#GITH icons

[casualya]

My BG3 Modlist

I made my modlist for BG3. It's mostly mods for visual character changes and adding different armor and clothing. I hope this information will be useful to someone. Please don't forget to read the descriptions to the modifications and download additional required mods ⬇️

APPEARANCE MODS

Heads | Face | Eyes | Makeup & Tattoo

Unique Tav Custom Appearance (You must also download and install this mod to work correctly) Vemperen's Other Heads Repaired Tasha's Cauldron of Faces New Character Creation Presets WIP Themia's Sister Preset Mari's tattoo Mari's makeup Astralities' Skintone Expansion - Natural Tones Astralities' Fantasy Skintone Expansion Eyes of the Beholder Aether's Half-Illithid Begone Gale's Wizardly Updo

Hair | Horns | Hair Collections & Colors

Tav's Hair Salon Icon and Race Patches for Tav's Hair Salon Tav's Hair Mixer Astralities' Hair Color Supplement Astralities' Hair Color Collection Vanilla (and NPCs) Hair Mixer Vessnelle's Hair Collection Tasha's Cauldron of Hairstyles Tasha's Cauldron of Hairstyles Pack 2 Horns of Faerun Alternate Horns for Tieflings De-Accessorized NPC Hairstyles Yves Hair Gallery Angel Wings And Halos __ By Ren Angel Wings and Halos _ Solar Race Patch P4 Bangs Bangs Everywhere (a Fringes and Extra Hair mod) Shibariwaluigi's NPC Hair Edits Ghouls Customization Compendium - Custom Heads Horns and Beards Ghouls Simple Braid and Ponytail Hairstyle Long Hairs Silver's Hair Pack Silver's Hair Pack 2 Silver's Hair Mixer REN'S DIVINE HAIR GALLERY Tepkunset Hair Collection Shadowheart Alternate Hair - Updated for Launch Fire Keeper's Hair and Mask

Body (Scars)

Bhaal Scars for All Darker Bhaal Scars for All Vampire Bite Scar

ARMOR AND CLOTHING MODS

Basket Full of Equipment. NSFW version Basket Equipment to Camp Clothing Basket Underwear to Underwear Slot Modular Equipment Citizen Outfits as Camp Clothes Professor's Suit Fancy Camp Clothes Fancy Dresses Epilogue Camp Clothes More Mage Gear Rose Bard Outfit Cambion and Gith Armor Extra Gear Extra Gear as Camp Clothing Druu's Clothes and Armours lokelani's lavish livery Ascendant Astarion Epilogue Clothes Witcher 3 Armor (Keira Ciri Yennefer Margarita) Yennefer's wardrobe Triss' wardrobe Astarion's Wardrobe Astromancer robes Custom Item Pack IO's Outfit Collection Slutty Menswear

Astarion's Gear Nox Male Outfit from Elden Ring Mythral accessories

EARRINGS | ACCESSORIES | GLASS

Mythral accessories Ghouls Custom Piercings Piercing Improvement - Physics Piercing Edits Astarion's Earrings Kylin's Piercings Ellian's trinkets Weeviljester's Accessories Trips' Accessory Collection P4 Blooming Circlets and Piercings - a Valentine Inspired Mod

Dyes

TC Dyes

OTHER MODS

Races

Half angel ( Aasimar 5E ) Aasimar - xx's New Female Head Preset patch Astralities' Tiefling Compendium

Gameplay | Interface

ImprovedUI ReleaseReady Appearance Edit Enhanced Transform into companions and NPCs - Ring of Metamorph Tutorial Chest Summoning Hugs

Misc | Utilities

Norbyte's Baldur's Gate 3 Script Extender (from github) Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Fixer Trips' Old Shader Pack (for Unique Tav Custom Mod)

VIDEO AND SCREENSHOTS TOOLS

Otis Camera (Baldur's Gate III photomode tools) IGCS Connector IGCS Depth of Field ReShade

[wanderingnork]

Gith Deep Dive: Top Ten Weirdest Lore From Dragon Magazine

Dragon was a magazine published from 1976 to 2013, first by TSR (the origin company of D&D), then Paizo (now best known for Pathfinder), and finally Wizards of the Coast. It was replaced in 2015 by Dragon+, which ran until 2022. The magazine published short fiction and comics, adventures and maps, reviews, advice, artwork, and more. Whole adventure lines (like Age of Worms or Scales of War) were published through the magazine, never as hard-copy books. Its famous "Ecology of..." line provided in-depth bestiary looks at various iconic monsters. The mind flayer ecology article is even narrated by a githyanki! It introduced magic items, class mechanics, and more--some of which have become staples of the wider tabletop RPG community.

Dragon ran for 430 issues and Dragon+ added another 41 on top of that. 47 issues of the original run featured the githyanki heavily, and 4 of Dragon+ did. On my neocities gith resources page, you can see all of them. They often appeared on encounter or class tables (as a PC race particularly suited for a particular paragon path or prestige class), but those I haven't included.

What's presented here is what I think are the ten weirdest, wildest, most surprising pieces of gith lore out of Dragon (and Dragon+). Enjoy.

(Note: I use Astral Plane and Astral Sea based on edition--it was Astral Plane up until 4th Edition when it switched to Astral Sea.)

(Further note: I sincerely apologize on behalf of the original writers for the way some of the original articles are written. There's often thoughtless language, nasty biases, and other questionable content. Trust me, it gives me the ick too.)

-

10: #93 – "Pronunciation Guide: An informal index of the right things to say", p.26

So...that's not actually how the article titled is spelled, but I hate how they did it so, so much. "Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd." Thanks, but no thanks.

This is more of a meta-weirdness than anything else. According to this article, "githyanki" is pronounced "gith-yan-kee," with emphasis on "yan." Cool, fine. "Githzerai," on the other hand, which we mostly pronounce as "gith-zer-eye" now (with emphasis on "eye"), is said to be pronounced "gith-zer-ee" (with emphasis on "gith"). You can spot this pronunciation listed on the Forgotten Realms wiki article, but in Baldur's Gate 3 it's quite clearly pronounced the former.

How times change.

9: #408 - Bazaar of the Bizarre: Treasures of the Elemental Chaos, p.29

The artifact suite "Xenda-Dran's Array" offers players a chance to wear the gear of a long-dead slaad assassin in the service of the slaad lord Ygorl. Apparently, eons ago, the slaad ran into the enlightened githzerai master Liricosa (detailed in The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos, p.148). Liricosa's power is such that he either killed the slaad easily...or his transcendent nature turned a slaad, the embodiment of chaos, into a being of law.

8: #390 – Power Play: Divine: Dead Gods, p.46-47

Deep in the Elemental Chaos floats the petrified body of the long-dead god Haramathur. Eons ago, this god sacrificed himself to seal away a powerful primordial. Now a githzerai monastery has been carved directly out of the god's body. The githzerai who live there call themselves the "Disciples of Stone" and may actually be able to communicate with stone itself. Good luck getting there to meet them, though: the body is surrounded by a maelstrom of volcanic energy.

7: #287 – Creatures of the Chaos Spire, p.74

An eldritch fortress known as Gnythagak, shaped by use of psionic power, is now known as the Chaos Spire. It was taken from the illithids by a combined force of githyanki and githzerai. Afterwards, the githyanki occupied the fortress, and the githzerai responded with an army. Tens of thousands died on both sides in the massive battle. In the end, the githzerai channeled the raw matter of the plane of Limbo directly into the heart of Gnythagak, resulting in an interplanar explosion and the transformation of the fortress into a migratory pocket-plane of its own.

The wild part about this isn't the battle. It's that the githyanki and githzerai worked together at such a scale for such a massive undertaking. That's pretty damn exceptional, and a demonstration of just how much both sides hate mind flayers.

6: #245 – Mindstalkers, p.36-43

This article covers an order of dwarves who develop psionic powers in order to hunt illithids. They learned from a githyanki who, in gratitude for being rescued from illithid clutches before he could become dinner, taught his dwarven rescuers psionic skill. The githyanki even brought ore from an Astral godmote to the dwarves so they could forge special weapons to fight mind flayers. These "caradhakers" adopt githyanki hairstyles and ornamentation alongside their typical clan fashions (and, of course, beards).

