Lord Leo Dilisnya

Leo Dilisnya is a character associated with the in-world background of the Ravenloft campaign setting, particularly of Barovia and Borca. He is one of the ancestors of one of two branches of what is known today as the Dilisny family, having survived a massacre at the Wedding of Sergei von Zarovich he played a large role in causing. Lord Leo Dilisnya wished to wipe out the Von Zarovich Family and claim rule over Barovia for himself. However, in the end Strahd tracked him down and afflicted him with a horrible punishment.

Conceptual Development

Leo Dilisnya was first introduced in the bloodline family trees of the Dilisnyas and Boritsis in the Realm of Terror ("Black Box") boxed set, where he is shown to have sired the family line that eventually produced Camille Dilisnya, whom would marry Klaus Boritsi and produce all of the listed Boristi family. Leo Dilisnya is revealed to be the illegitimate child of Duchess Dorfinya, a Dilisnya by marriage not by blood, and Gunther Cosco, but Dorfinya nonetheless raises him as her husband, Pidlwik Dilisnya's son. According to the information presented in the family trees, learning this fact only after his father's death motivates him to move away from his Dilisnya heritage.

The Ravenloft novel I, Strahd, The Memoirs of a Vampire established a truly villainous character for Lord Leo. However, the majority of this text is Strahd's in-character biased and perhaps outright fabricated recollection of his past. In the book, Strahd blames much of the murder at the Wedding of Sergei von Zarovich on Leo Dilisnya and his fellow Ba'al Verzi. However, this account was contradicted by the 2nd Edition module From the Shadows, where the player characters travel back in time to the day of the wedding. Leo Dilisnya or his assassins are not mentioned.

The above contradiction could have been explained by the biased and self-serving nature of Strahd's autobiography. However, 3rd Edition products canonized Leo Dilisnya's treachery and some other events if I, Strahd as actually happening to some degree. Gazetteer I also introduced Leo Dilisnya's continued existence as a Dread Possibility. However, it was not until the 4th Edition module Fair Barovia that Leo Dilisnya was introduced as the villain of a module.

History

Leo Dilisnya was born to Duchess Dorfniya Dilisnya in Prime Material Barovia in 320 BC. He was the recognised son of Pidlwik Dilisnya, but was in fact fathered by Gunther Cosco. He was the younger brother of Reinhold Dilisnya, Gertrude Dilisnya and Oleka Dilisnya, the grandson of Izabela Dilisnya, and the uncle of at least nine including Lovina Wachter.

Leo inherited from his stepfather a hatred of the von Zaroviches. Pidlwik's mother Izabela Dilisnya had been murdered in 314 BC by either the Katsky family or the Petrovna family. And before she could be avenged sufficiently by the assassinations of the War of Silver Knives, Count Barov von Zarovich imposed in a peace upon the warring families. Pidlwik died in 349 BC, the zon Zaroviches unpunished for their interference. For his part, Leo plotted not merely to punish them. He plotted to make himself the ruler of Prime Material Barovia. The von Zaroviches would be wiped out. His ailing brother Reinhold would be installed as Count of Barovia. And after a year or two, Count Reinhold would appear to die of his stomach illness, which was in fact a result of poisoning by his brother. Leo would then succeed Reinhold as Count of Barovia.

The Wedding of Sergei von Zarovich was the moment when Leo struck. The massacre turned out to be somewhat wider than had been intended initially. It would claim his biological father Gunther, his brother Reinhold, his sister Gertrude, her husband Ivan Buchvold, together their three children, and his sister Oleka, together with three of her four children. Count Strahd von Zarovich appeared to be fatally wounded. And the couple to be married, Sergei von Zarovich and his bride Tatyana Federovna, were already dead, Strahd having murdered his brother Sergi and Tanyana having escaped Strahd by throwing herself from the castle wall. Leo was far from unpleased with the result. Unfortunately, Strahd, rather than expiring peaceably, rose up as one of the undead and routed the Leo's forces. The only Dilisnyas to escape Castle Ravenloft were Leo, Lovinia Wachter, Reinhold's wife Nadia Yakimov and her children.

Leo and his remaining kin went to ground, rightly fearing the vengeance of the vampire that now ruled the realm. Flight to other lands proved to be impossible, for the Mists had cut off the land from its neighbours. The patriarch of the Dilisnyas hid himself away in the Monastery of Silver Threads and prepared himself for the night when Strahd would come. In 398 BC, the Count of Barovia at last came for his most wayward subject. The preparations proved to be insufficient, if just barely. Strahd ended Leo's life, but not his existence. He made him a vampire and then sealed him away in a tomb on the Wachter Estate to be driven mad by hunger before eventually expiring of it.

The ultimate fate of Leo Dilisnya is not in fact certain however. The autobiographical I, Strahd is far from a reliable work in many aspects. In particular: it is not clear that a vampire can be starved to the point of destruction; it is somewhat doubtful that Strahd would instructed Lovina Wachter to open Leo's tomb after a month; and it is somewhat doubtful that Strahd would have put the Wachter family at risk by identifying their estate as the site of Leo's internment.

In Fair Barovia

In this 4th Edition module, Lord Leo Dilisnya breaks free of his imprisonment. He adopts the guise of Brother Henrik, murders Nikolai and Karl Wachter (Fair Barovia), dominated Yelena Olavnya Aresek and consumed some of her [[blood] ritual fashion in order to escape Strahd's scrying, and set up shop at the Monastery of the White Sun on Mount Ghakis. He killed and reanimated several monastics there as undead and keeping others alive in the loarder. He lingers there, using the defiled monastery as a refuge. He may transform into a man-bat hybrid or a lion as part of his salient vampire powers.

In Curse of Strahd

The bones of Lord Dilisnya are held in an iron chest at Wachterhaus to keep anybody from resurrecting him. No mention is made of Dilisnya being a vampire.

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Ravenloft Third Edition Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I
		Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - p13
		Ravenloft Third Edition - pp12-13,17 Realm of Terror - pp121,123 Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - p13