#sturm von zarovich

[nouveaumoon]

various von zaroviching

[arichtelus]

family reunion

just a little sketch of sturm von zarovich (my pc, revenant paladin of vengeance) and strahd jr. (the manifestation of strahd's childhood memories he wished he had forgotten)

sturm became his parental figure despite being his brother and wanting to beat his senior version's ass.

[theravenloftwanderers]

The Von Zarovich brothers Look at them, precious little kids. Sergei, oblivious that in many years' time, Strahd's gonna murder him to try pull a Mr. Steal yo girl (unsuccessfully.) While Sturm said "Imma get the milk" and has never been back since. (He didn't even show up for the wedding despite getting an invite.) Bro saw all the warning signs and said absolutely not.

[maybelacrimosa]

what if Sturm was the Strahd puppet. Like someone tried to seal Strahd away in an adorable puppet but accidentally got Sturm and no one noticed he was gone. it feels like the kind of thing that would happen to Sturm.

[casketsanctum]

Borcan Sturm can be a very real possibility if u think about it

[saintastaeroth]

Sturm is that forgotten middle child of the von Zarovich's SO left behind that even fifth addition doesn't remember him.

[eden-or-something]

Sturm von Zarovich from my CoS game as some kind of draconic knight of Argynvost :з

[thatothervonzarovich]

The Auditing team who go over your work in Barovia is awful. Not only do they anxiety-inducingly go over your work they bring a guy with an axe.

[is-sni-ovg]

can you imagine being sturm von zarovich and sending a message and a wedding gift to your little brother like "oh sorry i can't make it but best wishes :)" and going about your business and then hearing about

all of that

[curseofthebloodcountess]

Strahdtober Day 2 - Raven

A historical document for Blood Countess: @thelostbarovianroyals, @morpheoussilvercreature, @knightinkosherarmour

An excerpt from Religion in the Dark Domains 

The von Zarovich crest used to simply be the portrait of a castle: the von Zaroviches’ ancestral home against a sea of red, representing the way their blood flowed through the soil. It would have remained thus for another several centuries, had Barov von Zarovich married a human woman. Any human woman of the time would have deferred to her husband and never thought to make a fuss about the surname she was sacrificing, nor the crest she was trading for her husband’s coat of arms. A human woman would have taken what her husband offered, as was customary. Barov did not marry a human.

Ravenovia von Roeyen was the disgraced crown princess of the Dusk Elves. She had not quite been forced to abdicate the throne, still being allowed her royal title and wealth, but had been stripped of her power by a thin majority in the first vote the Elven Council had put forth in five hundred years, after her son, Rahadin, slew his father. That story is, perhaps, best told by another historian. 

Ravenovia was unusually tall, both for a woman and for an elf, and her mother had trained her in magic, war, statecraft, and religion, as fitting a woman of her station. After her first husband’s death, Ravenovia followed her not-yet-grown son into exile and took with her a retinue of elven and half-elven loyalists, who would later become the foundation of her mystic cult of the Raven Queen. Beautiful and intelligent and in desperate need of a husband, Ravenovia threw herself in front of Barov’s horse as he and his men marched on the Balinok Valley and she beseeched him not to travel further ahead, lest he be ambushed by Tergic forces. She said she would provide him war council in exchange for a price she would later name. As the von Zarovich forces slowly reclaimed land in the region, she was wed to Barov and crowned his queen. Within the first year of marriage, she bore him a son, Sturm. She also set about changing what would later be codified as Barovian law and tradition. But to my earliest point, one of the first changes that Ravenovia made was to von Zarovich heraldry.

Dusk Elves are not known for their heraldry. The matriarchal society of Dusk Elves instead uses textile patterns, much akin to human tartans, to denote lineage and loyalty. However, Ravenovia was versed in human custom and sources close to the royal couple have said that she insisted upon imbuing her personal heraldry into the von Zarovich crest. She may have borne Barov a son during that first year, but Barov gifted Ravenovia a revised family crest: the ancestral home now the backdrop, with a great raven unfurling its wings in the foreground, representing not a family line, but a single family member: Ravenovia.

It is said that the repetition of the von Zarovich crest as a symbol on Barovia’s coins, Ravenloft’s stationery, and the country’s army uniforms fuels some of the Raven Queen’s power to this day - if, indeed, such a figure as the Raven Queen truly exists. If it is the case that the raven emblazoned on the von Zarovich crest empowers the lesser goddess known as the Raven Queen, the irony is not lost on any historian or religious scholar that the von Zarovich crest stood sentinel over the Barovian Army and Ulmist Inquisition during the great battles with Osybus at the Amber Temple. The superstitious may wonder if that in and of itself was an omen of things to come when Ravenovia would seek to expand her powers past queendom and mortality altogether. 

The von Zarovich crest still bears Ravenovia’s personal insignia and even Countess Strahd’s castle, Ravenloft, bears her name. If one does not die until one’s name is no longer remembered, Ravenovia’s memory surely lives on in Barovia in one form or another.

