: Elandra became a banshee, because her violent and unavenged death was caused by his bodyguard's cowardliness.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: That's the whole point of her religion, being a worshiper of Hoar, the God of retribution.

Tasheni

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• Big Bad Wannabe: She thinks she can overthrow Orbakh and become the new ruler of the Night Masks. She's dead wrong as Orbakh is too powerful and clever while her second-in-command Zymena is playing behind her back.
• Our Vampires Are Different: A half-elf victim of vampirism which she embrace fully.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Mantides' former love now turned into a vampire bent on taking over Westgate.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to say anything about Tasheni without revealing too much.

Zymena

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• Dirty Coward: In the evil path, she abandons her master Tasheni to the PC.
• Evil Sorceress: Her human disguise is a red-headed mage.
• Flunky Boss: Has two Erinyes fighting by her side.
• Our Demons Are Different: Her true form is a paeliryon and she's really, really nasty.
• The Man Behind the Man: Zymena is this to Tasheni who think she pulls all the strings.
• The Starscream: She plan to get rid of her master Tasheni and rule over Westgate.

Orbakh

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• Big Bad: The final villain of the campaign.
• The Chessmaster: Fake his death by your hands so he can secretly track your movements.
• Evil Gloating: It bites him off in the Good path and you call him out.
• The Final Temptation: Gives one to the PC. An exchange from curing you from the domino mask's curse, he asks that you pledge your un-life to him.
• Our Vampires Are Different: He is not only a vampire, but is strong enough to shrug off the early morning sunlight and flee to safety.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: As a vampire, he has standard evil red eyes.

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