Café de Nuit

It occurred to me during preparation for my upcoming CoS game that I don’t think that I have ever seen any attempt to understand why the Old Svalich Road, Svalich Pass and the Svalich Woods are so named. Roads are normally named after their destination unless named for a local landmark. Could it be that there was a settlement in Prime Material Barovia that was named Svalich. Strahd named the Castle after his mother. Is it possible that the village underneath was named for his father and was originally named Svalich? Perhaps the entire county was the County of Svalich prior to Strahd’s conquest. Or...was Svalich a settlement at one of the road in prime material Barovia. Can anyone shed any light on this?

De Montour wrote:It occurred to me during preparation for my upcoming CoS game that I don’t think that I have ever seen any attempt to understand why the Old Svalich Road, Svalich Pass and the Svalich Woods are so named. Roads are normally named after their destination unless named for a local landmark. Could it be that there was a settlement in Prime Material Barovia that was named Svalich. Strahd named the Castle after his mother. Is it possible that the village underneath was named for his father and was originally named Svalich? Perhaps the entire county was the County of Svalich prior to Strahd’s conquest. Or...was Svalich a settlement at one of the road in prime material Barovia. Can anyone shed any light on this?

I figured the woods were the basis of naming of the road and the connected pass. Who or what 'Svalich' is still beyond me, but my guess it has a linguistic meaning like 'dark' or 'foreboding' or something to that effect (any language speakers out there with an approximation of Svalich, my guess Romanian, would be the closest for reference, feel free to share). But if there is a desire to add depth to the land by adapting the name to a person or group of peoples, go for it (especially if there is no conflicting canon). If it does gain an official reason, adapt it as a local rumor gone wrong or misinterpreted.

I can’t find Svalich in any of the Romaniian to English online dictionaries. What I did find was a pronunciation site that claims that Svalich, in Romanian, means ‘not found’ and is pronounced ‘Svaleek’.

I suppose that ‘not found’ makes sense, in a knowingly clever kind of way, if viewed against the original I6 module where Barovia existed alone and n complete isolation(and in the CoS setting). It’s a little harder to rationalise in the Core domains setting though and if the concept of a Prime Material Barovia is retained.

The Old Not Found Road that runs from Borca to Nova Vaasa doesn’t make much sense to me in those circumstances.

I'd always assumed it was a deliberate corruption/fantasy spin on Wallachia. What it means in universe, though is probably up for grabs.

De Montour wrote:I can’t find Svalich in any of the Romaniian to English online dictionaries. What I did find was a pronunciation site that claims that Svalich, in Romanian, means ‘not found’ and is pronounced ‘Svaleek’.

I suppose that ‘not found’ makes sense, in a knowingly clever kind of way, if viewed against the original I6 module where Barovia existed alone and n complete isolation(and in the CoS setting). It’s a little harder to rationalise in the Core domains setting though and if the concept of a Prime Material Barovia is retained.

The Old Not Found Road that runs from Borca to Nova Vaasa doesn’t make much sense to me in those circumstances.

You would have to remember that the core built itself *around* Barovia and everything else came after, so it may have lost its meaning of "not found/nowhere road" got lost by the expansion of the core and the withdrawing of the mists. Also, the road would literally have been to nowhere pre-additional domains if I remember correctly