#leon bg3

[the-lunarvoid]

Screenshots of the other six.

I was disappointed by the wiki not having more pics of these guys, so, here we are. Enjoy wider internet.

[toon-topaz]

Victoria and her strange family

[loremmaradeur]

Other Vampire Spawns of Cazador Szarr

I've been thinking about writing such post with full available information about six other spawns Cazador had besides Astarion. For what goal? To show you guys and perhaps remind that even though they all are "victims" it doesn't mean that they are innocent. In fact, when you learn their stories, you can see that nothing is univocal about them, especially about certain of them.

Aurelia, once a tiefling.

We start with this one because with recent released book "Astarion's Book of Hungers" we got to know that she was actually Cazador's very first vampire spawn. She is described as having a calm demeanor at the surface, however underneath it she was keeping many secrets. You can imagine that perhaps those were Cazador's secrets. She doesn't seem like the one who would disobey Cazador, but on the opposite being his devotee. In the same book we also have an illustration of her standing together with Violet, after them two brought another victim for Cazador to feed. Both of them are smiling, standing behind.

Pale Petras, once a human.

The third of the spawns (Astarion was the second among them all), described as being arrogant and stubborn, and also described as "always been an idiot" by Astarion himself. What's worth to mention is that his only wish after the end of the ritual (in which him and some others were sure Cazador wll grant them powers too) was "to feast" (on some mortals, isn't it, Petras?).

Violet, once an elf.

The fourth spawn, and if isn't she a star among them all /s. She relishes tormenting her siblings and strives to please her master. In the Book of Hungers she is shown to be flirting with devils. She has a conflict with Astarion, being jealous of him and what seems like paranoid, thinking he would do her wrong at every step. Planning to kill her sibling, such as Astarion again, seems like nothing to her. She is also shown together with Aurelia - and while it really can mean almost nothing, it can't go unnoticed. Her diary consists of her shenaningans: "Hee hee, the garlic in Yousen's bed gave him a nasty rash - serves him right for being such a whining runt. Now, if only I could get at that snob Leon and his brat of a daughter, but she's protected. Cazador must have a fine plan for little Victoria, I wonder what it is?" What's also worth to mention, once she was also honored to sleep not in spawn's common room, but in a separate one: this "honor" was granted only for the best hunters Cazador was choosing (alas for her, it seems to happen only once).

Dalyria, once an elf.

She was a physician general to the Parlament of the Baldur's Gate, now seeking to reverse her vampirism through desperate medical measures. How much desperate? Well, so much that she was absolutely ready to experiment on Leon's still mortal daughter named Victoria. From Dalyria's private diary: "...I believe a massive infusion of fresh, youthful blood may overwhelm the vampirism infection and enable my body to heal. There is one potential source of such blood here: Victoria, the as-yet pureblooded daughter of Leon Onufrio. Leon was a sorcerer before he was a vampiric slave, and has warned us not to prey upon Victoria as he has imbued her with a counter-curse in the event of attack - made her a necrotic booby-trap, as it were. I think Leon is bluffing."

And in fact, Leon wasn't bluffing. He indeed was as desperate, and he did put a curse on his own daughter. In the Palace we can only see the poor's girl dead body, surrounded by that exact curse aura. Dalyria did attempt to prey on Victoria and was the reason of her death, which you can get to know if you use "Speak with Dead" spell on Victoria - she says the name of Dalyria herself, as Victoria was lured in room by her.

Yousen, once a gnome.

Unfortunately, even with the new book we don't get too much information about smallest spawn. Nothing special is described about him, just being regular Cazador's hunter without much accomplishements.

Leon, once a human.

My personal favourite in the group. He was the most recent spawn. He had still mortal daugther Victoria who he tried desperately to save from the horrors of Palace and vampire life - Cazador seemed to have plans on Victoria and forced Leon to bring her in Palace. In fact, in order to be able to save her Leon has became Cazador's most successful hunter. He was granted the honor to have a separate bedroom way more frequently than anyone else - in list Favourite Spawn Ledger it is his name repeating again and again, with only Violet once outperforming him.

Other 7000 vampire spawns

I'm including them all to show you that those like Sebastian and gur's children were shown to trick you into thinking that literally every other vampire spawn under Cazador's control is an innocent victim of him and his spawns-hunters, which is simply not true. How can we tell? Astarion himself says that right in the game, telling you that he mostly hunted the outlaws, the criminals, scums. Those like Sebastian are the exception, not common rule. With his Book of Hungers we even know the place where Astarion hunted the most - tavern&inn named Rat's Run, where law does not exist. Other hunters were also told to hunt in the Lower City on those who "won't be missed", as hunting the usual commoners and nobles was only creating more trouble for them all and Cazador as well.

In the end, it does raise a lot of questions of how exactly all of that group could have suddenly became all friendly to each other. Even with finding out that Cazador has lied to them all and made them all a sacrificial spawns they wouldn't have turned 180° on each other. Giving the fact that the thousands spawns horde is also consists mostly of previous outlaws and now crazy hungry vampire spawns, do try to question yourself: was it ever a good idea to let them all now flee free to the rest of the world?

