Velkaarn

Velkaarn, by Talon Dunning

Description

Evil virtually oozes from this man, this lord of vampires. His nose is long and pointed, and his coal-black hair is swept straight back from the widow's peak on his forehead to spill down his shoulders. He has a cruel-looking mustache and pointed beard. His black eyes glimmer dully with the fires of the Abyss, and his silken, hissing voice insinuates itself into your brain, coiling around your mind like a deadly snake. He wears dark robes and a cape.

Velkaarn is the central antagonist of Castle of the Undead and the vampire darklord of Maridrar, also known asthe domain Moridana described in Neither Man Nor Beast.

The Bloodknife was forged in order to slay him and despite the deaths of the princes that sought his demise, the blade drifts to their reincarnations and still operates as a Death Bane Weapon against him.

History

Early life

Ridiculed, and an outcast of his own village, Velkaarn eventually left to seek power to fuel his revenge for his mistreatment. By the time he was in a position of power, he knew his plans would not come to fruition unless he found a way to extend his life. Through dark bargaining he became a vampire lord but by the time he returned to the village it was already gone. Unable to get his revenge, he secluded himself and seethed for centuries as he worked out a grand scheme to prove to everyone how powerful he was when he decided to return. He fueled his energy to use a prince, who was a mere puppet ruler of a small fiefdom, to conquer nearby kingdoms. He used his vampire spawn to conquer the lands surrounding the Howling Hills in the late three hundreds, common year, on Oerth.

Velkaarn wanted to replace the prince, once he secured all the territories. The last kingdom was Maridrar, where Queen Velina, a Wolf Nomad by birth, and Milarnus a Rhennee (Oerth's gypsies, possibly related to the Vistani) ruled. Milarnus was determined not to let his land fall to the evil one. Milarnus was wise; he knew that Velkaarn and his armies of thirsty undead couldn't be beaten by them alone. He summoned the land's most powerful wizards and directed them to create a weapon that would not only destroy the vampire lord but also the evil he had placed on the land. The mage Rustanglius and Vistani seeress Magda, mustered the power of the magical planes and imbued a weapon with such abilities as to destroy Velkaarn's evil. Milarnus summoned the wolf tribes of the land to give part of themselves to the cause.

The mage and the seeress crafted a powerful spell. The wolf tribe sacrificed their mythical powers to imbue the weapon. and the Bloodknife was born. They knew their kingdom was fated to fall, so the blade was linked to Milarnus' two sons who were chosen to leave that world and then to someday save it.

When Velkaarn finally reached his goal of conquering Maridrar, his victory was cut short as he soon found the kingdom to cut off from the rest of Oerth by mist and that the land itself had changed.

Arrival in Ravenloft

Maridrar was an Oerth kingdom, and after more than a century of war, it was the last to fall to the evil Velkaarn. After a battle that nearly wiped out the township, the village of Vizharia came to a truce with Velkaarn, who took over the castle southwest of the village. Mists descended, and castle and village were deposited in Ravenloft.The domain of Moridana appeared around the same time as the Sea of Sorrows and was located south of Mordent and alongside Arkandale. Moridana vanished before the Grand Conjunction.
The landscape is altered by the force of Velkaarn's will. Where the Tigrarius River once flowed peacefully in the gorge below the castle, now only a trickle of foul-looking water runs over barren rocks. The Arden River cut a path through the land, and a ragged range of mountains where none had been before now ran along the western border. The land became barren and uneven, as though the land been shaped by the contours of Velkaarn's mind. Night has lasted since the domain formed.

Rulership of Moridana

The Vampire Lord Velkaarn rules over the village of Vizharia. The Storm Riders, four thugs that work for Velkaarn, all vampires riding ebony undead steeds, grab unwary villagers to use as slaves and blood larder at the castle.

Current

He sends his vampire minions into the Mists that he could not enter, in hopes of finding where the blade is. So paranoid about the knife, he keeps to his castle working on plans to thwart the prophecy.

The following writeup was assembled as part of the "Bait This Hook!" project on the FoS board:

The domain of Maridrar languishes in the Mists to this day. The happy ending of the book was not the one that occurred, but instead the vampire darklord slew Randar and Krug with the bloodknife they hoped to use against him. Only too late did Velkaarn realize that the brothers had prepared a dying Vistani curse in the case of their failure: as Velkaarn had condemned the land to perpetual night, so he would be condemned to grope in darkness for his prey. Velkaarn and his vampire legions cannot see the living whose blood they crave.
With the most intelligent undead in the domain unable to find them, and the other undead easy to fool, the human population has rebounded. Humans still struggle in perpetual darkness, but they cling to hope, and pass down the legend of the gypsy-princes that gave their lives to cripple the blood-tyrant. With human pickings slim, Velkaarn has been forced to destroy all of his vampire servants and even hibernate while his undead servants round up enough humans to feed him. During one of these hibernations, a few daring villagers stole the bloodknife and fled into the Mists following visions of the reincarnated heroes of long ago.

Darklord's Curse

Curse of the Darklord Velkaarn cannot be truly killed except through the power of the Bloodknife being united with the diamond of the sun. So paranoid about the knife, he has consumed his mind with it so much that he cannot enjoy the kingdom that is now only his. No matter how powerful he has become, he is still powerless to the knife and its prophecy, which infuriates him. Velkaarn rarely leaves his castle due to fear for his own safety.

Border Closure

Velkaarn cannot close his borders but he can command all undead creatures in his domain to stop intruders or keep within the borders.

Creations of Velkaarn

He created vampires and lesser undead.

Chronology

• 620 BC -Maridrar was an Oerth kingdom, and after more than a century of war, it was the last to fall to the evil Velkaarn. Maridrar is drawn into the mists.
• 630-Moridana a perversion of Maridrar appears from the mists to join the western core but vanishes before the Grand Conjunction.
• 645-The vampire darklord slew Randar and Krug with the bloodknife they hoped to use against him. Bloodknife is taken from the domain for when the prophecy will eventually happen again.Only too late did Velkaarn realize that the brothers had prepared a dying Vistani curse in the case of their failure. Velkaarn lost of power makes Moridana languish in the mists.

Appearances

Novel

Castle of the Undead

Netbooks

Quoth the Raven Issue 22: Domains that Came Before

The Kara's Daughters campaign has added the following:

Velkaarn was once a proud and loyal general of Maridrar, the finest in the field. When word came back to King Jhandar that Velkaarn had fallen while defending the kingdom, he was truly grieved. But shortly a messenger arrived: Velkaarn returned as a bloodthirsty horror, his loyalty to the crown forgotten. The king sent his family into hiding, but the retainers betrayed them into the hands of the treacherous vampire. Held captive while the vampire's undead army grew from the ranks of their own servants, Queen Icanthe (a mortu Vistani) managed to help her children escape. The vampire tortured her for her insolence, but her final breath was a defiant curse: that his dearly bought immortality earned him only an eternity of hunger, until the day her sons returned to destroy him and retake the throne.