Café de Nuit

I once thought of doing a netbook for this Evening at the Frat story, but it proved to be very complicated.

An article on fleshing the FoS would be very interesting and useful, indeed.

Joël

Something to consider for Quoth the Raven 2018?

The lack of any major details regarding the FoS as more than a secret society that seeks to rule the Realms of Dread by unlocking the secrets of the demiplane is a hindrance. But I did make them the primary antagonists for my own secret society cum demiplane-spanning conspiracy, the Shining Force. Given how hard--and dangerous--it is to learn more of the hidden truths about Ravenloft, the Fraternity has mostly been reduced to a group that wants that information for itself and will do anything to get it and ensure nobody else knows what they do. They aren't (yet) acting on what they know because they realize there's still more to learn and what they do know is dangerous to put to use. Given the things detailed in the never-officially-released Van Richten's Guide to the Mists, there are entities and forces more insidious than even the darklords who will not hesitate to stop those who peer too deeply into the hidden truths.

That's enough for now. My cat is insisting I go to bed so he can sleep on my chest.

Nathan of the FoS wrote:The original Fraternity of Shadows writeup (in Domains of Dread) specified that all the members must be able to cast illusion spells, and that the leaders were all illusionists. Under 2e rules, that meant no necromancers and the leaders can't cast necromantic spells.

When I did the netbook writeup, I ran with that because 1) Ravenloft is oversupplied with necromancers already, 2) it seemed like an interesting point to build around. The ideas that I came up with for why they avoid necromancy have already been mentioned, but, to recap, they're extreme solipsists and Platonists, and they think that "mind over matter" is actually a natural law--maybe the fundamental natural law--of the Land of Mists. In addition, they've noticed that necromancers tend "draw the attention of the Watchers"--that is, result in Powers Checks--which makes it something to avoid.

The fact that shadow magic gets close to necromancy in some ways, and that they pretty much ignore this, is one element of their institutional hypocrisy.

Of which the FoS has certainly more than one. They are delusional as well. I agree with Alhoon they are far less influential than they want to believe. In fact for all their intelligence they should have long figured out what they want to do is impossible. The Dark Powers know they exist, can easily tamper with any experiments they make with a wave of their hand , can control the various members minds any time they wish. In short they can lead the fraternity to dead end trails any time they want to and likely have.

Now why would they do that? It's much more fun to let the prideful little bugs bump into walls all on their own until they finally realize they've been trying to conquer a box they've been trapped in all along, and then begin the next round of the game ... or squash them.

Rock wrote:Now why would they do that? It's much more fun to let the prideful little bugs bump into walls all on their own until they finally realize they've been trying to conquer a box they've been trapped in all along, and then begin the next round of the game ... or squash them.

Point taken, in any case they are bugs who are by no means a threat to the DP.

True that. Even Azalin wasn't really a threat to the DP, back when he fired up the doomsday device.
I think the only ones who may have gotten close to worrying them, on the basis that they might have bitten off more than they could chew, are Vecna and Gwydion. And the latter is stuck like a cork in a bottle, whereas the former is long gone and doesn't seem to be concerned with the Demiplane or the Dark Powers anymore -- that we know of.

Yes, if Vecna has been pursuing revenge against the Dark Powers, he's probably keeping it a secret ... and they'll never tell about it.

Rock wrote:Now why would they do that? It's much more fun to let the prideful little bugs bump into walls all on their own until they finally realize they've been trying to conquer a box they've been trapped in all along, and then begin the next round of the game ... or squash them.

This absolutely...probably because the DPs get a laugh out of the kind of despair that comes with confronting the undeniable truth that everything you believe is completely and utterly wrong. And also because the members of the FoS are all just a little push away from that next (or first) power check.

I wonder if part of the reason the FoS was never fully detailed is that the original Ravenloft was angling for a campaign where hack-and-slash sword-and-sorcery was less intrusive and common that most D&D campaign worlds had been, such that an organization made up pretty much entirely of illusionists would be weird to have a lot of peons running around. In a world where being a wizard can get you mob-murdered, where would all these low level wizards come from?