History Characters / Ravenloft

* MageSpecies: Zigzagged. Not ''all'' Vistani have levels in magic-using classes. But they do have several subtle magical abilities, and some of those break the normal rules of magic in the Demiplane of Dread. The most overtly magical aspect of the Vistani is that all of them can invoke the Evil Eye, but their subtle magical abilities include their propensity to be {{seers}} who are immune to the normal obfuscation of Divination magic, the increased potency of their curses, and their ability to freely travel the Demiplane of Dread and beyond.

* DumbMuscle: The generic caliban is immensely strong, but also immensely stupid, fitting its basis as literally new racial lore to apply to the half-orc mechanics. In the netbook version, this is the archetype of the "Brute" strain, who are big, strong and tough, but lacking in smarts.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: A typical appearance for "Banshee" type calibans.

[[folder:Dhampir]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_d1694ca082c0fe7c8bddcdaf4d1c5db1_d8631a0b_1280.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A Dhampir battles her progenitor]]

People who have somehow been afflicted with a weaker strain of vampirism without turning undead.

* {{Dhampyr}}: Obviously, they are the result of vampirism afflicting living beings.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Mostly averted. Being the child of a vampire is a possible way a dhampir may have come about, but not the only one.
* HorrorHunger: Much like their fully undead cousins, a dhampire requires sustenance only attainable from the fully living. Whether that be the more classic cravings like blood or flesh, or more exotic fuels like dreams or psychic energy
* IHateYouVampireDad: The sample dhampire, Savra Sunstar, really hates her dad, the vampire Jander Sunstar.
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: The dhampir has technically never been a "traditional" D&D race, from a mechanical perspective.
** In third edition, it exists as a monster template, being a set of racial abilities and modifiers that are applied to a base creature.
** In 4th edition, it is a "Bloodline", a sub-race that is applied to a base race by purchasing a chain of feats and optionally taking a racial paragon path.
** 5th edition has the least unusual interpretation, presenting dhampirs as a "lineage". This largely works identically to a standard race, but there are mechanical supports to let the dhampir possess some minor traits from a different race, representing their hybrid ancestry or their having originally been a non-dhampir that was then turned ''into'' a dhampir. So a dhampir can be any playable species and maintain traits and gameplay quirks, but still be a dhampir, such as being a gnome dhampir.
* TheNeedless: Thanks to their Deathless Nature, dhampires don't need to breathe.
* PromotedToPlayable: The original TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons dhampyr debuted as a monster in the ''TabletopGame/MasqueOfTheRedDeath'' setting. It became a racial monster template in ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' in 3rd edition, but level adjustment made it quite hard to play -- Magazine/{{Dragon}} #313 offered a slightly more playable-friendly version called the ''Khatane''. 4th edition featured dhampyrs as a "bloodline" accessible through feats in an issue of Magazine/{{Dragon}}, and eventually offered an equivalent but separate race called the Vryloka. Finaly, 5th edition saw them become an official playable race and tied them to ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' once more.
* UnevenHybrid: A core part of a dhampir is that they have enough of their original identity, but through magic, birth, or other factors have become part vampire. Design wise, they look mostly like their original species, but have elements like paler skin. The uneven nature is more pronounced if not made one through birth, since the dhampir is instead a failed attempt at making a vampire.
* WallCrawl: In 5th edition, at third level dhampires are able to move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down without using their hands.

[[folder:Reborn]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/art_van_richtens_guide_to_ravenloft0.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:From the Apparatus of Mordent, a reborn stumbles forth]]

Among the domains of dread, death is rarely the end. Be it through vile magic, cruel curses or strange experiments, the Reborn are living beings made from the nonliving.

* {{Cyborg}}: A potential origin suggested for the Reborn is as a corpse reanimated by mechanical components.
* DamagedSoul: A more serious version of the resurrection sickness. Reborn may occasionally find that they despise things that they remember loving in their previous lives, and similar changes.
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Dhampires, Reborn and Hexblood are not actually races, but lineages, which are applied instead of a usual race. While they mostly work the same, players who take a lineage may have their character be from any base stock, and they gain a trait that lets them have some of the traits from their base race.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Reborn may be baseline zombies, only sapient and technically living.
* ResurrectionSickness: At best, all Reborn suffer this. They're back from the dead in some way, but have only a loose grasp on who they were before, rarely remembering exact details.
* TakenForGranite: A Reborn may have come to be as a result of being petrified for centuries before being freed, with a rather tenuous grasp on their old life.
* TheUndead: Averted. Reborn do not have the Undead type. This is solely for mechanics reasons, however (most healing spells don't work on undead, so an undead player race would almost certainly be the greatest handicap in the game), and they can still be flavored as undead if your table allows it.

