I am not a PnP player so I just looked after the computer games I played and read some fun facts about them.
- Are Icewind Dale 1+2 part of the same universe?
I did not find them on those lists.
- Is Volo a bard like in BG3?
I thought he was a wizard when playing older games.
Plus wizards are known for getting very old even when they do not become liches.
That's fine, it doesn't matter if you're a PnP player or not, I didn't want to leave any lore element out.
Now, to answer your questions...
- Of course they are! Icewind Dale 1 and 2 take place many decades before the Baldur's Gate games, even though Icewind Dale 1 released in the same year as Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, and Icewind Dale 2 released in the same year as Neverwinter Nights 1. The reason why you don't see them in this list is because they are in Part 1, where I detail all the Forgotten Realms novels, comic books and games from the very beginning of Faerun's time to the year Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear is set in.
- No, I don't think so. In fact, I wasn't aware that he was ever a bard. Truth is, he is actually a wizard even though he never dresses up like one. In 2nd Edition he was a Level 5 Wizard, and now in 5th Edition he is a Level 1 Wizard. Volo ages normally, but Elminster does not, and the reason why is because Elminster is a Chosen of Mystra, not a lich. Volo is neither one of Mystra's Chosen, or a lich. The reason why he is in the 5th Edition era of the Forgotten Realms is because a few years before the Spellplague happened, he somehow got caught in an Imprisonment spell, and the spell held him for 100 years and released him a couple years before Baldur's Gate 3 during the tabletop game "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist".