Githyanki aren't normally quite this open or friendly with other species. But, much like the incident with the Chaos Spire, hatred of illithids overrides everything.

5: #101 – Creature Catalog III, Thendar, p.54

Appearing ONLY in this single brief article, the thendar are a strange, humanoid Astral species who travel the planes gathering knowledge. They live for thousands of years and are peaceful sages.

The githyanki hate them. Probably just because they're nice...?

4: #159 – Voidjammers!

HOOOO BOY OKAY THIS IS THE DISTURBING ONE BUCKLE THE FUCK UP

So a thousand years or so ago, this archmage named Peregrin got bored with Material Plane adventures and moved to the Astral Plane with intent to literally form a planar taxi service. His adventures could probably fill a book, but the point for this post: the githyanki fucking hate this guy. First for intruding on the Astral Plane, then because this guy went on a rampage through the githyanki forces to confront Vlaakith *face to face* and demand she stop attacking his ships.

Apparently she was "less powerful" than she is now.

The githyanki left Peregrin's taxi service alone, for the most part, but they're still nursing one hell of a grudge. As they should. See, most of the ships are powered by extracted mind flayer brains, lobotomized to remove personality and retain psionic power for propulsion. So, so fucking disturbing, but the githyanki would probably approve of that. What they would not approve of is that it's rumored that Peregrin's personal flagship is powered by a pair of githyanki brains.

And, if it wouldn't make the whole species angry enough to find a way to kill him, Peregrin is openly stated to think powering his whole fleet with githyanki brains is a good idea.

In Dragon #166, a reader sent in a letter discussing how nightmarish this is and how much they disapprove. I find myself agreeing.

3: #419 – Winning Races: Bladelings

This article introduces the "bladelings" as a playable race for 4th Edition. Fancy, edgy (ha), violent, growing literal razor blades out of their bodies like scales, the bladelings were originally mortal human worshipers of Bane. When they won his favor, Bane fused them with their weapons forever. You know. As you do.

And then there's this one random throwaway line on page 23: "A few dissidents claim that they were actually from the same racial stock that would eventually give rise to the githyanki and githzerai."

E X C U S E ? ? ?

No elaboration is ever given. Guess we just get to live with this!

2: #381 – "The Foundling," Mike Resnick, p.18-23

Right. I highly recommend you read this one yourself for maximum impact. Here's the Internet Archive link.

In brief...a young githzerai woman (all of 22 years old) loses her infant child. A year later, she discovers an orphaned githyanki baby. And, well...

"It wasn’t its fault that it was born of the githyanki. It needed care, and love, and shelter, and she had all three to give."

Despite the scorn of her kin, the young woman decides to raise the baby as her own. For one of them, the scorn eventually turns to hate, and so begins a series of attacks by increasingly powerful monsters on mother and child as they travel far and wide to escape their enemies. After four years, things finally come to a head. At which point...well. I really, REALLY don't want to spoil the ending.

Let's just say that the githzerai responsible for the attacks is about to have a really, really bad day.

NUMBER ONE WEIRDEST: #355 – Ecology of the Devourer, p.58-63

This article covers the nightmarish devourer, a form of undead that devours souls. How they're created has changed over the years (nowadays they're fiends, not undead), but this article is from D&D 3.5, where they were very much undead. They drive someone to the brink of death, then drag the person's soul inside their ribcage and torture it for power.

According to this article, the devourers originated with the githyanki.

During the reign of Vlaakith 156--the predecessor of the current Vlaakith--a scheming general decided to avoid getting his soul eaten. Because apparently the previous Vlaakith was also a soul-eating lich! His attempt went wrong and his rebellion was crushed. Their souls were taken from them and locked away, their bodies thrown into the Astral Plane.

Unfortunately for Vlaakith and the githyanki in Tu'narath, the general's body was reanimated by energy from the Negative Energy Plane. He brought back his most loyal followers as the same kind of undead, all of them starving for their missing souls, and they launched a second attack on Tu'narath. Many, many githyanki died in the unexpected attack. Vlaakith and the undead general finally fought face to face over the bodies of their followers. History's not clear on who won, but at some point in the chaos the current Vlaakith--number 157--took the throne. She's ruled unchallenged for a thousand years and the githyanki have hated and feared the devourers ever since.

That's...so much to unpack. Multiple Vlaakiths were liches? This is a long-running tradition? According to the article, the exact dates of a Vlaakith's reign are obscured, so exactly how long does each one rule? Just how LONG have the githyanki been around?

Oh, and the icing on the cake: in the modern day, some githzerai monasteries employ elder devourers as monastery guards. In return for aid, the githzerai search for the devourers' original missing essence. In the meantime, they feed the devourers the souls of captured githyanki.

The githzerai are not the good guys.

-

On deck for next time: the githyanki of 4th Edition D&D!

[sadly-im-vhena]

I noticed Lae'zel wasn't with me while I was chatting with Raphael and... When I clicked her icon she was just... Here? On a roof? Is she batman? The dark knight rises, I guess? The dark... Gith rises?

How did she get up here??? She had to have jumped, but I haven't used.... jump? So was she just climbing buildings for fun? Is she like a lizard in that way? She's just straight up got sticky little pads on her hands and feet and will run up walls like a crested gecko?

[whitoknighto]

I don't talk a lot, but my fav character in bg3, alongside with Gale is Lae'zel. She is my ride or die. I love my gith warrior, would die for her. She has one of the most iconic lines in the entire game. I love her growth. And just everything about her.

Anyway, just a Lae'zel appreciation post

[self-shipper-snowdrop]

tell me abt the fucked up bg3 guardians i NEED it

HVJJHVHJBVHBJFDVBHDVFBHJVDFHBJVD I haven't decided 100% on them all yet, but sure, here's some of what I have for my nerds:

Autumn: Her guardian takes the appearance of her older brother Pryderi, but paler than he should be [using a vampiric skin tone instead so he looks a little... strange.] and with his hair a bit too pale. I think one eye has black scelera as well.

Lune: The guardian takes on the look of one of Lune's friends, who she grew up on the street with. A fellow tiefling, but with the wrong colour eyes and scars that weren't there. [I made her file before this design choice, though, so I don't recall what her actual in-game guardian looks like rip. This is her 'canon' one though.]

Maple: It takes the form of her sister, the mother of Pryderi and Autumn. But it's off, as Maple has not seen her sister as an adult due to something that happened in her past... so it's an odd approximation of her. A version that looks and feels wrong.

Kirsikka: Her guardian, actually, looks like Lune. Kirsikka was infatuated with Lune from afar [long story] but never approached her, so Lune doesn't know who she is. The guardian almost perfectly mimics Lune... but with none of the scars on Lune's body, and with white scelera instead of black. A version that has not even a simulation of Lune's personality, only her stage presence, without a hope of ever truly copying who Lune is.

Pryderi: As you may expect, it's the form of his sister, Autumn. But her eyes are both the same colour, and she doesn't have a hint of a freckle or even her tattoos. None of her warmth or cheer, nor her hope or bravery.

Celyn [my blue-haired girl just before the icons were posted]: Her father, but paler, more ghostly, as if he rose from the dead. A shell of the man she dearly misses after being separated from for decades. Someone she yearns to see again, but holds such fear that she'll never be able to.

All of them have things like this. Raelia's, for example, looks like the woman she's loved for years but fears confessing to, and it actually helps her move on and realize her dependent connection and reverence isn't healthy. Meanwhile by githyanki ranger, Quinn, has hers looking like her "mother" of sorts [the one in charge of her creche, who Quinn is very close with and the other other gith Quinn respects]. All of them, truthfully, are family, a person they deeply respect, or someone they loved/are in love with.

This mostly came from me seeing the guardian in my first save and going "fuck this, you're bad juju" so I made it extra screwed up.

[sapphic-woes]

I love blowing up the creche cuz of Astarion's iconic revive plus the way Lae'zel is just like "damn dumbass u just killed a good chunk of my ppl...so anyways–" like girl for being so in love with vlaakith and the sTeeL sTroNk way of the gith you got over that...quick.

