hi, my Name is Oona she/her GER/ENG. Here you can find my yt videos, analyzes or a bit of idiocy and simping for Astarion. I love escaping into fantasy characters and i'm in my mid thirties, so don't ask me about the meaning of my life... please.
Content for SpawnAstarion Enjoyers
Rare dialogues, Analysis, Edits and a bit nonsense
Why content only for Spawn enjoyers?
I simply decide
Hello there, i'm a SpawnAstarion Youtuber and I offer you rare dialogues, beautiful edits, funny compilations, analysis and the typical delulu nonsense :D
If you're interested, I’d love for you to stop by, may subscribe. You can also find me on Instagram and TikTok
Intrested in some of my Analysis?:
The Catharsis
How Cazador shaped Astarion
The 'Hero's Journey' with Astarion's story
Astarion and the Image of a Perfect Victim
Don't Call Him Weak
Analyzing the act1 I Love You line
Analysing the LOVE TEST
Interpretation of -The man of your dreams..AA
Astarion and Karlach 1.Romance with Dev Notes
The Mirror Dialogue
I was Pathetic then
Magistrate Astarion
This is not you Astarion. Not really
The Fascination with Evil
My First Edit
Astarion's different reactions - Good and Evil run two years ago :D
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Today is my birthday, so it’s time to post my birthday project 🎂.
Thank everyone who joined in 🥰.
Especially thanks to my amazing friend @judasiskariot aka @bhaal-battle-beer-bard 💜.
The party started outdoors, thanks to the beautiful weather. Miriael brought along her animal friends, who caused a bit of chaos🙈. But the cake was saved from a turtle thanks to the quick intervention of the Astarions ! Ofelia @xxnashiraxx decided to climb onto the table and start loudly singing "Happy Birthday" to Aristen🎶. Zafeiria (@/parkouringrabbit.bsky.social) decided she needed to eat the all ice cream quickly before the animals ate them 🤣 . Rav (@/sp4rr0wsw3nch.bsky.social) decided that a ride on the eagle was a great idea! The other guests (Elysia @obsessedwhyyes , Nightingale @/crmytheuntamable.bsky.social, Kes @/lyraksylva.bsky.social, Nimriel @wasted-sam , Amarie @/varisia.bsky.social) started petting to the animals ❤️.
When it got dark, the party moved to the terrace. Arrovan @bloodless-sandpiper decided that it didn't matter where he was - stealing was a must 🤣! Astarion didn't notice he had been robbed because he was more interested in the fact that Aristen had received beautiful flowers from Xylara @xystarion 💐. Innirith @crimzonrite and Odilia @justdebzong are going to offer their best wishes to Aristen 🥰. One of the guests summoned a demon (to this day, no one knows who it was!), and Saulus @bhaal-battle-beer-bard decided that dancing with a demon would be fun - fortunately, the demon thought so too 🤣! But Astarion was not exactly thrilled that his beloved comes up with ideas like that😅. Keith @cursed-nyxan, Ziraun @moonlitspider, and Tav'ven @fantalpacca struck up a conversation. Freckles and Oona @oonalovesastarionssimpleplan decided to take a nap - in Freckles's case, it’s because he is a hyena and isn't really into parties like that 😅 , while Oona fell asleep because she probably enjoyed certain drinks a bit too much 😅. Seraphina @rdekarios is trying to find a way to banish the demon, but first she must face Saulus, who has already named the creature and considers it her new pet😂.
Time to dance 💃 🕺! Withers decided to drop by the party with his whole crew of musicians and singers to liven things up 🤩! So, we have two violinists - Mia (@/luminiari.moe on BS) and Lyria (@/vj-amalea.bsky.social) and one flautist - Celeste @optimisticgrey. Tavania @shkura2011 plays the lyre and sings 🎶. We also have two other singers – Anastasia (@/pwnelope.bsky.social) and Cormac @ladydarkka. The rest are partying on the dance floor - Rynda @/ryndathegalemancer.bsky.social, Luna @goodgirlgonebard , Imara @saucy-scribbler , Amara @/a-ancunin.bsky.social, Miss Fortune @missfortunetherogue , Faersi @/trobadourbard.bsky.social, Ellith @litsenn .
