Aribeth de Tylmarande

The poster elf lady of the game Neverwinter Nights, and one of the important characters of the single-player campaign.

Stats

(From Chapter 1, based on information obtained from the toolset; will get a little bit more formidable near the end of the game...)

Female elf, Level 7 Paladin (of Tyr), Chaotic Good
STR 13, DEX 12, CON 8, INT 10, WIS 15, CHA 15

Description

In the time of the campaign, Aribeth de Tylmarande was one of the most trusted, just, kindest (and probably the most attractive) of Tyr's paladins in the Sword Coast. She also worked as an advisor to Lord Nasher, the ruler of Neverwinter.

After the mysterious plague known as Wailing Death struck the city, her task was to find the cure for it. She succeeded in getting help from Waterdeep, locating four magical creatures, but an attack to the Academy, where the creatures had been hidden, made them scatter - so, for the lack of anyone better to do the task, she needed to pick a student of the academy that was least likely to be totally flattened by the various threats in the troubled town, and gave this lone adventurer the task of finding the creatures. (And as you have undoubtedly guessed, this poor fool who has no idea of the magnitude and significance of the task is actually you, the player.)

(Spoilers!!!)
"I am no longer the Aribeth you knew. Now I walk a different path."
After the cure had been found, it turned out that Desther, one of Helm's paladins and also Lord Nasher's advisor, had been a major organiser in spreading the plague. Fenthick, Aribeth's lover, was also involved in part in the plague affair. After Desther had been found, brought to justice and burned on stake, the people practically lynched Fenthick, even when his role in the plot had been far lesser.
Of course, loss of her loved one made Aribeth a little bit mad at the inhabitants of the city. Insane, to be exact. For some time, she was able to play nice, but as another ploy to overrun the city of Neverwinter was unbound, she disappeared - and was later found just as she was swearing allegiance to Maugrim, a rather unpleasant fellow who wanted to conquer the city to pave way for his plans. After this, blinded by rage and vengeance, she led the armies of Luskan toward Neverwinter. After it seemed that the city was on edge of despair, the adventurers finally found her from Maugrim's sanctuary, now a lot more dangerous than before. There is, however, a possibility in the campaign that she will fall in love with the player's character (if the character in question is male), and as such, she can surrender and be captured in Ch. 4 - but she may need to be killed in other cases, which may not be as easy as it sounds. I managed to dispose of her with sheer luck. Linu did something right for once and zapped the mega-destructo-spell at Aribeth. Boom! =)

Some of my comments...

Aribeth is as nice character as paladins go (not much to talk to, babbling about the right and faith and love and stuff - boring religious stuff), but the voice acting in the first two chapters is not that interesting (just a little bit more emotion next time, please...). In the last chapter, however, the voice acting fits to the character much better and it's definitely acceptable, even when she plays a far less significant role.

The role could have been slightly better written, though...

Meanwhile, in the Real Life...

Aribeth's voice actor was Wendee Lee, a Californian voice actor known mostly for anime dubs. She also did many other female character voices in the game.

Aribeth as a character has got some following - certain kinds of characters in advertising further the sales of the game. =) There's always a few threads in Bioware's NWN forums about Aribeth and her large group of fans...

I've heard Aribeth's character model is the only one in the official campaign with... um... danglymesh in... um... you know. or something. Apparently, the storywriters of the game place the whole blame on the art department.

SPOILERS AHEAD!! (You have been warned)

Aribeth pops up yet again as a recruitable party member in the third chapter of the Neverwinter Nights expansion Hordes of the Underdark. She's now a paladin/blackguard (a neat combo that actually makes sense in light of the events in Neverwinter Nights' OC) and is one of the more powerful henchmen available. There is also a romance script if your main character is male. It involves her revelation that she never really loved Fenthick. This, to anybody who has seen her Greek tragedy-esc fall in the original campaign, should stink of a quickly contrived way to allow your good-aligned character to get into her pants in the relatively short time of Hordes, and not feel bad about it. Other then that, it was a rather good romance script, though not on level with those in Baldur's Gate II.

A few odd facts: Aribeth's race was changed for Hordes of Underdark. She is now referred to as a half-elf rather then a full elf, as she was in Neverwinter Nights. Since her race is referred to quite a few times in each game the change is just weird. Perhaps the folks at Bioware decided that half-elves were just more angsty-cool and hoped nobody would notice?

Aribeth has often been shown, both in numerous pin-up type illustrations, and in the between scene movies of the original campaign, to be wielding a pair of swords. In the games themselves she's wielded a longsword, longsword and shield, or bastard sword but never a pair of swords. She doesn't have the feats for it (i.e., ambidexterity and two-weapon fighting).