Lady Ivana Boritsi

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Ivana Boritsi 689-present)[1][2][3][4] is the co-darklord of Borca with her cousin, Ivan Dilisnya (the former darklord of Dorvinia.[5][2][6][4] Prior to the Grand Conjunction and the merging of their domains, Lady Ivana was the sole darklord of Borca. However, Ivana was not the first darklord of Borca; she claimed the title from her mother, Camille Boritsi, after securing her death with poison.[7][8][9][10]

Poison is in fact Lady Ivana's preferred method of murder. Known as the the Black Widow for the string of dead lovers and husbands, poison is Lady Ivana's blessing and curse. On the one hand, Ivana is both immune to its effects and may kill with but a poisonous kiss. Yet the same poison that flows through her veins condemns her to a life of isolation.[11][8][12][10]

History

Family Information

Ivana Bortsi was born the daughter of Camille Dilisnya and Klaus Boritsi in Borca in 689 BC. She is the sister of Anton Boritsi and Sulo Boritsi, the grandchild of Lev Dilisnya and Anna Kurdzeil[1], the aunt of Oton Boritsi[13], and the the neice of Oleska Dilisnya, Richtor Dilisnya, Stepan Dilisnya and Yakov Dilisnya.[1] She is also the cousin of Clifford Dilisnya and Virginia Dilisnya, both werewolves.[14]

Early Life

Ivana Boritsi was born on a dark night in the December[15] of 689 BC, the same moonless night as her cousin, Ivan Dilisnya.[4] Though not actual twins, their dual sinister natures would later earn them the collective moniker of the Dark Twins[16], the day of their birth known by the Borcans as the Day of the Dark Moon's Get[17]

Camille raised her daughter to regard men with only hatred, for she wished not her daughter to enjoy the love she was denied.[7][8][9][10] Klaus might not have been so misanthropic, for he bought Ivana Danzig's Icon of Ezra, a mystical device that later revealed to her divination abilities, in 697 BC. However, Klaus vanished from Ivana's life that same year[18] as Camille murdered him because of his infidelity.[1] Regardless of his mother's misandry and father's demise, Ivana held some hope of meeting someone to love.[7][8][9][10]

In the 17th year of her youth, the powers that be seemed to grant Ivana's wish in the form of the young musician named Pieter.[7][8][9][10] She consulted her Icon of Ezra on the likelihood of her success in winning his love, interpreting its cryptic answer as a confirmation.[18] Whereas Pieter rebuffed her first advances, eventually Ivana won his love through the love of his art.[7][8][9][10]

Incensed at her wayward daughter's discovery of love that had eluded her for so long, Camille disguised herself as Ivana and seduced Pieter. She then claimed he had seduced her, and succeeded in proving in Ivana's eyes that all men were evil. Ivana took the lesson to heart, and killed Pieter by saturating her own body with a virulent poison.[19][8][9][10] Moreover, Ivana's dreamy and idealistic nature became corrupted gave way to darker and more bitter one. Ivana leaped into Camille's lessons of poisonmaking and alchemy that she had formerly avoided.[16]

Perhaps Camille taught her daughter a little too well, for only a few years later Ivana used what she had learned to kill her mother in turn. Ivana turned her friend Nostalia Romaine into the first ermordenung, and used her to assassinate her mother[20][10] With the death of her mother, Ivana Boritsi became heir to both positions of darklord and ruler of Borca.[21][8][9][10]

As Darklord

Ivana's rule was unchallenged[10], if distant from day-to-day matters, for several decades. She innovated a "pay-to-play" aristocracy based on indentures and contracts. Ivana's regime brought a solidity to Borcan's government, yet Ivana's lavish spending on hedonistic pleasures began to strange its economy.[16] She signed the Treaty of Four Towers in 729 BC.[22]

In 740 BC, the Great Upheaval occurred. In the chaos of that catastrophe, Ivan discovered he was no longer bound to his domain. He raced off to find Ivana Boritsi. Their close proximity, both spatially and spiritually, at the time of the Upheaval's end resulted in the combining of Dorvinia and Borca. Ivana's stronger sense of self won over Ivan's, making Borca the name of the newly consolidated domain.[5] Moreover, Ivana claimed ownership of all the lands of the new Borca, save for Lechberg and some land in Doldak Heights. However, Ivan took command of Borca's police and military forces, including those of tax collection[23]

More recently, Ivana's wrath has fallen upon the Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins, both for their repeated requests for the Deathstone and for Gennifer Weathermay-Foxgrove's (potentially romantic) friendship with Bevel Boritsi, Ivana's nephew. Ivana has forbidden the Twins from entering Borca and Bevel from seeing Gennifer.[24]

