Why are the Darklords well known?

[nothri]

This is a meta question. The way I see it, you either have to run Masque of the Red Death in a slightly alternate history where Frankenstein and Dracula are not well known critically acclaimed monsters from literature or you need to do figure out what or who is chronicling their histories and famous encounters with humanity. My preference is to assume there is a strange cabal that funds authors to research and create biographies to be released as 'fiction' in an effort to oppose the agents of the red death without directly offending them (and may even be supported by some forward thinking darklords who realize it is to their benefit that the bulk of humanity believes them a myth...and also strokes their egos a bit by telling the world their stories in a venue that does not compromise their privacy).

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Is it established that the fictional works featuring them exist in GE? I don't recall that. I would tend to say no they don't. You don't see Barovians reading "I, Strahd" and "Vampire of the Mists". Similarly, Bram Stoker's Dracula shouldn't exist in Gothic Earth for foes of actual Dracula to read. Whether Bram Stoker himself exists would be up for debate too. Maybe he's famous for writing something else, or maybe he never existed. (If you want to be cute, maybe he was killed by Dracula while researching a book about him)

[Manofevil]

I might argue that illiteracy is likely rampant on most of Gothic Earth. so novels like Dracula and Frankenstein might help those who can read the newspaper, but won't much help those that can't. Dracula is wise to live in the Carpathian mountains where nobody can read, but then he goes to London where any 'Banker, Bun, or Barber' almost all knows how to read to quote the movie Newsies.

[alhoon]

I would still mostly go with the "Bram Stoker never wrote dracula" as it is kinda breaking the fourth wall; the story in our world was captivating enough for people to add dracula in the world and define vampires after it. For other stories, I would go with legends etc. In fact I would consider removing Jack the Reaper from common knowledge, going the entirely other way. After all, much of what we know about JtR is because of centuries of analysis.

A cabal that publishes such stories as fiction could be an interesting approach but not for such big names like Dracula, Grendel or Mr Hyde.

[The Lesser Evil]

Is it established that the fictional works featuring them exist in GE? I don't recall that. I would tend to say no they don't. You don't see Barovians reading "I, Strahd" and "Vampire of the Mists". Similarly, Bram Stoker's Dracula shouldn't exist in Gothic Earth for foes of actual Dracula to read. Whether Bram Stoker himself exists would be up for debate too. Maybe he's famous for writing something else, or maybe he never existed. (If you want to be cute, maybe he was killed by Dracula while researching a book about him)

In official canon, it's established such that both Stoker and the novel exist on Gothic Earth (see Gothic Earth Gazetteer p. 36, 47). (Of course, I'm not taking a stance on that's how it should be, but rather to note what's been printed in official Gothic Earth sources.)

This is a meta question. The way I see it, you either have to run Masque of the Red Death in a slightly alternate history where Frankenstein and Dracula are not well known critically acclaimed monsters from literature or you need to do figure out what or who is chronicling their histories and famous encounters with humanity. My preference is to assume there is a strange cabal that funds authors to research and create biographies to be released as 'fiction' in an effort to oppose the agents of the red death without directly offending them (and may even be supported by some forward thinking darklords who realize it is to their benefit that the bulk of humanity believes them a myth...and also strokes their egos a bit by telling the world their stories in a venue that does not compromise their privacy).

In official Gothic Earth canon, it appears that the latter interpretation would be the most supported, as Die Wächtern gets reports on supernatural events and rumors from Stoker via Jonathan Harker as a go between.

[EdwardBryant]

This is a meta question. The way I see it, you either have to run Masque of the Red Death in a slightly alternate history where Frankenstein and Dracula are not well known critically acclaimed monsters from literature or you need to do figure out what or who is chronicling their histories and famous encounters with humanity. My preference is to assume there is a strange cabal that funds authors to research and create biographies to be released as 'fiction' in an effort to oppose the agents of the red death without directly offending them (and may even be supported by some forward thinking darklords who realize it is to their benefit that the bulk of humanity believes them a myth...and also strokes their egos a bit by telling the world their stories in a venue that does not compromise their privacy).

Your idea of incorporating an alternate history or a secretive cabal funding authors to chronicle the histories of famous monsters like Frankenstein and Dracula is an intriguing concept.