#maybe larian will add him later

[galedekarios]

Idk if you’ve been asked before but what are your thoughts on EARLY early access Gale? The Gale that has bandages on his arm in some early promotional art? There’s an old Auntie Ethel vicious mockery line for him: “I can smell what’s under those bandages wizard! You’re all rot and ruin.” I always wondered if the orb was originally going to have nastier side effects. Like it was making Gale fall apart slowly OR maybe Gale was trying to become a Lich to better handle the orb before being abducted by the mind flayers so he’s in this half alive and undead state when Tav meets him. I feel like that last one would explain the necrotic damage he emits when he dies better. Anyways those are just two tiny details that I roll around in my mind from time to time. I might be thinking too deeply about it. Maybe the writers just wanted to figure out a way to show how much the orb was hurting Gale and the bandages were a start but for some reason they decided against it.

i loved early access gale. there were a lot of uncharitable reads / bad faith takes about him back then, ranging from him being the secret bbeg, the ultimate and guaranteed betrayer, the absolute, to being myrkul because he had a triangles on the robe he was wearing (no, i'm not joking), etc etc etc.

personally, i always loved his character, though, and found him the most interesting and intriguing out of the companions.

overall, i think that he's not that much changed - however, as with all companions and a lot of the npcs, some things have been whittled down or away entirely by larian due things like fandom feedback, but that's a discussion for another time.

i don't subscribe to the lich idea myself, because i think that's not something that gale would want for himself for a multitude of reasons. having said that, however, i always enjoyed this theory:

so, early access gale had this key art, which is still one of my favourites:

left hand wrapped in bandages, the almost stone-like texture of what little you can see of his skin.

adding to that, as you also mentioned, ethel had these vicious mockery lines for gale:

Auntie Ethel: I can smell what's under those bandages, wizard. You're all rot and ruin.

and

Auntie Ethel: Come to greet death early? You'll be a lovely spectacle.

to add to this, this was the way gale talked about the orb and what he thought it was, as well as karsus:

Player: I was wondering about that “mighty lord” you told me about in your story. Gale: Ah, yes. Karsus Karsus was perhaps the most powerful wizard that ever lived. The child-who-would-be-a-god, the elves called him. And he tried. With a spell of his own devising he endeavoured to usurp in one fell swoop the power of the goddess of magic.  Mystryl, she was called then. Imagine what it must have felt like. To be a god. To know yourself to be untouchable. To be mistaken. As Karsus aimed his spell at her she began to unravel, and with her, the entire Weave. Too late did he realize what he had unleashed. It would have been the end of everything had not Mystryl sacrificed herself.  Gale: The goddess of magic is all magic. By dying, the entire weave was lost, and the spell that challenged a god failed. It was the end of Mystryl, the end of Karsus, and the end of an entire civilization. As the child-who-would-be-a-god was turned to stone, his empire came crashing down around him. The floating cities of Netheril were no more. An event that came to be known as Karsus' folly. Player: So at that moment in time, all magic was gone?  Gale: For a spell. Mystyl was reborn as Mystra. Upon her return, the Weave returned with her.  Gale: Now, so many centuries later, I tried to follow in the footsteps of Karsus, not to destroy Mystra, but to prove my love for her. I tried to control only a fraction of the magic that was unleashed that fateful day. I merely sought to return one tiny diamond to an imperfect crown. Gale's Folly one might call it. History. Repetition. It's the way things go.

some of this is still in the game.

more lore about karsus's folly:

Unfortunately, his choice was a terrible mistake, for one of the responsibilities of the deity of magic was to regulate the flow of magic to and from all beings, spells, and magic items in the world. Lacking the ability to do so properly, magic surged and fluctuated. With her last remaining bit of power, Mystryl sacrificed herself to block Karsus's access to the Weave, causing all magic to fail. The flying cities of Netheril plummeted to the earth. The severing of the link also killed Karsus and transformed him into stone, and the last thing he saw was his entire civilization being destroyed because of his actions. This was to be known as Karsus's Folly. The stone form of Karsus eventually landed in a part of the High Forest, now called the Dire Wood.[8] The city of Karse was built around its base. Karsus was never accepted as a petitioner by any god, nor did he go to the Fugue Plane when he died. Instead, his soul was bound to the Material Plane. Those with experience in pact magic could call up his vestige, where he appeared as a giant blood-red boulder,[5] like the one found in the High Forest where his petrified form landed.[8] Blood burbles up from the top of the stone, trickling down the side facing the summoner, pooling at the base. [x]

there are also lines of gale referring to this corruption he carries within as a "taint" and a "shadow", corrupting him "within", affecting his blood as well (another thing that carried over to release).

i think what might have been originally planned (and again, some of this did carry over) is that the orb not only affected gale's magic, but also his body even more severely (it still does to an extent in the release version even though this part is very, very sadly almost entirely glossed over).

putting all of this together, i think that by absorbing a part of that magic unleashed on the day of karsus's folly - the failed magic, the severing of it, karsus turning into stone, petrifying him - might have affected gale in a similar, albeit weaker fashion.

"history. repetition. it's the way things go."

karsus's folly.

gale's folly.

perhaps as the game continued this petrification might have spread, from his hand, up his arm, to his shoulder, and on, either by leaning onto the darker aspects, or by the treatment failing (the consumption of powerful pieces of weave).

maybe that concept was then turned from petrification, to a sort of corruption/rotting that ethel referred to in her lines.

either way, it would have been interesting to see, for sure.

#gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #ch: gale dekarios #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #meta: mybg3

[bearhugsandshrugs]

I think you all know how much I love Halsin, but replaying the grove missions I can't help but think what kind of a bad leader he was. And I'm being dead serious.

First off, Kagha. He put someone as second-in-command who easily got desperate and trusted the wrong crowd. If you play out the Shadow Druid line, you hear how there suddenly appeared a letter to her and it didn't take much convincing for her to join them. But also, you can rather easily persuade her to turn on the Shadow Druids, too! So you're left with a deputy who can't hold her own ground, is easily swayed, and basically let her power fantasies get the better off her at the first chance. Now, you might ask: why is this Halsin's fault?

Aside from the obvious bad pick as his stand-in, he apparently had not developed her to perfom better as a leader at all. He set her up to fail: He left her, on short notice, in the middle of a crisis (already a bad call – he should have asked someone else to go with Aradin). But even before that, he apparently never taught her what kind of measures would be appropriate during duress, or she wouldn't have jumped at the first best chance to betray him.

But more. Many of the druids comment on how Halsin is "weak", not only Kagha. You can hear the idle conversations when you walk the grove. And they're not only about taking in the refugees. So there seems to be general discontent amongst his own community about his leadership, even portrayed by the fact that Halsin felt the need to hide his thoughts in a diary only carried by himself. You can also find a note which says that he asked the Emerald Enclave for help and they won't send any. Plus, last but not least, you seriously have not put any effort in developing a worthy successor (Kagha aside)? Really? Sure, you can get someone from the outside, but why, if you're leaving anyway? That play would make the most sense if Halsin intended to return and then step down, which seems telling in itself.

Even more. Because right outside the grove there are several harpies with literal bodies and skeletons piling up on the beach. You have a whole ass community of druids yet no one thought to actually walk, what, 15 minutes down to the beach to see what's going on down there? You couldn't be bothered to do something about it?

And it pains me to write this, because he's supposed to be our guidance-giver, a retired leader so to speak, but what he leaves behind in the grove is little to show for. He remarks himself several times that he wasn't truly happy there, and later you find out that he had to step up as arch druid when his previous leader was killed. And then he took the community to the grove and established a community there. A community that was made up entirely of refugees, and then is all too eager to turn on tiefling refugees the second those strangers come into the same scenario Halsin once led them out of.

Of course he can't be responsible for everything, but he is (or was) responsible for the culture there. And what we see of it? No thank you, actually.

It's probably because for a hundred years he was restless, seeking to figure out the shadow curse, weighed down by guilt and desperation of not finding any answers. Add to that his whole trauma-response of his whole laissez faire lifestyle – do as you wish, basically, as long as it won't harm anyone – and you get the Emerald Grove. At the same time Larian is trying to sell us Halsin as this wise man who has seen everything and can't be shaken easily, but man. Yeah maybe that's true. But maybe he should be shaken up more easily. Actual lives are at stake. This is not the time to be so chill.