[lilhumanoid]

𝔇𝔬𝔠𝔱𝔬𝔯 𝔇𝔞𝔩𝔶𝔯𝔦𝔞 - ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔒𝔫𝔢

Ch. 1/5 | AO3

Rating: M (no sex) Words: 3.5K CWs: Astarion's worst memory, canon-typical spawn servitude, hunger, generally uncomfortable/horror-y atmosphere, guilt and "am I a good person?" morality concerns, Cazador being creepy af Part One of Dalyria's experience during Astarion's year in the coffin. She wants him free for a few Very Normal, Very Good reasons, and she's willing to risk a lot to make it happen. tags according to tag list 🖤🖤🖤: @optimisticgrey, @spillingteanotpermitted (though you've already read this 🫂), @wyllravengards, and @litsenn + @alwaysmauria

She shouldn't.

She should not bring blood to her brother.

She should not sneak out to the tombs and lift that coffin lid and let him drink.

No, no, no. Dalyria should stay where her Master ordered her, fill her own hollow belly with this pittance of beast's blood, and try to rest until she is summoned again.

She should do that, but she won't. She cannot in good conscience eat and sleep while Astarion rots and wastes. Dalyria has little to hang her conscience on these days, these decades, but shouldn't she preserve whatever may be left? Whatever remains of her kindness and capacity to care, whatever remains

(of her)

of her spirit and soul?

Yes. What remains of Dalyria will not let him suffer.

Though perhaps she gives herself too much credit, for Dalyria has made many people suffer.

She has lured people to their deaths, the innocents and somewhat-innocents and not-at-all innocents. She has stolen blood from her siblings. She has poisoned them, too. Often the Master commanded it. Sometimes He did not.

She once framed Leon for misplacing one of Cazador's books. The Master plucked Leon's eye out with a thumbnail and tossed it to the werewolves to chew on. When He compelled Dalyria to replace it, she of course could not resist, but she tilted the eye on its axis as she complied.

Leon says his vision is just fine. Dalyria knows he is lying.

It is no matter. No one in this palace sees clearly anymore.

Tonight's the night.

Dalyria told herself last tenday that if the Master had not released Astarion by now, by the eve of his Turning, she would take it as a sign.

It's been a month. Thirty nights without anyone insulting her hairstyle. Thirty nights also, however, of picking up Astarion's slack on hunts. Her brother is especially effective in the dens of this town. Dalyria is so exhausted filling in for him that she let one of her marks buy her a coffee last night. The bitter liquid had no effect on her fatigue, and the human seemed to think the gesture earned him some particularly degrading favors once she brought him to bed.

That man is dead now.

This is of little comfort.

Cazador would never, has never, let one of the spawn's Turnings go unnoticed. They are His "greatest accomplishments," He always says—not His four spawn, but His Turning of them. His taking. Dalyria has endured half a century in His service. She knows how important it is that these nights be commemorated.

He tests her, she thinks. It is the only logical explanation.

He locked away the spawn who is most often subject to His attentions. He left him there for so long that the hunts are disrupted and a Turning Party is jeopardized. Surely He means for another of His children to prove themself, to take initiative. Surely someone must sneak out to the tombs and release Astarion.

Or at least feed him. Depriving a spawn is one thing, but starving one altogether is another. A starved beast is an unruly beast. It is right to be svelte, to be hungry and wanting and willing to work for one's food, but becoming too brittle would prevent a spawn from seducing a soul. Becoming too desperate might make a spawn disobey.

The Master says this himself, sometimes, when He commands them to feed. He reminds them that they deserve nothing. That He deserves all. They cannot bring Him what they owe Him if He lets them waste away entirely, "however pleasurable such a sight would be."

In that, Dalyria thinks, are clear instructions. She has always appreciated clarity.

Aurelia wouldn't hear it. She said Dal was crazy. Crazy, crazy, that hateful word. She said in her low, careful voice that the Master is punishing Astarion because He hates him or fears him or probably both.

"There is no more to it than that, Dal. Leave it alone."

The next time Dalyria saw Aurelia, she was limping. Dal did not ask why. She left it alone.

She didn't try to tell Leon about her plan, either. Lee hardly ever wants to talk to her. Says it's a waste of time. Dal's crazy, he always says. He and everyone else.

Let them say so. Crazy Dal may be, but she is also right. She is a doctor, a scholar, and perhaps the one with the most insight into the Master's mind.

It is Dalyria He calls upon when the others are broken. It is she who tends to them, she who hears Cazador's words while they only writhe. He likes to watch her work. He talks to her, sometimes.

"Your family has need of you, my girl," He told her as He watched her bandage flesh and set bone, "and what is more important than family?" "Nothing, my lord," she replied. He did not nod His approval, He did not praise or affirm, but she knew she had answered correctly because He did not strike her. The first time He asked this, she had answered, "Blood?" How He had struck her then.

Family is more important than food. Family is more important than freedom or memory or medicine. This is what her Master says.

