#AND I'M LOOKING AT YOU ASTARION

[amoremagnificentbastard]

OC Insight / What kind of love are you?

Rules: take this uquiz as your OC and share the result.

Thank you to @sniickerdoodles for giving me an excuse to yell about my girl Diana! I don't know how this quiz is so accurate, but here we are.

Love as a Threshold

Your love does not ask for much. Your love does not take. Your love is free, and unquestioned, and here for wherever needs it. When you fall in love, it is as gentle as a breath in the night. It is quiet, and it is effortless. It is tender. If your love was a house, it would readily welcome all who come through. If your love was a hearth, it would warm the hands of whoever stopped by, whether for a day, a month, a year, or forever. When you fall for someone, it is without strings, without conditions, without need. You love for the sake of loving, for the sake of caring for those who need it. You love with a giver’s heart and a giver’s hands and are made so much stronger for it. Being loved by you is to always feel at home. Your love may not always be well-received by those unprepared to linger, but it is unforgettable all the same.

Anyway, I cry. Tagging @aevallare, @brain-rot-central, @nyx-knox, @locallegume, and anyone else who'd like to play!

[artist-rat]

some epilogue vibes (an excuse to draw some hugs. and my durge so many times)

[golyadkin]

it's because i wouldn't let you kill the bounty hunter isn't it

[khywren]

Happy Fangs-giving! 🦇

[shatouto]

両片思い

[truly-sincerely]

Comprehensive Dead Three Timeline

Outdated! I've made a new timeline!

Obviously there's varying amounts of speculation here, but I believe this is as close to a reasonable order of events as can be achieved with current, in-game information

1460s

Enver Flymm sold to Raphael by his parents, renamed Gortash

Gortash learns about the Crown of Karsus while a prisoner of Raphael

1470s

Gortash escapes the House of Hope

Gortash gets involved with black market arms dealing

Durge begins their serial killing spree in Baldur’s Gate

The Emperor dominates Duke Stelmane

1480s

Gortash establishes a cult of Bane in Baldur’s Gate

Gortash approaches Durge about an alliance

Hall of Wonders test mission - Durge gets Bhaalist memorabilia - Gortash gets a bunch of Gondian designs - Durge & Gortash get companionship

Gortash trades Karlach to Zariel for infernal machinery & iron

Baldur’s Gate’s Beloved Ranger statue goes missing

Gortash recruits Franc Peartree to distribute infernal iron weapons

Gortash moves against the Zhentarim & Knights of the Shield

Wyll Ravengard enters pact with Mizora, leaves Baldur’s Gate

1490s

Dead Three made aware of the Crown of Karsus (most likely informed by Gortash) - Gortash becomes Bane’s Chosen - Durge becomes Bhaal’s chosen - Gortash & Durge are instructed to recruit Ketheric

Gortash tells Durge about the Crown of Karsus

They visit Ketheric and learn of the illithid colony under Moonrise

Gortash & Durge visit the House of Hope (for intel on Mephistar?)

Gortash & Durge raid Mephistar - They get the Crown of Karsus - They get the book on the accelerated grand design

Gortash captures the Emperor

Gortash & Durge return to Moonrise - Their identities are kept secret from Ketheric’s people - Durge impresses the Moonrise Gnolls, but not Steelclaw - Ketheric yells at Durge in the throne room for unknown reason

Durge proposes their plan to the Elder Brain who accepts

Raid on the illithid colony - Durge puts the Crown on the Elder Brain - Orin gets Durge alone during the raid & stabs them in the head - Orin tadpoles Durge, making them the first True Soul - Orin leaves Durge in an illithid pod - Orin tells the Chosen she now speaks for the Temple of Bhaal - Orin likely told Gortash, Ketheric, and Balthazar something vague about Durge’s disappearance being related to Durge’s religious crisis and let their imaginations do the rest

1492

Durge breaks out of their pod & is found by Kressa Bonedaughter

Gortash gets weird and intense with unethical experiments - Some futzing to get the tadpoles to consistently remain in stasis - This is when the name ‘True Souls’ gets coined - Extremely questionable fun with brains - Getting the Absolute’s voice sorted out - Tadpoling his parents - Poorly conceived experiments on children & their parents

Isobel is resurrected by the Dead Three

Minsc captured by Absolutists at recruitment rally in the Undercity

Minthara Baenre is recruited by Orin and Ketheric

Gortash has the Iron Throne converted to hold hostages

Gortash presents prototype Steel Watcher to the city council

Jaheira tracks cult to shadow-cursed land, meets Isobel

Elturel falls into Avernus

The brain sends the Chosen dreams about the Astral Prism

Gortash researches the Prism, finds out that Vlaakith has it

Gortash tells Ketheric to send a team to get the Prism - A nautiloid piloted by the Emperor and other illithid is sent - Kressa’s husband arranged for Durge to be on the nautiloid

Gortash deploys Steel Watch in Lower/Outer City

At this point Elturel is no longer in Avernus

Nautiloid picks up Shadowheart & the Prism from Astral Plane

Nautiloid picks up Lae’zel (?)

