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[Tempest]

Unlike my last project, I only requested hosting for Valerie once she was well along in her development, so here are some further thoughts and details about who she is:


Valerie is first and foremost basically a geek born with magic instead of books or computers. She is intelligent, studious, and more than a little bookish and shy. Valerie loves learning, teaching, and study, but also believes that these things mean nothing unless you make use of them. She readily admits how odd it is for a sorceress to revere Torm, a god typically associated with paladins and fighters, though she does occasionally pray to Mystra, Sune, and Oghma on occasion. That said, this is not a blind faith, and despite a promising start, Valerie and Ajantis will ultimately end more antagonistic than friendly due to Valerie's intense dislike for Helm's Lawful Neutral dogma. Valerie may also note her regret that she can't seem to study magic as true wizards do, despite being more than intelligent enough to do so - were BG in true 3.5E, she'd be a shoe-in for a sorcerer/wizard. As it is, Valerie is no Qara - she understands very well how magic in general works, though she doesn't yet have the experience and length of study to truly rival Xan or Edwin.

Valerie's immediate background is that she is a newly minted Cowled Wizard, fresh from her apprenticeship and on her first major assignment. In general, she holds a very different view of the organization: the Amnish fear magic with good reason, and people like Valerie are part of that reason. Magic is a perilous and temperamental force, and mad wizards tend to inflict enormous damage before they're brought down. The Cowled Wizards exist to control the power of magic in Amn, and defend Amn from its effects. Indeed, those who abuse magic or use it for evil purposes are among the few who can well and truly make Valerie angry. However, Valerie does not know all that the Cowled Wizards do. She has no idea what really goes on in Spellhold, for one, and is probably more naive than not about the organization's methods in general. This will become important in BG2.

As far as her friendship goes, it's mainly intended for good-or-neutral player characters. It's actually pretty hard to alienate Valerie to the point that she terminates the friendship, and she doesn't mind honest criticism of her shortcomings. For the most part, Valerie tries to focus the friendship on the player character's experiences and circumstances rather than her own - Valerie can be reluctant to talk about herself, though it's out of simple introversion rather than deliberate secrecy. Well, introversion and the fact that Valerie thinks herself more than a little boring in comparison to the player character.

With the Bioware bunch, Valerie tends to be pretty straightforward. She tends to befriend the characters who lean more towards Lawful Good, becoming particularly close to Jaheira (whom she sees as a mentor figure), Imoen, and Dynaheir, though there are exceptions. For one, Valerie learns quite a bit from Edwin, who responds quite well to even what he knows is insincere flattery, and as an arcane scholar Valerie is a cut above your typical Faerunian dabbler. Not much of a cut above, but still. On the other hand, Valerie cannot stand Alora, who in turn deems Valerie a grumpy-pants. However, Valerie and Shar-Teel come within a hair of outright violence...


Looking to the future, Valerie is tentatively (but not absolutely) planned to be a romance option to female humans, half-elves, and half-orcs in BG2 who are of non-evil alignment. Elves and dwarves will be able to start her romance, but Valerie will cut it off quickly before it becomes serious, deciding that the doesn't want to deal with the lifespan issue. Men, halflings, and gnomes, she simply isn't attracted to. Clerics of the Watcher of Helm kit, or unkitted clerics in a planned dialogue who say they worship one of several deities Valerie will refuse to love a priestess of, will also be cut off before the romance commits. Religion is fairly important to Valerie, and she may be more (any of the Triad) or less (Lathander or Tymora) complimentary towards faiths she finds compatible. As sketched, all of this is only the dialogue for clerics in a large and complex class-dependent dialogue, and an unkitted cleric will be offered a choice of all deities within one step of the player character's alignment when asked what deity she serves. Valerie is a long-term thinker and planner, and singularly unambitious in the conventional sense. She is looking for the woman she loves and wants to spend the rest of her life with. Should the player character decide that marriage, home, and family (be it through adoption or a little bit of transmutation magic for a couple of hours) aren't what she desires, Valerie may end the relationship with no hard feelings.

Should the player character not wish to romance Valerie in BG2, I am pleased to announce that, after much discussion with accomplished modder Theacefes, we are tentatively planning a unique and unprecedented element of crossmod for Valerie BG2 and her own Sarah mod, hosted at G3: a crossmod romance. Should the player character be ineligible for (they both have very similar romance requirements) both romances or turn them both down, Valerie and Sarah are planned to develop a romantic relationship.


And finally, if anyone cares what Valerie looks like, she is fair-featured, blonde, and a few dialogues note that she's a beanpole - very tall and very slender, and her figure could be generously described as boyish. Notably, she has one unusual feature in that she has silver eyes. Should the player character ask (it is a written and coded player-initiated dialogue topic), Valerie notes that it's simply an unusual effect of her magic. She's seen other apprentices develop much stranger things when learning to control their powers.

Any questions or comments are welcome, though I retain the right to not provide answers that stray into territory I'd rather not reveal at this time.