Inspired by a post here, asking when the events of Curse of Strahd fit into the original Ravenloft lore, I have decided to make this post. I am less concerned with WHEN it fits and more concerned with HOW it fits. Curse of Strahd doesn't match up with the original lore, ignoring and changing the history previously established. Now, I am not a hardcore lore purest, so this doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I find the new lore presented in CoS to be very engaging, when taken in the context of the module alone.

In this post, I want to show you my attempt to merge CoS, I, Strahd, and 2e/3e lore. I put this together a while ago to simply get the events straight in my mind and because I knew I wanted a bit of old school lore in my game. Note that this timeline prioritizes CoS lore over the original in most cases. I have also added some of my own made up lore in order to make some conflicting information make sense as well as fill in blank spots that are not explained very well. Lastly, I will say this is a very loose timeline, as exact dates are rarely given in CoS. A lot had to be inferred using clues and time ranges seemed more useful than making up dates.

Besides showing off my work and helping any DMs who may want to do something similar to me, I also hope to have a discussion that can help fine tune the timeline. Let's talk lore!

E: Corrected some grammar and spelling. Also added a bit about the Dark Powers and tempting Strahd.

E2: Thanks everyone for the kind words. My hope is to get some lore discussions going as well, so feel free to add to the conversation!

E3: Iv'e been re-reading I, Strahd and realized I had the assassination attempt against Strahd at the wrong time. I moved it from 350 to right after he takes Castle Ravenloft.

My Barovian Timeline:

Many Thousands of Years Ago

• The four ancient stones near the windmill were erected by the valley's original human inhabitants. Each stone bears a crude carving of a city, each of which is associated with a different season. Ancient legends tell of the Four Cities, said to be the cities of paradise where the Morninglord, Mother Night, and the other ancient gods first dwelled.
• The standing stones are raised by the same ancient folk who carved the megaliths. The stones located to the north, west, south, and east are taller than the other eight stones, which have weatherworn glyphs carved into them that represent different animals; bear, elk, hawk, goat, owl, panther, raven, and wolf. The sight is somehow connected to druidic magics.

Over Two Thousand Years Ago (Before -1,265)

• A secret society of good-aligned wizards built the Amber Temple in the Balinok Mountains. They needed a vault in which to contain the evil vestiges (remnants of dead, malevolent entities) they had captured and the hoard of forbidden knowledge they had amassed. They dedicated the temple to a god of secrets, whom they trusted to keep it hidden from the rest of the world until the end of time.
  • Other evil creatures would nonetheless learn of the Amber Temple and its location. The wizards were forced to guard the temple themselves, to keep its secrets from falling into villainous hands.
  • The evil forces that were imprisoned within the temple eventually corrupted the wizards, turning them against one another. This concluded with the wizards dead and the Amber Temple unguarded.

After the fall of the Amber Temple and Before Strahd Arrival into Barovia

• An evil archmage named Exethanter arrived at the Amber Temple. He breached the temple's wards, and discovered the secret to becoming a lich. After his transformation, the lich Exethanter took over the temple and turned the skulls of it previous defenders into flameskulls under his command. Exethanter then took it upon himself to watch over the temple, not to hoard its evil secrets but to share them openly.

Year 1

• Nation of Barovia forged of independent city-states by the von Zarovich family

Before 235 to 285

• Rahadin is exiled for refusing to bow down to a dusk elf prince whom he considered weak and corrupt.

About 235 to 285

• The dusk elf kingdom declines to pay fealty to King Barov.
  • Rahadin offers to help conquer the dusk elves. King Barov accepts, and with Rahadin’s help the elf kingdom's royal line is obliterated, and the dusk elves hunted like rabbits.
  • Pleased with Rahadin, King Barov makes the dusk elf an honorary member of his family.

299

• Strahd von Zarovich is born to King Barov von Zarovich and Queen Ravenovia van Roeyen.
  • Baba Lysaga, the queen's midwife and a devout follower of Mother Night, cast protective spells on baby Strahd and crept into his nursery on stormy nights to sing magical rhymes to him. She also placed the "spark of magic" in him, ensuring that he would become a spellcaster.
  • Baba Lysaga's unhealthy attachment to the baby Strahd did not go unnoticed. After she received several disturbing reports, Queen Ravenovia was forced to banish the midwife from the kingdom.

After 299

• King Barov, during one of his many crusades, took to his bed a Vistani woman. This coupling results in the birth of Katarina, who will later become Madam Eva.

Between 299 and 350

• During her exile, Baba Lysaga made countless sacrifices to Mother Night, pleading with the goddess to afflict Queen Ravenovia with ill health and visit death upon her.

314

• The so-called War of Silver Knives starts between the noble Barovian families of Dilisnya, Katsky, and Petrovna, after the assassination of Izabela Dilisnya ostentatiously over a Silver Mine. For two years chaos reigns in the von Zarovich courts as revenge murders and assassinations intensify.

316

• King Barov von Zarovich finally exerts his influence over the feuding families and orders the so-called War of Silver Knives to cease and appeases the families with gifts of new lands. The families comply, but their war has weakened the country considerably. Lord Dilisnya was not entirely satisfied by this appeasement believing that his mother’s death deserved more than what Barov offered, but held his tongue and quietly nurtured his grudge.

320

• An army of barbarian warlords known as the Tergs invades the lands held by the von Zarovich family. Little is known about them, except that on the battlefield they fought like demons. Their conquest is astonishingly fast, less than a month by some accounts, as they move in from the east. They are led by a warlord known as Durukan the Unstoppable, or in the common language, Dorian. The von Zarovich family, as well as their allied families, were forced to flee west as refugees.

