Ravenloft Reanimated Domain Contest - Round 2

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Look forward to seeing the rest.

[WolfKook]

Grand Central
Level: Victorian/industrial revolution style realm
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Desert wasteland outside the city
Main Settlements: The city itself, and scattered shanty towns carved out of the bridges in the wastes
Races: 99% human 1% other (population city: 20,000) (population wasteland: 600)
Languages: Low/High Mordentish, and Balok
Religion: Baelus, the wheel (by the sand monks in the wastes), with a few tiny sects in the city
Government: The Grand Central Train Co. and its investors
Ruler: Mayor Grubwich III (or, more specifically, his dog)
Darklord: The train master
Summary of Plot/Feel: The stench of raw feces and oil chokes the air, followed by the creaking of the plates which separate the fragmented layers of humanity; the separation of rich and poor.
The city of trains they call it; Grand Central a station so large that the city takes its name from it, and a business depot which exports and imports products from the across the land.
In truth the city is a Terminus, which even the rich are prisoners of (yet don’t know or don‘t want to) and even the ones who believe they are in charge are but cogs of this monumental machine.
A once human being who ripped away his flesh and bound himself to his creation, which siphons the mists and misery to fuel its trains, and spread its malignant influence: A timetable of control upheld by its faceless soldiers, stripped of their freedom and their emotion to care.
The wasteland outside is inhospitable, haunted by the sand monks who worship there nonexistent god. The few human settlements are shanty towns carved into the monolithic stone bridges which stretch across the desert, struggling to survive yet at the same time grateful they don’t live in the city.

Isles of Saint Helena
Cultural Level: Renaissance (9)
Ecology: Full Ecology
Climate/Terrain: Warm aquatic, forests, hills and swamps
Main Settlements: Harbourton, La Libertad, Peurto del Ladrillo, Port-de-Paix, Port Royal
Races: Humans 77%, Halflings 11%, Elves 5%, Dwarves 4%, Gnomes 2%, Other 1%
Languages: Mordentish, Zherisian, Darkonian, other
Religion: Ezra, The Loa, The God-Emperor
Government: Various, from theocracies to military autocracies to puppet democracies
Ruler: Varies with each government
Darklords: The bearers of the Pieces of Eight, including Theresa St. Marie, Father Jean-Armand Christophe, and Admiral Alistair Medegaar
The Isles of Saint Helena are an archipelago of several hundred islands, ranging in size from tiny coral atolls to the massive Gran Evangelista, scattered within the warm, shallow Sea of Sails. Strangely, the location of the smaller isles within this Sea seem to drift from their charted locations, making the sea rather confusing to navigate and their governance questionable at best, though the larger islands appear to be rather stable.
Local legends state that a century ago, a young human sailor was tasked with a vistani witch to complete a quest, the details of which have been lost. What is known is that the sailor did complete the task, and demanded of the vistana a reward greater than promised, holding her family at sword point until his demands were met. Ransacking the family's wagon and finding only a few silver coins, he cursed the vistana in rage, and she, in turn, cursed the eight coins. The sailor didn't live out the week, slain by a thief who'd somehow heard a story about these powerful vistani-enchanted coins.
Eventually, the coins disappeared into the mists, but their legend of the 'pieces of eight' only grew with each telling. Occasionally, rumours of one would spur heroes and villains alike to action, though they tended to end up in the hands of those who preformed some great act of betrayal or greed. The coins' bearers soon found themselves drawn into the mists, and placed upon the Isles of Saint Helena... sometimes marooned, sometimes with their allies and followers or even the landscape alongside. The Pieces of Eight, though apparently powerless, do encourage paranoia in their bearers by informing them of the location of the owners of the other pieces, driving these covetous individuals to even greater heights to claim the legendary coins.