Dalyria does not always believe this, truth be told. No, some nights, her mind thrashes against the idea like a tempest, spitting at her that these are the words of a monster and she has taken the bait, stupid little shulteen that she is. But tonight, the tempest is silent.

Tonight, her family needs her.

Dalyria leaves the boudoir promptly once the Master takes away her marks, still buttoning her blouse with one hand as she slips down the hallway. It does not matter who sees her flesh, anymore, but habits are habits and these corridors are cold.

She was clever this evening. She met a group of three and convinced them all to return home with her. It is a marvel what wine will do to mortals' minds once she slips a touch of terazul into it!

Straight to the dormitory with Dal. She bathes and tries not to think about how water and soap can never make her clean. She dresses in her favorite red trousers—good!—and a blouse swiped from the wardrobe Violet pretends belongs solely to her—not good. Dalyria tries not to notice the itching-scratching-grating texture against her skin. She tries just as hard not to recall how long it has been since Astarion was allowed to wash and dress. Gods, he will be livid. Livid and filthy. She braces her nose.

Now, to the dining hall. It is a ration night for the spawn, and Cazador has deputized the Chamberlain to serve them once they complete their hunts. Dal is not sure the entire dining hall is required for him to simply pour from what's likely a single carafe of beast-blood, but the Master is particular about His rituals.

"Miss Dalyria," Dufay says grandly as she enters. He stands before the dining table with his shoulders back and his body still. His hair is stick-straight today, resting over his shoulders the way Cazador's does. Dufay does not look half as imperious as the Master; his hair is fraying and frizzing from whatever treatment he used to force it straight.

"Hello, Antwun. Have the others returned yet?"

Dufay lifts the carafe. "No, not yet. You shall be the first to taste tonight's meal. I took of a mutt in the Upper City. It appeared in fine condition."

"Lovely," Dalyria says. She remembers to smile before Dufay adds "sarcasm" to the ever-growing list of Spawn Offenses he'll report to the Master when He returns.

Dufay measures a careful serving of blood into a chalice. Dal's eyes track each drop's journey from carafe to cup. The Chamberlain frowns and lifts the glass to eye-level, assessing, then tilts it back over the bottle and returns a portion. Satisfied, he shoves it towards her like it's too repulsive to touch, or maybe she is.

Dalyria accepts it and nods her thanks. Strands of hair dangle in front of her face, which she welcomes because it distracts her from Dufay's. He must not be aware of how poorly the style suits him.

When she turns to leave, Dufay's expression contorts and his head jerks towards the werewolf-pelt rugs in the corridor. It is not forbidden to take one's supper elsewhere, but it is unusual. Normally a spawn cannot restrain the urge to partake as soon as blood is made available. Indeed, the Hunger wants to overwhelm Dalyria, but she resists. She must. Once she passes the Master's test, she will be rewarded with fare far superior to these scraps.

"Where are you going, Miss Dalyria?" Dufay calls after her. "If you spill a drop on our Lord's carpet, Godey will find you so fast you won't know what hit you."

Pompous iblith. She would know what hit her. Doctor Dalyria can recognize bone.

"I understand, Antwun. I will be careful," she says over her shoulder. And she will. Blood is far, far too precious to spill, even when one's hands shake.

"We've a dining-hall for a reason! Do you think removing bloodstains from the rugs is free!?" he cries after her. His temper is worse this night than usual.

Maybe someone's told him about the hair after all.

His venom stirs something in her, though. Her anxiety. Her doubt. Because on the off chance that she is wrong, if she has misinterpreted and brings blood to Astarion against the Master's wishes, gods will she suffer. Cazador will probably see to her personally, Godey be damned. But Doctor Dalyria is rarely wrong.

She walks purposefully through the halls, her head high enough that the Master would not punish her for slouching but not so high that He would punish her for vanity. She's holding her glass the way He does, she realizes, its base cupped in her palm and its stem dangling between her fingers.

She adjusts her grip. She clutches it with both hands and pulls it towards her heart.

It would be so easy to lean forward and take a sip, to gulp it down and drink and drain... but no. She must wait. She can wait, she will wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Dalyria pushes open the back door with a narrow shoulder and slips out into the night.

It's not often that she ventures into the courtyard. Nobody else seems to visit with any regularity, either, if the overgrown grass and fallen leaves are any indication. The autumn air is brisk and smells of roast curling up from the Lower City taverns, and if she closes her eyes and breathes deep she also finds the scent of people—the thrum of the city's pulsing heartbeats and unwashed bodies reveling through these wee hours.

She decides not to search for that particular smell. She's had enough of it to last her lifetimes.

It's still not clear to Dalyria what need the undying have for a mausoleum, but one waits behind the Crimson Palace all the same. It appears to have been here since time was born. It wouldn't surprise her if it's left standing once time dies.

"Little Dal, my little doll," Cazador once told her, "long ago, the Szarrs were a Tumbledown family. Laborers," He sneered, "dedicated to cemeteries and funerary rites so opulent they would make your pretty head spin."

