Ivan's 'minor' Darklord curse...

[Charlatan]

...is it actually a sign of his depravity.

Strahd wants the love of a beautiful woman. She ends up constantly reincarneted so he can fail to win that love time and time again. ZING!

Azalin wants to perpetually increase his magical powers. He has gets magic-related amnesia. GOTCHA!

Harkon Lukas wants the power and prestige of ruling a great kingdom. He (secretly) rules about 200 sq miles of forest populated by roughly 5,000 people whose culture is somewhat biased against strong authority. OO, THAT'S GOTTA HURT!

Love. Knowledge. Power.

Thoughout history boundless examples of people commiting awful deeds for things of such great value exist.

For his many murders, cumulating in the death of the one person he truly did love and who loved him back, Ivan Dilisnya, co-Darklord of Borca, was sentenced to lose his sense of taste, because that's the only thing the Dark Powers could find about him that he actually valued. UHHH...

That doesn't sound so terrible.

At first.

Because we're not as psychopathically shallow and immature as Ivan is. He doesn't value things that our society tells us are valuable, because he just never grew up enough to value them. He's just a hedonist who craves pleasure and throws lethal tantrums when he doesn't get it. He's a child who liked pulling the wings off of flies and throwing rocks at cats and he never really grew up, he just started hurting bigger targets more ...permanently.

Okay, he also likes writing and directing plays and wants to be regarded as a genuis playwright. Baby steps.

Ivan is not an undead, demon, dark fey or lycanthrope. Like many of the worst monsters in Ravenloft and real life he's just a human who has absolutely no ability to think or feel about anything except his own wants.

Losing your sense of taste doesn't sound terrible to us compared to what curses other Darklords have to suffer under but I'm certain that Ivan finds it completely intolerable suffering and is constantly pained by it. I'm certain that Ivan can't imagine ANYONE suffering as much as he does, even when he personally tortures them, because Ivan is just incapable of understanding other people's depth of feeling in the first place.

Ivan has a wimpy curse not because he isn't a horrible monster but because it was the only thing he had that he cared about that the Dark Powers could take away from him. One of his five basic senses. Not someone he loved, not legal/magic/military power, not respect or renown or faith in his god. And, unlike Strahd and so many other arguably worse Darklords, he has absolutely no sympathetic or redeeming qualities. Quite an achievement given the competition. Bravo.

I'm probably not saying anything that everyone else here hasn't already figured out or at least guessed at a long time ago, but I've been mulling it over in my head for a long time now, and it's been about a decade since the last time I posted, so why not?

[Mistmaster]

Ivan does have a redeeming quality, his out-of-the-box cunning. 5that said I agree.

[brilliantlight]

I agree completely , that does go with his personality. In my campaign his cousin is setting him up as a patsy. Although she is the more powerful of the two she lets him do all the enforcement. Her reasoning is if there is a revolt he , and not she, will be the first "up against the wall". After which she will blame everything that has gone wrong on him, thus saving her pretty neck.

[Joël of the FoS]

I thought Ivan also craved for his cousin's youth? This also drives him mad as hell!

[The Lesser Evil]

I thought Ivan also craved for his cousin's youth? This also drives him mad as hell!

That seems to be entirely a self-imposed affliction of his own narcissism. Remember also that Ivan was darklord for his domain for years before the Dorvinia/Borca merger in the wake the Grand Conjunction. Prior to that he was very fond of Ivana Boritsi. It's ironic that the reason their domains merged (and hence their animosity toward each other) was their need to be together during the chaos of the GC.

But yeah I tend to see Ivan's curse (if we define it loosely) as multilayered. Although not mentioned in some of his later entries, Ivan Dilisnya is described as having nightmares that result in him waking up screaming his sister Kristina's name (though this could easily be the work of the Nightmare Court or other similar malevolent entity).

[High Priest Mikhal]

Although not mentioned in some of his later entries, Ivan Dilisnya is described as having nightmares that result in him waking up screaming his sister Kristina's name

He must still be obsessed with her even after murdering her and her husband and nearly killing their child. Or he may actually feel guilty about it. Nightmares about her would certainly be a fitting punishment since it was that act that earned him the status of Darklord of Dorvinia to begin with.

[brilliantlight]

Although not mentioned in some of his later entries, Ivan Dilisnya is described as having nightmares that result in him waking up screaming his sister Kristina's name

He must still be obsessed with her even after murdering her and her husband and nearly killing their child. Or he may actually feel guilty about it. Nightmares about her would certainly be a fitting punishment since it was that act that earned him the status of Darklord of Dorvinia to begin with.

I agree, it may well be the only thing he feels guilty about. After all she was the only person he ever loved.

[ewancummins]

Although not mentioned in some of his later entries, Ivan Dilisnya is described as having nightmares that result in him waking up screaming his sister Kristina's name

He must still be obsessed with her even after murdering her and her husband and nearly killing their child. Or he may actually feel guilty about it. Nightmares about her would certainly be a fitting punishment since it was that act that earned him the status of Darklord of Dorvinia to begin with.

Maybe the poison he used to murder Kristina was a rare toxin that neutralizes or dulls the victim's sense of taste. It takes quite a lot to kill somebody, but poured into a tepid jug of water...