Astarion is a vampire spawn, turned by Cazador. He was a slave to Cazador for around 200 years, and thought he would never escape. During his time under Cazador's thumb he was often tortured in numerous ways, forced to go out and service 1000s of people over that time in order to lure them back to his master, and was at one point buried alive. Due to his traumatic past, and current predicament of being infected with a mind flayer tadpole, he is sometimes difficult to get along with. He makes snide remarks, has frequent little tantrums, and generally disagrees with anyone being showed kindness early game. Over time though, he opens up to the player character and can be a caring and gentle person (although still maintaining a bit of an edge throughout).