[talenlee]

Iron Hearts And Minds

When I talk about Cobrin’Seil and the people who live there, I do it in the context of I guess a kind of worldbuilder who wants to present heritages as whole sapient people who exist in a world and relate to that world materially. ‘A Wizard did it’ does not satisfy me. I do not like entirely magically sustained cultures, and I do not like the idea of cultures that have a singular personalised focus. I treat the heritages as if they have cultural stereotypes, which are based on interactions and communities, but I try to approach them as if they are creatures that exist in a world and interact with that world.

This approach is great when I’m starting out and filling out the broad spaces. What are humans? What are the things related to the humans? But the thing is, in D&D, character heritages aren’t just a worldbuilding entity, they’re also player pieces, mechanical objects that players want to interact with. They can range from important for entirely mechanical reasons (hi there, Dragonborn and Dwarf), or because of cultural prominence.

In this category fall today’s three examples: The Minotaur, the Warf*rged and the Giths. And I want to give a bit of a talk about what they are in Cobrin’Seil, but also, why players see them, and what that means for the world.

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

Minotaurs

Gosh, Minotaurs are bad. No sugar-coating, no bad-but, no bad-if, but the Minotaur presented in the Player’s Handbook 3 is a fundamentally weak, undersupported heritage option. If you want to play a melee character who hits things hard, there are better options in previous players’ handbook books (hi, Half-Orc, isn’t it nice to see you ahead of the list). Heck if you want to play a melee character who hits things hard and want the monstrous elements that keep you from fitting into conventional situations, the Minotaur compares badly to the Monster Manual Orc option.

That’s bad: That’s real bad. The Monster Manual heritage options were built at the first stage of the game. They were made without any support and in the earliest version of the game which meant that there are a lot of better, stronger, more flexible heritages for player characters in almost nearly this vibe. Comparing badly to a monster manual heritage is a sign that a thing is nearing on unplayable.

Why do Minotaurs though? Why do we have them, or have to confront them? Well, they’re a classic, iconic monster that’s human-ish, it’s got a good vibe and a cool look and a lot of classic iconic characterisation to attach to them. In the context of ‘monster characters,’ minotaurs are one of the iconic ones and people have wanted to relate to them forever. Minotaurs are a good player handle, and if any player likes minotaurs and goes ‘oh that’s cool, I’ll be a big bull critter person’ then you run them headlong into the problem that minotaurs are extremely bad and they’ve made an intuitive choice they may like, and the result is something that makes them pretty mediocre at doing the things they want to do. What makes it even worse is that even if you make a Minotaur and use them to do the things they’re mechanically good at, they won’t do it in ways that make them feel like a Minotaur.

Big failure there. The Minotaur needs a big mechanical overhaul.

What about flavour? Well, I have two places where I feel the Minotaur might fit in the context of Cobrin’Seil. First is to somehow tie them into the culture of Kyranou, which is a Greek-inspired location with elemental benders. That gives us some of the same ‘Minotaur’ energy that Greek myth derived stuff borrows. Another option is to set them in the Beastfolk as another, less common clade in that group, and I mean I could do both – have them come from the Beastfolk territory and then have them move to Kyranou as it becomes the ‘place of cow people.’ This gives Minotaurs two really distinct aesthetic vibes – plains-dwelling nomads like the Tauren but hopefully less uncomfortable, and Greek Wrestle Himbos.

Another third option, which I considered and I’m not pursuing, is to tie Minotaurs into fae realms stuff, to give them a derivation connected to the Eladrin and the Elves. I feel that puts them too close to the Dio Baragh, and diminishes both. With that in mind, the Minotaur slides neatly into the Beastfolk coalition, another evolved animal species from some common root that is still not clearly understood. Easy.

Mechanically, uh… wew. That’s a bigger problem to solve. Still, I can give a flavour explainer to help root players in what they want their Minotaur characters to be, where they’re from, and where they may be familiar with Minotaurs.

Minotaurs

Broad and powerful, Minotaurs are a member of the Beastfolk Coalition who seem to have grown out of some variety of creature like an Aurochs or more recently, feral cows. With a variety of physical presentations that represent moose, bison, and buffalo, the Minotaur people of Cobrin’Seil carry with them a great long story of their origin, told in the history of their names. Poetic and patient, the Minotaur see the world as being a great, hidden path that they find their way through one day at a time.

The Minotaurs of the plains are varied; they have populations on both Bidestra and Arnea, with the Arnea population making up the larger half. In Bidestra, a group of Minotaurs who mostly resemble bulls live in Kyranou, a culture that came to one of the islands in the past as a gift from a king, and have endured there ever since. This does nothing to diminish the reputation of Kyranou as ‘the kingdom of cow people,’ but it is unrelated to the Bull of Dorox.

A common idea is that the Minotaur do not have a writing system until they had one granted them by the Urd empire. This is not true – Minotaur writing is intricate and spirals, with sentences and ideas deliberately made to fold in on themselves in round or square characters that can be written either as a ring around something or as a complex pattern in a square. These are often referred to as ‘Maze sentences’ where divining meaning can be a complex task of finding the navigable path through the symbol.

Gith

Thanks to Baldur’s Gate 3, I’ve seen the Githzerai and Githyanki pushed into prominence. Along with the Minotaur, they represent an extra 4e player character heritage option that was presented in the Player’s Handbook 3. While the book is a solid one and has a bunch of classes I like, these heritages are kind of trash. Githzerai (and their palette swap cousins the Githyanki) represent a worst kind of thing to have in a player option, in that it’s something that has almost nothing to recommend it.

Gith are empty. Gith are a culture of people who are mad about one another and mad about their origin. They are a Single Issue Votary, a culture of monastic ex-slaves that escaped control, usually by the Illithid, and then proceeded to have a big doctrinal fight with one another. They are meant to be specifically more planar than humans, but uh, they are just otherwise, pretty much just humans. Their closest to a unifying cultural detail is that they’re assholes. You’ll see Gith as an NPC that you have to solve or get items for or navigate a language maze around. I can think of like, four NPCs of this ilk and it’s the only thing I can think you can use Gith for.

But Gith are mechanically a pretty robust package, so do they have a place in Cobrin’Seil?

Nah.

Heck to the Gith.

Warf*rged

Here’s a fun one to talk about. Officially, I shouldn’t talk about Warf*rged. I mean I will and should and do and won’t stop, but Warf*rged are not a component of the normal general grab bag of do-what-you-want critters in 4e. If I want to talk about elves in my setting, then that’s fine. But if I want to put a book together selling these things there are restrictive rules about what I can or can’t mention, and one of those things I can’t mention is the culture that you know from Eberron as the Warf*rged.

It’s not a real problem, nobody cares. Nobody’s making the kind of money that Wizards of the Coast is about to file into a court over if I mention ‘in this setting here’s how Warf*rged work’ but it’s still a rule and it’s one of those things Wizards can clamp down on because of Brand Identity. See also: Beholders and Mind Flayers. I can’t call a third party monster that’s obviously a Beholder a Beholder. Because uh, those aren’t in the ‘you can fuck with this’ space.

Anyway, point is Warf*rged are a heritage that has strong ties to the lore and world of Eberron specifically. They need to do a lot to be normal, where a character can look at a W*rforged and not be shocked or confused by it. It’s easy to drop a W*rforged character into a setting and have them be some mysterious construct, crafted by some wily wizard or by great mystery, but for a people like that to exist, in the setting, they need some explanation, some thing that can be part of the general knowledge that people are familiar with. There needs to be a story, and that story needs to be capable of normalisation. If every W*rforged character is a unique special snowflake then by definition, they can’t be anything normal.

The W*rforged are manufactured people who were mass produced for a specific purpose. In Eberron, it was as soldiers for a massive period of ongoing war. In Cobrin’Seil, while history has a bunch of wars going on, there’s not been a single industrialised state that thought ‘let’s solve our problems like this.’ Not that there hasn’t been something similar – the Osteon raised an entire army of skeletons for its wars, after all, but those are good, clean, honest skeletons. Necromancy is a natural resource, it comes out of the ground.