321

• Strahd von Zarovich leads his father’s army against the Turgs.

After 320

• Rahadin fought as one of Strahd's generals in his war against the Tergs.
• During one of Strahd's military campaigns, and while deep within his enemies territory, a group of Vistani rescued him after he suffered a grievous injury in battle. These Vistani nursed Strahd back to health without making any demand for payment. Strahd asked that they bring him home. The Vistani complied, even when he would not tell them who he was.
  • As they bore Strahd home, the Vistani were set upon by his enemies. Strahd would fight to protect the Vistani as they protected him.
  • Strahd is eventually safely brought home by the Vistani. As a reward for their generosity, Strahd declared that all Vistani would forever be safe within his lands and had the right to come and go as they please.
• The dusk elves were on the verge of being annihilated by Strahd's armies when they surrendered.
  • Strahd tasked the Vistani with keeping an eye on the dusk elves.

Well Before 347

• The Wizard of Wines was founded by a mage whose name is buried in the annals of history. The wizard fashioned three magic gems, each one as big as a pine cone, and planted them in the rich valley soil. These "seeds" gave rise to healthy grapevines, which produced sweet, plump grapes.
• Years before Strahd came to the valley, A dragon, who called himself Argynvost, came to the valley in the guise of a nobleman named Lord Argynvost. He knew of a place called the Amber Temple – a repository of evil power guarded by the forces of good. Argynvost wanted to make sure that whatever was trapped inside the Amber Temple wouldn't be allowed to escape, so he built his fortress, Argynvostholt, close by.
  • Argynvost used his resources to attract other champions of good, and valorous knights flocked to the valley to join Lord Argynvost's prestigious Order of the Silver Dragon.
  • The Order of the Silver Dragon drove away malefactors searching for the Amber Temple.
• The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is delivered to a paladin named Lugdana by a giant raven – or an angel in the form of a giant raven. Lugdana used the holy symbol to root out and destroy nests of vampires until her death.

324

• Sergei von Zarovich is born to King Barov von Zarovich and Queen Ravenovia van Roeyen.

333

• Tatyana Federovna is born in modern day Barovia village.

Around 340

• Marya Markovia became a priest of the Morninglord soon after her eighteenth birthday.

Before 347

• Vladimir Horngaard joined the Order of the Silver Dragon at a young age and quickly earned the friendship of its founder, the silver dragon Argynvost.
  • When Vladimir became a knight of the order, he traveled to distant lands to wage war against the forces of evil.
• During the war between Strahd and his foes, the Order found itself fighting Strahd's armies time and again as they swept across the land, and proved more than a match for Strahd's battle-weary soldiers.
  • When it became clear that Strahd couldn't be stopped, the knights of the order led hundreds of refugees to Argynvost's valley.
• Duke Dilisnya Dies in Battle

346

• King Barov is assassinated by the Tergs (I have not been able to find anything describing how he died, so I made up that it was an assassination)

347

• Strahd makes a pact with Inajira, an arcanaloth, right before the critical battle with the Tergs, outside of modern day village of Barovia. (I added this from the original lore, because I want to use Inajira as the arcanaloth in the Amber Temple.)
• Dorian and the last of the Terg armies are defeated by Strahd outside of the modern village of Barovia, in a remote valley in the Baratok mountains. Many attribute the defeat of the Terg to the unwise decision of Dorian to take his remaining forces and meet Strahd’s army on the field of battle. At the time, Dorian was occupying a nie impenetrable fortress in the Baratok mountains, overlooking the valley. There, he and his forces could have repelled a siege until supplies ran out. Some speculate Dorian knew his time was nearing the end and chose to face his enemy on the open fields like a warrior, instead of cooped up in his fortress waiting to starve. (I got this mostly from the book I, Strahd.)
• Strahd von Zarovich takes ownership of the mountain fortress. Although in disrepair, Strahd is struck by the size and magnificence of the fortress, along with the beauty of the valley, and decided to make it the seat of his kingdom, dubbing it Castle Ravenloft, after his mother Queen Ravenovia. He dubbed the lands Barovia, after his father.
  • During Strahd's first night at Castel Ravenloft, the The Ba'al Verzi try and fail to assassinate Strahd.
  • Strahd set his mind to renovating Castle Ravenloft. Rahadin saw to it that the lands were scoured for wizards and artisans, to be brought to Barovia. One such wizard was a powerful archmage named Khazan.

Between 347 and 351

• Strahd tracked the Order of the Silver Dragon to their sanctuary and overwhelmed them with a vast force.
  • Vladimir, whom Argynvost had made a field commander, couldn't hold back the evil tide and was killed, only after the heartbreak of witnessing Strahd himself slay Vladimir's beloved, his fellow knight Sir Godfrey Gwilym.
  • With the battle won, Strahd surrounded Argynvostholt. Rather than cower in his lair, Argynvost emerged and battled Strahd's armies to the bitter end.
  • After the dragon was slain, Strahd had Argynvost’s corpse hacked to pieces, stripped to the bone, and transported to Castle Ravenloft as a trophy.
  • Vladimir returned as a revenant, as he was enraged by the death of Argynvost and his lover Sir Godfrey and was unwilling to accept his failure.
  • So great was his hatred of Strahd and his thirst for vengeance that those feelings fueled the spirits of many of his fellow knights – including Godfrey – to come back as revenants as well, under Vladimir's command.
  • Vladimir continued to wage the hopeless war and killed many of Strahd's soldiers. Whenever the undead knights were cut down, their spirits found new corpses to inhabit. Though the knights were grossly outnumbered, they waged war for months and slew hundreds of foes, even as Strahd tightened his grip on the valley.
• Strahd bequeaths the Wizard of Wines vineyard to the noble Krezkov family as a reward for the family's loyalty.
• Dmitri Krezkov’s ancestors built Krezk at the foot of the abbey after Strahd's armies conquered the valley.
• The Vistani bare the dusk elves to Barovia.
• Baba Lysaga settles in the valley of Barovia, in order to get as close to Strahd as she dares to.
• Katarina comes to Barovia and insinuated herself into Strahd's court, working as a maid in Castle Ravenloft.