[churchyardgrim]

3e ravenloft’s greatest hits: lady edition

ASK AND YE SHALL RECIEVE 

Natalia Vhorishkova

so we know and love the Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters, 5e actually kept them more or less the same, BUT. what 5e neglected to give much detail on was Natalia, and as soon as i read the dread possibilities in Van Richten’s Arsenal i was obsessed. holy shit! fucknasty sadomasochist werewolf lady, locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the hunter she seduced and betrayed and who has now made it his life’s goal to hunt her down?? give me 40k words about her right now immediately.

Perseyus Lathenna

holy shit yall, i didn’t even know about this character until i went looking, but she’s? amazing?? a tiny-ass grandma wizard who got the goodness traumatized out of her, and was then inspired to try again years later and ended up reclaiming that drive to help people? a disabled woman who innovates a new method of spellcasting that doesn’t need somatic gestures? a respected scholar who keeps her identity close to her chest, as a way to bypass the systematic inequality of the cultures she’s working in? holy shit i love her. put her in your game so help me god.

Tara Kolyana

listen i know we all love Ireena but 5e did her so so dirty, and 3e for all its faults gave us Tara. homegirl’s parents saw the writing on the wall and got the fuck out of dodge, and it fucking? worked?? she’s free? mostly. mostly free. the narrative tugs and tugs like an undertow but she’s had time to grow now, time to become a wholeass person outside of Barovia, outside of her destiny, and who knows what she could do now? who knows what kind of power she could have if she went back to Barovia as an adult, a full-fledged cleric with a solid sense of her self and her duty.

Ebb

literally who doesn’t love a fuckmassive shadow dragon. she’s fantastic, she’s goth, her best friend is a wizard, what more can i say? 

Lyssa von Zarovich

light of my life, girlboss of my heart, this list would not be complete without Lyssa. Strahd’s direct grandniece by way of the oft-forgotten middle brother Sturm, her goals are simple; reduce Strahd to a fine ash for the crime of piledriving the family’s history and reputation, and do some actually functional governing in Barovia. and she’s a genius! she not only found out about Strahd’s Big Oopsie entirely independently of anyone else in the know, she then looked at what uncle dearest had done and said “yeah i’ll have what he’s having” and fuckign followed through. and then! discovered a way to speedrun vampire power levels via a ghost booty call! and then invented vampire mindflayers, just bc she hadn’t broken enough records that week. 

she’s an excellent foil for Strahd, an ambitious, intelligent, and politically savvy woman who took the vampirism deal (literally the only other character to do so besides Strahd) with the full knowledge of what it entailed; as a means to an end, not an impulsive sacrifice. most of the material she’s got (and even in older editions there isn’t much) positions her as a middle-strength villain, but honestly i want to see her as a lesser-of-many-evils ally.

[mocha-writes]

WIP Whenever

Tagged by @whenyoulosesmallmind , thank you!

After putting this off for… An absurd amount of time I have resumed poking at a WIP of Strahd’s diary to be used in my own campaign. I’ve realized that this has to be “Mocha tells the story of his wildly canon-divergent Strahd, not Mocha retells his favorite parts of the novel I, Strahd.” So here is the tentative opening paragraph

The time has come at last for me to make use of this journal, gifted to me by my youngest brother Sergei during Sixth Moon of the 350th year of the Barovian Calendar. It was a present for my fifty-fourth birthday. Though I made no secret of my loathing for that reminder of my inevitable death, Sergei never saw it fit to let the day pass without giving me some sort of gift, however minor. I can still recall the warmth of his soft hands as he pressed this tome into my own, his on either side of our heraldry stamped on the front cover. “I hope it will be useful,” he said, his high voice almost akin to a whisper in its natural quietness. His vividly pale blue eyes, almost bereft of color in the same way as our mother’s, shone with excitement as he looked to me for my reaction. At the time, I had been surprised and could not mask it even if I had thought to. Now, it makes me sick to remember the way he gazed at me that day. The adoration—the love—in his eyes was false, for if he truly cared for me, he would have done his duty as I had, as Sturm had and countless generations of Von Zaroviches before us. Instead he chose rebellion, an affront to myself and our family and the gods he claimed to love so much. But I suppose I am getting ahead of myself. I write this journal to preserve my memories, of good and ill, of loyalty and treachery, of love and despair.

I will tag @perkeleen-lavellan @hurl-a-can and anyone seeing this who wants to do this, please let me enable you of you have something you’ve been wanting to show off part of. No obligation, as always, this was just fun and I thought I’d share.

[arichtelus]

oc_tober day 1: fave oc(s)

my CoS blorbo Sturm and his pathetic brother Strahd during war time some homebrew changes to my dear Barovia

[theravenloftwanderers]

The faces of Tatyana Federovna

Heres a compilation of some stain glass artworks I've done in relation to Tatyana Federovna + Ireena Kolyanovich. Featuring some familiar incarnates and some non familiar to the official stuff in The Curse of Strahd Module and the Van Richten's guide.

