#bg3 darylia

[alpaca-clouds]

That Awkwardness Among The Vampire Spawn

Something I am thinking about way too much in regards of Cazador's main spawn and also the 7000 souls is all that trauma - and how they are gonna deal in the "vampires spawns live, Astarion remains a spawn" ending.

Because we know two things about the spawn under Cazador:

Cazador made his seven main spawn torture each other at times to play out his power over them.

Some of those 7000 souls meant for sacrifice very probably have raped whoever went to seduce them, while they due to their commands could not fight back.

And I might be too much of a sucker for good whump, but this idea and the implications live rent-free in my head. Because how are those poeple going to deal with each other?

I mean, it is pretty clear from the interactions we get, that Cazador did the good old abuser tactic of trying to get his seven main spawn to work against each other. We know that this was more successful in some regards than in others. It seems Astarion was mostly austracized from the other spawn, and it seems that the others are not necessarily friends, but there are some among them who are closer with each other than others.

And yet, that is already something they gotta deal with, if they gotta stay together for now. Especially as they will have some trauma among each toher - and possibly quite a lot of unhealthy relationships in general. Especially if you realized that they most probably have tortured each other. Sure, it was not their fault, because bloody mindcontrol, but that does not lessen the trauma, right?

And then there is the other thing.

Like, one way or another basically any sexual interaction that the spawn had with their victims was sexual assault, because they were trafficked and unable to consent or say "no". This is something I brought up a lot more in Bound by Blood. Because... While some of the victims would have definitely have had sex with those spawn thinking it was consensual, there would be some who did not give a shit. And it was not as if Cazador cared, right? Be it stuff where the spawn had been forced into some sort of kink they definitely did not want, or be it just outright rape.

Meanwhile, of course, the other way around the spawn tricked those people into a situation where they thought those people were to be killed, while Cazador turned them into vampires without their consent, of course. And this led to them being half-starved in those dungeons. (Also: Let's face it, given how sadistic Cazador was, I would not put it past him to torture some of those 7000 just for shits and giggles.)

And all of that overhead... It will lead to so much pain, won't it? When they all need to learn how to deal with each other. There is just so much hurt there.

Like, how do you deal with a person who tortured you, even though it was not their decision? How do you deal with a person who raped you, when they thought it was consensual? How to you deal with the person, who raped you, because they fucking didn't care? How do you deal with that person, while also knowing that in the end they got put through hell because of it, even though you did not know about that until recently?

So... Yes, that is a lot, right? And it makes for a lot of confused feelings.

Admittedly, in Wishing Well (which is my story about Astarion finally meeting up with the other spawn a year after the end of the game) I do focus mostly on Astarion and Sebastian in that regard, I do bring it more into Bound by Blood, where Aurelia is dealing with several of those people.

I will also admit: I find it almost a bit sad how underexplored this topic is in fanfiction. I know, I know, I am one of the few who actually obsesses about the other spawn in the first place, but... As I said, I find it kinda sad.

[alpaca-clouds]

Astarion, his siblings and his "victims"

I wrote a blog about how I really do not get those folks, who do honestly in their heart believe that Ascending Astarion is the "good" ending. And frankly, the comments that AA fans left underneath really make me just shake my head.

One of the people understanding my point also put a really good comment underneath:

Because I really get the feeling that the AA fans do not even consider the siblings and the "victims" of Cazador as actual characters within the story.

And yes, sure. From a writing perspective they are not big characters. I mean, the siblings do have very little in terms of background. Some have a bit more (mostly Leon and Darylia), the others a bit less, and then there is Yousen, about whom we know nothing but the name. And out of the other 7000 we obviously only really do know Sebastian in any regard. Which from a writing perspective is absolutely fair, because the focus definitely is on Astarion. Yet, the interactions you do have with the siblings - and with Sebastians - are meant for the player to understand that this is about empathy.

It is very likely that pretty much all of the siblings got abused just as much as Astarion - or at the very least lived in the same fear of abuse as Astarion. They are all the victims, even though it is fairly likely that they also abused each other. That is just something that abusers use in their advantage: Trying to get their victims to abuse each other. BUT that does not stop them from being victims.

And yes, it is absolutely heavily implied that some of Astarion's "Victims" also have raped him (same with the other siblings). Because as he was ruled by the order of Cazador to bring him victims he had not even a lot of chance to fight back. But we know that is not true for all of those 7000 souls. Some of which will just be purely innocents, who got seduced or kidnapped, and who have at times been made to suffer endless hunger in that dungeon for at times 100 and 200 years!

This means that to ascend Astarion, what you do is to kill a lot of innocent victims of abuse. More than that, you are with it condoning the abuse their abuser had put them through - because you are quite literally enacting the plan this abuser has come up with.

I feel this is a big thing that is also missed with the Vellioth memories. While Vellioth obviously would have prefered to live and go on abusing Cazador for years and years to come - he is also proud for Cazador to defeat him and then continue the circle of abuse. Because in Vellioth's minds he has "taught him well".

While yes, Cazador wants to ascend himself, at least if Astarion ascends all the planning for the ritual, and all the "lessons" he has taught were not for nothing. Astarion will continue Cazador's legacy. He will simply become the next Cazador, until inevitably one of his own spawn will rise up against him and so on and so forth.

