Exactly. The hidden dark secret to Ligradi is that he's completely off the bend -- He watched his wife and daughter die to the plague and went mad before he himself succumbed. He's a Baron in the most cliched sense imaginable -- Created from childhood dreams of trashy adventure stories.

Plus, it's fun to play.

His true insanity hides itself behind apparent, seemingly harmless insanity. Recklessly charging into combat, eccentric viewpoints, etc. The surprising thing is that he can be capable of tremendous solemnity and nobility -- He IS a baron, after all. He's amazingly empathetic and is unfailingly polite and charming. I'm reminded of D'Israeli's wonderful short comic "Biting the Hand that Fed Me" ( http://www.artbomb.net/comics/biting.jsp ) and how he depicts his grandmother's dementia was both terribly tragic and quite funny at the same time. Both facets are true, even though they're mutually incompatible. Same with the Baron, he's tragic and (I hope) hilarious at the same time.

For the most part, his insanity has yet to really become a major story point because nobody's really worked it out yet. I'm still hoping one of them figures it out soon to see how it plays out. Because in a way, your statement that the fiction is better than the facts is true for HIM, too. If he ever remembered he's a watchmaker, and the truth of his family's death, he'd probably end up becoming a shattered, broken borderline sociopath (which is to say, a typical Forsaken undead as per the NPCs). As he is, he's much more than that, especially past the comedy. For example, he's flat out refused to do the vast majority of the Hillsbrad quests, since they almost all involve murdering innocent farmers and creating a new plague. He won't hear of it.

Still, I let it loose a little bit now and then. Nothing is perfect, even his carefully constructed defenses. He's funny until the insanity slips, and then he's frightening, if I do it right.