[[folder:Hexblood]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hexblood_5e_1_552x1024.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Hexblood of night hag stock]]
->'''Origin:''' ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}''

Hags delight in meddling in the affairs of mortals, and from time to time this meddling results in the creation of Hexblood, either from a child affected by fae meddling, or from mortals who made ill-adviced bargains. Hexblood resemble humans, but have skin colors appropriate to their feyish progenitors, and a strange crown growing from their temples.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Hexblood's skincolor tend to be influenced by their fae progenitors, but the most common are green, grey, blue, and purple.
* ChangelingTale: Hexblood are frequently created by hags at the request of hopeful parents that can't have their own children. Or created to replace children taken by the fae.
* DealWithTheDevil: A possible origin for Hexblood is that they made a deal with a hag, and this is the consequence.
* FriendshipTrinket: Hexblood has a mechanic that can be used like this. They can remove a small trinket from their body, such as a teeth, some hair or a nail, and use it to telepathically communicate with whoever they gave it to.
* MageSpecies: Being part fae, hexblood get some spells innately, and make excellent spellcasters.
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Dhampires, Reborn and Hexblood are not actually races, but lineages, which are applied instead of a usual race. While they mostly work the same, players who take a lineage may have their character be from any base stock, and they gain a trait that lets them have some of the traits from their base race. Hexblood in particular have the Fey creature type.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Some hexblood are created by hag covens who have lost a member to serve as a replacement.

[[folder:Caliban]]

Invented in the third edition remake of ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' as a thematic reskin for the half-orc, calibans are a race of deformed humans corrupted in the womb by the dark energies of the Demiplane of Dread, resulting in them being born with hideous appearances and freakish strength. Because of their horrible appearances, their power, and their tendency to be born as a result of exposure to corruption or immoral acts, they are treated with fear and suspicion by the normal humans of the Demiplane, and rejected from society. Fans expanded the rather bland initial treatment in issue #8 of the "Quoth the Raven" netbook series, presenting alternative rules for calibans to mechanically represent their mutations and creating five distinct caliban strains; the Banshee, the Bestial, the Brute, the Cannibal and the Witchspawn.

* BeastMan: This is the archetype of the "Bestial" strain, whose mutations make them look like anything from a "generically" bestial human to a borderline humanoid animal.
* BodyHorror: Regardless of which iteration of caliban you prefer, they are always described as mutated and warped. The netbook version has an uncanny array of mutations, from relatively mundane deformities like hunched backs, extra fingers and third nipples to more supernatural ones like hooved feet, horns, vomiting acid, prehensile frog's tongues, multiple eyes and extra arms.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Despite their oft-hideous appearance and tendency to be born to families as a result of curses or evil acts, calibans are not actually inherently evil. Most are just regular people who want to be loved, but find that love and acceptance is forever barred to them because of their looks.
* DumbMuscle: The generic caliban is immensely strong, but also immensely stupid, fitting its basis as literally new racial lore to apply to the half-orc mechanics. In the netbook version, this is the archetype of the "Brute" strain, who are big, strong and tough, but lacking in smarts.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: A typical appearance for "Banshee" type calibans.
* HumanSubspecies: Whilst calibans can breed true, in that their progeny are also calibans (just not necessarily of the same appearance), they originally arise from human parents whose children are magically malformed in the womb. They could, in essence, be considered the Planetouched of the Demiplane of Dread.
* ImAHumanitarian: A common negative stereotype of calibans in general is that they are willing to eat human flesh, hence their name. The "Cannibal" strain is noted to have a particular proclivity for unnatural compulsions to eat human flesh.
* MadwomanInTheAttic: A common backstory for calibans is that their parents, unable to bring themselves to kill their warped child but too ashamed of them to show them to the public, instead lock them away out of sight in the attic, the basement, or somewhere else unreachable.
* MageSpecies: "Banshee" calibans are noted to have an affinity for MagicMusic and {{necromancy}}, whilst "Witchspawn" are natural-born sorcerers, warlocks and wizards, to the point their trademark mutations are those traits associated with witches and fiends -- hooves for feet, tails, horns, third nipples, sixth fingers, etc.
* OneGenderRace: The "Banshee" strain are known for always being female.
* SinsOfOurFathers: Whilst calibans can be born as a result of BlackMagic, whether from deliberate curses to simply being exposed in-utero (or at conception) to the aura of a powerful undead, fiend or hag, an unholy site, a cursed magical item, etc, they are also known to be born to individuals who have committed (or suffered) great spiritual crimes, such as rape, incest, cannibalism or necrophilia. And some are simply born as calibans either because their mother experienced strong negative emotions during their pregnancy, or else for no discernable reason.
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: The "Banshee" strain of calibans are always mutated, but never in ways that technically detract from their mutation; a female Brute might have a hunched back and be covered in warts, a female Cannibal might have a maw full of fangs and [[OverlyLongTongue a slimy black tongue that dangles down to her bellybutton]], but a Banshee is more likely to have things like marble-white skin, black eyes, or an unnaturally cold body temperature. Despite this, they are just as hated as their more visually deformed cousins, since either their otherwise beautiful appearance accentuates their mutations, or else they are so unnaturally beautiful they hit the in-universe UncannyValley.

