What have you done with canon darklords?

[The Lesser Evil]

Regarding Elena Faithhold being "too stupid" to be evil, it is very possible to be highly intelligent and still engage in self deception. (In fact, sometimes being intelligent can help you imagine rationalizations of your evil.) The human mind simulates rational logic, but the mental heuristics and algorithms it uses are loaded with the potential for cognitive distortions and mental compartmentalization. The pain of cognitive dissonance is a terrible one, and since it's often easier to adjust self perception than behavior, the easier solution is often to rationalize and make excuses. Once a person does this long enough, it can become more or less automatic.

I think on some level despite all her denial, Faithhold still knows that she is doing evil on some level. That's why she has her nighttime rides filled with grief.

My feelings on Jaqueline Renier are similar. In my mind, Renier has the capacity for doing better but she chooses not to. I think removing her capacity for love and totally delinking it from her curse. This is because it may render like any other evil lycanthrope- ruthless by nature (and thus perhaps less deserving of being a darklord.) Many human darklords are chosen because they are much more evil than most other humans. In a way, the opposite is true for Renier. She is somehow truly capable of love, not just in the romantic sense but in the sense of empathy and altruism. She therefore has a much better capability to be "human" and maybe even to bring the wererats into a higher state of enlightenment- yet she has chosen to squander her gifts. The way I see Claude Renier, he was much the same way- that's the reason he never trusted the rest of his kindred except for her- his humanity alerted him to the wrongs of their natures. And yet when push came to shove, he chose to be just as ruthless as they were.

If I were to revise Jackie Renier's curse, I would probably play up the empathy aspect and how she misuses it, extending it to more than just romantic or personal love. Somebody mentioned her favoring her human side rather than rat side- I like that. Perhaps she seeks to help the wererats escape their bestial natures and assimilate into human society (though as its rulers.) And she truly has a matriarchal concern for Richemulot and its people- she wants them to prosper (albeit under her thumb.) However, her curse is two-fold- the wererats she would lead into the light are horrible misanthropes almost by nature, and the falling population of humans in Richemulot (remember mention of all those empty cities?) Beyond simple romance, Renier wants to be part of a greater community where her ability for empathy is reciprocated. However, she conflates this (or perhaps merely settles for) trying to create a cult that embraces her as a goddess, thus cutting corners and hypocritically justifying any evil that she has to commit to better her backwards kindred.

[alhoon]

In my campaign Meredoth...

Meredoth is that 20th lvl uber-necromancer that wiped out his countrymen turning them to monsters, got in Ravenloft, got a mention in the ship of horror and... that was all?
Seriously I think he beats the hags as the most boring darklord ever.
Hazlik is 8 levels lower than him and he has a way stronger magical presence, completely covering Meredoth.

What, exactly, has Meredoth to show for his decades of uninterrupted magical research? You know, the reason he killed thousands of people for?
Azalin made the whole Grim Harvest while ruling Darkon. Hazlik created lots of monsters and that huge place to siphon life to destroy Mulhans.

I think on some level despite all her denial, Faithhold still knows that she is doing evil on some level. That's why she has her nighttime rides filled with grief.

I agree. She's not 100% delusional IMO. In part, she commits to doing evil by forcefully keeping her conscience down and making excuses.
When you create the story of an evil dragon that burns villages to cover your own mass murders, then you know that you did evil. If she truly believed she did the right thing she would go out and say "I did a lot of good today! I put 221 evil people to the sword and cleansed a whole area of evil, down to the last evil infant! I even burned the place down since it was so tainted"
Also being delusional doesn't mean you're stupid. Take Death for example...

[The Lesser Evil]

Meredoth is that 20th lvl uber-necromancer that wiped out his countrymen turning them to monsters, got in Ravenloft, got a mention in the ship of horror and... that was all?
Seriously I think he beats the hags as the most boring darklord ever.
Hazlik is 8 levels lower than him and he has a way stronger magical presence, completely covering Meredoth.

What, exactly, has Meredoth to show for his decades of uninterrupted magical research? You know, the reason he killed thousands of people for?
Azalin made the whole Grim Harvest while ruling Darkon. Hazlik created lots of monsters and that huge place to siphon life to destroy Mulhans.

