IGN: The Villains of Neverwinter

[CoM_Solaufein]

News about the villians in Neverwinter Nights 2 from IGN.COM

 

 

October 3, 2006 - What would an adventure be without someone to egg on the hero with insults and wanton destruction? There would be no reason for any young hero to decide to up and become one of the most powerful people on the planet and no reason for an awesome RPG experience that Obsidian is hoping to bring to players this fall in Neverwinter Nights 2.

 

Creating good villains is an art form. They have to be interesting enough that players care, powerful enough that the odds seem stacked against the plucky hero, and have a hook that just makes them that much easier to hate, fear, or both.

 

There are a lot of enemies in Neverwinter Nights 2 but in order to become a true villain, they have to be towards the top of the food chain of evil, have some kick ass powers, and more than just a passing interest in causing problems for the band of heroes trying to solve the world's problems. Today Obsidian is giving us a first look at three of these baddies. Expect to see some more in the final game, but this should give you a good idea of what to expect with the sequel releases later this month.

 

Lorne

Typically, if a person is going to go bald, it will be because of old age, or overwhelming amounts of stress. Neither of those accounts for Lorne Starling, an enormous and brutish assassin who hails from the same hometown as the PC. There are two likely possibilities for why Lorne is bald. I imagine he headbutts a lot of people. I could see that as probably, over time, causing a fair bit of rubbing and tugging on the scalp. Follicle erosion, we'll call it.

 

The other possibility is that he is such an angry and volatile person that one day his hair became so afraid of him that it packed up and left his head for good, probably under cover of night. Personally I like the second explanation better, because it also accounts for why his goatee is just a tattoo of a goatee.

 

Lorne is a Frenzied Berserker, which is the D&D equivalent of the Tasmanian Devil. If he gets set off (say, his dinner is cold), he unleashes a whirlwind of limbs, weapons, and completely unintelligible cuss words - a "frenzy" - until everyone around him (enemies, friends, people shouting, "Can't we talk about this?" etc.) is dead, or until he gets very, very tired. His powerful ability Deathless Frenzy ensures that he cannot be killed while in one of his tirades, not even with kindness. And that prospect is scary enough for anyone to lose hair over. Even Lorne himself.

 

 

Torio

How do you like your femmes? I bet a lot of you out there are saying "fatale" right now. A few of you are saying "not fatale, because that's overdone," but I don't see you coming up with any better ideas. Torio Claven, a manipulative Luskan diplomat skilled at rhetorical swordplay who bears no relation to the lovable Cheers character of the same last name, puts the "femme" into "femme fatale." Or the "fatale." Maybe both. Whereas Lorne would antagonize the PC by tearing off his or her head and dribbling it like a basketball (angrily), Torio's style is more to rip off the PC's head and dribble it like a basketball, but with words, and only figuratively.

 

There are some villains you just hate, but some you love to hate. Torio is a villain that you initially hate to love, but later on find yourself hating but not quite loving, and then finally you cave in and love the hating but in a "just friends" sort of way, because you don't want it to get weird. Sure she just said something about your mother. But the way she said it was so clever. How can you not love hating a woman like that?

 

 

Zeeaire (zee - AIR - ee)

Zeeaire is a highly ranked and fanatical follower of the Lich Queen, tasked with commanding the Githyanki forces sent to the Forgotten Realms to seek out something they call the "Kalach-cha." She is a powerful and ambitious mage, willing to order extreme actions to accomplish her mission.

 

Zeeaire is reluctant to enter the Forgotten Realms. Though she appears to be young and at the peak of her powers, she is quite ancient and would age rapidly were she to leave her own plane. Her powers, linked as they are to the Lich Queen, would also fade were she to enter the lands of Neverwinter. Thus, she has opened a portal linking her to the Realms, which allows her to communicate with her captains without risk to herself.

 

Zeeaire is remarkable in that her character has undergone remarkably little change from when she was initially conceived. Minor adjustments have been made to her appearances in the campaign, but as a whole she is nearly identical to her initial implementation.

 

Her portal proved to be a bigger challenge to create than we anticipated. Working very closely with the scripter tasked with implementing the final battle involving Zeeaire, the artists were able to find a solution to some of the technical challenges that the battle's design exposed.

