Doru Donavich
Doru was born and raised in the village of Barovia, where he was childhood friends of Ismark and Ireena, and set to inherit the priesthood from his father once his father grew too old to keep up his duties. Doru had chafed under Barovia's air of misery and hopelessness, and wished for ways to make life better in some way, even if only slightly. While his father tried to curb his idealism with heavy doses of realism, his friends, and especially Ismark, listened to and encouraged many of his ideas. When the wizard came through Barovia with promises of being able to lead them against Strahd and defeat him, his words and power stirred Doru's idealism and he joined the wizard in the assault on the castle. Though the wizard managed to hold his ground for a considerable amount of time, the mob consisting of peasants and a couple guardsmen had no such luck. Though none of the mob ever made it out of the castle alive, Doru was one of the survivors. This meant that his fate was to become one of Strahd's vampire spawn, and was locked in the crypts for months and months until Strahd deemed it time to release them, assuming that they were all either fully broken or at least would not do something foolish like rebel against him again. While the majority either fell to madness, accepted their new roles and new powers, were cowed into subservience, or otherwise indeed broken, a small number retained most of their own will and sense of self. Many of these people killed themselves or made failed attempts to escape, but Doru held out hope that if he was patient, a more opportune time to escape would arise. One event caused his patience to come to an end, when he came across a portrait in Strahd's study. The portrait appeared to be of his friend, Ismark, but that was impossible - the age of the portrait and its frame aside, Ismark had never had clothes like those in the portrait, nor worn his hair like that, nor looked so happy and untroubled, and most certainly had never stood in a sunlit garden - but was still clearly, indisputably the exact likeness of his childhood friend, Ismark Kolyanovich. So troubled by this portrait and the implications of it, Doru felt the need to escape all the more, and additionally wished to warn Ismark, even though he did not know exactly what he was warning him against. Doru managed to escape back home, where his father welcomed him back warmly. This warmth faded as his father learned of Doru's fate and new nature, and he lured Doru to the church's undercroft, where he would remain while his father spent day after day and night after night praying to the gods for help, at the cost of his own health and sanity. Having no desire to harm others, Doru did not attempt escape, even when starvation began to overtake him, though the wooden door and even the floor would have done little to stop a vampire spawn who truly wished to escape. To add to his misfortune, Strahd did eventually notice his absence and used his magic to find him. Knowing the young man was from the village just below made this an easy feat. However, during his spying upon Doru and upon the village, he became aware of Ismark's existence and location, making all of Doru's efforts meaningless.
