Character Classes | Creatures | Deities | Playable Races
Campaign Settings: Dragonlance | Eberron (Dragonmarked Houses | Religions | Nations) | Forgotten Realms (Gods | Factions | The Legend of Drizzt) | Greyhawk (Deities) | Planescape (Factions | Races) | Ravenloft (Darklords | The Carnival | The Kargatane of Vallaki | Fraternity of Shadows | Great Families of the Core | Faiths) | Spelljammer
Although there are many aristocratic or wealthy families scattered throughout the Demiplane of Dread, within the Core, only a select few deserve particular attention. By blood or fate, these families are linked to the Darklords of the Core, marking them for the attention of the Dark Powers, something that may rise them to greatness, or plunge them into damnation. These families received their own sourcebook in 3.5, titled "Legacy of the Blood".
Return to the main page here, and to the Dungeons & Dragons character page here.
open/close all folders
Boritsi Family
The Boritsi Family
Originally a family of merchants who supported Strahd von Zarovich I during his battles against the Tergs, the Boritsis were instrumental in keeping the land of Borca together when it was consumed by mists. Over three centuries of isolation, their dedication to putting the strength of the community before the pursuit of personal or familial wealth and power, combined with their organizational skills, made them the defacto leaders of the nation by the time it emerged into the Demiplane of Dread. Whilst their most infamous member, Ivana Boritsi, openly rules Borca, the rest of the family mostly concerns itself with sustaining the Boritsi Trading Company, the foundation of their wealth and power.- Acquired Poison Immunity: Given their family's reputation for making use of poison, and its ties to the Dilisnya family, it should be of no surprise that many Boritsis painstakingly attempt to render themselves resistant, if not immune, to toxins. Magical items to detect and nullify poison are also very prominent amongst the family.
- Intrepid Merchant: The Boritsi name is inescapably intertwined with their skill as merchants.
- Master Poisoner: The use of toxins to avenge grudges or climb the social ladder is a practice the Boritsis have honed over many generations.
d'Honaire Family
The d'Honaire Family
Possessed of a natural talent for the healer's arts, the d'Honaires have grown to become figures of power both in Dementlieu and in Mordent, the land of their birth. However, the two branches of the family have a long enmity for each other, beginning with Germaine d'Honaire's outrage that not only was his daughter a natural adept with the medical arts he wished to instead leave to her brother Maurice (an inept bungler totally devoid of empathy), but she disobeyed him and married for love, eloping with a Richemuloise half-Vistani by the name of Hugues Mousel. Whilst the Mordentish d'Honaires live a fairly quiet life, that of the Dementlieuse d'Honaires is far more turbulent, due in no small part to the curse laid against the power behind their good fortunes, the Darklord Dominic.- The Empath: Although sociopathy does run in the family, almost as many d'Honaires are warm-hearted and kindly individuals, some to a near-supernatural degree.
- Healing Hands: d'Honaires of a particularly empathic nature have an almost miraculous ability to help people mend from their injuries. In 3rd edition game terms, a d'Honaire with the Warm-Hearted feat can take the Healing Spirit feat, which lets them cast Cure spells without a divine focus.
- The Immune: As a refinement of Dominic d'Honaire's curse, the d'Honaires who are born in Dementlieu are completely immune to all forms of mind-altering effects, bar mundane intoxicants. Hypnotism, Charm Person spells, psionics, mind-altering poisons; none of these work on a Dementlieuse d'Honaire, so long as they are in their homeland.
- Power at a Price: A downplayed example. All d'Honaires are naturally gifted in the arts of healing both body and mind, and are natural prodigies who always have some talent that comes easily to them. However, they tend to be sickly and frail, succumbing to diseases and injury more readily than a normal person might.
- The Sociopath: The tendency to be cold-hearted sociopaths runs in the family, to the extent that there's even a family feat based on being one, which makes them less likely to fall to Powers Checks.
Dilisnya Family
The Dilisnya Family
A former noble family from the same world as the Von Zaroviches and Boritsi, the Dilisnya were always shunned and disliked, for it was well-known that they made their wealth through all manner of illegal and immoral connections and activities. This came to a head when the Dilisnya patriarch, Leo Dilisnya, was instrumental in a plot to kill Strahd von Zarovich I at his younger brother's wedding — unfortunately for the family, Strahd became a vampire and massacred the wedding party himself. Then he pinned the blame on the Dilisnya. To this day, a Dilisnya cannot openly step foot in Barovia without courting death. But the family has prospered, dispersing across the Land of Mists to form an immense network of criminals; smugglers, drug-dealers, slavers and assassins, all know — or bear — the name of Dilisnya.- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In some places, particularly Borca, there are Dilisnya who cultivate an appearance of being merely wealthy, decadent and hedonistic nobles — whilst still being, in secret, highly skilled thieves and/or assassins. Others hide in plain sight,choosing identities that are simple and mundane.
