Beryl Silvertress

Beryl Silvertress is a hulzurdan ("dwarven vampire") obsessed with finding the one who transformed her into one of the undead and getting her vengeance. Over the years of her time in the Demiplane of Dread unable to find her transgressor, Beryl's boiling anger has given rise to a creeping paranoia that a vast conspiracy prevents her from discovering her progenitor's location. Beryl is also an officer of the Kargat, specifically the leader of the Kargat based in Corvia and throughout the Mountains of Misery of Darkon.

During The Shrouded Years, Beryl Silvertress was one of seven monstrous individuals native to Darkon whom the Dark Powers seemed to consider as potential Darklords. Had she proven herself "worthy", then a portion of Darkon would have been broken away from the control of Azalin and given to her. However, in the end, only Lowellyn Dachine proved themselves to be truly monstrous, resulting in the transformation of Il Aluk into the domain of Necropolis. Had Beryl Silvertress achieved a similar feat, they would have become the Darklord of the Mountains of Misery.

Game Statistics

• 2nd Edition: female dwarven vampire, 10+3 Hit Dice; Neutral Evil
• 3rd Edition: female Dwarven Old Vampire Fighter 5/ Aristocrat5; NE

Continuity Error

Being an old vampire, Beryl Silvertress is at the very least 200 years undead as of 756 BC. This puts her creation prior to Darkon's creation in 579 BC, placing her creation in the false history of Darkon. Alternatively, since her point of arrival was the Mountains of Misery, this puts her creation prior to Arak's creation in 575 BC, placing her creation in the false history of Arak. Either way there is a problem. For she is supposed to be an outlander who became a vampire nearly simultaneously with her entry into the Land of Mists somewhere about the Mountains of Misery which only come into existence 181 years ago at most. And the problem with placing her memory of being an outlander in false history is that Darkon has rewritten her memory of her own past such that she thinks that she is native. So for whom does this false history then actually exist? Probably only for the reader who is being told independent of her flawed memory and independent of the memory altering power of Darkon that she is in fact an outlander, which does not absolutely preclude sticking her in false history as such but makes the exercise of doing so a pointless one, in effect a private joke at her expense. Or in other terms, telling the reader that she is an outlander is surely telling the reader she is an outlander independent of false history as well.

Mangrum, speaking for the Kargatane, suggests that information from the Gazetteers should be preferred in such a situation to information coming from the Grim Harvest. The solution then would be to either place the entry of Silvertress into the Land of Mists in Barovia (which came into existence 404 years prior to 756 BC) or more simply to consider her a native and hence part of the false history of Darkon (as Arak had no dwarves prior to the appearance of Darkon).

Perplexing Curiosity

Beryl Silvertress supposedly pursued her maker into a manifestation of the Mists in some outlander world and thereby ended up being pulled into the Land of Mists. This is actually very strange. Although the ritual for the creation of a dwarven vampire itself is not inconsistent with this idea. The problem is that the resulting vampire would be the slave of its creator. So why would the maker of Beryl Silvertress have any need to flee from her? Given that this is also from the Grim Harvest, this might be a further reason to rule Beryl Silvertress a native rather than an outlander.

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Requiem: The Grim Harvest - Necropolis Domains of Dread Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II
		Requiem: The Grim Harvest - Necropolis - p18 Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II - p36
		Requiem: The Grim Harvest - Necropolis - pp17-18 Domains of Dread p35 Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II - p36