Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

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thekristhomas
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Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by thekristhomas »

This occurred to me the other day and it was so stupid that there maybe something to it, here goes:

A possible root for the name Mordeheim might be, "Mordent home" or "one who calls Mordent home", it doesn't seem a huge stretch.

Well, that got me thinking, could Mordenheim be from Mordent? Well of course not, we'd have heard of a scientist of unsurpassed skill if he'd have come from that small domain, where the only thing of note ever to have happened was...

Oh...

OH....
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

I think it more likely that the roots of "Mordenheim" are "mord" and "heim". 'Mord' meaning 'murder' and 'heim', home, of course.
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Rock wrote:I think it more likely that the roots of "Mordenheim" are "mord" and "heim". 'Mord' meaning 'murder' and 'heim', home, of course.
Well sure, out of game, but in game, Mordent makes just as much sense.

So, are you proposing that Mordenheim could be Alchemist Strahd? Stranger things have happened. If you wanted your campaign to be especially Strahd-focused, this would be a good way to link them.
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by thekristhomas »

I know I'm not the first to suggest that "there's something off" about Mordeheim as is, his sins don't seem DL worthy, plus he's one of the non-dying Core DLs which means he's pretty central, also I struggle to believe that the Alchemist "got away clean" at the end of I10, and that if he's still about we'd have heard of something, surely. It seemed like a (crazy) solution. If he was the Alchemist, the DPs wouldn't want him wandering about where an enterprising PC might come across him, reunite him with his dark half and undo creation. So they made him a DL, wiped his mind, changed his name, gave him a false history and blammo, the RL equivalent of witness protection. It might be the reason why the "false history" and memories of the population don't quite work, because all the effort went into turning The Alchemist von Zarovich into Victor Mordenheim.

Or it could be that I've been staring at Ravenloft maps too long, because another idea I've had is for a poster from the Lamordian Tourist board.

"Come to Lamordia for your honeymoon, because you can't say Lamordia, without saying l'amor!"
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by thekristhomas »

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:
Rock wrote:I think it more likely that the roots of "Mordenheim" are "mord" and "heim". 'Mord' meaning 'murder' and 'heim', home, of course.
Well sure, out of game, but in game, Mordent makes just as much sense.

So, are you proposing that Mordenheim could be Alchemist Strahd? Stranger things have happened. If you wanted your campaign to be especially Strahd-focused, this would be a good way to link them.
Thank you for giving my idea some consideration, I appreciate it :D
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by ewancummins »

I like it.

Being as he studied the sciences both mundane and arcane, I am sure he must have studied alchemy , Frankenstein style.
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by ewancummins »

Something to consider would be the implications for Eva, Adam, and Katrina Von Brandthofen.

They all need to be real in some way, I think.

Did Mordenheim-Alchemist escape to the Prime Material Plane, only to be drawn back in later?

Does a certain Mesmerist have anything to do with all this?
(Maybe not).
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by thekristhomas »

ewancummins wrote:I like it.

Being as he studied the sciences both mundane and arcane, I am sure he must have studied alchemy , Frankenstein style.
Yeah, Frankenstein read Paracelsus and other alchemists as a youth :)

That's a nice idea that alchemy could be something he has "put aside" vaguely aware of unsatisfactory results, because his false memory/curse prevents him from considering it.
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by ewancummins »

One of his experiments sounds rather like something the Apparatus can do.
VIEW CONTENT:
It's in Mordenheim's Bride, in the Book of Crypts, IIRC. He attempts to place Elise's psyche into Katrina Von Brandthofen's body.
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by thekristhomas »

ewancummins wrote:Something to consider would be the implications for Eva, Adam, and Katrina Von Brandthofen.

They all need to be real in some way, I think.

Did Mordenheim-Alchemist escape to the Prime Material Plane, only to be drawn back in later?

Does a certain Mesmerist have anything to do with all this?
(Maybe not).
Well...one of the things about Lamordia, IMO, is that there appears to be an extended period of time between when it first began to be drawn into the mists and when it joined the core, it maybe that the whole "Mordenheim" story occored in these times?

In a kinda rerun of the Mordent experience, he gets a castle starts experimenting, falls in love, creates a monster with some kinda weird co-dependant relationship, monster attempts to destroy scientists love.

Part of my thinking behind the Lamordian invasion of Dementlieu, in a different thread, is that there were two "weird science" elements to I10 the Apparatus/Alchemist and the good Dr D'Honaire, and both elements have been excised from modern Mordentshire, with the heirs to the latter being removed to Dementlieu and the Alchemist vanishing completely, leaving Mordentshire as the ghost haunted realm it is today.

With D'Honaire in Dementlieu maybe the Alchemist is in Lamordia?
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by ewancummins »

thekristhomas wrote:
ewancummins wrote:Something to consider would be the implications for Eva, Adam, and Katrina Von Brandthofen.

They all need to be real in some way, I think.

Did Mordenheim-Alchemist escape to the Prime Material Plane, only to be drawn back in later?

Does a certain Mesmerist have anything to do with all this?
(Maybe not).
Well...one of the things about Lamordia, IMO, is that there appears to be an extended period of time between when it first began to be drawn into the mists and when it joined the core, it maybe that the whole "Mordenheim" story occored in these times?

In a kinda rerun of the Mordent experience, he gets a castle starts experimenting, falls in love, creates a monster with some kinda weird co-dependant relationship, monster attempts to destroy scientists love.

Part of my thinking behind the Lamordian invasion of Dementlieu, in a different thread, is that there were two "weird science" elements to I10 the Apparatus/Alchemist and the good Dr D'Honaire, and both elements have been excised from modern Mordentshire, with the heirs to the latter being removed to Dementlieu and the Alchemist vanishing completely, leaving Mordentshire as the ghost haunted realm it is today.

With D'Honaire in Dementlieu maybe the Alchemist is in Lamordia?

Lamordia in the Black Box, and even in Adam's Wrath, seems to have only just recently appeared. I'm basing that on context, not an outright statement (there isn't one).


But you are quite correct that in other early canon, it appears in Ravenloft well before it joins the Core.

If using your Mordent and Alchemist tie-in, I'd definitely go for the canon that sets up Lamordia being an older domain, appearing not so long after Mordent.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by ewancummins »

This stuff might tie in well with the older Demenltieu we discussed in that other thread.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by ewancummins »

Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by thekristhomas »

ewancummins wrote:One of his experiments sounds rather like something the Apparatus can do.
VIEW CONTENT:
It's in Mordenheim's Bride, in the Book of Crypts, IIRC. He attempts to place Elise's psyche into Katrina Von Brandthofen's body.
Yes it's difficult to believe that even as isolated as he keeps himself that he wouldn't have heard of the Apparatus, and that once he had heard of it he should have little difficultly making one of his own (he is Mordenheim, after all), that fact that he "fails" in this might be because the DPs wish it so (in addition to his usual failures)

As a side note and almost as mad, I sometimes suspect that Katrina is the "true" Lamordian DL
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Re: Mad idea: The etymology of a Darklord

Post by ewancummins »

That's an unusual take on her.

Could be cool!


I always liked Katrina, possibly because I actually played the adventure where she was introduced. Indeed, that was part of one the first AD&D 2E campaigns, quite possibly the first, I played in.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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