Caladan is a half-elven vampire lord who rules a domain in the southeast corner of the core and, since his enthronement as Dark Lord, the whole valley of Ardis Vala and everything beneath it. He is a cruel feudal tyrant whose region is ravaged by a white fever.
| Type | Character |
| People | Half-elf; vampire (about 250 years) |
| Seat | Sunless citadel above Valakhan of the Mist |
| Spanish entry | Caladan |
Origins and abilities
His father was a human warrior, “a kind of crusader, perhaps a paladin”; his mother a high-born elven sorceress, whose parents rejected the union “because humans die fast”. Above both houses he carries a third inheritance: the blood of the master.
He can practice both elven and human magic, has access to all cleric spells and the regeneration the night demands, and takes the form of a panther rather than a wolf. Detection spells do not register him. He speaks goblin perfectly and writes Old German. He is two meters tall, moves without sound, and is “wrapped in singular shadows”.
Names
Traveling, he calls himself “Canadá”. He gives his true name as Agadán, “the one of coming”, and says “Cal is us”, his people. Once he introduced himself as “Marduk… my name is Caladan”, “a god of the blue house”. A bodiless intelligence once called him “Uncle Caladán”; the kinship is unexplained.
History
He was once an elf living on the outskirts of Glastumville, warning that “there are monsters that look human”. Fifteen years ago he was one of the seekers and betrayed his group. He was seen emerging silently from the cenotaph of Tuliarios under the sign of Aries, in Gothic armor, with a circlet, two fine wands and a short sword.
Domain
His domain lies on the side of the Forgotten Road, around the Bald Hill, the Crag and the Spine. After his enthronement it includes the whole valley “but also the whole deep structure”. He is “a tyrant who has an arena”, “a lord by his own law and his own weight”; he says he controls “who gets in and who does not”.
He rarely kills his victims, keeping people to drink from. Of the women, one account says he holds all the pretty young women in sexual slavery; another, that some were turned because they asked. His wives “rarely live more than a year”, supposedly by suicide or abuse.
The castle, “a kind of sunless citadel” in dense, feral forest at the domain’s center, has never been reached. It holds pale women, servants, an arena and an orchard where “that fruit” grows. There he becomes a panther among shadows and women. Once enthroned, he is portrayed in the purple architecture of Balacan, seat of the throne. His enthronement serves as a date: what lies beyond the midnight circuit is “before the rule of Caladan”.
Conflicting accounts
- He is described in gray armor with black eyes, in emerald green with amber eyes, and in Gothic armor.
Open questions
- Whether Marduk is a mask, a title or another being; whose is the master’s blood.
- Whether Dark Lord and domain lord are one ascent or two; whether Balacan’s throne and the citadel are one seat.
- What the pale women, the white fever and the fruit are; who fights in the arena.
- Whether the sarcophagus and the cenotaph are one, and how long he slept.
- What keeps everyone from the castle.