It's not much, but Meredoth invented the snow golem and a number of snow related spells. The Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer goes more into why he's created so little- he is cursed with a complete lack of creativity, such that he has to steal ideas from other people. But yeah, he is fairly pathetic how little he's been up to in canon and such since entering the demiplane.

[vyshan]

I have thought of killing the darklord of Har'akir and replace him with a pharaoh like Ramses the 2nd. Never done it, but certainly thought it would make the domain far more interesting IMO

[vachtor]

In my campaign Meredoth...

Meredoth is that 20th lvl uber-necromancer that wiped out his countrymen turning them to monsters, got in Ravenloft, got a mention in the ship of horror and... that was all?
Seriously I think he beats the hags as the most boring darklord ever.
Hazlik is 8 levels lower than him and he has a way stronger magical presence, completely covering Meredoth.

In the Ship of Horrors that I'm running right now, I've completed changed Meredoth. In my campaign the party were confronting an evil priest/necromancer of Orcus who was tinkering with a portal to open a gate for his dark master. They ended up messing with the portal and sucking him into it instead. Then when they tried to close it, they screwed up and ended up in Souragne.

Now that they are into Ship of Horrors, when they end up on Todstein, they will meet their old foe, who arrived about two decades earlier. He was granted a small island and the surrounding sea as his domain, with all the power over the dead that he craved. Unfortunately he was alone on the island and had nobody to exert his power on, and found that he is unable to enter the water surrounding the island. A few fortunate ship wrecks later and he created the Graben family and sent them off to find him more victims...

This allows me to use a recurring villain, show that strange things are capable in the mists (even time travel, to set things up for later in the Conjunction) and to make things a bit more personal for my team.

[The Lesser Evil]

I have thought of killing the darklord of Har'akir and replace him with a pharaoh like Ramses the 2nd. Never done it, but certainly thought it would make the domain far more interesting IMO

I think this would require significant development and expansion of Har'akir from the backwater locale it currently is to something much more cosmopolitan and influential. (Although this is something of a change I'm in general favor of regardless of whether the darklord is replaced or not.) Installing some more socially active civilizations in the lands surrounding Har'Akir is probably also a must here too.

Things you might look at for possible corruption into a Ravenloft sense
*his military conquests
*The defacing/destruction of the remnants of Akhenaten's religious innovations
*The construction of many monuments (playing up the ego aspect and the brutality of slavery aspect.)
*his unusually long live span (some unnatural way of achieving longevity or even immortality?)

If you want to draw upon some Biblical inspiration, you might adapt some of the stuff on the Pharaoh from the Exodus.

[alhoon]

Now that they are into Ship of Horrors, when they end up on Todstein, they will meet their old foe, who arrived about two decades earlier. He was granted a small island and the surrounding sea as his domain, with all the power over the dead that he craved. Unfortunately he was alone on the island and had nobody to exert his power on, and found that he is unable to enter the water surrounding the island. A few fortunate ship wrecks later and he created the Graben family and sent them off to find him more victims...

Not bad... I don't see that guy as having a lot of stuff to do, but that's his curse in a way.

[vyshan]

I have thought of killing the darklord of Har'akir and replace him with a pharaoh like Ramses the 2nd. Never done it, but certainly thought it would make the domain far more interesting IMO

I think this would require significant development and expansion of Har'akir from the backwater locale it currently is to something much more cosmopolitan and influential. (Although this is something of a change I'm in general favor of regardless of whether the darklord is replaced or not.) Installing some more socially active civilizations in the lands surrounding Har'Akir is probably also a must here too.

Things you might look at for possible corruption into a Ravenloft sense
*his military conquests
*The defacing/destruction of the remnants of Akhenaten's religious innovations
*The construction of many monuments (playing up the ego aspect and the brutality of slavery aspect.)
*his unusually long live span (some unnatural way of achieving longevity or even immortality?)

If you want to draw upon some Biblical inspiration, you might adapt some of the stuff on the Pharaoh from the Exodus.

True it would change har'akir, but then again I love egypt and I think that har'akir doesn't do it justice. If I did make a Ramses the II darklord, I would focus more his monuments and ego.