[[folder:Half-Vistani]]

The original flagship race of ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'', having debuted with the original setting boxed set, half-Vistani (''Giomorgo'' in the Patterna, the Vistani language) are the product of relations between the mystical nomads of the Demiplane of Dread and non-Vistani humans. Possessing some of their Vistani relations' magical abilities, but lacking their curse, the half-Vistani are the outsiders of the Realms of Mist.

* ChildOfTwoWorlds: The Gothic curse of the Giomorgo is to be torn between the magical, mysterious world of the Vistani and the comparatively banal world of humans.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Obscure lore establishes the existence of the ''Giamarga'', which is half elf and half-Vistani. The mechanics for this race are extremely obscure, being hidden in the Dungeon Master's section of the {{sourcebook}} "Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani", and represent a complicated blending of the standard half-elf race with the "Mortu Vistani racial kit".
* HumanSubspecies: Half-Vistani are technically full-blooded humans, but the Vistani are just magical enough that Half-Vistani use separate mechanics to regular human characters.
* {{Lunacy}}: Like pureblooded Vistani, Giomorgo find themselves overwhelmed by erratic, intense surges of emotion during the nights of the full moon.
* MagicalRomani: To a lesser degree than pureblood Vistani, but Giomorgo do have an affinity for magic and retain some of the more subtle mystical abilities of their kin, if in a watered down form, such as an increased ability to successfully invoke {{curse}}s upon others.
* {{Necromancy}}: In 2nd edition, half-Vistani have an affinity for necromancy that allows half-Vistani and Giamarga wizards to take the "Arcanist" specialization, which is forbidden to Mortu Vistani. For half-Vistani, it's the ''only'' specialist wizard class they can take, whilst Giamarga are also capable of becoming Conjurers, Enchanters, Illusionists and, if female, Diviners.
* PlanetOfHats: As with the pure-blooded Vistani, half-Vistani gain distinct racial abilities based on their tribe of origin.
* PutOnABus: The half-Vistani race was removed from 4th edition, which made the Vistani a culture rather than a distinct race, and also playable by taking feats, and completely left out of all mention of 5th edition materials.

[[folder:Ravenkin]]
Ravenkin are a race of large, sapient ravens who inhabited the realm which eventually became Barovia long before Count Strahd von Zarovich damned his soul. Dragged into the Demiplane of Dread with Barovia, the ravenkin have sworn to destroy the vampire and his unholy progeny in hopes of one day restoring Barovia to its original place of residence.

