Ravenloft Cosmology

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Cool info, Shemeska! Thanks for the clarification, and also for writing that article with Ravenloft's fans in mind, not just Planescape's.

What other demiplanes did you consider, but have to leave out, if you don't mind me asking?

[Shemeska]

Cool info, Shemeska! Thanks for the clarification, and also for writing that article with Ravenloft's fans in mind, not just Planescape's.

I own quite a bit of RL stuff, and I'm in a periodic RL campaign at the moment. I rather like the setting both in atmosphere and content alike.

What other demiplanes did you consider, but have to leave out, if you don't mind me asking?

Keep in mind I don't have my own copy of the issue handy, so some I mention might actually be on the list, and some I remember submitting might have been cut.

There was the Demiplane of Ectoplasm (from Wizards.com) that was cut during editing, there was the Shattered World from the 1e MotP that I excluded for space reasons, and I pondered making Dubai's Obscure Woe a demiplane but rejected the idea pretty early on for a number of reasons.

I all but begged for the extra word count to include a full writeup for the Clockwork Gap, but I wasn't able to wiggle it in (Not a surprise since it was a last minute thing and I was writing on a very short deadline since I was brought in to write what was at that point an orphaned query after the other author had to pull out).

There were some that I never considered for inclusion like the Demiplane of Flowers and other Green Things, the Demiplane of Silly and Unused Monsters, and the Demiplane of Inferior Construction Materials from late 1e's 'Castle Greyhawk' joke module. *shudder* I did jokingly ponder submitting them with a little "I'm sure Mona will LOVE these!" note, but I figure I'd risk getting punched in the face at GenCon

Then there were some (relatively) obscure demiplanes from (non Advanced) D&D that I ended up leaving out because they existed within the framework of a pretty incompatable cosmology, and I didn't want to give some of those concepts much standing in 3e by including some of those demiplanes. I did give a nod to Draedenden however since one of those critters already appeared in the Fiendish Codex I.

There were some demiplanes within Greyhawk's 'From the Ashes' such as the Crypt of Iron Souls, but I didn't have access to a copy of the book, and since they never appeared in any later sources that I'm aware of, I didn't fret too much about them. Now if I'd been making a complete demiplane list I'd have hunted them down, but the word limit was pretty harsh as it was.

And there were three new demiplanes that were what was originally written by the other author, which I saw the original drafts for, but either they were never finished, or they were but weren't used.

Anyway, there's my massive tangent added to the original thread

[Guardian of Twilight]

Ah, then you must be the Shemeska from the Wizards boards, right? I'm really glad that you decided to join this site, and I have to say that I have enjoyed all of the information you've given on the Planes and the different races on that site.

Please allow me to welcome you to the Fraternity, and know that I look forward to your insights on the Mists and how the Demiplane of Dread affects the planes surrounding it.

Also, since I never really had a chance to read all that much on Planescape, may I ask exactly what those that are 'in the know' know or suspect about Ravenloft? Also, what do they call Ravenloft?

[NykylaiHellray]

What do people think of sttting up these elemental darklords, as dread archomentals?

[cure]

What's an "archomental"?

[NykylaiHellray]

There technically very very elder elementals. Often viewed as lords to other elementals.

There are archomentals for good and evil, and also para archomentals.

There CR ranges from 21-24.

[The Giamarga]

Archomental

Perhaps the names Cryonax, Imix, Ogremoch, Olhydra or Yan-C-Bin ring a bell? They are the Inner Planes analogues to Archfiends, i.e. the rulers/leaders/high ups of the exemplars of their particular plane.

I think they should not become darklords for the same reasons that there are no Archfiend darklords. Heck there are not even any outsider or monster darklords, except for the very odd exceptions. Ravenloft darklordship is about gothic horror not pure outer planar evil. It´s about tragedy. Evil monster (especially exemplars) are simply not good candidates for darklordship. It´s not about the power of the NPC or the scope of its evil, but about the scope of the tragedy.

[NykylaiHellray]

The idea more was mortals who have done tragic things, and descended into darklordship.

But due to where they have been made in charge of, they have taken the powers of a psedo archomental.

[The Giamarga]

But what are the powers of an (pseudo-dread-)archelemental ? The archomentals are powerful super-advanced elemental outsiders.

Give the darklords the stats of the mortals who have done tragic things. And more important the fluff of the mortals who have done tragic things. Those are the interesting parts. Not how high the BAB is or it´s DR/SR. Yes perhaps they have some odd power which is tied to the para-dread elements. But better yet tied to the tragic things they did.

BTW I was never really a friend of the transformative Dark Power check paths.