The Domain of Ylvorlin

[whalejudge]

The Domain of Ylvorlin (island of terror)
The Land:
Ylvorlin is a subtropical land of lush forests, large marshes, low forest cloaked mountains, lazy rivers, and carefully tended plantation crops. Human and half-elven slaves perform the labor while their elven masters engage in parties, courtly spectacle, and honor duels. Old fortresses, manors, and towers dot the land. Temples to diabolical deities dominate the cities.
Rebellion seethes beneath the surface as nobles play games of intrigue. Oppressed elves still speak of their ancient gods, while humans entreat to their own powers. Slaves are treated with great brutality, and bands of slave catchers roam at will seeking escapees.
Escaped slaves have their own culture, founded on resistance to their former masters; they raid plantations and villages. They pray to liberator gods and gods of nature. They are known as cimmarrons.

Cultural Level: Renaissance.

The Folk: 65% of the populace is elven--high, wood, and dark. 8% is half-elven, and the remainder is human--slaves. Elves—and especially elven nobles have a genteel life of parties and sport, but the pleasures are forced, fueled with wine and on the backs of the slave populace. Honor has become a matter for duels, where all too often there is a dead body on the ground. The birth of a half-elf in an elven family is cause for shame; the birth of a half-elf among the slaves is treated as of no great account. Many half-elves are given an overseer’s responsibility.

Native Player Characters: Enslaved humans and half-elves may not be taught magic, nor the ways of the wild. Since the envelopment of Ylvorlin by the mists, slaves are never taught to fight (though they were while the war raged with the giants and dragons). Elves in Ylvorlin can be whatever they want.
Cimmarrons, much like elves, can in theory be anything they want to be. In practice, rangers and druids are common among them. Wizardry is extremely rare. Paladins rise with an unusual frequency; given the Lord’s fear of them, the Dark Powers may (ironically) be behind this.

Personalities of Note: The Marquis Ensarlis Vyllseren rules Ylvorlin, and also functions as high priest of the Spider Queen.
Grand Mistress of the Fox Elshari Quiellrelle is the current leader of the Knights of the Fox.
The Lady Jallinele Vyllseren is the daughter and the shame of the Marquis. She recently gave birth to a half-elf child, son of a rebel paladin slave.
The Lord Naielis Fallistorn is the most prominent land owner after the Marquis. He is known for several innovatively painful—but non-damaging—punishments for recalcitrant slaves.

The Law: Marquis Ensarlis Vyllseren rules with an iron hand. The Knights of the Fox are his personal agents; their equipment ranges from full plate and lances to firearms. They lead the slave catcher patrols.

Encounters:
Ylvorlin has a number of fairly young green and black dragons. Military patrols—both the Knights of the Fox and regular units—are frequent encounters, especially near the borders and around the plantations. Slave catching is considered great sport among many nobles; they have large packs of dogs to help and fleet horses. Humans from outside shou