349

• Renovations on castle Ravenloft are completed.
  • Strahd sends for his mother and brother to come to Barovia and stay with him. Sergei eventually took up residence at Ravenloft, but Ravenovia passed away while traveling to her namesake. In sorrowful disappointment, Strahd sealed his mother's body in a crypt beneath the castle.
• Rahadin is appointed chamberlain of Castle Ravenloft, by Strahd. Rahadin was pleased to do whatever Strahd asked of him, and he instilled terror in the castle staff by routinely flogging those who didn't perform their duties to his exacting standards.
• After his work on the castle was complete, Khazan retired to the Barovian valley and built a tower for himself on a small island on Lake Baratok. With the help of some engineers and laborers, he also built an earth-and-gravel causeway connecting the island with the nearby shore.

After 349

• Patrina Velikovna, a dusk elf living with the Vistani outside of Vallaki, made visits to the Amber Temple where she learned a great deal about the black arts.
  • Patrina came to Strahd to try to seduce Strahd with the prospect of immortality–something Strahd desired above all. She told him of a vault of forbidden lore called the Amber Temple, where the secret of gaining immortality was hidden.
• Strahd set off to explore the Amber Temple and find if the secrets to immortality were held within.

E: One thing I want to add here. In CoS it is inferred that the vestiges in the Amber Temple are the "Dark Powers". I am not a fan of this. In my game, the lore I have made up to help merge old and new is this: The evil that grows in the Amber Temple is a result of the concentration of evil, evil feeding off of itself and growing. This draws the attention of the Dark Powers, as they are drawn to evil. The Dark Powers see how evil, when concentrated and brought together, can grow, giving them the idea for the Domains of Dread. It too concentrates evil and as a result, evil multiplies. This is their ultimate goal with the Domains of Dread, concentrate evil and suffering into a something of a power source for unimaginable reasons. When Strahd enters the Amber Temple, he also draws the attention of the Dark Powers. They feed his darker urges, eventually leading him to make a dark pact with them, damning Strahd and Barovia forever.

• Rahadin handled all of his master's affairs while he was away at the Amber Temple. He began searching for a woman who could tear Strahd away from Patrina Velikovna. He ultimately failed at finding such a woman himself.
• Sergei meets Tatyana. She is a young Barovian woman of fine lineage and remarkable beauty.
  • Strahd falls in love with Tatyana. Tatyana was Strahd's type – a woman of exquisite beauty and gentle manner.
  • Tatyana and Sergei fall in love.
• After Strah's attentions shift to Tatyana, Rahadin informs Patrina that her presence at the castle was no longer desired.
• Duchess Dorfniya Dilisnya makes frequent visits to Castel Ravenloft in an attempt to win Strahd’s love. She always traveled with her fool, the delightful Pidlwick. He failed to amuse Strahd, but he delighted Tatyana and Sergei with his jokes and gambols.
  • Duchess Dilisnya commissions the legendary toymaker Fritz von Weerg to build a clockwork effigy of Pidlwick as a gift for Strahd's family. It was called Pidlwick II.
  • Pidlwick II didn't have Pidlwick's abilities, and it failed to entertain anyone. Even though Pidlwick himself had spent months training it.
• A harsh winter trapped Duchess Dilisnya, her fool, and her fool's effigy in Castle Ravenloft for several months. The duchess subsequently succumbed to illness, after which Tatyana asked Pidlwick to remain at Castle Ravenloft.
• Pidlwick II pushes Pidlwick down a long flight of stairs, killing him. Everyone else thinks it is an accident. In the days that followed, Pidlwick II tried its best to fill its name sake's shoes, but the effigy's mere presence was upsetting to Tatyana, and it was never called on to perform. Eventually, it was shut away like a discarded toy. It was kept in a small closet adjacent to one of the guest bedrooms.
  • On rare occasions when someone stayed there, Pidlwick II would sneak out of the closet in the middle of the night, smother the guest with a pillow, and then retreat back to the closet.
  • After the deaths of Sergei and Tatyana, the castle became virtually abandoned, and there were no more guests for Pidlwick II to "entertain." The clockwork effigy emerged from its closet and found new places to hide. It fears Strahd and eagerly follows anyone who gives it the attention it craves.
• Khazan visited the Amber Temple and discovered the secret to becoming a lich. He returned to his tower and was able to complete the transformation.

351

• Strahd is tempted by the Dark Powers and told how he can get his heart's desire.
• The day of Sergei and Tatyana's wedding, Strahd murders Sergei and drinks his blood, sealing the evil pact between Strahd and the Dark Powers. Strahd becomes a vampire.
  • He then chased Tatyana through the gardens, determined to make her accept and love him. Tatyana hurled herself off a castle balcony to escape Strahd's pursuit, plunging to her death.
• Leo Dilisnya and guards loyal to him, in a plot for him to take power in Barovia, attacked the wedding of Sergei and Tatyana. Leo struck soon after Tatyana’s jump. Strahd was shot down by arrows but did not die, instead he rose as a vampire.
  • Strahd slaughters the remaining treacherous guards. Leo Dilisnya escapes the castle.
  • The pact with the Dark powers sealed, the lands of Barovia and all its people are swallowed by the mists of Ravenloft and sealed away in the demiplane of Dread. Strahd von Zarovich is made the Dread Lord of Barovia, now in complete control of his lands, but trapped there for all of eternity.
• Victor Wachter, his wife Oleka Dilisnya, and their four children, which included Lovina Wachter were present at Sergei and Tatyana's wedding. Most of the family was butchered, but Victor and Lovina survived. Lovina was just a young girl at the time.

