An Illustrated History of the Core

[brothersale]

Could we see your thoughts on how the populations of the clusters would have reacted to finding new domains next to them.

Also would Al-Kathos not have been included in the Desert Gaz? as people have speculated in the past that it would have, possibly added to the cluster itself

[Mangrum]

There is a bit of apparent discontinuity in the dates here, but they actually do make sense if you follow them through carefully and remember each chapter is researched and written over about 6 weeks.

Yeah, I've occasionally seen some fan confusion when it comes to dates but we actually held to a very consistent schedule here. The trick is that the in-game releases of the Gazetteers don't synch up exactly with their years of publication. In-game, S completes her travels and writes her reports for each Gaz over the course of six months. Odd-numbered Gazetteers (I, III, V) run spring-fall (April-September); even-numbered Gazetteers run fall-spring (October-March). This means Gaz II and IV straddle game years, which I think caught up fans expecting every book released in a given real year to slot into a particular game year running in parallel.

The plan now (if the gazetteer series had continued across the planned 13 volumes), was that Our Hero would spend a year (2 books, probably, although we hadn’t really sorted that out) surveying the Nocturnal Sea and then the Sea of Sorrows.

I recall that two books was definitely our plan, but that at the same time we didn't know what direction the developers would go in.

[Zilfer]

Interesting to hear a bit on the developer side though I wonder what it was like to be a part of that. xD

[Jimsolo]

I understand it was a group effort (and well done at that) but this seems like a good point to ask a question that has been in the back of my brain for a while:

We know (with a bit of reading) how S's story would have turned out (generally) in the end, setting the world up for the Time of Unparalleled Darkness. If you had it your way, what would have happened with the ToUD? What major changes would have been made? Would it have been a 'done deal' sort of arrangement, or would the ToUD have been handled in modules, giving prospective PC's a chance to stop it? If so, would you have given a 'canon' result for said modules, or just left it open-ended for each group to decide amongst themselves?

Ryan, Mangrum, or whoever else wants to throw something out there, I would love to hear what you guys had as your "ideal scenario" for this. It seems like some of the writers/developers have some differences in their tastes, so I'd like to know what you guys would have wanted, ideally. Alternatively, if you want to tell me to go take a flying leap I'd understand that too.

[Mangrum]

I wrote up an, let's call it, "ideal" five year plan, while plotting out the Gazetteers, penciling in other books that could fill the other slots in each year. Obviously, it didn't happen, on any level. Though, Matthew Martin did once point out that I'd accurately predicted the timing of the next edition change several years in advance.

Anyway, that schedule ended with 13 game-years to go before the Time of Unparalleled Darkness, and that point, the end of the Gazetteers and proposed end of 3rd edition Ravenloft, is where I decided it would be time to walk away and leave the next era to the next generation. So other than the vague, already mentioned idea of the ToUD just being a long period where everything just kept growing darker and bleaker (rather than the explosively swift events of the Grand Conjunction and Requiem)--and the random datum that van Richten would once again be at the age he'd been when he started his crusade against the night--I never thought about the ToUD. Never thought it was my place to think about it, even.

I thought that 4th edition Ravenloft might be about the era of the ToUD, I suppose you could say. Maybe it was!

As for how to resolve it, honestly, I never had a plan to resolve everything. The Gazetteer series was going to leave a lot of swords of Damocles dangling over the demiplane, some of them pretty nasty. When it came to Ravenloft, Arthaus had a strict "no modules" policy* (in fact, they were so disinterested in publishing adventures that they were the only thing Arthaus gave us permission to produce as fan-works), so wrapping everything up in a module just wasn't going to happen on our watch, whether we wanted to or not.

* At least, that's what our original developer told us, and we continued to follow the "last received command" on that for the rest of our tenure. Then again, he issued some other commands (like not using the word "demiplane") that we eventually poked at and found were no longer necessarily in effect.

[Mangrum]

Also would Al-Kathos not have been included in the Desert Gaz? as people have speculated in the past that it would have, possibly added to the cluster itself

In the initial proposal, both G'Henna and Al-Kathos are raised as suggestions to fill the island of terror slot. But G'Henna's a higher-profile domain that had appeared in the core book, so getting it out first was the priority later on down the line. Al-Kathos would potentially have appeared in as an island of terror in one of the final two gazetteers. But even so, that was still about two years in the future as we were writing Gazetteer V, so nothing was set in stone.