After all that dancing, it's time for a drink 🥂! Valora @blacklodge13 began conjuring up a mage's hands to pour alcohol for the guests - Kallista @cobalt-cactus really liked this idea! Saulus’s Astarion is still holding up and singing shanties, while Aristen’s Astarion has collapsed by the bar 😂 - though Aristen doesn't even notice, as she is busy goofing around with her sister 🙈. Raphael come to the party, but the drinks got the better of him 🤣. The rest of the guests are talking and savoring the taste of the alcohol - Maeva @denesmera , Vera @/gcolquhoun.bsky.social, Melody @mercymaker , Bella @/whirlinginroses.bsky.social, Tav @nora-darling , Syanna @yennefer-of-vengerbergs , Caedus @theya-art 🎊
Thank again to everyone who joined in !
Don't ask how long it took to make these shots 😅 - a lot, very lot of time😅.
thank you for tagging me @liubovricci and @davenswitcher
Yes, Oona is shy when it comes to intimacy. cause it is new to her and she hardly allow herself being vulnerable. After time and trust she even enjoy to let completly go.
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They still talk about me. Twist things to make themselves to be the victims, even though they were the ones who attacked me.
I see posts where they quote me - but just a single sentence, taken out of context - and analyze it to make me look like the aggressor. even though I was only defending myself against their comments.
They insult me by calling me "cringe" and jealous. They call out to people to report me to downvote my videos. But i'm the one who spread hate?
perpetrator-victim reversal - I know it to well
They’ve found someone to take their frustration out on.
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Leave my gremlin alone! Y’all are gonna hate me perchance, lol, but while I appreciate spawn and AA lovers alike I really prefer we appreciate Astarion’s character for what it is. I don’t need all the characters I love to be perfect shining examples of morality, and this guy ain’t. He exhibits trauma responses and patterns that many people live their whole lives with, and no one is saying he can’t change at all. I’ll go ahead and cover: no one is saying he doesn’t love you, that he can’t have some form of fulfilling relationship, etc.—but he ends up a very different character than spawn and I don’t like it when people babygirlify AA for player wish fulfillment.
There are pros and cons to this choice that should stay intact.
I’ve been seeing people talking about creating a more “immersive” ascended Astarion romance mod. One where he won’t force you to become his spawn. One where he won’t say this line to you when he turns you.
I’m sorry but what 😭
I feel like if you want to change his romance lines you don’t respect his characterization much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but I find people often don’t, I suppose.
To be clear, I’m not trying to dunk on anyone specifically. This is part of a larger trend I see with people insisting that he would never treat their character the way that he acts in the game, and I just don’t like it. Obviously people can head canon whatever they want, but I really struggle with narratives that run counter to the game’s characterization personally so I will be analyzing why these choices are core aspects of the character that I don’t agree with changing because I have autism.
Let me get something out of the way—I find Ascended Astarion to be interesting, from a story telling perspective. He breaks my heart a little, and he makes me mad, haha, but I can absolutely see that it’s still him. He’s still a character I care deeply about. Those parts of him were always there—in some ways, he even resembles act 1 Astarion more than the spawn ending version, in their shared values. I don’t agree with people who say that “nothing of the Astarion we knew survives,” but he is different than spawn. He’s theatrical; he suppresses all vulnerability in favor of demonstrative power seeking and wish fulfillment. He got everything he wanted, and he wants you to know that.
He insists he’s happy with what he made of himself. Sometimes he can even believe that. He’s Not Traumatized, actually, he’s having a great time! In some ways, I believe him. The world yearns to kneel and offer their necks, after all, and he has the power now. But he’s still frightened and in need of reassurance from Tav/Durge, and he’ll never relinquish control to the extent that would allow him to heal fully. It's so obvious, the moment he is threatened in any way.
