Originally Posted by Dotsat
It kind of - kind of - makes sense to have that many spawns if we take into account that they've been accumulating for (roughly) 200 years. If we count (roughly), then 7000÷200=35 spawns per year. Seems okay-ish to me.

I just can't believe Cazador (well, his minions) getting away with disappearing that many people every year without being caught. Baldur's Gate isn't that big, it's not NYC. It'd be very risky, even if you're just targeting people you think no one will miss (which they definitely don't do - the Gur miss their kids quite a bit!). It seems like a shockingly big number for the sake of being a Shockingly Big Number. Also, IIRC Astarion says he was one of Cazador's first spawn, and describes a victim taken ~170 years ago as one of his own first. That points to a much lower starting rate which slowly ramped up over the years as more "employees" showed up and everyone got better at their "jobs".

Originally Posted by Reverie
I initially chose to let him ascend to avoid the ABSOLUTE FLOOD of hungry vampires, as it seemed it would cause thousands of deaths and was the difficult-and-complex-but-ultimately-correct-choice, but then I realized Astarion was not actually happy with it and I decided to go back and let the world burn instead ¯\_(?)_/¯

You can kill them without ascending him - did you see that option?