The Labyrinth
Cultural Level: Renaissance
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate Hills and Mountains
Population: 180.000
Main Settlements: Etherea (50.000)
Races: Fey 99%, Human 3%
Languages: Feyspeak*
Religion: None.
Government: Hereditary Monarchy
Ruler: King Alberich
Darklord: Jarthias
Jarthias was a master architect, whose logical mind turned away from magic and fairy tales: He dismissed them as gibberish, and accused anyone who believed in magic and fantasy as a source of hope or comfort of being foolish and childish.
So, when Alberich, the king of the fey, appeared before him to ask him to build his fortress, Etherea, he passed away from the surprise. He woke up in a magical world, different from what he knew and from where he felt safe, and the presence of fairies and other creatures tortured him. He agreed on making the fortress, but secretly planned to confine king Alberich and his creatures inside, to keep the world safe from them, and their illogical and random magic. So, he set up to make a rigid labyrinth, which only a logical mind would be able to decipher. He failed to foresee, however, that the builders were magical fey, and that their very handicraft was altering his designs as they worked. In the end, the labyrinth had no sense at all: It twisted and turned and grew and changed to prevent any non-magical creature from moving through it in a logical way, and ended up confining Jarthias in the same way he tried to confine all that was magical in his world.
Worse still, even though they can theoretically go in and out of the Labyrinth, through exits that can open through any door in Ravenloft, the fey creatures do not stand being confined in the dark for so long: They are becoming even more twisted and mad than ever before, and they are starting to turn on anyone they find on the other side.

Lornyth
(Note: This used to be the Forest of Memory. The name is changed due to the growing number of other "Forests of-" and "-Woods" in RLR.)
Cultural Level: Iron Age (3)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate forest
Major Settlements: None. Natives gather in temporary camps or secluded hallows.
Races: Goblyns 38% Elves 35% gnomes 25%, humans 1% other 1%
Languages: corrupted Balok, Mordentish and Darkonese.
Religions: None (a few devotees of the Eternal Order)
Government: No formal government.
Ruler: No formal ruler.
Darklord: The Glass Countess
Lornyth is the densely-forested domain of death and memory, inhabited by souls who cheat death for a time, some willingly, some not. It is a good domain to pull gnome and elven PC backgrounds from, and a good site for adventures dealing with mystery, death, loss and surreal horror.
The Glass Countess roams the domain, her body a constantly-tended patchwork of dead skin over an interior of broken glass shards. Whenever she stops for a time, crystalline walls arise to form a twisted replica of a luxurious palace she dimly remembers as her home. The darklord's time is spent looking for glass shards containing her missing memories and people who remind her of loved ones she has outlived. More often, she simply looks to acquire more lovingly-devoted undead to keep her company. Her ultimate aim is to expand her realm in order to preserve all living things in Ravenloft from death. She doesn't see how anyone could judge her actions harmful.
The natives of the domain fall into three factions: secluded shadow elves, deceitful gnomes and ravenous goblyns. All are in reality deceased souls made flesh, left with few or no memory of their past lives. Some of these natives wish death upon the "true" living, while others seek to lure or kidnap mortals so as to better remember mortal life. Only a few sometimes prove kind or helpful to stranded travelers. A still smaller few actually set out into the outside world to recall it further.
Native horrors: goblyns, ghosts, fey, undead, monstrous animals and shapeshifting vermin.
Important NPCs: Armand Mothseer (elf undead-hunter), the Silken Man (ettercap trickster), the Woodsinger (Multi-mouthed dread treant harvesting human voices).

Nosos
Cultural Level: Industrial
Ecology: Sparse ecology (civilization), temperate forests (druids)
Climate/Terrain: Temperate
Main Settlements: Candelforn, Ronwin
Races: Human 95%, Other 5%
Languages: Zherisian
Religion: Obad-Hai (druids)
Government: Theocracy-Elders (druids), Aristocracy (citizens)
Ruler: Malus Sceleris
Darklord: Malus Sceleris
Nature and civilization have fought for years for dominance of Nosos. Superstitious druids embrace even the bloodiest aspects of nature to preserve what little land they have left. They’ve seen the horrors and inhumanity the “civilized” world has inflicted upon their own, people working to support a select few, machines that tear into the earth and inflict waste into the water and sky. Any tactic, no matter how cruel, will be used to fight back.
Nature’s wrath, bickering noble families, pollution, overpopulation at times it feels like just surviving is a struggle for both the haves and have-nots. People struggle to get what they can even if it hurts those bellow them.
The druid’s purity is nothing but a joke, abandoned by his druid father and community for death of his mother. Their unwillingness to think and sacrifice even children to their God, Malus would never have part of it. Finally having a place in the civilized world, even if he had to use every underhanded act to do so (his criminal past, forging papers to prove that he was the son to the late lord Sceleris), he will use his new home and it's people to destroy his past and protect every lie he created. But the past has a way of refusing die and turning him into what he truly hates.