HAVING SAID THAT. This man absolutely will demand that you tie yourself to him irrevocably. That is who he is. He lives in fear of being abandoned. He’s holding on with his claws and his teeth. Like, congrats you found a loophole that you can go fight the brain directly after completing his quest and not giving his arc closure, I guess, go off—but I’m wholeheartedly opposed to the concept because I find it fundamentally counter to his whole thing and I am a whore for story.
Ascended Astarion needs Tav/Durge desperately, and craves control and certainty to the degree that he cannot abide a relationship where he does not have some degree of Power Over. He simply doesn’t trust you’ll stay unless he holds the leash. Maybe in time he can learn, but I find it doubtful.
Just look at how he treats Karlach, when he realizes he can’t turn her into his spawn.
Without control, he often turns mean and scared. (Which is kind of why people saying ascension is the only way he can be free makes me wheeze—this desperate clawing for control is the opposite of true freedom in my mind, sunlight or no.)
This version of Astarion and my durge Nerys would never work. They had in common that they lived desperately fighting against the chain around their neck, and now he seeks to replace it with his own.*
And that is fine—I can understand that there are different types of characters out there for whom this arrangement would be preferable to losing him, or even a relief. There are so many awful fates one can end up with in the forgotten realms. Surely being kept on a long leash by someone who grants you everlasting life is better than some...(like your soul becoming a brick in Kelemvor’s faithless wall? Good grief. Probably better to be tied to a guy that negs you every once in awhile if you live in luxury, I guess.)
Some characters crave someone to control them, someone to keep them safe (because if you do what he wants, he absolutely does do that, I think. It’s only when you consistently contest his wishes that you see how nasty he can get). I don’t really see how so many boss bitch resist durge and drow baddies end up kneeling for this man—seems kinda counter to the character arc—but I digress 😂 (not all of them as I am about to demonstrate, but certainly seems counter to some of their characterization as presented.)
My point is THERE ARE CHARACTERS FOR WHOM THIS RELATIONSHIP MAKES NARRATIVE SENSE. That’s fine. My embrace durge Ciaran was one such character, in fact. He was used to obeying, and wasn’t particularly threatened by the theatrics. He liked the power play.
unfortunately it didn’t end up particularly well for them when that drive to obey the call of his blood turned out to be stronger than the one tethering him to his lover.
ANYWAY. If you grant Ascended Astarion that control over you and you’re “wonderfully obedient,” he grants you a fairly long leash and plenty of treats! No argument there. As long as he thinks that you will continue to be his beloved pet and never leave him, he’s fairly content with his lot.
If your character is “wonderfully obedient,” I’m not discounting they could be happy! Maybe you failed an insight check. Maybe it’s exactly what you want. There are a lot of reasons a person might like to be controlled. It can feel like caretaking for some. It can help relax a restless mind that is certain they will make all the wrong choices.
If you’re not obedient…good luck. He won’t let you break up with him. Again, perhaps you’re leaning into the dom/sub of it all and you’re okay with that, or maybe you like the angst! Sometimes I do. I have a weakness for AA/spawn Gale, which subsists on the preexisting characteristics of someone who in some ways likes to be used, to worship his partner. I’m not judging you for the relationship dynamics, I just prefer they be rooted in the character and that we don’t pretend this dynamic doesn’t exist!
ANYWAY. As for “own your body, kill your mind,” well. If you succeed the insight check, you find out that he believes you to be degrading yourself if you accept his offer. This makes sense; becoming a spawn degraded him. It’s unsurprising he thinks this way, especially at this point, even if it makes you uncomfortable to hear it. He might be able to see this differently in the future, but he only just got free.
