Mysteries of the Von Zarovich Family

[The Lesser Evil]

Looking over the Von Zarovich family tree in the black box, I can see some possible mysteries or plot ideas that might be worth discussing.

1). Somebody seems to have been killing off some of the married von Zaroviches, or at least several husband-wife pairs have been dying in the same year. They are as follows:
*Siska von Zarovich/Ivan Reichhardt (died 651 BC)
*Lizbeth von Zarovich/Vasili Geistlinger (d. 721 BC)
*Sergei von Zarovich (II)/Ireena Kolokoff (d. 729 BC)

Now, not all these deaths are from recently married couples. (Sergei and Ireena had 5 kids including Lizbeth before dying.) For the most part, the children of the couples seem to have survived their parents killers. So the question is, whom killed those couples? It might have been Strahd, especially if there were some reincarnating Sergei (I)/Tatyana reincarnations in there, but then he would have likely killed the children off or would have done the killing earlier. So who done the murders, and why?

2) Klaus von Zarovich was the child of Andrea von Zarovich and an unknown father, whom Andrea will not give up the name. Since Klaus was born in 701 BC, only four years before Vigo Drakov (705 BC according to Gaz II, p. 104), it might not be too far of a stretch to establish that Klaus von Zarovich might be a Barovian child of the Gentleman Caller.

If so, what is Klaus like and what sort of heinous acts is he up to?

3) Gertrude von Zarovich married Raul Renier, one of the Renier family wererats. According to Scholar of Decay, Raul fled Richemulot after poisoning his mother and framing the cook for the murder (or at least that's how Louise Renier explains it.) According to Legacy of the Blood, by the years of 750-755 BC (p. 108), Raul and Gertrude should have children of starting ages equivalent to player characters, suggesting that by late 750s BC they might have accrued a significant amount of character levels.

So what sort of nefarious activities would Raul and his von Zarovich-Renier offspring be up to? Would they be planning some kind of plot against their Richemloise kin?

[The Lesser Evil]

Derp, disregard the bit about Klaus being a kid of the Gentleman Caller. Forgot he was only going after people with Vistani blood, brain fart on my part.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Well, if you accept the retcon in CoS

VIEW CONTENT:

that Madame Eva is Strahd's sister

, it could work.

[Garudos Celestar]

If you go to Stu of the Kargatane’s campaign journal, he actually made the circumstances of Lisbeth and Vasili’s deaths a major part of the player character Ilyich’s backstory (the short version: Lisbeth was a member of the Keepers of the Black Feather; Vasili was a member of the Ba’al Verzi; they died in the same year because of a murder-suicide once they learned of one another’s affiliations, leaving baby Ilyich orphaned; Ilyich learned about his von Zarovich heritage many years later during the campaign). The adventure was entitled “The Return of the Ba’al Verzi.”