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Bloodline: Azrai, great, 50
Blood Abilities: Bloodform (Great), Charm Aura (major), Invulnerability, Shadow Form
Special Attacks: Energy drain (2 levels); Charm Aura acts as a vampire?s charm gaze attack (-3 penalty to save); Bloodtheft bite: when Strahd uses his Energy Drain on a blooded scion or regent his energy drain acts like a bloodtheft attack (see page 103 of Blood Enemies for rules); shadow form as a wolf or bat; summon rats, bats, or wolves; spider climb; close or open any door in the castle at will.
Special Defenses: Hit only by +2 or better weapons; half damage from electricity or cold; gaseous form; immune to sleep, charm, hold, and mind-affecting spells; regenerate 3/hp per round; immune to garlic & mirrors; can withstand 10 rounds of sunlight; contingency spell: teleports if exposed to dangerous sunlight.
Special Weaknesses: Holy symbols, if presented with conviction and faith; more than 10 rounds of sunlight (1 round from Sergei?s Sunsword); 1d6+1 points from holy water; 14 points of damage per/round in running water.
Equipment: Bloodstone amulet, which is an amulet of proof against detection and location; cloak of protection +2; and a ring of fire resistance (on his left hand). He has a crystal ball in his treasury.
Realm Spells: Alchemy, Death Plague, Demagogue, Legion of Dead

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?I am the Ancient, I am the Land. My name is Count Strahd von Zarovich, and I rule all of Barovia from my castle, Castle Ravenloft. I should begin at the beginning. After the battle at Mount Deismaar, my clan left Ust Atka and came to this place, the Vicissitude Mountains. My clan had a really minor Azrai bloodline that never really manifested any awnsheghlien rulers, except for me. My clan, Zarovich, is a Vos Clan that took the Vicissitudes for their own.
?Also soon after the battle of Mount Deismaar, Roele was creating his Anuirean Empire. With the invasion of Barovia, we could not fight his armies and my family accepted his appeal for clemency. With that, my family retained regency over the counties of Barovia, Landsborough, and Nuremberg Valley. My ancestors became known as Barons; the Barons of Barovia.
?So, through the generations, my family ruled Barovia and the realm enjoyed peace and prosperity with the occasional earthquake or rarer still, the volcanic eruption. It was then that the Vos and the Brechts and Anuireans that we ruled over began to interbreed. And also through the centuries, most of the Vos features were nearly breeded out as you can see from my appearance. The Barovian Vos retained the dark hair of my Vos ancestors, but we gained the Anuirean height and slimness; exchanged the Vos eyes for Brecht eyes, and gained our own sculpted facial features. My family is still Vos, and we still had the bloodline --- but we only resembled my Vos Ancestors in our hair.
?By my time, we resembled more like Anuireans with jet black hair. And in my time, Michael Roele ruled the Empire. By his time, the Brechts absorbed their Anuirean rulers and gained their independence through culture and breeding. Barovia, ruled by my father Baron Barov and my mother, the Baroness Ravenovia. Of the three sons that my mother had, I am the eldest. And I am also the greatest knight in the land. As Roele?s empire disintegrated, I fought to defend Barovia from her enemies.
?I became a powerful warrior, I was good and just. My father?s own right hand man and lieutenant. I was the leader of his knights, and we thundered across the land like Haelyn himself during the Battle of Mount Deismaar. My father was proud of my accomplishments and awarded me the county of Barovia. But the years of war wore down my soul as the wind wears down a stone to sand.
?Over time, my father realized the change in me and began to favor my younger brother over me, my brother Sergei. He was handsome and youthful, both of these qualities for which I hated him for. My hate grew even worse when my father named Sergei to be his eventual successor for the barony.
?And there was one other that came between us. From the families of the valley, one spirit had shone above all others. A rare beauty, whom I called perfection, joy, and treasure. A blessed daughter of Haelyn called Tatyana, and I longed for her to be mine.
?I truly loved her with all of my heart, and all of my might. I loved her for her youth and beauty. But she spurned me! ?Old One? was my name to her, she called me ?elder brother.? Her heart, however, went to Sergei. On the day they her betrothed, my father completed the right of Investiture, and invested my brother Sergei with the regency of the Barony. And the date was set. I was aghast.
?Tatyana called me brother with her words, but I could see it in her eyes -- death. She called me death. Curse my agéd body, it was the agéd she saw in me. She loved her youth, and enjoyed it. I foolishly squandered mine.
?When my father and mother died, I came to hate death. I came to hate my own eventual death with a passion beyond passion. I was determined not to be called ?death? so soon. So I made a pact with death, a pact of blood. On the day of the wedding; I killed my brother Sergei with a dagger made of tighmaevril. My brother?s regency, my regency, filled my body and my soul with the power of Azrai. I didn?t know it then, but thunder rolled across the land, heralding my usurpation of my own bloodline. But I knew that my pact was sealed with his blood.
?I found Tatyana weeping in the garden east of the Chapel of Haelyn. She fled from me. She would not let me explain the sacrifice I made for her. The pact I made to have her be mine. I became angry, because she had to understand! I pursued her. She ran and flung herself from the highest tower of my castle and I watched everything I wanted fall from my grasp forever. It was a thousand feet through the storm filled sky. No trace of her was ever found.
?With a heavy heart, I assumed the Regency over the land. As time went by, I found that I could not die, but neither did I live. I became a creature of the Shadow World, an undead forever.
?I studied and learned that I had become the one thing my people feared the most. ?Vampyr,? ?Nosferatu,? the ?Undead?; or as the people around Cerilia calls me, ?Vampire.? I still long and lust for life and youth, and I curse the living that took them from me. Even Lana is against me, for it is the Sun and it?s intense light I fear the most. But little else can harm me now.
?As Count of Barovia, however, I found that no house in my domain is barred entry by me. Except for the cursed Chapel of Haelyn! As if Haelyn himself barred my entry into his holy place. In my anger, I renounced Haelyn and the other gods; especially Lana. I outlawed them all and invited their more warlike brother and sister ? Alenecht and Kriestal ? as gods worthy of my people?s worship. Now, as the Ancient and the Land, I protect my people from their enemies.?

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The changes made to the Vampire's Hold as detailed in Havens of the Great Bay and Blood Enemies are as follows:
Alignment: Neutral Evil.
Status: Not Available for PC Use.
Provinces/Holdings: Barovia's provinces are divided into three. The realm was Brecht ruled under the Vos clan of Zarovich until it came under power of Count Strahd through a terrible dark romantic tragedy.