When Penguin Random House announced a book publishing line based on the characters and events of Baldur's Gate 3, a singular title was the announcement's clear headliner. Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion is a new dark fantasy novel by New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher. This novel is accompanied by other imminent releases for the Baldur's Gate 3 line, including a cookbook and an official coloring book. However, early internet anticipation for this new line is almost exclusively reserved for the expansion of the pale elf's storyline.
It's easy to see why attention has shifted toward Astarion. The audiobook for this title will feature Neil Newbon narrating/reprising his role as Astarion, and the existence of this book opens the possibility of more companion novels to fill the void left by Patch 8. Moreover, the novel will take Astarion fans on a prequel journey, accompanying the picaresque rogue during his days of servitude. With a compelling premise and T. Kingfisher's track record of crowd-rocking narratives, BG3 fans have a lot to look forward to. But what is perhaps most exciting about this new book is the questions that longtime Astarion fans have been ruminating on for literally years now. Perhaps this novel will lay these questions to rest.
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What was Astarion actually like before Cazador?
Baldur's Gate 3 players will meet Astarion and think of him as a sarcastic elf. Then, a cheeky vampire. It's not until a couple of camp conversations later that the player actually knows the truth behind who he really is.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
- Astarion was a magistrate in the city of Baldur's Gate.
- He was a corrupt Upper City elite.
- Thanks to Artwork of Baldur's Gate 3, we know that he was obsessed with eternal life before turning.
- He was roughly 39 or 40 years old when he was murdered by the Gur after an unpopular court ruling.
This paints a broad picture that feeds into the version of Astarion we know: callous and self-serving. However, that picture is inevitably varnished with 200 years of abuse, manipulation, and survival. We interpret the few negative data points we have through the Astarion we know. A prequel presents a rare opportunity to show who he was before all that. It would also be an incredible chance to understand what parts of Astarion are authentic versus which parts were learned for survival.
How did Astarion and Cazador know each other before the turning?
Clearly, Cazador and Astarion were part of the upper echelon of Baldur's Gate. That still doesn't answer how the met—especially when considering that Cazador could not be out in the sun and was a reclusive member of nobility. Hopefully, the Astarion prequel book can fill in those gaps.
The transformation was not random. Astarion was clearly targeted after his murder, and players need to know if this implies preexisting professional, political, or personal history. Understanding the background of this eventually abusive relationship can help reframe everything about Astarion's origin story.
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Did Astarion have a family, and what became of them?
This is one of the biggest emotional gaps in Astarion's story. Admittedly, it is not without cause. Astarion's writers had plenty to chew on, and adding a living family would have exhausted a player experiencing what is arguably a quest line with some of the most emotionally demanding choices in Baldur's Gate 3. However, Astarion rarely talks about his past in personal terms, making the absence of a family intentional.
If he had loved ones—parents, siblings, lovers, friends—their fates could deepen the tragedy of his centuries-long absence. On the other hand, it could also reveal why he became so detached. Either way, this question adds stakes beyond his own suffering.
Elves in Dungeons & Dragons can live up to 700 years. Given that Astarion wasn't even 100 years old, which is considered elven maturity, any living family member could have also been relatively young at the time of his transformation. Parents or siblings could theoretically be alive during the events of Baldur's Gate 3.
What is the significance of Cazador's challenge?
This question is specific to the book instead of the game. While the book serves as a prequel to the events of Baldur's Gate 3, it is not situated solely as a lore dump for Astarion fans. The novel takes place shortly before and during a challenge Cazador Szarr presents to his spawn:
When the vampire lord announces a twisted competition for his favor, an opportunity presents itself in the form of a rare prize . . . and an unlikely alliance. The blood of a dead god is buried deep beneath Baldur’s Gate, and, to get it, Astarion will need the help of a handsome Aasimar paladin named Hahn den Suriel.
