Café de Nuit

702: G'Henna forms

Yagno Petrovna, scion of a long line of inbred hicks but deranged even by their standards, makes up a demon-worshipping religion after spending a night out alone in Barovia, tries to sacrifice his sister's newborn baby to it, and gets chased into the Mists by his family (presumably, just north of Krezk somewhere). Instead of forming the domain right there, it forms a bit further north.

I've always wondered how G'Henna (starving, arid wasteland of religious zealots who venerate starvation) and Falkovnia (breadbasket of the Core) interacted, since they're right next to each other and even joined by roads. Did the G'Hennans import tons and tons of grain to sacrifice to Zhakata? Did they impose enormous taxes on food being transported through the domain along the Tiumori road (which is now complete, with G'Henna's appearance - for nearly 40 years, we have uninterrupted east-west trade through the north-central Core). Did they ban grain imports entirely (it is illegal to buy or sell food to G'Hennans)? Is there some black market trading?

The thing about G'Henna, of course, is that the populace are actually devoted to Zhakata, so if there is black market trade, most people will still regard that as blasphemous. The irony of course is that, of all the people in G'Henna, Petrovna is one of the few who have doubts about Zhakata's existence, and he's the one who actually made him up. In recognition of this, most of his supernatural abilities only function when he's near his altar.

At this stage, the worship of Zhakata the Provider is still permitted, although I would imagine it's always been a niche sect of the church. In a few years, Petrovna's doubts will grow so great he hires a wizard to commune with Zhakata for him (summoning Malistroi instead, who taunts Petrovna, who kills the wizard and leaves the fiend trapped in a magic circle for 40 years). Then, during the Grand Conjunction, the heretics who worship Zhakata the Provider cause Zhakata to rip G'Henna out of the Core and jam it into the Mists, so they get banned too. Having the entire world around you dissolve into Mist would understanably cause an already devout populace to have a religious experience, so G'Henna must have been a very stressful place to be for the first few months after the Grand Conjunction before they realised the rest of the Core was still out there.

Two last things: When Petrovna turns those who've disappointed him into mongrelmen, their human form sloughs off them like dust and blows away, revealing the mongrelman beneath. So, when G'Henna is lashed by dust storms, the mongrelmen all rush out into the storm, desperately hoping to find thier lost human dignity...

And G'Henna apparently has carnivorous cows.

Ryan Naylor wrote: I've always wondered how G'Henna (starving, arid wasteland of religious zealots who venerate starvation) and Falkovnia (breadbasket of the Core) interacted, since they're right next to each other and even joined by roads. Did the G'Hennans import tons and tons of grain to sacrifice to Zhakata? Did they impose enormous taxes on food being transported through the domain along the Tiumori road (which is now complete, with G'Henna's appearance - for nearly 40 years, we have uninterrupted east-west trade through the north-central Core). Did they ban grain imports entirely (it is illegal to buy or sell food to G'Hennans)? Is there some black market trading?

According to Circle of Darkness, pg 16, "G'Hennans imported grain from Falkovnia and used it to brew some of the best beers and ale in all of Ravenloft." Zhukar is still home to multiple breweries, although many of them have closed down since there's no more foreign trade with which to bring in supplies. The G'Hennans probably indulged quite heavily on the days of the week when they were allowed to drink but not to eat (in preparation for the days when they weren't allowed to do either).

Great! Thanks, I missed that.

Ghenna the realm of wonder. Food itself would be doled out the populace would give to the church to dole to populace after Zhakata's taking the priests and the inquisitors the remaining is doled to the remaining populace a control factor. The corruption comes to whom holds the power of food collection. Merchants at the time would have dealt with people which would faithfully turn over to church for the dole. The black market as mentioned would have anything desireable, but temptation would be sin, especially if you sacrificing yourself to get blessing of zhakata.

The area of Ghenna mentioned into circle of darkness has a break down of the map including settlements ruins and other points of interests. The mention of an old shrine/tomb sounds interesting especially if predating Patrovanas rise to power.

Still a great thread real enjoyable.

707: Dementlieu forms

This is my favourite domain, so I’m going to restrain myself or I’ll be here all day.

The formation of Dementlieu makes shipping on the Sea of Sorrows much easier (no Mists to wander into), joins the Musarde and Vuchar rivers to each other and to the sea, so river boats can now reach every domain from Darkon down to Barovia (with the exception of Nova Vaasa). Before this, the Musarde drained into the Mists, and the Vuchar doubles back into Lamordia on the very edge of the border (under the red line on previous maps, which means the border shifts slightly northwards with Dementlieu’s appearance).

