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.

== ''351-469: A Private Hell'' ==
The domain of Barovia originally existed as
an Island of Terror, alone in the Mists. Few
records survive from this time.

Strahd retreated from public life, and many
Barovian villagers came to believe that he too had
died. The few survivors of the massacre scattered
throughout the domain, settling into new lives.
Strahd spent the century learning the limits of his
Mist-bound prison and adapting to undeath.

Strahd also spent these years hunting down the
traitorous Leo Dilisnya, who had excused himself
early from the wedding, claiming illness.
According to some tales, Strahd finally found the
wizened Leo hiding in a remote monastery, nearly
five decades after the ill-fated wedding. Most accounts
agree that, wherever Leo Dilisnya is now,
his torment has never ended. Leo's family
survived, however. To this day, the Dilisnya name
is renowned for cunning and infamous for
duplicity.

== ''470-546: Outlanders Arrive'' ==
As the decades wore on, the insular Barovians
took note of the occasional appearance of "outlanders,"
strangers from beyond the Mists. Most of
these stragglers were simple, lost wanderers. Some
of these folk adapted to their new home, but others
struggled to return to their own worlds. The latter
usually disappeared. Perhaps they found their way
home, but most Barovians believe they simply fell
prey to the unnatural predators that lurk in the
Barovian night. One group of powerful outlander
heroes assaulted Castle Ravenloft, believing they
could destroy the evil within. They were never
seen again, their fates all too clear.

A few of these outlanders retain historical
significance. The first of these new arrivals were
the enigmatic tribes of the Vistani. According to
legend, they first appeared at the stroke of midnight
separating the years 469 and 470. The
Vistani were soon feared and respected for their
sixth sense and command over the Mists. The
Vistani's leader, the wizened Madame Eva, soon
forged an alliance with Count Strahd — a pact
based on mutual need, not respect.

A few years after the arrival of the Vistani, a
young boy named Martyn Pelkar emerged from
the Svalich woods, claiming that a luminous,
sylvan being had rescued him from the beasts that
had slaughtered his parents. Though often
dismissed as a madman, Pelkar would spend the
rest of his life establishing what is today known as
the Cult of the Morninglord.

The last of these significant outlanders is
Azalin, a powerful wizard who emerged from the
Mists in the sixth century

As with many outlanders before him, Azalin was
obsessed with the goal of escaping Barovia. Strahd
and Azalin formed a cautious alliance, and for the
next four decades, Azalin — who now rules the
kingdom of Darkon — dwelled in a remote tower
overlooking Lake Zarovich, scrutinizing the planar
fabric of the Land of Mists.

== ''547-587: The Expanding Stain'' ==
After suffering nearly two centuries of isolation,
Barovia was finally joined by new domains.
Forlorn was the first to appear, melding with
Barovia's southern border to form the first cluster.
Curious Barovian explorers ventured into this new
land, only to retreat from its twisted, inhuman
inhabitants. Three decades later, the domain of
Arak materialized to the northeast. Unlike monstrous
Forlorn, Arak was home to several human
towns, where the denizens told tales of dark elves
and evil fey. The Barovians took their first, faltering
steps toward trade, and the Barovian cluster
began to grow into what would soon be called the
Core.

In the autumn of 579, Mordent appeared to the
west of Barovia, and the Core now had a coastline.
Legends claim that Mordent's sudden appearance
was somehow connected to Azalin and Strahd,
who were attempting to open a portal to another
world. Mordentish folklore does claim that both
men visited their lands, where they became
embroiled with the fate of a human alchemist and
his Apparatus, a terrible artifact said to be able to
rend and exchange mortal souls. Whether or not
these tales contain any truth, Azalin and Strahd
did finally end their fractious alliance soon after.
Azalin entered the Mists and claimed a new
domain, Darkon. The appearance of this vast land
doubled the size of the Core.

Late in the sixth century, a blasted wasteland
— the domain of Bluetspur — joined the Core
near Forlorn. Half-mad human refugees fled into
Barovia, doubling the population of Immol, and
claimed their homes had been destroyed by a race
of alien, brain-stealing entities. The southern lands
of the Core became notorious as the realm of
monsters.

Deeper in the Mists, new Islands of Terror
appeared, including the desert realms of Har'Akir
and Sebua and the foggy city of Paridon. The folk
of most of these domains would go decades before
learning that other lands lay beyond their Misty
Border.

== ''568-699: Scourge and Expansion'' ==
The fourth Century closed with an event of
horrendous devastation that would be unmatched
until the Requiem. In the spring of 588, a massive
and violent sandstorm suddenly roiled to life in
Arak's mountain passes. By the time the storm
died out, all surface life in Arak had been
destroyed. The storm even altered Arak's
landscape, transplanting Mount Lament miles to
the west to form the domain of Keening. Both of
these desolate regions were deemed cursed and
have been shunned by sensible travelers ever
since.