If Astarion ascends, Cazador lives on through Astarion. Because in that case Astarion does all the things Cazador would've wanted to happen.

Of course we as players are biased for Astarion, because not only is he the one vampire spawn we know, but we really get to know him really good. Not the very least given the fact that Astarion also is literally the companion with the most playtime for his companion quest. But just for a thought experiment imagine that by sheer luck one of the other spawn also has gotten loose from Cazador and was doing a quest with some of their own companions, while Tav/Durge, Astarion and other companions were doing theirs. And now imagine that other spawn - no matter who of the other six it might have been - went in wanting to sacrifice everyone else, including Astarion, to ascend themselves.

I can guarantee you, that each of them could have made as much of an argument for it, as Astarion.

Would you still think that would be a good thing?

By all means, argue about the fact of how good the relationship between Ascended Astarion and your own Tav/Durge might be. How it is totally not an abusive relationship despite the non-consensual choking...

But that does not change the fact that the ascension itself is a bad thing that is going to continue Cazador's plan and Cazador's legacy.

And no, there is simply no world in which killing 7000 people, of whom all have been abused before, while at least several thousand of them are innocent, is "the good thing".

... Also, I just want more fandom content about the vampire siblings, because I just think they are neat.

[alpaca-clouds]

The Vampire Spawn after the end

Something that I have thought about in regards to the game is what the vampire spawn do after the end if they survive the ritual. Sure, we know they will head for the Underdark, which kinda seems like a somewhat good idea, but there is a lot of questions that are open with them.

Because 7000 vampire spawn is not just a few, and like with almost all vampire media we basically do not know shit when it comes to how much blood they actually need. During the game it seems that Astarion needs blood once a day, but we also know that he was in that tomb for a full year and probably could not feed during this time. It also seems likely that Cazador did not feed the spawn, who were in the dungeon (aka the 7000) a whole lot.

DnD canon is a bit contradictive when it comes to how vampires work in this regard. Technically a vampire should not be able to survive for more than a few months without feeding, but especially with those in the dungeon it would make sense if somehow Cazador's spawn can deal with it. Either because Larian handwaved this stuff about vampire lore, or maybe because something is special about Cazador's spawn.

But that kinda gets me to the issue there: How the fuck are those 7000 traumatized folks going to deal?

I mean, sure, some of the vampire have probably been turned fairly recently - within the last year. But others were down there like Sebastian for more than a century! And some of them must be so gods darn hungry.

And this is where I am thinking like: Okay, how are they going to deal with the Underdark? Because the thing about the Underdark is that most down there is either some warrior cultures, monster or, well, gnomes. And I assume that the Gur will not just allow the 7000 vampire spawn to extinguish a full town or city of drow, duergar, or deep gnomes.

And sure, there are endings in which Astarion comes to help them deal. But I do not think it is gonna make a whole difference.

Also... I am going to assume, that indeed some of the vampires just do not want to stay around. Because... Well, for once, some of those 7000 will blame the 7 siblings for their situation and do not want to hang out with them. Some will not want to do what the Gur want. Some might be suicidal in one way or another. And some will just want to not spend more time underground.

In my two stories dealing with them (Wishing Well and Bound by Blood) I have about 600 of them either die or leave together with Leon, who is not willing to cooperate with the Gur. And I do assume that the entire blood access is gonna be a big conflict with them.

But also... Gods, all the trauma of the people. Like, the siblings are traumatized because they were tortured by Cazador all the time and forced into prostitution. And best case szenario, those other 7000 are traumatized from being starved and imprisoned for decades or up to centuries. I mean, geez. I hope the Gur do have a darn therapist. >.<

[alpaca-clouds]

Cazador's Spawn Headcanons - Pt. 2

Okay, based on what I posted yesterday, let me go a bit into how I think Astarion's relations with his siblings were.

As I said, my headcanon is that Yousen was created just three years after Astarion, because Cazador intended for them to be rivals. And he was quite successful with that. They were. And Yousen was also quite willing to partake in "punishing" Astarion, whenever he got the chance to do so. But again, Yousen was also punished not that rarely basically because he so willingly killed his victims - rather than bringing them back.

Violet was a bit more hesitant about partaking in everything, especially in the punishment of her siblings. She quickly fell in line though, when it came to doing her job. There was not a lot of trust between her and Astarion, but at least the relationship was not as bad as with Yousen.

Pale Petras meanwhile just completely drank the coolaid. He thought that actually Cazador did want good for them and to make them more powerful. Also he was... well, he is an idiot, but he also knew that it was wise to just do what was expected from him. He also considered Astarion an idiot for still managing to piss off Cazador all the time. (And he totally did not get that Astarion could literally not do right by Cazador.)

With Darylia we actually know a bit more about her motivation. She saw all of this very much as a scientific excercise. And in my headcanon one of her favorite quote was "for the greater good".

Now, Aurelia was the "weak one". She went into total shock mode after she had been turned. She was not responsive and absolutely not willing to do Cazador's bidding, which is why Astarion very much identified with her and became protective of her, going so far as to take some of her punishment. However, this ended up biting him in the ass, as after a while she went on to blame him for her mistake to evade Cazador's punishment.

Leon... Well, I have a bit of a story for Leon. But... I think I will save that one for later.