#TavQOTD From Twitter:

#TavQOTD from twitter:

What is something modern that your Tav/durge would’ve loved/loved doing?

Astaroth would love playing Genshin impact, proceed to lose 50/50 to Dehya and maxed out ascended Astarion's credit card :3

Can I draw her???

Hehehehe tell me more about consort efinity pleaseeeee

OH...OH no.. you--you don't know the size of the shipping container of worms you just busted open with this question lmao 😭😭😭

(Seriously, getting this ask had me kicking my feet and giggling during my mini vacation at a friend's lakehouse!! Thank you for having an interest in my babu 😭😭 it really means a lot to me.)

I have some posts about her general backstory in her tag but I am guessing you mean taking about Efenity as Astarion's Dark Consort specifically? So, I'll focus on that.

Plus it's not something I've delved into fully and on Tumblr yet lol I apologize for the length before I've even typed out this post lmao I wrote a lot under the cut, sorry 🫣

This song sums up nicely how Efenity is with becoming a Consort and how it makes her feel being his:

Catching My Breath (Cutmore Remix) - Kelly Clarkson

Also, I will mention a lot about her relationship with Astarion in general, and not just Efenity herself as his consort.

As Astarion's consort, Efenity can just be herself in full comfort. In truth Consort Efenity is cruel, unforgiving, uncaring, ruthless, and extremely selfish toward those who are not herself, Astarion or (despite their differences) Shadowheart. She is everything she's always been, but cranked up to 12. She's arrogant and puts all of her confidence in herself and her Lord (this only increases with time lol). On the surface (to charm normies), she is generous, considerate, warm, and charismatic. But like the weather she channels, people soon learn they are just in the eye of the storm.

Efenity is a simple woman. Despite how complicated her schemes can be, despite her elaborate manipulations and meticulously detailed plans for heists...really it's all for a simple concept: comfort, security, and security in comfort. Her main goal for most of her adult life has been to score a hit big enough that she can use the money she stole to purchase her own home (preferably in the upper city), fund her own criminal ring, live lavishly and alone. Once strong enough, she planned to usurp Ninefingers and be the new 'queen' in charge of the underbelly society. Without even being detected. She wanted to live large in her big home and throw parties for other nobles too drunk to notice they were getting their pockets emptied in her party rooms. And then fund her lifestyle by the criminal ring she would be secretly running.

So becoming Astarion's consort literally is her greatest dream come true.... plus the grandest dream she never even thought possible, of becoming the bride to a vampire lord.

---

I'm going to skip ahead to their 'comfortable' years, after the palace has been fully rebuilt and refurbished and they have returned from their leisure travels. I headcanon that it takes a very long time for Astarion to be comfortable with turning someone else into a spawn. And even then, he doesn't find actual pleasure in it, but sees it as business. It's on his terms and only those he personally deems worthy of it. While he talks a lot about making spawn at first in-game, he also admits (to Minthara) that the gift of immortality belongs to only him and his Consort. I feel like those are his true feelings.

But I like to think eventually, Efenity reminds him that they cannot run a palace by themselves, and they certainly cannot have living civilians working for them. His ghouls and werewolves--while great for a fight--are no use with pouring tea or cooking feasts, or changing silk bedsheets. They need servants. Vampire servants. Especially to dispose of bodies and clean up blood splatter without question. And just like that, Efenity's life becomes more than just being Astarion's lover and confidant. Now she had more responsibility, managing the lesser spawn.

----

Consort Efenity spends most of her time in two places: the main palace, and her underground study.

In the main palace, her duties as Lady of the Manor are:

Plan/host the parties she and Astarion throw for gathering intel and victims.

Charming targets at their parties to drill information, blackmail fodder, or gossip out of them covertly.

Make alliances or use philanthropic ventures to keep up appearances AND put people in debt to her and Astarion.

Emotionally keep Astarion in check.

Perhaps most importantly: lock the main doors (both physically and with an arcane lock) to keep victims from escaping and crafty heroes from entering.

In her study, her duties are:

Training the lesser spawn on using their vampiric powers (according to DnD lore, they probably have natural abilities automatically when they awaken but I hc they have to train to improve at them).

Combing through Astarion's side of the plans for inflitration or domination of different groups and parties, filling in the details and making the plans actually do-able.

Running the city's criminal guild. There are underground tunnels connecting the palace to her own guild. She ultimately plans to eliminate Ninefingers (and what's left of the current guild loyal to NF).

Overall, she's a cruel mistress who enjoys giving an inch to take a foot. She likes playing cat and mouse games with victims and being such a big woman, can easily drain them dry in moments. She and Astarion make a million plans and rarely do any of them actually work out, but they keep trying and she has fun with that.

---

But she and her Lord are not without their issues between them too.

She has lost a good amount of control over herself to vampirism. Being a woman of rich comforts and hedonism, these traits are amplified in vampirism and she easily falls victim to her own hunger and boodlust. Thankfully, Astarion is there to help her through it, but must keep her in check when she has episodes of feralness. Just as she emotionally helps him check himself, he helps bring her out of her hunger daze. I hc that he cannot actually compel her because she is legitimately his bride, so he has to employ other ways of bringing her back to herself. Effective, but rarely is it pretty.

Both of these things can be quite frustrating for both of them. They desire to maintain their twisted version of love, as--thanks to their Blood Bond--they emotionally and mentally depend on one another's joy and happiness to fully have their own. It's very co-dependent, but they are both happier that way.

As time continues, they become more powerful and Astarion is more and more possessive and protective of his bride. Likewise, Efenity becomes more and more obsessed with him and blinded by the greatness she sees in him. To her, he is like a god, her Lord who can do no wrong. Her Lord who has remade her entirely. No longer do they help put each other in check, but instead indulge in their desires to be feral and power hungry for one another. They see themselves as the most powerful and clever creatures in Faerun, and want to prove it together, against the world. Thus, begins their eventual downfall.

But it takes many, many, many decades and decades for them to get to that extreme.

XX - JUDGMENT

when will tumblr users learn to make posts spreading information without guilt tripping people

A little sketch of my Tav as Lord Astarion's bride.

my favorite part of ascended astarion is just the fact that you get your classic evil possessive creature of the night boyfriend...except he's not. He's up with the dawn, basking in the sunshine on his giant evil throne he made them drag out to the garden, and then when the sun goes down he's putting on his most dramatic of jammies.

but you know that man has some fucked up evil tea parties