Diana Baldursgate

Diana is a half-elf Paladin, Oath of the Ancients- she was born and raised Baldurian, with the BG of a guild artisan. She very much believes that everyone, everyone has the capacity to do good as good is a matter of perspective. She doesn't actually follow a particular god, choosing instead to follow the oath and believe in her own faith that good is what you choose it to be, and that life is can be good if you make it so. Her views as a result, are very moral grey, and she's not above skirting her own oath for what she thinks is necessary and needed to achieve a greater good. To achieve a pragmatic good that lasts. 

 IE: Her oath would have her not openly plot and scheme to kill the goblins. Yet when confronted with the choices, killing the goblins is, the 'right' thing to do as they're 'evil' and going to kill the Teiflings. But for her, the teiflings offer the greater good by way of trade, resources, connections, loyalty, and long term benefits. Goblins are short sides, violent, opportunistic, and ultimately, lacking in long term benefits. Yet how to go about commiting a basic small scale genocide?  Her oaths say nothing of theft. Stealing in front of the goblins and they offer violence, she is forced to raise her weapon to protect herself and her companions, and mercy with the goblins only means more will come to threaten her and her companions. So, she thus has to kill them and preserve life. She manipulates, she lies- but in the end, she is considered 'good', only because she truly does value free choice and the preservation of life. This is in part, why she gets along well with Astarion- she sees him, sees his aloof flirtations and open manipulation and goes 'I know you are using me, but you still are trustworthy because you need us. I want to care for you, because what you have shown me is that a part of you also cares. Your life has value, and you deserve to feel safe like everyone. You can be good and I choose to believe that'.  

This is also why Wyll annoys her a lot, and why she initially was ready to let Lae'zel beat the shit out of  Shadowheart (but not really), until Shadowheart clamed tf down. 

She thinks Gale blind to Mystra's own nature as a divine, and affirms her own idea that the divine cannot be relied upon as patrons- you have to have faith in yourself first.  With the tadpole, she sees a useful tool, if one that ultimately must be dealt with and removed, no matter the benefits- relying on it can only further deepen it's hold, and it cannot be trusted forever to not try and change her. Will she use it, use others? Yes. But she knows it will need removal later, or, she will have to find a way to end her own life to protect the lives she is sworn to do so.

 She also thinks Raphael's offers tempting, and with no divine patron, she understands more than most, just what she courts by even speaking and entertaining his offer. 

 With Astarion's romance, she yearns to help him learn his freedom, what it means to have free choice again, and when he Asks the question if he can love and be loved in act 2, she responds with using the tadpole, a thing that cannot allow them to lie, and can show him her mind and the depth of her feelings, genuine and understanding that he is in control, that his choice is what ultimately decides what they are and will become. She thinks he's funny, pragmatic, and ultimately out to survive and maintain his newfound freedom/free will. She wants to protect that, and so out of the party, she cares more for him and Karlach.

Pending Lore: Her artisan trade she'd been borne into, lapidary, had Cazador as her family's sponsor and largest patron, and had she not been kidnapped by the illithids, she was next to be targeted by Cazador directly by using Astarion, as Diana's prefrence in men is those with wit and a slight viciousness to them

The saddest thing is Being half elf, she knows no matter what, she will one day leave Astarion. She'll die in a blink of his immortal eyes. Even if they'd met while he was alive, as an elf- she'd die and leave him alone again. Just so, she values the time she does have with him, because tadpole or not, she will die far before him. She will die and he'll be alone all over again. She would rather he know love than never get to feel it, be it from her or another. So she chooses to love him now, because their lives may indeed be cut short. She loves him even though she never intended to be romantically involved, and, ultimately realized early on that helping him find his freedom -his happiness- would be the greatest form of her love for him she could ever give.