Her head threatens to spin a little now. The closer she draws to the mausoleum, the more the vague city-smell is overtaken by the stink of decay.

"And what of them now, my lord?" Dalyria murmured. There was a snap as she popped Leon's tibia back into place, and the human stuffed a fist in his mouth too late to stifle his scream. The Master's eyes lit up before he closed them, slow and reverent and gently gently gently. "Now they are but ghosts," He said. His smile stretched, His voice almost melodic in His pleasure. "And I remain."

Dalyria did not think it prudent then to remind Him what He is. She is not, contrary to popular belief, crazy.

The mausoleum door looks like it should creak open, but it swings fluidly. She's greeted by three chambers, two at each side and a sleek hallway before her. It's clean and polished inside, and oddly, the smell of death-rot fades as she enters.

The air is lighter here, somehow. Dalyria herself feels lighter, like this very room has decided to shoulder some of the effort it takes her to walk. Her movements are softer and steadier, her mind churns rather than buzzes, and her Hunger calms from a scream to a whimper. Why is it that a veil of comfort blankets her as she enters this house of death? It could seem a holdover from her days as a doctor, but no. Doctor Dalyria felt no peace among the dead. That is why she worked so hard to preserve lives, is it not?

A single rat skitters across the floor to disrupt her reverie. She nearly drops the glass she carries but catches it at the last second before it crashes to the ground. Dalyria's physician-hands are small and quick. They always have been.

Much like a rat's.

Dalyria has never entered the mausoleum before, but somehow she knows where to go, knows it like she knows her given name. Her legs urge her forward. Her feet move a split-second before she decides to pick them up. It is not quite Cazador's compulsion that drives her—that's a horrid yanking feeling, as though strings have been pulled through her nerves and into His fingers—but it is not her own will, either. It is something in between, a force that she is almost happy to let command her.

She heads down the first corridor. She knows without knowing that Astarion is being kept in neither side wing, but down this way, deep in the building's guts.

Along the walls are the closed drawers she knows must contain body upon body upon body. Beneath her feet are tiles and drains, impeccable and unused. Her boots make no sound as she drifts across the floor. She always thought it an offensive old legend, that vampires move in silence; she's spent too many nights listening to her siblings and servants scamper about the palace to entertain that story. Tonight, though, it's been made true. She's only aware of her own footfalls because she feels herself moving forward.

An indiscernible amount of time glides past. Maybe it's a minute. Maybe a month. All Dalyria knows for sure is that the hallway eventually widens into a vestibule made of white marble from floor to ceiling. Across from her there's a solid metal door, but there's nothing filling the space but a single empty casket.

Approaching the casket is the first time she's felt discomfort since arriving here. Some might say there's something spiritual about it, some malicious energy she's sensing from the death-box, but no. Dal is uncomfortable because she recognizes it too well. This is Cazador's coffin.

The Master's coffin is beautiful like mushrooms blooming on carrion, like life breathing its way upon death. It hangs open, a corpse's mouth, blood-red innards exposed. It, too, is shockingly white, though the velvet interior is crimson and its sides are emblazoned with glyphs. It's the language Cazador uses in His private writings. On one corner of the coffin, a tiny anatomical heart is sketched in purple ink. It's faded with age and the outline has streaked, like someone once tried to wipe it off but decided it wasn't worth the effort—though the rest of the coffin remains sterile, clean. Clinical.

Clinical, beautiful, and very much not containing Astarion.

So Dalyria walks on, on, on.

A chill crawls down her spine as she passes the coffin. Her body jolts with a single tremor and the glass in her hands tilts. For a moment she pictures bright red dog-blood splashing over the sides and soiling the blinding-white marble. She catches it, keeps the blood where it's meant to be, but her stomach sinks at just the thought of its loss.

She's close, now. She can feel adrenaline rising in her as she reaches the door at the other side of the vestibule. How her heart would pound if it could! She switches the glass to one hand and uses the other to reach for the door.

"Ah!"

An insane shock of pleasure courses through Dalyria when her fingers meet the metal. Pleasure! True, hot pleasure coiling tight and desirous in her belly, deepening into an ache in her trousers. It brings no desire, only heat. Doctor Dalyria is well aware that stimulation need not be accompanied by want to force a reaction, but there was no sensation, no salaciousness. Still, it's the most arousal she has felt in decades. Somehow this physiological response feels more unnatural, more violating, than most nights in the brothels. She's almost ashamed. She would be, were anyone here to make it worthwhile.

The feeling cools as she presses the door open, then disappears entirely when a figure takes shape in the closet-sized room before her. It's not Astarion as she had hoped, but Cazador Himself.

Although Astarion is here. There's a coffin in this room, too, a plain one, silver as starlight and made of solid marble with a slab of stone dropped on top for good measure. It's certainly not the one he was buried in, but Dalyria knows Astarion is trapped inside. She knows this because she can sense it and also because he is screaming.

