Isaac and Ireena

Isaac and Ireena Kolyana were siblings. Neither remembered this.

According to the DM's notes (revealed after Isaac's death in Session 12): as children, a direwolf attacked the family on a fishing trip at Lake Zarovich. The wolf took Isaac's right arm. His uncle died fighting it. His father carried the boy back to town and then died shortly after — Isaac described it vaguely as his parents "being unable to cope." Ireena disappeared during the chaos. Whether she was separated, taken, or simply lost in the aftermath is unknown.

Isaac was subsequently taken in by Baron Vallakovich, the Burgomaster of Vallaki. He spent his entire adult life dreaming of a woman he didn't know — a face he couldn't quite draw, a feeling of someone missing, an obsession with a person named "Arena" that he couldn't explain. He commissioned dolls of her from Blinsky for years. He didn't know why. He had forgotten she was his sister.

Ireena was adopted by Kolyan Indirovich, the Burgomaster of Barovia, and grew up in the village, with no apparent memory of the attack or the brother she'd lost.

The demon arm appeared during one of Isaac's blackouts — possibly related, possibly not. The DM indicated its origin isn't explained in the source material.

The party killed Isaac near the Black Gate in Session 12. This information was discovered in the immediate aftermath, while Merich was asking whether Sophie could be used as a disposal method. Celeste noted that Isaac might have been the one person capable of protecting Ireena. The body had already been eaten.

Significance

• Ireena does not know she had a brother
• Isaac died not knowing Ireena was his sister
• The fiendish arm likely had something to do with the direwolf attack, the missing arm, and the subsequent chain of trauma — but the exact mechanism was never established and never will be