Is it also true that Jen & Kay are based on Aerie & Imoen from the Baldur’s Gate games?

Yes… certainly it all grew out of my old fan scribbles, which can now be viewed as experiments and notes for what I’m doing now.  But although it started that, those characters have changed quite a bit.  Like Aerie’s a cleric, whereas Jen is much more of a rationalist and obviously still has all the limbs she was born with.  They still look a bit alike and suffer from a bit of shyness and awkwardness and it’s only because of friends that they can really speak in front of people.  Kaya is a little tougher than Imoen, but as time passes and she relaxes more she’ll start to act more and more silly as well, I expect.

And then there was Tenya, who was a very minor character in Baldur’s Gate who I wrote some fiction and a mod for, and has now pretty much transferred straight to Tenley.  There are some differences obviously, but the general thing of being a very dangerous and powerful little girl who lost her mother is still there.