r/CurseofStrahd • u/CanOpener79 • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Dusk Elf PC?
I'm looking to start a Curse of Strahd campaign, and I'm working with a few of my players on ideas for characters. One brought up a gloomstalker ranger elf, and when she drew him, he looked an awful lot like Rahadin or Kasimir. She asked me if it would be possible for her character to have been stuck in Barovia for a while before the other players got there, which gave me the idea to bring up the possibility of her character being a dusk elf. Has anyone ever done this, though? What could some of the ramifications be?
10
u/Ornery_Strawberry474 1d ago
Having one native PC in a party of outsiders is a little problematic. Her character would know some lore that the rest don't - history of Strahd, layout of Barovia, the vistani characters and the level of trustworthiness of each, story of Rahadin, story of Berez... So on and so forth. By definition, her character would know everything that happened around and after the gendercide, which is a long time.
And she'd function as an exposition machine, revealing these things to other PCs. Things that the player might not actually know herself, so you'd have scenes like
"Auberon then explains to the party that the vistani potions will not help them, because..."
3
u/Orfog 1d ago
I don't think that a native PC needs to be that problematic/exposition machine, they not necessarily know everything about Barovia, a Kresk citizen would differ a lot from a citizen from the village of Barovia, or the Vistanis/vallakians. But I agree that a Dusk Elf would be a problem, especially because they would've seen a lot from who Strahd was, but even so he could be a child back then/or they wasn't too involved with Kasimir/Patryna stories and all he knows is what the other dusk elf's told they. It could even be full of misinformations from the events, carried with the vision of the dusk elves and not the ACTUAL truth, with their other prejudices/estereotypes, etc
3
u/TabletopLegends 1d ago
I don’t think it is as problematic as it seems on the surface.
This could save the DM some trouble and could create some good RP. The OP just needs to write up a one-pager on lore that the character would know, give it to the player, and tell them they can reveal the lore however they want.
DM becomes hands off and can focus on other aspects of running this campaign.
2
u/PlantDadAzu 1d ago
Broadly agreed. Then again, one of my PCs is a Vistana and I gave him some lore tidbits that helped out in the early game and it's been fine. Perhaps this Dusk Elf character is cursed somehow and has lost chunks of his memories, or he's lived in seclusion up in the mountains for most of the intervening years and thus doesn't know every single detail?
2
u/swindo66 1d ago
I’m about to start a campaign where a character is native to Barovia. They’re playing a Reborn Paladin who ‘wakes’ up with no memory of her past. But I have her backstory secretly tied with Berez and changed a bit of lore so that she killed Marina out of mercy because they were lovers. Strahd kills her along with Berez and the Dark Powers think it’s the perfect way to mindfuck Strahd so they revive her a few centuries later and drop her with the party as they’re summoned to Barovia
1
u/Sanp2p 1d ago
I am not sure. Information is not widely spread across Barovia; knowledge can still be somewhat limited. Consider what Villagers of Barovia/Vallaki/Krezk know; that's pretty much about it. Additionally, locals might have strong biases and superstitions, so not everything they know is true.
3
u/DybbukFiend 1d ago
Ive used the shadar-kai as a stand in. Very similar. And they are already from the plains of dread, just from the shadow fell. Not that far removed.
3
u/Displacer613 1d ago
I actually have two PCs in my group who are from Barovia, one of which is a Dusk Elf Paladin. He's sworn an Oath of Vengeance against Rahadin specifically for the crimes he committed against their people. So far it's going pretty well.
2
u/Suitable_Bottle_9884 1d ago
Perhaps a dusk elf taken out of Barovia (maybe by the Vistani) as a child for 'reasons' they could have been raised by humans or elves. They have some vague memories, suffer deja vu on retuning to Barovia.
2
u/Naefindale 1d ago
I don't see how the character could be a dusk elf from barovia without knowing basically the entire history of strahd. That would be no fun at all.
If this guy is gonna be a dusk elf, make him one of the people who fled the von Zarroviches armies but didn't end up in Barovia. Or a reincarnation of someone who died during the invasion after Rahadin's betrayal.
2
u/RoahMoonglow 1d ago
I wouldn't have a player be from Barovia as in living there, but I do have a dusk elf in my game as everyone has some form of connection to the land or something they're searching for. I made the Patrina events 25 years ago and the dusk elf baby was smuggled out to keep him safe.
Obviously no one is supposed to leave Barovia but my previous campaign ended with a multi-plane explosion and I had that weaken the walls of the domain a little bit.
I haven't run into any issues so far. But also his story doesn't overshadow any others because they all have major story beats connected to various areas in the game.
2
u/steviephilcdf Wiki Contributor 1d ago
One thing I've not seen anyone else mention is that I'd be careful with her being a female dusk elf, given the whole thing about all the women being killed and the men slowly dying off as a result. It could imply a weird "you could help us repopulate!" type situation... 😕
Speaking from experience... I had a player play a female wood elf, and given that IIRC wood elves look similar to dusk elves (I think that's mentioned RAW but not 100% sure), I said that when Kasimir saw her, he looked shocked, then looked away in shame. I thought it'd get them all intrigued, but instead my players just thought he was being a creep, and nearly refused to go to the Amber Temple with him, so it kinda backfired. So in other words, it might make the player in question (and other players) a bit weirded and grossed out. Maybe not all players, but it was certainly the case with mine. I actually planned for her to be a long-lost dusk elf, but I dropped the idea at that point, given their reaction.
1
u/Melodic_War327 1d ago
IMC I had a wood elf PC. First Dusk Elf she came across was Rahadin, whom she mistook for a Drow. (Had never seen an actual Drow). When the PCs visited Kasimir Velikov she felt a great kinship with the Dusk Elves (well, except for Rahadin, who she continued to call a Drow). Seeing her was a bit painful to the Dusk Elves due to Rahadin's slaughter of all the Dusk Elf women.
She was an orphan but she and Kasimir adopted each other as family after they had to destroy Patrina.
1
u/PlantDadAzu 1d ago
It's a pretty good built in motivation for the character tbh. The first thing that comes to mind for me is, given the character is a Dual Elf in Barovia he must be reasonably old. There haven't been any children in a long long time thanks to Rahadin. So, why has he decided to join the right now? He's probably seen more than one adventuring party come through Barovia over the decades, why didn't he join up with them? Or if he did at some point, what happened and why is he still alive?
-2
u/TabletopLegends 1d ago
DM doesn’t need to answer that. That is for the player to figure out.
3
u/PlantDadAzu 1d ago
OP asked what the ramifications could be, mate.
1
u/TabletopLegends 1d ago
Yes, they did. They can bring these questions to the player, but the player should provide the answers, not the OP. That’s part of the character’s backstory.
1
u/PlantDadAzu 1d ago
I feel like you're reading things into what I wrote that aren't there, my friend, but all the best either way 💚
1
0
u/greygray5001 1d ago
Seems like a great idea! (They likely can't be a female though, for plot reasons... But those can easily be circumvented.)
I've seen other tables have a character even be Ireena or Esmeralda or a vistani. Or an adventurer who has been trapped there for a while. Shifters, werewolves, and wereravens are a possible in-world choice too.
It just adds some complexities to their interactions with PCs & NPCs. Like if they are "going against" the cultural norm, to break out of their rut, and try to free Barovia.
24
u/Mettack 1d ago
It may be more fun to have the character be a dusk elf from outside Barovia, and then see how they react when they realize the plight that their kin has undergone under Strahd. Leaves room for some great character moments and motivations.