Whatever these Warf*rged are, they aren’t an Urd Empire remnant. Urd did things with blood magic, warping people through eating them. Urd are untidy and messy and complicated and that’s why there’s no clear distinction between things like Bugbears and Grimlocks. The Urd Empire was essentially people making and remaking tools messily without care for the fact those tools are people, and it was fundamentally messy and undocumented. They aren’t from the Tiefling Empire either, because its aesthetic was demonic and used slavery as its primary utility engine.

But there is a place that has an association with hearts, and has had every reason to need an empire, and a source for the Warf*rged and their aesthetic that totally works. The province of Crucesbough, in the Szudetken. The simplified way I’d describe Crucesbough is Bloodborne Cities connected through cursed forests, where they are united by a religion known as the Empty Church. Crucesbough does blood magic, with blood being used to transmit messages, create art, heal the sick and yes okay pay some deeply cursed stuff under those cities.

And they once ruled the Szudetken. They once owned the province. A small number of cities across a thin line of highways was not going to do that without an occupying force – and their occupying force, generations ago, was the crafted, living constructs known as Ironhearts.

Ironhearts

Ironhearts are the most commonly seen and widespread sign of Crucesbough culture outside of the Szudetken peninsula. They are synthetic humanoids, living entities made out of metal, brass, porcelain and other manufactured components. Living constructs, the Ironhearts have long memories and no natural death, and are amongst the first people who left the Szudetken.

The origin of the first Ironhearts is the Great Foundries under three cities in Crucesbough. Notably, though, these Foundries are no longer under those cities. More and new Ironhearts come into being, but do so without clear memories of their origin, as if something has erased their memories of the location of the Foundries. Whatever can be determined, the Foundries are not in the Szudetken any more, and have been carefully hidden. This contusion of memories however is complex in that many Ironhearts have memories of older lives, stories of Ironhearts that they may or may not attend.

The three great cities had three different dominant aesthetics. They are known as Bare (mixes of metal shapes, leathers and gears), the Filigree (designed with shells of metal shaped around their limbs to create a whole smooth look and give clear canvases for expression), and the Porcelain (designed of a seeming ceramic substance with notable spherical joints).

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[dungeonsanddungeons]

Dungeons &... Dungeons

this is @fishtomale's D&D sideblog, if you want to know more about me as a person, my interests and beliefs, go check out my main blog.

Hamish. 27. He / Him.

I am a Dungeon Master (DM). I am a beginner in this role. I play D&D version 5e exclusively but older versions, especially their lore, do interest me, even if not from an intention of playing standpoint. I try my best to be pretty accommodating, encouraging even, of expansion, legacy, and some homebrew content within or atop the Forgotten Realms world in my own games.

I am currently very early in a modified campaign of "Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage".

Expect to see resources, advice, meems and joaks, original content and characters I'm ogling over, meta, inspiration, and personal experience. I may also occasionally interact with media heavily related to or inspired by D&D or other tabletop experiences (Baldur's Gate 3, Delicious in Dungeon, Disco Elysium, etc.) I am biased towards the Underdark, Drow, Aberrations, Hags, the Gith, anything aquatic, Paladins, Warlocks, and Rogues. I am biased against the chromatic / metallic Dragons dichotomy (sorry), Dragonborn lore (sorry), Rangers, the morality alignment system, and D&D worldbuilding in relation to race, culture, and religion which lacks nuance and is moralized.

Header is official art from "Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage", icon is official art from "Tasha's Cauldron of Everything".

[remyrotte]

new icon ^ my gith i like too much

[felawnie]

Top 5 D&D monsters?

Mmkay so since I still haven't looked anything I'm just gonna answer this. I'll admit, I reblogged the top 5 thing, not because I expected anyone to do it, but because I'd hoped a mutual would reblog it and then I would tease her because I'm awful like that. ADDITIONALLY I MUST ADMIT...I, uh, don't play DnD. I tried once! I did! I thought hey, it's over the internet and they can't see me and I've gotten SO GOOD at faking extroversion, I MUST be over the stage fright. I was wrong and when the DM said I could join in whenever I felt like it, my voice froze and I went nonverbal for a good 30-45 minutes. So, I reblog DnD things cause they sound interesting and people put a lot of thought into them and that's always fun but I really know nothing. So! Top 5 DnD monsters from the ignorant!! 5. Abyssal Chicken. I have no idea what it is at all. My one friend linked me a list of DnD monsters so I could actually come up with an answer to this and I saw that on there and it sounds hilarious. 4. Slimes Am I added this mainly because Minecraft slimes are so fucking cute? You can prove nothing. Slimes are iconic monsters. I fought cubes in the sewers of Qeynos in EQ and I fought oozes in the swamps of WoW and yes I've kept baby slimes as pets in Minecraft...I actually kinda have experience with slimes! And the first one I ever met murdered me horribly when I was just trying to kill some rats in a sewer so. 3. Mimics That one group I almost joined and instead spectated for a while had a lil baby mimic come along with them. His name was Jeffrey Nibbles. The cutest little formal voiced fucker EVER. 2. Gith Are they a monster? I don't think they're a monster. Then again, the list that my friend gave me and that I glanced at for 2 second had Arakrokra(sp???????? it's different from WoW, that's all I know!) on it and I'm pretty sure those are PEOPLE and I don't consider people monsters?? But if the bird people are on there then whatever, I can put whatever antagonistic people I want. Gith look cool, they dress cool, and they aren't going to inflict horrible flowery speeches on you like shiny paladins will. Also there was that one Gith lady everyone was horny for a while there from...Baldur's Gate I think? They were right to be horny for her. 1. Displacer Beasts! It's a kitty! Who eats magic! Take THAT, casters!! Pretty pretty kitty that I love. Do I know anything else about them? NOPE. I don't need to. They have plenty of legs for speed and tentacles for hugs and fur for petting. My main experience with THESE is that back in high school, a friend wanted to dm a DnD group of friends, told us to get figurines, and when I went to the store I got a normal character one but also a displacer beast cause I kinda hoped she'd let me play as one, LMAO. Anyway the group never even started, partially because another friend tried to insist on godmoding and making his character into a high lvl with tons of perks and. We're supposed to be starting at lvl 1, my guy. Anyway he just sat and argued with her about it the whole time we were doing the stuff to make characters and when she asked who would be coming next time it was just me and him who said yes. And so the next session never happened. But displacer beasts are still fun.

Sorry this took so long. I intended to actually look at DnD monsters and give a sensible answer but, uh, it's been almost 10 days and I haven't so I have to assume I won't. And thus, you get this mess. Enjoy.

[whymustyouhurtmeinthisway]

If you wanna hear me rant who am I to refuse. I’ve made a post about this before, basically it’s a strongly held opinion of mine that it’s incredibly lame how the game’s got loads of playable species available yet all 6 of the main characters are either Humans, High Elves (there’s two different Elvish characters and they couldn’t even make one of them a Wood Elf or Drow), or the two most conventionally attractive human-sized runner ups in the Tieflings and Gith.

Like I know they want to cast a wide net so they made the main characters as conventionally attractive as possible, but I just think it’s incredibly lame to have literally 0 Orcs, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, or Dragonborn among the protagonists in favour of more humans and Elves, not only because of how iconic all those other species are to D&D, but also because it just makes the main characters feel way more bland than they really should considering the fantastical world the story takes place in.

As for the Astarion thing specifically, I feel strongly that making the fruity Victorian prick rogue a skinny white elf is the most comically stereotypical thing they could’ve possibly done, and I sincerely believe that if Larian made him a full-bearded Dwarf with the exact same personality as he currently has he’d be one of my favourite fictional characters of all time. So what if the nerds think he’d be less hot, they have bad taste and we don’t need em anyway. To me it’s just so goddamn lame and unsurprising that the characters are the species they are, it’s just so stereotypical and obvious. Like sincerely just mix it up for once, make Gale a Dragonborn, make Shadowheart a Half-Orc (hell, add full Orcs to the game because why aren’t they), make Wyll a Gnome, keep Lae’zel and Karlach as they are because their species are important to their stories but do literally whatever to everyone else, have some fun with it! I’d like these characters a shitload more if most of them were more creatively designed than the most basic and obvious species selections someone could possibly make

[black-ssstuff]

✈⃨⠈᮫͙👘 : ‘ᥲᥱ⃜᥉tℎ᪶ꫀtiᥴ ꩝ᥴ᥆ᥒ᥉ f᥆r y᥆ᥙ’ ꓸꓸꓸ © ꪛᥱᥣᥴ᥆ꪐᥱ⃨! [like It reblog If you save] 𓆇𓆇!𓇽 ☁ᵎᵎ ♡ みすてい ⁺◟✍🏻 bᥣᥲ⃨ᥴk-᥉ᥣ⃑ᥙff ᥆ᥒ ᥣ⃑ᥙmbᥣr!

