Again, we know next to nothing about her.
It’s definitely possibly she could be one of the few Wood Elves that aren’t complete isolationists, but considering almost all Wood Elves are, I doubt it.
Sure, there’s the oddballs here and there, but travel all across the world? That seems unlikely.
Well, she’s a-typical in the sense that she was exiled just like her Dark-Elven kin and unwelcome to return home without murdering a bunch of stuff. Given that it’s one of the few things we know we can safely assume her travels are attached to her hunting and killing anything she so- well pleases: hence the comment about Hoggard’s Bridge.
Plus, how else would she be an Edge-Lord without shrouding her past in mysteries, being constantly over-critical, and having a superiority complex?
The world is ending in a couple years and she doesn’t have the decency to even half-assedly explain her past to people who’ve had her back better than any of her kin ever have. Bless the Emperor, I loathe Edge-Lord characters.
I would assume the episode at the bridge was prior to her exile. Despite Kerillian being, you know, Kerillian, I don’t think she would just murder an entire regiment of Nuln bois as “penance”, when they were presumably just stationed there as guards. I doubt killing random Imperial Soldiers can be considered “making amends”.
We don’t even know if the exile was self-imposed or not. In one of her quotes to Bardin, she explains that it had something to do with “The dead, what else?,” and to Kruber she said she “made a mistake and now has to make amends”.
A mistake involving the dead? Perhaps she, unknowingly, fed a bunch of Wood Elf souls to the Pale Queen, which is why Kerillian is so afraid of her when she’s downed? Or, even worse, fed them to Slaanesh, and that’s why she’s currently on her anti-Forces of Chaos crusade?
Whatever the God, I’ve a feeling that the reason she counts her kills is because she’s counting how many lives she needs to take before it adds up (I’m assuming one Wood Elf is worth at least a thousand Skaven lives).
Or, a bit more of an outlandish theory, she’s counting how many souls she needs in order to bargain them for the Wood Elf souls she unknowingly released prior.
Actually, the latter is good enough reason for her killing those soldiers at the bridge. She certainly seems like the kind of person that would value her own kind above others. Perhaps that’s why she refuses to speak to Saltzpyre about it, because she doesn’t want to reveal that she’s basically trading their souls for the souls of her own kind.
Would also explain why she’s still hanging around with the Stud Squad after all this time, as they would help her collect the souls she needs faster.
Still doesn’t really explain why she’d do a lot of travelling, especially to some Dwarf Hold in the middle of nowhere (perhaps she’s taking revenge for the War of the Beard?), but it would at least explain why she needs to murder stuff.
Oh boy, as if Kerillian wasn’t edgy enough already.
Interesting theory. And something to do with the dead? Could she have perhaps stopped in on Bardins dawri hold on her way south to Blightwater? That’s where the von Carsteins armour and unholy sword is right?
Either way, I’ll be sure to ask if we’re going to get more info on Kerillians and the other characters pasts in upcoming DLC or in game voice lines.
Blightwater? Don’t recall her mentioning anything about that. Nor that the place contains any Vampire artifacts. I thought it was just some backwater place in the Badlands where Greenskins go to fight (so just like the Badlands as a whole I guess). What’s an Elf, much less a Wood Elf, got to do with some Vampire equipment?
And I’m going to be honest here though, as much as I want to e u t h a n i z e h e r w i t h e x t r e m e p r e j u d i c e, that’s some pretty great art 
Not saying she does. Just that the area turns people into undead, I think if they drink the water there. And if she went to bardins hold, Karak Zorn, she would of passed through it, and the land of the undead. Her saying that her problem has something to do with the undead is just me guessing. And it was the Templhof armour that is there and the unholy sword.
That would mean she began the journey to Karak Zorn prior to her exile, if the fact that she stopped by Blightwater on the way was the reason she was exiled in the first place.
Sure, it’s possible, but I still find it odd that an Elf would suddenly want to travel half way across the world to see some obscure hold inhabited by a race that hates their guts.
The way she says “The dead, what else?” seems to imply, to me at least, that it is indeed just the dead, and not the undead.
If it does involve the undead, there’s several sources of undead closer to Athel Loren than the ones present in Blightwater, such as the (former) Bretonnian Dukedom of Mousillon, Heinrich Kemmler’s invasion of Athel Loren during the Winter of Woes (not to be confused with the Winter of Woe, which took place at least 2100 years prior and involved the Greenskins), or even the (former) Imperial Province of Sylvania.
And if it indeed does involve the undead, what mistake could Kerillian make? You mention these Vampire artifacts, but what “mistake” could you make with them?
The only thing I can imagine that could be considered a “mistake” is that she left other Wood Elves to die at the hands of the undead, though if we’re still going with her travelling the Blightwater, that means she didn’t travel there alone, which I find even less likely.
Who knows. Just throwing out suggestions, still, maybe she didn’t even go to Bardins hold. If she did, that means she is very well traveled for a Wood elf. But then again, she can also become a handmaiden and shade as well… I guess she does what she wants. Kerillian best waifu <3 Just need to get Geneviève Dieudonné added now for all the community “art” to be truely spectacular.
Edit: oh yea, btw, Kerillian isn’t even her real name… so yea. We really have next to no information on her. But her slaying an entire regiment of humans wouldn’t really be a big deal to wood elves. They see humans on the same level as animals, live stock. They are not equals.
Exactly why I’m a bit skeptical when it comes to her claiming she’s been all around the world, despite being THE most isolationistic species on the entire planet.
I’m pretty sure the transformation into the Handmaiden or the Shade happened in Reikland (or at least areas close by), after either devoting herself to Isha, or succumbing to the whispers of Khaine, and isn’t indication that she travelled to neither Ulthuan nor Naggarond.
I’m certain Kerillian is a part of her name, or atleast a moniker she’s known by back home, just not her full one. Wood Elves apparently put a lot of importance in something as meaningless as names, for whatever reason, despite having the simplest ones like “Orion” and “Ariel”.
Coupled with Kerillian bragging about her travelling habits, I guess they really are just a race made entirely up of insecurities.
And yes, human lives really hold no meaning to the Wood Elves, but she would still need a reason to kill them, beyond just killing for the sake of killing.
And no, we don’t need any Vampire t h o t s to taint this pure game. One was already enough.
Well in some fantasy worlds, you only need a name to curse someone or do other shady magic. Names hold a lot of power, that could be the reason.
I’m inclined to agree… But, we really don’t know for sure how old she is or if she really did travel all over the world. Hopefully they shed more light on all their back stories. As we really don’t know anything about Bardin or Kerillian. Kruber and Salty we know enough. To the point of how salty lost his eye and why kruber drinks so much. Seinna we’ve got bits of info here and there. Who her old teachers were at the college and why she was hunted down by Salty. But the dwarf and elf are shrouded in mystery.
If I’m not mistaken, that’s the effect of the chaos magic. It causes personality traits to be corrupted and pushed to the extreme. I remember reading somewhere that the elves were once one of the most kind species and were known for their humility and modesty. The chaos winds corrupted that and made them the most prideful and egotistical. Same happened with all the races.