[Zilfer]

I wrote up an, let's call it, "ideal" five year plan, while plotting out the Gazetteers, penciling in other books that could fill the other slots in each year. Obviously, it didn't happen, on any level. Though, Matthew Martin did once point out that I'd accurately predicted the timing of the next edition change several years in advance.

Anyway, that schedule ended with 13 game-years to go before the Time of Unparalleled Darkness, and that point, the end of the Gazetteers and proposed end of 3rd edition Ravenloft, is where I decided it would be time to walk away and leave the next era to the next generation. So other than the vague, already mentioned idea of the ToUD just being a long period where everything just kept growing darker and bleaker (rather than the explosively swift events of the Grand Conjunction and Requiem)--and the random datum that van Richten would once again be at the age he'd been when he started his crusade against the night--I never thought about the ToUD. Never thought it was my place to think about it, even.

I thought that 4th edition Ravenloft might be about the era of the ToUD, I suppose you could say. Maybe it was!

As for how to resolve it, honestly, I never had a plan to resolve everything. The Gazetteer series was going to leave a lot of swords of Damocles dangling over the demiplane, some of them pretty nasty. When it came to Ravenloft, Arthaus had a strict "no modules" policy* (in fact, they were so disinterested in publishing adventures that they were the only thing Arthaus gave us permission to produce as fan-works), so wrapping everything up in a module just wasn't going to happen on our watch, whether we wanted to or not.

* At least, that's what our original developer told us, and we continued to follow the "last received command" on that for the rest of our tenure. Then again, he issued some other commands (like not using the word "demiplane") that we eventually poked at and found were no longer necessarily in effect.

Ah I see. Didn't think too much of it because it was so far off. I keep poking around for ideas on how it should go. I did read someone's notes about how they would do it as an adventure or something. I know it's lingerying around the library of stuff on the main page... but was looking for your guys imput. Thanks Mangrum for your responce though it did little to sate the thrist.

Edit: But hey! Maybe i'm just a Darklord never to obtain what he seeks.... xD

[Ryan Naylor]

Interesting to hear a bit on the developer side though I wonder what it was like to be a part of that. xD

Mostly it was good. Great, in fact. Sometimes, it was extremely frustrating.

[Ryan Naylor]

If you had it your way, what would have happened with the ToUD? What major changes would have been made? Would it have been a 'done deal' sort of arrangement, or would the ToUD have been handled in modules, giving prospective PC's a chance to stop it? If so, would you have given a 'canon' result for said modules, or just left it open-ended for each group to decide amongst themselves?

Ryan, Mangrum, or whoever else wants to throw something out there, I would love to hear what you guys had as your "ideal scenario" for this. It seems like some of the writers/developers have some differences in their tastes, so I'd like to know what you guys would have wanted, ideally. Alternatively, if you want to tell me to go take a flying leap I'd understand that too.

As John's already said, we didn't plan anything out (even vaguely). The problem is, you start getting in to a lot of questions we never wanted answered, like what the Dark Powers are doing in Ravenloft and so on. It's hard to do an End Game Apocalypse without getting into that, and unless you're very clever about it, it's not going to satisfy anyone.

If I were to do it, and do it as a series for publication rather than just as an adventure for my players to run through, I think I'd do it as a (series of?) adventure path(s). Each adventure would have a small range of potential endings (like Shadow of the Knife), which would affect to a small degree what happens in the following adventures; the main follow through though would be in the body of the adventure. So that way players have the illusion of making important decisions, but the adventure path can hang together as a whole.

For example, in moving from Broken Moon to the Wake of the Watcher in the Carrion Crown adventure path, it doesn't really matter who is alive or dead amongst the people at Ascanor Lodge, the werewolves, or in Feldgrau, provided the PCs have somehow found out where the Whispering Way is going next. However, for the players, knowing that they've trounced Villains X, Y and Z, but A and B have escaped, becomes much more important. And a good GM could work them back in later depending on their individual campaigns.

Then, the final climax would be left completely open (like Bleak House). That would be entirely up to individual groups to determine.

As to the actual content, there're all the dread possibilities coming true one at a time: Hazlik's genocide against the Mulan, the Core at War, the Becoming Plague, revolution in Dementlieu... (I've got a bit more to say about that, so I'll come back to that in a later post). But since Ravenloft has always been about the characters, and this is the end game we're talking about, you'd start wrapping up all the different story lines.