Even if he doesn’t do to you what Cazador did to him (and tbh I don’t think he would ever go that far personally, although the game does seem invested in calling him Cazador 2.0), you are becoming less than an equal to him, and that is absolutely an intentional part of the choice in the text, no question. Many people in real world and fictional relationships make choices like this all the time—prioritizing someone else over themselves, or making sacrifices for love. Stop trying to mod out good storytelling!
Deep down, Ascended Astarion doesn’t have a high opinion of his own self worth, either, and without the healing arc that will be challenging to shift. As it probably should be, for someone who condemned 7,000 souls of spawn just like him to the Hells. By staying with him, bowing for him, you become less than him, and that’s critical to his sense of self. He needs to be more than to feel loved and safe. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you, in his way. But it’s the only way he knows how to love, in this version, and let’s not pretend this is an easy breezy uncomplicated kind of love. Or that this man will ever be able to experience the full range of intimacy with a partner. I’d argue that sex largely stays what it was to him in this route—a means to an end. A tool to exercise power over, if an entertaining one.
A means to mutual pleasure, surely, but not the kind of soul baring exercise it can be when the concept of power is stripped away entirely. Compare the spawn romance scene—this is kind of a CORE DIFFERENCE!
(shout out to @adrielmancy for filling in the gaps in my screenshots here—the mvp as usual)
tl;dr I understand the urge to restore cut content, make hugs longer, give players a second romance scene with Minthara….all well and good. But I fundamentally disagree with cutting dialogue you don’t like in ways that drastically change the game’s characterization, and I’d argue that these are pretty significant.
...and ultimately, if you want a sweet kitten?
…He's right there waiting for you. A little less grand, perhaps, but all the stronger for forsaking the path of least resistance and accepting himself as he is. It feels like some people are doing a lot of mental gymnastics to justify avoidance of his “weakness” in the spawn ending. (I could write a whole other post on that concept 😅)
*a side note about my OC, Nerys, and Ascended Astarion
In Nerys’ one and only AU, Nerys refuses to help Astarion ascend. Gale steps in and helps his companion instead—they share that ambition for power, after all—and they separate. Can’t bear to kill him, but can’t bear to see him much, either. Her self destructive tendencies and longing result in them sleeping together a few more times, but it only causes her more heartache.
It’s a ghost wearing her lover’s face, and it’s almost enough to drive her from the Gate all together if it weren’t for Karlach. Eventually she spends longer and longer periods of time away, and it’s possible Astarion’s schemes get him staked by adventurers with more black and white morals while she’s gone. His erratic approach to planning and strategy and his power hunger tell me he probably won’t live forever 💀 at least not without some really powerful allies backing him, but maybe he’ll surprise me.
Another wave of attacks from toxic Ascended Astarion fans that we need to talk about.
@oonalovesastarionssimpleplan created a new blog and made a post that had absolutely nothing to do with those people, the toxic fans, or Ascended Astarion in particular. There isn't a single mention of AA in the tags, either.
The blog is called"ithinkmynameisoona"— a fairly typical blog name. Plenty of people use the "my name is…" format, so there's nothing unusual about it. Yet some people used the blog's name as a pretext to launch personal attacks and, once again, attempt to manipulate anyone who happened to come across the post.
Here's the original post. I'll simply show you the comments someone left underneath it.
The comments quickly gained support, as shown by the sudden spike in likes appearing in almost identical numbers within a short period of time. This makes me wonder whether the author’s post was discussed and shared within certain circles, almost like a bone thrown to the wolves. Another wave of bullying from some AA fans. Moreover, I believe this fake account was created with that purpose in mind.
This fake account, of course, left comments completely unrelated to the topic of the post, lol. Do we really need any more proof after that?
What’s even more ridiculous is that these bullies don’t seem to realize that by dragging the blogger’s name into such situations, they are only damaging their reputation and even creating the impression that the blogger themselves encouraged this kind of behavior and pushed them into bullying.
