Hello! I'll try to answer with my knowledge and opinions as an EA player, although IDK if this thread will get moderated because there are so many active Astarion threads going on currently.
So, to start, that backstory you're mentioning isn't *exactly* his EA backstory. That tidbit is grabbed from, if memory serves me right, a Feb 2020 article from a guy that was at that event where Larian showcased some footage of IIRC their alpha build, so a full 8 months before EA release. A couple years later (which is admittedly a lot later) his writer gave an interview where he said "his backstory then isn't necessarily his backstory now"
His backstory in EA is pretty much what you see in full release's act 1. Nothing changed, really. I think they changed a couple lines surrounding Gandrel? The thing is that it's always been implied there was some shady business going on with the ruling he handed down for the Gur (mostly, that he did something extremely bigoted) and that Cazador being there was sketchy, also almost implying they knew each other. But because of the game not really tackling either of these things despite leaving them in, it almost feels like it's a dropped storyline. They also left in comments about Cazador's extensive family and Astarion having to obey them, despite that not being very present in full release. His family was more or less datamined, unlike any mention of Astarion's previous storyline.
Regarding his canon biological age, I honestly think it's a big goof. A 39yo elf in DND is physically in their early 20s but considered an elf minor by their society. However, Astarion does not remotely look like a 20yo. But, he does very much look like a human 39 year old (I've also seen people say it's a nod to the age Neil Newbon was when he started playing the character). This makes me believe they assigned him a human age while forgetting he's an elf, as they often do with Astarion, honestly. His elven heritage is barely mentioned.
Astarion's mirror scene and his concerns there if you point out certain traits feel like heavily points to him being at a middle-age-crisis age, rather than his 20s. His writer also said in an interview the concept for him was "aging rockstar" and that he already thought he looked too smooth in the concept art.
I also have to add the dates surrounding both that tombstone and the Cazador palace are a complete and utter mess. No date in his tombstone fully makes sense, even when people try to construct a way to make them work, and even then it actively contradicts dates given in the palace for when Cazador became a lord. At this point I feel like we have to accept it's kind of nonsensical and build our own HCs about what's right and what's not. Personally I don't think Astarion being an elf minor suits him, so I don't really stick to that.
Ah, also, for your interest, the artbook also seems to have been made at an earlier stage in development and they also talk a bit about Astarion's background there, that he was part of the corrupt elite and "looking for immortality". Despite being part of the full release artbook, this seems to be old and scrapped judging by the game.
Last edited by jinetemoranco; 12/07/24 01:52 PM.
