Entertainment news and discussion on TalkFuse.
BG3 Fans, We’ve Been Pronouncing Astarion’s Name Wrong
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.
In short
- Neil Newbon pronounces Ancunín “an-soo-neen”.
- Fans had largely used a different pronunciation.
- The prequel audiobook releases on 29 September.
Explained simply
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a role-playing game set in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms. One of its companions is Astarion, an elf who was turned into a vampire spawn and forced to serve the vampire Cazador Szarr.
Astarion’s surname, Ancunín, was not spoken in the game, despite his many voiced lines, so players had no official guide to saying it aloud. The audiobook is a prequel, telling part of his life before the game, when he was a magistrate and later lived under Cazador’s control.
The book was written by T. Kingfisher with input from Stephen Rooney, who wrote Astarion for the game. Its story adds context to the character and gives fans another way to explore his past.
Celebrity Entertainment Gaming