It’s clear that @mobfromcosmos is attempting to provoke the author rather than engage in a genuine discussion. This is a typical pattern of AA trolling.
This fake account even made a repost (pay attention to the tags) specifically to launch a bullying campaign.
Besides this, the fake account has another post on its profile (again, pay attention to the tags). This is the only thing this account is used for, so its purpose is quite obvious.
This kind of rhetoric, of course, feels very familiar :)
It is also worth noting that they had previously organized an attack on this author's channel. Why? Because the author's vision of Ascended Astarion differed from their own.
Here's the link: https://t.me/master_astarion/1/110607
It’s quite ironic that these tags perfectly describe the exact situation they keep creating over and over again:)
We can and should talk about toxic people. We can and should also address the fact that insulting other people’s interpretations, their Tavs, and forcing your own 'happiest' and 'correct' ending onto everyone else, even placing it above the author’s vision is not acceptable. It is completely fair for people to call out these issues, because this kind of behavior reflects poorly on the fandom.
The amount of hate I get rn just because I focus on the negative side rather than the positive side of Ascended Astarion is unbelievable.
What about the people who actually want to see that?
Who want to talk about toxic relationships?
Who want to see validation for why they consider this ending bad?
What about Spawn fans who want to freely express their thoughts on AA?
Don't they also have a right of a place in the fandom? Just because some people feel offended that some don't like the Evil ending of Astarion - the way you do?
I'm being accused of insulting others with my content, because they have a different opinion, while you're doing exactly that to me right now.
If you don't like me and my content, you're free to block me.
Welcome to my little side blog where I tell the story of my OC Oona and her adventures in Baldur's Gate3.
You will follow her chronologically from waking up on the Nautiloid, for as long as I feel like continuing.
I'll tell my headcanons through photos, little comics or short stories. whatever I feel like to.
Much more this blog is my little side project, where I escape from everyday life and try to show piece by piece the stories in my head. If you like, you're welcome to follow her along and I'm also happy to read your headcanons about the scenes in my comments.
For those who don't know Oona yet, here's a character profile.
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Baldur's Herald presents an exclusive interview with Stephen Rooney, the writer behind Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3.In this video, we talke
Interview with Astarion's lead writer Stephen Rooney.
Full Transcript:
Baldur's Herald: Two first questions to warm up. We heard that you left Larian to write a novel. Is that true?
Rooney: No, I did not. I did not leave to write a novel, unfortunately. Although the novel has been written which I'm sure we will get to. But no, unfortunately I didn't get to do that.
Baldur's Herald: Thank you. This is still very interesting. So, the second question to warm up is, are you a vampire?
Rooney: Oh, I'm not technically a vampire, although there's a lot of similar kind of things. I'm very pale. I spend a lot of time just wandering around at night, rarely seen during the daylight hours. So, vampire does fit me very well, I think, kind of as a category. I would probably also accept ghoul or occasionally werewolf, although I don't know if I'm hairy enough.
Baldur's Herald: So technically this is the interview with the vampire.
Rooney: Yeah,[laughter] technically this is an interview with a Vampire.
Baldur's Herald: So the first serious question. Stephen, you earn quite a reputation as a skeleton and vampire specialist. Both ( Astarion and Fane) are very charismatic, interesting, deep characters. Uh and they both happen to be undead. What is about an undead thing? What compels you? Eternal life? Or from the other sides, that they're like rotting.
Rooney: Yeah, there's maybe a fear of death, maybe my rotting, but there is something very interesting about undead characters and each kind of undead comes with its own different challenges. They're often outside of society. They are unusual. They are often out of time and out of place. Like if you have a zombie who comes back after a hundred years or something and doesn't understand the world. And I feel like there's a lot of things that like neurodegivergent people, people who are not quite normal, can relate to with those kinds of characters. And I always find it very interesting to dig into characters who are other or weird or just a bit outside of normal society.
Baldur's Herald: [Singing] You're out of touch. I'm out of time, but I'm out of my hands.
