Has this been done

Many have written about how Karlach throws Astarion, well… Don't worry, no Astarions were harmed! But I can't say the same about Gortash…

Some fic recs if you like this dynamic

If @calolily gives recs, we save them for future consumption.

"First in my heart."

I will never not be obsessed with him.

BG3 x Cruella 2021

Cruellastarion

You deserve something real... I want us to be something real.

instagram | nsfw art | webtoon

Silverbough in a Suit 2.0

I'm baaaaack with another Suited Silverbough, this time getting BAFTA ready with our favorite resident tailor. I'll finish up Astarion when I get a few minutes, but wanted to share the WIP with you ♡

wyll canonically not knowing if someone is flirting with him and astarion canonically finding him attractive is my fucking bread and butter okay i need fics of astarion falling deeply in love with wyll and dropping hints and wyll just being so obtuse like “aw, he called me handsome and said he feels safe around me and he’d like to get to know me more how nice of him he’s really coming out of his shell :D,” and just merrily going about his day like normal and not taking a hint

I love cuddly Astarion—him finding peace and safety in his lover’s arms, someone caressing his skin, keeping him warm.

But I really like the idea of Astarion doing the same for his lover, actively being their safe space, watching over their rest. Choosing to hold them. It would be such a novel experience for him, being loved and cherished and proudly returning the favour, knowing that he’s actually able to keep his loved ones safe, mostly from himself and any fate they would’ve suffered with Cazador still around.

This whole scene is based off of an old old drawing I did years ago. I just thought the concept would be PERFECT for Wyll.

idk i just needed to get this one outta me

Papercraft Astarion, made as a birthday gift for a friend-of-a-friend! The designs in this game are so striking and the story sounds fascinating; I had enormous fun looking through screenshots for references and getting completely distracted. :D

felt cute might delete later 💅

trying to kiss wyll in my astarion origin playthrough but his dad is right fucking there

Something I love about confronting Cazador is how he obviously never processes that Astarion has friends until it's too late.

Petras and Dalyria must have mentioned that Astarion wasn't alone when they met him, but when you read Cazador's journal? He's 100% fixated on Astarion. How Astarion stood in the sun, how Astarion was willing and able to disobey him. And when Astarion shows up, Cazador barely acknowledges the party at all - and sure, that's partly because this is Astarion's moment in the narrative, but Cazador doesn't so much as ask why these random strangers are there! They're not part of his plans, so they don't exist.

And then they immediately save his errant spawn from the ritual and start beating his ass.

Just. What must have been going through Cazador's head when that fight starting turning against him? 'Is that... the Blade of Frontiers? Why is a monster hunter - and is that a cleric? - helping a vampire spawn? An undead? Ah, but they must be treating it as a necessary evil to have a chance to slay me, of course - hold on, why is the cleric healing Astarion? Why does that wizard keep Counterspelling everything I'm casting at Astarion, why waste the spells when I'm not even targeting him? Did... did that druid just cast Daylight on Astarion's weapons? And that brute of a tiefling - that's not just disgust in her eye when she looks at me, it's fury - and she keeps putting herself in front of Astarion, why in the hells would she - she's running right at me- '

I hope that one of the last things Cazador ever knew was the choking realisation that Astarion didn't just come back strong, or free. Astarion came back loved.

Potentially controversial opinion, but astarion’s act 3 romance scene should not have been a sex scene

I very respectfully disagree. 🙂 Not because we gotta have them sexy times. I disagree because I love how Larian delivered it as more than just sex.

Astarion is a rascal, a cunty little flirt and a menace. As we progress on the adventure, we get to see more of his goofy, silly, dagger-happy self. He becomes comfortable enough to make terrible jokes, complains about stuff that he can't be bothered to do, shares his thoughts etc. And our boy starts showing more that he doesn't do things unless he wants to.

Yes, he has been conditioned by Cazador to see sex as a means to an end. Yet, if his approval is low in Act I, he will refuse the player quite enthusiastucally. Because, ouch 'I have standards'.

He is reclaiming his autonomy not just come Act III, there are instances where he refuses to do something he does not want to peppered throughout the game. And if the player insists, there are consequences. As there should be.

Astarion is definitely over sex for the sake of it. But just as he is surprised at enjoying the hug in Act II, he would want to discover what else is enjoyable and fun, if done with the right person. And this is canon. Lae’zel complaining about Astarion and his lover not being able to keep their hands off each other confirms that. Astarion is in love and he is unapologetic about it.

