@mikemearls @JeremyECrawford Am I reading this right? Is Strahd bi? I hope to goodness that’s the case, ‘cuz as a bi GM, it’d be great to see such a key character that way in my campaign. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/b9glHyjTUU
— Marcian Tobay (@MarcianTobay) November 26, 2017
You’re reading it right. He also has a male consort.
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 27, 2017
Vampires have long been associated with sexual non-conformity.
In fact, in their heyday during the 1800s, they were actually a potent anti-feminist icon, representing the supposed corrupting influence of enlightenment values on the women of the world.
Notice how the vampire is almost always portrayed as deeply passionate, and yet at the same time highly intelligent and clever. Vampires are typically quite literate, educated, sophisticated, and cosmopolitan. They surround themselves with art, literature, culture, philosophy, and even science. They also tend to be intensely rational, even coldly calculating, and as a result “godless” and without faith.
Also notice how the vampire preys upon women, and tempts them toward “evil”. Notice how the women he seduces start out “innocent” – being meek, demure, obedient, and trusting; but they end up “corrupted” – becoming confident, assertive, uninhibited, and skeptical.
The naïve virgin is transformed into a worldly libertine, by a wicked and evil man who only wants to enslave them and turn them away from righteousness, and who does so by enrapturing them both with pleasures of the flesh -and- with extravagances of the mind. Clearly such a man is in league with Satan!
The evoled into a fiercly anti-patriarchal symbol, threatening “Christian” society by postulating a world view that promotes sex positivity, rational thought, and sexual (and, indeed, universal) equality. No wonder he became such a classic villain.