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vanhelsingapologist · 3 months

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//scuttles in

Hey you should totally talk about Kasimir

Kasimir And The Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad 400 Years

CW: Sororicide, Child Death, discussion of mental health, discussion on the nature of shame.

This is going to be so, so long. Disclaimer that this is our table's interpretation of Kasimir Velikov. Spoilers for Curse of Strahd and the Dusk Elves abound.

Guilty, Not Remorseful

Kasimir is one of those characters who seems to be very consistent in characterization across tables. I do believe that if you asked DMs to list their Kasimir’s traits, a majority would hit the Trifecta of Misery:

Guilty

Sad

Desperate.

A massive part of our Kasimir’s characterization is how my DM draws the line between regret, guilt, and remorse.

He feels fathomless guilt surrounding killing Patrina, but he never describes himself as feeling remorse. To explain, I’ll divide it like this:

He feels guilty because he knew it would have a repercussion. He did it anyway. Patrina was engaged to Strahd.

He did not expect the repercussions to be all that they were. This was a mistake, but I don’t entirely know whether he sees his decision surrounding killing Patrina as one or not.

He does not feel remorse, because that would require him to regret what he did (killing his sister). Our Kasimir does not feel remorse for killing her, and it makes him guiltier because of everything her death set off, not to mention the love he held for his sister.

He tells himself that he did what he had to do (he did not), and wishes there were another way (there undoubtedly was), which gives way to shame.

"I had to do it, but I wish I didn't." "... Did I have to? Surely, yes?"

So, he has these interplaying themes connected to the overarching theme of guilt, all of which drive his every action in our campaign.

He is okay with this.

He is okay with the idea that every day is a punishment. He did what he had to do, he says, and he believes he should pay that price forever.

The Whole Patrina Thing

In our game, Patrina didn’t seem to be so much in love with Strahd as she was in love with power. My running theory is that she was intending to dethrone Strahd or overpower him once she’d been turned.

Because (I believe) in our game, he was one of the first vampires, if not The First Vampire, she didn’t quite realize how spawn mechanics worked— and to that end, neither did the dusk elves.

The Story

Kasimir holds to the story he told us. He discovered his sister half-turned, having received two of the three bites required to undergo the bride ceremony.

I believe he discovered her in the process of trying to feed (a la Lucy Westenra) and came to the conclusion that she had been irrevocably turned into this horrifying, unknowable dead thing. So he gathered the dusk elves and killed her, setting off the chain of events.

In the years since he’s been confronted with new information regarding vampirization and the process of turning, but he’s also said that if Patrina hadn’t died, she likely would’ve gone through with it anyway. Is this to avoid heaping more guilt onto his shoulders? Maybe. I don't know. Despite his guilt, he still, interestingly, provides a justification.

We have nothing to contradict his word with.

However, he also told us that he’s been experiencing dreams where she tells him how sorry she is, how much she hates him, how much she loves him, and how much she would have changed if he'd let her live.

His foundational beliefs get preyed upon, because what if he was wrong? What if he doomed everyone because he couldn’t compromise his morality for a moment?

Kasimir’s Backstory Is Misery In Case You Were Wondering

In our campaign, Kasimir and Patrina were raised to be the leaders of their communities and witnessed Rahadin’s exile and subsequent alliance with King Barov.

When the Dusk Elves regrouped after a crushing defeat, Kasimir, who is a Druid in our campaign, was voted in to be the head of the remaining families, and Patrina, an Archmage, left for Ravenloft intermittently.

I think there was an effort for peace being made with a marriage between Strahd and herself, but obviously, the Tatyana Conundrum came in (Kasimir Win!), and then a couple years down the line, the Patrina Conundrum happened (Kasimir Fail!).

By the time he made his big bad decision, he was not only the head of his community but was also the father to a small child and the husband to a man who would die defending their family.

So, as far as he’s concerned, Kasimir is almost directly responsible for the deaths of his entire family.

He’s in a constant internal battle between blaming Ravenloft— perhaps predominantly, Rahadin— for enacting disproportionate revenge and blaming himself for pulling the trigger. Two things can be true. And still, to this day, his remaining people trust him. He still leads them and protects them. Yowch.

Kasimir As The Moral Compass

While traveling with our party, Kasimir was militant about doing what he believed was right. It could’ve been because he might’ve literally snapped in half if he took on any more shame, but probably had more to do with the fact that he was likely projecting heavily onto our party.