The Century following the Scourge of Arak
was marked by explosive growth. A dozen new
domains joined the Core, sprouting like tumors,
and were matched by just as many Islands of
Terror. The Mists withdrew to reveal the Sea of
Sorrows, leading to the steady trade of goods and
ideas between Mordent, Lamordia, and Darkon
and ush-ering the northwestern Core into a new
age of enlightenment.

After having been scattered to the winds, the
Dilisnya family gathered in the new domain of
Borca and reestablished their economic might.
One of their number, Yakov Dilisnya, claimed to
be the messenger of a divine guardian and founded
the Church of Ezra. By the end of the fifth Century
the first clerics of the Lawgiver, Ezra's most
power-ful rival faith, would establish their church
äs the state religion of Nova Vaasa.

In the dying decade of the fifth Century, an
outlander named Vlad Drakov appeared in
western Darkon, massacring several villages
before Azalin's forces drove his mercenaries into
the Mists. The new domain of Falkovnia
appeared, and the next era of Ravenloft's history
would begin.

== ''700-734: Dead Man's Campaign'' ==
The Realm of Dread continued to expand
during this era. Half a dozen new domains joined
the Core, including Dementlieu, which would
rapidly become the hüb of northwestern culture,
and Sithicus, ruled by a skulking black knight
rumored to possess terrible powers. Political
unrest flared in several regions, äs the rulers of
both Borca and Invidia met their ends at the hands
of assassins, and Nova Vaasa's Prince Othmar
seized illegal control of his realm.

Yet none of these events defined the era like
the Dead Man's Campaign. Until Drakov
appeared, open warfare had been unknown in the
Land of Mists. As the sixth Century began,
however, Drakov drove his armies into Darkon no
fewer than four times.

Every invasion ended in crushing failure, äs
Azalin's undead minions effortlessly decimated the
Falkovnian ranks. Each defeat only intensified
Drakov's rage. Again and again he marched his
citizens to the slaughter. By the end of the fourth
invasion, Falkovnia had lost thousands of its sons,
but Drakov still had yet to claim a single foot of
Darkonian soil. Darkonians and Falkovnians alike
came to call Drakov's failed conquests the Dead
Man's Campaign — for only the dead had added to
their holdings.

Although no history book records it, another
event of quiet significance occurred in this era.
After a scheming Vistani clan and a sadistic vampire
destroyed his family, a humble Darkonian
doctor, Rudolph van Richten, dedicated his life to
combating the monstrous horrors of the night.
During the decades of his work, Dr. van Richten
would expose the weaknesses of Ravenloft's horrors
and create a legacy of knowledge and
wisdom.

== ''735-740: The Grand Conjunction'' ==
According to most accounts, the Vistani seer
Hyskosa first recorded his prophecy predicting a
cataclysmic "Grand Conjunction" in the year 735.
However, the Vistani do not seem to flow through
time äs others do, and copies of "Hyskosa's
Hexad" have been found dating back at least a
Century. More certain is that Azalin learned of
Hyskosa's omens in this year and in them saw an
opportunity. Still driven by his outlander desire to
escape to his own world, Azalin manipulated
events over the next five years to fulfill the
prophecies and bring the Grand Conjunction to
premature fruition.

Vistani call Hyskosa a Dukkar: a male Vistana
born with the Sight and fated to bring destruction
to his people. When the Grand Conjunction was
triggered in the summer of 740, it threatened to
turn Ravenloft inside out. As the Land of Mists
was wracked by tremors and entire domains
dissolved into vapor, the Mists of Ravenloft
spread through-out the Material Plane to doom
countless outlander worlds.

Fortunately, Azalin's manipulation of the natural
order of events weakened the Grand
Conjunction enough to allow a band of adventurers
to cause its collapse. The Material Plane was
saved, but the Realm of Dread did not escape
unscathed. Core domains were wrenched into new
positions; rivers altered their courses; the stars
even changed their pattern.

Several Core domains were absorbed by their
neighbors: Darkon consumed Arak, Borca merged
with Dorvinia, Verbrek absorbed Arkandale, and
Gundarak was divided between Invidia and
Barovia. Several domains broke off from the Core
to become Islands of Terror or vice versa. The
most startling effect, however, was the creation of
the Shadow Rift, a vast and bottomless chasm that
now lies where the Core domains of G'Henna and
Markovia once lay.

Even years later, most denizens of the Realm
of Dread still know nothing about the true events
behind the Grand Conjunction. Having seen only
the chaos it wrought, most people call it the Great
Upheaval and speculate wildly as to its cause.