Oriebo
Cultural Level: Renaissance (9)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate aquatic, hills and plains
Main Settlements: Oriebo
Races: Humans 99%, Others 1%
Languages: Odiaran*, Nidalan
Religion: Belenus*
Government: Commune (aristocratic oligarchy)
Ruler: Podestà Guendalina Paganelli
Darklord: the “star-crossed lovers”: Guendalina Paganelli (female half human/half vampire Ari 12) and Amedeo Gentileschi (male rank I ghost Ari8)
Two centuries ago, a small clan of nosferatus known as the Red Death docked at the port of the city of Oriebo.
They quickly seized the population's favour, and married the heirs of the most prominent families; after some time their undead nature was discovered and an anti-vampire crusade exterminated the entire clan, but not before they could pass their cursed bloodline to their children.
Their descendants feel during their life 'The Call', an urge to commit atrocious acts which, if followed, turns the subject to something similar to his/her ancestors (an half-vampire); in time the ancestor's spirit reincarnates into the descendant's body.
All the prominent families struggle for the title of Podestà (Governor and head of the Senate), a title boasted by carrying the symbol of the city, the golden statue of a red lion, during the 'Red Death Carnival', a festival celebrated once a year to commemorate the ancient vampire hunt, where the population wears vampire masks and costumes.
The “Bloodhounds”, descendants of the ancient crusaders, try to free Oriebo from the cursed bloodline, often murdering his targets during the Carnival, the night when most scores are settled in the city, during the general confusion.
Amedeo Gentileschi, the former Podestà, was supposed to marry Guendalina Paganelli to cement the ties between their families but killed himself to ruin his hated family and city, certain that with no Podestà chaos would have followed. Guendalina tried to push him to suicide not knowing it was already in his mind; after his death she took the title and stabilized Oriebo but the alliance between their families crumbled.
He became a powerless geist, cursed not to be able to reveal the truth or taken seriously, while his wife sunk deeper into the depths of the Call, increasing the families' struggle.

[WolfKook]

Pharazia
Cultural Level: Early Medieval (6)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Warm Desert
Main Settlements: Pharaz
Races: Human 99%, Others 1%
Languages: Pharazian
Religion: Hajama (Nomads), Diamabel (citizens)
Government: Theocratic Despotism
Ruler: Diamabel,
Darklord: Diamabel
What is purity? It is a question that has plagued the citizens and Diamabel in the last five years with the arrival of the “Pale Man”, birth of true innocents and the rebel leader’s daughter becoming a favored soul of the Darklord’s god. Some are now driving themselves to extremes to achieve what they believe is purity and ascension: Infections from self-flagellation, intense spiritual rituals that sacrifice sanity for ecstasy, vile experiments to eliminate the “sinful” urges in the mind. Some achieve a pseudo-form of purity only created to further infuriate the Darklord while others lose their own humanity in the process. The fear and watchfulness over whatever sins could be revealed to the enforcers still remain, but the promises of purity and the rewards from the Darklord even if it can be easily taken away drive them.
With their favored soul, the nomads have renewed their zeal as their savior wonders if she’s nothing more than a figurehead.
Even if he loathes admitting it, the recent changes have forced Diamabel to rethink a few things. Using his subjects as guinea pigs he promised them his personal “blessings” if they were discover new paths and ideals of purity. Part of him enjoys watching the fools when they fail and administering their proper punishments, but it’s the ones that succeed even in the slightest that cut the deepest. Brandishing the purity he never had, they are his greatest weapon and a source of anger. Parents of a True Innocent may be given riches and prestige, but are permanently indebted to Diamabel for his “protection”. While their child lives in luxury and devotion to good, their very sight is taken from them as the darklord ravishes them in love and pain.

Phragma
Cultural Level: Renaissance (9)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate plains, hills and mountains.
Major Settlements: Aleph, Gimel.
Races: Human 97%, halflings 2%, other 1%
Languages: Vinaran
Religions: The Divinity of Mankind, Hala, Ezra.
Government: Academic meritocracy
Ruler: The Congress of Stars, currently presided by Sealrector Koan Tesar.
Darklord: Professor Niccolo Torma
This realm attempts to reconcile high-level spellcasting with the subtle requirements of gothic horror.
In Phragma, education determines social status, though true schooling is available to few. The highest positions are held by members of the paranoid and power-hungry Academies. Originally, there was one for each zodiacal constellation in Ravenloft’s night sky, but years of infighting have reduced the number to four (although there are rumours of at least one “exile” Academy reportedly relocated in Necropolis). Though each Academy has a different specialization and idea on “improving” the world, they all control such fields as history, physical sciences and politics. Only the most talented are admitted within the “inner” circles, where magical theory is taught.
The darklord is Professor Niccolo Torma, an influential mathematician and historian. Outwardly he poses as an erudite philanthropist, always ready to share knowledge with whoever requires it. In what he calls his “lucid” state, he is a diabolical madman. Torma believes himself to be the reincarnation of the last ruler of the dead El-Koth race, whose remains he one day discovered beneath an academy building. Long ago, the El-Koth monarch was defeated by the Illithid God-Brain, who shattered its intelligence to pieces. The professor is constantly being possessed by one fragment or other of the monster’s dead mind, which direct him along a mess of contradictory desires - sometimes to reawaken the El-Koth race, sometimes to get revenge on the illithids who vanquished them or to create new slave life-forms. As his knowledge and psychic ability is improving, the part of his mind still calling itself human is being slowly defeated – much to Torma’s secret despair.
Native horrors: Madmen, magical beasts, constructs, eldritch aberrations.
Important NPCs: Black Gull (street urchin human rights activist), Stavros Karmodi (clandestine magic tutor), Dorot Mariano (mind flayer merchant and spy).

