Vampires are largely known for being seductive. While many of them boast beast-like qualities, most film, literature, and video games tend to depict vampires as cold, calculating, beautiful creatures who rely more on looks and charisma than strength to manipulate their prey into baring their necks. My all-time favorite video game vampire — Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Astarion Ancunín — is very much the same way, but what makes him so interesting and compelling is the fact that he uses his charm and beauty as a shield just as often as he wields it as a weapon. He puts on a brave face, but deep down, he is terrified.
When players first meet him near the Nautiloid crash site, he plays his cards close to the chest, claiming he just saw an Intellect Devourer scuttle by, and begging the player to kill it for him. Regardless of whether you offer to help or tell him to deal with it himself, you’ll soon find yourself on the ground with Astarion’s dagger at your throat. It was a ruse. Astarion knows that pretending to be weak and helpless will give him an advantage, and though the altercation ends without injuries, it’s not the last time he catches the player by surprise.
Once the effects of blood deprivation start to take their toll, Astarion doesn’t bother pretending to be helpless anymore. Instead, he waits until the player is vulnerable, creeping up to their bedroll in the hopes of sneaking a subtle sip or two of blood as they sleep. Of course, he’s caught in the act, and that’s when he falls back on his manipulation skills. He’s sorry, you see. He couldn’t help himself. He’s hungry, and he feels weak, and if you’d just let him have a sip of blood, he’d perform better in combat. He’ll only take a little, he promises.
As it turns out, he’s only half-lying. If you offer him your blood, he will drain every last drop of it, if you let him. But with enough protestation, he’ll stop before you keel over, and it’s true that a well-fed Astarion performs better in combat. What he didn’t mention, however, is that by doing so, the player will receive the “Bloodless” condition, which applies a -1 penalty to nearly all rolls, including attack rolls and saving throws, which can be pretty devastating in early game combat.
By the midpoint of Act I, it’s very clear: Astarion will attack if he has to, but generally speaking, his favored weapon is his silver tongue, which is just as sharp as his fangs. But Astarion’s romantic appeal is as much a shield as it is a dagger, and if you pursue a romance with him, you’ll see even more of this behavior. Players who romance Astarion will eventually discover a rather awful truth behind the sex appeal and charming, befanged smile: Astarion is using you. By his own admission, he’s been playing the part of the perfect romantic partner because he knows that, should things fall apart amongst the rest of the party, you will surely side with him over everyone else. And should his abusive former master Cazador Szarr ever come calling, you will obviously do everything in your power to protect him.
This revelation was especially horrifying to me because Astarion is canonically a victim of physical and sexual abuse. Cazador sent him out on the town to hunt for unassuming victims, bringing them home for his then-master to feast on. The fact that Astarion felt he needed to use those same traits — his physical appeal and vibrant personality — to gain my affection (and thus, my protection) absolutely broke my heart.
Astarion admits his little plan did go off the rails after he unexpectedly fell in love with the player-character, so he hasn’t been faking his feelings the entire time. But the fact that he feels compelled to trade sex and affection for physical protection is a stark contrast to the way the game’s other companions operate. For the most part, the rest of the Baldur’s Gate 3 camp crew seem pretty comfortable asking you to complete their companion quests (or straight-up demanding that you do so). But Astarion doesn’t feel comfortable asking for protection, at least not without first making sure he’s situated himself at the top of the player’s priority list.
Even after establishing a committed relationship with him, you’ll learn that old habits die hard. After the whole “I made you fall for me so you’d keep me safe” revelation, Astarion’s far more open about his desire to take down Cazador, and he also admits that he’d like to take sex off the table for a while. He spent over 200 years as Cazador’s slave, and now that his body is his own (minus the whole brain-tadpole thing), he needs time to get used to the concept of consent.
The biggest proof of Astarion’s discomfort happens in Moonlight Towers when a drow named Araj Oblodra offers to give the player a potion with a permanent strength-boosting effect in exchange for a bite from Astarion. This relatively minor NPC immediately fails her “vibe check” in my book. It’s clear she’d be getting some sort of sexual satisfaction from this deal — she admits she’s dreamed of being bitten by a vampire since she was young — and Astarion certainly had no problem trying to suck the player-character’s blood without consent in Act I. One would think he’d be thrilled at the concept of another willing “victim.”
But by this point in the game, Astarion isn’t the same person he was in Act I. He’s beginning to stand up for himself, and quickly lets you know why he’s not interested: There’s something off about Oblodra’s blood, likely due to the questionable methods behind her potion-making. “It’s rancid,” he explains.
The interaction with Oblodra serves as an important turning point in Astarion’s story. She is clearly being positioned there as a representation of everything that was wrong with Astarion’s life prior to the events of the game. She doesn’t ask Astarion if he’s willing to bite her, instead asking the player-character for permission, and adding that she assumes “he belongs to you.” When Astarion declines, clearly repulsed, Oblodra once again turns to the player, demanding you “talk some sense into your obstinate charge.”
Whatever you do regarding Oblodra, both choices result in a serious conversation afterwards, but what strikes me the most about this moment is the fact that, should you coerce Astarion into biting her, your relationship with him will take significant damage. But then, in the space of a split second, he’ll turn to face Oblodra, and slip back into “performance mode,” like an overworked actor who is taking the stage against their will, but has done this scene so many times they could recite the lines in their sleep.
“Darling, I’ve had a sudden change of heart!” he declares, voice full of bravado and eyes filled with fear. “After all, who could resist such a delectable neck?” He holds it together during the act, then vomits twice at Oblodra’s feet.
By Act III — assuming you’ve been earning his approval and have defeated his former master, Cazador — Astarion will express that sexual intimacy is back on the table. Act III is also when the player will likely encounter a pair of drow twins who work at a brothel in Baldur’s Gate. When speaking to them, the player can propose a threesome, which they will only agree to if the play brings their romantic partner along. If that partner is Astarion, things can go one of two ways.
If Astarion hasn’t yet defeated Cazador, he’ll respond to the offer with a resounding hell no. But it’s how he responds to the idea after he has defeated Cazador that truly breaks my heart.
“I’d like to try doing things like this again, now that I’m free to find my own desires,” Astarion assures you, if Cazador is no longer in the picture. “And don’t worry, I’ll dart out if I don’t enjoy it faster than I used to run from the sun.”
Once you get the all-clear from Astarion, the scene fades to black, though the dialogue continues. Everything seems to be going well until the narrator drops this on you:
“Astarion lavishes attention on everyone present with flawless technique, unfazed,” the narrator reveals. “It’s all pure instinct. But when you meet his eye for a moment, there’s a look about him that reveals he’s a million miles away.”
Larian could have gone with the easy choice and made Astarion a one-dimensional pick-up line dispenser. They could have made him a “broken” character who is magically healed by your love and is suddenly down for a foursome at a brothel as soon as you complete his companion quest. But real people don’t work like that. Trauma takes years to resolve, and sometimes, it doesn’t resolve at all. Sometimes, despite all the hard work you’ve done, you fall back into old habits, like lying to your partner because you’re a chronic people-pleaser.
In most media, creatures of the night are painted as beautiful, intelligent, and manipulative. Astarion is all of those things, but it’s so refreshing (and so much more interesting) to see those attributes used as emotional defense mechanisms instead of solely being weaponized to secure prey. Despite all his posturing, Astarion is easily the most anxious companion in the game, and his realistic responses to situations like the brothel are what make his character so unique, and so easy to love.
