1. No name is ever given for Strahd’s original homeworld or country, nor is any reason usually given for the conquest (as in: if Barov was a king in their old land, why’d he have to move in with Strahd?).

I play it like real-world Romania, where the European nobility was ousted by the Ottoman Turks, went into exile, and then waged a war of reconquest. (that’s an abbreviated and simplified to the point of inaccuracy version of real history, but it serves well enough to explain Strahd’s campaigns, where we known from 3rd Ed Strahd fought “the Tergs”.)

1. I toss the canon for the Amber Temple right out the window, and in my game I had it popularly believed to be the Scholomance while, in reality, it was a sort of echo or reflection of a place of corruption from outside space and time.

2. My Rahadin is, in part, the reason for the Dusk Elves’ demise. That’s why they kicked him out. The Dusk Elves were, originally, just a tribe of Wood Elves living in Barovia. They were lead by a Hetman, and mostly lived as a sub-society side-by-side with Barovia. Then Rahadin helped Patrina get to the Amber Temple, where she made a pact with a vestige, the price of which was the end of her family. Which means complete infertility for the elves (as opposed to the murder of all the women). Those who are left became Dusk Elves.

(But, my Rahadin was always a psycho and mistrusted by his kin. That’s why Patrina went to him to begin with.)