At its core, Dungeons & Dragons is a shared storytelling experience where the players get to live out the fantasy of being a bold adventurer. In order to truly feel like heroes, every great story needs a great villain. Thankfully, D&D is chock full of them, drawing inspiration from decades of lore.
Out of all of the great evils in the many worlds comprising the D&D multiverse, Count Strahd von Zarovich eternally remains one of the most feared. He rules the cursed land of Barovia from his seat of power, the dreaded Castle Ravenloft. A cunning and cruel Vampire Lord, Strahd prefers to feed on the blood of intrepid adventurers who are lured into his realm through a magical mist that surrounds Barovia.
But Strahd is more than a shallow Dracula knock-off. Beneath his sinister cat-and-mouse games lies the broken heart of a once-great warrior. His fall into villainy was fueled by pride, jealousy, and love. Despite this, he is a prisoner bound to his domain, doomed to repeat a cycle of violence.
His popularity with D&D fans remains strong in large part due to his humanizing backstory. He's a somewhat unique figure amongst a rogue's gallery of evil dragon gods, devil princes, and zombie wizards stealing the souls of an entire world to birth a dark god. Strahd was created by Tracy and Laura Hickman in 1978 after Tracy returned home from a disappointing session of D&D. Back in First Edition, the game was less of a storytelling game. It mostly involved charting randomized dungeons on graph paper and fighting whatever creatures were inside for their gold and experience points.
In one of those random rooms was a vampire, which immediately stood out to Tracy. It didn't make sense to him why a creature like a vampire was just sitting around in a random dungeon with oozes, goblins, and zombies. So he and his wife set out to create a vampire villain with fleshed-out motivations and history.
Strahd was intended for a different game system, one they ran every Halloween. They had titled it Vampyr, but everyone kept asking about "that Ravenloft game," and the name stuck. The duo eventually caught the attention of D&D's original publishers. They were hired to adapt it into the First Edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and was released as Module 16: Ravenloft.
The module proved to be a massive success. In the ensuing years, it has been revised, retold, and expanded upon across multiple mediums, each with their own interpretation of his story and homeland. The 2016 release of Curse of Strahd has presented what many consider his definitive appearance.
Born a count and prince to King Barov and Queen Ravenovia, Strahd von Zarovitch was raised to be a mighty and cunning warrior. After his father passed, he waged savage, bloody wars against his family's enemies. Upon finally crushing his foes in a mountain valley, Strahd decided to take residence there, moved by its beauty. He named the valley Barovia after his father and began construction of Castle Ravenloft.
He sent for his brother Sergei and his mother, but Queen Ravenovia was too frail and died on the journey. Upon arrival, Strahd has her interred in the crypts of the castle bearing her name. As Strahd tightened his grip on the valley, he thirsted for more power. Hearing rumors of a long-abandoned temple inhabited by dark powers, he scoured the valley, finding them deep within the Amber Temple. He forged a deal with these powers which would grant him immortality, all that was needed was for Strahd to sign the pact in blood.
During this time, his brother Sergei had fallen in love with a Barovian woman of noble lineage and overwhelming beauty, Tatyana. Strahd was immediately entranced by Tatyana, though his pride prevented him from making his feelings known. However, he reached a point where he could no longer restrain himself.
On the day of Sergei and Tatyana's wedding, Strahd murdered his brother and fed on his blood, unwittingly sealing his pact with the dark powers and transforming into a vampire. He proceeded to murder his entire castle guard in pursuit of a terrified Tatyana. He cornered her at a castle balcony, but rather than be his bride, Tatyana leaped to her death.
In a final twist of cruel fate, Strahd learned his immortality came with an unforeseen cost. The dark powers fooled Strahd, surrounding the valley of Barovia in a magical mist and transporting it to a demi-plane of existence. Strahd is forever bound to the land, immortal and all-powerful within the valley, but powerless to escape. To torment him further, the dark powers periodically reincarnate Tatyana. Strahd forever chases her, locked in a cycle of abuse as he tries to win the love of a woman who will only see him as the monster he is.
For centuries Strahd has played this story out, all the while terrorizing the trapped and beleaguered souls in the valley of Barovia. To sate his boredom, Strahd lures adventurers into his domain to toy with them until he loses interest in feeds. Curse of Strahd features the players as the latest lost souls trapped in Barovia.
On their journey, the players discover Tatyana has been resurrected once again as Ireena Kolyana and must aid her in escaping his grasp. They also find allies in vampire hunter Rudolph van Richten, a man who lost his family at Strahd's hands, and the mysterious oracle Madam Eva, leader of the nomadic Vistani people who wishes to see the cycle of violence come to an end. Strahd's backstory and the journey into Castle Ravenloft to end his reign of terror is the stuff of legend in the lore of D&D. Strahd has become an ever-present fixture, which is good news for him as the Vampire Lord will never run out of fresh victims.