#quark plays bg3

[loquaciousquark]

astarion? oh sure, i've heard of him, he's that sexy and suave,

cool and collected,

immune-to-all-physical-touch,

slightly cruel vampire, right?

yeah, that's him, that's the guy

#astarion #baldur's gate 3 #gif tag #quark doodles #quark plays bg3

[ihatetheinternetandeveryoneonit]

My BG3 OC's are lame, dude

Like I have never cared about them so little. I've never had my OC's just be bland vehicles to explore a story, but here we are

I don't want to play origins yet because I just love their voices and questlines so much.

Anyway, here's my Durge named Durge. Dragonblooded sorceror gnome. He's the horniest little mofo in Fae'run, because that's totally original. Simps after Lae'zel, than Minthy, and probably is gonna bang some tentacles and an incubus that looks like himself at some point. And that's nothing to say about the carnal feelings he has for goblins. Favorite hobbies are seeing peoples' insides and getting stepped on. He was gonna be Quark, but I accidentally made him hot. Original character, donut steel.

My first Tav was Tav. I really liked her until I realized I had accidentally created Happy Feet with her backstory and nuked all my save files to cleanse myself.

She had a very cute design though.

#bg3 tav

[loquaciousquark]

Tonight's misadventures: I'm on the way to the park fight, and as I'm navigating I accidentally click a red-outlined sunmelon piece laid out on a picnic blanket. Astarion obediently steals it in broad daylight, rakish fool that he is, and the Fist standing just on the other side of the path is furious. Because I've already been caught stealing something in this zone, my only options are to go to jail, bribe the guard, and attack.

The bribe suggested is 3650 gp for one sunmelon piece.

(created by @fistfulofgammarays, registered genius)

Because I refuse to pay that, off Astarion goes to jail. The Emperor yells at me for losing the stones, all my meticulous hotbar mapping is erased, the companions start chilling in the park, the usual. While I'm pondering how I want to escape (Tav got thrown in this prison like five times in a row last run), I have Astarion idly start whistling. He got the proficiency from Alfira in the grove, and apparently he's good.

In fact, he's so good he passes his performance check. Next thing I know, in comes the nearest guard--entering through the locked cell door--to enjoy this impromptu concert.

Fist Smithwynn is entranced. He nods along beatifically. He praises Astarion's whistling. When he's done, he throws a coin at Astarion's feet and goes to leave the cell.

Well, I can't let that slide without trying, right? I crouch and sneak out just behind him as he unlocks the door, not really expecting to get much farther than that, and sure enough, Astarion is caught immediately outside the cell. However, because it's his first jailbreak, he's allowed to make a Persuasion check that "Haven't I been punished enough? I'm very sorry," which he passes with a 28 on a 15 DC. Off Astarion goes with a commuted sentence, waving at the guards as he blithely strolls away, bound for freedom.

Except on the way out, I notice the Evidence Chest in the back corner now has something in it. Out of curiosity, I pause to take a peek, and what's in there except THE SUNMELON PIECE THAT STARTED EVERYTHING.

I took it.

#astarion #baldur's gate 3 #quark plays bg3

[loquaciousquark]

astarion succeeded a WHAT

#astarion #baldur's gate 3 #quark plays bg3

[loquaciousquark]

romanced astarion click dialogues

@bettydice: if bg3 companions changed what they say when you click on them like in dragon age depending on how they feel about you

@bettydice: what do you think romanced Astarion would say

ambient:

feeling lonely, are we?

that had better be your hand…or actually, that's fine too.

don't! touch me. [pause] unless you're ready for some fun.

i'm feeling…thirsty.

what's that, darling?

hmm? hmm. (suggestively)

not now, pet, i'm planning our evening.

have you always smelled this delicious?

oh, you've got a little blood right there. no no, it's all right, i'll get it later.

everything all right, my dear?

sneak:

all right, this could be fun too.

still not as loud as…oh fine, i'll hush.

you just like watching me work.

lockpick:

such a…delicate art, you know. (suggestively)

all locks are worth cracking, but some are more worth it than others. (sincerely)

it's good practice for later.

attack:

anything for you.

this blood's not quite as good as yours, but it'll do.

hmm…this is giving me ideas. (suggestively)

a pleasure fighting with you.

always ready to go. but you know that, don't you?

#astarion #baldur's gate 3 #quark plays bg3 #there's an entire oeuvre of dagger puns i didn't touch but i'll leave that well for another to tap #bettydice wants credit #bettydice gets credit #bettydice

[loquaciousquark]

Cazador's Ritual Runes, Translated

Inner: AMPLIFY + HIM + FLOW + EMPOWR [sic] Middle: WE OFFER THE FORCE OF LIFE Outer: WE GATHER HERE TO INVOKE THE POWER OF BLOD [sic]

Mephistopheles can't spell for beans.

