Does Ravenloft have a Carmilla expy?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Dracula gets so much attention in Ravenloft, but what about his older sister? I get she isn't as scary or famous, but I think she deserves more shine. I actually managed to finish her book, which is more than the old count can say, and it's written beautifully. And while Dracula defined a lot of the modern vampire genre, I think it was Carmilla who gave us the cute, classy vampire that's so charming you won't even notice they're sucking your blood until you're already theirs (Book Dracula is a meanie who controls people through intimidation and it being his house from night 1.)
Plus, Hazlik is getting lonely in the Queer Darklords Club!

[IanFordam]

Perhaps Camille Churnstone from the article "Lilliend" from Quoth the Raven Issue 25?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Perhaps Camille Churnstone from the article "Lilliend" from Quoth the Raven Issue 25?

Merçi. ^_^

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Perhaps Camille Churnstone from the article "Lilliend" from Quoth the Raven Issue 25?

Merçi. ^_^

Oh, right! I almost forgot about her. A fascinating villain, really.
Now I read the Mistipedia article about Lillilender Vampires, and I see you really based them on Carmilla ~ They transform into felines, bite at the heart... Really cool.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Perhaps Camille Churnstone from the article "Lilliend" from Quoth the Raven Issue 25?

Merçi. ^_^

Oh, right! I almost forgot about her. A fascinating villain, really.
Now I read the Mistipedia article about Lillilender Vampires, and I see you really based them on Carmilla ~ They transform into felines, bite at the heart... Really cool.

Thank you as well. ^_^
And yeah, I did.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I see I'm not the first to think about this. Wasn't expecting to be.
But I'm already hooked on doing my own take on Carmilla, so let's think.

I already mentioned that Dracula's power, beyond his vampiric abilities, is the fact it's his house. Jonathan isn't stupid, he knows something is off about him - But what can he do if all the doors are locked?
This aspect of him translates really well into his Ravenloft expy. Most Strahd adventures are about the party coming to his castle. In every edition, it always goes back to the castle. The entire setting is named after the damned building, Ezra help us all! And even if you get out of that architectural disaster, he technically owns every house in Barovia, so you're still in his house!

Carmilla, on the other hand, is about the horror of realising you've let evil in to your house and your heart. Also, her feeding strategy depends on travelling to the next village before she's caught - her downfall comes when her victims' parents start talking to eachother. I think in RPG she'd work best as an NPC that accompanies the party, befriends it, even becomes part of it - and all the while subtly drains their blood metaphorically and literally. Maybe she'd leave behind a trail of fledgling vampires and mysteriously ill lesbians in every town the party visits, making another darklord suspect the PCs?
So maybe my expy shouldn't be a darklady.
If she is one, she'd be of the Harkon Lukas variety.
But I like the idea of her acting in someone else's domain, for this reason:
Carmilla is also about the fear your child has fallen under a bad influence. A 'friend' that seems cute and innocent but subtly isolates them, poisons their mind, drags them into depression and will eventually turn them into a monster like her unless you act now.
This fear is strangely even more relevant today than it was when Carmilla was written, for obvious reasons. I personally don't think parents should monitor their kids' internet activity too closely - teenagers need this autonomy - but I understand why some do. It's terrifying, to think something you have no control over holds more power over your kids than you do.
There's also always the question of what counts as a bad influence. I know way too many people who think 'letting kids know LGBTQ is a thing' is bad influence. Maybe the author of Carmilla was one of them.
It's tempting to reclaim Carmilla, to pretend she did nothing wrong. I've heard of adaptations who did it. But I'm glad I'm at a stage of accepting my identity where I can say 'Yes, we have something in common, but she's still a murderess. Still a predator. Still a monster. Just because you're marginalized doesn't mean you can't be a bitch.'
The thing is, my 14yo self, who just came out as non-binary and wasn't very well-accepted and was desperate to know ey's not alone, couldn't say it. Cause ey was lonely, and needed validation, and was sick of adults who probably wanted the best for em but not badly enough to try and understand. That teen could easily buy the oppressor-oppressed dichotomy. Ey could easily be convinced that a monster is a saint. Ey... Ey almost was. Ey would have been, if not for a warning by someone from within the community not so long ago. (I'm no longer talking about vampires, I'm talking about the surprising amount of communist propaganda in trans meme groups. Which is the reason I escaped from Facebook to a niche, politics-free fandom website in the first place. I guess at some point I have to face my own fears...) I think that's the reason so many of us get radicalised: it's easy to believe in something radical and dangerous when it feels like you very existence is considered radical and dangerous. So what if I put my Carmilla expy in that role? Someone who preys on those left on the outside, manipulates them using that feeling that 'it's us against the world'. Maybe she's doing the DND-villain-cliché of 'building an army of the undead', not by mind control, but by brainwashing? And I think that's why I want her to be in someone else's domain, conspiring against the local darklord.
I think the last unignorable aspect of Carmilla is how deep her charm goes. Even if you survive unvampirefied, you'll never be the same again. You can stake her through the heart, but she'll stay forever in yours. No matter how betrayed and horrified she made you feel, part of you will stay in love with her even a decade later - and that's the creepiest part. I don't have the expy's stats in mind yet, but I think a nice touch will be that every failed horror check induced by her results in the 'fascination' effect.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I'd recommend giving her every kind of mind-affecting power you can cram in. Not just the vampiric domination gaze, but hypnotism, high Bluff ranks, spells and/ or powers, a prestige class that's all about control.

[Mistmaster]

I am surprised that you, Rock, having written Camille in Patfinder I, did not give her Mesmerist levels.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I am surprised that you, Rock, having written Camille in Patfinder I, did not give her Mesmerist levels.

If I recall correctly, Occult Adventures wasn't out yet. Even if it had been, I wouldn't have chosen Mesmerist as a class for Camille Churnstone. I deliberately gave her Sorcerer levels because of the background I created for her; she had talent, but no desire to hone it. Her eventual advancement to power was due to throwing her own life away in a sacrifice for dark power, and of course the "favour" of the Dark Powers.
She has only continued to throw things away without thinking about it ever since.

[Mistmaster]

Understandable.