Venomblade

Regarding Irenicus' tests in hell, will any reference be made to Weimer's tactics Mod, which dramatically changes the final Shadows of Amn battle with Irenicus by allowing him to sunder himself into several different forms to reflect the tests he passed in hell.

According to Van Richten's Guide to Vampires, whilst most people who become vampires are entirely and immediately corrupted by their transformation, some individuals of good alignment and exceptional wisdom (16+, if I remember correctly) do retain at least some of their previously benevolent outlook. However as they age, and their connection with the negative material plane increases, they slowly become corrupted. Therefore almost all vampires start off as evil, and certainly any vampire who reaches 100 years of unlife or more will automatically be of an evil alignment.

However this information does seem to conflict with the existence of Jandar Sundustar, who was an eminent vampire (500-999 years of age), yet still retained his chaotic good/neutral alignment.

Of course with respect to Valen this is largely irrelevent, since she started out as an evil-aligned mortal anyway.

With regards to whether or not vampires are able to have sex, Van Richten's Guide tells us that vampires do have a working circulatory system, despite not needing to breath - the heart still pumps blood round the body, its just that the blood doesn't contain any oxygen.

Furthermore, In the Novel 'I, Strahd', the protagonist does indeed have sex - with a mortal women named Dagmar.

On the issue of whether or not AD&D vampires can love or not, I would say that this would depend entirely on the individual vampire.

For example, take Strahd Von Zarovich (from Ravenloft). He made the deal with the dark powers that lead to him becoming a vampire entirely because of his love for Tatyana and his jealously towards his brother Sergei, to whom Tatyana was engaged. Furthermore as a vampire, Strahd's primary motivation is still his love for Tatyana. The dark powers are able to continually torment Strahd by endlessly bringing Tatyana back to life minus her memories, and then causing her to die a short while after Strahd discovers her latest incarnation and manages to romance her (see P. N. Elrod's book : I, Strahd).  So clearly it is possible in the AD&D universe for some vampires to fall in love. Of course it should be noted that Strahd still wishes to turn Tatyana into a vampire, so that he will never lose her again - although as a bride rather than a minion, meaning he would have no control over her if he ever succeeded.

However whilst it seems that some vampires definitely can fall in love, the question is whether Valen is one of those vampires who is capable of doing so. It could be argued that Valen loves Bodhi, and indeed continues to pine after her when Bodhi rejects her. Yet whether or not she could ever get over her love for Bodhi and instead fall in love with the PC is perhaps far less clear.

In think its also important to note the existence of non-evil Vampires in the realms, such as Jandar Sundustar (although he later ended up being pulled into Ravenloft by the dark powers). Therefore the idea that a vampire could achieve at least a partial redemption is, whilst highly unlikely, not utterly impossible.

Nevertheless, I personally feel that Valen is not the type of vampire who could be redeemed. However on the issue of whether or not she could enter into a loving relationship with a PC, I feel it could be theoretically possible. For example, one could interpret Valen's love for Bodhi as going beyond the loyalty of a vampire minion to their mistresses and instead stemming at least partially from her desire for love and acceptance. Bodhi rejects Valen's love for her but this doesn't mean that Valen would simply lose her desire for love. If a PC was able to able to genuinely love her and accept her as she is (namely as a being who enjoys hunting and killing), then a Valen romance might well be conceiveable. Of course whether a PC who is sufficiently evil to want Valen in their group is capable of feeling such a sense of love is open to question.

Yet if we go back to the example of Strahd Von Zarovich, we see a vampire who has committed acts of great evil and taken joy in committing them, but who is also capable of feeling overwhelming love towards a mortal. Furthermore Tatyana was a mortal of good alignment, yet Strahd was able to successfully romance several of her incarnations. Of course Valen, unlike Strahd, does seem like more of a one-dimensional tool rather than a fully fleshed out character like Strahd, and I agree with all those who have previously stated that Valen would need to be made into more of a three-dimensional character before a Valen romance could possibly be implemented.