Astarion IS A Deeply Selfish Person BECAUSE No One Helped Him.

Astarion IS a deeply selfish person BECAUSE no one helped him.

Yes, he wanted someone to rescue him, but no one ever did. The mindflayers didn’t rescue him; that was AT BEST him being like a stolen farm animal, meant to be consumed one way or another. Him escaping the nautiloid crash was a goddamn fluke. After nearly 200 years of literally having his free will overpowered, never seeing the sun, being forced to eat rats and bugs, being forced into being a sex slave, and being forced into being an accessory to what had to be hundreds if not thousands of murders, of course he’s not going risk the freedom he JUST GAINED (as fragile and limited as it is) to save a bunch of people he doesn’t know nor care about.

He has all of his own issues. Being someone else’s savior isn’t a priority for him. He’s not going to be Mr. Let’s Save Everyone while waiting for the ticking time bomb in his head into making him into a different but equally mindless monster.

Also, a fact about vampirism in D&D, which BG3 is based on: The vampiric transformation, even to a spawn, changes the person’s moral alignment to Lawful Evil. Obviously, alignment is a finicky thing when your dealing with 3 dimensional characters with actual depth, but basically, Astarion’s transformation fundamentally leaves him predisposed to enjoying murder and cruelty (mostly to cope with the needing to consume blood to live part). Additionally, according to Neil Newbon (Astarion’s VA and partial character developer), Astarion was already a rather harsh magistrate. He literally gets killed by the Gur because they didn’t like a particularly harsh sentence he passed down when Cazador finds him dying in the streets. So we’re dealing with a person who was already rather comfortable with handing out death as a punishment becoming forcibly more comfortable with ending people’s lives through both magical and tortured means.

To encapsulate his character: Purely for self-preservation. Anything that doesn’t preserve him (tangentially through the party or directly) he will dislike. He likes playing politics and lying. He enjoys power and it tempts him because he’s fearful of being taken over again.

The arc he goes on can either feed into his fears, paranoia (enchanted by his vampiric transformation), and bloodlust, or Tav and the party can provide him with a safe place to begin unpacking his trauma and growing to be better than it (romance or not). [I do not like calling him broken and in need of fixing, because literally all of us are broken, and he’s (in the context of Tav to him, even though he IS a ball of well-sculpted pixels) not an object like a broken cup to be fixed. He’s just traumatized and in deep need of therapy, and probably a really good nap.]

So no, he’s never going to like mindless heroics, but you can definitely play a good play through and have him like you if you play politics a little and ask for coin for services. Also, letting him eat people you’re already planning on killing makes things a lot easier.

You have obviously missed the main point of Astarion's plot. Like the man legit had 200 years of slavery and tortoure....

no no, you missed my point.

I will absolutely be the first to advocate this man feeling the sun on his skin for the first time in centuries. And being finally free from his tormentor and getting revenge.

Of learning that he CAN trust other people. And actually grow into something more than a sexual beast that allures people to slaughter.

I am all for that. Give me a bloody, hard earned, revenge plot with some sweeter experiences in-between for the poor guy. Let Astarion enjoy something outside of sex and blood for once.

What I don't like, is his absolute cruelty to other people. During my playthrough, I helped people out of cages and aided the normal folk. I gave money to npcs and offered aid in battles.

He DISLIKED THAT!!! I am near red with him because I am actually trying to help people.

But if it was him in a cage, which he had been at some point, praying for someone to help him, (which is something he says to Tav) he'd obviously want someone like Tav to unlock the cage and let him out, no?

He'd want someone to help him, if there was ever a time the opportunity came up. Astarion would want freedom!

But heaven forbid, someone else wants the same thing and actually gets the opportunity to be saved from cruelty.

That's not result of him being tortured. That's just him being an asshole.

My baby, my baby

I just want someone to read my fic blurb (stupidly long backstory for Tav and synopsis of the first 2 chapters) and tell me if they want me to write it or not. I love the idea, but it can just stay in my head if no one wants it.

It’s Astarion x Fem!Tav, non-ascended Astarion, hunting for sunlight affliction cures, angsty that ends in every sweet fluff & smut.

And I love this game more and more each time I open it 😂

A somewhat comprehensible list of people/creatures you can fuck in Baldur's Gate 3:

- a very limpwristed and sad vampire twink

- ebony dark'ness dementia raven way but she's a cleric

- wizard who eats your magic shoes and won't shut up about his ex

- the widest elf you've ever seen who is also a bear

- a good-boy warlock who gave himself a superhero name

- his patron who always is two seconds away from a nipslip

- the most menacing woman you've ever met who flirts by saying she wants to wrestle you and smell your "musk"

- huge red tiefling herbo who may or may not be literally on fire (so watch out)

- the mindflayer who can and will give you unsolicited advice via psychic connection about all the poor choices you wanna make

- a pair of drow twins who swear it's not gonna be weird that they're brother and sister

- a devil's personal incubus who took the form of the aforementioned devil because he doesn't wanna fuck anyone who doesn't look like himself

- another drow lady who thinks of nothing but murder all day every day

Pls pls pls write astarion fic where instead of him trying to bite tav in the first night its actually her trying to bite him and they both find out the other one is a vampire! Some innuendo maybe and flirting hihi

bite bite fall in love lol

Warnings: blood wine

taglist: @ghostinvenus

"When you said you wanted to know me more," Completely unphased, "I didn't expect this close, dear." One might say he is enjoying him. Maybe he is? You are unsure and frankly not focused on how the smile on his face is clearly mocking you. The hunger demands you feed, driving you to seek out blood.

