User blog:Mattia Garavini/Pure Evil proposal: Jon Irenicus

My new PE proposal comes from one of my favorite videogames, based on Dungeons and Dragons no less. Say hello to Jon Irenicus!

What's the work?
Baldur's Gate is a Role-Playing Game series set in the High Fantasy setting of Forgotten Realms, using an adaptation of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition ruleset. The focus is on quests, characterization and dialogue, combined with a solid combat system and a continuous plotline. The original games were developed by BioWare and published by Black Isle Studios. More recently, other developers have taken up work on the series — updated editions and a new expansion were produced by Beamdog, which was founded by BioWare alumni, and in 2019, it was announced that a full new game would be created by Larian Studios. (Of Divinity Original Sin fame).

The plot of the main games center around a hero (often called Charname by fans) who is regularly pursued due to power granted by a mysterious father of divine origin: Some want those abilities for themselves, others are simply fearful of what the hero may become because they know that great powers can get to your head and turn you evil. The first game centers around the hero learning about the powers and their source; the second deals with the consequences and choices that come with that power and knowledge.

The series is best known for its memorable selection of sidekicks, which your hero can have up to five of at any time. All have distinct, if sometimes simple, personalities and backstories, and most will drag you into at least one side quest unique to them if they stay on your team long enough. Especially in the sequel, they become fully fleshed-out characters and have a tendency to make comments or suggestions about the current situation, and interact with each other extensively.

Who is he and what he has done?
Joneleth Irenicus, commonly referred to as Jon Irenicus or simply Irenicus, is the main antagonist in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

At first, Irenicus appears to be a simple villain with a keen interest in torturing the protagonist with powerful magic at the very beginning of Shadows of Amn. However, minutes into the game, he reveals that his apparent motive for said torture is to unlock his victim's latent power, thereby benefiting from them in the long run. His obsession with a woman he'd previously maintained a relationship with reveals a much more human (or elven) side to him. It becomes apparent later in the game that Irenicus's embarking on his dark path came about partly from love. His overly possessive and power hungry nature eventually became too much for his partner to bear, and unable to let go, Irenicus turned to pursuit of power and revenge, which in turn led to him becoming completeley evil. However, not only love was responsible for his downfall.

Jon Irenicus introduced himself by putting the hero and his sister Imoen through nightmarish cold blooded torture, having already murdered one of their canonincal companions and dissected the other in his experiments, causing great grief in the other two companions Minsc and Jaheira. An inspection of his lair reveals twisted abominations he has created, living in endless agony, and a host of Dryads he has kept enslaved as his concubines. Irenicus forces the hero to awaken his power as a child of the dead god Bhaal so Irenicus can steal his soul, powering his magic with the souls of unfortunate captives begging for mercy to whom he responds that they have no purpose but to die by his hand. It is revealed Irenicus was once an elf named Joneleth who attempted to seize power by usurping a God of the elven Pantheon and killing their tree of life, for which he and his sister Bodhi were stripped of their souls and banished. Irenicus, consumed with thirst for vengeange and the desire of becoming a god, tries to repeat the same actions with the help of an army of dark elves and monsters, not caring for the lives of his former elven compatriots and his homeland, and when confronted by his former lover, the Elven Queen Ellesime, Irenicus says he no longer remembers their love, and he feels nothing anymore. He is only "Irenicus", meaning "Shattered One", and all he desires is power and vengeance.

Heinous standards
The complete callousness and brutality of his ugly experiments, soul collecting, the destructive invasion of his homeland with a near total lack of emotions and him openly rejecting the chance of redemption offered by his former love interest, claiming he now only cares about the powers he can get by draining the tree of life, makes him worse than Sarevok, who actually can be redeemed in Throne Of Baal. Irenicus proves that there are bad guys who can't be redeemed by love.

Mitigating factors
Not really. He may have loved Ellessime once but after his banishment, he completely dropped his only sympathetic trait.

Final verdict
Might be an easy keep.