He held his hand on the metaphorical stove for so long that he has nothing but bone left, so when he sees the party tentatively edging towards the fire, he takes action.

Because he lives in a cesspool of anguish, I think an argument can be made that he wants to ensure his actions aren’t repeated by someone else. That is for HIM.

How It Affects Dynamic

This makes him fun to have in the party, because not only is Sororicide “Hypocrite” Velikov telling us not to do things, but it also provides a good bit of levity to what is otherwise one of the emotionally heaviest characters in our campaign.

Having this ancient elven druid sternly ask if kicking the corpse of enemy #6 made you feel good and having to shamefully tell him ’no’ creates a bond like no other.

It’s also an interesting way to have him trying to semi-atone without explicitly expressing remorse. Because he judges himself so harshly, he judges the party by the same standards.

Kasimir Will Make The Same Mistake Over And Over

The problem is that shame is poison to recovery.

Kasimir does not believe he has a place in a world in which he is not suffering, so whenever he is confronted with redemption, he’ll do what keeps him rotting.

I don’t know how my other players feel about this, but I’m convinced that it’s not that he can’t break the cycle, it’s that he won’t.

In trying to do the right thing, I think he will choose the wrong thing. He will stone her to death again and again and not know why.

There He Goes Again!

It’s why I think these dreams are such a big problem. I think they’re goading him. Whatever’s causing it (the Dark Powers, Strahd, or Patrina herself) knows him well enough that he will make a horrible, horrible decision. As far as theory goes, I think it may really be Patrina, because who would know him better than his sister?

In our campaign, Kasimir is currently acting as a mentor to a half dusk-elven wizard/druid who habitually toes the line between good and evil. He waffles between wanting to save her and wanting to nip the problem in the bud, propelled by his profound shame for wanting to do it.

He knows he shouldn’t have anything to do with it, but whereas Van Richten isolates himself out of necessity, Kasimir creates this wall between them because he sees the cycle starting again and feels helpless to stop it. It’s like he doesn’t realize he’s actively recreating the cycle.

Sound familiar, Strahd?

He and Van Richten are two characters who might have the biggest questions of the nature of redeemability hanging over their head, and both grapple with themes of guilt.

I think they differ because, in our campaign, Van Richten is actively seeking redemption. Kasimir is not.

He can’t imagine atonement even exists.

#asked and answered #this was asked by a player in my campaign #thank you for letting me yammer i've been wanting to talk about this guy for ages. even if this is free notes </3 #curse of strahd character analysis #kasimir velikov #patrina velikovna #curse of strahd spoilers #curse of strahd #We are a party who believes in love as redemption #but we’ve never met a character who so throughly rejects that concept like Kasimir (and maybe Arrigal).#the emilia and kasimir relationship makes me bleed from the eyes. stop looking for your sister in her or you will find your sister in her.#add the rahadin shit in and thatsa one spicy meatball #does kasimir believe good is inherited or cultivated? i think he BELIEVES he thinks it's cultivated.#going 2 put every old man in this module in therapy and then maybe a box #kasimir in general man......#my DM is very very smart and we're her little rats running around screaming

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vampire-chokehold · 8 months

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read on AO3 DRAMATIS PERSONAE (in order of appearance)

PATRINA archmage, lover, returned KASIMIR brother and murderer of Patrina CHORUS of vampire spawns STRAHD the Devil of Barovia RAHADIN loyal dog, traitor to the dusk elves

SETTING: The play is set in Castle Ravenloft’s catacombs, in Barovia. Patrina has been dead for more than four hundread years. It is the middle of the night. Kasimir has succumbed to the guilt and has broght back his sister from the undead.

PATRINA All men of Barovia are deserving of death.

Don’t look at me like that. You brought me back to life, but your hands are stained with the same blood that runs through your veins. Dare you believe that forgiveness bears your name? That by a good deed your sins will be pardoned? Are you not, too, my brother, my murderer? Are you not he who put an end to my days by throwing the first stone that buried me, that stole my last breath from my lips?

You couldn’t stomach that I was better than you, that your sister, a woman, was exceptional. Anger consumed you, envy made a home between your ribs and, under my shadow, you planned my death. Over my body, you shed tears— but not for me, but because you had lost everything. Tell me, you treacherous rat, was it worth it? Do not answer me— no! I will never again believe in your words for they are as hollow as my sunken chest.