(Detailed analysis & conjecture regarding this text, the Rite of Profane Ascension, & Astarion's translated scars under the cut.)

The second ring was the easiest, as the characters are very similar to Latin letters and clearly read out "WE OFFER THE FORCE OF LIFE." Characters were now known for C, E, F, H, I, L, O, R, T, and W. It wasn't clear yet if there were cases.

I was struggling with the first ring, though after decoding the second, I could get a likely "_M_LIF_ + _IM + _LOW + EM_OWR". Guessing the character for P, Y, and A based on context gave me "AMPLIFY + _IM + _LOW + EMPOWR", but I had doubts over the first characters for words two and three. I suspected they would be HIM and FLOW, but the H and F characters didn't match the H from the second ring's "THE" or the F from "AMPLIFY". Also, "empower" was misspelled, which made me pause.

Abandoning those for a moment, the third ring mapped well onto "WE _ATHER HERE TO I__O_E THE _OWER OF _LO_". Ruling out known letters which were not present, I could guess "WE GATHER HERE TO I__O_E THE POWER OF _LO_", but again the P from "POWER" was not the same as the P from "AMPLIFY" in the inner ring. However, it was very, very similar, and nothing else fit, so I committed, now suspecting there were capital versions of some letters included in the text.

At this point I went digging for resources. I found a copy of an Infernal alphabet on the Forgotten Realms wiki, and while it looks like the typeface Larian used is a bespoke creation for the game rather than a 1:1 copy of this alphabet, the letters for lowercase G, N, K, B, and D were nearly identical. Y (from AMPLIFY) also matched perfectly, confirming that earlier guess. This gave a clear "WE GATHER HERE TO INVOKE THE POWER OF BLOD."

This resulted in: AMPLIFY + _IM + _LOW + EMPOWR WE OFFER THE FORCE OF LIFE WE GATHER HERE TO INVOKE THE POWER OF BLOD

Looking at the wiki for capital letters, the only ones I could find which might reasonably fit the _IM missing character (assuming the Larian alphabet was based off this wiki typography) were A, B, H, O, T, V, and Y. Of those choices, only AIM, HIM, TIM, and VIM were words, and as cheesy as Cazador is, I couldn't imagine him saying AMPLIFY TIM FLOW EMPOWR. Given the alternatives, HIM was the only choice which made sense.

I went through the same process for _LOW, but this character seems unmatchable to me. By far it looks the most like the E from the Infernal alphabet, with maybe a capital Y being a distant second. However, ELOW and YLOW are certainly not words, and absent all other comparatives, the character in question does resemble a fancy F. Barring other languages, FLOW with a capital or unique F fits best.

AMPLIFY + HIM + FLOW + EMPOWR WE OFFER THE FORCE OF LIFE WE GATHER HERE TO INVOKE THE POWER OF BLOD

I did double-check the texts available in Cazador's mansion just to make sure this hadn't been translated elsewhere (after I'd done all the work, of course), and the only written text of relevance is from the Black Mass scroll you find near Vellioth's skull. It reads:

The Rite of Profane Ascension Oh, piteous dead! Oh, ravenous dead! Immortality is your gift, but darkness is your prison and hunger its gaoler. The Rite of Profane Ascension will release you. Walk in the sun. Suffer not from hunger. Grow your power beyond anything you imagined. A pact has been made with the Lord of Hellfire. Deliver unto him seven thousand souls, each bearing an Infernal mark, and you shall be free of your chains. You shall know true power. Deliver the souls. Speak the words. Ecce dominus, Has animas offero in sacrificio, Nunc volo potestatem quam pollicitus es mihi.

The Latin translates (as best I can tell with my incredibly weak Latin) to:

Behold [the] Lord, I offer these souls in sacrifice, I want the power thou hast promised me.

Which is interesting, but not clearly mapped to the Infernal above. Then I started wondering what relationship Astarion's scars have with all this, but thankfully, someone else has done the work here!

Astarion's scars have been transcribed and translated in a wonderfully detailed Reddit post by northpaw_s in 2020, but the salient points are that they appear to be in a mishmash of mangled Latin and Romance languages ("Infernal") and read:

Hoyc inferiu non iurare per igneu Naec virba loquor Eoai mundo muoat

Which appears to roughly translate to:

This soul swears no oath by fire Nor words does he speak In the realm of death

This makes sense if it's a fragment of a contract. I suspect the other spawn's scars are all identical to Astarion's for game mechanics/development reasons, but it'd be wild if they did have minor differences to complete the rest of the phrases! I know the scars don't show on their backs they way they do on Astarion's outside of the moment of the ritual, but it really does make me wonder if there's a complete text of the poem in some writer's documentation somewhere.

