The Riots of the Blazing Sun marked a substantial change to the history of Vallaki, as recorded in Curse Of Strahd. Under the rule of the Vallakovich house, the valley town functioned as a near-police state for hundreds of years, and the house heirs grew increasingly unstable due to a Curse placed on Vyacheslav Vallakovich. Education was not provided to those not of noble houses; the lower classes were only taught to fear their neighbours and venerate their ruling houses. The average Vallakian did not know the history of even their own town, much less of the wider valley of Barovia.
This was especially true under the rule ofBaron Vargas Vallakovich, who forbid the town mention Strahd's name and forced the residents to attend near-weekly "celebrations" to improve morale. Vistani, thought to be servants of Strahd, were banned from the town's border, and anyone entering or exiting the city was subject to a full search, with a record of their personal items. These extreme measures were justified as methods to keep away "The Devil" Strahd von Zarovich, who's name was forbidden to speak aloud.
The town became known as a refuge from Strahd as his visits to terrorize the populace became increasingly rare. The Vallakovich family used this as a sign of their divine right to rule with impunity and oppress their people. This faith in safety, however, was shattered when a group of Vampire Spawn were unleashed in the town, razing the town square and slaying civilians and guards alike. While these creatures were slain by a group of adventurers called the Pack, Strahd von Zarovich himself was spotted riding a Nightmare in the town square, blowing up a cadre of guards and turning Jarmo Maulgrave to stone.
After the attack, Vargas pulled half the town's guard to personally protect the Vallaki Burgomaster's Mansion, and Vallaki became woefully under-patrolled. For the first time, crime began to rise in the town, and anti-Vallakovich sentiment began being expressed more openly. These sparks were fanned by Fiona Wachter, who had a vendetta against Vargas and his son, Viktor Vallakovich, and who eyed the title of Baronness for herself. She had created a cult dedicated to devil-worship, practicing fake magic below the Wachterhaus, and schemed with the cult and The Pack to take over Vallaki.
The Burgomaster, worried about dissent during the potentially precarious upcoming full moon, forced another festival, dubbed the "Festival of the Rising Sun." During the procession, children dressed as flowers lead a wicker sun ball through the Vallaki Town Square. They lead Vargas, Viktor, and the Baroness Lydia Petrovna, followed closely by the adventurers who slayed the vampire spawn. The sun was lofted as townsfolk threw oil on the wicker sun, preparing for a massive symbolic blaze; but when Baron Vargas went to ignite the wicker, a torrent of rain suddenly doused his torch. The laugh of Gadof Blinsky echoed through the silent crowd, and a furious and embarrassed Vargas demanded that the toymaker be hanged. His henchman Izek Strazni string Blinsky up at the gallows, preparing to set yet another example.
With a cry of resistance, Fiona Wachter denounced Vargas, who mustered little defense against her cutting condemnations. She ignited the people to revolt against the Vallkovich family; her cultists stabbed a guard and an innocent bystander, then screamed that the guards were attacking the civilians. Chaos broke out, and the crowd quickly turned into a murderous mob. The adventurers caught Viktor, who turned out to have been secretly a spellcaster, and protected local children from Saint Andral's Orphanage from being crushed; squawking Ravens and a Saber-Toothed Tiger escorted them from the chaos.
During the scramble, the paladin Ghalwin of the Grove openly defended the Baroness, and she escaped on the back of a magical Elk. Though he was grabbed by the mob along with the Baron Vargas, Ghalwin disappeared amidst a Swarm of Ravens as calls from Fiona and the flying cleric Atlas Atruvian echoed across the mob to take revenge on the Baron. The people gleefully impaled Vargas and Viktor with spears into the wicker sun, hoisted them aloft, and immolated them alive amidst a roar of rain and fire. Shouts to burn down the Burgomaster's Mansion rang amongst the crowd, and they moved westward with intention, upturning carts and torching indiscriminate buildings.
The crowd moved westward and burned down the Burgomaster's Mansion, and the area around the town square was consumed in an inferno. Though the rage quickly evaporated into anguish and efforts turned to stopping the spread, fires raged across south-central Vallaki for twenty-five hours. Little remained of the area besides a tainted fountain and Blinsky Toys, which was defended from the fires by the druid Shakti of the Wildhunt.
The Riots ended with a massive political shift for Vallaki. The Wachter family became the new ruling power, and Fiona Wachter set on shifting the town's mindset towards praising Strahd as an evil god. The statue of Vyacheslav Vallakovich was taken down, replaced by a monument to the Vampire Lord himself, and the town became rife with crime, cultists, and dark dealings.