Brother, you were never on my side. When I was born, your eyes burned guilt into my skin. How could I, a baby, be so unworthy when I couldn't even utter a word, let alone lie or sin? Not even once did you hold me in your arms, not even once did you speak to me with love! Brother, what did I ever do to you? Was it being born a woman? Between my legs, the original sin— my breasts and mouth, temptation. And on my shoulders? The weight of an accursed race to redeem.

It was a spring night, the first time I learnt that one could see with other eyes; that love is written with fingertips on tingling skin; that lips can conjure the most powerful of spells and shoot with their kisses the sharpest of arrows; that hunger is not only hushed with food, nor thirst with the water from the rivers.

You didn't waste time hating him as much as you hated me. As soon as he uttered his name, I saw, written all over your face, the desire to end him— as if you weren't a coward, as if you were born for something more than living under my wing. If only you had accepted your fate.

In the fire of your future, neither bravery nor excellence burned, and glory only crossed your path when you ended me. My death was your greatest sin, but also your finest work. And now, I too want to taste salvation. With the edge of this knife, brother, I will cut your throat, spill your blood, avenge my death and that of all my sisters.

KASIMIR Patrina, my sister! You have returned to me like swallows to spring, bringing with you memories of a life full of regret. Patrina, ghost of my nights, ceaseless hiss! You tormented me in life as well as in death, your voice an echo in my gut every time darkness embraced me. You asked me to bring you back to this land that never wanted us, that made us slaves to a monster whom you thought deserving of your love. For what? To seek revenge? When the metal sinks into my flesh, do you believe you'll find rest then? When my blood stains your hands, do you think it will end the agony of your existence?

Your death only brought misery to this sullen land. Now I know, the evil I awakened when the stones rained down upon your body. Your corpse, still warm under a river of blood— the blood of all your sisters. He killed them! That monster you called love! He killed them all— mothers and daughters, and suddenly, a silence fell in which I could only hear your screams.

Don't be mistaken, sister. Your heart holds the mercy I never knew. Forgive me, forgive me! Can't you see me, on my knees, repentant? Your knife at my throat, and this sorrowful plea on my lips. I have paid dearly for my transgressions, my flesh is not untouched by punishment. Can't you see me, on my knees, repentant?

PATRINA You speak of mercy with the lightness befitting a man. I wish you had felt the same when our gazes met in that clearing! Didn't you hear my pleas? Didn't you see my lips moving, tears overflowing in my eyes? Didn't you even feel pity for your sister?

Tell me, my brother: Why should I save you? Do you believe you deserve to live, even breathe the same breath as I?

You look at me like the lamb looks at the wolf and you think I can't see through those eyes. That you are wicked, that you always have been. And if I weren't your sister, would you have flayed my flesh? Would you have made me an example of dishonour?

KASIMIR If only you weren't my sister! I wish you hadn't been my sister. Then I wouldn't have wanted to protect you. I would have let that monster take you, make you his forever. PATRINA Protect me? You confuse violence for love, brother. And you speak of me as a puppet trapped by fate. But I loved that man whom you call a monster. KASIMIR Loved? Will you kill him too?

PATRINA All men of Barovia are deserving of death.

KASIMIR Where is the love then?

PATRINA Where was the love when you murdered me?

KASIMIR Your death was an act of love.

PATRINA I will grant you your last words, brother. You can ask for my forgiveness, though to you I’ll never give it.

KASIMIR Patrina, you are both serpent and apple! If I'm to die by your hands, let it be with pride.

PATRINA So be it.

[Enter the CHORUS. ]

CHORUS Patrina! What have you done, child?

PATRINA I have killed my brother.

CHORUS And for what?

PATRINA All men of Barovia are deserving of death.

CHORUS Are you worthy of plunging the blade into their flesh? Are you, child, the embodiment of justice? How different are you from him when you've avenged the deaths of your sisters with the blood of your own blood?

PATRINA I am not like my brother.

CHORUS No, you are worse.

PATRINA Is vengeance a greater sin than it is silence? Should I have consumed myself in my agony, forever crying out for love?

CHORUS You speak of love, Patrina, as if you've ever known it. As if this crusade is in its name.

[Enter RAHADIN and STRAHD.]

STRAHD Patrina, is it really you? Is this mirage reality?