Last but not least: I think Halsin knows this. But he can't get past the doubting himself stage. He can't just admit it to himself, admit that his avoidance of deeper bonds caused this. He voices doubts, sure, and says that not solving the shadow curse sooner was his biggest failing. YET. How could he have done that without allies? And that's the thing: In a century of not properly settling down to develop stronger bonds – to his own community of druids, to others, hell even to Jaheira, who he knew of was there! – he had no allies to cure the shadow curse. No allies meant there was no one to seriously grieve over if they should die, like he did with Thaniel and his former arch druid. At the same time no allies meant also that he was destined to fail. But instead of seeking said allies, he stayed in the grove, sought refuge in books and tests, and shied away from befriending others.

It's why he needs Tav so much and why he stays back in camp for most of Act 2. He can't get too close. He is literally unable to form stronger relationships to people he can rely on. I think it's past trauma preventing him from it. Does he know this, deep down? Probably. Will he ever admit it? Not in the game. Unfortunately.

#bg3 spoilers #halsin #wake up i'm ranting about halsin again

[orallech]

they should add an option where if you sign the contract with Raphael you can grab him by the waist and dip him low and kiss him so sweetly and he’s just more confused and then disappears for a while so you can’t contact him and then shows up days later like nothing happened and it’s never addressed. Until he maybe sends you a letter at the epilogue camp or something but you have to do several weird steps to decipher the writing and once you read it it catches fire and turns to ash immediately. Where’s that addition, larian?

#bg3 #raphael #OR if you don’t take the letter and just get with haarlep and don’t take his deal he sends a letter that’s like if you must know everytime #you feel the affects of haarlep little deal that’s me #and there’s a 😈 emoji or something #the it turns to ash #I think I meant take the hammer** #I don’t think any sorta of thing you can have with the way that he is could be normal #it’s funnier to me if he just gets completely disarmed by being kissed cause it’s like stopping dead in your tracks on a bike while a dog #chases you and then the dog stops and stares at you like well what do I do now?

[spacemonkeysalsa]

Spoilers about Astarion Origin, Wyll, and Karlach's endings.

This might have been said before, but I've been too busy playing the game for the last six months, and I haven't seen anyone else say it...

Larian has their preferences when it comes to the type of sad that they want to demonstrate in their writing, but with a moment like Origin Spawn Astarion starting to burn before he can persuade Karlach to go to Avernus with Wyll, it honestly feels a bit forced as tragedy, and that it would have been objectively so much better--- He starts to burn. Karlach is burning. But the following options appear: The tadpole's protection is gone. RUN.

Karlach is dying, you can take it. Stay.

Then, if you like Larian's forced sad "doomed by timing and narrative" way, you can choose it. Or, Spawn Astarion chooses to stay. I can hear Amelia's narration now: "Karlach burned for all of you for days, you can burn for a moment." And, to take it further, fuck him up a bit. Maybe he needs to pass a roll or he's cinders. Or, add burns that don't quite heal, even six months later he's still got a status effect. Idk, there's ways to make it meaningful and sad without it also feeling like you gave all the way up, geez.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 astarion #bg3 astarion #astarion ancunin #astarion #bg3 karlach #karlach cliffgate #karlach

[lelalyo]

Wyll doesn't just deserve more content, he deserves better content, in my humble opinion.

I know a lot of people were concerned about the change of category (is that the proper phrase?) about the Ansur part of his quest but I feel like that part needs changing to a degree. Primarily because it doesn't feel very Wyll specific.

I feel like it focuses more on how the Emperor is a scumbag then anything to do with Wyll.

I'm not a writer by any stretch of the imagination but I feel like you could've still had that confrontation with Ansur and the Emperor and had something that tied to Wyll like after you fight him, maybe Ansur sees some of himself in Wyll - a loyal protector - a strong guardian - a man of morals and maybe Ansur decides he doesn't want history to repeat itself. He doesn't want someone else to fall victim to the Emperor again so he gifts Wyll power or a weapon or something that could put him on par with Mizora so he doesn't need her help anymore.

He held out, he endured, he stayed true to himself and finally, someone recognizes that, truly acknowledges his efforts and now he has power that is truly his, that he earned in his own right by being who he is.

Maybe then you could tie that into a climax, a final confrontation with Mizora. Maybe instead of killing his father in the Iron Throne, she simply kidnaps him from there before before you arrive to make Wyll panic that we were too late and something has happened to his father.

Maybe Mizora appears at camp with his father as a bargaining chip, mocks him for going on a wild goose chase and how amusing it was to watch. She could threaten his father to make Wyll more compliant, to try force him to resign the pact but this time is different.

This time Wyll, the Blade of Frontiers, isn't the one who's at a disadvantage. Maybe you could have a Durge vs Orin situation - a 1v1, duel to the death with strict rules of engagement to be fraught at the foot of the hill where this all began - if Mizora wins, Wyll resigns and can never break free from the hells. If Wyll wins, Mizora dies and his father goes free.

Maybe Mizora uses a loop hole in the duel's rules to cheat when she's near defeat and that's when you and the rest of your party jump in to keep Mizora's lackeys at bay while Wyll finishes her off and then a cutscene of the final blow, of Wyll's victory. Finally, he's a free man and his father sees him for who he is. His actions said everything they needed to.

I don't know, like I said, not a writer in any capacity and I feel like I'm just getting lost in my own musing - there's lots of things I didn't consider, like surely a situation like this would have point holes everywhere, especially since I don't know the first thing about DnD and it's lore but my original point was that I feel like Wyll needs a moment - that character defining moment that most of the other characters have - that time for him because he is a good character, I really like him and I hope that Larian listens.

I appreciate all the hard work they do with all the patches, never doubt that but I've always felt like Wyll's story needs more attention and it is important - he's a main character, an origin, he's a key feature of the game and that should take priority.

I love all the new features that they add (to a degree) but this is a core issue and I'd much prefer they work on the things that matter and add the fluff later.

Just my two cents though, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Edit: I just remembered that devils go back to the hells when they die top side, right? (See, what did I say? Plot holes) but maybe it wouldn't matter since Wyll would've lived a long life by the time Mizora pops up again. Maybe she swears revenge on the Ravengard's and bam, plot for the next game. If there is one. LMAO

#Baldur's Gate 3 #BG3 #Wyll Ravengard #The Blade of Frontiers #BG3 Mizora #Mizora

[loquaciousquark]

Y'all, MALUS THORM. JIMINY CHRISTMAS.

It's been a long, long, long time since I got squeebed out by eye stuff, but him poking himself right through the ocular into his brain legit made me grimace. Gross, Larian. Fun gross, but gross. Not even Volo's eye thing was that bad.

In other news, I'm well into Act 2! I've fully explored the eastern half of the map and am working my way through the western side north-down, since Moonrise seems to be at the bottom left of the map. I've really, REALLY been enjoying this game--the combat, dialogue, characters, and plot progression are something I've been missing since probably DA2 days, and aside from a few early missed camp conversations, I feel confident I'm seeing as much of the game as I can, which is what I wanted. (Some people from Early Access had been posting saying that if you long-rested, you could seriously affect the outcome of the druid grove/goblin camp stuff, so I was avoiding resting as much as possible. How tragic!) This is exactly the kind of map structure I wanted from Inquisition and Andromeda; please don't lock parts of an "open world" map behind a level cap. Just make it linear and big and scale the enemies and make the higher-level stuff behind doors or later in the game. Don't give me a sandstorm I can't enter with no clear game context clues that this is a "COME BACK LATER" portion of the map, especially if you're determined to put quest markers within it.

The plot of this game still has me guessing! I'm so intrigued by this dream visitor who seems to want only the best for me but encourages use of the worms. I've only consumed one, but I've had it strengthened regardless by a few in-game choices (the illithid in the Underdark was a big one--the sound I made when he floated onscreen!). Lae'zel is currently undergoing a crisis of faith, and I strongly suspect Shadowheart's not far behind. Astarion is determined to make a deal with Raphael which I think is dumb, but Wyll, Karlach, and Gale all seem to be in great shape aside from their individual ticking time bombs inside them. I want to be able to add this His Majesty cat to the camp party and it's KILLING me I can't.