Cazador does not acknowledge her as she lingers in the doorway. He stands beside Astarion's coffin, motionless but for one outstretched hand that strokes the marble like a lover, doctor-deliberate and snail-slow. Astarion screams again as if Cazador had struck him. Gods, how is his voice so clear, so loud, whilst buried so deep? She can even hear him scratching manically on the coffin lid like rat-claws on the attic floor. The Master hears it, too. His face contorts with what is undeniably... pleasure. Pleasure so potent it leaked into Dalyria through their bond.

Cazador's movements are make no noise at all. Dal doubts even Astarion knows He is here. The boy must think himself entirely alone. He's screaming not for help, not to Cazador, but simply because he cannot hold back. Because the horrors of confinement have overwhelmed him. Because it is instinct for a captive body to scream, and people are just bodies at the end of the night.

Astarion's next scream cuts off with a Hells-deep cough. Surely Doctor Dalyria treated coughs in her day. This, though, is worse than any she can recall; it hurts her throat just to hear. It's the inconceivable cough of someone whose throat has not seen water, or blood, or nourishment of any kind, for thirty long nights. The cough ends with a dry sob and a moment of terrible silence. Then the scratching starts again, then a desperate whimper, and a shudder runs down Cazador's normally board-stiff spine.

Not once has Dalyria seen Cazador so... so peaceful. He's enraptured, sated by the sound of His spawn's suffering. He's drinking every drop of Astarion's agony and feeding on it like rich red blood. She's not sure He is aware of her. Either He is allowing her to watch now and will punish her nosiness (her disgust) later, or He is too lost in reverie to notice her at all.

A good doctor would intervene. A good doctor would treat. A good doctor would fix, fix, fix. The physician she was, the Doctor Dalyria she half-remembers, urges her towards Astarion.

But a vampire spawn would flee. If she interrupts her Master's moment of sadism, would He not then turn it on her? She won't be able to help anyone if she herself is broken. Perhaps if she leaves now, as silently as she came, He will never know she was here. She could try again another night when He seeks gratification elsewhere.

And that's all it takes. Doctor Dalyria dries up, fades away, and leaves only vampire-spawn Dal in her place. Vampire-spawn Dal turns, flees, slips out through the hallway and into the night. She slinks down to the dormitory like a rat to its hole.

She does not drink her blood. She gives it to Leon. She hopes it will make up for the eye.

In another life, Doctor Dalyria saved people.

That is what she told herself, anyway.

But Doctor Dalyria did not serve the truly desperate, did she? She did not treat the poor. She was cross with their coughs, disgusted by their diarrhea. She'd never seen the Outer City slums or the Lower City lean-tos where consumption killed entire blocks and wiped out whole families.

Doctor Dalyria attended to Parliament and patriars. People the reclusive Lord Szarr convened with at long meetings at long tables. She eased their constipation and delivered their lordling baby brats and told herself that she was good.

Dal is trying to be good, now. She is trying. In Eilistraee's name, she is trying.

Thank you for reading! I wanted Dal's voice to be lyrical, a little fucked-up, maybe slightly overwrought but not so overwrought that it's annoying to read... Lmk how we feel about her narration, folks. I 🖤 concrit. Also! I made a playlist for the fic/Dal in general here! Also also, I finally learned to use Move Here so I can include props in my VP! Still practicing Photo Mode in general, especially re: lighting, but I'm pretty happy with this pic of Dal for now. divider by @/strangergraphics

[astarions-wife]

Talking to the vampire spawn without Astarion after you kill Cazador gives you dialogue! Some of them even have small conversations with you (as seen with Leon). Yousen will talk to you too, but he won’t really say much (and there’s no sound associated with him). My analysis of it is:

Violet- Doesn’t have much to say, except that she’ll live beyond what Cazador did to her and she can “finally bloom”

Petras- a bit more confused, seems to want you to answer for him? If you say you’ll spare him if he spares innocents he’ll be like. Yeah I can make do.

Leon- kind of the same as Petra’s, but he seems more coherent/polite and willing to have a conversation with you.

Yousen- bugged, no sound. Pretty much just asks if they’re free to go.

Aurelia- Begs for a chance at survival, attests that they aren’t a threat. This is where you can say they’re victims too.

Dalyria- you can talk to her too, she’ll thank you repeatedly for their freedom and attest that you’re giving them another chance.

Super fascinating stuff, more crumbs for the vampire spawn fans.

[jellousbiafrous]

Graves Grow No Green You Can Use-Ch. 20

𝔸𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕠𝕟/ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕤𝕚𝕟

𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙗 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩.

Or start from the beginning.

As always, beta’d by my ride or die @prettygoododds

[sweetmalice26]

What becomes of the spawn siblings after Cazador's death?

I cannot stop thinking about the spawn siblings. I am so interested in all of them, I want to know everything about them. I wish there were more opportunities to talk to them, or talk to Astarion about them.

I’ve been thinking a lot since I finished Astarion’s quest about what will become of the rest of Cazador’s “children” after they are free of him, and I wanted to write out those thoughts to 1) preserve them for myself and 2) maybe find other people as insane as I am to discuss them with lol.