So Act III scene is not just about sex. Astarion is activelly making a choice to be intimate (not just rut and call it a day) with the person who shows him respect and love beyond anything he has ever experienced.

And the camera panning away and us not seeing what happens (including the leg hook that you can only see with freecam), Astarion and his love having their moment, this is sex as an expression of companionship and love. Because Astarion is having fun and he is shaboinking on his own grave, and all of that is on his own terms.

And once again, no one has to share this opinion. If you read this, hope you're having a lovely day 💖

Speculating on why Astarion doesn't seem to remember his mortal life. Some of the other spawn clearly do (Leon knows who Victoria is, Dalyria remembers being a doctor), and Dalyria had a high-up position, so it's entirely possible she was over a hundred when she was turned. Maybe Astarion's memory loss is due to his age when he was turned?

Elves in Forgotten Realms have an interesting relationship with memory. All FR elves reincarnate. Initially, when they trance, they basically just relive their past lives; in their second or third decades (teenage years or twenties), they experience First Reflection, and they start incorporating memories of their current lives into their reverie. This is basically… part reflection, part reinforcement of what they learn in their waking/active hours, so it sounds like it's pretty important to turn short-term memories into long-term ones. Over the next several decades, they dream of their past lives less and less, and eventually go through a fairly traumatic event called Drawing of the Veil, at about a century old. After that, they're considered, culturally, to be adults. After the Drawing of the Veil, the memories worked through in trance are entirely of their current existence.

(Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. It's a 5e book published in 2018, so it could have been a source for BG3, I suspect. The game doesn't agree entirely with the book - it says elves stop visibly aging at about thirty, and Astarion, Halsin, and Minthara all look older - but they could have definitely taken notes from it.)

Drawing of the Veil could indicate that an elf's memory centres of their brain are now fully developed and 'attuned' to their current life. So, what happens if the process is interrupted? Astarion was turned at thirty-nine, well before the Drawing of the Veil. I wonder if this interrupted the usual reinforcement of memories, or damaged the memory centres of his brain? He's had, at most, thirty years of a potential ninety years of memory centre development, so he does remember bits and pieces, but the vast majority he missed.

It might not have been instantaneous, ie. waking up in his coffin without any memories at all. But over time, without being able to sort through those mortal memories in reverie, they just start fading away and can't be written into long-term memory. If Dalyria had already experienced Drawing of the Veil, her memory centres wouldn't have had the same damage, so she'd be able to keep working through her mortal memories in trance; Astarion, who was turned younger, can't work over them and so they just… end up forgotten.

Also worth noting that Astarion also doesn't trance exclusively, too - he actually sleeps at times. Most surface elves never true sleep unless they're badly injured, ill, or exhausted (drow sleep more). We do see Astarion trancing, but we also see him sleeping a few times - he sleeps and has a nightmare in his Origin run, and he's sleeping during that scene with a Dark Urge who's romanced him. If he can't access his past lives or mortal life when he trances, then literally all he has access to is… his life under Cazador's rule. Dreaming might be weird and scary and uncomfortable and risky, but it's also a possible escape from not reliving two centuries of shit.

There isn't really anything to confirm one way or another in-game, but I did wonder why Astarion doesn't remember his mortal life, and Dalyria appears to do so. Astarion was young for an elf when he was turned, so I wonder if that could be the reason why, interrupting that memory formation development.

(Side note: I do consider Astarion to have been an adult when he was turned in almost all ways, including physically, mentally, and in Faerûnian society. He just wouldn't have been considered an adult when he was turned in elven culture, due to not having undergone Drawing of the Veil. He was a Baldurian elf, considred to have the rights and responsibilities of any other adult. If he had been raised in, say, Evereska, that'd be another matter entirely, but Baldur's Gate is mixed, and majority human. A great analogy I saw once is that Drawing of the Veil is analogous to having your b'nai mitzvah - of course a thirteen-year-old isn't an adult in broader society, but within the community, a b'nai mitzvah is expected to be held accountable for their actions, know Jewish law, participate in things like fasting for Yom Kippur, count towards minyan, etc. It's a specific cultural standpoint of maturity, even if it's not a broader societal standpoint; with the theory above, it would also have a biological component with memory formation, similar to how b'nai mitzvah most often coincides with puberty. Anyway, even without Drawing of the Veil, 39 is still painfully, tragically young for someone that could have potentially lived to 750.)