About vampire souls - there is a problem with sourcing information directly from the net. But from what is available in open sources, you can find information confirming that "the devil is not so terrible". More specifically, that the deal with Mephistopheles is not so ruinous for Astarion. In fact, it's just a "contract for a future employee of a hellish corporation". Worse than living free on Faerűn in his castle, but hardly worse than ending up with Mephistopheles as a common spawn who blew his chances, or hanging around forever on the Fugue Plan (another version of where vampire souls go).
Mephistopheles, The Vampire God.«In the OG vampire novel, Dracula had sold his soul to the devil at some point, in exchange for a terrible kind of immortality that comes at the expense of the living. Vampires follow a rigid set of rules (cannot enter houses, cannot cross moving water, must count small things, etcetera); it seems perfectly fitting to me that vampires are the servants of Mephistopheles.
Now, Vampirism is still possible to spread via bite. Here, we follow WoD rules; each generation removed from an OG vampire loses some amount of power. Vampires who made original pacts with Mephistopheles are near-god like in terms of power; they are fearsome beings, enslaved directly by Mephistopheles for his dark bidding.
Mephistopheles does not entertain requests for vampirism often. For a mortal to even come to his attention as a candidate for vampirism, they must be quite powerful, unfettered to any other deity, and an exceptionally cruel person. (It takes an especially selfish and violent soul to entertain the idea of blood sacrifice to sustain themselves).
An original vampire is largely free to their own will, but must obey Mephistopheles, if he calls them to work. Mephistopheles does not allow his vampires any loopholes on killing. The “hunger” a vampire feels is less about a drive to find sustenance, and more about a compulsion to make sacrifices to their Dark Lord.»
About rigid rules - Mephistopheles is "the god of lawyers and contracts".
«Mephistopheles is possibly the most lawful being in existence. Mephistopheles hates those who would lie, and for him to commit a lie would violate a deep aspect of his own nature. If Mephistopheles commits to something, it can be counted on to be done.»
A mortal can become a vampire by making a deal with Mephistopheles, bypassing the conversion process, without the involvement of another vampire. This, too, would require a blood sacrifice. Note: "vampire is free to their own will", they are obliged to obey only when Mephistopheles calls them to work, i.e. gives them some kind of task, a quest to fulfill. It is impossible to refuse. But there is no change of identity. How is this different from Will and Mizora? If Astarion "loses his soul and becomes evil" after the ritual, we would then have to be introduced to a very evil Will, who would also lose his soul by making a deal with Mizora. It would be very convenient for the devils if anyone who made a deal with them would lose their soul right away, and would do evil right and left of their own free will. There would be no need for any punishments, no rewards, no incentives for the contract worker to perform well. Especially since Astarion speaks of Mephistopheles having no power over him. Accordingly, as long as Astarion is alive (and we'll do our best to keep this going "Until the world falls down"), he won't even get any "work" from Mephistopheles.
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Making Deals with Devils in D&D 5e:«Arcane Knowledge: Mephistopheles
The reclusive Arch-Devil Mephistopheles is in charge of creating new arcane weapons on the armor of the Devil army. He deals exclusively with the brightest mages who can add his endeavors in the afterlife.
Mephistopheles can open mages’ minds to possibilities never before conceived, or give them access to incredible power. But a deal with him almost always means spending eternity as an assistant to his insane experiments.»
Deals exclusively with bright magicians. An assistant in his insane experiments. Yes, the need to work is pure evil (many of us are forced to endure this evil on a 5/2 schedule or some other schedule), but it is not "hellish torment". It is not the same as burning in a fire or melting in a cauldron. It's not a Christian hell, it's the quite ordinary, down-to-earth harsh reality of working for the boss of a large corporation. Maybe you can get weekends and vacations somehow, too, who knows?
All in all, it's a bit like someone being offered immortality whereby they can still be killed, and if they do get killed, they have to take a job forever afterward. That's bad. But there's no telling when that will be... And what better fate will Astarion, who refused the ritual, have if he's killed? Besides, even if AA and Tav die, Tav will surely be able to follow him to hell, I don't see how it makes sense for Mephistopheles to deny them. I mean, even death won't separate them, they'll go to work in a hellish corporation together. And what will Tav do with UA in case of death? If death of both, they will go to the domain of their deity, and never see Astarion again. In the case of Astarion's death, they will probably cry and humble themselves, as one who prioritizes the laws of gods and men should.
On the subject of freed spawn -
Vampire spawn«When acting of their own free will a vampire spawn were often known to garner other undead as soldiers, such as ghouls and wights, or bodyguards, such as mummies or mohrgs.»
Of course, some will be obedient boys, some will be killed, and some... Surely, among these 7000 (still a big number) there will be some smart guys who will not follow anyone, but will run away. I would do that too if I were them. Some will be able to organize their gangs, command the other undead, maybe even raise an army. I certainly sympathize with these possible future tactical geniuses and conquerors, but the world is cruel, alas, and Astarion is obviously more precious to me.
The same goes for the Gur - whether they are guilty or innocent, the world is cruel, the reality is so. Every day in the world of Faerűn many living beings die, and no one asks whether they are guilty or not. You just have to try not to be in their shoes and protect your loved ones. The Gur go to their Gur gods, they don't seem to have any problems with souls. And if they have, it's their problem, not Astarion's.
Back on topic, I rather liked the ambiguity the game left, and that you could interpret this or that in your own way. But here's this statement by the authors about dividing the paths into bad and good, about companions needing to be reinterpreted, makes the game worse in my opinion. It turns out that Tav, all Merry Sue, knows best how and who to live, and no one dares to say a word against and express their opinion.
- 200 years of torture? - No, you're a cute little puppy and you're just confused. (No, no, spawn don't bite, ew, bad.)
- Save your father or break the contract, Tav decides.
- Your parents sent you to the wolves in the woods, but that's a rite of passage, and Sharia law is ba ba ba.
- I don't remember how long Vlaakit ruled, but let's do a coup d'etat, because you're very harsh on the Gith. This is all sarcasm.
Asesdent - this is what Astarion wants for himself. Like Laezel to change his idol. Like Shadowheart to change deity. Why is it that while in Laezel and Shadowheart plan, if they aren't persuaded, they choose the right path, in Astarion's this is a bad way?
Maybe for him, his dark side is just as good for him...even if to the detriment of others.
That's right. The idea of "bad" and "good" paths for companions is presented, that they have to learn something. Only they all choose their "good" paths themselves perfectly well, and without violence from Tav, and are happy with it. Well, Will doesn't choose, but he's also ultimately happy with everything, if you untie him from Mizora and save his father. Only Astarion is "a cute little puppy and just confused". Only he needs to be argued with, manipulated, "helped" to stay a spawn forever. I'm not going to force anyone to rethink anything. I love Astarion, not the rules of this world. And if you want to give "plot consequences", my enemy should be representatives of your "good world", not Astarion himself. And if you want to teach me how to "properly build relationships" - go to Mephistopheles... Along with all the souls. And the "lowest score" for refusal to "learn relationships" in the form of mocking kisses - it shows the extremely low qualification of the teacher. And "get out of class," like, that's it, yay, you can't play this game anymore - same thing.