As a general note, I don’t see the siblings sticking together after Cazador’s death. They may do so for a little while at first while they try to figure out how to move forward, but I think they would all break away from each other and go their own ways eventually (I think Aurelia would be the most likely to follow one of them wherever they go, but I don’t know for sure if I think she actually would.). Some of them may keep in contact, or they may run in similar circles and run into one another now and again, but I feel like they will all feel a desire to move away from this family structure that Cazador built and build something of their own.

(For context, my headcanons for the order in which each sibling joined the family is Aurelia, Astarion, Dalyria, Violet, Petras, Yousen, and Leon.)

Aurelia I think Aurelia will really struggle with freedom. As I noted, I believe she was the first spawn Cazador made so she’s been under his control longer than anyone (including likely several years as an “only child” and I cannot imagine being the only target of Cazador’s sadism was great for her psyche). She was probably the most thoroughly indoctrinated of all of them. If you kill Cazador without Astarion and talk to her she will call Tav “master”. I don’t think she remembers how to function without that master/spawn dynamic anymore. Without Cazador I think she will seek out another strong personality to fill that role for her, and how the rest of her life plays out will be heavily dependent on who it is she attaches herself to. If a decent person takes her under their wing I think she absolutely has the potential to begin to heal from everything she endured, but if she falls in with another cruel master who will take advantage of her dependance on them then I think it’s likely she will end up in a situation not dissimilar to the one she was freed from.

Dalyria I have mixed feelings about Dal. Initially I thought she would adjust relatively easily as she seemed to have retained the most of her “humanity” throughout her time under Cazador, and practicing medicine seemed to give her a solid purpose I didn’t sense from the others. However, with her last act before the ritual being to kill Victoria in an effort to cure herself of her vampirism, I’m less sure. I think Astarion’s warning at the flop house that Cazador wasn’t intending to free them (and probably his rage after Aurelia and the others returned without Astarion) scared her enough that she did it as a desperate move hoping to get free herself. She’s obviously led plenty to their deaths before this on Cazador’s orders, but I think this was the first time she’s taken a life of her own volition, and I think that will really mess her up. Especially since she would have known Victoria. I think Leon kept her away from the other spawn as much as possible, but they were definitely aware of her. And if Leon felt ok with any of them being around his daughter it would have been Dal. I don’t know. I could see her punishing herself for that for the rest of her life. I don’t think she’ll ever let herself drink from anything but animals as some kind of penance. I wonder if she will still seek a cure for vampirism? Or will the enormity of what she was willing to sacrifice for that cure will lead her to feel that it’s no longer worth it? It’s equally possible though that she would feel that a cure would ultimately be for the greater good and push forward with it anyway (without the death of any more innocents). I really can’t decide. I do feel confident that she would continue to practice medicine in some capacity no matter what. Her identity as a doctor seems to be a very core part of who she is, and I imagine that the Underdark/Undercity are probably always in need of medical expertise. I think that purpose will help her to find her way, but I think the guilt of Victoria’s death will always hang heavily on her.

Violet I don’t feel like Violet has a long life after she is freed. We don’t know much about her, but based on her diary she seems like a real shit-stirrer. We do know she landed herself in the favored spawn room at least once, and I don’t think anyone earns Cazador’s favor by doing anything good. I headcanon her as being the spawn who most genuinely enjoys the violent parts of their nature. She genuinely enjoys hunting (that enjoyment only dampened by the fact that she’s not allowed to kill anyone herself) and probably doesn’t mind it in the least when she’s the one made to torture her siblings. All this to say, I think she would take full advantage of her freedom to get pretty serial killer-y. I think I’d give her a year at best before a monster hunter puts her down.

Petras I honestly think Petras would do pretty well for himself? He gives me the vibe of that dumb jock douche from high school who still somehow managed to end up way more successful than anyone would have expected lol. I think he feels he deserves a taste of the good life after everything he was put through and I think he’ll be able to build a version of that for himself (I vote him most likely to steal some fancy-looking shit from the palace on the way out the door). I could see him maybe getting involved in some kind of organized crime in the Undercity/Underdark. Not leadership or anything, but definitely as a valued asset.

Yousen So we know next to nothing about Yousen. Poor guy doesn’t even have unique dialogue. I don’t feel like I have enough information to make any kind of accurate prediction about what will become of him, so I am delving all the way into the realm of headcanon with him. I don’t even know for sure what race he is? I had thought he was a gnome, but I’ve seen him referred to in several places as a halfling? So who even knows. I also saw somewhere that he had been a spawn for 60 years. I also don’t know where that information came from, but I’ve chosen to accept it. The only canon information I have on him is that he was at least once a victim of a prank from Violet. So from this lack of information I choose to believe that he is the type to keep his head down and his nose clean. He doesn’t seek to be exceptional in Cazador’s eyes like Leon, but he in no way rebels either. He just wants to be invisible. Maybe that’s what makes him such a good victim for Violet. She knows he won’t make a fuss about it and get her in trouble to stay under the radar. I think those skills would serve him well in surviving on his own. He probably won’t thrive, but would continue to keep his head down, keep himself fed, and get his hands on whatever he needed without raising any major alarms.

