Idiot Rights!

Yasha (Oronovna) of Barovia (town of) fame. Fun fact: he burned Death House to the ground one year after the cult was destroyed - not that it mattered, since the house reappeared out of the smoldering ash two days later.

After the death of his parents, Yasha lived with Kolyan and his children for three years before being sent off to Vallaki, where he currently resides in the Barons mansion as one of his favorite lapdogs (alongside Izek and the Barons two mastiffs). Yasha has various responsibilities around Vallaki under the direction of the Baron, namely his clerical work with soul cleansing in the Church of the Morninglord (alongside Father Lucien), his “hospitality” work in the Barons mansion, and his…other duties in the Reformation Center (where he spent much of his first year in Vallaki being reformed.) While he doesn’t believe in the Morninglord (at least not in any way that matters) Yasha does believe in helping others, and this remains his main motivation for working with the church.

Thanks to his experiences in the Reformation Center, Yasha doesn’t remember much about his life prior to living in Vallaki, and most of what he remembers about Barovia (town of) has either been adjusted with magic to fit a certain narrative or has been blocked off from his access entirely. He has ties to the Death House cult, though he doesn’t remember what they are, only that he’s terrified of and hates the cult with every cell of his body. It’s unclear what exactly happened to him, and almost everyone who once knew is long dead.

As for Baron Vargas, Yasha has complicated feelings. He hates the man, being well aware of and all too familiar with Vargas’ violent outbursts, much like everyone else in his household. However, survival instinct (or complex trauma) has led Yasha to have a sort of reverence for the man, believing that ultimately Vargas is doing the best he can to keep the people of the village safe; there is certainly a level of cognitive dissonance and a struggle for Yasha to make peace with the life he finds himself living.

Unrelated, his collar and cuffs serve various purposes, some related to his work and others related to preventing him from trying to exit from his life again (not that you can die in Barovia in any way that matters).

Although he gets along well enough with the party so far, he has a hard time balancing his desire to trust them and his nihilistic beliefs. He’s ashamed of what he’s experienced and, though he won’t admit it, has a lot of anxiety around being judged, leading him to generally avoid social situations with any real depth to them. Yasha is actually quite clingy and can easily fall into codependency, which he feels he can only avoid (thus keeping himself safe) by avoiding genuine connection with anyone altogether.

Yasha loves to collect small, random, interesting things he finds that others would probably consider trash. He’s known to pick up and carry around unique rocks, feathers, beads, etc and will gift these items to those he trusts (such as the Martikovs or Father Lucien.)

Nothing better to this man than a nice hot bath with fancy soaps and lotions and candles and wine and all that good stuff. Yasha is relatively proud of his appearance, given that it’s one of the few things he has direct control over (although even this is somewhat dictated by the Baron) rather than strictly out of vanity. He loves fancy clothes and jewelry, luxurious bedding, and his favorite part of festivals (read: generally the only part he enjoys) is any time a feast is involved.