As to the final climax: As I see it, Ravenloft's underlying theme is about redemption and damnation. As we've talked about before, darklords are often given one last chance to see if they'll repeat their final mistakes (and those that do end up as darklords). So the final climax is ultimately about those internal choices - after centuries of torment, have you learnt anything yet? Will you make those same mistakes yet again? The trick is working the PCs in to force darklords to those points of decision: bringing Strahd face to face with Tara Kolyana, for example, who by this time will be as old as Strahd was when he damned everyone in 351 BC. Getting Azalin to accept Irik has a life of his own. Some will fail; some will die; some (one?) will be redeemed. RL3e tells us that the Land of Mists goes through incarnations, and that this is just the most recent one. Perhaps it all ends up with Ravenloft bleeding back out to the Prime Material (as the Shadowfell?) Or just dissolving all together, like the early RL adventures, or in the Neverending Story. Either way, the players go home feeling like they've had a major impact on the multiverse.

But that's all very hypothetical and individual. I'd be interested to know if that speaks to anyone, or if everyone feels it's a bad idea.

[Zilfer]

Actually it sounds awesome for a Domain. Again I think one of the most under used (I could be wrong) things to happen in a campaign is the redemption of a Domain Lord. If I wanted anyone to be redeemed, I think Strahd, or Azalin would be my picks (just cus I like them).

Even if I played an “endgame” eventually I can always go “back in time” or a new alteration and play it differently. Not like my Ravenloft Campaign would end.
Getting the PC’s involved with that critical moment of where that Darklord is damned or saved would be interesting. Hell I’m almost getting the idea where they have to “save” as many as they can in order to ‘foil’ the Dark Power’s plot. Or just release a good portion from the Demiplane.
(Side note) Irik is Azalin’s son’s name? Irony is I have a character I’ve used named Irik…
An adventure path would be awesome to run through. Obviously you’ll want multiple “Endgame” endings.

Examples:

Everything disappears forever. (Possible failure ending or a DM that wants the ending to be bad)
Life goes on as normal. (After the ‘endgame’ was avoided somehow)
Everyone’s thrown back to their original planes of existence.
Perhaps things have shifted around kinda like the grand conjunction did.
Have history “Repeat” Itself, and maybe only the PC’s know? (What will they do different this time and does effecting this time line change anything in the long run or is this just a 800 year cycle that once it becomes too much the Darkpowers hit the reset button.)

That reminds me of Mass Effect 3 and the Reapers that come to clean the slate. Actually that could possibly be one of the endings to. Just replace the Reapers with Dark Powers or servants of the Dark Powers with.

I’ve also read one curious topic where all the Darklords are now in one large domain. (Which would be interesting of itself.) Maybe they don’t know why they can “cross border’s” now what would they do with such knowledge? Would they kill themselves off until there is only one left?
(Another thing I find that might almost be fitting is all the Darklords being left behind with only each other for company while the rest of the people returned to their home planes.

Quite a few things you could do there for whatever ending you’d like. Some I obviously like more than others as well as everyone else will like different things.


At work musing so maybe more to come later! Can't spend too long on here... XD

[Jimsolo]

I like the "giving every Darklord one last chance" idea. I think there's a lot of potential for that, although I must admit that I like my 'revolutionary' storylines to leave everything largely unchanged afterwards. I would have hated to see Strahd taken out of Ravenloft, for example. I would love to have seen one or two Darklords get over what kept them in torment (like Strahd, for example, getting over Tatyana) only to find themselves with an entirely new curse. A fourth option that could have gone along with death, redemption, or remaining unchanged.

When it comes to Apocalyptic storylines, I really liked the way that White Wolf ended their WoD lines (with the books that presented several alternatives, fully fleshed out). I wouldn't have minded if the ToUD was something like that, had it ever come to print.

Honestly, though, I think I would have preferred it most if the ToUD was a huge product-event. An upheaval that ends with some changes, but everything else largely the same. I'm sure that I would have enjoyed some of the changes, disliked others, and been disappointed by what hadn't been done while enjoying some of the things that hadn't been touched. I think, as a gamer, that I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to story-changes, though.

In any event, this is some really cool stuff. Looking forward to hearing your opinions about Dementlieu.

[Ryan Naylor]

Actually, I meant "a bit more to say about the events heading in to 775 BC", not Dementlieu specifically. Sorry for my misleading phrasing.

[Ryan Naylor]

763 – 775: The Dying Days.

The End Times. The lead in to the Time of Unparalleled Darkness.

I’ve already talked a bit about what I see as the themes of any potential adventures set in this time should be, and what the Time of Unparalleled Darkness might involve. Here, I’m going to brush over the period heading up to that (when all the Dread Possibilities come true) and survey what might be happening in these years.

