Gothic Earth and Ravenloft

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devilfox
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Gothic Earth and Ravenloft

Post by devilfox »

Random thought:

What is the correlation (if any) between the calendars of Gothic Earth and Ravenloft?

Obviously, this really only applies to Odiare, but the only references to dates I can find (Magrum's timeline and Ryan Naylor's Pathfinder in the Mists) seems to put Ravenloft in Gothic Earth's past (I had actually calculated the difference, but do you think I can find what I did with the figures). Unless Odiare was pulled forward through time, that is.
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The Lesser Evil
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Re: Gothic Earth and Ravenloft

Post by The Lesser Evil »

I don't think there are any perfect correlations. Certainly, the demiplane of dread in the Barovian Calendar has been around for only a few centuries, whereas the Red Death has been on Gothic Earth for serveral thousand years.

There has been some fan speculation that the reason for the Red Death's exile was that it was the same "Death" that made the deal with Strahd that notoriously sealed his fate.
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Re: Gothic Earth and Ravenloft

Post by devilfox »

Okay, I think I sorta worked it out... but time stuff is confusing.

According to Mangrum's timeline, Odiare appeared in Ravenloft in 738BC pulled from c.16th century Gothic Italy.

Now, in the original Black Box released in 1990, the current game year is 735BC. So 738BC = 1993, the year The Created was published.

So if one assumes that time in Gothic Earth flows the same as the "real world" then Odiare had to be pulled forward through time when it entered the mist.

Alternatively, if the current game date = publication date, then Gothic Earth is about a century behind us (since MotRD was originally published in 1994 and the campaign is generally set in the 1890s). Thus, 1993 = 1893 in Gothic Earth = 738BC in Ravenloft. So Odiare would still have been pulled through time... just not as far.
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Re: Gothic Earth and Ravenloft

Post by Garudos Celestar »

There's one other (direct) correlation between Ravenloft and Gothic Earth: the Nightmare Court reaches into both realms. The Transylvania gazetteer introduced a new member of the Court, the Red-Headed Child.

Whether any of the Vistani can travel back and forth between the two worlds has never been answered.
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Re: Gothic Earth and Ravenloft

Post by Ryan Naylor »

Or (what I would think was the most obvious response): 738 BC = c.16th Gothic Earth

This fits with the BoS framing fiction that turn-of-the-century Gothic Earth is about 200 years after VRGtFiends was published.


I had worked out an exact correspondence, but I can't remember what it was. Odiare was created around the time of the Thirty Years War, I think, the trauma of which explains the obsession with innocence. That also corresponded with the creation of the Sea of Sorrows and the hunt for the Northwest Passage.

I think the Terg invasion and the Turkish invasion of Wallachia corresponded as well. Or perhaps the publication of Inferno. Anyway, a lot of dates match up.
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Re: Gothic Earth and Ravenloft

Post by devilfox »

Ryan Naylor wrote:Or (what I would think was the most obvious response): 738 BC = c.16th Gothic Earth
:shock:

I have to be honest... the obvious answer didn't even occur to me.
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