[chimmyroxy]

[mycinefilia]

Icons de metadinha da Duny e da Priscilão! (Parte 2)

Creditos da Duny, Priscilão e Girls In the House ao deuso: Raony Phillips

Créditos da montagem dos icons: Euzinha (Meu twitter @MyCinefilia)

Curta se gostou e dê RT se pegou, chuchus! (Se quiserem e tiverem tumblr, claro)

[postapocalypticflimflam]

Iconic AD&D art - Top 5

Jeff Dee, Paladin and Black Dragon, AD&D 1st edition Rogues Gallery

Russ Nicholson, Githyank and adventurers, AD&D 1st edition Fiend Folio

Erol Otus, Lolth, AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Module Q1

David C Sutherland III, ‘A Paladin in Hell’, AD&D 1st edition Players Handbook

David Trampier, ‘Emirikol the Chaotic’, AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide

Explanation below the cut.

Obviously a list like this is highly subjective, and I should probably make it clear that by “iconic” I mean “iconic to me”, as these were a handful of the AD&D 1st edition illustrations that had a big impact on my experience with the game, and by extension, how I design characters and write adventures (for Dungeons & Dragons and beyond) to this day.

Some of my admittedly arbitrary criteria:

I made my picks from the books, modules and supplements that were on my shelves back in the day. Which isn’t a comprehensive list by any means. To me, the canon is the core three hardbacks (to this day, I think of Unearthed Arcana as new-fangled and the Survival Guides as niche products we didn’t use) plus Fiend Folio and Deities & Demigods; that run of modules that included the A, B, D, G, and S-series, plus a few others like C1 and Q1; and accessories including Rogues Gallery and the booklet of character sheets. That list is as arbitrary as it is inexhaustive.

I limited myself to black & white interior illustrations, meaning David Trampier’s superb cover for the Players Handbook was disqualified. I did it this way mostly because I felt it would be unfair to compare color paintings to ink drawings. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but that’s how I did it. That said, had I allowed Tramp’s PH I’m actually thinking it might be the only color piece in there… The original Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual covers never resonated with me to the same degree. Of the modules I included, there are three covers I really like, and they’re all by Erol Otus: A4, ‘In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords’; C1, ‘Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan’; and S3, ‘Expedition to the Barrier Peaks’. But they’re not quite iconic, somehow, in the sense that they’re too specific to the adventures they illustrate. In contract, the Players Handbook cover doesn’t tell you about someone else’s adventure, it inspires yours.

In the interest of a varied selection, I decided no one artist could be chosen more than once. This was basically to make sure Trampier and Jeff Dee didn’t crowd out other worthy illustrators.

My choices, in alphabetical order by last name:

Jeff Dee, Paladin and Black Dragon, Rogues Gallery, page 22. Paladins were always cool, and this drawing made them double extra cool. A lot of my peers complained that Dee’s characters all looked like super-heroes, and that they belonged in the pages of his Villains & Vigilantes. And that’s arguably true. But as a life-long reader of comics and V&V gamemaster, I didn’t mind at all. And that style is on display here: skintight plate and chain mail, aerodynamic helmet, and floppy fold-over Musketeer boots. But the pose is perfect, the dragon is superb, and the emotion of the paladin’s triumph shines. Jeff Dee did other illustrations that vied for his spot here: the “sci-fi Mind Flayer” and the Intellect Devourer stalking the party (both from ‘Expedition to the Barrier Peaks’), Icar holding flaming grease (frontispiece from Dungeon Module A2), and assorted entries in Deities & Demigods too numerous to mention.

Russ Nicholson, Githyanki fighting adventurers, Fiend Folio, page 45. Compared to the Monster Manual, which included so many creatures recognizable from myth and folklore, the Fiend Folio was weird. But the monsters that were cool immediately rivaled the classics, and the ones Russ Nicholson drew became my favorites. The Gith races were awesome from the get-go, and this illustration, supplementing the individual entries for the Githyanki and Githzerai, went a long way to inspiring us to put them in our dungeons. (I was so enamored of the Gith that I worked them into the origin story of a player character in the Villains & Vigilantes campaign I ran.) The adventurers here look outmatched, maybe, but they haven’t given up. We wondered what spell the Magic User was casting.

Erol Otus, Lolth frontispiece, Dungeon Module Q1, ‘Queen of the Demonweb Pits’: I love Erol Otus, but compared to Trampier and David Sutherland, his drawings could get wonky. Intentionally, I’m sure, but often his costumes and anatomy and such are a little far-fetched even for Dungeon & Dragons. (He loved horned helmets and loincloths, often on the same character.) This drawing of Lolth is great, in that it sets the stage for the adventure (in a way that Jim Rosloff’s cover doesn’t, honestly) and depicts Lolth as vampy without being overtly “sexy” like all the topless goddesses in Deities & Demigods. The demons here are especially good, with solid anatomy and dramatic lighting. This drawing is “so Erol Otus” without being “too Erol Otus”.

David C Sutherland III, ‘A Paladin in Hell’, Players Handbook, page 23. Unlike Trampier, who rarely missed, DCS was uneven: some of his drawings are classics, and many of them were mediocre then and just as mediocre now. ‘A Paladin in Hell’ is a classic, for several reasons. Firstly, it’s just really well drawn. Absent is the scratchy hatching that mars some of Sutherland’s work. Second, the paladin is perfect in the sense that he is believable; then and now I appreciate that fact that his armor is historically accurate and looks like suits I’d seen in museums. And third, the collected devils are all drawn to scale, showing their size the way Monster Manual spot illustrations don’t. Finally, the glow of the paladin, and what is surely a +5 Holy Avenger, is dazzling.

David Trampier, ‘Emirikol the Chaotic’, Dungeon Masters Guide, page 193. It’s difficult to see this drawing and not want to run a campaign set in the bustling capitol city of the Flanaess’ mightiest empire in which a villain Magic User is on a crime spree. (It’s the same feeling you get when you read any of Fritz Leiber’s stories set in Lankhmar. In fact, you want to go get the map they made for the AD&D supplement, including those awesome city geomorphs.) If Emirikol is the errant NPC, maybe the PCs are the adventurers stumbling out of the tavern into the exquisitely rendered (that hatching!) street to protect the innocent townsfolk being Magic Missiled. So who is Emirikol? He looks enough like Trampier that he could be one of many self-portraits sneaked into his AD&D artwork. (I’ve always wondered if he was Tramp’s PC in Gary Gygax’s Greyhawk campaign, though I’ve never gotten any indication that they actually gamed together.) This really cements Trampier’s stature; the Dee and Sutherland illustrations on this list evoke a single character or moment, while ‘Emirikol the Chaotic’ evokes an entire campaign. You don’t get more iconic than that.

[mybg3notebook]

Astarion Analysis

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were made up to the game version v4.1.101.4425. As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information.

“Morals are all well and good, but power always wins.” 

“If all I want is shallow praise? Hardly, there is also gold, sex, revenge, quite the list, really. But failing any of those, I will always settle for shallow praise.”

--Astarion 

The majority of sources used for this article are in the game itself (including Astarion-solo playthroughs) and the dev’s notes and datamined information provided by pjenn. Astarion as origin is (almost) not taken into account since it’s not finished and is highly unpolished. 

The itemised list will show some instances of approval or disapproval as seen in the game. To make the reading of this article easier and shorter, you can skip them since they are basically the proof I use to sustain the introductory concept of each block. 

We can infer a lot of Astarion by analysing what he approves and disapproves of. Sometimes, we can even lightly infer some information from his neutral reactions, but let’s be honest: this way of analysing a char is pretty poor since it leaves everything to speculation. Neutral reactions can only be analysed by contrasting the same situation in other contexts, and seeing what other options Astarion approves or disapproves of. With these considerations in mind, we can proceed to describe this character.