I got an idea for the curse of this darklord from the black metal band Nile's song User-Maat-Re, which posits that Ramses the II did all this to earn respect from his dead father but failed. Which i kind of like for a darklord, that he is doing this to try and earn his families respect or the ghost of his father's respect but his ways will never earn that even if he is adored by the people.

[vachtor]

Not bad... I don't see that guy as having a lot of stuff to do, but that's his curse in a way.

That's what I like about it. The meaninglessness of power when you have nobody to exert it over. The isolation driving him further into madness.

In an effort to save time, I've even cut Graben Island out of the adventure as it doesn't seem to add much to my story. Garvyn and his ship are cursed for transporting (unbeknownst to him until the end) still living people to Todstein on behalf of the Grabens. When he realized he was cursed, his crew recruited some "new sailors" and had them deal with the Grabens. When that didn't end the curse, they took them to Todstein to deal with "the dark man". Unfortunately none have survived that encounter.

The Ghast ship encounter was kept, as it is a crew of former Endurance sailors sent by the Darklord to terrorize the Endurance and to encourage more attempts at taking Todstein.

[alhoon]

The part where the adventure pretty much tells us "Make a manor dungeon, fill it with monsters and play it" ?

[divinedragonslayer]

I know he's been mentioned before but I'd do a little changing of Vlad Drakov. To be honest in a demiplane where necromancers, inhuman horrors, and other beings with supernatural or unnatural powers I like Vlad and Elana. Granted Elana doesn't need changed.

I hate Vlad being portrayed as a complete idiot who is nothing but sadist. I don't think it does him justice to be honest. I've thought about the changes I'd make for him and Falkovnia in general. In the past and to be truthful I've never implemented them, but I'd like to.

His generals and underlings: The first big change is that I'm saying hard that he has trouble monitoring and in many cases monitoring those under him. That's where a lot of his perceived incompetence comes from. So many in the ranks only care about glory and prestige thus they are willing to go against his orders or take their own initiative. After all one only gets punished for failure.

Magic: Magic is not wielded by warriors. That does not apply to magic weapons and armor of course. And there are state wizards and sorcerers who work tirelessly to work on these inventions. Speaking of these state wizards and sorcerers there is some in the army that Drakov doesn't know about. Mostly made up of women they are few and far between. The most common mages on the battlefield are the rumored warmage. These female mages work in small squads to soften up the enemy. Though their use in the battlefield is rarely widespread enough to really affect a change.

Technology: Guns are for the coward. This means that they are rarely used on the battlefield with good reason. Gunpowder being unreliable it falls to archers to make the real dent in the armies which is actually decent alternative to gunpowder in all reality. Yet the Ministry of Science cannot ignore the use of gunpowder and explosives. While they have to use these in smaller quantities it is again up to the individual ranking officers whether such devices. Guns also fall under the purview of the Ministry of Intelligence. The Ministry preforms missions that even Drakov himself would find distasteful. But they must be done anyway possible.

Women: Women do serve in the military. Not in any great position, but that doesn't mean that individual ranking officers don't recognize their talents. Individual women may not have the status or respect, but they are still used in certain missions. More women work in the Ministry of Intelligence than any other area in Falkovnia.

My final change to Drakov is why he loses. Drakov is not stupid. He knows the tactics and can use them to great effect when the conditions are right. But his failures and lust for expansion as well as his ego has blinded him. Impatient and unwilling to change his own long term military strategy he cannot stand drawn out confrontations. This stems from the blood soaked mercenary that would march into a village and impale every resident. He's not used to fighting a full scale long term war. It's less his curse that defeats him as his own hubris.

[vyshan]

@divinedragonslayer: my problem with drakov is there is nothing tragic about him, oh, he loses battles. What is tragic about drakov?

Also Falkovnia is just the military, but there isn't other things. It is described almost as if the country was in a black and white movie, and no one has any joy. Which I despise because just constently showing horror after horror gets boring. I like having light spots, and spots without horror. as it tends to highlight and make the horror even worse. For instance having the heroes spend a session with a Talon and his family, and seeing him love his daughter and proud of her. Then in the next session they see the horror of what this man is capable of. It IMO makes it more horroyfing to see that.

