Astarion Was a Tiefling in an Early Version of Baldur's Gate 3, GDC Panel Reveals

ign.com:

Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke has shared an early look at every Baldur’s Gate 3 fan’s favorite vampire Astarion, and it looks like a lot has changed since the early days of his creation.

Vincke covered the character’s origin during a Game Developers Conference (GDC) panel today, revealing information about him that may be a bit shocking. Astarion might be Baldur’s Gate 3’s most recognizable face, but he didn’t start out as a High-Elf, nor did he have his iconic mop of curly white hair. Instead, he was a Tiefling with glowing yellow eyes and black hair.

IGN attended the panel and was able to capture an image that you can see below.

“Things have changed since then,” Vincke said during the panel.

Despite Astarion being a completely different race in early versions of Baldur’s Gate 3, the Tiefling version of the character did share some things in common with the Rogue we know now. His voice, for example, was similar.

"I'm just a simple tiefling,” early Astarion said in a clip. “A simple tiefling with a brain parasite. But just a simple tiefling."

Astarion is played by Neil Newbon, who's won various awards for his work as the character, including Best Performance at this year's Game Awards. Since Baldur’s Gate 3’s release in 2023, fans have taken over the internet with fan art, mods, clips, memes, and so much more. One of the more infamous memes saw players giving Astarion guns…for some reason.

We gave Baldur’s Gate 3 a 10 in our review. At the time, we said, “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur's Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.