Baron Vargas Vallakovich, Burgomaster of Vallaki
The burgomaster, Baron Vargas Vallakovich (NE male human noble), is a ruthless heel who prides himself on his good breeding and finely honed leadership skills. He stages repeated celebrations to foster happiness, and his “All will be well!” catchphrase has become a sad and tiresome punchline. Baron Vallakovich has convinced himself that if he can make everyone in Vallaki happy, the town will slip free of Strahd’s dark grasp.
The baron has a brittle ego, and he lashes out at anyone who pokes fun at his festivals or treats him disrespectfully. He has two pet mastiffs that follow him everywhere, as well as a deformed henchman named
Izek Strazni . In addition to his weapons, Izek carries an iron ring of keys that unlock the stocks in the town square (area N8).
If the characters get on his bad side, the baron accuses them of being “spies of the devil Strahd” and sends twelve guards to arrest them, seize their weapons, and run them out of town. If the guards fail in their duty, the baron sends Izek to rally a mob of thirty commoners to lynch the party. If the commoners also fail, the baron summons the twelve remaining guards to defend his mansion, giving characters the run of the town.
If the characters get on his good side, he insists that they join him in the next festival as special guests and asks that they tell everyone that all will, indeed, be well. Vargas Vallakovich is a man completely and utterly motivated by fear. Fear drives him and is the source behind all of his delusions. He's not a great ruler and he is most certainly not a reasonable man.
An Abusive Childhood
Unfortunately, Vargas is a victim of child abuse. Like, hard core, gloves off, call Special Victims Unit child abuse. His father was a harsh ruler who took pleasure in running Vallaki like a dictatorship. Vargon Vallakovich brought his harsh ways home with him every night and often took out his frustrations on his family.
Vargas' mother often took the brunt of her husband's anger, and Vargas grew up helplessly watching, wishing he could save his mother but knowing he was too weak to actually do anything. He watched his mother suffer a string of miscarriages due to the beatings, leaving Vargas an only child.
Because of the abuse, Vargas grew up in a constant state of fear. He was always extraordinarily careful about his actions and his words, lest he unintentionally anger his father.
Strahd the Boogeyman
As he grew up, Vargas heard one name all too often. His father was trying to rid Vallaki of the Devil Strahd. That random villager deserved to die because they were in alliance with the Devil Strahd. You're father must be strict, Vargas, to protect us all from the Devil Strahd.
Unfortunately, this allowed Vargas' young mind to pass off his father's terrible actions and blame them on someone else. Vargas grew up under the impression that his father's cruelty was not his father's fault, but the fault of Strahd.
As he grew, this impression grew into a full blown delusion. As an adult, Vargas actively believes that all evil in the world can be traced back to Strahd. All sadness, all anger, all terrible happenstances, they're all directly Strahd's fault in Vargas' mind.
Murdering Vargon
As Vargas' delusions grew, he began to see the evil in his father. Vargas had always known his father was cruel and unreasonable, but over time he began to associate those personality traits with Strahd. And Strahd must be destroyed.
When Vargas was twenty, his father had another terrible night. Vargas decided enough was enough. He couldn't let the devil possess his father any longer. Vargas put a sleeping drought in his father's drink that night and then smothered the man in his sleep.
This murder had nothing to do with political gain or the seizing of power. It also had nothing to do with revenge or self defense. Murdering his father was an entirely premeditated attempt to get rid of Strahd's possession in their household. That's all. To Vargas, this was no different than putting a villager to death in the town square for talking too openly about Strahd.
Like Father, Like Son
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that abuse breeds abuse. In real life, those who were victims in childhood often become abusers in adulthood if they don't get help. Vargas is one of those people.
While Vargas doesn't physically abuse his family, he does have anger and control issues. He wants Vallaki run in a very specific way, and when that doesn't happen he tends to panic and lash out.
Vargas isn't as blatant in his violence as his father was, limiting his outbursts towards those who "deserve" it. Every week or so, he randomly selects a dissenter from the stocks and hold them in his house. For the next week or two, he takes out all his frustrations on this individual alone, letting his anger run wild.
This is far from a moral practice and is really really not okay. But in Vargas' mind, at least he's not draining this untoward feelings at the innocent.
According to Vargas' own delusions, feelings like panic and anger are signs of Strahd. Vargas does his very best to hide these feelings when they stir within him and walks around with a constant, almost comically strained smile.
This is where Vargas gets all his nervous ticks and catch phrases. People are dying? "Don't worry, all will be well!" You're feeling scared? "Smile! We must always smile to banish the darkness!"
This is also what inspired the festivals. The few happy memories that Vargas has from his childhood are of the festivals that were held in town, like Yuletide and Spring Coming. In an effort to replicate those good feelings year round, there's now a festival every week.
Vallaki's Last Burgomaster, Vargon Vallakovich
Believe it or not, the last Burgomaster of Vallaki was way worse that Vargas. Vargas' father was a dour, cruel man who ran Vallaki with an iron fist. Vargon Vallakovich didn't have his son's absurd festivals, but he did have many extra laws to make up for them.
During his time, Vallaki was on a full town curfew from dusk till dawn. No one was allowed outside their homes when the sun was down. Public torture was commonplace for any criminal activity, including beatings and whippings. And public execution happened more often than not.
Children who showed signs of ill temper were taken from their families and redesigned at Vargon's training camp, where they grew up to be members of the town guard and had no minds of their own.
And then Vargon Died
Vargon actually died quite young for a wealthy man in as civilized a town as Vallaki. He was only in his late forties when fever took him. He passed when Vargas was barely twenty. Though Vargon's cause of death is officially illness, there were many suspicious circumstances surrounding his passing. However, with the sorry state of Vallaki, nobody really complained and those suspicions were swept under the rug in favor of paying attention to the new Burgomaster, the idealistic Vargas Vallakovich.
The Baron's Family
Lydia Petrovna
Vargas and his wife, Lydia came together under an arranged marriage. Lydia had a very complacent nature, which appealed to the late Burgomaster as a good match for his son. The two were married young, a little over a year before Vargon's murder.
Lydia is a god fearing (I mean Morning Lord fearing) woman. She's gentle and reserved for all accounts, but also actively stops herself from having "bad thoughts." If she sees something she knows is wrong, she actively suppresses that knowledge and goes into complete denial.
Lydia has only the most superficial likes and dislikes. She doesn't involve herself in more complicated matters because of the seriousness involved in them, which she wants nothing to do with.
Lydia is fully aware that her husband actively holds villagers prisoner and beats them when he's feeling down. But she's also in complete denial about it. It's almost like her brain just short circuits whenever she sees or hears something distressing. Underneath all that denial, Lydia is actually afraid of her husband and is just glad he doesn't aim his anger as her.
Victor Vallakovich
Victor Vallakovich, Vargas' fifteen-year-old son, is a pretentious little ass with a lot of angst and issues.
Otherwise, know that Victor has grown up pretty much completely neglected by his parents. His mother refuses to talk about anything other that crafts and the weather, which frustrates him to no end. Victor considers his mother a horrible simpleton that he just wishes would wake up.
Vargas has also completely avoided his son over the years. Whenever Vargas looks at Victor, he sees a reflection of him and his father. Vargas is downright terrified that he might hurt his son the way his father hurt him, and so actively avoids any relationship at all with Victor.
As a little boy, Victor felt quite isolated in the world. His parents ignored him and Vallaki itself was very messed up and no one was ever going to do anything about it. As he reached adolescence, that loneliness turned into resentment and gave him a very angry, elitist attitude towards the world.
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