Anyway, what did you do with your Thursday night?

#astarion #cazador #no wonder the rite was so secretive mephistopheles didn't want anyone to know he's a terrible speller #baldur's gate 3 #plus a lot of talk about astarion's scars' meaning & the rite's text #puzzles! neat! #i don't know what to tag this so i'll be able to find it again #quark plays bg3 #quark rambles #each phrase is repeated three times on each ring by the by

[loquaciousquark]

Karlach: It's me - your old friend [GEN_PlayerName_c11eee1e-7815-6143-7233-f2427799fa53]! You wouldn't shut the door on a friend, would you?

#baldur's gate 3 #karlach #yes i am savescumming this #why did the guard trigger on karlach who's a flat roll against this dc22 check instead of my 20 cha sorcerer WHO KNOWS #quark plays bg3

[loquaciousquark]

astarion x having fun

#gif tag #astarion #baldur's gate 3 #quark doodles #quark plays bg3

[loquaciousquark]

I spent pretty much my entire weekend putting this together as a reference for myself (and because @novalin asked), so I really hope others will like/share/find it generally useful as well. 😩

This is a complete compilation of the Astarion romance & personal questline through all three acts. To the best of my knowledge, all cutscenes are included, and all dialogue options within those cutscenes are also included unless the Astarion line afterwards was identical to another choice or unless that choice ended the romance.

Timestamps (and enormous spoilers for the entire game) are in the description & chapter breaks.

#astarion #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #quark plays bg3 #Youtube

[loquaciousquark]

The way he looks holding the prism with Tav inside is destroying me.

#baldur's gate 3 #quark plays bg3 #astarion #tav #tavstarion

[loquaciousquark]

i am not going to romance the guy with white hair jade will mock me until the end of time

i am not going to romance the guy with white hair jade will mock me until the end of time

i am not going to romance the guy with white hair jade will mock me until the end of time

#baldur's gate 3 #quark plays bg3 #we're still SO early in the game i'm not committing to anything at all yet #but there's a trend happening here and i'm determined to buck it #baldur's gate spoilers #tavish gale

[loquaciousquark]

You know, that tracks.

#astarion #lae'zel #minsc #jaheira #'gaudy' and 'bronzed busts' and 'overwrought' and 'seedy' and astarion's like....yeah #that's the stuff #baldur's gate 3 #quark plays bg3

[loquaciousquark]

this was @eponymous-rose's idea

#baldur's gate 3 #quark plays bg3

[loquaciousquark]

Me, scoffing: oh please he's a wizard, how good could his reflexes possibly be

Me:

pretty good job Gale, I bet you WOULD catch her!

#gale #baldur's gate 3 #quark plays bg3

[loquaciousquark]

OH NO THE ASTARION ROMANCE IS EVERYTHING I WANTED

#bg3 spoilers #quark plays bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #i just finished the drow lady bite thing and did not expect this result #i am overcome with SINCERITY AND PATHOS AND GENUINE EMOTION #i am not currently replaying this conversation over and over trying to figure out exactly what options will be canon here #don't LOOK AT ME #tavish gale

[loquaciousquark]

Finished the Astarion origin run, got my Honour mode achievement, and have enabled my gold dice.

That said, and despite some very funny things that happened over the course of the run, I really did not enjoy playing as Astarion and don't think I'll be running any other origins anytime soon.

It didn't just feel like I wasn't playing with Tav, it hardly felt like I was playing with Astarion. As a companion he's richly developed, with a beautifully crafted arc and frequent colorful commentary and viciously strong opinions on just about everything Tav does. He grows and changes based on the events of the game and reacts to moments of doubt with fear or courage, depending on where in the plot you are.

Origin Astarion is almost as much a blank slate as Tav, with nearly all of that wonderful color stripped out. Aside from a handful of unique scenes (most notably a nightmare in Act 1 leading into the first bite), everything else happens exactly as it does to Tav, and there's no little voice in the back of your head informing your characterization. No notes on the Araj encounter like, "You fear being touched. Even now it brings up a sense of fear, loathing. Is it worth it to sacrifice your body, to bite this drow, for a potion?" No clear suggestions during your romance that you might have hangups about having spent two hundred years using your body to lure people to their deaths over and over, nothing suggesting outright that you might have some hesitation to engage in sex. Just a dialogue option here and there, one of four, that allows for that choice, if you choose to even think about it in the first place.