Drakov Family
The Drakov Family
The most hated and feared of the Great Families of the Core, the Drakovs are a sprawling, tangled thicket stemming from a single noxious root. Vlad Drakov's right to claim "The First Night" has allowed him to father countless bastards. Those whom he deigns to recognize face a terrible choice; accept a place in his family and damn their souls, or flee the land of their birth, knowing that few will ever trust them in light of the tainted blood that fills their veins.- The Berserker: As part of their family curse, all Drakovs gain ferocious tempers, allowing themselves to potentially fly into psychotic rages on the battlefield. In crunch terms, they can enter a Barbarian-esque rage once per day.
- Curse: The Drakov lineage is cursed that any member of it who accepts the family name will ultimately turn into the same sort of monster as Drakov. This takes the form of an infamous fury, and growing sadistic urges combined with dwindling empathy that slowly pushes the Drakov to a
Chaotic Evil character alignment, by virtue of their strong temptation to reward pleas for mercy or cries of surrender with a quick, bloody death. - It Runs in the Family: With a family curse to speed things along, it's little wonder that Drakovs tend to end up frothing-mad, bloodthirsty, sadistic maniacs like dear old dad.
Godefroy Family
The Godefroy Family
Although Wilfred Godefroy ended his direct line by murdering his daughter, Lilia, it was not entirely the end of his lineage. Other Godefroys still live; frail and sickly by nature, the bloodline manages to creep along, especially due to intermarriage with the surviving Foxgrove and Weathermay family branches in Mordent.- Blessed with Suck: The Godefroys' status as natural mediums comes with several problems. Firstly, they are always frail and sickly. Secondly, although adept at communicating with ghosts, they tend to be less than adept at doing so with humans, even if not hampered by shyness. Finally, ghosts can sense the Godefroys' natural status as mediums and will usually seek them out and haunt them, which can be a very bad thing.
- Curse: Two-fold. If ever a Godefroy kills someone of their own race, that victim is very likely to return as a ghost with the Draining Touch ability, which will have free reign to haunt them. Secondly, all Godefroys become ghosts on death, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
- I See Dead People: All Godefroys have the ability to see and talk to ghosts.
- Magnetic Medium: Godefroys are naturally attractive to ghosts due to their ability to communicate with them. In 3rd edition, this is mechanically manifested as any ghost within a mile of a Godefroy needs to succeed on a difficulty 15 Will save or else be irresistibly compelled to seek out and haunt the Godefroy.
- Victorian Novel Disease: Most likely as a side-effect of their being caught with one foot in the world of the dead and one in the world of the living, Godefroys are invariably frail and sickly, but also at the same time captivating and with an ethereal loveliness. In 3rd edition, this manifests as a penalty to Constitution in exchange for a bonus to Charisma.
Hiregaard Family
The Hiregaard Family
One of the five great ruling families of Nova Vaasa, the Hiregaards are a family torn by moral strife, constantly struggling not only against the division between their natural inclination to good and their cultural indoctrination to focus on the rule of the law, but also in the face of a strong family tendency towards madness.- Curse: The Hiregaards suffer a bitter curse that pushes them towards insanity; not only are they more vulnerable to madness saving throws than normal, but acting in an evil fashion drives them increasingly mad rather than afflicting them with the usual Powers Checks effects.
- Fantastic Racism: The cornerstone of their madness is that Hiregaards become increasingly hostile towards other races; even the most lucky of fallen Hiregaards will feel at least a little unreasoning disgust towards one race.
- Long-Lived: Hiregaards age significantly more slowly than normal humans do, to the point that they use the Half-Elf aging effects table instead of the Human one.
- To Be Lawful or Good: Although naturally inclined towards a goodly disposition, their staunch belief in the tyrannical Lawgiver faith and its attendent support of the harshly imbalanced social order of Nova Vaasa means that most Hiregaards find themselves struggling to balance what the law demands and what their hearts know is right. In their credit, many do ultimately choose being good over being lawful, to the extent their associated Prestige Class, the People's Champion, is noted to be made up almost exclusively of ex-clerics who forsook the Lawgiver's canonical doctrine for something more noble.
Mordenheim Family
The Mordenheim Family
Although the good doctor himself has no direct progeny, the line itself still continues from his cousins, providing the Misty Realm their cold, calculating brilliance.- Arbitrary Skepticism: Although their skepticism of the divine's existence is understandable on several levels, Mordenheims do have a weird tendency to doubt in the existence or power of arcane magic, despite it being as real and provable in the Demiplane as it is elsewhere in the multiverse.
- Curse: Because Viktor Mordenheim shunned the gods, the gods shun his bloodline; no Mordenheim can ever wield divine magic in any way.
- Cursed with Awesome: The Mordenheim curse means they easily qualify for the Godless feat, which gives them inherent magic resistance against divine magic — something that comes in handy given the evil cults and mad clerics that abound in the Demiplane of Dread. On the other hand, it's also a case with Power at a Price, which arguably changes it to Blessed with Suck; not only are they resistant to helpful divine spells as well, they can't be targeted with Raise Dead type effects should they die.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: As with their most infamous member, Mordenheims are particularly prone to rejecting the gods and/or arcane magic.
