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Astarion the Vampurrr

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Astarion: The Longer You Look

At first glance, Astarion looks immaculate. That’s part of the trick.

Too beautiful, really the kind of beauty people make excuses for, just to be close to it. He’s charming in a way that lands softly at first, like velvet over glass. His beauty is deliberate the soft curve of his mouth, the glimmer in his eyes, the laugh that never quite reaches them. His voice, smooth and cutting. His laugh, elegant and a touch too precise like it was rehearsed. Like he knows what you want to hear and gives it to you before you even speak.

But if you watch long enough, things start to slip.

His hair is too white. Not silvery or aged, but clean, like bone stripped bare in the desert. It never moves in the wind quite right too soft, too neat, like it's mimicking how hair should behave. It never gets tangled. It never lies flat for long. It moves like it has thoughts of its own when wind touches it. When he runs a hand through it, it falls back into place like water returning to stillness. Tav once brushed a strand from his brow and thought for a breath it didn’t feel like hair at all.

His stillness is the first thing that feels wrong. Not the poised stillness of a nobleman or trained killer but something older, something that doesn’t need to move unless it chooses to. When others are tired or hungry or overwhelmed, he stands perfectly composed and that stillness is unnerving. He doesn’t fidget. Never scratches an itch. Doesn’t tap his fingers or shift his weight. Never adjusts the fall of his cloak unless someone’s looking. He stands too still, like something holding its breath. And there’s the way he moves fluid, yes, graceful, yes but sometimes too quiet. You don’t hear him unless he wants to be heard. You think he left the room, and then he’s suddenly behind you, eyes curious, mouth smiling just a second too late. His footsteps make no sound unless he's pretending they do.

He is beautiful in the way a statue might be marble-pale and impossibly still. His skin is porcelain, yes, but not in the romantic way. Porcelain like a mask. Smooth, but too smooth. Pores are nearly invisible. No freckle, no mole, no scar. Light sits strangely on it, almost like it’s being repelled. His skin doesn’t glow so much as it reflects the world like porcelain under candlelight, never quite warming. He’s always the same eternal. Preserved. His eyes red, yes they do not glow, not really. But they catch. Sometimes they glint in the dark with a glimmer that isn't natural light a sharp flicker, like a cat’s. He doesn’t just look at people he studies them, like a predator choosing the softest place to bite. But where a beast’s eyes are wild, his are watching. Calculating. He never blinks too much. Never too little. Just enough. Too precise. Like he’s mimicking humanity. Like he’s remembering how people behave, and doing it by muscle memory, not instinct. When he laughs, it’s too smooth. No vocal scratch, no hiccup, no breath. Just sound. And when he stops laughing, it’s instant. Like someone cut a string.

When he’s hungry, everything sharpens.

His smile slows. His head tilts. His eyes track movement with eerie precision. His pupils narrow like a cat's. The red in his eyes sharpens to crimson. His mouth parts not wide, but just enough for you to see the tips of his fangs, longer than you remembered, sharper. His nails manicured and clean lengthen at the edges. And his hands those lovely, elegant hands they twitch at his sides. They look like they’d tear through silk or skin without effort.

It’s in the little things the way his shadow moves slightly out of sync with his body when the torchlight flickers, the way animals stare too long or go silent when he passes.

And yet, people are drawn to him. Like moths to flame. He doesn’t just act charming he feeds off the effect it has. The admiration. The attention. The closeness. He likes to be seen. He likes being beautiful.

But the truth is: beauty is bait.

And the predator underneath is always watching.

But Tav… Tav sees it all.

And doesn’t flinch.

And that, more than anything, makes him pause. Because predators know when something isn’t afraid.

And he's never had that before. _________________________________________________________ I love thinking that Astarion is, in his own way, a bit uncanny—not in an overtly monstrous way, but there's something subtly off about him. It's the kind of thing you only notice after observing him for an extended period—something vampires rarely experience, since they're not often watched so closely for so long. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed <3 If you want to read some more, here's my MASTERLIST

#bg3 #astarion #astarion ancunin #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 astarion #astarion x tav #baldurs gate 3 #astarion bg3 #astarion x reader #astarion romance #uncanny astarion #baldurs gate 3 astarion #bg3 fanart #astarion fanfiction #astarion fanfic #astarion fandom #astarion headcanon #astarion headcanons

Backstory: I made the drawing on the right FIRST, tried turning it into a print, it was too dark and didn’t look good on any paper/version I made, so I just- redrew it with a new concept in mind??? It took ages and I used photos of a german castles window panes as reference, BUT I DID IT

Might offer the glass pane art as commissions because living in Germany near a castle gives me a lot of references to work with

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Tainted

tw: abuse, tw: trauma, tw: sexualisation, tw: emotional abuse

This article isn’t only about Astarion, but also exploring this topic through my personal experiences and thoughts.

