Beta-testers Wanted: Keldorn romance mod

[Senka]

And remember limeric from crazy Cevan: What is finished has never restart...

[berelinde]

Congratulations, Senka. You said in one sentence what took me several hundred words.

[Senka]

This is not me. It's Bioware!

[berelinde]

As for Keldorn's age, he is said to have died in his 60th year when giants invaded Athkatla. We know that the Sythillisian army (mixed evil humanoids) took approximately 1/3 of Esmeltaran in 1370, one year after BG2, but they were driven back to the Small Teeth Mountains. The chronology I'm using goes up to 1390 DR without any mention of Athkatla being invaded by anyone, although attacks on other cities are mentioned, so even if the assault by giants occurred in 1390, Keldorn would have been 60 then, which would put his birth in 1330. This would make him 39-40 at the beginning of BG2. Since he himself says that no paladin is admitted into the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart (senior branch, presumably) until his 40th year, that would make him 40. This is confirmed here.

 

So yes, he does speak of himself as an old man, but he is old, compared to most adventurers. Also, he says that few paladins live to be 40, and he doesn't think he has many years left. He assumes that he'll die in battle. He is older than the PC, true, but he isn't 59.

 

His portrait looks old. Why? Grey hair? We all know people who went grey young. Mature features, scars, and bags under the eyes can be explained by the life he's led.

 

Even if he is 40, most players will probably still want a younger love interest. That's perfectly understandable. There are a lot of good romance mods out there.

[cmorgan]

Hey, hey, watch it... 40 is still young Darned paladins, always truthful about their age... gotta become a wizard. Then youcan live to be 130 and it is all good!

 

(Darned young whippersnappers. Don't know what it means to live yet. Now when *I* was a young adventurer, we didn't have all these nambly pambly 4th edition rules... I had to chose up my profession for life, dammit. No switching, no backsies, and we only went to 20th level. And we used three regular 6 sided dice for our stats. None of these wild gods and goddesses, either - we had one stupid castle, Blackmoor, and we raided that place so many times we got on first name basis with each and every denizen. Good times.)

[Senka]

His portrait looks old.

I slightly fix his portrait

[berelinde]

You do nice work! Mind if I borrow it as an optional component? With full credit, of course. I understand if you don't want to, though. You've got you own mod in the works.

[Senka]

Of course you may use it

[KathStoneDog]

squee!

 

Kath Stonedog

[Wisp]

[Chronology]

There's a take on these events in strref #67141:

I heard Athakatla was sacked within the last month by the Sythsillians. And then the great ogre, himself, was revealed as a Bhaalspawn and killed by some fire giant. Incredible story, I think.

[berelinde]

[Chronology]

There's a take on these events in strref #67141:

I heard Athakatla was sacked within the last month by the Sythsillians. And then the great ogre, himself, was revealed as a Bhaalspawn and killed by some fire giant. Incredible story, I think.

Interesting! It's a well-known trope that all rumors in any video game will be true, but maybe it isn't. After all, the random pedestrian seems to have doubts about its veracity. That, and if it's happening at the same time as SoA or ToB, well, Keldorn is with the PC, not defending Athkatla against the giants. Keldorn's epilogue uses the phrase "years later," which implies a considerable length of time. If it were in 1370, why not say "the next year"? If it were 3-5 years later, why not "several years later"? Of course it also says "Amn was besieged by giants," rather than Sythsillians (and rather than Athkatla). So who knows?

 

The game never definitively states his age, so I'm not, either. He's somewhere between 40 and 60. I tend to think of him as being on the younger end of that range, and from the SP link posted above, I'm not the only one, but other players are entitled to disagree.

[berelinde]

Beta-testing the SoA portion is officially over. As I said, though, I'm holding off on the release of this mod until the ToB portion is written and tested as well. Since I've just started writing the ToB portion, together with the ToB portions of Gavin and Haldamir, it might take a while, but it won't be too long.

 

There are 2 more NPC mods I want to write before I retire...

[Domi]

ToB portion is always such a draining experience on a BG2 modder. I hope it goes well, Berelinde! I can't believe Keldorn beat haer'Dalis to the chase, heh.

[berelinde]

I know that there's a Haer'Dalis romance in development at P&T. Aeryn (author of the Sarevok romance) is working on it. So it will get done someday.

 

Mostly, the key to getting a mod finished is to have a clear idea of where it's going to go. With the Keldorn romance, the idea was so clear, the mod practically wrote itself. It went from concept to testing in under 4 weeks. I've got the ToB portion mapped out as well, for all three mods, but I don't have as much modding time as I did last month, so it's taking longer.

[Ankhesenpaaten]

Haer Dalis and P & T??? Really? I'll have to run over there! I know that Valen must be in progress again; at least I hope so. But Haer Dalis??? NEVER thought I'd see that. I'm pretty sure I'll never see Valygar, but your and Senka's Keldorn will make up for that big time!

 

Edit - I can't find it so it may not be public yet. But that's okay. Just knowing it's being worked on is really cool.