Principato Delle Grazie
Cultural Level: Renaissance(9)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate, hills and mountains
Main Settlements: La cittadella
Races: Humans 99%, Others 1%
Languages: Mordentish*
Religion: Belenus*
Government: Feudal hereditary monarchies
Ruler: Prince Etienne Bramante delle Grazie
Darklord: Princess Patricia Wilding (female undead Ari15, NE) & The Heir (male 15 HD atropal, CE)
The Principato delle Grazie (Principality of the Graces) is a small nation whose only settlement is set on one of the highest peaks of the Hopes Mountain, called La Cittadella (The Citadel) because of its size greater than a castle but smaller than a town.
Taxes are kept low, thanks to the Princes’ diplomatic policy which assured a stable peace with all his neighbours, resulting in a ‘oasis’ for rich bankers’ and priests’ money, where even average people rarely know indigence.
In La Cittadella’s heart there are dozens of tunnels leading to the depths of the Hopes Mountains, where old settlement of gold miners lie abandoned, a fact unknown to the common people, though historians and graverobbers exploring them are almost always claimed by the dangers of the tunnels.
Prince Etienne Bramante, nicknamed ‘the fatigued Prince’ because of his attitude more suited for a fifty years old man instead of his thirty, like if he carried a burden.
Years ago, he fell in love and soon married the famed theater actress Patricia Wilding, died by a plot of Etienne’s mother when she was already pregnant.
Her force of will turned her into a vengeful undead, her child, ‘The Heir’, born undead shorthly thereafter, a cruel mockery of a baby incapable of living without remaining attached to his ‘mother’.
Patricia returned by the tunnels and brutally killed Etienne’s mother, her lost husband keeping the secret not to make the principality fall.
The Heir asks to his ‘father’ to bring him servants to turn them into undead slaves, kidnapping mothers and children to find a way to somehow reincarnate, while Patricia follows his wishes hoping to one day be able to bear another child from his beloved husband.
The tunnels are where the undead servants hide and kill every trespasser.

Richmont
Cultural Level: Renaissance (9)
Ecology: Full Ecology
Climate/Terrain: Temperate desert, forest, hills, mountains, plains and swamps
Main Settlements: Bishopton, Evansdale, Fort Beauregard, Langley, Lynchburg, Montgomery
Races: Human 64%, Orc 16%, Halfling 11%, Dwarf 5%, Gnome 3%, Other 1%
Languages: Umbrish
Religion: The God-Emperor
Government: Bicameral Legislative Assembly elected by human landowners (The Legislative Assembly and the Senate)
Ruler: Speaker of the House, The Right Honourable John Fredrick Thames
Darklord: Senator Wilhelmina Fraser
Stretching from the humid swamps of the coasts to the dusty highlands of the Fortress Range and the cool depths of the Blackwood Forest to the south, Richmont is a vast domain blessed with extensive natural resouces. Initially settled nearly three centuries ago by humans, the colonies quickly developed a profitable farming economy, but as they expanded, encounters with the other races in the the area became increasingly hostile.
Eventually, the decision was made by the leadership of the human colonies that any non-human in their land without proper justification would become a prisoner of the state. The other races paid little heed to this initially, until the human militias began rounding up their fellows and sending them to labour camps. Eventually, the human militias became bold enough to strike back, and as with all nonhumans these prisoners became property of the state. As the years passed, these 'serfs' were loaned from the state to powerful and rich humans, replacing the small farms with massive plantations. The colonies' political masters overseas, however, believed that this was becoming too much like slavery, and when the colonies refused to comply with their demands, the empire sent their armies to bring them back into line. In a surprising turn of events, the young colonies, making use of serfs, shock troopers and captured dwarven technologies, managed to assert their independence.
The Republic of Richmont is governed exclusively by the August Party, an organization of powerful landowners, war heroes, and rail barons, collectively known as the 'old families'. The vast distances between the cities of Richmont slowed its industrial development, but thanks to the invention of the mighty steam engine, these distances are shrinking, and the cities of Richmont, long a refuge of the middle-class humans, are transforming into smog-choked shrines to industry and progress.