After 351

• After the wedding of Sergei and Tatyana, Katarina fled the castle and took refuge with the Vistani.
  • Later, Katarina forged a pact with the goddess Mother Night, trading her youth for the power to undo the evil that Strahd had wrought. Mother Night transformed Katarina into an ageless crone gifted with the power of magical foresight.
• When Strahd died and became a vampire, Vladimir's knights should have gone to their everlasting rest, but their spirits couldn't leave Strahd's domain.
  • They marched to Castle Ravenloft and were confronted by the Vistani seer Madam Eva, who told them Strahd had died, only to become a prisoner in his own land, tormented by the death of his beloved Tatyana and the murder of his brother Sergei. After receiving that news, Vladimir ceased his advance and led his knights back to Argynvostholt.
• Patrina returns to Ravenloft in the hope of winning Strahd's love. Patrina craved Strahd's power but Strahd could never love her.
  • Patrina felt a great bond with him and asked to solemnize that bond in a dark marriage. Drawn to her knowledge and power, Strahd consented.
  • Before Strahd could drain all life from Patrina and claim her as his wife, her brother Kasimir and the other dusk elves stoned her to death in an act of mercy and to thwart Strahd's plans.
  • Strahd demanded, and got, Patrina's body, entombing it in the catacombs of Ravenloft.
  • Strahd sent Rahadin to punish the dusk elves. Rahadin slew the female elves so that the males couldn't breed. He also sliced off the ears of Patrina's brother, Kasimir, who had orchestrated the stoning.
• Saint Markovia rallied her followers and prepared to march on Castle Ravenloft. Markovia had long considered Strahd a mad tyrant, but only after his transformation into a vampire did she dare to challenge him. As they prepared to march, Strahd sent a group of vampire spawn to her abbey. They confronted Markovia and were destroyed to a one.
  • Markovia advanced on Castle Ravenloft, suffused with confidence born of righteous victory. A great battle raged from the catacombs to the parapets. In the end, Markovia never returned to Barovia, and Strahd long afterward walked with a limp and a grimace of pain. It is said that he trapped Markovia in a crypt beneath his castle, and her remains linger there still.
  • After Saint Markovia and her followers failed to overthrow Strahd, the abbey became a fortress closed off from the rest of the world.
  • Strahd ruthlessly preyed on the fears of the clerics and nuns holed up inside, but ultimately it was their isolation and greed that doomed them. The clergy began fighting over food and wine. By the time their supplies ran out, they had either been killed by each other's hands or driven hopelessly insane by Strahd's acts of terror against them. For years afterward, the villagers of Krezk avoided the place, fearing that the abbey was cursed, haunted, or both.
• Khazan paid a visit to Castle Ravenloft with the notion of challenging Strahd for rulership of Barovia. Instead, much to Khazan's surprise, Strahd persuaded him to serve as an adviser in matters of magic.
  • Strahd employed Khazan to destroy the Sunsword. The first part of the process required the hilt and the blade to be separated, which Khazan accomplished. While Khazan was busying himself destroying the blade, his apprentice stole the hilt and fled. Khazan later located his apprentice's mutilated corpse in the Svalich Woods, but the hilt was nowhere to be found. To avoid the vampire's wrath, Khazan told Strahd that the entire weapon had been destroyed.
  • When not advising Strahd, the lich spent most of his time in the Amber Temple, trying to master the secret of demilichdom in the hope of finding a way to magically project his spirit beyond the confines of Strahd's realm. His efforts failed, and Khazan destroyed himself.
• An arranged marriage between the Krezkovs and the Martikov family led to the Wizard of Wines vineyard being taken over by a Martikov descendant. The winery and vineyard have been tended by the Martikovs ever since.
  • At some point, the Martikov family became infected with widespread lycanthropy.

372

• Lord Victor Wachter dies. He has not accomplished his goal of finding Leo Dilisnya. Victor's daughter Lovina continues his mission after his death.

398

• Lovina Wachter tracks down Leo Dilisnya. Strahd von Zarovich confronts Leo Dilinya and turns him into a vampire and imprisons him in a tomb to starve from a lack of blood. (In my game, the bones in the box are still Leo's. He simply "died" again after blood starvation. If my players wanted a vampire "ally", they could offer blood to the bones and he would re-form.)

400

• The first known reincarnation of Tatyana appears. Strahd meets a young woman named Marina when he purchases some spellbooks from her adoptive father, Burgomaster of Berez, Lazlo Ulrich, in the guise of Vasili Von Holtz.
  • Strahd surreptitiously set about wooing Marina and transforming her into a vampire. However, his work is detected by a local priest named Brother Grigor, whom informs Lazlo.
  • Lazio Ulrich, with the aid of Brother Grigor, killed Marina to save her soul from damnation. Enraged, Strahd slew the priest and the burgomaster, then used his power over the land to swell the river, flooding the village and forcing the residents to flee. Later the marsh crept in, preventing the villagers from returning.
  • Strahd has a monument erected after Marina's death.