Disclaimer: this is a meta with my personal interpretation of the character, sticking as much as possible to the facts and leaving little to “desires” or “projections” of what I want him to be. If I do so, I will state it explicitly in the text for the sake of analysis honesty. I want to be clear about what is canon (facts shown in bg3 EA), from what’s personal interpretation with little proof.

Also, this list is extensive, gathering as much as I could in my many playthroughs, but I’m sure it’s not absolutely complete. Some details may have escaped to me, but honestly, I believe they will be easily fit in these blocks once the pattern has been seen.

Understanding Astarion by enumerating his reactions

Astarion is usually seen as a character whose behaviour is the embodiment of “randomness”, and after several Astarion-solo playthoughts, I began to see the patterns that showed little randomness in my opinion. 

We can say that he likes gratuitous cruelty and murder. He has a special taste for animal cruelty too. He is greedy, but mostly if it leads to murder or to make little people suffer. Sometimes this greedy side comes from the fact that he doesn’t like to “work for free”: most quests should have a reward for him to be neutral to them. Accepting them without asking anything in return tends to earn a disapproval. He is more reticent to humiliate or outsmart NPCs that may be potentially stronger and more powerful than him. 

[[1]] Situations showing his greed:

He supports the robbery of the fishermen that were helping the mind flayer (MF) after the crash. 

Astarion supports stealing the “magical” ring from the tiefling kid (Mattis). This could be seen also as a gesture of outsmarting a person or mere trickster behaviour (see below).

He supports asking for compensation from the deep gnome we saved at the windmill.

He agrees to force Tulla (dying gnome in the myconid camp) to give you her magical boots.

Denying Baelen the scrolls because “they don’t come cheap”.

He approves pickpocketing Mirkon while being lured by the harpies.

[[2]]Situations displaying plain murder or violence:

He supports joining Lae’zel against the tieflings if you persuade them to free her, since this means killing (which is always an entertainment for him) creatures he considers lesser.

He supports killing Gimblebok and his gang near the Jergal ruins if you avoid any attempt of persuasion. This can be shown as a demonstration of power. (see below)

He supports killing Kagha without trying to persuade her or change her ways, not because he thinks Arabella’s death was an aberration (he enjoyed the show, as his approval and later comment confirm it) but simply because he enjoys murder.

He supports attacking the goblin camp. It’s a great spectacle of murder combined with his personal dismiss towards goblinoid races.

He approves of joining Minthara and massacrating the tieflings. It’s another great spectacle of murder, but in this time, of weak people (He detests weak creatures, and despises Tieflings in general).

He approves of killing Lae’Zel in the scene where she attacks Tav during the night, out of fear of turning into MF.

He approves of killing Rugan in the hideout. 

Still related to this level of violence and cruelty, he supports learning more about Shar once Shadowheart explains Shar’s teachings, all about violence and death, fighting against the illusion of safety.

He approves killing Ellyka, the tiefling spying on the Gith patrol, if Tav is a Githyanki (true or disguised as) and chooses “Attack.”

He approves of helping Glut in massacring the whole Myconid colony.

He approves of sacrificing one of the companions to the fish-people who worship Booal.

He approves fighting the fake god Booal because it’s a massacre; where there is bloodshed, there is Astarion’s approval. 

For the same reason he approves killing the Githyanki patrol: pure bloodshed.

[[3]] Situations of gratuitous cruelty: I understand that a lot of people confuse this trait of his personality as a “trolling attitude”. There are different archetypes of tricksters in DnD, and he is not particularly the silly-funny one (e.i. Jester in Critical Role), but the cruel-funny one. His “pranks” don’t cause annoyance or silly troubles, they usually end up in murdering the person he is pranking, or causing them great pain. What he considers “funny” is always related to a lot of blood and suffering. Examples of this:

He disapproves of diffusing the situation between Aradin and Zevlor after the first goblin attack. He is “missing” his show. This situation is also related to enjoying humiliation of others (see below).

After letting Arka kill the goblin and take her revenge, Astarion will approve the comment that refugees are desperate and they will do anything. He is enjoying the show of despair of weak creatures. And he is also expecting for some of them to become survivalist beasts.

He approves of telling Kagha that you enjoyed the show of Arabella’s death as an answer to her question about if she is a monster.

He also approves of telling Arabella's parents that Kagha will release their daughter when the Rite of Thorns is completed (while Arabella, in fact, has been killed by Kagha's snake). This is another example of Evil Trickster, a prank with a really dark taste. This also shows that Astarion likes to give false hopes [One of the most iconic characteristic of Cazador]

He approves of telling the tiefling kids training with Wyll that they are going to die, inspiring that despair he enjoys to see in weak creatures. (see below)

He approves of breaking Alfira’s teacher’s lute, leaving the tiefling heartbroken because that had been the only memento she got from her teacher, and could not finish her tribute song.

Astarion approves of interrupting the goblinoid couple having sex, which he considers disgusting. After killing them, Astarion will support the idea that it was funny. Another example of Evil Trickster where the prank ends up with the death of the pranked one. But we also know Astarion despises goblinoid races.

He approves of killing Crusher after humiliating him.

He supports Tav who volunteers to torture Liam at the goblin camp.

He supports of laughing at Lorin (the elf trapped in Ethel’s house) after pretending to be the monster he sees (psychological torture). This example can be part of the list of humiliation too.

He states that seeing Mayrina’s horrified face after resurrecting her husband was funny. Another example of false hopes [One of the most iconic characteristics of Cazador] On the contrary, if Tav kills the undead afterwards, Astarion will disapprove, since he missed the “fun” of seeing Mayrina tortured. 

He enjoys every state of Abdirak’s torture upon Tav. This can be seen as a fine bloody show he is enjoying, or as a way to put Tav in a humiliating situation (as he approved the dung-smearing or the foot-kissing instances)

Using the leader gnoll Flind to attack her own gnolls earns his approval. Asking her to devour herself increases approval once more. This situation could also be seen as enjoyment of animal cruelty (since gnolls are considered animals by Astarion too) but also as the reflection of Astarion’s inner desire of becoming a Master of bending wills.

 Probably the most innocent prank so far we saw, he approves of doing Baaa at the redcaps in the Bog.

[[4]] As I said previously, he suports any form of animal cruelty:

He approves of kicking and killing the squirrel Timber in the Druid Grove. According to the dev’s notes, he is “shocked and annoyed” because “you stamped a squirrel to death when he could’ve eaten it.” (DEN_General_Squirrel)

He supports prodding to death the bird that Nettie was healing during the dialogue (you need Speak with Animals for this).

He supports freeing the Owlbear cub at the Goblin Camp, and feeding it later, because he wants to bite the owlbear cub eventually (he uses the word “delectable” to describe him, and when the owlbear escapes, Astarions states “You‘ve scared off the little snack.”)

When we find Halsin in his bear form, Astarion will have two instances of approval: the first one when Tav tells the goblin kids that throwing stones with sharp edges would hurt the animal more, and then when Tav themself joins the goblins in throwing rocks at Halsin. 

We can also add the confrontation with Flind, the Gnoll leader, as another example of animal cruelty since he approves a smart yet twisted way of killing her by double-using the tadpole. First to command her to attack the gnolls, and then to devour herself. However, since Gnolls are considered aberrations lore-wise, this point could be left aside in this particular case. 

If we take into consideration that Astarion sees Goblins, Kobolds, and Gnomes as animals, killing them always increases his approval. This happens when we kill, out of the blue, most goblin NPCs, or simply attack the camp. (Datamined content) He will also approve of killing slave gnomes in Duergar Encampment (place you find after the boat). All these moments can be also seen as “animal” cruelty if we take into account Astarion’s perspective.

He approves of killing Priestess Gut in the Goblin Camp. It could also be interpreted as his usual dismissal towards goblins (he sees them as animals), since he never believed that she could help them in the first place. Or this approval can fit perfectly fine the cruel, murderous aspect of Astarion. As I said, many approvals overlap different aspects of Astarion, but all seem to fit his patterns either way. 