Rooney: [Laughing] Exactly that. Yeah.
Baldur's Herald: And one more question about your writing process. Many actors rely on different frameworks or methods developing characters, while others prefer intuition. What's your kind of writing? How do you write?
Rooney: Uhm, by instinct a lot of the time. I don't have a very good structure or plan when I sit down to write characters or when I sit down to develop characters. Normally, I will have an interesting idea for a character or I'll have just an idea that I would like to explore, and I try to sit down and just write a conversation with that character. with as little thinking as possible because I find when I start thinking about something I think way too much and I just get stuck and I get in my own way. So the best thing you…
Baldur’s Herald: Oh, I understand you on so many levels that I resonate with you. Very very kind. So another question about Astarion. You told in your recent interview that he's a more human type of character. He's not like undead, like a predator. He's not an awful creature from the night and he's not like soulless. He's humane. But no, humanity seems to be a part of your writing a lot. Is it true?
Rooney: Yes. Well, I mean with Astarion, it was very important that he wasn't a monster, that he is still human, still like uh, still capable of love, still capable of vulnerability. But as vampires they are often very human undead compared to say zombies. They're very very charming, they can integrate into society more easily than others. I think finding the human core of any character is very important, because otherwise they feel like a cardboard cutout that you wave around to make a joke or to have a villain or something like that. But it's only when the character starts to react to things like a person would like, feelings and emotions and weaknesses and flaws, that you get characters that are relatable. You get characters that are interesting. So I think that's why humans and the humanity of a character is so important to me. And more so I write the same way I generally peel with a character. I don't write flat characters. I rather write characters that would be not just compelling for someone else but for me as well. And more so I don't write myself into the character but I write something that I can connect with.
Baldur’s Herald: So it's a borderline never self insert.
Rooney: Yes, it's only when I think I look back on characters like I never try to put myself into the character, but I always inevitably do a bit. It's only afterwards when I look at the character I can be like, ah okay this thing is what I brought to Fane, this kind of nervousness and standoffishness. And with Astarion, there is some righteous anger at a sense of being wronged and I'm like, I know where that comes from, that's me.
Baldur’s Herald: When you were working on Astarion, were you inspired by existing Forgotten Realms characters? for example Strahd, the elven vampire protagonist of Christy's Golden's novel, Vampire of the Mists, or others maybe?
Rooney: No, I tried to avoid other characters that existed because I was worried I would just start imitating those characters. Like Strahd was one who was very on my radar. As I had friends who are running a curse of Strahd campaign at the time. So, he is a very traditional kind of vampire lord, very Dracula kind of like, and I just wanted to make sure that Astarion felt different from other vampire characters in the world and that if I ended up touching on the same themes or on the same ideas, it was just the natural thing to come up for a story instead of this is something that all vampires in the forgotten realms kind of go through or suffer.I mean
Baldur’s Herald: I do remember that in one of the quotes that Astarion said - I think if you poke him too much- he says Strahd wouldn't put up with this shit.
Rooney: Yes, that was the one he does mention them.That's the one place I was like, "Okay, I'm going to indulge myself and put a silly little joke in here about Strahd. It made me very happy. It still makes me happy to this day.
Baldur’s Herald: [Laughter] it was adorable. He is adorable.
Rooney: Yeah, but I mean, Neil Newbon is responsible for so much of that. For how adorable and how likable Astarion is. Neil brings a wonderful kind of energy to a Astarion when he's recording the lines
Baldur’s Herald: Maybe he said a few lines himself, or, like wrote them himself a few times? Do you know?
Rooney: Uh no, there were a couple of times where he would slightly tweak a line maybe. but because of the technical process that we had, where I write the line, it goes into the game, he gets the line, he has to record it. If it gives me a different line back, then I have to go back into the game and change it. And that was a little bit awkward. It was something we could do a couple of times but we tried to avoid it as much as we could because it was technically difficult.