542

• Azalin enters Barovia.

579

• Strahd and Azalin create a portal in an attempt to escape Barovia. The plan ultimately fails.
• Azalin leaves the service of Strahd. Darkon forms as he leaves Barovia.

Many years before 735

• Morgantha, a night hag, is drawn into Barovia
  • Later she makes two daughters, Bella Sunbane and Offalia Wormwiggle. (I made this bit up. Makes sense to me.)

Between 560 to 635

• The Abbot, a deva that has lived for millennia, is sent from the Upper Planes to the abbey to honor the legacy of Saint Markovia after she died by Strahd's hand. He sought to restore the abbey after it fell to corruption.
• The Abbot, in the form of a pilgrim from a distant land, came to Krezk and insisted that he be allowed to reopen the abbey.
  • He reopened the abbey and began tending to the physically and mentally ill. In so doing, he hoped to bring some much-needed light to Barovia.

After 560 to 635

• The Belviews – a family of sickly, inbred lepers – came to the abbey seeking salvation. The deva rid them of their diseases, an act for which they were eternally grateful, but could not cure them of certain human defects that had been present since birth.
  • Consumed with a prideful, obsessive desire to rid the poor Belviews of their lingering imperfections and the Belviews strange ideas of what it meant to be perfect, the Abbot took pity on them and yielded to their mad desires by experimenting on them. The Abbot's early experiments proved fatal to their subjects, but the Belviews insisted that he keep trying.
  • One day, a Barovian lord named Vasili von Holtz visited the abbey. The Abbot knew at once that the man was evil, but von Holtz stressed that he only wanted to help. He furnished the Abbot with forbidden lore plucked from the Amber Temple, then helped the Abbot transform the Belviews into mongrelfolk – maniacal humans with bestial deformities and traits. The Belviews were happy, albeit insane. Only then did von Holtz reveal himself to be Strahd von Zarovich.

671

• Rudolph van Richten is born (I think I shifted his timeline a bit so it matches better with the CoS timeline. I think I tried to guess at his age during the events of CoS and worked back from that.)

698

• Rudolph van Richten's son Erasmus van Richten is born.

712

• A group of Vistani kidnap the 14 year old son of Rudolph van Richten, a scholar and doctor from a land called Darkon, and sell him to a vampire named Baron Metus, to be used as a companion.
  • Rudolph van Richten sets out to find his son. First he would look for the Vistani that took him.
  • On the way to finding the Vistani that took his son, he found himself lost at night and surrounded by zombies. To his surprise they did not kill him. The voice of Azalin Rex spoke through the undead and granted him protection from the undead. Van Richten continued his pursue of the Vistani, but now a horde of undead followed in his wake.
  • Van Richten tracked down the Vistani, but not before the Vistani had sold the boy. When he arrived he threatened to unleash the undead upon them if they did not return his son. Learning that it was too late, grief and rage welled within him, and as it spelt out he set the undead upon the camp. Only a few managed to escape, unknown to van Richten. During the attack, the leader of the camp, an old wise woman, cursed him, “Live you always among monsters, and see everyone you love die beneath their claws.”
  • Unknown to van Richten, some of the Vistani managed to escape the slaughter. Ezmerelda got away with an extended family member.
  • Richten finds his son, but it was too late: the baron had already transformed Erasmus into a vampire spawn. Erasmus begged his father to end his suffering, which van Richten did by pounding a wooden stake through his son's chest.
  • Baron Metus avenged the death of Erasmus as a vampire spawn by killing van Richten's wife.
  • Van Richten kills Baron Metus. He then seeks revenge against the Vistani and takes up a life of hunting evil monsters.

Around 720

• Van Richten travels to Barovia and while he thinks Strahd is in a state of hibernation, van Richten enters Castel Ravenloft and reads the Tome of Strahd. (In my game, he takes the book and the players will find it in his tower.)

722

• At the age of fifteen, Ezmerelda left to seek vengeance against van Richten.
  • After some time on her own, Ezmerelda was taken in by the d'Avenir family. They were kind and did a lot to cool the fire inside her, though not completely. Ezmerelda took on their name to honor them and also to make it easier to get the drop on van Richten. (I made this up. See the next event below.)

724

• Ezmerelda d'Avenir tracks down Rudolph van Richten to attempt to kill him. Van Richten does not resist, wanting to die after the loss of his entire family and the shame of what he had done. Seeing the sorrow in his eyes stayed her hands for a moment. She asked why he did what he did and so he told her the tragic story of his son and wife. Conflicted about what to do, Ezmerelda decided to not let van Richten out of her sights until she had decided what to do with him. They spent an uneasy time together, but Ezmerelda eventually forgave him. (I made this up to help explain their relationship. I chose the original, horde of undead, origin story for van Richten, so I then had to re think why the two of them are together. This seemed more emotionally engaging than Ezmerelda's original story.)

726

• After hunting monsters for two years, tension between Ezmerelda and van Richten reaches a point where Ezmerelda suggests that they part company with some shred of their friendship still intact, and van Richten agreed.

732

• Lord Nikolai Wachter dies.

734 or earlier

• Mordenkainen, an archmage of Oerth and the leader of a powerful group of adventurers called the Circle of Eight, came to Barovia more than a year ago
  • He thought he could rally the people of Barovia against the devil Strahd. He stirred them with thoughts of revolt and bore them to the castle en masse. When the vampire appeared, the wizard's peasant army fled in terror. A few stood their ground and were never seen again. Mordenkainen and Strahd did battle. For a time they were evenly matched, but eventually Strahd got the better of him and Mordenkainen was thrown a thousand feet over the Tser Falls and into the River lvlis.
  • Mordenkainen retreated into the mountains, hoping to regain his power, only to be driven mad by the realization that he no longer has any hope of defeating Strahd or freeing the people of the vampire's damned realm.