As a note, I think any games set in their period should really hammer home the doomsday flavour of the period: the End Times are upon us, the Grand Scheme is coming to an end, the Apocalypse is coming. Even if you don’t actually think that’s what the ToUD actually is. For a real life taste of what the might have been like, look at Medieval Europe at 1000 AD: the Pope is believed to be a sorcerer in league with the Devil, the rise of new world powers (Hungary), rioting in the streets, internecine struggles, comets auguring terrible deeds...

So, outside of Ravenloft, what’s happening in the TSR worlds that might be of interest:

766 BC: The Spellplague ravages Toril (Forgotten Realms). The Mulan are wiped out (!) This is one we’re going to talk about a bit more.
769 BC: The Shadow Sorcerer appears on Ansalon (Dragonlance). She may be an avatar of Takhisis the Queen of Darkness. But who really cares?

Nothing happens in Greyhawk, and there’s no way to tie Dark Sun or Eberron into our timelines.

In Ravenloft, a few things are due to happen in this period:

763: By now, Lucita Aderre is 10, which should be enough to provoke the long-promised falling out between Gabrielle Aderre and either Matton or the Gundarak rebels. If not now, it’ll happen in the next 3 years (when Lucita is hitting puberty).

Also, the oldest of the second generation of children in Odaire will be 12, which is old enough to look after themselves without adults around. If the original children (now in their twenties and thirties) anger him, or treat him as though he weren’t a real boy, Maligno could well wipe them out.

764: From numerology, this is when the Ezra’s Final Sect is due to be founded. If there’s any pattern in where Ezra’s word strikes and how, this is due in Nova Vaasa. If She’s LN (as the Home Faith says), this’ll probably be LN again (although very different in outlook to the Home Faith). If She’s TN (as the Dementlieuvian sect says), this’ll be NE. In my campaign, this is the option I took, inspired by the Six Fingered Hand from Masque of the Red Death. As a natural progression from the Darkonese sect, the Final Sect have decided that the Hollow has expanded so far that the only way to defeat the Legions of the Night is to bring about the end of the world. So that’s what they set about doing. But that’s just my idea.

768: The next round of murders for the Fang of the Nosferatu in Zherisia, depending on how the end of Shadow of the Knife played out in your campaign.

770: Tara Kolyana (this generation’s incarnation of Tatyana) is the same age that Strahd was when he made his pact with Death. What would he do with an aged Tatyana? Would he be repulsed at her age? Would he be drawn to her more? I think this is Strahd’s seminal decision here: does he realise that he and Tatyana had nothing in common, and his attraction for her was just obsession and desire for her youth, or not? (Inajira has been biding his time in Barovia, right at Strahd’s doorstep for years, presumably to wreak revenge at just such a time; he’d definitely be involved here).

Then there are the more general storylines to wrap up/start wrapping up:

The Weathermays: Jules Weathermay was on his last legs in 757 BC, so he’s probably dead by now, leaving a power vacuum in Mordent. Daniel Foxgrove can’t rule, because he’s not a noble (and he’s being manipulated by Godefroy). George Weathermay is still obsessed with avenging himself on Natalia (the werewolf), and I seriously doubt he’ll drop that to come back to rule Mordent. This leaves the twins as rulers: are they willing to take up the mantle and leave behind Van Richten’s work? Will they be weak rulers? Either way, any power vacuum in the mortal world suits Godefroy, and the twins giving up the work of their uncle would suit a lot of unpleasant people.

The Dark Twins: Speaking of twins, we move to Borca. I’m sure at some point, one will finally kill the other. If Ivana wins, Borca loses any semblance of border security or military might. If Ivan wins, the realm becomes much more unstable, and Ivan continues to goad Drokov and Malocchio.

Also remember that Johann Severin (VRA) is obsessed with Ivana, and potentially willing to hand over the Van Richten Society to Ivana for a bit of attention, which would not go well for the forces of good.

Personally, I’d have Ivana die (I secretly like the idea that she just drops dead from old age, actually – Ivan gets eternal life but not eternal youth; Ivana gets apparent eternal youth but not eternal life), leaving Ivan to run Borca into the ground and then get mashed by Falkovnia.