[Atreides]

I cried as I read the spoilers ;_;

[Winterwolf]

Well Lorne and Zeeaire don`t sound too interesting, but after one look at Torio`s...erm...clothing style, I feel she is going to be one of my most favorite computer game characters ever....after Kreia of course.

[Musopticon?]

Whatever.

 

Is it really a good idea to just outright tell the fans who's the final boss?

 

Of course, this could just mean that the villain itself is not really important, rather than a dreg leading to a mind-shattering climax, NWN 2 could just be a wonderful journey leading to a boring, yet fullfilling eventuality.

Edited October 5, 2006 by Musopticon?

[Nartwak]

It only says "the final battle involving Zeeaire". That doesn't imply it's the final battle.

[Musopticon?]

Colour me stupid.

[Xard]

Nothing about Shadow Dork

 

Torio seems to be awesome, other two, especially Lorne, sounds quite lame.

[Nartwak]

Colour me stupid.

lol lern2read nub

 

Not really. For all we know the Zeeaire fight may be

the final battle.

 

Edited October 5, 2006 by Nartwak

[LadyCrimson]

Follicle erosion, we'll call it.

I love that line. The guy's looks seem pretty mundane tho.

The two women seem more interesting.

[Dark_Raven]

WoW a bad guy with hair issues as in lack of.

Edited October 5, 2006 by Dark_Raven

[Judge Hades]

Why are the majority of bad guys are bald? Haven't they ever heard of Rogain?

[Dark_Raven]

Why are the majority of bad guys are bald?  Haven't they ever heard of Rogain?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Inferiority complex?

[taks]

hey now, no balding jokes allowed. next thing you know you'll be telling us oldsters to get some extenze to improve a "certain part of the male body."

 

taks

[Volourn]

While the middle gal is HOT; she seems rather boring otherwise.

 

Torio, while not seemingly deep, sounds cool. Could be a heck of a battle if you have a frenzied berserker in your group and he has allies and both end up killing everyone else before going at it. LOL

 

 

Zeeaire could be good; but the spoilers are just wrong...

[Darque]

Hmmm.... not sure about this.

[Pop]

Well, they're not talking about this "Lich Queen". Perhaps that's the

final battle

.

 

And I agree that Lorne does not sound like a good character.

Edited October 5, 2006 by Pop

[zer"0"]

A good crpg needs good villians, these guys however don't sound that great.

Quite generic in fact.

 

What I like in a villian, is figuring out his angle. He/she/it has to be mysterious.

The conflict needs to be personal, more than your basic good and evil or black and white.

 

 

Telling us about it now, before the game is even releseased is lame as well.

-- It must be some new pathetic form of hype-building. LOL

[kirottu]

What I like in a villian, is figuring out his angle. He/she/it has to be mysterious.

The conflict needs to be personal, more than your basic good and evil or black and white.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sounds like a clish

[Pop]

Meh, I can handle an iredeemably evil character, so long as they're interesting. Say, Hannibal Lecter before he got Freudianized, or, uh, I don't know, Darth Vader. Whatever.

[zer"0"]

What I like in a villian, is figuring out his angle. He/she/it has to be mysterious.

The conflict needs to be personal, more than your basic good and evil or black and white.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sounds like a clish

[Dark_Raven]

What I like in a villian, is figuring out his angle. He/she/it has to be mysterious.

The conflict needs to be personal, more than your basic good and evil or black and white.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sounds like a clish

[Darque]

Meh... none of the villians in BG2 were as good as Sarevok.

[Volourn]

Nonsense. They both were better. Even Bodhi who wasn't even the main villainess was better. Not that Sarevok was a poor villain 'cause he was pretty good too.

 

Let's hope these three villains in NWN2 OC are better than what they read as... They seem adequate. About the same level as Lizard Queen (who was undderated), way better than the retarded medusa (Oshe was one of the worst villains ever, down with sou), and not as good as Meph (pretty good for an obvious big bad whose depth is obviously lacking as a demon).

[Dark_Raven]

The Valsharess from HotU.

[Volourn]

She was alright. She had the same problem as Meph, and she lacked depth. hwoever, in her case, she has less of an exuse as she's not a demon and has a 'soul'. No exuse for her being so shallow.