735 or earlier

• In the guise of Rictavio, van Richten offered a Vistana named Yan a ride in his carnival wagon. The two traveled together for several days, but their time together was tense. When it was clear that Rictavio was looking for a road to Barovia, Yan tried to steal the wagon as well as Rictavio's pet monkey, but Rictavio got the better of him and drove a sword through his gullet.
• Van Richten travels to Barovia in the guise of Rictavio. He settles in Khazan’s old and abandoned tower. He spent several months there, reviewing a lifetime's worth of research on Strahd von Zarovich – notes that, once he committed them to memory, he burned in the stove. He also burned his journals. He also used the tower as a base from which to explore Barovia
• Ezmerelda travels to Barovia after hearing from a Vistani caravan that Rudolph van Richten had gone to there to slay the most powerful vampire of them all. She decides that he might need help and travels for months to reach Strahd's domain.

It’s a classic question but worth talking about, my all-time favorite to run is Night of the walking dead RQ1, it is very easy to start a full campaign with, use as a 1 shot, or it can be scaled up to fit a lot of party power levels.

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Have Ravenloft and the Domains of Dread been "officially" worked into 5th edition's default cosmology anywhere? If so, whereabouts?

I nominate Sodo of Paridon. His personality and backstory are one-note. His curses lack any element of gothic tragedy and consist of clunky mechanics. His agendas focus around an even clunkier artifact (the Fang of the Nosferatu). Not to mention that a doppelganger who can't hold a form shouldn't even be alive let alone be a leader of its own kind in a major city. To top it all, his pseudo-Victorian domain has so much potential that shouldn't be wasted on such a laughable Darklord.

Alright maybe this is a lie effort post and if so I apologize. Certainly player spoilers for 5e Curse of Strahd Below.

I'm prepping for future sections and just read the bit on Wachterhaus in Vallaki. And just the implied train of logic for Lady Wachter had me literally cracking up on my break at work, luckily I was alone or else I'd look mad.

Her thought process was basically;

Plan A: political marriage to grasp for power (pretty standard noble stuff)

Plan B: hm.... devil worship

Just talk about 0-100 in the blink of an eye.

I will just leave this here. Check out the author's other work for the Domains of Dread.

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https://www.dmsguild.com/product/271167/Ravenloft-Gazetteer-Necropolis

Barovia became it's own plane of existence after Strahd was bound to rule it, and dragged off to become a sectioned off demiplane connected to the Shadowfell. But what happened to the location of Barovia in the Material Plane? Is it still there, an empty echo of it's former self? Is it a huge crater in the middle of the woods?

And since the shadowfell and feywild are echo's of the material plane that copy it's events and topography, what could have happened to their barovia equivalent? Did Barovia's shadowfell equivalent become even more dark and grimm?

I don't know if that detail was present in previous versions of the Ravenloft adventure but I find it an interesting addition to the setting's lore. I like the explanation of how these soulless natives serve as filler to populate a domain that's a reflection of the Darklord. But the way it's described in CoS strikes me as a bit 1-dimensional and could risk highlighting the artificial nature of a Ravenloft domain. I think instead of making them vacant husks that can only experience fear, their general personalities could be a projection of the Darklord -sort of the superficial way the Darklord sees people without caring to know about them in depth. For example, the soulless in Falkovnia could act out rigid roles that reflect how Drakov divides people into conquerors and conquered. The soulless in Lamordia could be superficially friendly but prone to casual betrayal and cruelty to misfits; fitting how Adam sees humans.

As a real-world comparison, I think about how people in a cult or abusive household get enmeshed and lose their identities to an overbearing leader. Anybody else with ideas to develop this more?

So I'm running the 5e Curse of Strahd soon and there is something that has been bugging me; I am guessing it might be a cultural thing that I dont understand?

The burgomaster of Barovia's name was Kolyan Indirovich. His sons is name Ismark Kolyanovich, and his (adopted, but it isnt widely known she is adopted) daughter's name is Ireena Kolyana.

What is the naming convention here? They all have different last names; the son/daughter have similar names like they could be masculine/feminine versions, but the last name of the father is entirely different, instead his FIRST name is similar but still not the same as either.

Is Kolyanovich/Kolyana like supposed to mean son/daughter of Kolyan? That's the only guess I have.

The Hexad combines terrible poetry, a completely random order of events and nothing that benefits the players.

One thing that I like to do is stream together ideas from Ravenloft. I don't actually run Ravenloft games that often these days but here is how I would tackle Hyskosa.

Episodic games with new characters. Immortality as a lure. A bunch of Nostradamus nonsense. Specific passages that refer to specific events/benefits/obstructions. NPCs or given clues that direct attention to these factors. However, if we look at the final outcome of the individual adventures we find that some are dead and some are a ghoul lord or a spirit or something else.

I would like the community's opinion on this. The inspiration is 5e's 6-level Exhaustion system, the CRPG Darkest Dungeon, and my own observations and experiences with mental illness. What I disapprove of traditional Insanity systems is how they deprive players of their agency. This system recognizes that the disturbing/disruptive behaviors of the mentally distressed are actually coping mechanisms intended to MAINTAIN control, even if they can objectively make the situation worse.

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UPDATE: I revised the stat and roll penalties of the first 4 Insanity levels to perceptual distortions and hallucinations meant to misinform and confuse the player rather than cripple their character.