Dominic himself (as a child) seems to be modelled on the kid from The Turn of the Screw, plus a bit of staple evil child. If you’re interested, I think the movie Joshua almost perfectly captures what he must have been like as a child—brilliant, manipulative and utterly callous. After a couple of years of manipulating people and causing chaos for his own amusement, he drives his governess in Mordentshire to suicide by destroying her relationship with everyone she knows. Worried by the police attention (although not by any regret, tellingly), he manipulates his father into taking the family on a cruise on the Sea of Sorrows, where they wander into the Mists and discover Dementlieu.

At age 13, Dominic gains a nemesis in the form of the Living Brain, and the two have been playing cat and mouse ever since. Although Dominic has unlimited uses of his powers and potentially unlimited duration, the Brain has a slightly wider variety, and knows who Dominic is, whereas Dominic still hasn’t discovered why the Brain is called the Brain. Both, of course, can also use traditional methods of influence as well as supernatural ones.

Dominic officially becomes Chief Advisor to the Lord Governor at 27, and engineers the Treaty of Four Towers (or the League of Five Nations, as it is commonly known until the Grand Conjunction) in 729 BC. Dementlieu is the instigator of this Treaty, so while it was probably intended to strengthen his influence in other domains, the Falkovnian invasion in 724 BC must have really scared him. Interestingly, when he makes Guignol replace Chambon as Lord Governor in 728 BC, he has Guignol ruin Chambon’s supporters. Since he controlled them both, is this done by or against the Brain, or just for fun?

Originally, I would have explained Dominic’s curse as saying he basically wants someone to love him for who he is, in spite of his powers of mind control. Unfortunately, any woman he loves comes to see him for exactly who he is, and is repulsed. However, in thinking about this, I realised he’s been able to control everyone around him for his entire life, and able to supernaturally dominate them for his entire adult life. He’s been indulged and obeyed for as long as he can remember. He’s not going to have a particularly emotionally mature response to *anything*. So I think his curse may be nothing more adult than just being unable to get what he wants in one specific sphere. A petty curse for an emotionally petty man.

708: Arkandale forms.

Arkandale more or less finishes off the Musarde, linking the few remaining bits of the south Core with the rest. The only domain still isolated is Valachan, with only Kartakass and Bluetspur for company, and even then, it's separated from Kartakass by cliffs.

Nathan Timothy was determined to seek out new lands and discover an egress from Ravenloft. By the sound of the Black Box, he travelled through every domain of the Core before deciding to risk the Mists. Obviously, he can't have done all the via boat, so either he jumped from ship to ship occasionally, travelled by foot, or didn't see the whole Core. At some point before becoming a darklord, he has the Virago built, and afterwards becomes a rich river merchant with monopoly power over shipping in Arkandale (because werewolves attack all the other boats).

Although I like Nathan as a character (little hints like his first wife drowning herself to get away from him), I can see from a design principle why it might be a bad idea to have a darklord that can't get to 99% of his domain. So, he is freed after 32 years of being trapped in Arkandale to wander the rivers of the Core once more.

Still a great thread! Looking at all this in detail really makes you wonder: Did the writers of the Black Box look at their map at all when deciding on the timeline? Wouldn't it have been more .... normal? sensical? for the domains to just spread out from Barovia? I mean, really, what is Dorvinia waiting for? And why do stuff like the Valachan and Mordent moves?

I do love the artificiality of our world as I've said, but this whole formation history is just so.... odd.

This is not really about geography, but Ryan's details about Dementlieu made me think:

Dominic became darklord of Dementlieu as soon as he and his family "discovered" it, right? Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I have never seen anything suggesting that there was another darklord in place before he got a little older. He was truly a child when he became a darklord. Not even an adolescent. Yet, his curse and the character of the land are not specifically geared toward having a child darklord. I find it kind of interesting that the one part of the Core that has had such a young darklord isn't full of tropes that one would associate with a child ruler -- living toys! monsters hiding under the bed at night! not wanting to go to school! being too short for everything! etc. Good job by the Kargat and Kargatane in not doing that with Dementlieu's history. Dominic is pretty messed up, psychologically, and childish domain features would not really match his personality, so I am thankful that setting designers never took the easy path and made his domain fit his age in a literal way. The domain is great as it is, and DMs can work childhood tropes into their games many other ways (the module The Created is a great way to do so, as is using Malocchio as a kid in The Evil Eye).

No, you're right - Dominic was the first darklord of Dementlieu.

Although he was 7, I don't think he was a very typical child, which might explain it.

