I've been thinking...How about this thought: If we do an infernal ritual with AA, 7000 souls go to Hell to Mephistoftl. Astarion gets the power. But if we don't do the ritual, then there are 2 ways: either we kill the spawns or let them go to the dungeon. In both cases, Mephistophilus doesn't get 7000 souls. And you want to say that the devil is sitting in his chair, looking at how some bums with worms in their heads got into his treaty (and in some cases, even though not the most beloved, but still killed his son Raphael) and he said: "okay, I forgive you. Looking from this point of view, the life of Tav and Astarion can be extremely short. This is to the question of finding a cure for the sun, or finding a means of immortality for Tav..... But this about what happens after the finale, you can probably argue endlessly. It's in the mind, everyone has a different one.
What I find interesting is that no one knows for sure what happens to those souls if they don't die in the ritual. People have their guesses, and some seem quite sure of them, but the truth is if it's not in the game or any official materials, we can't know for certain. Plenty have said, "they go wherever they would anyway," but others have pointed out that in DnD canon lore, apparently vampire spawn go to Mephistopheles regardless, so the only thing that changes is that he gets them a little later and no one gets the powers, if the ritual isn't performed. This ambiguity I think does a big disservice to this overall story. If my headcanon is that the souls are doomed no matter what, why should I care that they can die in service of giving my boyfriend magic powers?