Roeschap
Cultural Level: Medieval/Renaissance
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate Forests, Hills, Plains and Mountains
Population: 80.000
Main Settlements: Zondestad (30.000), Heiligburg (1.200)
Races: Human 84%, Caliban 6%, Half-Elf 2%, Half-Vistani 4%, Halfling 1%, Other 3%
Languages: Mordentish, Lamordian
Religion: Soassir*, Divinity of Mankind.
Government: Hereditary Oligarchy
Ruler: Grand Council of Roeschap
Darklord: Comte Charles Emmanuel de Marbeau, Marquise Alessandre de Saches
Roeschap was a very religious, puritan country, which was conquered by a foreign state. The new landowners were blessed by rich, fertile lands and obedient, helpful vassals, and grew very rich in short time. After a couple of generations, they were leading a decadent lifestyle, and engaging in all kinds of debauchery.
Charles de Marbeau grew famous for his charm, and his ability to use women as he wished. Alessandre de Saches was her feminine equivalent, having led her former husband to suicide by manipulating him both sexually and psychologically. The only people they seemed impossible to toy with were one another.
One day, when Alessandre was visiting her holdings, she heard from Lisanne Van Bueren, a commoner girl who was rumored to be a living saint. Decided to mock her, Alessandre engaged her in conversation, but the girl proved so clever and wise, that she turned the joke on her. Humilliated, Alessandre turned to Charles for revenge, promising him that he would do anything he wanted her to do, if he could reduce Lisanne to their level. Charles was eager to play the game, and went to met Lisanne. After some flirting and games, both started to feel for each other, but the game had such momentum that he couldn’t prevent himself from driving her to the most depraved acts. She agreed, out of love, condemning herself, and her two tormentors, in the process.
Today, Charles cannot feel but the feelings of others, Alessandre must feed on sexual energy, and Lisanne has not shown her face since. The entire domain has become one of rumors and sin, and inner desires, and the Soassir villages have shut themselves in terror of the corrupting forces outside, while keeping a watchful eye on the witchcraft that invoked them.

Sassomonte
Cultural Level: Chivalric (8)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate plains, hills and mountains
Main Settlements: Secca, Alorno
Races: Humans 98%, Others 2%
Languages: Odiaran*, Balok
Religion: Belenus*
Government: Totalitarian teocracy
Ruler: Archbishop Riccardi
Darklord: Archbishop Riccardi (male ghoul lord Ari4/Clr11, NE) & Count Leopoldino (male ghoul lord Ari15, CE)
Encased between two high mountain ranges, with settlements spread there and in the inside valley, Sassomonte is a teocracy ruled with an iron fist by Archbishop Riccardi from the Cathedral of the Rocks.
Many guardtowers were built on the peaks to merge themselves with the background, though many of they are now abandoned or became a prison for unfortunate people left there to be forgotten, near the villages where shepherds live.
Secca is the town on the mountains, where the Archbishop lives, while Alorno is on the valley, built around the river Larno, the place where the nation gains profit from the trade with neighbouring nations (its only true source of income).
The two towns are only similar regarding the attitude of their citizens, blindly following Belenus and in constant fear of the unofficial Inquisition created by Riccardi, whose agents wear scaring masks and long capes. When someone disappears, everyone knows it’s better not to ask questions.
Ten years ago Riccardi deprived of power Count Leopoldino, and left him to die of starvation in an isolated tower with his children, and the madness brought the Count to kill and eat his family. Both him and the Archbishop were stroke by his dying curse, turning them into hungry insatiable ghouls.
The Count became skeleton-like and favors children, while Riccardi became fat and obese and can eat only skin from live ‘Ghibellines’, the secret society opposing him.
The victims of Leopoldino and Riccardi become respectively skeleton-like or fleshless bleeding corpses. Both use these ghouls as their ‘secret army’, Riccardi hiding their features and using them as Inquisitors, and Leopoldino making them wander from watchtower to watchtower to strike the faction supporting the Archbishop, the ‘Guelphs’.
Of course the people recognize themselves in either Guelphs or Ghibellines, ignoring the horrors behind this struggle.