Baldur’s Herald: In Baldur's Gate 3 is a growing theme of the influence of dark forces on characters and their subsequent choice of whether to succumb or resist the influence. However, Astarion's story stands out in the climax of his arc. It affects not only him but also his partner if you decide to romance him. If he ascends and you want the romance to continue, the player must also make a choice and become his spawn. Do you think ascend Astarion cannot continue the relationship with the player character without turning them into a spawn?
Rooney: Ascended Astarion is very difficult because he has fundamentally made a choice.
if Astarion chooses to ascend, he has made a selfish choice. He has made a very evil choice and he has decided to continue a lot of the darker themes that are kind of his backstory and in his own story. And so I think it is difficult to imagine having a very healthy and equal relationship on that path. I do not love that path myself. If I was playing the game, I would not choose that. But when I was writing that, I was thinking a lot about partners in toxic relationships and in bad relationships and how the power is very rarely balanced. And I think that is why you end up with him in an imbalanced relationship where he needs to be in charge and you need to be somewhere down there.
Baldur’s Herald: So their relationship with ascended Astarion is pretty much inherently toxic or could he love Tav?
Rooney: I think he thinks that he loves them.
And this is difficult, because what I think when I write the character, is not the same thing as what the player thinks when they are playing the game. And what the player thinks when they are playing the game, is just as valid. Like once I have written and it goes out into the world, my opinion does not matter that much anymore. It is very much kind of if people feel they are able to have a healthy relationship with Astarion if he ascends. I am fine with that. That is okay. Everyone can have their own ideas and their own takes on the game, their own interpretation. just because it is not what I choose means that it is never going to be a bad idea for anyone else to choose that.
Baldur’s Herald: The other question is about the relationship dynamics you had in mind when you wrote. The relationship between Tav and ascended Astarion and how it relates, or maybe, how it's different with spawn ending?
Rooney: Astarion’s backstory is all about relationship and power dynamics that are unequal as I say. So if, and I always see the path with spawn Astarion, as a choice that Astarion makes to break the cycle to choose to have a better relationship with people, a healthier relationship and to not continue kind of what he has been doing before.
The path with ascended Astarion is very much the opposite of that. It is Astarion looking at all the unhealthy relationships he's had in the past and being like ‘I want to be the person on top. I want to be in charge. I want to have the power and then that way I make sure that no one else can ever hurt me again’. which is a choice that a lot of a lot of people make in real life as well. It's not an inherently bad or evil choice, but it's not the one I would want for my relationships, I think.
Baldur’s Herald: So, basically the continuation of the cycle of violence.
Rooney: Yes. Exactly.
Baldur’s Herald: So, one more question about ascended Astarion. The last one about him. A lot of people see the ritual of the dark kiss when he creates you. so you are not just a spawn, but you are his bride. It's from the Ravenloft setting. Is it true or it's this a fan theory that is something not related to the game?
Rooney: The dark kiss thing. It was something, I think, that was there in a conversation that we were having, but it wasn't something I was particularly thinking of at the time.
So uhm, there was another writer that did some writing on those scenes and then I kind of came in, because I was away for a while, and I came in and like rewrote stuff as best as I could. So that was more collaborative. I can't say 100% if that was on their mind or not, but um it is not a direct one to one thing we had.
Baldur’s Herald: So in your recent interviews you told that you developed another ending that didn't get into the game where he cured himself from vampirism using the book of necromancy. Is it true and tell me more please about that, because it's so interesting actually.
Rooney: Oh, this was an idea very early on that I had for Astarion that I would have liked to maybe try and bring through the game, but it didn't work out. And I think it's better that it's not there. But the idea was basically that the necromancy of the book that you get would maybe like unlock a wish spell and then Astarion could use that wish to become mortal or to become kind of to not be a vampire spawn anymore, anyway to try and reclaim his soul a little bit more.
Baldur’s Herald: Uhm, is it his real desire?
