Marquis Stezen d'Polarno

Maquis Stezen d'Polarno is the ruler and darklord of Ghastria. Stezen resides in East Riding. He is known for his exotic art exhibitions, accompanied by wild orgies.

Before becoming a darklord, Stezen arranged many assassinations and sowed rebellion among the people of his homeland. King Oderic IX was beside himself, so he consulted with his mistress, a skilled user of the dark arts. She trapped a part of Stezen's soul into a magical painting, robbing him of much of his magnetic personality and revealing his opportunistic nature to all. Stezen responded by poisoning the king and all of his family. Although the Marquis was drawn into the strange Land of Mists, he had not yet earned the full mantle of a darklord.

As a maid looked upon Stezen's portrait and began to have her life force extracted from her, he rediscovered his former vibrancy. He allowed her to die and savored the vitality which the returned life force gave him. However, to his chagrin it only lasted for a short while. Stezen tried to duplicate the event again with his other servants, but all attempts failed. Eventually Stezen discovered he could drain life only once with the passing of each season. In recent times the Marquis prefers to drain life only from foreigners whom he summons to his manor.

Stats

• 2nd Edition
  • male human fighter 10; Neutral Evil/Chaotic Evil

• Pathfinder
  • aristocrat 3/fighter 8

Sources

Darklords presents the full write up of the Marquis, his history, and his domain. As first presented, Ghastria is a part of the Core just west of Sithicus but otherwise surrounded by the Misty Border. However, the domain was never included on any map of the Core. In Domains of Dread, Ghastria had become an island floating in the Sea of Sorrows as of 751 BC.

Stezen D’Polarno is further expanded upon in the Book of Souls netbook article The Unauthorized Biography of the Marquis Stezen D’Polarno (pages 54-58). It is told from the in-character perspective of Baron Camar D’Marosso, a vassal of Stezen D'Polarno. Stezen (and all of Ghastria in general) is revisited and updated in Quoth the Raven Issue 20.

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Ravenloft Third Edition Domains of Dread Darklords
		Darklords - p75
		Darklords - p79
		Ravenloft Third Edition - p138 Domains of Dread - p73 Tales of Ravenloft:Object's d'Art - pp204-221 Darklords - pp74-77