I suspect that the reason behind this particular kind of cruelty comes from those two hundred years of torture, in which he had to drink animal blood. Considering he was such an unfair magistrate, directing his rage against the ones who are not the root of the problem seems fitting. 

[[5]] Astarion is filled with racial bias and prejudices. 

He only sees elves and humans as the only creatures capable of thinking. (Scene after the bite)

However, he has strong biases against a particular ethnic group of humans: Gurs. He thinks they are all cut-throat, and probably would approve the rest of stereotypes that Gandrel added in that scene. (Scene of meeting Gandrel)

He mocks halfling and dwarf Tavs, who he thinks are naturally weak, until they prove him wrong. (Stargaze scene for short-sized Tav)

He supports the idea that tieflings have demonic powers just because of their heritage. (Speaking with the Grove halfling seller). During the party, he compares the lives of the tieflings with the lives of the goblins as something of similar value (which we know he considers as animal).

He sees goblins, kobolds, and gnomes as animals. (Scene after the bite)

After killing the goblinoid couple which was having sex, if Tav choose to say that the situation made them scrub their eyes, Astarion would add and extra “dehumanizing” comment against gnomes. “I’ve seen worse. Gnomes can be… ughh.” (Scene of interrupting sex)

[[6]] He finds pleasure in humiliating people or in outsmarting them, especially if they are trying to outsmart Tav. He dislikes weakness and loves to humiliate weak people in particular.

He approves telling Lae’Zel to say “please” when we met her again in the cage, humiliating her. 

He disapproves of diffusing the situation between Aradin and Zevlor after the first goblin attack. We know he is “missing” his show where one of them is being humiliated.

Astarion approves of telling Elegis that she is pathetic for being scared of a few goblins. Once more, humiliation due to weakness. 

He disapproves of telling Arabella's parents that the Druids overreacted when speaking in the Druid Grove’s stairs. He is disapproving for defending a weak and silly creature who was not smart enough to survive on her own. 

Astarion supports stealing the “magical” ring from the tiefling kid. This is another situation of humiliation of a weak person and outsmarting them. This could be considered a prank of a more silly-funny trickster doing an innocent prank.

He approves of telling the tiefling kids that they are going to die.

He feels disappointed when Lae’Zel did not kill Zorru, the tiefling that she forces to kneel and confess where he saw the Gith patrol. He approves the psychological torture of the interrogation.

He enjoys interrupting the goblinoid couple having sex. This is an example of the prank cruel-funny trickster. This “prank” ends up with the goblinoid couple being killed.

Astarion approves of smearing dung in the guard's face at the goblin camp entrance. The show of seeing someone being humiliated is satisfying.

He supports booing and humiliating Volo off the stage in the goblin camp. 

He supports licking the goblin’s foot (It could also be considered a prank).

He supports kissing the goblin’s foot while stealing the ring. This situation puts two things he enjoys in the same place: the humiliation experienced by Tav and how the Crusher was outsmarted in the process. Astarion will approve if Crusher is the one humiliated and forced to kiss Tav’s foot. 

He approves of laughing at Lorin (the elf trapped in Ethel’s house) when the elf is scared of Tav who pretends to be the monster that’s torturing him.

Humiliating “low people'' is an important aspect of Astarion’s personality, since it’s a small petty pleasure he can have now, when during the last two hundred years it had been done to him. Humiliation has to do with power as well, another symbol tight to Astarion’s personality. Through humiliation Astarion can taste a little bit of power, that power he lacked for two hundred years. That power that, if his backstory is not retconned in future versions or in the full release game, he had before turning into a vampire, abusing those groups he considered less.

[[7]] If we think in power, we also have to think in manipulation. And of course, Astarion is a great master of it. Sometimes the events that stand out his taste for manipulation overlap with the ones displayed in the humiliation section.

Since the moment we meet Astarion, we know he keeps working in turning himself into a pleasant and useful companion for Tav. Astarion knows he has bigger chances to succeed and survive staying with this group. A lot of his “neutral” behaviours respond to this goal: he doesn’t want to enrage Tav to the point of being kicked out of the party, it’s not about a hidden gentle side inside he is showing with an apathetic neutrality, it’s, once more, raw preservation and survival. During the first scenes of the game, when we don’t know he is a vampire, Astarion tries to avoid taking a position in the situations we face: he is just feeling the ground all the time: with Sazza and with Arabella’s death is clear. He doesn’t judge hard, he is testing Tav, he is trying to understand their mind, and acting as pleasant as he can according to what he sees. It’s a natural use of manipulation to guarantee his survival in a group of strangers. During the bite scene—when this façade finally ends—he is truly nervous of being killed for his vampiric nature, and tries to convince Tav of keeping him in the group using arguments that go from seduction to practical usefulness. 

The scene of stargaze also shows his usage of seduction as a manipulative tool to guarantee his survival (he weponises seduction and sex). Although he says mostly the same, he reacts very differently in tone depending on Tav’s approach. If Tav is wary, Astarion will act encouraging their ego and enumerating several feats, while getting uncomfortably closer. If Tav is already interested in Astarion, the elf will use softer manners to keep the seduction into a more intimate tone. This is a scene of a predator tasting his future prey as well (Dev’s notes are pretty clear about his manipulation). In this scene, also, Astarion is light-headed because he has not drunk blood in a while, and has “his head foggy” (something we can repeat during his origin as a personal tag). Exact words he will use as a narrative hint during the bite scene. Therefore, this scene has little of “Astarion falling for Tav”, and has everything of vampiric hunger combined with a raw sense of survival and usage of seduction to guaranteed it.

(potential interpretation) He approves when he is persuaded into sharing his dream with Tav. In any other character, we usually would understand this as an approval for caring about the character himself. In that scenario, failing the approval doesn’t cause a penalty (unless the character understands this failure as prying, as it happens with Shadowheart). In Astarion’s case, when you fail this persuasion, you are penalised with a disapproval. We can understand this in the same way we see it with Shadowheart: this is his annoyance for prying into his personal business. But there is another interpretation in this disapproval: he recognised a bad execution of persuasion as a manipulative attempt, and Astarion is in particular very sensitive to manipulations and mind games (see point [12]). 

Most of his “romance” is manipulation as well, keeping in mind the first point of this section: he becomes pleasant for Tav, using whatever shape he needs, so he can survive (this is especially noticeable with a good-aligned Tav). Astarion has weaponised seduction and sex without any hint of subtetly for the player (As the Dev’s notes say: “For Astarion, this is a game of power - one he’s played many times before in the taverns of Baldur’s Gate, trying to lure people back to his master. He’s an old hand at seduction, very self-assured at first, but the player might not go along with the script he expects them to follow.”) We can assure that Astarion will find more satisfaction in having “fun” with a high-approval Tav rather than a low-approval Tav.

If Tav is not evil enough (and therefore has a low approval), Astarion will need to be the one inviting Tav to have sex (to be sure the control is still in his hand, still pushing for “catching” Tav). If a low-approval-Tav invites Astarion, he will decline saying that he “has standards'', implying he needs to be the one controlling the situation (he is basically playing “hard to catch”. Astarion already knows that he “caught” Tav in this scenario since Tav was the first one showing their interest). If Tav is evil-like (and has enough approval), Astarion will not only weaponise sex, he may express some degree of personal desire in having “fun” with Tav. After all, evil characters can like one another. In this case, he would accept Tav’s invitation for more hedonist reasons such as personal pleasure and not mere survival. Still it’s always present the layer of using this situation as a manipulative tool to have control on Tav.

Approves persuading Crusher without a fight, understanding it as an approval earnt for the good manipulation tool used. Of course this scene is combined with the natural approval that Astarion gives when outsmarting creatures he considers lower or animal-like (See point [6]). 

Successfully persuade Lae'Zel to "play along" when meeting the Githyanki patrol, and pull off the deception.

I personally found funny that Astarion, without the intention of the writer, is so good in his manipulations, that he broke the fourth wall and ended up manipulating a good amount of players as well into believing him. 

[[8]] He supports revenge in all its forms and degrees, which is not strange since it’s his main motivation against Cazador.

He approves of letting Arka kill Sazza in the cage as revenge for her brother’s death.

He approves of the attack against Nettie when she poisons Tav.

He approves of telling Edowin's siblings to find the beast that attacked him as a way to avenge the True Soul.