PATRINA The Devil Strahd, once again before me.

RAHADIN Do not listen to her, my Lord, she will ensnare you with her siren's whisper.

STRAHD Kasimir, you weak man, you couldn't bear the burden of guilt on your shoulders. I knew this day would come, when your sister would return and with this knife, kill you.

Patrina, old love, have you come for me too? Does the same fate await me as your foolish brother?

PATRINA Do not even speak my name— those lips are stained with the blood of my sisters! Empty promises and an insatiable hunger between your sharp teeth, nothing more.

I have engraved in my memory the recollection of my past life, as crystalline as the waters of this land. Do not try to deceive me again with your velvet words. I know who you truly are, Strahd von Zarovich!

You placed glory in my hands and snatched it away with the same cruelty which deemed you eternal king of this land.

On your lips, I read words I had never heard before. On my skin, you painted a future so bright that it blinded the rest of my days with poisoned hope. You didn't kill me, but your silence has always made you an accomplice.

Did you weep for me when your wolves my desecrated body— more of the dirt than mine— to your castle they took?

RAHADIN Dare you speak of betrayal, wench? I should have killed your brother too, his body rotting next to yours, so you couldn't return from the dead like a plague amongst the living: venomous and deadly.

STRAHD Didn't I love you, Patrina, with all my heart?

On your skin, I traced constellations. On your heart, I placed my darkest secrets. On your lips, I shed tears for my bitter existence.

And you say I didn't love you? That I deceived you? Am I not the one who lived in the lie of your love?

You have forgotten who you are, Patrina. You never loved me.

PATRINA I can't believe you. I don't want to believe you! You let my brother stone me— each lash coloring my skin purple and vermillion. You let your dog kill my sisters— they, who were not guilty of my foolish and naive innocence!

Why? Oh why?

You made me a prisoner in your castle, abandoned me to my fate, condemned forever to yearn for revenge. If you loved me so much, oh why, Strahd— why didn't you save me from myself?

STRAHD I would have given you eternal life if that night hadn't been your end. If only I had reached you sooner!

PATRINA You're trying to deceive me.

STRAHD That spring, Patrina, not only roses bloomed in my garden, but also hope in my heart. I had not yet known love— forever craving the warmth of another body, of other lips. War had made a cruel man out of me, I know. My calloused hands were unworthy of the softness I longed for. if death bore my name, could I be deserving of love, of forgiveness?

Then I saw you. Your hair flowing freely, and your skin gleaming dark like a secret yet to be discovered. A strand fell over your eyes, and I wanted to push it away like a desperate child. Capricious, an imposing curiosity. You looked at me as if I were a question for which only you had the answer. You turned around, and I followed you, enchanted. I walked behind you, chacing the trail of your perfume.

Oh how beautiful you were! How beautiful you still are.

You led me to your tent, and at the entrance, you looked back at me. With an invitation on your lips, you let me in— my heart, for the first time racing trapped in my throat.

You were never a woman of time. Always two steps ahead, you waited for no one. What you wanted, you took. And in that moment, I thought that you wanted me because you held my face in your hands— without even knowing my name, and you kissed me with the fervent passion of a sword piercing flesh.

From that moment on, I only dreamed of your breath on my skin. And while I wanted to devour you, your lips murmured spells and words of magic that— oh how I wished, had been words of love for me!

Your love was a window to the abyss. It was like gazing into a void so vast that you felt it would swallow you whole. Everything I gave you disappeared into your darkness. In your eyes, I could only see my reflection and on the other side, the hunger for power consuming you.

Patrina, don't you know? You and I are the same.

PATRINA We were not, and will never be.

STRAHD Oh but that’s where you’re wrong. Patrina, don’t you remember? We walked for days. Sometimes in utter silence, you ruminating and me, as always, waiting. At the top of the mountain, the amber was a sun in the clearest of skies. The snow embraced the temple with its icy arms, and our footsteps drew an uncertain future behind us. You took my hand in yours, we ran breathlessly. I had never seen your eyes so lively and hungry. How I loathed that hunger was not for me.

That temple hid the most obscure of secrets, even darker than mine. The voices, oh the voices! They whispered into my heart, Patrina, but I didn’t want to listen to them because they spoke of you, of the truth behind your love.

PATRINA And what truth might that be?

STRAHD That is of no importance now, old love. You’ve come back and now nothing is standing in our way.