Romance: Astarion, no I don't know why, no I don't really think he's that similar to Fenris aside from the superficial background, yes I know the master and scar stuff and trust me that's not the source of the pull. I think I'm more interested in the thread (which I assume will come to fruition) of teaching the sneering peacock how to be sincere. The slavery stuff is incidental. Stop LOOKING AT ME.

I did somewhere trip a Karlach romance flag and finally had to let her down after her second piece of infernal iron, which SUCKED. God, I ain't felt so bad in a video game since...I don't know. Virmire, maybe?

I'll post screenshots shortly, but I'm playing a rogue (irony) named Tavish Gale (double-irony, sorry Gale), and I've REALLY been enjoying sneak attack and poisons and lockpicking. I hardly ever play rogues in games like these, but here we are! She has the criminal background, but also has red hair and freckles turned all the way up, so in terms of the Astarion romance structure in my head I'm playing with some contrasts between someone who has spent their whole life trying to hide in the shadows vs. someone who's spent two hundred years trying to crawl out of them.

#quark plays bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #eye horror #tavish gale

[aboxofcereales]

I won’t be able to play the game until august 8, so here’s a list of things I’d like to see and theories that I believe will be proven right at the full launch of Baldur’s Gate III.

warning: contains spoiler based on last panel from hell of July 7 and datamining + bunch of misspellings

Think it’s pretty obvious but the three chosen of the Absolute are in one way or another connected to the Dead Three: Ketheric Thorm - Myrkul, Enver Gortash - Bane, Orin the Red - Bhaal

(might be wrong but) Larian did confirm some time ago - the Mindflayers won’t be the Big Bad. To my mind undoubtedly the Dead Three will play a significant role, but I also think that Shar, Vlaakith and someone from Avernus will be involved (Zariel maybe?)

To add the last, somehow Astarion’s scar, Mizora, Rafael and Karlach are tied together

Withers’ question and our answer is some foreshadowing and is gonna bite us on the neck later on

Withers is Jergal

Seluna might be the reason why his helping us

Daisy is not what we think they are, not just personification of the parasite

* I’m not sure how much of seduction narrative has been left, but I think it would be fun to see Daisy to take a form of our LI or vise verse at some point

Raphael’s interest in the brainworms is due to netheres magic

Lorroakan, the wizard of Ramazith's tower, is Edwin Odesseiron

There’s something very dark about Gale, not in the way “don’t trust the wizards”, but in way we’ll learn that he way more sinister than he makes himself seem. But I doubt that he’ll betray (if we play our cards right) though. Let me make him my bff

To add to that, when we first meet him, he says that he’s in need of a archemage, later we learn that he also need to consume the weave… can he consume it from the living creatures?

Gale’s relationship with Halaster Blackcloak. WHY THE FUCK DID HE LEFT TARA IN HIS CARE?!

And the heartbreaking ending Crystal was talking about? That’s Gale’s one. Mark my words

Shadowheart is not her real name, duh, hope we get to know the real one

I don’t think Shadowheart is brainwashed cleric of Selune, most likely she chose freely to join the Night Church due to loss at young age, previously worshiping Selune

Her strange magic is Selune-ish, I think

Would really like to see Viconia in the Shadowheart’s hideout in the city

The Temple of Shar, Ketheric and those Shar worshipers will be key in making Shadowheart rethink her devotion (and our previous decision ofc)

Astarion was a nasty person before he become a vampire spawn, pretty sure that his abuse of his position is what got him in Cazador’s grip

There’s got to be one ending where he turns Tav into his own vampire spawn

Not sure how much the changes in Wyll character will affect this, but… even though it’s seems that Mizora is no longer captured by goblins, I hope there some specific interactions with her if we follow Wyll romance

Wyll is part of the Eltan family

WHATS WITH HIS EYE BEING A QUEST OBJECT??

Really wish we’ll learn about companies families: I want to meet Wyll’s father, to learn about Gale’s parents, to help Shadowheart remember her family, to learn about Astarion’s past, to know their last names and etc. Let me know theirs ages, Larian!

Also, Larian, my dear, give Wyll and Gale their unique armor

The artifact will cure us

I really wish there’s some reference to Honor Among Thieves, as they both take place around late 15th century

If Zevlor is Absolute’s servant, I really hope there’ll be a horrible way to make him pay

Auntie Ethel loot is cursed

#bg3 #baldur’s gate iii #baldur’s gate 3 #had a few more but I either forgot or they had to do with wyll pre-rewrite #might edit later #and add smt

[lanaevyssmoved]

Well, druids can see things pretty black and white sometimes. Halsin is no exception, so I can see why he would act like that. But it's certainly a flaw, a big one. And if it goes like the text suggest it might be the flaw that removes him from my party in a good playthrough. I wonder if they will add a very hard dice roll later. I imagine coding in another character is a lot of work, Halsin and Minthara take up the same slot sort of speak so maybe they want to keep it like is but give the player more freedom in picking which one? Who knows, but I'm excited about what Larian has planned, they are obviously cooking something

yeah like, refer to my last ask. it feels off for a druid to say "yeah, go murder people while being enslaved. that's better than being here." over "we should kill minthara because she is dangerous and unpredictable and a murderer" or whatever the fuck. that's the black and white i'd prefer. over. let her go potentially massacre a group of people like she tried to at the grove. that's.. obviously black and white.. huh..? halsin? do you not care about the lives of innocent people unless they're YOUR people?

#fray.txt #ask #Anonymous #character assasssinatioonnnn

[lexsnotdead]

You having a positive opinion about the companions in BG3 (particularly Astarion) really made me consider getting into BG3 at some point to. The whole marketing around the game, the trailers and all really turned me off so far; I do however enjoy your opinions about DH or Signalis or other games a lot, so maybe I'll check the game out after all

ooh, that's really nice of you to say, thank you! i haven't made up my mind about bg3 completely, but so far i'm having fun. what bothers me a bit is that it is extremely black&white, esp when you're doing an evil run (+ dark urge backstory) like i'm trying to atm. i think it's worth checking out bg3 if you're into dnd and its rather simple alignment system and turn-based combat + add larian studios flavor on top of it all. if you have your doubts... the game is not that cheap (at least by my standards) to find out 10 hrs of gameplay later that you're not into that after all.

and the thing about astarion... when i look at him, i assume many would love him for horny reasons and i can see why. for me he's more like a pet rat who i'd give treats for behaving and shake him by the tail if he's being naughty, yk? he takes some getting used to. lae'zel and shadowheart are my favs and mostly it's their backstory which keeps me interested the most lol

it's nice to hear that the chain of advertising continues — i got into bg3 myself because a mutual of mine whose opinion i keep in very high regards was posting about it a lot & made amazing art. i sincerely hope that it won't be a disappointment should you check it out, anon

[glassbirdfeather]

Baldur's Gate 3 half-baked missing ending content

I'm not going to post a direct link here because tumblr likes to kill posts with them.

Below is a screenshot of a Larian forum post, which itself was copied from a reddit post that was unfortunately deleted before I could screenshot it; probably because it linked to a google drive document containing decompiled game content, but I personally reviewed one of the files in that drive that they are referring to and can verify it contains what is claimed below.

There is a single spoiler for Karlach's cut ending in the following text.

<ID: A larian forum post by Madguise titled "To those disappointed in the endings... [Reddit post]"

I'll be copying and pasting since this is very much important; I think there is good reason to assume the situation will be fixed in the (near) future. If you look in the game files (an extract of the decompiled dialogue files can be found here) you can find; [I have removed the google drive link here, sorry]

END_GameFinale_CompanionFates Withers has gathered the companions together one final time as a reunion of sorts 6 months later. They each exposit their various activities. Minthara is not here because she is only present if she is partnered with the player (she is still a speaker here but can change). END_GameFinale_WithersGathersCompanions 6 months later after saving Baldur's Gate, Withers gathers the companions and player around a campfire to invite them to recollect what they've been doing. END_GodsAndMonsters_WithersChronicles Scene that plays after END_GodsAndMonsters_WithersMeeting in which Withers settles the accounts of what happened to all the characters after the events of the game ended.

These files have tons of variations in them and are overly long so I will not copy everything that's in them here, but in my opinion it can be assumed that these are the "17000 endings" Larian talked about just before release. Maybe the game was shipped with everything leading up to the ending finished so they could get it out the door and had time to add all of this stuff later, but nevertheless I feel people should know that these files exist and that there is already a major framework for an epilogue, ending slides etc.

