A manor in the Village of Barovia built in the year 342 by the wealthy Durst family, local nobles whos properties stretched all the way to the Durst Windmill. The family that built the house kept a secret: they were obsessed with the occult, and practiced dark arts. Through seduction and indoctrination, they expanded their cult to include a small yet nefarious circle of friends. When word got out, the rest of the village turned a blind eye to the house and the nightly debaucheries happening within it. The cultists preyed on visitors, sacrificed them in bizarre rituals, and hosted morbid banquets to feast on their corpses. When nothing came of these ritualized murders, the cultists' activities became thinly disguised excuses to indulge their lurid fantasies.
The cultists regarded Strahd von Zarovich as a messiah sent to them by the Dark Powers. They pledged their devotion for a promise of immortality, but Strahd turned them away, deeming the cult and its leaders unworthy of his attention. Around this time, the matriarch Elizabeth Durst murdered her husband Gustav and his bastard baby Walter, leading herself and the other cultists to a terrible undeath in tunnels below the manor. The Ghosts of two children who died in the house, "Rose" and "Thorn", called from the house's perimeter for help to any passerby's; those who entered were often never seen again.
The manor was eventually given the name "Death House", and was condemned. After nearly a year of disturbances and disappearances, however, the Burgomaster of Barovia officially ordered the manor to be burned down. However, the Death House slowly and mysteriously rose from its ruins. Over centuries, it was burned to the ground many times, usually on orders from the Burgomaster or by enterprising adventurers. Each time, the manor rose from the ashes. Locals began to give the building a wide berth for fear of antagonizing the evil spirits believed to haunt it.