The Core at War: We already know from Gaz II that Drakov’s turned his eye south, and wants to make an object lesson of Dementlieu. Part of that is building up military bases in Invidia. When they finally go to war, it’s a well established fact that Borca’s not going to come out of it well. And before anyone gets too excited, remember that if Ivan is within the reality wrinkle of a fiend (the Gentleman Caller or the Black Duke are both very obvious choices, but any of them could get involved, even unintentionally), he loses his mastery of Borca, which means he can’t close the borders (assuming, of course, that Ivana’s death grants him that power – he might never gain the ability as a final piece of spite from the Dark Powers). So supernatural protections might not help Borca in the event of war.

Malocchio is also gearing for war against Barovia over his Vistani pogroms, particularly in chasing them across the border into Barovia.

And then there are the Gundarak rebels, who at the moment oppose both Malocchio and Strahd, but that could change depending on how the Lucita Aderre situation plays out.

Revolution!: We’ve been gearing up to it for decades, but the cold war between Dominic and the Brain finally erupts into actual class-based warfare. I imagine the Brain could be receiving help from Drakov in this, or at least that Drakov might be willing to take advantage of the post-revolutionary chaos and try his hand at invasion. Alternately, Josephine Chantreaux’s inability to avoid goading Drakov might be the trigger for the revolution (by threatening invasion, or just be cutting off the grain trade Dementlieu depends on). Either way, Dementlieu goes up.

Rather than have Dominic killed, I’d do a Man in the Iron Mask and lock him away in the bowels of a prison somewhere with only a blind and deaf jailor to try to influence. The Brain strikes me as the sort of person who’d like to gloat. So the Brain has the political power, but Dominic stay the darklord. And because he has no idea what’s going on in the outside world, he can’t keep the borders shut forever.

The Becoming Plague: Although the Cult of Simon Audaire would certainly have something to say about it, Jacqueline is due to wrap this up sometime. If it is contagious, she’d probably be willing to negotiate a truce with Falkovnia – let the troops march through Richemulot and spread the Plague amongst the soldier, and whoever they go to fight, and then through Falkovnia when they go back home.

So if Borca’s really unlucky, after pushing Falkovnia and Invidia to war, they look around and find Dementlieu in chaos, Mordent in a power vacuum and Richemulot suddenly neutral.

Hazlik and the Spellplague: It’s been mentioned before, but it is a very happy coincidence that the Spellplague wipes out all the Mulan in Mullholarand and Unther, and civil war in Thay wipes out the rest. So obviously Hazlik completed his ritual, and spends the last decade in Eleni’s body.

Elsewhere: Nova Vaasa and Sithicus have both been threatening to slip into chaos for years. In Nova Vaasa, the thing that could provoke the other houses against the Bolshniks is if House Hiregaard changes allegiances. Malken has already set in place systems to reveal Othmar’s criminal exploits to Tristen if Othmar annoys Malken, so I see this as the most logical route to civil war here. Malken, of course, sits back to profit.

If you’re going to kill Tristen and move Malken to a younger generation, now is probably the time to do it.

Ebonbane’s phantasmal forest finally surrounds Nidala completely, making life extremely difficult for both the Circle and the people of Nidala. Elena Faithhold, however, finally has real purpose in her life again.

In the Shadow Rift, Loht builds an army of changelings (possibly decimating a town in Falkovnia or Darkon, which could be awkward to explain) and tries to destroy the Obsidian Portal. If it goes badly, the Seelie Court (and possibly a lot of the Unseelie Court) flee into the surrounding domains, which would also be unpleasant for normal people. Let’s just hope Gwydion doesn’t get out.

Meanwhile in Tepest, even by 758 BC, Wyan has realised that he’s lost control of the Inquisition and it’s just a matter of time until it turns on him, Robespierre-like. I see the Hags having a good laugh at that, even if they’re not deliberately provoking it.

Ankhtepot rises for the eighth and last time, after a couple of decades of sleeping fitfully. I suggest that this time, he doesn’t go back to sleep.

Malistroi and Yagno Petrovna have their final showdown (if Circle of Darkness didn’t do that already).

And there may be some others I’ve forgotten.

So, as a vague timeline:

Trouble in the Gundarak rebel camp.
Massacre in Odaire
The Final Sect.
Death of Jules Weathermay
Death of one of the Dark Twins
Hazlik and the Spellplague
Revolution in Dementlieu
Civil war in Nova Vaasa
The Becoming Plague
The Core at War! (Starting with Invidia vs Barovia, then bringing in Falkovnia vs Barovia, which entails them cutting through Borca, which entails Borca being crushed – we’re talking 3 to 5 years of war here, I would think)

Leading in to the final climax of the ToUD

As always, happy to hear thoughts on this.