Scarabraech
Cultural Level: 1 (and see below)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate grassland and urban ruins
Main Settlements: See below
Races: human, caliban
Languages: High Mordentish
Religion: None
Government: Anarchy (tribal)
Ruler: None
Darklord: John Diamante
Plot/Feel: John Diamante has always believed that the world could be made perfect; all that man (mostly meaning John Diamante himself) has ever needed to create a new paradise is enough power over the natural world to cause his every wish to come true. It was this that led him, through long years of study and effort, to become a Father of the Fraternity of Shadows—and to realize how far he still remained from his goal. He knew he needed more knowledge—knowledge hidden even to the other Umbra—to achieve his ends.
And then he found a book which told the history of the nation of Scarabraech, whose wizards had more power than those of any other land ever known to the Mists. His careful questioning showed no-one—not even his fellow-Umbra—knew of this city, and Diamante resolved to make its secrets his own. He pursued Scarabraech through long nights and hard days, by means of theft, betrayal and murder, with dark rituals of forgotten magics, by consorting with fiends both human and inhuman; and then one night, as he walked a dark road, he found a way post directing him onward to Scarabraech.
Hurrying onward, he soon saw a proud city in flames, he felt the earth tremble, and heard the cries of a mob intent to destruction, and he hastened to save what he could from the fall of that empire of knowledge.
On the night of his arrival Scarabraech fell, in an orgy of blood, fire, and magic. Diamante now struggles to save what he can from those who lived through that fall, who hate and fear even the memory of magic, and who slaughter any who read and write lest they learn the secrets which unmade a world.
John Diamante lives to get and preserve knowledge; Scarabraech exists to destroy it.

[WolfKook]

Veaer (The Living)
Cultural Level: Stone Age (1). Ruins suggest a previous Renaissance (9) society.
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate forests, hills and mountains
Major Settlements: None. Native society is nomadic.
Races: Human 99%, other 1%.
Languages: Vinaran
Religions: Tribal shamanism
Government: Tribal commonwealth ruled by elders
Ruler: None. Informal council of tribal elders
Darklord: Veaer (The Living)
Veaer is an experiment at having the domain and the darklord being one and the same. As a "wild" land, this is a good domain to pull druid, barbarian, ranger, warden and shaman PCs from. It is also oddly fitting for characters with scientific talents.
Veaer is a living land at war with its own emotions. Many years ago it awoke to sentience to fight the excesses of humankind. It won - leaving two dead cities and a score of scientific half-creations running amok. The few human survivors took to savage life - still preserving the science of old, but no longer daring to use it, except on very rare occasions.
The land-darklord is quite mad, both at humans for their past crimes against nature and at itself for the undeserved rampage. When Veaer drops into a delusion-induced friendliness towards mankind, the land becomes gentle and hospitable. When it turns back to anger and despair, trees twist into malefic shapes, animals become misshapen aberrations and the restless dead within the plant-overgrown ruins stir again.
At rare times, Veaer manifests a physical avatar to engage in direct communication with mortals, pleading for help or accusing travelers of imaginary crimes. This is more common within the few hidden nodes of primal power scattered throughout the woods. Sometimes Veaer thinks these Elder Hallows have been "corrupted" and are in need of fixing so it can sleep in peaceful mindlessness once more. Whenever travelers seek to get close to these spots, however, the land as often as not responds with anger and carnage.
Native horrors: ghosts, murderous plants, hivemind fauna, constructs.
Important NPCs: Dr Adele D’Esgreville (Dementlieuse botanist), Mkhoo Many-Eyes (recluse shaman/mad scientist), the Green Savant (scholarly doppelganger plant).