If you want to take a look yourself, go to the link above. There is so much in there that it's hard to cover everything at once, but my personal favourites so far are [spoiler]Karlach having her ending slides take place in the City of the Dead if she dies at the end while playing as her and Withers repeating the question you asked him at the beginning back to you at the end.[/spoiler] It's such a shame this is not in the game already.

This makes me glad that there is a ending somewhere in the games files, but it also makes me upset that they decided to launch their game without an ending. Maybe they did'nt think the game would garner a lot of attention, but I hope they will patch everything in real sooner rather than later.

End ID>

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3

[redstaratmorning]

Headcanons and Musings of Pirate-y And Plunderous Proportions: Astarion Says What

Synopsis: Random musings and ramblings regarding and spawning from the differences between how Astarion says just one word, depending on your choices—“What?” This got very long and touches not only on Astarion’s difference in presentation in aforementioned moment, but also some discussion-thoughts to chuck onto the dashboard regarding some other elements of Astarion’s content thus far in Early Access, and some thoughts to add onto others’ speculations and wonderings (I did not save sources so pardon the lack of proper citation, oops. We’re going informal here anyway.) Spoilers for Chapter 1 BG3 scenes, plot, etc, under the cut in case someone hasn’t filtered out the tags. Trigger warning/content warning: some discussion of heavy topics is mentioned and explored, including starvation, abuse/torture, and trauma. Other topics of note for summarization include speculation on Astarion’s largely unknown as-of-early-access background and a touch of his possible pre-vampire morality leanings, possible mental state/trauma reaction in a couple of scenes, and vague speculation on Larian’s gameplan for Astarion’s arc ending. Gather thy party and venture forward, for here be dragons and lots o’ text, matey! [/stereotypical pirate accent]

“What?” Just that one word, between the goblin party and the tiefling party. If Larian keeps the body language and tone presentation more or less where it’s at now in Early Access, they are worlds apart and delightfully up for interpretation of just what’s going on in our favorite vampire spawn’s head. This won’t be an in-depth post about all the tonal and body language differences, just picking out a few due to personal constraints (ie too broke to buy this game currently.) Edit: And also a lot of other thoughts and ramblings tacked on, lol. On the one hand we have him at the goblin party, where he seems much more superficially comfortable there, knows what’s going on and knows what to expect—it feels like he’s done this kind of scene a hundred times before. The comfort of familiarity. Did Cazador throw “parties”, much like how he “invited” Astarion to dine with him? I wouldn’t be surprised if he mingled at regular dinner parties either before his turning, or perhaps after when he’s ordered to hunt for Cazador’s evening repast. I doubt the goblin party has anything as potentially horrific as what Cazador would have lined up on the nightly basis, which is why Astarion isn’t aggro’d: he’s in a position of power at this party after all, not a powerless one. A conquering hero, as he describes the MC. A Precarious position, as it turns out.