PATRINA Do you think me a fool? Could I ever trust that mouth which only knows how to lie? Do you really think I came back for you? You speak of treason as if your loyalty doesn’t bear a price, as if your love for me was ever unconditional. It never was, I know!

You longed for greatness as much as I— don’t fool yourself. You do not fool me! Under the bright orange of the amber, there I saw in your eyes the same desperation that haunted my very being.

And when I died? Tell me, Strahd— did you weep for me? DID YOU WEEP?

RAHADIN Do not come any closer, viper! No one remembers your name— after four hundred years trapped in the darkness of this castle, no one even knows who you are.

PATRINA And you, who are you? Loyal dog of yet to be honed teeth. If I kill you here and now— do you think your master will even lament your loss? I can hear the screams of my sisters— they yet linger to your skin. Still you smell of warm blood. Tell me, traitor— how does it feel to slaughter the sheep of your flock? Do you feel more wolf— less of a treacherous dog? None of this is yours.

RAHADIN Gladly I massacred the dusk elves and cursed their future with my scimitar. Oh the sweet stench of their guts and the metal together in the most macabre poem ever to be written in this land! The only thing I do regret is not making a coat out of your skin, wench.

Loyal dog you call me? That I am— you wouldn’t know what loyalty is, the sense of duty, the most purest submission one has to offer with their own life.

Patrina. From the lowest of scum, one can never make a queen.

PATRINA Rahadin! I curse your sole existence! May the Gods damn you forever to roam in the shadows. May the Gods grant you no rest, neither in this life nor in the next. Die, Rahadin! Die by my hands, as my brother did! I will savour your death as the hungry the rotten fruit.

RAHADIN [To STRAHD. ] Will you let her kill me?

STRAHD Are you not deserving of a pardon?

RAHADIN Will you let her kill me? Ah!—

CHORUS In silence, I’ve watched closely. Is vengeance the way, child? Two men have been killed— same knife, different wounds. The blood— alike.

Oh Patrina! What have you done?

PATRINA Don’t you see? I said: All men of Barovia are deserving of death. And I always keep my word. I will carve my rage into their flesh and my name on their lips will forever remain until the end of time. Forget me, you say? I am Patrina, cursed daughter!

[To STRAHD. ] When I end you, will you speak my name one last time? I’ve always loved how it sounded on your tongue.

CHORUS Child, you don’t know what you’re saying. Only men die by the blade. But he’s no ordinary man, no— he is something else.

PATRINA Oh but I know. The heart still, the lungs hollow in the chest— eternity as an unbreakable thread! The promise of immortality, the biggest of lies ever said.

STRAHD Oh Patrina, enchantress of my nights, I would have given you all if only your brother— Kasimir, you poor excuse of a man— if only you wouldn’t have taken her from me!

PATRINA I hold your face in my hands and I remember the first time I tasted your lips, the first time I felt your warmth under my fingertips. Was happiness not written for us in our wretched destiny? How I loved you, Strahd— but how I loved the life that was taken from me!

Oh the pain and sorrow that caves my chest in!

STRAHD But we can finish what we started. Perhaps kindness can blossom amongst the mist.

PATRINA Kindness is a choice we make. One I don't want to take. I will only find solace when you turn to dust; when this stake, driven into your chest, puts an end to your days.

STRAHD Do you believe you can kill me? Bury the stake, right here. Let's do it together, Patrina.

PATRINA Let me go. Don't touch me! You won't deceive me again.

STRAHD Kill me, Patrina, infernal punishment! Do you think I won't return? Do you think my torment will end with you?

CHORUS Listen to him, child. The curse cannot be broken.

PATRINA Even if you return, I will know. Even if you return, I will have consumed my revenge. Nothing matters anymore, for I am alone and cursed.

Any last words?

STRAHD I loved you. I still love you.

PATRINA Your love is not honest enough to save you. Now, close your eyes.

STRAHD Patrina!—

CHORUS He is not dead, child. He will return.

PATRINA But I won't be here, no—

CHORUS Patrina!

Cursed child, dead. What have you done?

[Three bodies lay on the cold stone floor of Castle Raveloft, their blood a river of red. Of the other, only dust remains.]

#curse of strahd #dungeons and dragons #dnd #patrina velikovna #strahd von zarovich #fanfiction #greek tragedy #ao3

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