For all we know, the plot lines in this book may not coincide with Cazador Szarr's Rite of Profane Ascension. However, this plot device is powerful enough to tempt Astarion into defying Cazador and important enough for Cazador to imperil his top spawn. It is also possible that this could be tied to Cazador's worship of the Archedevil Mephistopheles, one of the many facts revealed in Astarion's Books of Hungers. Regardless, fans will want to know whether this ties into Astarion's eventual freedom, the Rite, or any other plot line of Baldur's Gate 3.
Who were the other spawn?
We understand that Cazador's vampire spawn did not have good relationships with each other. Under his rule, it's understandable why: a cruel master that rewards cruelty with indifference, and punishes softness with abuse, will create hostile conditions among spawn. We know the following about the top seven spawns, excluding Astarion:
- Petras: Players meet him at Fraygo's Flophouse in Wyrm's Crossing, and he seems to have animosity against Astarion.
- Dalyria: Players also meet Dalyria at the Flophouse. When exploring Cazador's palace, players can find her diary, where she reveals that she was formerly a doctor for Baldur's Gate's Parliament.
- Leon: Leon stayed in the favored spawn room, but it was because he trained himself to be Cazador's best hunter. His motives stem from his little daughter, Victoria, who stayed with him. He puts a counter-curse spell on her for protection.
- Violet: The player only knows about her thanks to her diary entries. However, she seems to be the sadistic prankster of the group.
- Aurelia: Aurelia is one of the three vampire spawn that ambush one of your Act 3 camps in BG3. She's the spokesperson for the trio, reaffirming the belief that Cazador Szarr would help the spawn "cheat" undeath with the ritual. Even if the player passes a persuasion check, Aurelia and the crew will still be forced to fight.
- Yousen: Not much is known about Yousen. He is a gnome.
To fetch the blood of the dead god underneath Baldur's Gate, Astarion will have to work with his mostly untrustworthy vampiric siblings. To give them a narrative breathing room could shed light on how their personalities clashed with Astarion's. This could be particularly useful for spawns with little information, like Yousen. Or, perhaps, a rare moment of solidarity between the spawn could inspire the flame of hope that keeps Astarion going throughout the novel. Either way, it's ripe for character exploration.
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Does this story change how we interpret Astarion's endings?
A prequel is inevitably in conversation with what comes after. If the book reveals new information about Astarion's past—his values, his relationships, his capacity for love or cruelty—it will fundamentally reframe how players view Astarion's endings in Baldur's Gate 3. Astarion's endings hinge on questions of autonomy, healing, and identity: whether he becomes a perpetrator of the abuse he endured through becoming the vampire ascendant or becomes someone capable of choosing differently.
There’s also the matter of how much of Astarion’s personality is performance versus truth. The game already plays with this with his flirtation, his cruelty, his vulnerability. A prequel could anchor those traits in specific moments or relationships. If the book shows him loving, trusting, or even failing in ways that echo his in-game arc, then choosing his “good” or “bad” endings in BG3 stops being about steering him in a direction and starts being about recognizing broader patterns. It becomes a question of whether he is breaking cycles or fulfilling them.
How does Astarion end up on the nautiloid?
This one may be a long shot. After all, we don't exactly know how close to the game's events this book takes place. Still, it is the question that lingers at the edge of everything. The nautiloid in BG3 becomes the rupture: the moment where Astarion becomes detached from Cazador's control and is dropped into a situation where, for the first time in two centuries, something like the freedom he seeks in Astarion becomes possible. If the book even gestures toward how he got there, it would give the opening sequence a different weight unrelated to chance.
Even if the story doesn’t reach that exact moment, the groundwork it lays could still matter. Understanding what Astarion was doing in the year, months, or even days leading up to the game adds texture to that initial capture. And the answers don’t need to be explicit. Sometimes, all a prequel has to do is shift the question from how did this happen? to what did it cost to get here?
Baldur's Gate 3
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 96/100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- August 3, 2023
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Larian Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Larian Studios
- Genre(s)
- RPG