One of Astarion’s deepest wounds lies in being constantly forced into roles and labels - in having his identity defined by others. Everyone around him saw someone in Astarion that he wasn’t. And even if he was, it was never their place to decide who he should be. It’s not just about labels; the systematic poisoning of one’s very core - turning a person into an instrument, devaluing them.

This wound, as I see it, has two things: – freedom to decide who you are. – freedom of your identity from others’ influence over who you are. Both are really about the same thing - freedom - just seen in finer detail.

"You made me see I never stopped thinking like I was still his slave, even in freedom".

Heartbeats (Astarion’s POV)

I downloaded Baldur’s gate 3 and immediately feel for this sexy vampire the moment he tackled me to the ground and held a knife to my neck. I’m in act 2 right now (no spoilers!) and the brainrot is BAD. I’ve read some amazing period sex fics involving Astarion but I wanted to craft one from his perspective. Let me know your thoughts!

Master list can be found here!

Pairing: Astarion x fem Tav/reader

Rating: SMUT! NSFW, 18+, Minors DNI

Words: 4700

TW: (this fic is FLITHY), mentions of death and dying, biting (duh), drinking blood, period sex, blood kink, oral (fem receiving), unprotected P in V, kissing, fingers, stalking, multiple Os, passing out, blood-loss, mentions of past torture/trauma, tension, begging, fluffy ending, ‘who did this to you?’,

Notes: Tav and Astarion have been travelling together for a few weeks. No romance scenes have happened yet, but she allows him to feed on her nearly every night. She hasn’t seen his scars yet. Tav is on her period and it’s making her vampire friend go crazy. Tav has feelings for Astarion but hasn’t acted upon them. This story is told from Astarion’s perspective. Tav can be any race or class you want (probably not durge though).

Bonus: Check out this massive playlist I made inspired by Astarion!

Hi! I wanted to reflect on this line from the game:

«He will always see you as degrading yourself if you continue to be with him. But perhaps you wish to degrade yourself. And he knows it.»

Since I don’t run my blog on a full-time basis, I decided to share this with you instead - I’d be glad if you added your own thoughts to my reflections, because this is such an interesting topic.

First of all, I want to start by saying that I’m aware Welch took part in the creation of this scene, and I know what meaning they intended to convey through it. At the very least, I’ll give them credit for being honest - they openly admitted that everything they said was merely their personal interpretation of Astarion’s behavior (verbatim: “At least that’s how I interpret him.”). And since Welch isn’t the original writer of the character and only joined the team during the later stages of development, I don’t believe they can claim to have a deep or authentic understanding of Astarion, nor should their words be taken as an absolute truth.

Welch stated that, in Astarion’s case, they were interested in exploring the theme of “parasocial relationships” with a character - just as they did in their own game Don’t Wake Me Up. Because of that, we can see an element of self-plagiarism here: they essentially transfer the same ideas and techniques from Don’t Wake Me Up into Baldur’s Gate 3, which undermines the internal logic of the story and the player’s agency. I mean, reducing the player’s motivation to help Astarion ascend to one narrow and rather specific impulse is downright idiotic. According to Welch, people take certain actions in games as a form of seeking a reward in the shape of a sex scene - because the gaming industry has supposedly trained us to do so. But why couldn’t that same logic apply to the “good” ending as well? There’s also an intimate scene at the graveyard - albeit a less explicit one. Most players will pick the “good” ending simply because that’s how the majority tends to play; evil playthroughs aren’t for everyone. Does that mean the “good” players supposedly care about Astarion more, while the others choose Ascension only to get a sex scene? That logic is deeply flawed and collapses under even minimal critical scrutiny.

I know that Welch often uses the word “degradation” in a sexual context, for example: “Players in the fan fiction communities had been joking for years post-Early Access about the different degenerate things they wanted to do with Druid Daddy Halsin (…)”. Similarly, in Act 2, after the encounter with Araj Oblodra, if you do not have a romantic relationship with Astarion, he says that all his victims “degrade yourself” by giving in to his seduction tactics. I think he doesn’t say this on the romantic path because Tav also gave in to his tactics in Act 1.