That sanguine hunger then drew you to his tent this night, the moon high with dazzling stars littering across the sky.

And in this fancy tent, a dagger is once more at your throat cutting enough to draw a thin line of blood.

"Please, Astarion, kill me." The look of disbelief is clear on his face, "I don't want to hurt you." He sees you, the beast enslaved to the hunger: a vampire.

"Oh, do be so dramatic!" He sits back while still towering and saddling your lap, "You wanted a nimble, correct?"

You nod, your claws embedded into the cloth of his bedroll, your eyes closed as your body screams to latch onto his neck to rip it open!

"Allow me then to grant us a solution, hm?" The sound of the bottle opening then the sweet, sweet smell of blood follows. "Ah ah, you get this once you tell me who your master is."

You don't realize you moved to sit up until sharp metal touches your chest. "Master?" Trying to speak but your jaw hurts terribly to do so.

"Yes, the one who turned you." There's an impatience in his tone. "Your sire."

You tell him the exact name and location you think your sire is from.

"Go on, don't spill it." A reward for being forthcoming. Moving off of you as you cung down the drink without at least savoring it. His eyes take in this feral spawn in his tent.

The blood wine is drunk from desperately and after it is all gone, your lips are red with blood, and you crave more.

"No, no," Grabbing you quickly as he saw your eyes turn completely red and your mouth salivating with a stronger. "Control yourself."

You twist and claw but are still too weak to put up a real fight, he holds you against him as you both growl then plead or threaten him to feed, to kill the others.

When morning comes and exhaust finally claims you, he is there sitting beside you, "Astarion?" Why are you in his tent? Why do you taste blood on your lips? "Oh, Gods above, did I hurt you?" When you try to move, you feel sluggish, and you clench your stomach.

"No, you didn't hurt me. You did however try to bite me without permission. Which is very rude, darling." You look ready to cry, "Seriously? Do you feel bad?"

"Of course! You trusted me in this camp and I tried to bite you!" The hunger lurks, and you stand when he stands. "Astarion?"

The laughter is horrible and worse are his words, "Just my luck! A caring vampire. Wow, now that's a treat." He glanced away as he said that last part. The silence hints at something more, the evidence in your mouth as you realize you drank the blood of an animal rather than a person.

A difference you know by force by your master.

You stare with concern then speak, "Are you… Vampire too?"

"A spawn," Disgust in his voice, "So drinking my blood won't free you." The way his lips frown and eyebrows knitted together.

"Free me?"

"You know: drink a vampire lord's blood and then you are free. In theory."

When more confusion is written on your face, as you ask more questions; it becomes clear to Astarion how new you are. A freshly gifted vampire with no guidance…

"Nothing?"

"I only was told I am immortal and to behave."

Sheltered, a sheltered vampire who wasn't taught at least how to control their hunger.

One that is quite a beast than himself, fascinating, and one he can see having an advantage to have on his side.

"Let's help each other, hm? You clearly need to feed soon and I can hunt." His tone expresses a false worry, "I feed us and you keep the others from staking us." Else Wyll– despite being a friend to you, Astarion doesn't trust him. A monster hunter who just so happened to deal with only the infernal is still a monster hunter.

“You protect me and I protect you.” He nods at those words, “Okay.” Trusting him, after all, he spared your life.

Now I want to write a fic like this for my Tav because she’s also not one for excessively flaunting her relationship around strangers (she lied during it to say what he wanted to hear, not the actual truth). The party is one thing. She trusts them. Anyone else? Not really. I want Astarion to agonize like the rest of us did over the choices.

I didn't do Zethino's Love Test because it just didn't feel like something my Tav would do. She isn't the one to talk about her relationship with strangers and didn't think Astarion would be comfortable with participating in something like that. She is the kind of a person who would go to the circus to investigate a clown's murder, not to watch a clown perform (and be all boring, constantly reminding how it's not safe to have fun when there is literally a homicidal shapeshifter on the loose).

But it got me thinking that it would've been funny if Astarion decided to do the Test because he thought it to be some kind of an innocent or stupid quiz (y'know one of those silly entertainment things for couples, what's the harm?), something to experience with his favorite person, maybe have a laugh about it together after they're done. So, he drags Tav into it and then mentally goes "OH SHI-" when he realizes that the Test actually requires him to tell the nymph all about Tav's fears, deepest heart desires, and all the private things they entrusted him with.