== ''741-749: The Land Congeals'' ==
Most sages agree that the aftershocks of the
Grand Conjunction may still be subtly reshaping
the Land of Mists. This era was marked by the
Great Upheaval's most visible aftereffects: the formation
of new clusters. The domains of Sri Raji,
Saragoss, and the Wildlands were first, merging to
form the Verdurous Lands. In following years,
other domains would meld to create the Amber
Wastes, the Shadowlands, Zherisia, and the
Frozen Reaches. Boatmen even claimed that a new sea was forming
in the Mists to the east of the Core.

Many folk began to warily reexamine their
roles in the world. Clerics in Tepest declared an
Inquisition to wipe out the fey, blaming those
spirits for the apparent destruction of G'Henna and
Markovia. Clerics of Ezra in Darkon warned
against a prophesied Time of Unparalleled
Darkness, when all but the faithful would be
destroyed in a flood of evil. After having
persecuted the use of arcane magic in his realm for
decades, the lord of Hazlan suddenly reversed his
position, establishing a school of wizardry. The
black knight of Sithicus is said to have fallen into
despair, never leaving his ruined keep.

Political unrest emerged in the southern Core
again as Malocchio Aderre, decried by the Vistani
as a new Dukkar, suddenly appeared and seized
control of Invidia. Forging a military alliance with
Falkovnia, Aderre has since been sending his mercenaries
into neighboring domains to hunt the
Vistani, even when those neighbors threatened
armed reprisals.

Unseen by most, a secret society spread
throughout the northern Core, working toward the
terrible event that would end the era.

This cabal, the Ebon Fold, used enchanted daggers
to steal the souls of unwitting victims, then
smuggled the accumulated life force to its master,
Azalin, still pursuing his dreams of escape. The
Grim Harvest would claim hundreds of lives
before its conclusion.

== ''750-755: The Fall of Kings'' ==
After a decade of experimentation, Azalin
completed a magical artifact that would empower
him with the energy of thousands of stolen souls,
allowing him to finally burst free from the Realm
of Dread. At the stroke of midnight on the night of
the winter solstice in the year 750, during a religious
ceremony called the Requiem, Azalin
activated the artifact in the heart of Darkon's
largest city.

A wave of negative energy burst from the
artifact and expanded across all of Darkon. Every
living creature within a mile of II Aluk was instantly
slain and animated into undeath, and a
spiritual shroud settled over the kingdom. Azalin
vanished and was presumed slain. His throne remained
empty for years as local nobles squabbled
for control, and a spectral entity claiming to be
Death itself laid claim to II Aluk.

Azalin was not the only public figure to fall.
The aged Rudolph van Richten had already vanished
without a trace in the spring of 750, after
enjoying eight years of peaceful retirement. In the
autumn of 752, a mass of living, shrieking
shadows smashed into the keep of Sithicus's ruler,
destroying him. The knight's seneschal, a brutal
dwarf named Azrael, quickly seized control of his
master's holdings. Lastly, in recent months,
mystics and seers have even claimed that a remote
cluster, a land said to have been locked in endless
warfare, had been utterly destroyed by forces
unknown.

As each crown fell, the fear of the populace
grew. More and more people gave credence to
doomsayers and the prophecy of the coming
Ultimate Darkness.

A few arcane sages have even speculated that the
planar cycle that started with the creation of
Barovia may have ended its period of expansion
and that the future will bring nothing but continual
decay.

The Land of Mists is not yet doomed,
however. Not all omens point toward destruction.
Van Richten's legacy has not been forgotten, and
not all kings are equally slain. Shortly after
Azalin's apparent demise, Vlad Drakov invaded
Darkon for the first time in decades. The undead
still rose to defeat his armies, and legends
emerged to claim that Azalin was not truly gone.
As the years passed, more and more Darkonians
received irregular visions of their fallen leader as
he struggled to return from beyond. Death also
seemed to sense Azalin's presence and dispatched
undead minions to stop the wizard's return — to
no avail.

Late in the summer of this year, Azalin triumphantly
returned to the world. He now claims that
his attempt to stop the Requiem — supposedly an
invasion of the dead into the world of the living —
physically trapped him in the Gray Realm, the
land of the dead, until he could find his way home.
Azalin has returned to find his kingdom in
shambles and has publicly sworn to restore
Darkon to its former glory.

== ''755: The Present'' ==
These are uncertain times for the Realm of
Dread. A growing sentiment among its people
holds that the world is steadily creeping toward
some inexorable fate, but no one knows what that
fate will be. Doom prophets speak of the Time of
Unparalleled Darkness, predicted to arrive in a
scant twenty years, but clerics of the Morninglord
proclaim that the long night that fell on Barovia in
351 will finally reach a glorious dawn.
One thing is certain. Whether Ravenloft's fate
lies in darkness or light, it will be mortals — be
they heroes or villains — who choose its destiny.

* -- [[A Ravenloft Timeline]]