In our version of this cursed land Strahd do not fell in love with Tatyana, in our version Patrina is his waifu and Sergey and Tatyana tried to poison her because of politics and cause they’re a liitle bit assholes
So I draw them in the moonlight, because also she has something with elven goddess of the moon :3
(And I have some difficulty with colors in line things, so it might be a lot of mistakes. Just ignore them)
So much tenderness in this, I’m about to start crying QwQ
Her miniature hand, their soft gazes, how gently he holds her ohmyfreakinggofgljdghgfkjg (ಥ﹏ಥ)
My favourite part of being DM is receiving all these amazing fanarts from my players ✨ And boi, I’m so happy Strahd/Patrina becomes a thing at least among my players
Why does Strahd have Bucephalus? Where did he come from? Send me ur headcanons
So for a Nightmare to exist it requires a Pegasus to have its’ wings removed and this violent act drives the Pegasus mad and corrupts it’s otherwise incorruptible nature.
A Pegasus bonds to the rider for life (according to the D&D lore I have read) and with all the wing imagery on Strahd’s original armor (the red armor in the portrait.) I would go so far as to suggest that they probably bonded when Strahd was first sent to the battlefield or trained to be sent.
Perhaps their bond was so strong that Strahd and Bucephalus were able to maintain that bond even after the horrible change that transpired for the horse and then rider.
Strahd was at one point Good very Good according to the new lore that dropped with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and was corrupted over time. So that does fit with a Pegasus willingly binding to him. I personally love the visual of Strahd fighting Argynvost in the clouds above Barovia while astride a Pegasus (that may be the Disney’s Hercules nostalgia talking.)
Or perhaps the lovely folks at Wizards of the Coast decided to be more than intentional at naming the Nightmare Bucephalus. Bucephalus was the name of Alexander the Great’s horse whom he won at twelve or thirteen in a bet against his Father. Sounds like something a young Strahd would do with Barov.
Basically for those not in the know he told his Father he would pay for the horse himself since no one could tame him should he fail betting he could do it. He tamed the horse not with brutal force but gentleness turning it toward the sun so it couldn’t see its shadow. The horse was soothed and so Alexander was able to take to mounting him and they were nigh inseparable. The historical attribute to Bucephalus (AtG’s horse) was that he was black a fitting description for Strahd’s Bucephalus.
