Realization of Astarion's Dark Past as a Magistrate in future patches or Definitive Edition.
'Baldur's Gate 3' Tries to Capture the Chaos of D&D Gone Horribly Wrong February 28, 2020
Presentation Baldur's Gate 3 demo by Swen Vincke
„A disgraced nobleman who used his position as a local magistrate to serve a vampire clan by feeding them prisoners, he was eventually too corrupt even for them and was effectively sent to serve as the personal slave of a powerful vampire.”
Astarion, In the artbook that was released in time for Early Access:„Dangerous and Decadent. Two hundred years ago, Astarion was a corrupt elite of Baldur's Gate with a taste for power and a hunger for eternal life”.
The first lines of the artbook, are a signal to me that this was the key idea of the character.
I have one piece of information, but the game almost is silent. It is known, however, that Astarion is still was Magistrate.
It's quite difficult exploring a character's philosophical global idea without a clear narrative line.
Astarion's story deserves a deep, morally complex and dark quest, with influences of play style and the romance.
I have a few suggestions, of varying degrees of level of ambition.
- Sheets, letters.Add Astarion's past as lists, letters in Cazdor's castle or vault. Without or with dialog with Astarion after the find.
- Dialogue. I'll copy it from
hereIf the dialog is added. I envision it as a complex, highly interconnected dialog by key-moments player actions throughout the game, chosen path of evil or good and romantic moments. Class and race responses. As well as the ability to read and hear Astarion's thoughts, checks and the narrator's voice.
- DetailsSpeaking of playstyle I will use the terms alignment.
Astarion has no reason to care about his dark past if the player is dark too. This system works in the conversation about controlling the cult in front of the Moon Towers.
That the playstyle is evil\neutral-evil, or true neutral.
If the player tells Nere to "kill the slaves" or "no action", for example, there are several key moments throughout the story that will signal Astarion how to act and shape his attitude towards the dialog and the player.
There's a subtle point with neutrality, neutral alignment doesn't take sides, chaotic-neutral doesn't either (but is more subject to own caprice). And for Astarion, that's going to be I think the hardest part, understanding a player like that, as opposed to hero and villain.
Also for example the general attitude towards such things and people - the cynicism, the cruelty of a player who might have remembered Astarion. Overall, I would have liked more conversations with Astarion about power and the world.
- Romance influence on the dialogAstarion will benefit greatly from this dialog by having a romance with the player.
As in the case of the wholestory there will be key-romantic-moments. Not just good\care ones, but sacrificial and strange ones.
One of the first is the player letting Astarion drink his blood\ or let kill player and not being too mad at him in the morning. That is moments when the player did something just for him risky things, questionable, supported not-good words Astarion. That is, Astarion would understand that he's the player's weak spot, he's being forgiven everything, so his behavior would be different. Or the player is quite individual and Astarion's influence is obviously less.
Also the impact of "breaking up" when the relationship was before.
After the ritual.
Spawn.
This will be an opportunity to show the thorns and dark side of Astarion Spawn. If for example the player has done some pretty evil things and doesn't care about the past, or evily-evil says Astarion was doing an interesting venture. Someone wants keeps playing Boney and Clyde without the ritual. Also a good player, could still condemn it even before going to a painful breakup.
Lord Astarion.
DnD5 true-vampire rules work on an ascended vampire? In the interview said it's still Astarion. So I think, we can only evaluate actions.
For Lord, it's a chance to show his gentle\fun side.
If the player was a good\neutral and said something nice\neutral or even supportive about Astarion past. That is, the player has stepped to the dark side.
Or, player has neutral and is simply Lord Astarion's own moral compass. But not in the sense of breaking up.
Just a little directing and structuring that chaotic fire, in Lawfull Evil so to speak, when there's a romantic relationship it's all the more interesting to watch. I like the tropes of Unholy Matrimony and Even Evil Has Loved Ones, which there just aren't many of these days. Astarion gets chill in the epilogue, so it's interesting to see the start of getting chill.
Lord Astarion will have a lot of branches - spawn Tav, after the ritual right away maybe, after the breakup, after agreeing to be "partners-in-crime", even mortal Tav in the end maybe.
However, this would require either the Upper City or new heroes and locations, perhaps.
It's no secret that Cazador Castle screams "Cut Content", Larian mentioned in an interview that a romance with Jeheira was planned, but it wasn't realized. A lot of things Larian's team didn't have time to realize.
There is an option in the game to betray Astarion to the fishes, but in the case of Cazador, the player becomes a triple agent and returns to Astarion's side by fighting Cazador. If additional content is added, perhaps Cazador could become an ally and this would expand on the vampire quest in Baldur's Gate and possibly reveal some details of the past.
The difficulty in understanding Astarion as a character is that he is a trickster and a charlatan. He can lie to the player to get whatever he wants. It takes a miracle for us to be sure of what he's saying.
I was thinking of including the hag sisters in the game, that have letters in the first act, where they would show the worst sides of the character\evil and nasty in a companion to poke fun at the feelings of the lovers\friends. It'll also help bring out a different side of Wyll. Astarion's gonna have a lot on his plate.
