View source for Ravenloft: History and Timeline

;[[Ravenloft: The Demiplane of Dread]]
== ''Quote'' ==
''"History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors,"''<br>
''"And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,"''<br>
''"Guides us by vanities."''<br>
—- T. S. Eliot, "Gerontion"

== ''Introduction'' ==
The study of Ravenloft's past can prove a
maddening exercise. When a new domain forms in
the Mists, its denizens appear with complete
memories of full lives, and their culture may
record a history that stretches back centuries
before the domain's actual creation. Whether these
"false histories" are real and drawn from other
worlds or entirely fabricated by the Dark Powers is
a matter best left to the philosophers.

Through long tradition, most lands of the
Realm of Dread have adopted the Barovian calendar
(BC) to mark the passing of the years. This
book does the same. Isolated domains, such as
those found in clusters or Islands of Terror, may
still track time through their own reckoning.

== ''Pre-351: The Time Before'' ==
The true origins of the Realm of Dread remain
a mystery. Through the veil of allegory, the creation
myths of numerous traditions, including the
legends of the Vistani, hint that the Dark Powers
and their sinister realm may be as ancient as dread
itself. Sifting a common theme from these often
contradictory tales, the Realm of Dread may have
crept through innumerable eons, forever ebbing
and flowing in an eternal cycle of expansion and
decay. If so, then the creation of the domain of
Barovia merely marked the birth of a new cycle of
torment — and the death of whatever came before.

However, the few sages who delve into
Ravenloft's arcane origins note that no reliable
record of a domain predating the creation of
Barovia has ever been found. In their learned
opinion, the creation of the Realm of Dread can be
traced back some four hundred years to a single
world on the Material Plane. Little is now known
about this world beyond the name of one of its
kingdoms: Barovia.

According to Barovian records, Strahd von
Zarovich was born in the year 299 BC. As the
eldest son in an aristocratic line, he obeyed tradition
and entered the military as a child, rising
steadily in the ranks.

In the same year Strahd became a general, a
horde of pillaging barbarians, the Tergs, invaded
Barovia and drove Strahd's family from their ancestral
lands. Strahd rallied the tattered Barovian
forces, driving the Tergs back in a grueling and
bloody conflict that would last decades. Strahd's
youth had long since been spent by the time his
weary army defeated the last of the Terg warlords.
As the noble houses of Barovia struggled to
rebuild from their losses, Strahd claimed
sovereignty over the lands he had liberated from
the Tergs as his reward and settled into the
mountain fortress of the last Terg, dubbing it
Castle Ravenloft.

Count Strahd's new subjects hailed him as a
conquering hero, but the decades of war and the
endless parade of death had hardened Strahd's
heart. His reign, like his war-torn life, held no
room for compassion.

Strahd called for his scattered relatives to join
him at Castle Ravenloft and reestablish the proud
von Zarovich lineage. It was then that Strahd first
met his youngest brother, Sergei, a handsome and
charming cleric a full quarter-century his junior.
In Sergei, Strahd saw himself before the coming
of the Tergs, and for the first time, he began to
ponder his lost vitality.

While living at Castle Ravenloft, Sergei met a
local villager named Tatyana, a young woman as
full of life and beauty as himself. Their love was
immediate and pure. Sergei brought Tatyana to
Strahd, announced their plans to wed, and asked
for his eldest brother's blessing.

Sergei's words struck Strahd a more crippling
blow than that inflicted by any Terg warrior.
Strahd was immediately enraptured with the
simple girl, but she loved only Sergei, treating
Strahd like a father. Tatyana's grace confronted
Strahd with all the pleasures of life that war had
denied him, and her love for Sergei tormented
Strahd with his squandered youth. A desperate
hatred for Sergei flared to life in Strahd's heart.

This was when Strahd made his pact with
death, as recorded in The Tome of Strahd. Strahd's
account of the doomed wedding is largely
accurate, but it neglects a few vital facts. One of
the many guests invited to Castle Ravenloft was
Leo Dilisnya, patriarch of a mercantile family still
struggling to rebuild after the war. His entourage
came to the wedding concealing crossbows,
plotting to eradicate the rival von Zarovich line.

The moment Strahd murdered Sergei with an
assassin's blade, strange mists descended on Castle
Ravenloft and flowed across the land, forming the
domain of Barovia. When Strahd expressed his
love to Tatyana, confessing his crime, she fled
from him in horror, throwing herself from the
castle walls. As Strahd watched her fall, Leo's
assassins launched their attack — but Strahd's
bloody pact had forever freed him from the
indignity of death. As the poison-tipped bolts
pierced his body, his heart ceased to beat and he
became a vampire. All his hopes destroyed, Strahd
had nothing left but fury. He rampaged through
the castle, slaughtering guests and assassins alike.
By dawn, not a single soul was left alive within
the castle walls. The Realm of Dread was born.