Leon I don’t think Leon lives much past the day he’s freed. I think losing Victoria would be the end for him. My headcanon for how Victoria came to live in the mansion with them is that Leon was raising her alone (she was probably an infant at the time, maybe he lost his wife in childbirth?) when he was turned by Cazador. As soon as Leon realized the situation he was in he threw himself at Cazador’s feet and begged to be allowed to bring his daughter to the palace. Cazador of course, wasn’t moved by his show of emotion, but I think he thought that this could be interesting. It was honestly a no-lose situation for him. Worst case scenario, he would get to kill a child in front of its father. Or he could use the threat of harm to the child to drive Leon to be even more loyal and hardworking than those he had to compel to be. Based on how long Leon spent in the favored spawn room it seems that this strategy was very effective. Everything Leon did, every victim he brought home, every time he sold out one of the other spawn to stay in Cazador’s good favor, and every violent act he carried out on his sibling, or himself--it was all for her. Based on his diary, he clearly came to realize that this wasn’t going to be sustainable however. He knew she wouldn’t be safe there forever, and it sounds like he was so close to getting her out. I don’t think he finds out until after the failed ritual that she is dead (I don’t think he ever finds out it was Dal. I think only she and Cazador knew what she did and she was too scared to tell Leon. He just assumed it had been Cazador and she let him believe that.). For a few precious minutes he really believes that he will be able to be free with her. He’s “young” enough as a vampire that he probably believed they could go back to a normal life. But when that’s all ripped away I think that’s it for him. I think it’s likely that the very same day he gains his freedom he walks out into the sun and ends it all.

So there you go. There’s everything about the future for these six that’s been spinning in my head the last 48 hours. Does any of this this ring true to anyone? Anything you feel like I’m way off the mark on? Super curious what people think of these characters!

[mahoushojo-chan]

headcanons on the Cazador spawn family

because i had to write the family into my fanfiction, i spent a good hour in the szarr manor just scrounging for details.

additional credits to this redditor who helped get me started. i won't be going over the details that they already succinctly summarized, i'll only go over my extrapolations

tw: mentions of SA, ptsd, and all the gory details you'd expect from astarion's personal quest. and spoilers, of course.

Cazador Szarr:

in many ways, i want to write cazador as astarion's foil, and someone who has very similar views to an ascended astarion, even if he has a relatively different personality. i saw him as someone more introverted and calculated than our hedonistic, in-the-moment ally, but they are joined in the sense that both of them are intentionally cruel to others and possessive over what is theirs. i also wrote him as a necromancer wizard. just seemed to fit.

one thing that seemed to stump many is why there were only seven spawn that cazador kept, but seven thousand he could have chosen from. my theory is this: cazador was truly trying to build some semblance of family, as fcked up as it became. i also don't think that he ended up seeing them as family, and that his viewpoint constantly changed between seeing them as family, lovers, and slaves/tools for his own pleasure. astarion truly loved you before he ascended, and in the same vein, i imagine cazador had an innocent wish as a spawn, or even as a human: he wanted to be a father or a lover, apparently to a large family. this frames how i view the 'siblings'.

Leon Onufrio:

the only spawn with a last name, oddly enough. astarion says that he was 'one of (Cazador's) firsts', which led me to believe there must have been at least one before. i wrote leon to be his first. this makes sense for cazador's first spawn, since cazador seemingly has an affinity towards pretty men. it made sense to me that he could lure in a human with the false promise of eternity, and that he would choose one who seemed responsible and kind for his first 'son'. he is the only one with a daughter, and the only one with limited access to magic. he also seems to understand cazador well, being the first to realize that astarion is right to believe in cazador's cruelty over their false promise of freedom. i imagine cazador would have wanted him to play the role of a 'responsible older brother', and allow him the most independence. the first to have a child, the top hunter, the role model. amongst the spawn, he is the golden child, aka just had the most time to adapt to cazador's ways and go towards people pleasing. and due to his role, cazador allows him to play this.

i wrote him as a shadow magic sorcerer, because we know he is canonically a sorcerer and that he managed to place a necrotic curse on his daughter's blood, in case anyone would go after her. shadow magic seemed fitting for a vampire. it seemed like the type that would attract cazador.

I know that canonically there's a likelihood that he was the last spawn that cazador took in, and he had to take victoria with him and had to be in a position to actually mpregnate someone, but i just wrote it such that he managed to do so while he was a spawn... which is possible, astarion fans... it is possible...

Astarion Ancunin:

canonically astarion's one of cazador's firsts, and i chose to make him the second. i figured if i were an evil, narcissistic asshole playing 'house' with a son, artistically, a cain-and-abel dynamic with an 'ideal' older son and a resentful, evil younger brother. it is also known that astarion was rebellious, and cazador took specific glee in punishing him. that's right, according to this theory: astarion was always built to fail. he was always made to be punished in his role, regardless of what he did. he was meant to be broken over and over again, but not broken enough to stop rebelling entirely, because this would mean that he didn't fit his role well enough. he would be punished according to his role, because you could not be too rebellious, but then he could also be punished if he did not rebel enough, because then he wouldn't suit cazador's cruel playacting. he is the 'rebellious second-born'.

using the bg3 canon, astarion is an arcane trickster. i write him as a thief, never quite having enough time or wanting to put enough effort on honing his magical ability, moreso focusing on surviving.

