#of slavery is ooc and a clumsy way of shoehorning a mechanic limitation that they should have put their foot down with so)

[ride-a-dromedary]

I continue to think about an underdeveloped AU where Halsin was one of the potential new companions for Baldur's Gate 2 (and by continue to think about I mean the oven is preheated).

Because realistically it would have been 24-ish years before they Shadow Curse, which means he wouldn't have yet been Archdruid - would have been in his 220s about, so would have been out of his cynic phase (and likely post Underdark). He'd probably still be on the cusp of being young and idealistic enough that he'd come across a little more chipper and less even keeled/potentially more risky. His personality/disposition and alignment already seems to mesh pretty well with Minsc and Jaheira (in a way I can't quite describe but he's carried much like a BG1/2 era character), who are heavy returning hitters in BG2, so it would likely mean he'd conflict with companions like Korgan, Dorn, possibly Edwin, etc. He'd get along with Aerie (hearing about a "circus" but not experiencing one, then coming into play in BG3 like oh...OH) and Cernd and Mazzy (and Wilson, obviously), and I can see him coming around to Viconia after an initial icy and distrusting head to head.

It would have had to change how he reacted to BG in the third game if he had previously been there, but that's not a huge leap with some dialogue tweaking with less "first time shock" and more "can't believe this place has gotten worse, didn't think that was possible", but unlike Jaheira who begrudgingly grew to like the city after making it her home because it was her children's home (kinda...sorta...), he would have likely gotten right back out of there and held onto the viewpoint for 124 years, with nothing particularly to challenge that, and a particular wariness now of Reithwin's "little market town" turning into an entire city along with the other druids. So the contempt would be further informed by experience.