A newly released sample from the Baldur’s Gate 3 tie-in audiobook has provided the first official spoken pronunciation of Astarion’s surname, Ancunín. Narrator and Astarion voice actor Neil Newbon says it closer to “an-soo-neen”, surprising fans who had generally used “an-KYU-nin”; the revelation matters because the character’s full name was never spoken during the game’s extensive voice acting.

The audiobook, written by T. Kingfisher and due on 29 September, is a prequel covering Astarion’s life before the game as a magistrate and later vampire spawn under Cazador Szarr. Kingfisher consulted Astarion’s original Larian writer Stephen Rooney, and early listeners are discussing lore details including a character named Sebastian, Astarion calling Cazador “Father”, and a new Aasimar paladin ally, Hahn den Suriel.