Ultimately, from Welch’s perspective, the interpretation of this line is more than clear. But I like that the line is written so ambiguously, because how it’s interpreted reflects the player and their inner mindset; it tells us almost nothing about Astarion, but a lot about ourselves. That’s why some people insist: “He thinks he’ll never be able to respect you again!” while others see it as Astarion’s insecurity, believing he thinks Tav is devaluing themselves by staying with him, feeling unworthy of that love and of Tav. I don’t agree with either interpretation, but I like how the same line can be understood in such different ways. When Stephen Rooney was asked how this scene should be interpreted, he said: “I would just say that when it comes to anything in the game, your take on it as a player is much more important than any writer's take. It's your adventure and whatever you take from it is your own valid experience.”

«He will always see you as degrading yourself if you continue to be with him.»

He perceives being in a relationship with him as something unworthy of Tav. This could be connected to:

• His new position as a vampire lord, seeing himself as a being of a higher order and internally convinced that he now stands above others, even those he loves; in vampire society and among lawful evil characters in general, hierarchy is taken for granted.

• Or that he “knows” being with him is improper, unwise, or bad for you, and yet you remain.

«But perhaps you wish to degrade yourself. And he knows it.»

If Tav stays with him, despite his darkness, despite the power imbalance, despite potentially unequal roles, it might involve conscious submission. And perhaps it even brings pleasure or satisfaction: being with him no matter what, willingly yielding. This can be interpreted as:

• an element of a dom-sub dynamic (according to Welch, relationships with AA come down to kinks and fetishes, which I disagree with, because the dynamic of a royal couple also fits perfectly into the tone of AA/Consort, where kneeling is also appropriate);

• a metaphor for emotional dependence;

• a way for Tav to express absolute trust and devotion, even if it is perceived as “self-sacrifice” or a renunciation of pride.

It is also significant that Tav agrees to become his spawn (regardless of whether you believe in the “bride” theory or not) - that is, they give consent specifically to become his spawn (after all, Tav cannot know that Astarion intends to give them his blood). At the very least, Astarion can perceive it as Tav/Dark Urge giving him an extraordinary amount, essentially placing their life in his hands. And, in essence, the kneeling scene symbolizes this very act of giving him their life. Logically, an ordinary/normal person shouldn’t agree to something like this, but for some reason, the protagonist does. And this makes Astarion think: perhaps they even enjoy it? I find this logical. «You have given me everything. Thank you.»

He may be aware that his presence in Tav’s life is destructive, or at the very least transformative.

BUT this sentence does not provide a direct emotional or moral judgment from Astarion. There is no approval or condemnation. There is only a fact of perception - that he sees Tav’s actions as an act of degrading yourself. This is merely his subjective opinion, not necessarily reflecting his inner feelings - respect, love, or contempt.

We cannot claim that he despises Tav or does not respect them based solely on this sentence.

Essentially, this sentence is not about how Astarion feels about Tav, but about how he interprets their decision to stay with him. The emotional tone of this sentence is assigned by us.

Hello and thank you for your post <3

I do have something (and maybe a lot) to add, of course. I really, really do not like how Mx Welch handles the characters, not only Astarion, but all of them who they got to work on: Halsin and Haarlep. Because deep down their initial motivation was never to write a proper character - which they themselves admitted.

About Halsin and Haarlep

This one quote of them and so-called "fanfiction community" wanting to do "degenerate things" to Halsin says a lot. First of all, I do believe not everybody from fanfiction community-only were sharing the same "wants" for this character, and not everybody of the fanbase are even into fanfiction at all. So this leaves an impression that Mx Welch were only cattering to their own selfish wants with some few people agreeing and joining them, completely ignoring the major part of other community.

Second, you can also see how exactly they write characters - as a "joke". You know, maybe deep down I feel sorry for Halsin as a character. He had a potential to become something more. He was already given quite significant position in the game's whole story: he is a thousand years old elf Archdruid, he was fighting Ketheric Thorm and Shar's cultists back in Reithwin Town alongside with Harpers (eventually losing the battle and cursing the whole land). He has his own story conflict that can be resolved. He has it all and it could be perfect just like that - if only he wasn't degraded to be "a gay bear joke". Don't get me wrong here - I have absolutely nothing against it initially. But it could have been done better, much better. Instead now we have this giant horny disaster without any proper romance and complete lack of any content with him besides, again, sex in Act 3.