Rooney: I don't think so. I don't think it is what he would want.
Having kind of gone the whole way through the game, this was in the very very early days where I didn't understand the character myself very well. I was still figuring him out. Um, but I I think I had the idea that it is kind of a trope with vampires that they want their mortality back or they want their souls back. They don't want to suffer from the hunger. They don't want to suffer from uh being creatures of the night. They want to be able to walk in the sun again. Uhm, but I think if we had gone with that ending, it would have been too happy of an ending kind of in some ways. And like you say, I don't think that is what Astarion is searching for the whole way through the game. So, it doesn't make sense for the story to build on that. So no, but I was very happy with the endings that we did get, that I did end up kind of writing.
Baldur’s Herald: A lot of my friends were like: ‘oh no he will be a vampire forever.’
Rooney: possibly, possibly someday. But I think I like the ending of him still being a vampire spawn and losing his ability to walk in the sun and going back to the person that he was, kind of physically - going back to the person that he was with the restraints that he has all the normal vampire spawn stuff - but personally he has developed so much, he has come so far, he is not the same person even though it feels like he is going back a little bit, but he does not go back…..
Baldur’s Herald: No, no, no, I don't think he goes back.
Rooney: for example… he loses that freedom, but personally he has developed a lot more. So I don't know, I think there is something very bittersweet about that. About actually achieving so much but also feeling like you lose. Because he wins the battle but he also loses some of his freedom. I like that, [Laughter] maybe I'm just a terrible person and I like making my characters suffer.
Baldur’S Herald: I wanted to ask that last question about Vampires the Masquerade because I feel like you've recently mentioned that you played quite a few of it.
Rooney: Yes.
Baldur's Herald: It felt like Astarion is a lot of resemblance to Vampire the Masquerade and they don't usually, almost never, become human again. They can keep humanity but they won't become a human being again. So, about Vampire the Masquerade, what's your favorite clan? [laughter]
Rooney: Oh, no. The last time I played a campaign, I played Nosferatu and just enjoyed being someone that is quite an outsider like this horrible little twisted. So, Noseratu are very traditionally ugly, you know, like in the film of the same name, very kind of ugly vampires. I think they tend to live in sewers and stuff like that or just away from people. Um, and I enjoyed that a lot. I like being a weird little freak, I think when I get to roleplay. Just being someone who is strange and makes everybody else uncomfortable. That was a good time for me.
Baldur’s Herald: And which clan do you think Astarion would be in? because me and Olga did kind of argue about it because I think he's very very close to Toreador, because they are more of a human or they still have more of humanity and more of the theatrical feel to them. but since he's very close to magic and devils maybe Tremere or even Salubri?
Rooney: That's such a good question. I think you are right that he has traits that could slot him into many of the different kind of clans. Uhm, I like to think by the end of the game he is probably more human and I struggle to remember which it's the… Isn't there a clan that is traditionally very beautiful? Kind of the Toreador? Yes. I couldn't quite remember if that was the same, given how vain Astarion is, I think that is the clan he would want to belong to. It would be [laughter] very important to him that he is like, "Oh, I'm obviously in the most beautiful clan." so I think that would be his preference. But as you say, he has a lot going on. He could easily fit in many different categories.
Baldur’s Herald: Thank you, That is it.
Rooney: Thank you so much for having me and to the whole community. It is wonderful that the game is still getting so much love kind of a couple of years after being released and that people are reaching out. I want to share how much i've enjoyed it. So it's thank you very much. This means a lot.
Baldur’s Herald: And we’re very interested in your next works. We will be looking forward to it because I mentioned, you have a wonderful writing style. I always sketch it and I see your writing style in a book and like this is Steven Rooney. His flowy language. I love it.
Rooney: I hope someday I will get around to a novel. That will be great. I will surely let you know when it happens. But thank you.
Baldur’s Herald: Yes, wonderful. Thank you so much. folks. Bye-bye.
