T'Laan is a character from the Spelljammer campaign setting. Originally named Dorin, he is a half-elven vampire from Toril.
2nd Edition Stats
Vampires are powerful creatures with many abilities and extremely long lifespans. Of course, there is the natural penchant for powerful adventurers to seek out and kill vampires, but a far greater cause of the demise of these undead lords is time itself.
Having once been mortal creatures, few vampires really have the willpower for eternal life. Only those creatures who are filled with very powerful hatred and loathing live on, despite the ravages of time on their formerly mortal souls.
T'Laan is such a vampire. He has lived 317 years past his mortal birth and still burns on, filled with vile rage and contempt for all things living. Along with the loss of his mortality, all traces of compassion were destroyed within him. He exists purely for the sake of bringing death to the world around him.
But T'Laan was not always such a hateful creature. He was a champion of great causes in his youth. Born in what became the nation of Aglarond on the planet Toril in Realmspace, T'Laan was a trusted adviser to Brindor, the first king of Aglarond. Born the son of a human father and elven mother, T'Laan - then named Dorin - was one of the original settlers of civilized Aglarond and was responsible for the famous Peace Talks of Ingdal's Arm, held after the battle of the same name. He was a hero of peace and was loved and trusted by all who knew him.
But ruin descended upon him like a bird of prey. One evening, T'Laan was walking with his new bride in the gardens of his manor when the two were accosted by a band of men sent from the neighboring country of Thay. This evil country had become nervous because the recent expansion of Aglarond was causing internal strife. T'Laan's bride was killed immediately by the rogues, but the half-elven general was a powerful man and was not so easily overcome. Before the attackers dealt a death blow to T'Laan, he killed many of them. Finally, however, he lay bleeding on the ground, waiting for death to claim him. T'Laan was overcome with a powerful hatred for the men who took the life of his bride.
Brooding in powerful rage, T'Laan made a silent bargain with Death. At Death's orders, T'Laan drank the blood from the dead body of one of the rogues, and T'Laan entered forever into a world of eternal darkness.
Since that time, T'Laan has lived many lifetimes on many different worlds. He is a harbinger of death, bringing only hatred and ruin wherever he goes. T'Laan's greatest conquest is Darkspace. Once a thriving solar system, the powerful vampire has managed to all but destroy it. The dead husk of the system's sun is all that remains of the now dead sphere. While a mighty victory for T'Laan's evil goals, the dead system presents one clear problem for T'Laan: he now has no living creatures to feed upon! With the help of several powerful necromancers, whom T'Laan later killed, the vampire created a two-way portal to Greatspace. The monster's plan is not only to destroy the thriving system, but to create a base of mortal creatures in Darkspace that can be used as feeding stock.
When role-playing T'Laan, the DM is encouraged to take advantage of the creature's keen intellect and cunning. Remember that while T'Laan is a savage monster driven by hatred, he is also extremely intelligent and has survived a great many years.
The vampire has many escape routes available to him. First and foremost, T'Laan wears an amulet that can act as a portable, one-way gate to Darkspace. If desperate, he will use it to flee from battle. If cornered and near destruction, T'Laan's hatred could (at the DM's discretion) cause him to pass into the demiplane of Ravenloft (refer to the RAVENLOFT™ boxed set).
T'Laan does not know this could happen, and if it occurs, it will still remove the vampire from play and constitute a defeat.
References
- Spelljammer reference: SJA3 Crystal Spheres
- TSR reference: TSR 9299
- ISBN: 0-88038-878-1