Darklords of the New Age: Comments thread

[Sorti]

For your doubts about how it graphically works:

Patricia & the Heir

[Igor the Henchman]

I strongly disagree with Rotipher, Huntress and Gonzoron on this.

This is perfect.

Is Ada better Darklord material? I don't think so. She played the role of a jealous murderous step-mother, but so what? She got her divine punishment at the Heir's tiny hands. This I believe: the Dark Powers aren't looking for just any plain old evil in their chosen. They don't care if the darklord started out as the victim. Where Ada's petty jealousy seems all but predictable, Patricia's motherly love twisted into murderous obsession, and the Heir's aim to force his own birth even beyond death - that's darklord material.

Outstanding job.

[Manofevil]

I agree. We might further posit that the Mother in Law may have captured the attention of the mists and they rose to collect her, Only to witness the rise of the wife and child and their depredations and recognise a far better candidate. The DP do not torment Strahd with the dead guests from Sergei's wedding, though many of them could be considered more evil than Strahd was at the time. Why should they bother Patricia and the heir with the mother-in-law?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Manofevil's idea of the DPs changing their minds is better than nothing, but I'm still not convinced. IMO, one typical requirement for becoming an "instant darklord" -- i.e. one whose fall is abrupt, not the cumulative effect of years of wickedness -- is that the chief victims of the nascent darklord's AoUD shouldn't deserve to be victims. Romir Hiregaard's wife wasn't really sleeping with her dance partner; Lord Godefroy's wife wasn't to blame for the "crime" of birthing a daughter; it wasn't Sergei's fault that he was younger than Strahd and had won Tatyana's heart fair and square. If a villain's going to gain darklordship all at once, their act of evil should take out some innocent bystanders, not just other villains.

Now, if Patricia (or Patrizia? I like that one better!) were to assume her husband had ordered her death, and she and the Heir tore Etienne to bits for Ada's offense, that could be darklordship-worthy. He could be brought back by the DPs, either as living or undead, to plague the pair of them with their own mistake; Ada herself could be captured and tortured forever by her victims, or might flee into the countryside, hiding from her relations' vengeance and berating herself for what she's done.

But make P&H darklords just because they spent the last moments of their lives feeling hatred for each other? If that's all it takes, then there's an awful lot of spiteful old people in IRL nursing homes who are entitled to domains.

[Igor the Henchman]

As I read the background, Patricia and her child became lords for the crimes they commited as undead - in other words, after their five-day massacre. Feeling hatred during death was merely what caused them to "survive" long enough to commit their AoUD.

As for the daklord's victims needing to be sympathetic: no. In fact, the breaking of that somewhat stale mold is one of the reasons why I like this entry. One reason why the Dark Powers are so terrifying is this: they don't care about mitigating circumstances. If you've done an evil act, even while you know it is wrong but choose to do it anyway, your actions are noted against you. Morality is not your friend in Ravenloft - it is as frightening a force as the legions of darkness of this world. It is unmoved and uncaring - those who commit evil to further their ends will always get what's coming to them.

In fact, I've tried to explore that theme with my own darklord submissions: they all had very convincing mitigating factors that would make human justice hesitate to pronounce them guilty. Some were born with a skewed understanding of the world, some were possessed by madness, some suffered through a traumatic childhood, or desperately needed to blow off steam after a traumatic event. As human beings, we might pause, empathise and understand their psychology and argue the perpetrators were not entirely responsible. The Dark Powers, however, are not moved by human emotions, because they see straight into each darklord's blackened heart.

[Sorti]

I think they didn't become DLs when they reanimated themselves due to sheer hate and force of will, but when they got their revenge and killed Ada, much like Gabrielle and Jacqueline became DLs after killing the previous one (maybe Ada was a the former DL, and of course her story didn't end there...)

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I think they didn't become DLs when they reanimated themselves due to sheer hate and force of will, but when they got their revenge and killed Ada, much like Gabrielle and Jacqueline became DLs after killing the previous one (maybe Ada was a the former DL, and of course her story didn't end there...)

Eh. Maybe if Ada had been a darklord, I could accept it more easily. The standards for second-comers don't seem as rigorous as for a domain's debut darklord, particularly if they killed the previous incumbant.

But really, if P&H hadn't hated each other, but had come back from the dead to kill Ada and her accomplices to avenge their deaths in the spirit of justice, something tells me they wouldn't just be exempt from becoming darklords: they'd be Good undead! Walking near the edge is all well and good, but this seems far too vindictive and picky on the DPs' part: it places the Dark Powers solidly on the side of being intolerant jerkwads, and that'd alienate the sizable faction of Ravenloft fans who interpret the DPs as doing Good in a really grim way. Sure, we could go that way with the Reanimated Ravenloft, but I suspect that maintaining the fundamental ambiguity of their motives would make the revised setting palatable to a lot more people.

[Manofevil]

Perhaps so, but in our attempts to hold on to these principles, might we find ourselves being more rigid than the Dark Powers would be in theory. Why SHOULDN'T there be the occassional case where the DPs snatch one up on a technicality here and there?

[Sorti]

But really, if P&H hadn't hated each other, but had come back from the dead to kill Ada and her accomplices to avenge their deaths in the spirit of justice, something tells me they wouldn't just be exempt from becoming darklords: they'd be Good undead! Walking near the edge is all well and good, but this seems far too vindictive and picky on the DPs' part: it places the Dark Powers solidly on the side of being intolerant jerkwads, and that'd alienate the sizable faction of Ravenloft fans who interpret the DPs as doing Good in a really grim way. Sure, we could go that way with the Reanimated Ravenloft, but I suspect that maintaining the fundamental ambiguity of their motives would make the revised setting palatable to a lot more people.

Actually I never thought they were reanimated by the Dark Powers, more by themselves, their hatred turned to negative energy and their will to live to necromancy. This would solve the problem about how and why and when the DPs did it; they didn't. I think they should be left out wherever possible, anyway, so we don't give away too many informations about them and don't make their intervention too common. After all, there are things modern necromancy still can't explain, right?

[Checco]

Since it's obvious Wolfkook is busy, I feel like asking who should be the next posted DL, as well as asking his/her author to post him/her directly in the apposite thread .

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Good question; who is left?

[Igor the Henchman]

Reuben Crewsaw, I think, then Sabrina Whitestag, then Princess Stella, the Train Master and Vestiver, but I could be wrong. I heard that the Saint-Helena trio might be missing, though nothing is certain.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

I look forward to Reuben then. Just tell me if I need to post Sabrina.

[DocBeard]

Where are these domains set, by the way? Just about all of them seem to be Core domains, the majority having a much stronger Italian feel than the Core itself. How do they fit into Ravenloft's sociopolitical whole?

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

I guess we'll find out when the next round focuses more on the domains themselves.