Circling back to that one word though, the way he says “what” in that scene after he propositions the MC and the MC picks the “Maybe. If you say please” line feels like Astarion’s response could be interpreted as pretty abrupt. On guard, perhaps, squaring up, offended, even perhaps lowkey challenging/hostile. Expressing social displeasure and possibly staring down the MC mayhaps? Could be, especially if Astarion’s body language remains as it is rigged now in-scene with that step forward, his shoulders shifting, the lack of a smile, that assessing glare, all combined with that flat tone of voice. The animation could just be temporary and subject to change, but if it does end up as more or less the final version of that moment’s depiction, it’s pretty interesting as a shift. I’d read it as potentially “not actually truly comfortable in this situation, just familiar and numb to it all”, especially when combined with some of his other earlier potential lines at the goblin party, such as the following: Astarion: So, what are we drinking to? Other than a pile of corpses. MC: That’s not funny. Astarion: Oh don’t be so sour - It’s a party. You did what you had to. Don’t be ashamed that you did it well. MC: I wish things had turned out differently. Astarion: And I wish I was drinking out of the skulls of everyone who’s ever wronged me. Life is tough. Although that’s not to say we can’t have a little fun. This supports the whole “has been through his personal hell and has adapted to survive it albeit not unscathed” story Larian seems to be going for with him quite nicely in the little tells and details. A sort of “take what joy you can even amidst the dark situation surrounding us” trauma-induced adaptation, coupled together with actual enjoyment on his part for killing. It’d be easy to say Astarion is moreso in his element at the goblin party, and to a degree he is—it’s one he is well practiced with in his current mindset. Compare now how he acts at the tiefling party—we can all agree he’s not having a good time, our friendly neighborhood vampire sulking in particular over the fact that “there’s a worm in [his] brain, [he’s] surrounded by idiots, and all [he] has to drink is wine that tastes like vinegar.” But the delightful thing is he’s complaining so vividly about it. The wine likely is worse at the tiefling party, seeing as they’re refugees, and the goblins had previously captured a duke whom they likely stole loot from and under orders from Minthara et al stored said goods elsewhere for a later date (likely some of said goods were consumed at the party if it happened. Edit: Shadowheart’s drunk dialogue at the goblin party mentions the goblin’s wine there being good, poor dear. Fascinating hints at her story and character in that scene though.) This is assuming Astarion is drinking wine at the goblin party, of course. He may very well be drinking something red and full-bodied there, just not made from grapes. But even in his complaints and presentation, he seems arguably more relaxed and less on guard compared to his demeanor at the goblin party. Let’s be honest, he doesn’t view goblins as equals or stimulating company judging by his various voice lines expressing his disdain, distrust and overall low opinion of them as vermin among other things. The fact that he’s willing to call the tiefling refugees idiots while in earshot of them? Definitely doesn’t respect them as a group—though he has a less negatively opined line regarding them earlier on if the caged goblin (Sazza) is killed,—which is not surprising given that MC and company at the time of the party just saved them from certain death. Astarion’s reaction however also reads as potentially at ease enough to say what he’s thinking. He’s not going to get murdered for saying so, and there aren’t any punishing power games at play with the refugees and do-gooders he’s found himself surrounded by. There aren’t any hedonistic shenanigans going on and the drinks are terrible, so it’s not an entertaining party for him, but one could make an argument that Astarion might actually be feeling more secure or at least less threatened-as-is/was-his-accepted-ongoing-norm there. Which might mean he’s feeling quite out of place, or even just not...entirely engaged with what’s going on around him and even within him as far as emotional states go. Would he casually pull the same stunt at the goblin party? If you’re a bastard to him, yes, but that’s not in the same emotional vein as his dialogue during the tiefling party at all. Loyalty from the goblins is fickle, the goblins worship the Absolute and those that are chosen by the Absolute—so long as said Chosen remain powerful enough to subjugate them and is in favor. Astarion knows this kind of power structure well: ruling by fear and power. With the tieflings? It’s not superiors-and-subordinates, it’s just...people. People celebrating surviving an event that could’ve very well and most likely would’ve ended in their deaths. Will he get to celebrate like that one day? That could very well be a painful and bleak thing to consider, and not something he wants to contemplate as of yet, based on his dialogue lines that demonstrate his fear of Cazador. How’s he supposed to get lost in the fun and revelry if the wine doesn’t even taste good to him? I don’t know wines, but I’m guessing from what little I do know and what I’ve read of flavor descriptors for wines hyped as good, it might actually be bad wine based on the adjective “sharp” when mixed with the rest of the description if the MC takes a sip. Sharp seems to suggest too many tannins, or maybe improper storage so the wine actually did turn to taste a bit more like vinegar, or maybe not enough sugar in the grapes used, perhaps? To be fair, I do believe there’s a non-conversation line somewhere of Astarion’s regarding solid food tasting terrible to him, but I can’t verify that so a pinch of salt there. Still, if his taste buds are aligned with regular living mortal ones for wine at least, RIP Astarion, he’s stuck with a terrible drink for the foreseeable night. Unless, of course, you know. ;D Compared to the tieflings, the goblins as a whole? As a group they’re a scraped together army of pillagers hungry for destruction and spoils. They don’t have ANY loyalty to you—in addition to being willing to betray you via murder immediately despite working with them when Sazza first brings you back to meet Minthara, there’s also when Minthara potentially opts to try to kill you post-goblin-party. If you persuade her not to, Minthara does mention “do not return to the goblin camp, as far as they were concerned you were destined to die tonight.” This is not a group to get chummy with, obviously. Doesn’t say good things about the Absolute’s followers in general, either, or the Absolute depending on if Minthara’s being honest about the Absolute intending that the MC dies after razing the grove. Minthara could just be lying to serve her own ends and is out to destroy any rivals for the Absolute’s favor, after all, I can’t verify that from dialogue exploration at present. So it’s not surprising that this is not a group Astarion is going to let his guard down around I’m sure, or around an MC that sided with the goblins, because fortunes can shift like the wind in a scene like that, and I think his utter lack of surprise at Minthara trying to kill you all (whether or not the MC had a romp with her) is potentially spawned because he recognizes this fact. He’s been here before, in another time, another place, with different faces, but he’s seen this play before. And the MC is just another face for the same old role of a player in this rat race for power when they side with the goblins, aren’t they? The difference this time though is: will they succeed and make it to the top? Is Astarion betting on the winning horse, or not? Far less reason and far more motivation to not be emotionally invested in anyone or anything around him because it’s survival of the fittest, and the most ruthless will be the ones who win—the MC just reinforced that perspective for Astarion, in slaughtering the tieflings. But Astarion isn’t fully corrupted yet, despite however much Cazador has twisted and tormented him so. Isn’t it fascinating, that the MC, one of the first people Astarion can actually interact with relatively freely without Cazador’s puppeteering influence hanging over him quite so acutely, is someone who might very well and very likely will have a huge impact on how Astarion develops and sees the world? For better or for worse, the MC will shape all the companions’ futures and perspectives it seems, depending on their choices. On a meta note, isn’t that thrillingly fascinating and engaging work by Larian Studios? Bravo, honestly. Continuing, for Astarion this could very well just feel like a better but complimentary and thematically continuous segment of the nightmare that is his existence under Cazador as it goes on: he’s a vampire now, and the world is only ever a power struggle between the strong and the weak, and he knows better than to ever be weak again. Kindness and virtue belonged to Before. Before he died, before he turned, before he was taken. Those are things in stories and fairy tales now, that belong to other people, other places and times, other lives—things that belong to the living, not the undead. Sentimentality, more universally-accepted morality, all of those Good™-aligned or softer feelings can feel like they have no place in his world now, on this darker path. But he knows what they are, not just in theory I think, but also perhaps knowing from memory and experience, however distant and faint. The way he speaks on many occasions has subtext that could very well suggest he wasn’t without a better side through implication and emotion. Which is not to say I think he was a shining paragon of virtue before he died—guessing based off of the dev team’s writing of him so far, I’m expecting nuanced and complex but ultimately very human (or elf if you’re being fantasy-based technical) morality with both merits and flaws, for polarizing opinions in the fandom. That being said, I’m holding off judgment on what kind of person he was before he was turned for now despite reading about pre-early-access, preliminary ideas the dev team had for his background. The reason I’m waiting to see what the dev team puts into the game for his backstory of Before, is because some of his datamined lines could be taken in a couple of different ways, and some of his emotional responses as is currently don’t track as truly Machiavellian or I’d say malevolent in nature for manipulation or otherwise. Granted, not all Evil™ acts stem from intentions to be malevolent. Sometimes people do evil both in-game and in life without really intending to, or recognizing that they do, nor seeing the harm they have caused or will cause (I’m looking at you, Mayrina.) Manipulative yes, but so far it’s looked like it’s for defensive purposes in a world that is out to hurt or kill him if given any opportunity whatsoever. Personally I actually wouldn’t even say he’s been really manipulative at all, but your mileage may vary. He lies because he’s afraid you’re going to murder him for being a vampire, and because he doesn’t want to reveal the cause of two centuries’ worth of trauma to someone he just met and likely can’t predict if they’re emotionally safe for him to interact with. Note: “emotionally safe” does not necessarily denote being sympathetic here, so much as “will their response cause me pain in some fashion?” from Astarion’s point of view, which does not necessarily require the MC to be mean to him though obviously that wouldn’t help. We touch upon why sympathy can hurt later on in this essay. And why would he expect sympathy in the other instance, regarding revealing that he’s a vampire? How often would we not murder strange vampires we just met in DND-worlds? Is that not a common response and practice in Faerun for the most part? They’re on the list of acceptable prey for a monster hunter to be kidnapped and taken to who knows what fate (probably nothing good we’re sure), and who would come rescue them? In all actuality: No one. If he wasn’t a companion he’d easily just be one more random encounter to kill—as he and all the companions are in the right circumstances, *cough cough* like when sacrificing anyone to Boooal *cough.* Astarion’s had little cracked moments where he seems to be showing genuine vulnerability, and I’d say he likely displays real genuine emotion plenty of times, just not all the time. While the vulnerable moments could be a ploy, were he the type to actually be fully acting, I’m disinclined to bet that he’d act in the way he does during those moments if he planned them out or even improvised. It could be a mix of both, where it’s both true but also an act of manipulation. Were it the last option, that would require more exploration of his character in various situations to determine imo. I still doubt that though. I think he’s a little too raw and real in his pain, anger, and aggression to say he’s being malevolently manipulative at the end of the day, at least thus far in chapter one. The MC’s choices may change and influence that, on the Evil™ route. I’ve been following some of the fantastic dash discussions on Astarion’s reaction to when the MC tries to comfort him (because of course I have, I’m here for BG3 content and Astarion content especially, aren’t we all here for the same party in his tag? Also hello fellow Astarion stans! :D I hope everyone’s having a good day), and if some of these datamined lines from Pjenn’s blog post are actually implemented and kept as canonical [link], specifically the ones Astarion says regarding heroes, I do think it ties in very strongly with some of what other folks have said regarding his recoiling reaction. Copy-pasted the potential dialogue lines of interest below: Astarion: Heroes. |said with disgust| Astarion: Heroes had two centuries to save me from my torture, but not one came knocking. Astarion: The strong had two centuries to pluck me from torture, but no one came. No, it was the mind flayers that rescued me. Astarion: I spent centuries as the victim of a corrupt man. It was the mind flayers that plucked me away from that. I very much enjoyed all the takes on Astarion’s potential motivations in his response, and I do want to chuck another idea into the fray that supports the vein of ideas that have him being truly afraid and then angry at the MC in that scene, with the speculation including those possible hero lines above as influence. Specifically, I’d like to bring in an outside comparison to part of Molly Grue’s reaction to seeing the Unicorn from The Last Unicorn animated movie for the first time, transcribed below: The Unicorn: I’m here now. Molly: [Bitter laugh] Oh? And where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent, young maidens you always come to? How dare you. How DARE you come to me now, when I am this. [begins to cry, heartbroken] Consider Astarion being shown kindness when he is now away from Cazador, not fully free or safe yet but not currently actively fully suffering Cazador’s torment all up close and personal. Consider that only on that very night before he was snatched up by the mindflayers, which might’ve been anywhere from only a day to a handful of days before this conversation about his nightmare, he was going out to falsely smile and lure some innocent—(“No innocents. You have my word.”)