[alhoon]

Not really. Falkovnia, aside of Lekar with the forests of impaled people has villages and other cities. The other cities are quite better, even bare-able. In the 2nd Grim Harvest adventure we have descriptions of Talons occasionally beating up people that press too hard in order to get in the closed city. If the PCs trespass, they kick them out of the city the first time and attack to kill only if they show up again.
And in the villages things are quite better. We have nobility raising families and peasants tenting the fields... till someone high-up decides to move more peasants from the villages to the cities to make up for the executed people. Elspereth, the Succubus, was in Falkovnia feeding on the vanity of girls. The Twins went in Falkovnia to hunt walking dead and they described a manageable situation.

[The Lesser Evil]

Whereas not every darklord need be tragic (Frantisek Markov, Ivan Dilisnya, Harkon Lukas, Meredoth, Bluebeard, Dominic D'Honaire, etc.) Otherwise, I agree, it's easy to become numb if all that you see is horror.

There is (or was) some built in elements of beauty in Falkovnia. The gazetteer describes the natural environment as lush and pristine in comparison to the brutal and ugly cities of man. Before the Grim Harvest, the Radiant Tower served as a combination orphanage and diviner's school and was relatively left alone by the state (albeit, at the cost of hefty bribes). Falknovia has has one of the widest varieties of alcoholic beverages in Ravenloft.

The city of Aerie is probably the least tainted by Drakov's brutality. Although the stadtfuhrer of the city is a sadist fond of "creative" punishments, some of his subordinates work to minimize his excesses. Aerie's is also home to a network of mediums, including a former companion of Rudoph Van Richten.

[Isabella]

I've posted these elsewhere before, but I suppose I can't resist the urge to bring them all up again. My changes tended to be a bit more on the unorthadox side.

• I made Malken real. He was originally a caliban who was spat upon by Nova Vaasan society, until his resentment caused him to murder the one person who'd given him a chance. He claimed it was for idealism, but in truth it was bitterness and the hope of stealing his former friend's body. Now they're both trapped in the same physical shell, shifting between appearances and personalities randomly -- the loss of control doesn't terrify Malken so much as the thought that his once beloved master is still alive and knows of Malken's betrayal.

• The demon in Easan's head was never real, it was just a "funny" lie told to spite the elf. Easen simply latched onto it as a convenient excuse for all of his actions. Every evil act he committed was the "demon forcing his hand", causing him to become more and more desperate -- but he's always been completely in control, saving his own emotional panic, mocking mental illness in an attempt to deny his own culpability. His domain resembles Silent Hill, the only danger you'll find there is what you brought with you. It has a reputation for insanity because no one seems to see the same thing as anyone else. The area around Easan is a giant chaos cesspit because he thinks it should be, but there's always an underlying order to it all, because his "madness" is really just an author's interpretation of it.

• Harkon Lukas isn't the Darklord any more. I loved the NPC, just not as darklord. He's hanging out in a combined version of Kartakass and Verbrek, with Alfred Timothy having the dubious honor of being the real Darklord.

• Von Khrakov is just a plain old werepanther... or patherwere, if one wants to be completely accurate. He's sitting in a domain that somewhat resembles Spanish Mexico. His problems stem less from him being a control freak (though he still is) but his naivety when it comes to how people work (including himself). He sets his standards by what sounds great on paper, and then is upset when they don't work in reality. In truth, he's not the Core's worst ruler, its his personal life that damns him. Everyone close to him lets him down, including himself (because his standards are insane). He usually murders them in response.

• Azalin's memory nonsense powers only work on people in Castle Avernus. It also only writes down visitors' memories -- if Azalin wants to change them, he has to go find their book and manually write in new sections. I feel like that's an acceptable compromise.

• I left Drakov as a butcher, though not as extreme as he's presented in the books. He also has reason enough for it: canonically he's from Krynn, but you could just as easily say he got plucked out of 30 Years War Germany. His brutality was forged from years and years of battle -- its just at the end of it all, he refused to hang up his sword. In his mind he's still besieged on all sides: undead lich to the north, decadent poisoners and wererats to the south, feral wild elves and pseudonatural aberrations in his own land... these are real issues, he's just incapable of seeing he, his allies, and his never-ending battle are the biggest threat to his own country.