Nautiloid picks up Gale (?) & Astarion in Baldur's Gate

Nautiloid picks up Karlach & Wyll in Avernus

Nautiloid crashes, game begins

[aliquistis]

Astarion having such a high lockpicking proficiency is so funny to me, like. What's he doing? Picking locks on the houses he can't enter without an invitation?

[kekeandherrpgs]

Unexpected reunion

[sparkspropaganda]

There's this face Astarion makes sometimes and I'm not entirely sure what emotion he's trying to convey but he fails at it regardless. ID in alt text

[greyedian]

I'm still chasing the high of these bg3 sketches I drew like... summer/fall last year. They're pretty much the only drawings from last year I legitimately like and had fun doing.

[pokimoko]

Why fight people when your time can be better spent bantering?

[cherrygarden1408]

Why does everyone forget that Astarion is a stupid little dum dum when it comes to his ascended version? I mean, are you really falling for his "I'M A BIG AND STRONG VAMPIRE ASCENDED™ AND NOW IF I CAN DOMINATE IN BED, I CAN DOMINATE IN EVERYTHING ELSE TOO"? Just listen to what he says; it's all fantasies about how badass he will be and some kink ideas involving throne sex. Look at him—he has no idea how he’s actually going to achieve any of it. I wish we could ask him about his plans. How does he intend to make his grand scheme for world domination a reality? I imagine it would be an extremely hilarious dialogue.

Tav/Durge: So, what’s our plan for taking control of Baldur's Gate? You sounded so confident; you must have a plan, right?

Astarion: Of course I have a plan, darling. I'm a vampire ascended; there’s nothing I can’t do. We will manipulate, puppet, dominate, and show them all how powerful we are. And voilà, we rule the city! 😁

Tav/Durge: ...Um, okay, but could you share more details about this whole 'manipulation and domination' thing? How exactly are you going to pull this off?

Astarion: Little love , there’s nothing I would like more than to paint our splendid future together. Listen closely now:

Step 1: We acquire new, fancy, and elegant clothes; we will look so fabulous in silk, diamonds, and gold! 💅

Step 2: We stand before all the patriarchs of the city in all our glory, and they will weep and cry because they’ll never be as beautiful, powerful, and fabulous as we are! 😁

Step 3: We talk to them, and they will all enthusiastically agree to do whatever we, the most perfect, intelligent, and competent people in the world, tell them to do. 😃

Step 4: We rule the city from the shadows like mastermind puppeteers we are😎

Tav/Durge: ...I really doubt it will be that easy...

Astarion: Why would you doubt that, my treasure? I am VAMPIRE ASCENDED™ and you are MY DARK CONSORT™. There’s nothing we can’t do together! 🥰

Tav/Durge: *realizing that even the sacrifice of 7,000 souls wouldn't be enough to give this man even one brain cell*

[forcedhesitation]

astarion origin playthrough worth it just for all the extra moments where he does the "sad wet cat" face

[bevirspnsblmnt]

Did Astarion ever confess his original plan to Khael? How was his reaction to Astarion needing to abstain from sex because of the feelings it brought up for him?

(I absolutely love Khael. He is adorable and I would like to give him many hugs if that’s ok ❤️)

maybe the dark urge was the asexuality we realized along the way. but jokes aside, Khael is cool as a cucumber about it, of course! that's like the most natural thing to him - after all he never actually initiated sex with astarion at any point (even in the game! it was so fun when I noticed!) and waiting for him to feel comfortable in that kind of intimacy again was no issue at all (also, fun that they both feel comfortable doing it again in a graveyard, very romantic of them lmao). (also I like to imagine this is the moment both of them went "maybe I don't experience sexual attraction like the rest of the people around me" and just - rolled with it.)

(heres my personal headcanons for both of them - khael is demi and astarion is grey-asexual)

[bakuliwrites]

I am motivated by one thing and one thing only in video games and that is romance. If I cannot woo the most (in any combination of the following) uptight, mysterious, theatrical, and/or tragic fictional love interest in the game, then what is the point of me playing? If I cannot shower them with affection and love and give them all the soft things they deserve, then what is the point???

[lelianasbong]

redditor with an ast*rion icon and flair talking about how she never recruits sera because of her elf comments. did larian just.... patch out ast*rion's gnome and gur comments or are we uhh. ignoring those? are we also ignoring his whole-ass ascended ending

this is not even intended to be ast*rion critical and i'm not saying her comments are fair. but you're reeeaally going to weigh that particular man's centuries worth of heinous crimes against ?? a young orphan struggling with internalized racism after being adopted by a human and rejected by dalish and city elves alike for being a flat ear??? LMAO say psych