Current Sketch

Lady Ivana remains hateful towards men and the concept of love in general. She manipulates those who would seek her love before ultimately murdering them. In addition, she works to poison the relationship of others who might otherwise experience the love she is denied.[21][8][9][10]

At the same time she holds the above vitriol, Ivana secretly yearns for another Pieter, yet she is cursed to kill any potential candidate. She fills this void by draining the coffers of her aristocracy, whom pass on the bill to the common folk.[21][8][9][10]

Being close spatially has only driven apart Ivan and Ivana emotionally. Former childhood playmates and close correspondents from afar, the Dark Twins are hateful rivals that use their social power to covertly undo each other. Both are thoroughly immune to poison, yet the Twins never stop devising new ways to envenom each other. Borcan lives are lost in the crossfire.[21][25], and even the land becomes polluted with run off from failed toxins, staining it with a purple taint.[21]

The primary mainstays in Lady Ivana's company are the Jongleur and Nostalia Romaine.[23]

Statistics

2nd Edition

female human 0-Level Character[26][8]

3rd Edition

(revised)

Pathfinder

Rogue (spy) 6/Courter 5[28]

Missing Dread Possibility from Gaz IV

Starting around 717 BC, while Ivana Boritsi was between marriages, a peculiar rumor arose — likely started by jealous rivals — that she had secretly borne, then abandoned, an illegitimate daughter. Ivana’s confidantes know that the venom flowing through her veins renders her barren and thus consider the idea ludicrous, but the tale has proven stubbornly persistent among the peasantry and has even spread far beyond Borca. In lands throughout the Core, many a wintry beauty has posed as the “dispossessed heir of Borca” to avail herself of the sympathy and prestige such an aristocratic heritage provides. Some of these women were charlatans, but others were simply naïve orphans tricked into believing a false heritage by unscrupulous advisers. Over the years, a few foolish pretenders have even traveled to Borca to present themselves to Ivana as her long-lost daughter. Ivana sees these deceivers as cruel reminders of her own bitter solitude, and rewards them accordingly.

Signature Possessions

Owner of the Danzig's Icon of Ezra and the Deathstone.

Chronology

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Realm of Terror p.121
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Domains of Dread p.58
  3. 3.0 3.1 Secrets of the Dread Realms p. 14
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Gazetteer IV p. 154
  5. 5.0 5.1 Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens (Red Box) p.61
  6. Secrets of the Dread Realms p. 15
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens (Red Box) p.57
  8. 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 Domains of Dread p.56
  9. 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 Secrets of the Dread Realms p.13
  10. 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 10.10 10.11 10.12 10.13 10.14 Gazetteer IV p. 150
  11. Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens (Red Box) p.57-58
  12. Secrets of the Dread Realms p.13-14
  13. Legacy of the Blood p.
  14. Realm of Terror p.126
  15. 15.0 15.1 Gazetteer IV p. 26
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Gazetteer IV p. 18
  17. Gazetteer IV p. 26
  18. 18.0 18.1 Legacy of the Blood p. 18-19
  19. Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens (Red Box) p.57-58
  20. 20.0 20.1 Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium I & II p. 77
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens (Red Box) p.58
  22. 22.0 22.1 Gazetteer IV p.19
  23. 23.0 23.1 Gazetteer IV p. 28
  24. Legacy of the Blood p. 7-10, 132
  25. Domains of Dread p.57
  26. Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens p.56
  27. Gazetteer IV p.149-150
  28. Pathfinder in the Mists p.41
  29. Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens (Red Box) p.60
  30. Legacy of the Blood p. 18-19, date based on Realm of Terror (Black Box) p. 121
  31. Gazetteer IV p. 18, 150
  32. Realm of Terror (Black Box Set) p. 66. 716 Date contradicted by the Boritsi family tree in the same book and later sources, which give 711 BC as the date Ivana kills her mother and becomes darklord of Borca.
  33. Domains of Dread p.17
  34. Gazetteer IV p.37

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Secrets of the Dread Realms
Domains of Dread

Secrets of the Dread Realms - p15
Domains of Dread - p57
Realm of Terror - reference card

Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp13-14
Domains of Dread - pp56-57
The Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - pp56-58

Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp7,13-16
Ravenloft Third Edition - p115
Domains of Dread - pp56-57
The Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - pp10-11,56-58
Realm of Terror - p121,reference card
The Forgotten Children - pp32,35 Download Now!

The Black Widow