The Background of the Lord
On the world of Insleighn, elves are dominant, battling dragons and giants. Humans are a distinctly second class race, with a few civilized lands. In this world existed the nation of Talmien. An island state with several provinces on the mainland, Talmien was devoted to agricultural pursuits. Elven workers raised several crops for sale, and hired humans to raise others.
Marquis Ensarlis Vyllseren ruled an elven fief, Ylvorlin, on the subtropical woodlands, a marcher lord faced with two human lands, dragons, and giants on his borders. Also facing him was the dark elven nation of Cymbelire.
Ylvorlin was a genteel society, much given to agricultural pursuits and an agrarian life. Small farms grew crops for export as well as filling local needs. Unlike most elven nations, the discovery of gunpowder weaponry was not suppressed. Then war came with the dragons and giants.
Lord Vyllseren battled the giants and dragons for years, but steadily lost ground. A giant/dragon offensive cut Ylvorlin off from the rest of Talmien. This put Lord Vyllseren in a desperate position, for the master architect wizards had been withdrawn from Ylvorlin. Lord Vyllseren regimented elven life to protect it and ensure adequate forces remained to work the land and fight the war. Then, an inspiration came. Humans built rapidly and worked hard. A series of quick and vicious elven assaults captured the humans and enslaved them, despite the fact that human warriors had been fighting alongside the elves. Lord Vyllseren convinced the elven merchants, craftsmen, and plantation farmers to use human slave labor and let the elven masters free to enjoy life and fight in the war. Humans were put to work building fortifications. Vyllseren ignored their safety, requiring that they keep working even as dragons dove and breathed chlorine or acid on them or as giants stormed their positions. Humans labored in the fields, planting crops for export in the ships running the black dragons' blockade. He even traded humans for elven captives, knowing full well the humans would be used as food. The Knights of the Fox, his personal guard and retainers, became the realm’s slave catchers.
Enslaving the humans horrified Talmienese society, and the clergies of the elven pantheon remonstrated with Lord Vyllseren. Enslaving another sentient people violated all the precepts of elven morality. Worse was the use of the human slaves for anything from concubines to dragon fodder, and the quick deaths of those who would stand up to the Ylvorlin masters. But as the dragon-giant alliance continued to keep Ylvorlin seperated from the rest of Talmien, the King could do nothing. His increasingly pointed orders to Lord Vyllseren to abandon slavery were ignored.
As Ylvorlin became further isolated, Lord Vyllseren gradually adopted dictatorial authority. His elven people became increasingly restive, denouncing Casting about for allies, Lord Vyllseren struck a bargain with Cymbelire. Humans were delivered into the hands of that land's dark clergy for sacrifice. With Vyllseren's permission, servants of the Spider Queen entered Ylvorlin, and drow warriors rushed to the front. All unnoticed by his subjects, Vyllseren himself began to perform rites to the Queen of the Spiders.
When the war had raged for over 250 years and Ylvorlin had been isolated for nearly two centuries, Vyllseren was faced with open revolt by many of his own subjects, in conjunction with humans. Paladins--the great human warriors--rose, and they were slaughtered. Vyllseren sent the captured rebels to Spider Queen's altars--secretly, at first. Then the Patriarch of Talmien denounced him in public. Vyllseren murdered the high priests of the elven gods still in Ylvorlin that night, and devoted himself to the Spider Queen. For three years, he proved himself a strong hand of the Spider Queen, reaching heights in her clergy no male had ever attained. His ultimate act to devote himself, a former pious worshipper of the elven gods, to the Spider Queen was to sacrifice his own wife. When the sacrificial knife came down, it came down twice--once for his wife, once for the High Priestess of the Spider Queen. Vyllseren claimed his place at the head of the Spider Queen's congregation.


Current Sketch:
Marquis Vyllseren is a powerful priest of the Spider Queen. His doom came as he tried to preserve the elven freedoms and way of life they treasured, first by regimenting society and then by the evils of slavery. He institutionalized slavery, and then dealt with the greatest enemy of his people.
Nobles--elven, drow--work with him in a backstabbing way, jostling for position. Vyllseren has kept his dictatorial control in this land of endless mists.
Lord Vyllseren rules with a silken gloved mithril fist. The dances continue, the revels, but the joy is gone. The regimentation of society continues with the crisis of the mists and rebellion. Military units and religious processions call at the plantations of the nobles, both to ensure there are no problems and to suppress the rebellion. The only people who embody the elven ideals he sought to preserve are the rebels that still fight a bloody war against him. They fight a clean war in accordance with the ideals of the elven pantheon, striking at the Marquis and his controlled state. But what scares Vyllseren are the paladins rising in the ranks of the rebels--holy warriors his servants can't approach, divinely inspired leaders who ro

[LadySoth]

WhaleJudge, this is beautiful and impressive. Great job. Have you run many campaigns in this realm? How have you integrated it with the other realms in Ravenloft? i.e. can it be accessed from the other islands of terror? Or the realms of the core?