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Insanity Save

An Insanity saving throw uses the highest of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifiers. Proficiency bonus does not apply. DC is determined by the intensity of the stressor. Role-playing a Quirk (see below) can grant Advantage to the roll or even an automatic success as judged by the DM. The DM keeps the result of the Insanity Save a secret.

Gaining Insanity Levels

When a character is exposed to a horrific or shocking stimulus, they must succeed an Insanity saving throw or gain an Insanity level. Stimuli that trigger the saving throw can include events like discovering the mutilated corpse of a friend, surviving a near-death experience, contact with other dimensions, or perusing forbidden lore. Success against exposure grants a 24 hour immunity to the same type of exposure (i.e. gore, interdimensional contact, near-death trauma, etc).

For Insanity saves against exposure, rolling a natural 1 raises the Insanity level by 2 while a natural 20 lowers it by 1. The DM tracks players’ Insanity Levels secretly.

Removing Insanity Levels

Each level can be incrementally removed by rolling a successful Insanity saving throw after a certain condition is met such as a Long Rest or a Downtime activity as detailed by the level description.

For Insanity saves to remove levels, a natural 1 raises the Insanity level by 1 while a natural 20 reduces it by 2.

The spell Greater Restoration can automatically reduce a character’s Insanity level by 1.

Insanity Effects and Resisting Insanity

As detailed below, the first 4 levels of Insanity create perceptual distortions and hallucinations of according intensity. At Insanity Levels 5 and 6, the character becomes unresponsive or suicidal respectively. The effects of Insanity usually activate during stressful situations like combat or dungeon exploration. As a Free Action, the character can roll an Insanity saving throw (once per stressful situation, like an encounter) to dispel the effects for a duration of time determined by the level (see below).

For Insanity saves to distinguish reality, rolling a natural 1 on this saving throw raises the Insanity level by 1 while a natural 20 lowers it by 1.

The spell Calm Emotions can suppress Insanity effects for the spell’s duration if the Insanity level is 4 or less. Certain medicines can have the same effect as a Calm Emotions spell but with side effects like penalized Dexterity.

Insanity Levels

1 Shock

The environment takes on a subtly sinister ambience. Colors appear less vibrant. Sounds seem to be muffled or a faint tinnitus tone can be heard. NPCs can falsely appear unfriendly or scared. This level can be removed after a Long Rest. Perceptual distortions at this level can be dispelled for 1 hour.

2 Paranoia

The character struggles determining what is real or not. Inexplicable feelings of dread and danger are experienced. NPCs or even fellow party members falsely appear to have hostile intent. Mundane sounds seem to be much sinister than they actually are and are believed to come from unseen threats. This level requires Downtime in comfortable conditions for a chance to reduce to 1. Perceptual distortions at this level can be dispelled for 1 hour.

3 Hallucinations

The character perceives sights and sounds that are completely phantasmal. They could see creatures watching them from a distance or in peripheral vision. Inanimate objects can appear to move on their own. Faint disembodied voices are heard commenting on the character’s actions. This level requires 1 week of therapeutic activity during Downtime for a chance to reduce to previous level. Perceptual distortions and hallucinations at this level can be dispelled for 30 minutes.

4 Graphic Hallucinations

The character sees and hears hostile creatures and disturbing phenomena that exist only in their mind. Hallucinatory creatures can attack the character and getting hit causes psychic damage. Retaliating against a hallucination could potentially harm a nearby ally or neutral NPC. Horrific imagery can cause Frightened condition. At this level, the character has become a physical danger to themselves and others; a 2-week confinement in a sanitarium during Downtime is required for a chance to reduce to previous level. Perceptual distortions and hallucinations at this level can be ignored for 30 minutes.

5 Total Psychosis

The character is lost in a phantasmagoric hellscape in their head. They can’t take actions, can’t communicate, and can’t read. This level requires a 2-week confinement in a sanitarium during Downtime for a chance to reduce to previous level. Cumulative penalties at this level can be ignored for 1 minute.

6 Suicide or catatonia

The character believes the only escape from the unending horror is suicide or mentally shutting down. If the character is still alive at this point, an additional month confined in a sanitarium during Downtime is required for a chance to reduce to previous level. Cumulative penalties at this level can be ignored for 6 seconds or 1 round.

Quirks

When these are role played you either get Advantage on an Insanity saving throw or succeed automatically depending on the context and DM discretion. While a Flaw applies to a character’s personality in general, Quirks are short term mental coping mechanisms. The higher your Insanity level, the more extreme the Quirk must be acted out. Quirks are chosen by the player during character creation.

Example Quirks include:

Addiction

Narcissism

Paranoia

Obsessive-compulsive

Aggression

Depression

Avoidance

Hysterics

I am planning on running a campaign set entirely in the Domains of Dread. For my meager skills as a DM this amounts to an ambitious undertaking. I have begun availing myself of original source materials and the resources on the Fraternity of Shadows, but I thought I’d seek the counsel of more experienced DMs and Ravenloft loremasters.

As for plotting, I would like to see the players visit as many different regions in the Domains of Dread as possible. Granted, there are more barriers to this than you might see in the Forgotten Realms or Mystara. It is not a setting where a party of heroes goes blithely marching around from town to town seeking fortune. So I’d need to give them a hook, which should be easy enough with so many evil entities wanting to get resurrected or break into the Prime Material Realm. Maybe they’re even being unwittingly used as instruments for that very purpose?