You can't even say "no" to him properly. You say you aren't interested and later he tries to do the same thing again. And the way he tries to get laid with Main Character always creeps me the fuck out. So much that I don't have positive feelings about this character anymore. Just a walking wasted potential, that's who he is now.

The same with Haarlep. It would seem hard to ruin a character which base is literally being a sex devil. But no, apparently you can ruin this one too. Not to mention that even with incubus you can write a normal character and a scene with him outside of a whole sex topic. He is literally a spy. There was such a large field of potential - again, completely lost and wasted.

"You failed to see him outside of your own fantasies", - says Mx Welch about Astarion while degrading Halsin to daddy gay bear joke and Haarlep to rape kink. Not hypocritical even in the slightest.

I'm not here to say "sex is bad", because it isn't, as I have nothing against it. But when you write characters and stories that circle around only sex topic only (and not in the way it was written in Astarion's story) just to catter to your own fantasies - it is repulsive. I came here to get into the story, I came into the game to feel these characters, to get involved into them, their troubles, their conflicts, and have a proper romance that won't jump right into sex from the very start and then be "sex only", but the writer is a clown who made a circus out of everything. Lovely. /s

Such things as kinks must be an addittions to characters, but not their "whole point".

About Astarion

In Astarion's writing coming from Mx Welch we see their projection of their own personal interpretation of a character much more clearly. He was their main focus and target after all, so to speak. It is undeniable at this point that the whole narrative about "Astarion becoming abuser and Cazador 2.0" have roots from their work and later commentaries. Because initially this is how they perceive his character - either becoming someone completely else that isn't him, aka denying the Ascension, so-called "redemption arc" and the final of "i can fix him" (which is another joke), or becoming, again, a walking "kink" of degrading yourself and being abused.

Saying that people Ascend Astarion only for kinks and sex purposes is equally absurd as if we will say "people deny Astarion ascension to have a goth graveyard sex scene with him and complete their "I can fix him" fantasy". Even in a small group of people everyone can be so different from each other - and BG3 fan community is large. Everyone has their own reasons, opinions, goals, views etc. It is, frankly, idiotic to row them all under one comb.

At least we can actually work with their "degrading" line coming from perception check outside of their own interpretation they tried so hard to impose on people. Stephen Rooney has the healthiest and more professional standpoint. "Once you give your work to fans, it no longer belongs to you" - I don't remember who's quote it was, but it is how Rooney works too.

Indeed, there are many ways we, as fans, can interpret this line. It could be Astarion's deep insecurities about his own worth of genuine unconditional love. After all, he doesn't even quite believe you when you tell him that in the end, you chose him among all other people. It could be that he himself realises that someone else from the group might be more "fitting" option for PC to romance and stick by. Maybe even safer (even though this whole group is a walking armageddon). He is a vampire, and in the world in Faerun almost everybody is afraid of vampires, or not even perceiving them as individuals with personalitites. Yet here he is, with someone genuinely deep in love with him despite it all and all for it - after his confession that he was seducing them on purpose for his safety. He surely must have been puzzled, to put it mildly.

Now imagine how astonished he must be when this same person isn't only genuinely loving him, but absolutely ready to give their whole life to him. You made a great point - Tav/DU is unaware that Astarion does not plan to turn them into mere spawn as he was before. And you don't really have to imagine - you simply need to see and hear it yourself. The way he is almost breathless when he looks at PC, now a vampire, his vampire partner, saying "thank you for trusting me" is his own dreams coming true. He values trust the most above all other traits. He enjoys being a vampire, actually, so what could be more perfect than being vampires together with his partner, the only he had for so long? He tries his best to show his gratitude as he only can - he shares his powers, he is ready to give the whole world to his partner, "yours and mine alone".

You don't even have to agree on sex here, and you can skip this scene, and still be turned into his vampire spouse. He gives PC a choice - and he respects that. The other failure in Welch's work is how they tried to portray Ascended Astarion the way that he won't accept anything else but the "choices" only he approves, as you cannot directly refuse from becoming a vampire and still be his partner. But it is still possible in the game, and it still has its own unique lines if you stay his mortal partner. The way to have it is crutchy, but you just have to Ascend him and then immediately go to fight Netherbrain.

The way you can see that "degrading line" from Astarion's POV is thinking "they must be really crazy to agree on it all and still be with me". And he would only love it more - as he was always showing more interest in unconventional.