- In the Blood: As with the Drakovs, Hiregaards and Von Zaroviches, several of the Mordenheim family traits are actually passed on due to ancestral curses, playing with this trope. Furthermore, it's strong enough that, if a DM takes the optional canon that Eva has survived with amnesia, her children have also picked up the Mordenheim traits, despite her being a Mordenheim by adoption.
- Insufferable Genius: A case overlapping with Intelligence Equals Isolation: Mordenheims might be brilliant, but their cold, unfeeling nature and tendency to be supercilious and even a little dull means that other people don't get on with them easily. In crunch terms, this manifests as a +2 to Intelligence being contrasted by a -2 to Charisma.
- Mad Scientist: All Mordenheims are not only brilliant, but possess both an intuitive grasp of science beyond that of most other people and the dash of amorality to really push what they can do.
Renier Family
The Renier Family
Hailing from the same world that gave rise to the domains of Mordent and Dementlieu, the Reniers are the unofficial royal family of Richemulot, guaranteed wealth and power thanks to their connections to the domain's unofficial queen, Jacqueline Renier. Unbeknownst even to many members of their own family, the Reniers are a family tainted, resulting in there being two unofficial branches; one of pureblood humans, the other of wererats.- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: All Reniers are charming, but for most, that charm is only skin deep. Although it's worst amongst the wererats, there are plenty of human Reniers who would frame their own mother for murder if it would benefit them.
- Brainless Beauty: Reniers are almost invariably beautiful or handsome, and have a strong personality, but they are not always the wisest or most sensitive of people. In crunch terms, this manifests as a +2 to Charisma balanced by a -2 to Wisdom.
- Curse:
- The taint that caused the birth of the wererat branch long ago still runs strong in the veins of the human Reniers, making them incredibly vulnerable to infection with the wererat strain of lycanthropy.
- Furthermore, perhaps because of that, even pure-blooded human members of the family suffer from the Allergen weakness, a strong and potentially fatal weakness to some substance which can even counter the regenerative abilities of the wererat Reniers.
- In a twisting of the definition, the wererat branch of the family is cursed in that one in six Reniers born to wererat Renier mothers will be pureblooded humans, despite the fact that normally all children of a therianthropic mother will be born as natural, or at least afflicted, shapechangers.
- Evil Versus Evil: The Cult of Simon Audaire is a small cabal of non-infected Reniers clued into the two branches of the family who resent the way that human Reniers are so casually used and destroyed by the wererats. To this end, they have taken to worshipping a blasphemous daemon-god thing known only as the Withered Rat, and have raised the long-dead Simon Audaire, Jacqueline Renier's human father who was murdered by her own mother, as an Ancient Dead that they use like an instrument of vengeance.
- Fallen Hero: Long ago, before Mordent was drawn in the Misty Realm, the Reniers were a family of heroes. That all changed when they first claimed ownership of the House on Gryphon Hill, and five of Jacques Renier's six children were born as natural wererats. Though the heroic branch fought hard, it was ultimately doomed; the wererats fled into the Demiplane of Dread, and found that generations later (from their perspective), the heroic branch had been pulled through by the forming of Mordent, leaving them easily manipulated into accepting their long-lost kinsfolk.
- Matriarchy: Informally, but, as touched upon in the Ravenloft Gazetteer III, the wererat branch is socially dominated by its female members. This is because only the female wererats are guaranteed to produce (barring the curse's taint, of course) wererat offspring, making it more practical for female wererats to marry, have children, and then dispose of their human spouses when they grow unneccessary.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: The most infamous branch of the Renier family tree is the wererat branch.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The lethally poisonous Allergen of a Renier can include such innocuous substances as meat (beef, chicken, pork), fermented grapes, dandelions, grapes, pears, pussy willow wood/flowers, rye, and sugar.
Von Zarovich Family
The Von Zarovich Family
Although the most infamous of the Von Zaroviches has no direct progeny of his own, the family still has many living members, cousins whose families have prospered over the centuries, filling Barovia with a sprawling network who can trace consanguinity to the oldest of Darklords. Through this tainted tree, corruption runs deep, and most Von Zaroviches are doomed to sink into the same darkness as their most infamous member.- Curse: All Von Zaroviches bear at least one of four established curses; a particular susceptibility to the attentions of the Dark Powers, being The Berserker, suffering from chronic nightmares, and being prone to visions of horror when wounded in battle.
- Dhampyr: Surprisingly, averted. Despite Strahd's intense focus on wooing Tatyana, or perhaps because of it, there are no "living vampires" to be found in this most infamous of families.
- In the Blood: This family exemplifies this trope, being outright described as a living embodiment of the Gothic Horror principle of families being cursed by the sins of their founders.
- White Sheep: There are some Von Zaroviches who seek to do good in the world, even despite the temptations to evil, such as Strahd's saintly brother Sergei. Such individuals are tolerated as family, but seen as... strange.
