Man, I haven’t dabbled in mbti in years. Always fun to see it come up tho. I took a stab at the personalities and got the same for Lae’zel, Astarion, and Shadowheart. Here’s my descriptions based on their in-game personalities. Mbti is useful for outlining how a person maneuvers the world – I’d be more interested in enneagram tho since that can factor in mental states, which would give descriptions that make more sense to evil/depraved characters. I use the cognitive function system, so give me a moment to confirmation bias nerd out:
Lae’zel (ISTJ – Si Te Fi Ne)
Astarion - ESFP (Se Fi Te Ni)
Shadowheart - INTJ (Ni Te Fi Se)
Dominant Function – pretty much summarizes of their most basic behavior.
Lae’zel Si Dom – Holding an internal mental storehouse of personally relevant details based on past experiences and personal sensations. There’s an aspect of feeling these things quite physically. If things don’t match up with how she understands things to be, it’s always a problem and involves visceral discomfort. She’ll seek to assert some control in response. Si is a very unique and a very individual, subjective mode of interpreting the world. Being outside her comfort zone is a reason for her constant agitation, but also for her endless confidence in her own skills.
Astarion Se Dom – Wants to experience all the world has to offer and thus needs to feel free to move of his own accord and make the most of situations. There’s both an openness to experience but also in wanting to keep options open that gives him an element of overt charm in trying to lure others into his same sensibilities. Join the party. Very straight forward as an extroverted function.
Shadowheart Ni Dom – Needs to be able to imagine that something more is going on than what is seen. On the one hand allows her to see more than meets the eye, generate ideas from seeing the whole picture, but also hints a feeling that without an element of subtext, reality doesn’t feel real or feels phony. There’s always something else happening than what is happening. This involves somewhat not being full present in any given situation and instead imagining and operating from that imagination. Literally not operating on the same realm of experience is why she’s unwarrantedly snarky.
Auxiliary Function – A secondary process to make judgements/interpretations on what’s going on.
Lae’zel Te Aux – Putting 2 and 2 together. Can deduce what is going on if recognizable details are there. More visible than dominant function due to introversion. Making the external world match what she is used to is the reason for her controlling and argumentative behavior, but also in her dedication to stick with things until she brings about the result she desires. Some may interpret the Te function as masculine. The SiTe goal is to become an essential cornerstone of a more stable system, and impose order on anything out of place. What doesn’t make sense in that system is oppressed. This is very much her strict adherence to Gith culture and procedures.
Astarion Fi Aux – Things are good and right subjectively. If it leads to a good time, entertainment, or good feelings, it’s right. Avoids anything that would lead to difficulty or a loss of autonomy. Personal sensibilities, style and emotions expressed without issue, though can be tailored to ensure keeping all viable opportunities open. This is very much his “disarming charm” and the ability to seem like an open book and genuine. The SeFi goal is to make the outside world easier to maneuver at the pursuit of their own whims. There is an inherent sense of style and inclusion that some may interpret at effeminate. Fi is the most subjective of the functions and is the reason for Astarion’s chaotic alignment.
Shadowheart Te Aux – Again, putting 2 and 2 together. Can intuitively figure out what’s going on. More visible than dominant function due to introversion. Her personal insights come together to formulate how she understands the world to work, and not only lives as if whatever mental world that results is the same as reality itself, but also enforces that reality. Some may interpret the Te function as masculine. This makes her skilled in unraveling deceptions, able to follow rabbit holes most others couldn’t see, but also unnecessarily suspicious. What doesn’t make sense is an additional reason to scrutinize it for the truth. The NiTe goal is to bring creations of the mind into fruition. This is very much her propensity to make correct assumptions on individuals and situations, but at the same time get caught up on assumptions. This is also the attitude of testing the player’s interpretation of situations and telling them how they should.
Tertiary functions are interesting because this is the behavior that comes out when something’s a little off with the way they are thinking or interpreting a situation. It's how they can be convinced of something they'd normally not entertain. It can very much hint the direction possible redemption arcs might entail. This is also where their most immature behavior comes from: Lae’zel’s brattiness, Astation’s cruelty, and Shadowheart’s mixed messages. Also, I personally wrestle with Tertiary Fi and am very accustomed to it, so I very much relate to this aspect in LZ and SH. When it comes to ISTJ and INTJ, people are often very surprised at the emotions that lurk buried beneath.