Dalyria:

the rest of the spawn get a little more difficult, as less and less of them are known. we know dalyria was a physician, she cares about astarion, and she killed leon's daughter to try and discover a 'cure' to their vampirism. i just wanted to write her in relation to the others as a "mature and elegant older sister". one who genuinely has other people's best interests at heart. i also wanted to keep in mind the doctor's hippocratic oath and how that may have degraded and suffered from cognitive dissonance under years of abject torture, especially with what she ended up doing to victoria.

as it stands, there actually is a 'physician's touch' feat in dungeons and dragons, under the monk: way of mercy subclass.

Aurelia:

personally, i thought aurelia was really cute. she's also the only tiefling in cazador's coterie. continuing with the pattern, i thought perhaps cazador could also think so: she plays the role of the 'cute, anxious younger sister' that needs to be coddled a bit. she allows the hope of freedom to be dangled in her face.

in my hypothetical, she was innocent and it was probably easy for cazador to lure her in. perhaps she was already treated poorly by the world as a tiefling, and cazador pretended to be a kind, caring, gentle figure. whether as a father, or a lover. she seems to be the most aware of cazador's schemes and easy to control.

because she was captured while she was still innocent, and i made it so that after capture, none of cazador's spawn could really 'grow' as people while under his control (hence why astarion is level 1 when we meet him), i don't have a class for her yet, other than the charisma-based inclination based off her tiefling nature. i do have two little plot hooks for her though, so i'll see which direction she decides to go in.

Petras:

what we mainly know is that petras is a bit of an idiot, according to astarion. while this would normally hold very little juice, since astarion thinks all acts of good are idiotic, we also see that petras is regarded this way in general, such as looking for a meal when he finally is allowed his freedom. his role was "dumb younger brother".

i imagined him as a bit of a jock. not exactly ill-intentioned, but definitely ignorant. he also looked shorter and stouter than astarion--even though i know they most likely use the same model, i wanted to incorporate this. i wanted to make him a idiot-good paladin at first, and keep him as someone resilient and protective, but none of the oaths really seemed to suit him. i knew none of them could be a religious class, mainly for the reasons astarion brought up, and the oaths themselves didn't really serve him well. i settled on barbarian and flavour him with dhampir. yes, even though all of them are technically vampires and petras specifically was a human in life, i just used character sheets to make things easier.

Violet:

Violet was at least a little interesting--mostly because of her diary. she constantly writes about playing pranks on other people and overall being a menace. she's also the only other person to be in the 'favoured spawn' room in recent history. while leon constantly tried to shoehorn his way in there for his daughter, she had no such attachment. i figured she just was a little cruel, and enjoyed the suffering of others so much that she may have actually enjoyed the killing a vampire would do.

i also had cazador enforce this behaviour, because in this hierarchy, she is the 'bratty younger sister'. the favoured youngest spawn. i made her a gloom stalker ranger. i wanted her to be ruthless in the way that she got her kills, attacking others while she had the advantage, and still having some skill. i also wanted an overlap where she and astarion could reconnect so that she wouldn't be completely lost and evil, what with both of them being sneaky and such. plus helps with the pranks role, and gives her some capacity for wisdom

Yousen:

the final sibling. the only thing i think we ever find out about this guy is that violet played a prank on him once. i imagine that cazador saw him as a joke. his stature doesn't fit his team, he's not particularly their type, and he doesn't seem to be treated very well. i think of him as the 'black sheep' of the family. the 'runt of the litter'. this is the role he is meant to play.

however, even though this is the role he plays, i didn't make him this way at all. i headcanon this is the 'character' cazador cared least about. i don't think he took much time carefully picking it out, since yousen would also be the last spawn chosen for the ritual, and at this point, cazador figures they're all going to die anyways--he just needs to complete the family. there was a lot i could do here, with so little known about him. i made him reclusive and resentful, which makes him seem to fit the role, but deep down it's mostly because he's hardened and jaded. i made his backstory as a soldier--perhaps one that cazador found drunk at a bar one day and figured he would make a good joke, a runt, and effectively the most misunderstood.

he is a battle master fighter. or, well, formerly was. i had him lose a significant amount of skill during the years that he became a spawn. also during cazador's ritual, if you examine everyone, he and leon are the only ones with blood on their mouths. i felt that this meant they were the only two who attempted to fight cazador before becoming sacrifical lambs. (note: they also have it at the camp when they attack astarion, but this could still be valid and also i don't trust the texture mapping they did with the spawn, what with their red bodies) i thought a sorcerer and fighter could make a badass combo. also, there are a lot of people who sleep on the halfling fighter builds.