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[honkdarling]

★ Character Information ★

Character Name: Astarion Ancunín
Character Age: 263 (per Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms)
Character Species: High Elf Vampire Spawn
Current Health: Healthy, albeit Undead. Currently cured of tadpole.
Outfit: Astarion arrives in simple padded armor. Beneath that, he wears his old but comfortable camp clothes, brown leather pants and a ruffled cream shirt that have clearly been repaired multiple times. "A once-fine shirt that's seen years of cuts, tears, and careful repairs. Clearly someone cares about looking good." He wears tasteful brown boots that were once fashionable.

Character Canon: Baldur's Gate III
Link to History: Origin History, Companion Quest Walkthrough
Canon Point: Roughly 6 months after the final battle (around the Epilogue Party time)
Canon Iteration: Original canon with a bard non-Durge Tav; Spawn-Ending, Cazador defeated

★ Folkmore Roles & Attributes ★

Skills: Proficient in the use of light armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords, longbows and shortbows. Skilled in acrobatics, perception, deception, performance, persuasion, with proficiency in sleight of hand and stealth. Elven weapon training allows him to use the firebolt cantrip, even as a rogue.
Canon Abilities: Fey Ancestry: Immune to being put to sleep with advantage to fight against being charmed. Astarion does not need to sleep as an elf but will engage in a meditative Trance state for a shortened period instead. Has darkvision up to 40 ft. Leaves a bitten humanoid with the “Bloodless” status, making them feel woozy and giving them a penalty to most actions (goes away after a full night’s rest or restoration magic). Can ritual cast “Speak With Dead” once per long rest since reading the Necromancy of Thay. Since mastering the Necromancy of Thay, can utilize the necromancy spell "Danse Macabre" to summon 4 uncontrollable ghouls to his side once per long rest. The ghouls will follow him and fight for him but otherwise cannot be given orders. Each ghoul has the chance to paralyze an enemy they attack and they will explode when killed, dealing necrotic area-of-effect damage.
Role: Legend
Role Qualities/Attributes: Little white bat wings that can grow as he does more Good
Role Reasoning: After the time he’s spent with Tav, accomplishing what they’ve accomplished together, Astarion is starting to see the good that does still exist in the world – and he’s starting to realize that he can be a part of it. The “Legend” role is inspired by the “true potential” that Tav believes Astarion has; while Astarion would often argue the point and say, “I can’t be what you want to see in me,” Tav would continue to believe and encourage. Six months after dismantling the Cult of the Absolute, Astarion is just starting to believe it himself. He jokes that it’s just about channeling his selfishness into the right paths, killing the “right people,” but he’s begun to enjoy the life of the “hero” (especially the heroic company). He just needs a little push from Thirteen to grow outside his comfort zone.

★ Personality ★

Please choose one of the follow options for your personality section. Please clarify which option you have picked and, if option 2, which questions you are answering:

Option 2. Choose FOUR-FIVE of the following questions to answer and expand upon. You may choose a fifth question if you feel it is integral to your character's personality. Each answer has a 100-300 word requirement.

OPTION 2 QUESTIONS (PICK 4-5) 100-300 WORD LIMIT EACH:

What is your character's moral code? Do they have one? Why or why not? Despite his selfish behavior, Astarion does have some remains of a moral code from his days as a magistrate. When faced with the question of “justice,” Astarion firmly states that “justice should be a harsh lesson. All the better to deter the next vagabond.” He scoffs at the idea that “mercy” should be part of it. In Astarion’s mind, there was no such thing as a “mistake” and poor decisions were to be punished, making him a very harsh magistrate. This is especially true for the Gur people, against whom Astarion holds a grudge. Astarion was isolated and beaten to death by a mob of angry Gur after a ruling he’d made against them, leading to his encounter with Cazador. It’s possible that the encounter was orchestrated by Cazador in order to claim someone as influential as Astarion as a spawn, but even if this were true, it was successful because of Astarion’s known biases, racism, and hardline stances. Those attitudes festered after 200 years of blame and trauma. Astarion acts selfishly, even knowing it’s wrong, because he feels owed for what he’s missed. “Hurt people hurt people.” Most of Astarion’s selfishness (and decisions that he approves of) falls under self-preservation. He prefers not to put himself in danger, get involved in other people’s issues, or lose resources that he could use for himself. That said, he does have a soft spot for animals and children. He is respectful toward all cats, approves of feeding and petting the owlbear cub, and while he doesn’t want to invite Yenna to camp, he approves of giving her coin, food, or offering to find a guard to help her. While he’s willing to give props to Auntie Ethel for her power and manipulative ways, he still approves of saving Vanra.

Is your character capable of forgiveness or will they hold a grudge until they die? Would anything ever make them change their mind? Astarion is very capable of holding a grudge until he dies – or, more likely, until the death of whoever instigated the grudge, quite possibly by Astarion’s hand. After what he’s gone through, he’s much more likely to lash out to protect himself rather than forgive and trust. In his mind, forgiveness leaves him vulnerable to lies and betrayal, and it would be safer to simply never trust in the first place. Tav, Karlach, and the other companions have become the exception. It would be possible to convince Astarion to forgive someone, but it would have to be under very specific circumstances and it would not be his first instinct.

What would your character sacrifice to get what they want or to reach their potential? What have they sacrificed already? When Astarion discovered the truth of the Rite of Ascension, he was very nearly ready to sacrifice 7,000 souls for his personal power. In a bid for both revenge against and freedom from Cazador, Astarion was desperately driven toward the rite because he believed that unparalleled power would make him safe. Astarion speaks a lot about “freedom” and how those with power can do whatever they want – but for him, “freedom” is inevitably intertwined with safety. Those in power can do whatever they want because there is nothing else holding them afraid. It was only because of the relationship and trust he’d built with Tav that he was willing to stop and realize that it would have been continuing a cycle of abuse. Even so, he wasn’t immediately happy about the decision and letting go of what he’d believed could magically solve all his problems. It was only after he got some distance from it that he thanked Tav for opening his eyes and believing that he was enough just the way he was. Astarion isn’t sure what Thirteen’s definition of “potential” is for him, but he instinctively equates it with some kind of power or the ability to return to the sun, things that he thinks he wants more than what he may actually need. Without Tav’s steady presence, it’s very possible that Astarion would be tempted to harm a multitude of others if he believed it was the best way to save himself.

Which Taylor Swift era is your character going through right now and why? Astarion is in a transition stage. During the course of Baldur’s Gate 3, once he had a taste of freedom from Cazador, Astarion was firmly in the “reputation” era – focused on defining himself, seizing what he wanted, and especially vengeance. Just as the album evolves toward questions of love, Astarion likewise began to hesitantly desire more from his relationship with Tav, though he questioned what it could possibly be like. At least optimistically, “[his] reputation’s never been worse, so [Tav] must like [him] for [him].” After the messiness and the drama, and finally gaining true freedom from Cazador, Astarion is now moving into his “Midnights” era. Now that he has the time to slow down and consider his past, he inevitably is, especially after the discovery that all of the people he had lured back to Cazador’s palace were still alive as spawn. He is reminded by Sebastian of the manipulations and missed relationships, the choices he made and the orders he was given. Like the lyrics of “Mastermind,” Astarion openly told Tav that he had orchestrated the grand plot of seduction for his benefit and protection, only to make the mistake of actually falling in love. As a high elf, Astarion doesn’t sleep; as a vampire spawn, he belongs to the darkness. But as he experiences these “restless nights,” they are no longer of fear or suffering, but rather the growing pains of the new life he is defining for himself.

★ Player Information ★

Player Name: Magellan
Pronouns: she/her
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact(s): shinra_dog or shinra_dog on Discord
Who Invited You?: Link
Current Characters: Rhys Dryden
Permissions: Here
Writing Samples: Link 1 Link 2