—or perhaps not so innocent, beautiful soul back to Cazador’s mansion to very likely die or be turned. How often must he do so? Is it every night he is ordered to go out and condemn someone else to that unfortunate fate? Do you think Cazador killed them cleanly? Quickly? Why would he, instead of agonizingly grinding out any last traces of sympathy his spawn might have through the guilt that they are the ones who “choose” who suffers and likely dies at Cazador’s hands that night? To give the illusion of choice is one abuse/torture tactic that can be used to break a soul that we see often in games: choose who suffers or dies. Cazador is unquestionably a personality who enjoys the psychological aspect of tormenting his victims, as evidenced by giving Astarion the “choice” to be either flayed or to “dine” on a rotting, dead rat, as well as other mentions of how he puts thought into torturing those around him. Astarion is still so fresh from his torment,—torment that is still technically on-going with the very real threats of resuming once more—he is emotionally bleeding enough arterial blood at the seams to fill a sea. His actions, words, and emotions so often metaphorically smell of blood, and not because he’s a vampire and the traditional role of a vampire being a predator among humanoids ironically enough, but because being a vampire spawn means Cazador. And Cazador means horror. Astarion has survived, yes, and it’s been hell. He’s still in hell, because he isn’t free yet. Not truly. It’s a desperate gasp of air, this taste of freedom, to dream that he could be free of Cazador. Imagine his feelings when he’s now in something like freedom, a reminder of what could be, what his life might’ve and likely was like once upon a time, an uncertain here-and-now where he has the possibility—just a possibility, and an unlikely one at that for most ordinary or less-than-ordinary people, not a certainty—of being free, and he’s just admitted to the horror that is Cazador. Admitted in this moment how much Cazador frightens him, how much just the thought of Cazador frightens him, how much the possibility he might be sent back to his master and having his previous tormented existence resumed truly frightens him. And the MC reaches out in sympathy. In acknowledgement that what Astarion has been through is horrifying. To look at this horror and say it is pain, and terror, and awful, that it isn’t normal. It isn’t something to ignore. It isn’t something to pretend is just everyday same old, same old, to numb and take off the edge as much as one can. That Astarion’s pain and fear aren’t to be sought out for entertainment or at best to be willfully neglected in an act of malice. That stark moment of contrast, like night and day, could bring the pain of two hundred years crashing down inside his head, all compressed into one moment. Feelings he tried so hard to survive through, ignore perhaps, suppress: fear, helplessness, loneliness, misery, anger, sorrow, hatred, pain, anxiety, distress, need. Memories, of so many instances that hurt in that moment and then continued to hurt for so long afterwards. How much must it hurt him, wound him, to lift his head for air and have a perspective outside of his suffering that is sympathetic...but knowing that nobody came to save him.  That perhaps, no one ever will, if he loses this so-called freedom and is dragged back under. That those that care, cannot help you. And that those that can help, do not care.  Why would anyone help him at this point after all? He’s a vampire spawn. A classically defined monster in the eyes of society, and he knows it. (”I’m not some monster!” / ”At best, I was sure you’d say no. More likely you’d ram a stake through my ribs.”) He must have been truly desperate in his starvation to chance anyone finding out he’s a vampire in the party. Not surprising, he can’t rest at the end of the day like the other companions can. He has to expend extra energy at that point to find food discreetly after fighting all day, and subpar food at that. (”Animal blood tastes like muck.” verification needed, it’s a conversational line in some branch of the morning-after he asks to bite the MC the first time) He’s not eating breakfast, snacks or lunch during the day, and he isn’t guaranteed to find food while hunting in the woods. Game might be scarce, he can be wounded or exhausted after a long day of fighting, and he wasn’t starting out in the peak of health to begin with either. He is a vampire spawn yes and apparently can take down large game such as boars to drain them, but that is a rough existence to condemn anyone to mechanically speaking. He knows what he’s risking, regardless of his int stat. But he takes that risk anyway. The character who is so survival driven, risking a very high likelihood of expulsion at best or death as the much-more-likely worst outcome of this attempt? His bite isn’t painless, and pain can wake a person up readily enough if they aren’t a deep sleeper, and how deep a sleeper are most people when in an uncertain and unfamiliar wilderness, potentially while hungry and cold, with the fretting fear of a agonizing death looming over their head? Even accounting for a lack of mental clarity from hunger and exhaustion and other factors, I find it deeply unlikely that Astarion is unaware of how big a risk he’s taking with the odds are stacked against him, rogue class or not. And even if he’s just thrown out of the group? He’s alone. Vulnerable. A target to be hunted by a much bigger, meaner predator. One that won’t kill him quickly, we can guess. His odds are much lower, on his own. Specifically his odds of not being dragged back to Cazador...assuming the MC doesn’t just turn him over to Gandrel. How terrifying is it to imagine that your suffering will never end, to be told it will never end, and then you are reminded of what it is like to not suffer for a time. To have felt the painful hope that maybe there is a possibility that you could escape an existence of torment...but knowing you very well might not? It is desperately bleak. It is no great leap of the imagination to hear Astarion saying—(or more likely thinking because this would be terribly vulnerable...but he might say something when pushed because he’s so full of sharp edges and bleeding insides still)—something similar to Molly Grue’s line in his own fashion, is it? Astarion: “[Bitterly laughing, mockingly so. As he speaks his tone breaks, an edge of raw, desperate hysteria slipping through, attached to centuries of pain turned to anger] And where were you two hundred years ago? A hundred years ago? Where were you when I still desperately thought in the deepest parts of my heart that someone might come? When I still had hope?  Astarion: [his voice turns low and venomous, raising in volume and accusation before finishing with a break on the final word “this”, a tonal admittance of how distraught and self-aware he is of what he’s had to do, of what he’s had to become to survive] How dare you. How DARE you say this to me now, when I am this.”  (the above lines are entirely fictional and are not from any in-game, data-mined, or otherwise official source or content) He’s been made to do so many terrible things, even just based off of the few lines we have heard in early access he’s been through so much horror. An hour of torture, a day, a month is so incredibly long. It can have such lasting impact on a person—PTSD, as we know it in this day and age. A year? Five years, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred? An elf he may be, but from a human perspective...he’s been tortured for lifetimes. Even as an elf, two hundred years is a long time. More than long enough to seriously alter how someone’s brain works—people are both amazingly resilient, but also so incredibly fragile. Cazador has had all this time to play with Astarion’s brain, honestly I find it impressive Astarion has any sense of self left after all this time. That he’s still driven to survive, that he still feels anything at all. (”It doesn’t look broken. But then again, none of us do.”)  It doesn’t surprise me that he’s intensely bitter when encountering the “paladins” of Tyr—(ie Anders and company if you know who I mean—and was that a Dragon Age 2 reference? If not that is an amazing coincidence with the whole Anders-Justice-Vengeance-Demon thing there)—if the MC asks something to the tune of “Don’t you wish someone had helped you when you needed it?” Oh. Oh that had to be a painful question for him. Astarion had his basic needs denied and abused, to ask if he wished that someone had helped him when he needed that and more, and no one came? Why was he denied but the paladins get help? Why does he have to be the hero when no one came for him, when no one very well might come for him when he might still very well be in dire straits in the near future?  I can see the possible desire to inspire sympathy intended in the question from the MC, but it can be so utterly without sympathy to ask that in some contexts, and in Astarion’s case it is. He was being abused and controlled without any way out—Anders and his cohorts opted into the deal with Zariel for personal reasons, not as far as I know under threat of imminent death, and they are relatively capable of fulfilling their end of the bargain barring their current injuries at the time. They certainly have more freedom of choice than Astarion and other vampire spawn ever did, and they were not being tortured right then and there. Warlocks, referring to Anders and co., might even have the option to get out of deals, a la Wyll’s personal questline hook thus far. Astarion can’t get out of his servitude from Cazador. Cazador holds all the cards, makes all the decisions, has all of the power. To compare Astarion’s situation to his face with that of the “paladins”? I’m surprised he wasn’t spitting fury, honestly. They still have normal elements to their day to day life, despite their devil’s deal. They are not being tormented on the daily—yet. They are not in hell—yet. They can get out. They have the possibility. A possibility Astarion didn’t—until now. And isn’t that the most fucked up thing, that it wasn’t a force of Good™ that saved him, but an even bigger monster than Cazador himself? He was saved—by mindflayers, intending some fate that was likely worse for him than before. Even when the Absolute’s hand begins to be revealed in all this, he is still a pawn among monstrous masters. What heroes there are in the world, won’t come for him. They never did before, and they didn’t now. Heroes are for other people, for realities aside from his own. They are for other people, living Other lives. Not his life. Forces of Good™ swooping in to save the day, to correct the wrongs of the world and to make things Right™ just isn’t his normal. Not anymore, if ever it was. His normal was warped by Cazador a long time ago. Is it a stretch of the imagination that if Cazador twisted “dinner” to be a choice between consuming a rotting, putrid rat corpse or being flayed on a nightly basis, turning “poetry” into the memory of a “sonnet” carved into Astarion’s back with a razor over the course of an entire night full of Astarion’s own pained screams? Is it hard to imagine that Cazador also took pleasure in turning other ordinary situations one might encounter in normal life into nightmare versions as well for Astarion and his other spawn? One illithid mind-power option shows Cazador controlling Astarion by holding his chin, though without any further context. Cazador wouldn’t have had to do more than that to invoke terror, after a certain point in time. It seems highly unlikely the gesture wasn’t followed up with more pain, though. Perhaps in that moment when he speaks of his nightmare in the first conversation and the MC reaches out to him in sympathy...Astarion was reminded of something. Multiple somethings, multiple moments, when Cazador reached out to him oh so casually, and it ended in pain and terror. The way the camera is framed as of the current time in early access, the way he flinches away crying “No!” so quiet and low, his eyes wide and staring just so, how he goes so far as to pull back almost entirely out of frame and the camera slowly pans to follow him? Perhaps that is just a stand-in scene, but as it is, even now, it emphasizes that he is I would argue genuinely afraid, and reflexively responding in what is likely his first opportunity to freely respond to his traumatically induced fear. The first opportunity where he wasn’t supernaturally compelled to do exactly as Cazador ordered him to, the first opportunity where he was likely not going to be tormented further for expressing his fear, for having his main tormentor laugh and delight in his distress. The first instance where he for a split second let his guard down, and didn’t expect to be hurt—until the MC reached for him, echoing possible memories of what happened last time someone (Cazador) did that. It’s not Cazador reaching for him. But...it is not Cazador. He doesn’t have to worry about Cazador hurting him right that second, but...will the MC hurt him, like Cazador did? Will they make it look like they’re going to help him, that he can trust them, and then betray him? (”How can you be so cruel?” / “It [Raphael playing games] reminds me of Cazador, taunting his slaves with hope when he knew the game was rigged.”) But they scared him. They scared him, and perhaps for a moment he was back there, in another time and place, where he knows, where he remembers, vividly, perhaps even recently, what normally would have happened to him. And how dare they make him feel that. (“I can do without reliving that particular night, thank you.” [Nightmare about Cazador dialogue, a separate scene if you miss the insight check from the first post-nightmare camp discussion I believe.]) He’s so raw and upset, both aggressive and defensive when he speaks about his nightmares in quite a few of his lines, asking and waiting to explain just why his nightmares are truly so terrifying, especially in the second-nightmare conversation. The way he speaks there, and in other scenes, makes me very disinclined to interpret him as actively intending evil in general so much as having been shaped to be ruthless through a centuries-long trial by fire that he isn’t free and clear of yet. Based off of how he reacts on more than one occasion, I’m personally inclined to take a leaf from Wyll’s book and say I do think he has more than just potential to be good. “Good™” being relative of course to his situation and undead-life—Astarion has GREAT potential as a character to explore not only what it means to be Evil™ aligned, but also what people on the meta perceive as evil, as well as what prejudices we may carry from that labeling.  