Or (at a real world level), Ron is right - they designed Ravenloft as is for 735 BC, and didn't consider all of the implications for what that would entail. 7 year old Dominic was reverse-engineered from adult Dominic.

In a revamp I would the young Dominic's mother be the first woman to fall "victim" to his curse. Perhaps she was the one person he cared for, but after their arrival in Dementlieu she swiftly ended up committing "suicide" or permanently institutionalized for her sudden, demented insistence that her young son is actually a hideous creature of pure evil that needs to die.

After mommy was out of the picture, the young Dominic may have enjoyed a grace period of a few years before he grew old enough to seek out young love -- at which point he would have had an unwelcome realization that maybe Mommy didn't just go mad after all.

Mangrum wrote:In a revamp I would the young Dominic's mother be the first woman to fall "victim" to his curse. Perhaps she was the one person he cared for, but after their arrival in Dementlieu she swiftly ended up committing "suicide" or permanently institutionalized for her sudden, demented insistence that her young son is actually a hideous creature of pure evil that needs to die.

After mommy was out of the picture, the young Dominic may have enjoyed a grace period of a few years before he grew old enough to seek out young love -- at which point he would have had an unwelcome realization that maybe Mommy didn't just go mad after all.

That's brilliant!

714: Hazlan forms.

Hazlik is drawn into the Mists and finds himself in the Nightmare Lands. After some time, he flees from the horror of it all (particularly Hypnos' influence), and he spends months in the Mists stewing about how much he hates the Mulan. When he finally reaches some kind of genocidal-level of percolation, Hazlan forms. Hypnos continues to torment him though. For 25 years, Hazlik outlaws arcane magic in his domain but changes his mind after he returns to Toril during the Grand Conjunction and sees how the children of his rivals are progressing.

The Nightmare Lands, which (probably) used to end at the bottom of Nova Vaasa now extend all the way from Darkon to Bluetspur.

Hazlik is still I think the only homosexual canon character in Ravenloft, although Ivana Boritsi is implied to be a little experimental in her youth, and Arthur Sedgwick may have unreciprocated love for Alanik Ray. For those who are interested in Hazlik's progression, the Black Box (real world publication date 1990) and the Red Box (1994) make no mention of the whole rival-lover-entrapment thing but do mention the effeminate tattoos. Domains of Dread (1997) and Secrets of the Dread Realms (2001) mention the murder and the rival's gender, but not the entrapment aspect, which first appears in Gaz I (2001) and caused a bit of controversy at the time as I recall.

715: Dorvinia forms.

Although if you ask the Dorvinians, they claim their domain has been there alongside Borca since 684 BC. In any event, the central Core is now complete. We're on the home stretch now.

Ivan Dilisnya is chased into the Mists by his own family (from Sturben, presumably), having spent a happy childhood in Borca torturing animals, poisoning a servant's child, his mother, his brother-in-law, and his sister, with whom he had a disturbingly intense relationship. As darklord of Dorvinia, he will go on to have a disturbingly close relationship with his cousin Ivana, where during the Grand Conjunction he will "seek her out for comfort." It doesn't last though.

Dorvinia has all the corruption of modern Borca, but none of the oppressive taxation. The borders close in exactly the same way as Borca's, but as of the Grand Conjunction, Ivan loses the powers to close the borders (fundamentally because Ivana has a stronger personality, although Ivan does seem to be an oddly effective ruler, despite the corruption and his idiosyncracies).

Rather like d'Honaire, Ivan is extremely childish, which I quite like. He has nightmares where he awakes calling for his sister, likes to dress up, loves to eat, and everyone around him thinks he's deranged. It just goes to show that high camp and pure evil can go together. I particularly like the way Our Hero dismisses him as a psychotic fop in Gaz IV, whereas Azalin clearly recognises how dangerous he can be. Another petty curse for a petty man - Ivan loses his sense of taste. That's all. But he feels the loss keenly, and would do anything to regain it. His sense of his own aging, jealousy of Ivana's youth and addiction to various poisons might also count as curses, but it's hard to say.

curious if Hazlik went to Toril during the grand conjunction does that mean that he escaped the mists for a time, thus doing what not even Azalin who been trying to do just that was able to do? or do you think the mists toyed with him and showed him dreams and what not to torment him further?

It was during the Grand Conjunction.

Azalin would probably have ended up on Oerth, but he followed Strahd to Prime Material Barovia. His curse was probably lifted at that point to, but the GC collapsed before he could learn anything new, and he maybe didn't realise that he could even learn something.