Even worse, things like the drow scene--which, in a Tav run, is a moment of great fear and uncertainty for him transformed into a moment of defiance & strength, a pivotal point in his characterization--has been revamped, if you'll pardon the pun. Araj is deferent and polite to origin Astarion, not assumptive and proprietary. She formally requests the bite and is gracious when you say no, and in-universe I couldn't find a single reason for him to be offended or to decline. You don't even find out her blood smells/tastes bad until you bite her; there's no forewarning, no choice, no crisis of exchanging your body for power. No companion steps in and says "you don't have to do this if you don't want to." Tav isn't there to support his first "no" in two hundred years. It's just a transactional offer, no harm no foul, and all the weight of it is yanked away.

It really felt like there was no guidance. All the strong opinions that made Astarion Astarion had been stripped out, and you really could shape him however you wanted, without much input from the narrator or his own history.

I tried my best to stay true to what I thought Astarion would do in each moment, and it turns out without someone (Tav or anyone) checking in on him and occasionally holding him back, he became this hedonistic possessive creature who slept with everyone and loved no one at all, not even himself. Tav wasn't around to make him feel safe, so he took power until he made himself safe. Tav wasn't around to suggest sex could be anything but physical, so he engaged in its physical transaction whenever he could to make sure he had everyone as hooked as possible. It didn't matter the trail of hurt people he left behind him. Nobody bothered to tell him he didn't have to sell his body for a potion. Nobody bothered to tell him they wanted to be with him with or without sex, and after two hundred years, old habits died hard.

Lae'zel - slept with immediately, but after the bruised "everything hurts" feeling the morning after, he decided not to pursue it. Successfully persuaded her to stick around after siding with the Emperor and letting him assimilate Orpheus, not because he really cared if she stayed but because he didn't want to have to expend the energy to fight her.

Gale - had sex with him in the Weave, then broke up with him. He became the God of Ambition at Astarion's encouragement. Probably the most hurt by Astarion's inability to love. As delighted as Astarion was by Gale conjuring up towers and libraries for him, I think for all Astarion's sexual experience he wasn't able to get his footing in the Weave, especially when Gale started growing extra arms and heads. He was put off enough by not having control of the sex that he never wanted to repeat it, and Gale was totally heartbroken.

Wyll - danced with him and kissed him, but broke up with him immediately when he stated he preferred a long courtship & old-fashioned romance. Encouraged Wyll to take as much power as possible, leading to him becoming Grand Duke.

Karlach - flirted with her the whole first and second acts, and for a long time I thought having to actually get to know her as a person and remember her likes & dislikes--actual facts about her outside of her sexual preferences--might finally teach Astarion how to let someone into his heart. Except then, thanks to a series of unfortunate cutscene priorities in late Act 2, other people's romances came first all in a row, and by the time Karlach's night finally triggered, he'd already made his way through Gale, Wyll, and two very tense scenes with Tavish-Emperor, and he'd hardened his heart again after hurting all three of them. Karlach ended up being endgame romance in that he went to Avernus with her, but I don't think he felt anything more than a possessive affection for her by the end. The dialogue option I picked even reflected that; it wasn't the "I know you're afraid to be alone, and this time it'll be different because I'll be with you" choice, it was the "I refuse to allow you to die. Get up and let's go" choice. Unfortunate.

Tavish-Emperor - slept with, and sided with in the final battle. She assimilated Orpheus and ran off into the city, so Lae'zel didn't even get her dragons.

Halsin - slept with regularly, much to Karlach's unhappiness. No real affection here, just a release of tension and I think a very selfish assurance to himself that Karlach didn't "own" him just because she loved him, that he was still free to do whatever he wanted.

Minthara - propositioned him, but because saying yes would have permanent consequences with Karlach, he declined. Again, not because he really cared about hurting Karlach at this point, but because it would get too messy and dramatic afterwards if he didn't.

Shadowheart - did not engage with romantically and ended up catty BFFs, which I honestly found such a relief. She saved Nightsong (mostly because Astarion couldn't be bothered to intervene) and moted her parents. :(

This Astarion also ascended, because that's what his search for power culminated in, and again, there was no one saying "my guy, I love you for who you are right now. You don't have to do this. Not because it would be sad to kill all those people, but because I'd be sad if you became something else." I hated that cutscene the first time I recorded it for the Astarion Supercut and I hated watching it again now as the Astarion origin. I won't be letting that happen again.

Anyway. I know I was in control of the character and could have made different choices, but I was really trying to play him as I thought he would react in those moments, and I didn't care for the outcome at all. I felt like I'd lost almost two whole characters this run, and even with as much as I really like Minthara, I'll be going back to my tried and true (and very much missed) Tavish as a palate cleanser in the next few days.

#astarion #quark plays bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion origin #bummers all around