* TheBeastmaster: Ravenkin train regular ravens and crows to guard their nests and help them in hunting prey.
* CleverCrows: Ravenkin are characterized as highly intelligent, and with an innate affinity for magic.
* CreepyCrows: As large crows with a tendency to sit around watching ominously, ravenkin certainly seem to be pretty creepy to anyone unfamiliar with their true nature.
* CreepyGood: Though ravenkin can certainly play up the CreepyCrows trope for all its worth, they are fundamentally a heroic race devoted to fighting evil, and in particular to slaying vampires -- especially Strahd. They're even the last remaining worshippers of Andral, the long-forgotten Barovian sun god.
* DyingRace: Their lore consistently states that they are a dwindling race, with only two out of every ten ravenkin eggs hatching since they were placed in the Demiplane of Dread. Combined with their distinct physical disadvantage when it comes to physical combat, this is why they prefer to operate subtly and through proxies in their war on darkness.
* TheLeader: Ravenkin are the founders of a benevolent secret society called the Keepers of the Black Feather; an alliance of ravenkin, [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent wereravens]] and humans that works to subtly battle the evils of Barovia, with an ultimate goal of slaying Strahd.
* PromotedToPlayable: Ravenkin debuted in 2nd edition as monsters, but received a writeup as a playable race for 2nd edition in the article "Half-Pint Heroes" in ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' #262.
* PutOnABus: 5th edition completely removed all mention of the ravenkin, even renaming the Keepers of the Black Feather to just "the Keepers of the Feather" and making them an all-wereraven organization.
* {{Seers}}: Vistani legend holds that ravenkin can see through the eyes of any raven in the Demiplane. 3rd edition states that a ravenkin with at least 13 hit dice can instinctively scry on any raven they've ever touched.
* SquishyWizard: Ravenkin are innately talented at magic, but they have the body structures of regular crows, making them poor melee fighters -- they can peck out an eye, rake with their talons, or even wield daggers or wands in their feet, but melee combat is still a ''bad idea''.

* AscendedExtra: The twins originally extremely minor roles; they weren't introduced until the ''Domains of Dread'' setting boxed set, which stated that they had taken over their HonoraryUncle Van Richten's shop[[note]]Van Richten had been killed in the earlier adventure ''Bleak House''[[/note]], and then made them the authors of the ''Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium'' {{sourcebook}}s, a trilogy containing reprints of the original five "Van Richten's Guide to (insert monster here)" {{sourcebook}}s, plus the new "Van Richten's Guide to Witches". In 3rd edition, they became more prominent, becoming the brains behind three new monster-hunting Guidebooks[[note]]Walking Dead, Shadow Fey and the Mists, although only the former two saw print[[/note]] and making appearances in other sourcebooks, even receiving official writeups for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition''.

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: He is perhaps the only nice vampire in the entire setting.

An alchemist from Mordent who forged a mystical apparatus with mysterious powers over souls and spirits. He originally appeared in the poorly-received ''Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill'', where he was a sort of dr. Jekyll to Strahd's mr. Hyde, but was largely forgotten about after that. For 5th edition, TheBusCameBack, but any relation between him and Strahd was AdaptedOut, and he was renamed Rastinon.

* CameBackWrong: Whether due to his own cannibalistic tendencies or a curse from his victims, he rose as a ghast, an advanced form of ghoul.
* ChaoticEvil: In-universe.

* EliteMook: As a ghast, compared to ghouls.

* VillainousFriendship: With Yagno Petrovna, in life.
* WolfPackBoss: Runs with a pack of ghouls which he made himself.

* HoneyTrap: All ermordenung are beautiful assassins.

* KissOfDeath: How she killed Camille Dilisnya.

* ChaoticNeutral: In-universe.

* {{Golem}}: A mechanical golem.

* CursedWithAwesome: The dominant theory as to his origins state he was a soldier who used a disguise to provoke a massacre of a Vistani caravan, and is now a HiveMind due to what was probably intended as an IronicHell of LossOfIdentity. He really doesn't mind.
* ForTheEvulz: A bored Toben is a terrifying thing.

* ItCanThink: Toben is what happens when you give a ZombieApocalypse the mind of a high-functioning and very clever SerialKiller.

* ZombieApocalypse: He's not planning on taking over any time soon (it'd get lonely), but anyone facing Toben quickly faces this in short order.

Larissa appears in the novel ''Dance of the Dead'' and later in 5th edition as an NPC, though her past is kept mysterious.

* NonLinearCharacter: The [[MagicalRomani Zarovan Vistani tribe]] exist outside of time, and can casually interact with people whenever they choose. Whilst it makes them master {{seer}}s even amongst the Vistani, it also means that [[HorrifyingTheHorror even other Vistani are frightened of them]]. This trait is so integral to them that even Mortu Zarovans, Vistani who have [[BroughtDownToNormal had most of their magical traits burned out of them by a triggered curse]], are still partially unstuck from time, causing them to switch from eerie prescience to slow, spacey behavior, depending on whether they're perceiving the past or future. In combat, they even need to test each round to see how well their personal time-zone is synched up with reality's, which can result in potentially strong bonuses -- or equally strong penalties.
** Notably, this allows Madame Eva to continue interacting with players despite the fact she was ''technically'' killed by Jacqueline Montarri. She even used this ability to taunt Jacqueline Montarri after she was transformed into her cursed form.