In our version Lyssa is not related to the Von Zarovich as the last surviving Von Zarovich is Sturm.

Tatyana Federovna

Ireena Kolyanovich

Vasilka

Lyssa

Marina

[apricotzel]

thank you for enabling me @petalpierrot

this is a major rewrite so it may not entirely count as spoilers due to how much stuff i've changed, but to be safe rather than sorry:

Curse of Strahd Spoilers Under Cut

In my campaign, Kasimir Velikov was the young dusk elf prince for a kingdom. His line had been in power for a very long time, and Kasimir was born into it as the next heir to the throne. His family had an agreement with another family to essentially ensure them employment as the personal guards to all of the heirs to the royal line. This agreement stood for a long while, the families growing close and offering the guarding family status while never letting them cross over the border into royals. When Kasimir was announced to be born, agreements were made so near the same time the elf that would be his personal guard throughout his life would be born a similar time. The elf designated to be his personal guard was Rahadin.

Rahadin was quite literally bred, born, and raised for violence. His entire life's purpose was set out in front of him; he would fight Kasimir's battles for him. He's had military training since he could hold a sword. War was always on the horizon for him, he always knew what was going to happen to him, what had happened to all of his family before him.

They were childhood friends of a kind. He, Kasimir, and Patrina. Rahadin had - has, really, but would never admit it - complicated feelings about Kasimir. That was the boy who grew up with, he can't not have a fondness for him. However, he resented the position he was born into. That he had to die for this man without a choice, without reason. He loved Kasimir. He felt no loyalty towards him or his family. It didn't help that he thought Kasimir weak and naive. He was everything Rahadin was not - had everything he did not. It's a Strahd-Sergei parallel of a kind. But where Strahd's jealousy (in my campaign) is from the viewpoint of Sergei having a life that should have belonged to him (and was going to, before Sturm died and suddenly Strahd was forced to lead the war campaign), Rahadin's is born from the face he cannot even comprehend being anything other than the weapon he is. He can't even want what Kasimir has. So, he hated him in silence. It was easier to do that then to feel sorry for himself. He acted cordial and friendly - half-act, half-genuine - so when war with King Barov finally began to rear its head, Rahadin's desertion felt like a surprising betrayal.

He left because he only knows how to guard. He's only a dog, but nobody ever said whose dog he had to be. And the von Zarovich family was everything the Velikovs weren't. He got to make the choice to be loyal to these people, chose to train their sons instead, follow them into battle, wait on them, be their dog. He drives the dagger into Kasimir's back, one stab for everything Kasimir could never help because he could never help it. Kasimir doesn't understand to this day why Rahadin left and betrayed them. He can't. But to Rahadin it's all so simply clear: Between love and loyalty, he will choose loyalty.

(This is also hand waving a lot of things with the dusk elves that I changed For Obvious Reasons. The war waged on the dusk elves was by King Barov, outaging Strahd and his siblings. The king of the dusk elves died in the war, so Kasimir became king at a young age. He surrounded himself with nobles to help guide his decisions, unaware that they were trying to knock him down to take his place. Patrina was enraged that her brother had so much power that he didn't know how to weild and would never belong to her, so she turned to studying the Dark Powers to get her own leg up. Kasimir was aware of his sister's occult activities, and was worried for her, but her resentment of him kept him from interefering so their fragile relationship wouldn't disintegrate.

The dusk elves lost the war, but this did not result in a genocide For Obvious Reasons - instead, the dusk elves were just to be part of the larger kingdom ruled by King Barov instead of being their own sovereign state. This means that Kasimir and Patrina had to correspond some times with the von Zarovichs. When Strahd conquered Barovia, the Velikovs went to meet with him soon after. Patrina saw her chance to try to manipulate Strahd to strike a deal with Vampyr, using him as a conduit. Kasimir's "council" - the same elves that have been whispering in his ears his entire rule - encouraged him to stone her to death after Kasimir went running to ask what to do. They knew this would envoke the rage of Strahd, and it did. Rahadin was sent to cut off Kasimir's ears and Kasimir was forbidden from ever leaving Barovia. The council got to return home and fight over who would be the next king. When Strahd's curse befell the land, Kasimir's sentence wasn't lifted, trapping him alone in Barovia forever.)

sometimes i go crazy over cos characters because of the backstories i give them. today it's rahadin. "Loyalty is everything" says the man who has betrayed everyone he has ever loved.

[actuallybestrpgideas]

In older versions of Ravenloft (I think around 2nd edition AD&D is when the book I'm thinking of is from?) Strahd had two brothers, Sergei and Sturm, and referred to Sergei as his favourite brother. However, Strahd's whole thing is he killed Sergei to obtain dark powers to try and win Tatyana's affection.

My question is what the fuck did Sturm do that, despite all that, he's still Strahd's least favourite brother?