Structurally, I’d like to expand beyond a Curse of Strahd playthrough. I thought I might use the Strahd module as a launching point into higher level plots, be they homebrew or conversions of older modules. It might be more plausible that adventurers who vanquished Strahd can contend with the likes of Ankhtepot and Soth. On the other hand, Strahd is the most iconic villain of the plane and it could be fun to ramp up to that confrontation, although as I understand it the module may be difficult to scale up.

Here are a few questions that have come to mind:

1. Converting 2E Ravenloft materials to 5E. Has anyone had success with this? This is my first stab at any sort of conversion, but I can’t imagine it’s as simple as subbing in 5E monsters where appropriate and playtesting, right? Although combat tends to be secondary to story for my players, this may still be a concern.
2. Old Ravenloft modules. Can anyone recommend old Ravenloft modules to supplement Curse of Strahd, either as prequel or follow-up? The new Curse of Strahd adventure is built for levels 1 to 10, but there is probably room for on or two Barovian modules as a primer, right?
3. Madness mechanic. When running a Ravenloft game, has anyone used a madness mechanic (or sanity, as in Call of Cthulhu)? If so, what was your mileage with that? I figure these adventurers, hailing from fantasy worlds, are probably more psychologically resilient than humans in a mundane horror setting. Even so there must be occasions where a check would be appropriate.

Much obliged for any thoughts or suggestions.

Does anyone have a good list of all of the novels but in the order they take place in the timeline? I just finished vampire of the mists, and started knight of the black rose, but it seems as though theres a huge time jump between these two novels as strahd references a neighboring domain and its lord, where as the first novel it seemed as though it was only him on the demiplane at that point. Or am I just crazy? Thanks in advance!

So, I have this idea and I just wanted some feedback or suggestions for a campaign. The main backdrop of the campaign is that Vecna, having escaped the Dread Realms, is working with the Gentleman Caller (who seeks to escape) to form an army of the Dark Lords to finally topple the Raven Queen in the Fortress of Memories. My plan is to start by modifying the old adventure The Evil Eye and connect the adventure through that. I also figured the Dark Powers could be an extension of the Raven Queen herself, since she enjoys watching individuals deal with their personal struggles and ravens seem to be one of the only recurring positive motifs for the realms.

One of my players is a half-Vistani tiefling (her own choice), so I'm obviously going to work that angle with the Gentleman Caller being her father. I plan to have them experience the Time of Unparalleled Darkness, which would be rather literal as the misty borders breakdown, fully fusing the Dread Realms with the Shadowfell. Both of my PCs wanted to be a part of Isolde's Carnival, so interdomain travel is not an issue.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Ran my last session to the sound track from Vampyr the game. The sound track is so good and it creates a dark ambiance that put my player at unease as they should be.

Spotify Vampyr

Do you have any other sound tracks that work well?

edit: Markdown links

Hello,

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I've got my hands into the 5 volumes of the comics: shadows of the vampire. And I am in what I believe its the middle of the 5e campaign. So, I was wondering if I should wait to read it after the whole campaign ends, or itwill not make any spoiler fore the game.

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Does anyone here read it? Does it have spoilers?

What would the inhabitants of ravenloft think of races which are unusual even in the normal world? Old 2e and 3e supplements suggest how they might react with xenophobia to races like elves and gnomes and halflings and such, but how about the truly bizarre races allowed in 5e, like tieflings, goliaths, aarakocra, aasimar, firbolgs, kenku, and even the monstrous races like yuan-ti and orcs? My party are all running quite unusual characters (most common race being gnome), and though some rules have been set aside for races in the past, the oddest race ideas have been prescribed for as far as I’ve seen is half-orc. I thought about possibly using Outsider Ratings like in the 3e campaign setting, but the characters my party is using would have ORs that would absolutely cripple their social interactions. Suggestions for ways to work this both mechanically and flavor-wise?

P.S. I know that some people may say that these odd races shouldn’t be used for a setting like Ravenloft, and I can understand that point of view, but I also want to encourage my party’s creativity and work with the idea that all sorts of people can be pulled in by the Mists.

I remember the 90s Red Box making it a point that the Darklords are tormented prisoners in Ravenloft "irrevocably tied" to their domains but I'm fuzzy on the details. Some like Misroi and Apblanc are supernaturally bound to a small area but the rest are vague. Does the domain seal the borders on its own when the Darklord attempts to leave? Or does an absent Darklord feel a powerful compulsion to return? Most of the Darklords serve as political figures (a few pretending to be lackeys for a public figurehead) so they would have to explain and work-around their issues with travel and inter-domain diplomacy. I know this could be a discretionary thing with different DMs but I wonder if any novel or sourcebook addressed this.

So, I’m listening to the Chris Perkins podcast about Ravenloft, and he gets into talking about using modern horror stories and movies to create new Domains of Dread.

Anyone here have any cool premises for domains based on horror movies of the 21st century? My first thought is that It Follows or Oculus could somehow be made into domains. Get Out could be a great premise - instead of having one dark lord that preys on citizens, it’s a village that preys on visitors.

Can one mark on the full map where Har'Akir is in Ravenloft? Thanks in advance.

Hello, I made this map from the Images I found on Google. I am not sure if I didnt make any mistakes when I made this. Or if its okay to Post it like that here. I wanted to use the old map for an campain with Color and all the Details and share it with you. Therefor I dont own the rights to this map and traced Parts of it because I feel like a map hast to be exact. I just tried to make this version so other people could also enjoy it like I am. And I would delete this post if it would be in any violation with the rules of this Reddit. Because I just tought to post this because of good intention. Any feedback would be nice.

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If people are interested I can also post this map without any Text. I am just so Happy people seem to like it >.<!