* HaveWeMetYet: Madame Eva likes to pop up and [[{{Troll}} mock her once in a while]], thanks to being sort of UnstuckInTime and precognitively aware of her death.

* BloodBrothers: Arturi and Rudolph became this to cement that they had truly forgiven each other, thus allowing their respective curses to be broken.

!!Other Characters
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Dr. Rudolph Van Richten]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dnd___rudolph_van_richten_by_miles_johnston_d5hl6xr_fullview.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Vampire hunter extraordinaire]]

Once a humble doctor in Darkon, who lived happily with his wife and son. That all came to a crashing the night that a Vistani tribe, the Radanavichs, burst into his home and demanded he treat a badly wounded member of theirs. Van Richten worked on him with all his skills, but it wasn't enough and the boy died on the operating table. Terrified of the (justifiably) infamous temper, mercurial nature and dark magic of the Vistani, he begged them to take whatever they wanted from his home but leave him unharmed. To his horror, they did so by kidnapping his son. Desperately he raced out into the night, where he encountered Azalin; for his own amusement, the Lich not only shielded him from the monsters, but allowed him to command an army of zombies. With their help, he caught the Vistani and demanded his son back... only to find he had been sold to Baron Metis, a vampire nobleman. Commanding the zombies to feast upon the Vistani, he went to the vampire and tried to get his son back, but was rebuked. His son escaped before morning, but it was too late; he had already become a "bride", a vampire created by another of its kind as a lover and soulmate. He staked his son, after spending the last hours of his human self together, and then returned home -- only to find that the vengeful Metis had slain his wife in kind. This set him upon the road to become the greatest monster hunter, and authority on slaying monsters, in the Demiplane of Dread.

* SwordAndGun: In their 3rd edition statblock, Gennifer is said to wield a silvered dagger and pistol, whilst Gennifer alternates between a rapier and a musket.

* MagicEater: His only form of sustenance. He can absorb spells cast upon him, or touch a magic user and grab a spell from their minds.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When the Vistani meddle in things, especially to avenge perceived insults to their race, it often breeds more suffering. One of the most iconic examples is Jacqueline Montarri; an overly bold thief who attempted to murder Madame Eva and failed, the Vistani manipulated her into going to Count Strahd von Zarovich's, where she was caught and executed. Then they revived her as an immortal headless woman [[CraniumChase with the ability to steal other women's heads]], and let her go on her merry way. She promptly turned into a SerialKiller and founded her own LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub to achieve her twin goals of becoming obscenely wealthy and securing an endless supply of fresh heads. Nice work, Vistani.

** The concept of the Vistani first appears in the original AD&D 1e module ''I6: Ravenloft''. Here, they're not even ''called'' "Vistani", instead simply being called "gypsies", and are clearly an homage to the Romani servants of Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel. Very little is directly said about the Vistani in this adventure; they serve Strahd, to the point the players may fight them in some rooms or random encounters, but they clearly don't serve him willingly and would happily be free of him -- but they won't risk their own lives to fight him, and certainly not if they can't be certain of victory. Which is only reasonable; Strahd is an ancient vampire with double-digits in the wizard class; calling him "The Devil Strahd" is doing him a disservice in that most devils and demons ''wish'' they were as threatening as he is. These proto-Vistani lack the magical traits that would become iconic to them, as this predates the concept of the Demiplane of Dread -- the tribe's seer, Madame Eva, is "just" a powerful Diviner with a "old gypsy mystic" aesthetic, and whilst they know the antidote to the poisonous mists that entrap the village of Barovia, Strahd clearly has some other way to keep them at his side.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Of the Romani, obviously, being rooted in the use of "gypsy seers" in old GothicHorror movies and the gypsy servitors of {{Dracula}}. 2nd and 3rd edition sourcebooks even openly refer to the Vistani as "gypsies".

** The original iteration of the 5th edition adventure module "Curse of Strahd", a reinvention of the classic I6: Castle Ravenloft adventure module from which Ravenloft sprang, leaned heavily into this trope, as the Vistani were reinvisioned in that module to be closer to their distant literary inspiration of Dracula's "loyal gypsy servants". After prominent complaints, the module was re-released with this trope turned down, and it was likewise removed from the subsequent 5th edition setting {{sourcebook}} "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft".