This book, Curse of the Vampyr, can be found in the library right before the bridge to Minthara. Since Astarion is my game crush, I had to pick it up.
Cold beauty? Check.
Pale noble? Check.
Charming, with a bite mark on his neck? Check.
Yep, that's Astarion. 😊
Actually, that's Cazador.
Cazador is Astarion's vampire sire. Astarion is only a vampire spawn, while Cazador is a cruel, evil vampire. Not sexy. Not sparkling. Cazador is a psychopathic serial murderer.
And we Astarion-lovers can't wait to kill him, as he was not kind to his spawn.
Astarion's very real fear of returning to Cazador makes him the only companion who approves of continuing to use your special powers, even when negative side effects appear.
One of those negative side effects is terrible nightmares. In Astarion's case, nightmares of Cazador:
If you've watched any of the many (many!) videos of Astarion out there, you will have noticed Astarion is a very unique sort of vampire.
"It doesn't look broken. Then again, none of us do."
Astarion is both giggly and sardonic, proud and self-effacing, insulting and sometimes kind, thoughtful and chaotic, brave and fearful, intent on saving himself and interested in the rest of his companions. He's multi-faceted and fascinating.
And he's actually more of a vampire than Cazador.
Or rather, Cazador is a modern literary vampire. He is a threat, as in Dracula (1897).
But Astarion is closer to the ORIGINAL literary vampire, seen in Lord Byron's Fragment of a Novel (1819) -- the Cool Best Friend.
The Byronic vampire is the fascinating, talented guy everyone wants as a friend, and if you're lucky enough to become his best friend, you feel flattered and honored that he chose you.
The bond this type of vampire shares with his (male in this case) best friend is the most important part of his life (un-life). His human is sworn to keep the secret of his vampire-ness, but honor is all that binds them.
You'll notice this is the opposite of a Dracula-type vampire. No hypnosis. No madness and eating bugs a la Renfield. (You'll also have noticed Cazador treats Astarion in precisely this Dracula-defined manner, controlling his body, forcing him to eat rats and insects.)
The Byronic vampire may eat blood, but we never see it. It's not particularly important to his story. They are buddies who travel around together. That's the story as Byron wrote it.
And that's precisely what Astarion offers.
So if Larian allows the player character to affect their companions' alignment in Baldur's Gate 3, this will fit in perfectly with vampire canon.
Swaying Astarion to evil, like Cazador, would make him a Dracula-type vampire. Swaying him to good would make him more of a Byronic vampire.
I look forward to having a Byronic vampire at my side.
thank you for your analysis! I've read the book so many times in-game trying to decide what it means and have found little discussion about it online
ReplyDeleteand unfortunately in my most recent playthrough I thought it was talking about Petras XD so
(spoilers) i felt horrible and still do lol
I made a very Cazador-like decision to stop the ritual and even tho Astarion stayed in my party after I took away his choice... (by *ahem* uh.. killing one of the helpless spawn ((Petras)) in the ritual then conveniently using the help action to get my bud Astarion down lol) I was so confused by the storyline after and the dialogue options that I was like this couldn't possibly be the moral thing to do or what that passage indicated at alllll whoops
But I digress, if you care to share, what do you think the analysis is in the PCs choice of freeing the spawn vs killing them?
I have conflicting feelings about both but I'm curious what people think! Also sorry I'm in 2025 if I'm too late in the future to comment no worries :)
Also what do you think "home" refers to in the whole text? the PC's body, or the living space i.e the in-game camp?
ReplyDeleteAnd what's your opinion on the final stanza especially? Could this be referring to the night camp scene where the siblings come to take/attack Astarion and how you giving away the fact that they will die is essentially not "seeing" Astarion as he is (in that moment, a liar who is willing to sacrifice them for his ascension) and you're "pale and smiling" telling him to not ascend and be in the shadows forever? Or could it mean when Astarion ascends, he becomes the Beast and him turning you is you now "pale and smiling" calling him into the darkness i.e a dark, evil path?
And I'm really confused on the line: you will not save them if you fight ("them" referring to love and family in the previous line? meaning your camp companions? by extension if you're romancing him, meaning Astarion?) [and "fight" referring to the night camp scene where the siblings come to take/attack Astarion? or "fight" referring to the Cazador ritual fight? or "fight" when you refuse to become his consort after Ascension?]
I'm sorry I have so many questions but I would love to get your opinion haha I think abt this one and the books in the temple of illmater a lot bc Astarion's such an interesting character and maybe I was analysign this one too hard this whole time they could have multiple meanings?? idk like I said I thought at one point Beast was referring to Petras lol and I was way way off on that one whoopsie