He is I think very much an excellent walking morality test and ironically a mirror for the player’s character. What kind of person is the MC, in how they treat and interact with him. He is a complicated and morally-entangled character, and it is so very easy to only read him in the here and now within the stark, daylight context of societal’s average norms without looking at the very real, very recent nightmarish Twilight Zone reality he’s lived in that echoes through his words and story thus far. It’s a marvelous bit of echoing reality and real life here by Larian, truth be told: how do you tell people about your life, when it’s been a ceaseless, unending nightmare? With smiles, witticisms, and the occasional polished lie that bleeds out pain, for some folks anyway, including Astarion. He says he’s having more fun at the goblin party, but at the tiefling party? That’s probably the first time he’s been at a normal party where he hasn’t had to obey and fear Cazador’s orders and inevitable torment during or afterwards. That’s the first time in his entire undead existence when he’s been in a social situation like this without being afraid, hurt, or manipulated. It’s not a fun party on its own by his standards, but it is a safe party for him. In a way though, safety can be boring. A luxury, yes, but in this case? For him, boring. And boring...might very well be irritating, in an anxiety-turned-irritation fashion, because he’s not being tormented right this very moment. He should be finding something to enjoy, because in his normal everyday routine? In the day to day that he would expect, that his subconscious expects out of habit? Opportunity for any form of enjoyment must be rare indeed, twisted and tainted by Cazador’s ever looming shadow over every minute of Astarion’s vampiric existence so far. It could be anxiety-inducing, to not seek pleasure or some form of happiness or comfort while there is opportunity for it, in what one perceives as a respite from constant, on-going suffering. (”Why do you insist on exhuming the past?” - when you ask about his past in camp, after you know he’s a vampire. An unpleasant reminder of an unpleasant past, why would he want to dwell on it? He has enough pain to last him multiple lifetimes. Literally.) From the deep, deep depths of prolonged suffering, it can potentially take a great deal more intensity of sensation to feel anything at all, let alone something approaching happiness. (”For the first time in two hundred years, I felt happy.” [presumed Astarion-origin line after drinking from a sleeping companion] / “I feel strong. I feel...happy!” [after MC succeeds in persuading Astarion to stop drinking from their neck after giving him permission to do so.]) This isn’t even taking into consideration how vampirism might have impacted Astarion’s psychology on a metabolic/biochemical level, so to speak. Where Larian goes with that is still to be determined, though my money’s on they give him more a murderous edge and natural inclination—not unlike a Beast-lite version of bloodlust from Vampire: The Masquerade— but still keep his core traits very much human rather than supernaturally-alien/2D-cut-out-monstrous. (Or elvhen, if we’re being fantasy-world-linguistically technical here again.) Touching on the matter of monstrous behavior though...It is a powerfully understated moment of casual cruelty that Larian allows the MC to decide once and once only, if Astarion may also drink from people or only animals. It’s so fitting I don’t believe it to be coincidence that he was a magistrate in his backstory—isn’t the MC passing a judgement too on him, a sentence to change his life for the foreseeable future, possibly forever without realizing or perhaps not caring about the full extent of their actions? And one cannot forget Wyll’s comment about the rat diet. Oh, can you not hear the resonating parallel real life pain from how those ignorant of another’s hurts might unintentionally mock the person and hurt them so? How some might apply their own morality from their own life experiences, without looking at the full extent of the consequences of their actions? A life and perspective that more likely has never been tested under the lash and upon the rack of some of life’s worst possible realities? Even if Wyll and the MC don’t mean to be, it is so very, very cruel. It is beautifully painful, Abdirak and the goddess Loviatar would be proud. (”My mind is finally clear. I feel strong. I feel...happy!”) To be denied not just better food, but the ability to think clearly, to feel well, the actuality of being happy as a norm? It is so very hollow an existence to feel so constantly weak of both body and mind, and oh isn’t it just the richest thing, that an MC might echo Cazador’s choice and power over Astarion thusly? It’s enough to make one laugh an Evil Laugh™ of appreciation at just how unthinkingly, horribly cruel a person can potentially be while playing a Good™ character. This is actually a level of genius on Larian’s part that I wonder how many in the audience will actually look at and appreciate the subtle horror of. The horror that we do this too, in real life, sometimes without ever knowing the seemingly small, far-reaching ripples of harm an unthinking phrase or comment can do when we don’t take another’s reality into consideration—that we don’t know what it is we don’t know. It is a fine piece of storytelling, to offer up a story with so many facets to reflect upon. It’s so beautifully crafted that Astarion speaks and dresses like a noble, that he can so easily be perceived as a person of privilege at first glance should one merely look at some of his surface behaviors and inclinations—remnant trappings of his distant past most likely, from once upon a time. It’s a delightful reveal and subversion that he, I think we can safely say, isn’t that. Perhaps he was, once, but he isn’t at this point in his life, not anymore. Appearances are deceiving, and doesn’t that just tie so nicely right into some of Astarion’s potential themes and behaviors? The lies that crack open as truth and pain come bleeding out from underneath? I do wonder how many of Larian’s audience have known hunger—and not known when the next meal will happen, what it might be, if it will have strings attached? The kind of hunger that follows you everywhere, that roots down into your bones and hollows out a home there forever more? It changes how a person sees things, how they act, how they think, even when they’re removed from being hungry all the time. One doesn’t need to be skin and bones to feel like one is starving constantly,—(I very much enjoy that headcanon just to clarify, I’m not intending to throw shade in any of this or future rambling)—to be kept on a hollow diet of empty calories that are enough to keep your heart pumping, but your body struggles because it doesn’t have the nutrients it needs in the amounts it needs? To feel your mind fog over with exhaustion and blanketed despair, a primal and low level desperation whittled down into a tired and numb, anxious background static from adrenal fatigue? Miscellaneous aches, pains and problems that seem unrelated but in reality, if only you knew, were because your body can’t function the way it should ideally, because you don’t have what you truly need? A very real problem in real life, for far too many people. And oh, the beautiful, casual, so very human monstrousness Larian lets us exercise here, knowing or unknowing. It is such a powerful, understated cluster of ideas. And I think Larian knew—someone on the dev team did their homework on both traditional starvation but also what one might call masked-starvation as no doubt other tumblr folks have also speculated, just based off of what we’ve seen and because of that Happy buff Astarion gets when he uses his Vampiric Bite ability in combat. It fits right into his whole theme of “what makes a monster and what makes a man?” (Sing the bells of Notre Dame~♪) But not necessarily asking that question only of him. Rather, asking it also of the MC. This fits into the game’s whole theme with the tadpoles, the choice of using the power and turning into “Something More Beautiful” as Minthara put it, of taking the darker path, it all fits so very well. I just want to applaud this because it’s not a major story-beat moment. It’s a companion-side-quest moment. It’s going to be for the most part seen as a combat-game-mechanic and head-canon defining moment, deciding if Astarion may feed on people or not. I doubt we’d see Larian actually changing Astarion’s demeanor much in how he delivers lines with a “allowed to drink people blood” code flag, as cool as that might be. It very well could factor into later outcomes but for voice acting I doubt they’ll make an entire second/third/etc set of each line spawning from that one seemingly small choice. It makes me very hopeful that Larian can handle such weighty themes so deftly thus far—we’ll have to wait and see if they can stick the landing once the game is finished, but boy oh boy their nuance and delivery so far is strong as steel and sharp as a double-edged sword right out of the gate. The studio is in a fantastic position to explore and to challenge people’s thoughts and ideas regarding character builds like Astarion’s imo, depending on how the dev team chooses to play it out. Seeing some of Gale and Shadowheart’s dialogue trees from the goblin party, I have high hopes that the dev team will allow a great deal of exploration and flexibility all across the moral spectrums, not only allowing us the option to drag the more seen-as-good-aligned characters down paths of moral corruption,—(note: I’m including Shadowheart in more neutral-ish territory for now but the fact that she seems to feel emotionally ill—guilty, one could say—at the goblin party and is busy trying to get drunk to drown that feeling out suggests to me she Definitely does have a more good-aligned moral compass to a nuanced degree)—but also the chance to drag more seen-as-evil-aligned characters along the path to more traditionally good endings and persuade them to see the benefits of playing nice with others per more classic Good™ societal rules (subjectively speaking ofc.) But Larian is also in a very precarious place too—speaking strictly of just the one character as the focus of this essay, Astarion resonates very easily through that very real fear, pain, anger, bitterness and so many other emotions as a result of what he has survived, is still surviving through, and struggling against: trauma. How bitter indeed would it be should a character—that people with very deep, real pain can relate to—not get at least the option for a well-crafted, hopeful and merciful epilogue? Oh the sympathetic pain that Larian could reap could be pain of the very worst kind, if they condemn him to only death and darkness with bleak endings that lack nuance and care. I’ve seen some posts where people worry about Astarion not potentially having a good ending, with possible unspoken implications that he might be railroaded into betraying the MC. I’d like to say that I think a lot of his subtext, even looking at the instances where he lies and the datamined details of the voice-acting-directions, would run counter to railroading him to only ever betraying the MC. I think straight betrayal is going to run as mostly antithetical to his core themes in a way. He might betray your MC—but it will likely be because the MC betrayed him first in a myriad of small ways, or in a big way. Approval-rating-system based choices are a very real possibility too, separately or as a part of the equation naturally, in addition to your major in-game choices. That would also include the scenario of betrayal through using the tadpole powers enough to be mind-controlled into having no will of his own, much like the other characters, including the MC. I do think we have plenty of good, solid reason to be very hopeful that he will have a possible good continuation—not ending. A continuation where he manages to free himself from Cazador with the help of his companions or perhaps dare he even say friends, manages to begin the process of healing the immediate pains of his trauma and learning how to truly live with all that he’s been through and all that he’s done, to have the possibility of not only living but living both happily and well for the most part? Who knows what else Larian Studios might have in the works for him and the other companions, as well as the MC and the story of Baldur’s Gate 3. But good outcomes for all seems like it very likely could happen, for all of the companions. His wiki page’s summary tagline hook in particular offers up that implied promise from the developers to the audience, I would say, “Astarion prowled the night as a vampire spawn for centuries, serving a sadistic master until he was snatched away. Now he can walk in the light, but can he leave his wicked past behind?” What that promise is, varies from creator to creator. In this case, based on the wording, I would say that potentially implies a satisfyingly well-crafted and engaging story wherein we find out and determine if the answer to that question is yes or no, and in a DND-based RPG full of choices that have an impact on the people and world around you? In a game genre that has a history of multiple, varied endings for your companions based on how you play? That checks out. Larian so far has been handling things admirably well in my opinion, and I’m willing to invest emotionally in this story they’re telling with the trust that they will deliver a good continuation and conclusion. But on the off-chance that somehow Astarion’s endings all turn out painful and tragic on the meta for the fanbase, that the associated intentional or unintentional messages wound and grieve those who recognize and resonate most strongly with the pains he has felt? On that off-chance, in that instance where we are left bereft and disappointed because of what happened to him or any of the companions or the story itself should somehow things go awry, then it would be your right to ask Larian the very same question Astarion asked you once: How can you be so cruel?