Vespa
Cultural Level: Chivalric
Ecology: Full Ecology
Climate/Terrain: Temperate Forests
Main Settlements: Angrim, Lodin
Races: Human 50%, Caliban 30%, Other 20%
Languages: Vespian, Balok,
Religion: Mixed
Government: Dictatorship
Ruler: Sabrina Whitestag
Darklord: Sabrina Whitestag
Rebuilding a country to create a sanctuary for the “blessed” is a source of hope and fear among the throwaways of Ravenloft. Gathered from different parts of the core the citizen’s minds are fed Sabrina’s promises of their superiority and the Shining Lord who will rise among them to strike down their “oppressors” and bring forth hope to Ravenloft. For now they will play nice with the other domains, downplaying their gifts and building their power until they least suspect it.
Alas it is not that easy, Sabrina’s own paranoid and broken heart keeps the Vespers in fear of her wrath as the ghosts of the citizens conspires against her using the citizen’s as their pawns to either redeem or avenge their deaths.
Nothing was ever Sabrina’s fault, it was always something: her parents for shielding her from grim fates of other “blessed”, the rebellion that convinced her and her childhood friend, Illarian, to join; Illarian for being so selfish when the mantle of leader was forced on him that he had no time for her, that horrid priestess who stole Illarian’s from her, the empire’s lies about actually caring about her only to attempt to abandon her when her quests for vengeance ruined their plans. But she showed them, they all had to pay for their betrayal.
Believing that her powers warped her to a new world, Ravenloft will learn to appreciate her even if she has to tear its citizen’s limb from limb to keep them from running away.

Vinara
Cultural Level: Chivalric (8)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Warm plains and mountains, with seismic and volcanic activity.
Major Settlements: Akorah, Venikar
Races: Humans 97%, calibans 1%, yuan-ti 1%, other 1%.
Languages: Vinaran
Religions: The Lawgiver
Government: Aristocratic anarchy, tempered by an oligarchy of criminal syndicates.
Ruler: No formal ruler
Darklord: Vestiver
Vinara is a domain playing on themes of anarchy, fire, decadence and passion. It deliberately plays against the idea of human towns as "safe territory", turning them into action- and mystery-rich adventuring ground.
The volcanic domain has no central government. Nobles and commoners alike engage in vast, never-ceasing nightly revels to take their minds away from the realm's human and monstrous evils. Merely navigating the city streets is not always safe. Hot-headed and unrestrained, Vinarans are known to sometimes declare duels or blood vendettas against even insignificant slights.
Vinara would be avoided by all if not its exotic spices and narcotics, and its constant demand for outland timber, as an unspoken law forbids non-nobles to own homes made entirely of stone. District-wide fires frequently cause great devastation.
The realm’s darklord is Vestiver, a shapeshifting mummy lord and homicidal cult leader. As a child, Vestiver was the only survivor of a devastating fire, and suffers from the delusion that his escape was unintended by fate. To placate whatever cosmic laws he had transgressed by surviving, Vestiver spread fire and destruction wherever he went, and eventually founded a cruel nihilistic cult. When authorities finally caught him, Vestiver immolated himself and his would-be captors. Now a thing of ash and charred bone, he believes that only the destruction of the entire domain will win back his mortality. Remarkably, Vestiver’s ability to blend in society and his natural charisma is winning him new relations and even would-be friends, and those are the first to be claimed by fire whenever his control over his emotions is allowed to slip.
Native horrors: Burning Dead, criminal masterminds, fire-worshipping yuan-ti.
Important NPCs: Solia Travador (very wealthy festive human noble), Pave Karol Dokran (half-mad human leader of the local Church of the Lawgiver), Wise Svassar (yuan-ti abomination patriarch).

Woods of the Floating Coffin
Level: Little to no technology
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: A forest of ice and snow
Main Settlements: (Without population)
Races: 100% human (population 200)
Languages: Falkovnian
Religion: A church of Erza stands in Hope’s End
Government: Village Elders
Ruler: Mrs Henretta Gump (matriarch of Hope’s End)
Darklord: Princess Stella
Summary of Plot/Feel: A forest frozen in a moment; in a moment of murder. Loneliness and jealousy are the feelings that haunt this domain.
The domain is as cold as Stella’s heart. Her lonely spirit walks the frozen wastes searching for the love she killed; and every 100 years her love walks through the forest again. Though her jealousy means he will always die by her hand, and the warmth of his bloody heart on her hands will always melt her away.
Her human body hangs floating in a coffin carved from ice at the centre of the forest. The ground still died red from her lovers blood. Her cold lips waiting for true loves kiss, the one that never comes.
Her father in centuries passed sent every respectable man in the kingdom to awaken his daughter from her slumber, and each fell as there body froze and shattered as lips touched.
Eventually the snow spread, and now her father’s lifeless corpse sits frozen to his throne. The kingdom buried under ice.
The few that stayed and survived linger on a village called Hope’s End on the borders of the domain, and struggle to survive on a daily basis, warning their sons of the maiden who beckons them away.