Really awesome. Can you please post the rest of the description? This reminds me a little of the Malus the Dark Elf series from Warhammer. I especially like the angle of the tribes of escaped slaves praying to nature gods and causing havoc. well done.

[whalejudge]

So far, this is what I have for it, and I've yet to get some PCs there. Getting players has been difficult.

[lordsathien]

Really nice stuff although the entry did cut off in the Current Sketch area. A nice mix of traditional fantasy meets Antebellum Southern US.

[ewancummins]

Really nice stuff although the entry did cut off in the Current Sketch area. A nice mix of traditional fantasy meets Antebellum Southern US.

Yeah, I got Southern Gothic off of it, too, though only just a wee bit. It's a lot more eeeeeevil than even the worst aspects of the Old South, yet that works well because it's so obviously a fantasy-land and not representational of any real world society.

Did the drow of Cymbelire live on the surface? Do the drow in Yvorlin live on the surface? Are they perhaps nocturnal? Are there large cave systems in the hills, and the drow live in those? If they are surface dwellers- lacking the weird radiations of the Underdark, do these drow lack certain abilities or peculiar drow equipment [magic resistance, levitation powers, stuff that disinetgrates under the sun].

note- I like that you've worked in dragons. Dragons rarely fit well in Ravenloft, IMO.

[The Giamarga]

Encounters:
Ylvorlin has a number of fairly young green and black dragons. Military patrols—both the Knights of the Fox and regular units—are frequent encounters, especially near the borders and around the plantations. Slave catching is considered great sport among many nobles; they have large packs of dogs to help and fleet horses. Humans from outside shou

[...]

Current Sketch:
[...] They fight a clean war in accordance with the ideals of the elven pantheon, striking at the Marquis and his controlled state. But what scares Vyllseren are the paladins rising in the ranks of the rebels--holy warriors his servants can't approach, divinely inspired leaders who ro

The text appears to be cut off at these two points.

[DocBeard]

Interesting.

I think relying on racial tension instead of economic tension is a mistake, but it is your sand box.

One thing I would recommend would be making the name a little less of a tongue twister. It's a poor first impression. 'Black Widow Marsh', maybe?

[ewancummins]

Interesting.

I think relying on racial tension instead of economic tension is a mistake, but it is your sand box.

One thing I would recommend would be making the name a little less of a tongue twister. It's a poor first impression. 'Black Widow Marsh', maybe?

Well, it's racial AND economic [aren't such situations nearly always like that?]. The humans are slaves- that's economic.

[DocBeard]

My point is, why just humans? Why are dwarves not slaves? Or halflings, or orcs, or dragonborn, or elves who cannot afford to pay their bills?

[ewancummins]

My point is, why just humans? Why are dwarves not slaves? Or halflings, or orcs, or dragonborn, or elves who cannot afford to pay their bills?

Ah....

Well, maybe the dwarves were too stubborn to make good slaves. Orcs were too savage and intractable. Halflings too small and weak for the needed labor[ and prone to escape]. The ludicrous boobs on female dragonborn frightened and disgusted the elves. It's also possible that there were few other species available to make into slaves, and humans were simply the numerous and convenient option.

As for elves who cannot pay their bills- it seems to me that the form of slavery seen in this domain is justified in the name of two things: elvish superiority over 'lesser species'' and the needs of the elvish nation. That seems to argue against enslaving your own, and for subjugating those ''lesser species.''

[DocBeard]

A dragonborn boob joke. Seriously.

Whatever, man. I gave my opinion to the guy-I think going 'this specific race or class has it hard here' is unrealistic and unnecessarily restrictive, plain and simple. Slave owning cultures were rarely that selective. You disagree. Not that big of a deal.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

As for elves who cannot pay their bills- it seems to me that the form of slavery seen in this domain is justified in the name of two things: elvish superiority over 'lesser species'' and the needs of the elvish nation. That seems to argue against enslaving your own, and for subjugating those ''lesser species.''