[Jimsolo]

There's always things I would have liked to have seen. I'd really have liked to have seen Drakov successfully invade and crush the bejeezus out of someone. Borca, preferably.

I really like the 'man-in-the-iron-mask' routine, but I think that Dominic is just the sort of petulant tantrum-thrower who would keep his domain closed indefinitely. Still, it would have been really easy to write something in to get around that.

I've never been a huge fan of the Shadow Rift. I'd have preferred it most if the Shadow Rift closed over, ejected from the Core to become an Island of Terror. Slowly it moves further and further from the Core as fewer and fewer Mistways connect to it, eventually being expelled from Ravenloft entirely in a planar form of exocytosis, since Gwydion is just too big of a nasty to keep around. Alternatively, Gwydion escapes from his cage, slaughters a bunch of folks, and ascends to deity-hood only to find out that gods have absolutely no power in Ravenloft, and never have. No longer bound there, he leaves the plane, but is unable to communicate this to anyone.

What's up with Lamordia? Would you have Aubrecker kick the bucket? Any significant developments on that front?

So...I had never heard that Darklords inside of a Reality Wrinkle were cut off from their domain. I personally don't think I would run it that way, myself, because I think it seriously cuts down on the weight that a Darklord carries. Making the fiend immune to the Darklord's powers is one thing, but having the Reality Wrinkle cut the Darklord off seems like a totally separate one. Then again, you're a professional writer, and I am a hack with only two publishing credits to my name, so what do I know?

I really disliked the Spellplague, although I thought that several of the writers who were involved with it did a great job. (Specifically Richard Lee Byers and RA Salvatore) I like it a lot more now that I can justify it being completely Hazlik's fault. As a middle finger from the Dark Powers, though, I would have many, many of the Mulan who disappeared from Faerun wind up in Ravenloft. (Red Wizards in Darkon, anyone?) These 'immigrant' Mulan are totally beyond Hazlik's ability to wipe out, and although he did, technically, succeed in destroying all Mulan beyond Ravenloft's borders, he'll never know it, and only see his own niggling failures.

I love the idea of the Inquisition becoming twisted and evil (-er) and killing Wyan. I'd love to see more activity from the hags, though. I'd personally like to see them taking an active role in spreading misery around Tepest, treating the whole place like their own micro-Ravenloft, with themselves as the Dark Powers, tormenting anyone unlucky enough to wind up there in subtle, unique, and twisted ways.

Something I would love to see is Strahd dusting off the military boots and going to war. I think the books are clear that he never lost his chops when it comes to armed conflict, and I would love to see Falkovnia go on a whirlwind tour, crushing Borca, and making major military progress in a few other places. Vlad himself can't cross the borders, but there's nothing stopping him from pressing a few other domains into vassalage. Richemulot seems perfect, especially if Jacqueline is close to perfecting her plague. (Falkovnian urban development would provide her with near perfect conditions...) I think it would be grand if it ended in Barovia, with (somehow) the two Darklords clashing on the field of battle, and with Strahd beating Drakov at his own game. I would like to see Strahd operating outside of mope-mode and instead operating in badass-mode.

On that note, I think your idea is great about the aged Tatyana. If I were writing it (which, obviously, would never happen) I'd have Strahd come to a fundamental acceptance of the nature of things in Ravenloft. When he sees what has become of this incarnation of Tatyana, he laments that his enemies have kept them apart for so long, have stolen her youth, her life, from her. But, he tells her, it's okay. They will have another chance. After all, in this place, they always get another chance. Then he kills her. This change in Strahd's behavior suits the Dark Powers, since Strahd has now become not only their prisoner, but a willing participant in his own torture.

I dunno, those are just my thoughts. I'd like to see the Shadowlands come out of the Mists to join Darkon's northern border, but that's just me. There are a few domains that I would have liked to see big changes in (Verbrek, Borca, Forlorn, Sithicus) but I honestly wouldn't care what.

I really like your ideas on them though. It's too bad you guys didn't get to take it that far. It seems like you had a decent team, at least from my point of view. In any event, thanks for your insights! I may crib some of this for my own game, if that's alright.

[Mortavius]

Ryan, believe it or not, I only discovered this thread the other day, and spent a good few hours reading it all from the start.

As others have said, you have done a fantastic job with this. You should be justifiably proud.

As to your end-times post, can you think of anything that would happen with some of the domains not mentioned? Lamordia is a personal favorite of mine, but what about Valachan, Kartakass, Forlorn? And that's just the Core domains. Do you think the Islands & Clusters would be affected any (beyond Har'Akir, which you mentioned)?