Count Strahd van Zarovich Speaks
A monster they call me, but I was once a man.
I loved my younger brother as only a brother can.
But also I loved Tatyana; she was my heart’s desire.
But she beheld my brother Sergei and my hope became a pyre.
My heart she shattered and burned to the ground.
I felt forced to kill my brother, for without him around
Tatyana would have to be mine, can’t you see?
But what did she do? She fled away from me.
I sealed my fate by killing Sergei on their wedding day.
The Dark Ones would give me power if I’d do as they say.
Murder empowered me, but also it was my curse.
Super strength and speed were mine; but there are things worse.
A vampire who reigns supreme – that should be enough.
Instead I suffer loneliness; my grief is so very tough.
Tatyana was repulsed by my killing her groom, my brother.
But how could she be mine if she could love only another?
She went and threw herself from the castle tower.
Saving her was the one thing for which I had no power.
Oh, the agony I suffer because she took her life.
Why did she have to want to ever be my brother’s wife?
My kingdom Barovia is a cursed landscape.
It’s surrounded by a mist that no one can escape.
Yet this is my protection since I can’t be touched by light.
Tortured by my love of Tatyana is to be my plight.
I can shape-shift and control you as a vampire with mystique.
So go ahead and call me monstrous and sadistic.
Even if you drove through my heart a wooden stake,
a short paralysis in me is all that you would make.
There’s a way that I can die, but do you suppose
I’d tell you just like that? I have way too many foes.
I’m Count Strahd van Zarovitch, and I wield great might.
Let others suffer the same as I. In that I take delight.
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