Perhaps elves who've crossed the wrong people within this society can be falsely accused of concealing a streak of human blood, and thus stripped of their elven rights and privileges?

[ewancummins]

A dragonborn boob joke. Seriously.

Whatever, man. I gave my opinion to the guy-I think going 'this specific race or class has it hard here' is unrealistic and unnecessarily restrictive, plain and simple. Slave owning cultures were rarely that selective. You disagree. Not that big of a deal.

I do like to make fun of dragon-boobs, it's true. Don't take it personally.


Another possible explanation for human -half-elven slavery and not other 'races'[ species] is that the other races/species are not present in the domain. If there are no dwarves, you won't see dwarvish slaves.

As far as domains that are difficult for certain character classes/races- Ravenloft has a long traditon of those: Tepest[ nonhumans in general, arcane casters of most types], Falkovnia[ all nonhumans], Lamordia [magic in general- if the Smothering of Reason is used, anyway], Invidia[ for gypsies and half-breeds], etc. I don't see how this is especially different. I think that restricting or making things hard one a given class or race- or set of classes and races- can make for a fun aspect of a domain.

[whalejudge]

The Encounters section should read:
Encounters:
Ylvorlin has a number of fairly young green and black dragons. Military patrols—both the Knights of the Fox and regular units—are frequent encounters, especially near the borders and around the plantations. Slave catching is considered great sport among many nobles; they have large packs of dogs to help and fleet horses. Humans from outside should be very careful; although manumission is legally possible, it is almost never performed, and the legally free humans (or more often, half-elven children of plantation nobles) remain a tiny underclass, subject to re-enslavement for any crime and being chased for sport.

The Current Sketch should read:
Current Sketch:
Marquis Vyllseren is a powerful priest of the Spider Queen. His doom came as he tried to preserve the elven freedoms and way of life they treasured, first by regimenting society and then by the evils of slavery. He institutionalized slavery, and then dealt with the greatest enemy of his people.
Nobles--elven, drow--work with him in a backstabbing way, jostling for position. Vyllseren has kept his dictatorial control in this land of endless mists.
Lord Vyllseren rules with a silken gloved mithril fist. The dances continue, the revels, but the joy is gone. The regimentation of society continues with the crisis of the mists and rebellion. Military units and religious processions call at the plantations of the nobles, both to ensure there are no problems and to suppress the rebellion. The only people who embody the elven ideals he sought to preserve are the rebels that still fight a bloody war against him. They fight a clean war in accordance with the ideals of the elven pantheon, striking at the Marquis and his controlled state. But what scares Vyllseren are the paladins rising in the ranks of the rebels--holy warriors his servants can't approach, divinely inspired leaders who rouse the commoners against his evil reign.

I should probably note that I wrote it from a 2nd Edition rules viewpoint. I don't normally think in terms of 3.X (and 4 not at all).

The dark elves meet the physical description of drow, but were surface-dwellers and don't get the heavy bunch of extras that standard drow do.

Dwarves, orcs, gnomes, and halflings simply are not present in the domain.

Part of what I wanted to do was create an elven domain, where the lord and majority population were both elves. In most of the published material, elves rank as "Chaotic Good"; I wanted to create a domain where the lord was almost totally divorced from what were considered the classic elven values. Enslaving allies and a regimented society (I need to expand on this) devoted to maintaining a slave-system seemed to fit what I wanted to do, and yes, the antebellum South was a good inspiration for it--which led to the slavery being a racial thing as opposed to a purely economic thing.

As for it being "more evil" than the historical South--um, yes, this is Ravenloft. More dread, more horror, more terror, more hopelessness.

[ewancummins]

Oh, my ''more evil'' phrase was just to say that I thought that Ylvorlin's slave system was much worse than what we had in our country, that's all. Obviously, this is an 'evil fantasy kingdom.'

[I am , in fact, very fond of the Old South. That's another story, though].

I like this domain. It handles the 'high fantasy' elements well.