Lae’zel Fi Tert – Decisions primarily made by how well they fit into her understanding of how the world works and involves an element of emotional suppression. Things are good and right based on how well she is operating as an essential cornerstone of a more stable whole – as a model Githyanki. However when challenged and pressured, decision making can bypass her understanding of how the world works. Instead it revolves around the sense of inherent worthiness or unworthiness [Fi] she can internally feel [Si] - derived from the information she holds in mind. When things don’t add up, it’s someone else’s wrong doing at best or her ultimate failure at worst. There is an element in Fi being tertiary that involves self-doubt and putting all your trust in an external system. This is what you’re seeing any time she looks unsure as well as the anger in the aftermath of the Gith Patrol. Furthermore, eventually coming to terms with the inferior function can allow a stronger sense of self without needing an external system as a crux. Appealing to her sense of worthiness is a path she can be persuaded to deviate from usual trains of thought.
Astarion Te Tert – Decisions primarily made by how good things play out, how pleasurable and exciting they are, and involves an element of rationalization within an understanding of how the world works. This can make desires more realistic and easier to obtain, but when challenged or pressured, decision making can bypass what he normally tolerates. If the entire world is a vile place and all he’s ever known or expects, then basically anything goes. Giving into bloodlust, being at the mercy of his own whims, and maneuvering the world in a way to do as he pleases are rationalized away as the right thing, despite any personal or emotional reservations he might have or once had. When things are boring, he has to make his own fun – often at the expense of others. Convincing him of different ways to interpret the world is a path he can be persuaded to deviate from usual trains of thought.
Shadowheart Fi Tert – Again, Decisions are primarily made by how well they fit into her understanding of how the world works and involves an element of emotional suppression. Things are good and right based on how well her intuitions formulate a cohesive picture of how the world works. However when challenged and pressured, decision making can bypass that understanding. Instead it involves the sensations that linger after the intuition is felt. What she senses can often immediately reinforce how she feels, and make it seem like anything other than what she has sensed will cause her to lose her footing. This can involve hair trigger reactions to what is more an internal sensation than what is really occurring, and cause her to obscure or suppress it as a defensive mechanism. When things don’t add up, there has to be something she’s not seeing. There has to be something more going on. Again, there is an element in Fi being tertiary that involves self-doubt and putting all your trust in an external system. And in Shadowheart, that manifests as her emotional relief found in Shar worship and a sense of relief in beleving it good to not care/turn a blind eye to the suffering in the world – as if it was once too great a burden to bear. Appealing to her deeper emotional sensations is a path she can be persuaded to deviate from usual trains of thought.
Inferior Function – An underdeveloped function that operates subconsciously and can cause an unhealthy fixation and mental fallacies.
Lae’zel Ne Inf - Subconsciously fears anything that deviates from the norm, and is sensitive to any little thing that is out of place. It is both an inability to imagine anything outside the realms of her experiences and how she thinks the world works as well as a propensity for assuming the worst. Held in the grip of this imaginative darkness and combined with her default mode of visceral sensation, she is quick to jump to conclusions and act on them. Basically, the scene where she threatens to kill everyone and herself after using the tadpole powers. Irrationality comes in the form of fighting an intangible enemy until there is either nothing left inside herself worth fighting for or until she is dead. There is a need to imagine new possibilities that are not do or die.
Astarion Ni Inf – Shadowheart’s strength in peeling away illusions, seeing the whole picture from a dissociated perspective is Astarion’s inferior function. Subconsciously, he fears an unease that lurks beneath his pursuit of pleasure and happiness. That he will be blindsided, that there is something else going on that will cause his whole world to come crashing down. On the flip side, this causes an unhealthy obsession with doing things just because you can and often to spite the possible or inevitable moments when you can’t do a thing at all. It is a feeling of being haunted by a ghost you can never figure out where it is but it’s there. Paranoia agitated by a dire world view were everyone get’s there’s in the end. Where once allies can turn into enemies at a moment’s notice, and one is best to expend them before they expend you. There is a need to imagine something greater than the banality of a cold, careless world.
Shadowheart Se Inf – Astarion’s strength in being involved with the goings on of the world and partaking of it’s opportunities and experiences is Shadowheart’s inferior function. Subconsciously, she fears what is actually going on around her despite what she interprets. There is a willingness to turn a blind eye to things that would otherwise challenge her understanding of things. There is the possibility of holding on so tightly to illusions that in all actuality she is dissociating – not there at all. On a more present scale, it is cognitive dissonance that holds one hostage from really existing truly in their own skin. Whatever the truth is with her Shar worship and her lost memories, it echoes this aspect.
