Yeah, Ravenloft is the setting where 'The Wolfman', 'Dracula', 'The Creature of the Black Lagoon', 'the Mummy' and 'Frakenstein's Monster' meet up to play Living Greyhawk, those three modules from Forgotten Realms that they liked and some homebrew.
Ravenloft, like most things in DnD, is based on historical places, but they are NOT those historical places. Even Odiare isn't the entirety of Italy - it's just a single city gone rogue into the multiverse and now represents a skewed, dark vision of what might be an Italian city state of the Renaissance.
@Indigocell - The explicit difference for a Barovian is like this - there isn't one. They don't like either. A Wizard WILLFULLY studies magic and wants to DO IT (this guy wants to learn how to summon demons, he isn't just doing it because he is naive). A sorcerer for whatever reason can just manifest magic, which, for a Barovian its going to be terrible (might even inspire some paranoia of who is and isn't a mage). On the basic level - a peasant isn't going to know the difference between either.
Standard line - Barovian are fearful of it - its up to PLAYERS on an individual level to describe how THEIR Barovian -Hero- (or villain or TN barely upjumped from a peasant) will react. Someone who burns witches alive openly as a Barovian may receive the same treatment as a mage (great, now we're going to get cursed for harboring the enemies of the Big Bad Evil Guy.)