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #spoilers #bg3 spoilers #Astarion #character study #long post #very long post #eXtreme rambling ahoy #speculation #congrats if you can read this all #totally understandable if it's too much text tho #it's long enough and rambly enough that it wandered away from the limits I intended #because I have FEELINGS about this gremlin vampire man #cackles madly #maybe the vampire will stop haunting my brain for a bit now #I have other things to do #aside from writing long contemplation pieces #prepare the angst-grapple-hooks crewmates #why yes I'm going to make silly jokes about pirates and sailing and the like #no I do not have any depth to my knowledge base about such things #I just like their hats man #arr #also not looking to make anyone feel bad or invalidate their hcs or opinions #just want good vibes for all #and more cakes for all #metaphorically speaking #the cake is not a lie tho #well #metaphorically it's not a lie

[dwylafn-bye]

Some BG3 verse bits and pieces about Kayli while I’m waiting for Larian to give me the new patch

-Howe’s lil betrayal happens about a year maybe a little bit more before the events in Act 1. The events are slightly different than in da:o, but I will go into more detail about this in a different post. All in all, Howe is still alive with Kayli being nothing more than a loose end at this point. Her and Zaid are broken up, and Kayli had barely seen her daughter during that year in fear that Howe might get to her. -The pre-Howe events are pretty much the same as in canon. Kayli gets pregnant, leaves her family, comes back 5 years later, chaos ensues. -She doesn’t escape right away, which adds even more trauma on top. -Her not so legal operations are up and running, and she does have quite the network in Baldur’s Gate -Fergus is still missing in this verse, and Kayli is currently using as many resources as she can spare to try and find him -I’m still debating on this ones, but Kayli is actually from Waterdeep and ended up settling in Baldur’s Gate about 4 years prior to Act 1 -Not that many differences, but I would like to thank our lord and savior Larian for letting me give her rapier -This is one of the few verses where I can’t actually see Kayli and Zaid getting back together, this is because of events I am planning for the later part of the game, but I will be waiting on the full release to write those out.

#out of daggers #hc tbt #verse tbt #also zaid does have a bg3 verse #again i am waiting on the next patch before i start a new game #but i do wanna start a new game with him as well #because honestly him and gale would be a good match #also let's just say bg3 kayli is a lot more traumatized than in da #both because of how the howe events play out and the tadpole thing

[strigital]

Gale: *mentions owning a cat*

The party:

#i kinda pissed there isn't an actual cat npc at the camp with whom we could interact #kinda like scratch or owlbear cub #so all that is left is just summoning a cat familiar and pretending its Gale's pet kitty #oh well #maybe larian will add him later #i dearly hope the cat has a silly name #like purrseus or some shit #it would in gale's style #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #gale #larian studios #shitpost