Zumbera
Cultural Level: Chivalric (8)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Warm plains and hills
Major Settlements: Zumbera.
Races: Humans 93%, halflings 3%. umbral chimerae 3%, other 1%
Languages: Vinaran*, Mordentish.
Religions: None
Government: Commonwealth
Ruler: Lord-Mayor Raul Bonomi
Darklord: Kravo Sardelli
Zumbera is an island city-state of entertainment, delights and pleasures. Sensations seem heightened in Zumbera: food tastes better, songs sound sweeter, and clashing blades feel sharper. The wiser visitors know that Zumbera’s pleasures are dangerously addictive: people who stay here too long or overindulge too much grow dependant on Zumberan fare throughout their life. Oddly, this danger seems to affect foreigners foremost. For their part, Zumberan natives are very adept at both offering original shows and sensations and relieving visitors of their money. Their other trait is irrational phobia of the dark: streets are always brightly lit at night and no native would venture into a non-illuminated alley.
A twisted shadow dominion coexists with Zumbera’s surface streets, inhabited by elusive Umbral Chimerae, emotion-drinking shadow creatures of which the Bastellus and the Tenebris are two known varieties. These alien beings converge here like moths drawn to a flame, in order to feast on strong emotions - and sometimes on humans who produce them. Though perilous, the shadow dominion is sought after by some, for here the darker, amoral pleasures are offered. This part of Zumbera’s business is artfully run by the realm’s darklord Kravo Sardelli. Once an ambitious arcanist posing as a stage magician, Sardelli used forbidden necromancies to augment his acts, many of which were frightfully more real than the public ever suspected. Yet Kravo’s greatest magic creation backfired on him. Now he is shadow magic personified, an immortal, sentient illusion forever seeking a way to be human again and constantly doubting his own reality. His endless search frequently turns him to murder and worse to harvest emotion-charged shadowstuff needed for his experiments.
Local horrors: umbral chimerae, fihyr, dreamspawn, bogeymen.
Important NPCs: Father Abramo (mortu vistana gambling/pickpocket guildmaster), Madam Valentini (umbral chimera “talent scout”), The Hollowkin (carrionette hivemind).




So, there they are. Feel free to comment, criticize or give advice to the contestants. I hope you've enjoyed reading through them as they've enjoyed preparing them for you. (BTW, thank you to the contestants, and to the judges... This round's been a real blast!)

[Nathan of the FoS]

*Fails Will save vs. Wall of Text, dazed.*

This, obviously, is why the first two rounds were limited to thirty words each.

[Igor the Henchman]

Wow. That's... a lot of text.

I'm beginning to get worried whether casual board members will have the time and energy to digest it all enough to place a coherent vote in the next stage of the contest. Especially if the darklord write-ups will be as long or longer than this. This is a crazy amount of interesting information all at once! I did my best to read it all from start to finish, and I feel positively dizzy.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Well, only ten domains will be selected from these twenty-eight, so that will make it a lot easier on the eyes. Still, first impressions will obviously count for a lot.

[Igor the Henchman]

Well, only ten domains will be selected from these twenty-eight, so that will make it a lot easier on the eyes. Still, first impressions will obviously count for a lot.

From these 31, actually. From what I read of WolfKook's shedule, this round will only give us the results of the third filter. The final ten will be selected after the open poll. And that's what worries me - maybe needlessly, I suppose.

[Nathan of the FoS]

You're quite right, we don't yet know how many will pass at this point. I would expect 20-25 to pass, based on past rounds, and that will be a challenge for the casual reader, I think.

What will the format for voting be, WolfKook? And how many domains will we be able to vote for?

[Lord Cyclohexane]

*Fails Will save vs. Wall of Text, dazed.*

This, obviously, is why the first two rounds were limited to thirty words each.

Nathan = teh win

[Igor the Henchman]

I noticed that you get a lot less tired when the text is displayed black on white. I changed my forum viewing preferences to ashGunge and the wall of text is suddenly less tiresome.

[Manofevil]

I'm one of the judges and I read them all. I've already submitted my votes, so don't think it's too hard.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

So how do you submit your votes?

[Nathan of the FoS]

I'm one of the judges and I read them all. I've already submitted my votes, so don't think it's too hard.

Yes, but you are a sober and responsible person, as evidenced by your position as a judge! Will the rest of us be so diligent?

[Nathan of the FoS]

So how do you submit your votes?

We aren't at the point where the General Public gets to vote yet. At present Manofevil, MadStepDad, tec-goblin and Steve Miller are judging the domains, and when they're finished we, the forum audience, will choose 10 from those they have picked.