Astarion approves of Arabella’s mother killing Kagha at the party.

He approves of helping the Sovereign to take revenge against the Duergars that killed their young. However, it’s not clear if Astarion approves the revenge itself or the method proposed, which is, according to his own words, “a bit genocidal” and therefore more entertaining for him (we need to remember he enjoys the display of murder and violence in all its forms, [2,3]). 

He approves of helping Glut in massacring the whole Myconid colony, since according to Glut’s words, they saw Glut’s circle being killed by the Duergars and did nothing, so Glut is looking for revenge. 

[[9]] He doesn’t like to get involved in anyone’s problems unless you can obtain a benefit or a reward for it (this is directly connected to his greed aspect [1])

He approves of telling Mayrina’s brothers that they are on their own, and actively disapproves if Tav agrees to help them find Mayrina.

He approves of declining to help Halsin in killing the Goblin leaders.

He disapproves of helping Wyll to save the Tiefling refugees in the Grove.

He disapproves of helping Zevlor.

He disapproves of finding evidence that confirms that Kagha is working with Shadow Druids. He will additionally disapprove again if, after exposing her, Tav asks her to change her ways. From Astarion’s point of view, Tav is basically meddling too much in the Grove’s problems for free, and ruining all the instances where murder could happen. 

He also disapproves if Tav agrees to help the two Zhentarim humans that are attacked by gnolls without asking for compensation.

He approves of not getting involved in the rescue of the Duke when Tav speaks with Florrick

[[10]] Despite having been a slave, he lacks of empathy for those who shared his fate and, instead, he supports slavery:

If we take into consideration what Swen said about his background in one of the first playthough he showed, we know that Astarion, as a magistrate, used criminals as food for local vampires, and in an attempt to outsmart them, he began to sell them into slavery (we can see in this brief background that Astarion has been greedy and cruel before turning into a vampire).

Although he disapproves paying for Oskar, the painter in the Zhentarim Hideout, he does it because of the money. When Tav buys the painter and demands him to stay silent because “slaves should speak when they are spoken to”, Oskar will think this is a joke (which is not the case, since none of those options has, in this patch at least, a (performance) tag). When Tav reinforces the idea that this is not a joke, and Oskar is now a true slave, only then, Astarion will approve. 

When seeing one of the servant Duergars of the Myconite Colony, Astarion will comment on how useful they are, and how Underdark drows should learn about these creatures, since these slaves are more efficient than the standard ones. If Tav brings awareness about the contradiction that those thoughts cause coming from an ex-slave, Astarion will justify his thinking saying that they are husks without mind, claiming that his feelings “may be different, had they been conscious beings. Or maybe not.” He emphasises in this dual possibility. And we can be sure that he certainly would not care slavery on conscious creatures, as we confirm it later with Oskar (A human who is not a Gur, and therefore, a creature that Astarion consider thinking acceptable beings). 

(Datamined content) When reaching the Duergar Encampment, once Nere is rescued, there is approval for killing the slave gnomes when the True Soul orders it. One can interpret that Astarion minds little for these slaves because they are gnomes, and therefore, animals.

[[11]] He looks for power and dominance, to have control over others and also as a way to guarantee his own freedom. 

In the discussion after every dream, Astarion supports the use of the tadpole's power in every opportunity, dismissing their effects. He is thrilling for the ability of bending everyone’s will (curious note, this is one of Cazador’s characteristics most hated by him)

He approves of letting the Koa-Toes bow before them as the Booal's chosen. This scene can be understood as a typical prank of a trickster, but also as a taste for being adored as a master/entity with more power. This scene shows that he and Tav are placed in the “Master” position. This reinforces the idea that Astarion wants to be a Master/Cazador, eventually. (Check post about Astarion and Power 1 and 2)

If Tav claims that the worship to them as True Souls can be useful after letting Edowin’s siblings leave, Astarion will approve. He shows in every instance more delight for having Cazador’s powers, making emphasis in the mind control ability, again.

Astarion approves of keeping the Necromancy of Thay tome. As we see later in his scene, he believes that there is something powerful hidden in it that may help him against Cazador. He wants to muster all the power of any kind he can.

Astarion approves of sparing Auntie Ethel’s life when she surrenders during battle because she will grant them power in exchange. He wants to muster all the power of any kind he can.

[[12]] Astarion is particularly sensitive to mind control. His expressions and the tone of his voice against any type of mind control are filled with feral ire (video here): 

He is angrily affected by the movements of his worm in his own head, 

He screams against Ethel’s control when using the mask, 

The insults at the harpies when he is lured, 

The way he is annoyed by the telepathic spores in the Underdark, 

He disapproves failed attempts of persuasion (understood by his character as failed, obvious attempts of manipulations). 

And, potentially, this is the reason why he disapproves of Priestess Gut cleaning Tav’s mind.

[[13]] Because he likes power, he also likes the demonstration of power whether his own or his allies’, therefore he likes most intimidation options in general

He approves of intimidating Gimblebok and the gang near the ruins. 

He approves of intimidating or provoking both Aradin and Zevlor at the Druid Grove.

At camp, when discussing preferred methods of death, he approves if Tav tells him "If I die, I'll take you with me." (after first picking "Try it and I'll spill your guts") . He also approves if Tav chooses a method of death (decapitation, knife, poison). Both options show resolve, strength, and freedom in deciding one’s fate. Since Astarion died at the hands of strangers, he values the freedom of choosing how to die. He will disapprove picking the option of letting others decide your death.

He approves if you intimidate the mirror into allowing passage.

[[14]] He is a survivalist character, and therefore, a lot of his approvals are related to elements that will guarantee his life, such as looking for his own freedom, the acceptance of his vampire nature, and the encouragement in looking for strong alliances or keeping alive strong individuals that can be useful as allies. 

He approves of being accepted with his vampire nature and allowing him to feed on Tav’s blood. He keeps approving if Tav defends him during the exchange of opinions in the camp. 

He approves if he has permission to feed on enemies. 

He approves of killing Gandrel. This approval is also mere raw survival.

He approves if during sex, Tav allows him to drink their blood. 

He disapproves of promising Nettie to take Wyvern Poison if you feel symptoms of the Tadpole, since it goes against his survival instinct.

When Lae’Zel is killed by the Gith patrol, he will state in banter that it was a waste since Lae’Zel was a powerful/strong specimen, so clearly he is lamenting the loss of a powerful ally. 

Despite appreciating his freedom, he has explicitly stated that he “would choose servitude over oblivion any day”, showing how extremely survivalist he can be.

[[15]] He likes to find a solution to their tadpole problem using unconventional ways, or at least, using options that may lead him to the twisted solution he needs (which is not exactly being cured of the tadpole, but to control it, he certainly needs more exceptional means)

He approves of telling Auntie Ethel about the tadpole in the Druid Grove simply because she “looks lunatic”.

At first, Astarion disapproves of Raphael's invitation to remove the Tadpole, claiming that he would not change one master for another. However, when the situation starts looking dire, he will approve of the idea, because anything “may be better than Cazador” adding later that he “would choose servitude over oblivion any day.” 

A bit contradictory when he was the first one claiming that Raphael used mind games similar to Cazador’s, games they know they have won before starting.

[[16]] He has a “soft spot” for helping people to escape their masters or killing/rejecting people that can be seen as Masters. However it’s requirement that those escapees could be seen by Aastarion as strong and capable creatures. He would mind little for creatures he sees as underlings. (Weak concept, seeing it with squinted eyes)

He approves of helping Karlach to get rid of the Tyr followers, since they are in fact working for Zariel, Karlach’s previous master. With all what Karlach explained about her past, she certainly qualifies as a strong person who is trying to get rid of her master.

He disapproves of Tav who tells Raphael that they would do anything to remove the Tadpole. This is probably resounding in Astarion: his past bad choice when he was at death's door due to the Gur attack and Cazador appeared to “save” him. He knows that going to that extent has poor results.

Astarion approves of Tav if they say that they won’t become Raphael's pawn (conversation in the camp after the encounter with Raphael). It’s true that when the other options narrow, Astarion starts to consider the possibility of changing a vampiric master for an infernal one.

This post was written on April 2021.

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