An Illustrated History of the Core

[thekristhomas]

If I were to hypothesise about Alfred's shadow, I would say it actually pulled away and became the Wolf God (since we more or less know that it only became real when he became darklord). And I would then draw in the idea of the Jungian shadow, and say the Wolf God is Alfred as he wishes he was - fierce, strong, bloody handed and savage, rather than tied to a weak human body. I wouldn't explicitly make it the suppressed chaotic side, since that's treading dangerously close to Malken and I like to keep my archetypes distinct.

That may mean that Alfred's shadow/Wolf God is actually physically out there in Ravenloft as a shadow or nightshade or shadow demon or tenebris, cut loose when Alfred became darkord. And that means you could hunt down the Wolf God and kill it, potentially.

To join this idea to another, in Kartakass, Harkon Lukas is the Grandfather Wolf, a living manifestation of the Wolf God, might it be that somehow he has acquired Alfred's shadow. It would certainly work as a dark joke, taking the Wolf God out of Alfred and out of his hands and giving it to one who only uses it to manipulate his kin

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Oh my god, this is so beautiful that I want to cry! BLESS YOU, Ryan!!

You have no idea how overjoyed I am to see this. This is EXACTLY what I dreamed of when Strahdsbuddy and I worked on it. The way that you compressed the mountains and lined up the rivers to show their new paths...

I just don't have words.

I can't wait to get home and properly appreciate all of this. The two early maps, one with Mordent to the west of Barovia with the rivers gently flowing from the mountains down into the low forests of Mordent and the other with Mordent to the west of Darkon with the Vuchar flow gently from one river valley into another, these are so much more beautiful than I ever could have dreamed.

Bless you, sir. Bless you.

[Joël of the FoS]

FYI, you have this document here : http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/Libr ... e_Core.pdf

[The Lesser Evil]

If I were to hypothesise about Alfred's shadow, I would say it actually pulled away and became the Wolf God (since we more or less know that it only became real when he became darklord). And I would then draw in the idea of the Jungian shadow, and say the Wolf God is Alfred as he wishes he was - fierce, strong, bloody handed and savage, rather than tied to a weak human body. I wouldn't explicitly make it the suppressed chaotic side, since that's treading dangerously close to Malken and I like to keep my archetypes distinct.

That may mean that Alfred's shadow/Wolf God is actually physically out there in Ravenloft as a shadow or nightshade or shadow demon or tenebris, cut loose when Alfred became darkord. And that means you could hunt down the Wolf God and kill it, potentially.

To join this idea to another, in Kartakass, Harkon Lukas is the Grandfather Wolf, a living manifestation of the Wolf God, might it be that somehow he has acquired Alfred's shadow. It would certainly work as a dark joke, taking the Wolf God out of Alfred and out of his hands and giving it to one who only uses it to manipulate his kin

I would suggest that, since the Shadow is supposed to be the unrecognized/denied side of a person, that his shadow might be somebody like Mother Fury, whom embraces the human side of the apex predator. For all he wants to deny his humanity, he is very human- dogmatic, abstract thought/theology, petty and proper in his own way. Heck, even the Wolf God itself is a human idea- he's a plagiarist who stole it from the humans he massacred.

So maybe his shadow is a human cursed with lycanthropy (maybe a hunter?), just as he is cursed to reform to a human. But yet his shadow becomes more of an apex predator by showing the power of human evil? Could be a spawn of Mother Fury, for example.

Another twist might be to give his shadow to Baron Urik Von Kharkov. The lord of a neighboring domain with a people similar but distinct in outlook, Urik is something of an inversion in terms of Alfred's situation- cultured, urbane, born an animal instead of a man. Yet Urik also mirrors Alfred. Yet Von Kharkov is also very similar- a predator, a stalker, a manipulator, a leader. But most of all he has essentially the same problem as Alfred, but inside-out. Alfred despises and denies his humanity, yet Urik seeks to embrace it. And, as a vampire, being given a shadow would make for great irony as well.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

I admit that I'm already finding myself geeking too much on the overall idea, though I like my idea of things breaking up into Clusters...

I want to take Ryan's map all the way up to of 613 ("Kartakass Forms") and consider that ominous enough, having both a "6" and a "13" as dooming the end of The Core.

The next step at 625 is when Valachon forms. As Urik von Kharkov was an infamous Kargat agent who had to run away, I'm tempted to posit one last strike from Azalin against Strahd which goes SO wrong that Urik has no choice but to flee the fury of his master.

Since the original shape of Valachon seems to fit REALLY well against the southern border of Keening / Ghastria / Arak, I want to posit that the Dark Powers decide that Strahd and Azalin need to be completely split apart at that point, as the mountains aren't enough of a hedge between them. The Northern Core (everything south of Keening / Ghastria / Arak) gets split from The Southern Core.

Events happen between 613 and 624. At 624, Urik has to flee south of Arak and finds Valachon as he seeks the shelter of a Barovia that is no longer there after The Core has been rent in twain.

This shakeup ends up being significant enough that no new Lands form for almost 60 years (from 624 with Valachon until 682 with Nova Vaasa)

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It's been a long time since I've poked my nose into the Land of Mists, so I can't find information as easily as I used to. But here are things I hope to find as modifiers:

- Year Of Formation for Zherisia / Paridon. Since it's early enough, I'd like to add Zherisia as a border between Barovia and Darkon in next to Ghastria. I'd put it west of Arak and east of Ghastria originally, with the main Zvalich road continuing from Kelee north into Paridon and then further north to Tempe Falls. Lake Zarovich would flow out of Barovia into the feeder river that cuts through Paridon and then north to Arak to eventually flow to Mayvin. This would make an EXCELLENT trade town between Barovia and Darkon and thus make that timespan more fun to play in.

This also cures the problem of d'Polarno having enough victims for his picture (as you'd have visitors from Paridon in addition to Darkon) and also cures the problem of Paridon starting with a larger population and getting whittled down.

It might be interesting to connect Loht's killing of Tristessa's kid and d'Polarno's use of the picture, as both cause a pretty huge extinction of life. Might be nice to match them up timewise! Can't explain how Paridon survives, but maybe it gets thrown into the Mists.

In this case, what would "The City of the Dead" in Keening be? Would that be the remnants of Ghastria or the remnants of Paridon?

In any case, this could create a great border between Barovia and Darkon as a lash against their previous border skirmishes ala I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin

- I forget what my other point was.

- But I'm SO tempted to take the 630 map, cut the southern Domains off and try to tape either Black Box Valachon to the south or Red Box Valachon to the west, and run a campaign between 625 and 682. Might take BB Valachon and run the rivers north into Mordent as the eastern mountains flow into western Keening and maybe add some more Sea of Sorrows west of Valachon.

Why? It's that, since most people ABHOR the name "Ravenloft" and since "Zarovich" is an instantly recognizable name, this way I could run a Ravenloft campaign without people actually realizing I was running a Ravenloft campaign. MUCH later we could either travel to another Cluster and run across Barovia and/or travel into the past to deal with the sundering of the early Core if we must have the typical "Azalin vs Strahd" story. But, as much as I LOVE Azalin and am a huge fan of Strahd, I'm tired of "Azalin vs Strahd" stories. They've been done.

I'd like a map that LACKS Castle Ravenloft and Lake Zarovich. Too many triggers.

- Sorry for getting negative. What I mean is: THESE MAPS ARE AMAZING!!! There is so much I can do with this!