Re: Quoth the Raven #30 reaction thread.
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2023 8:04 pm
I think that indeed I made piracy better then jealousy. However, Bunyips are a magical but not necessarily evil beast, which, following Jester idea I use as the animal form for Sewolves and Seawolves are indeed a boogieman, I did not present them in a not villanous guise here; in this domain they are overwhelminfly monsters, because the alpha handpicks his crew. Only the fact that their alpha is an Hight Captain is stopping the island from launching a great hunt. You are right that it is about control; jealousy in this case is a form of control and Bluebeard is a control-freak. That doesnot mean that he does not harbour passional resentment and regret so there is also an emotional side in his curse. The specter-wives are both a punishment and a weapon. Every time he uses them he is forced to admit to himself that they are devout to him and he failed them.Jeremy16 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:31 pm BLAUSTEIN: LAND OF PIRATES AND JEALOUSY
The Domain – Mistmaster says up front that this is a land of jealousy and simmering passions, which immediately reminded me of Invidia (at least, the canon version of it). But those themes are never really followed-up in the rest of the article.
Bluebeard – Starting Bluebeard relatively early in his “career” (having only killed three wives in instead of the dozen or so in canon), is a good choice here, but that's about the only thing I like about this version. First, as written I don't see his great sin being jealousy; it's his need for control. His father didn't give him rulership over the island so he killed his brother in order to get what he wanted. In my opinion, that doesn't show jealousy, just a cold-blooded calculation to eliminate any obstacle in his way. This same scenario is played out with his wives; he wants to control ever aspect of their lives and when they don't follow his orders they are killed for their transgression. He may say its about trust, but it's really about power (just like all abusers do when gaslighting their victims).
Focusing on this need for control might have lead to a better curse for him. With so many cutthroats running around this place, the political situation would surely be highly volatile. Perhaps an unexpected assassination of one of the high-captains makes things reach a fever pitch and Bluebeard is forced to step in and take a more hands-on approach to ruling things to maintain order. Eventually, his attention turns to wooing a new wife and then the political situation reverts back to the status quo. Then, the tension between various warring factions starts building up all over again.
Another thing I didn't like is his ability to summon his wives during combat. This may be splitting hairs, but I feel that the ghosts of his wives should be there to torment him (much like Soth and his banshees), not as weapons to help him win in a fight.
The Bunyip – More needs to be added about this creature. If my Google-Fu is on point it looks like a land-walking seawolf with arms instead of flippers, but I don't recall seeing a description of it within the article itself. Is this just another name for a seawolf or something completely different?
And, I know Mistmaster and I don't see eye to eye about “evil creatures = bad guys” but these things seem like they would be a great domain-wide bogeymen that all the inhabitants could agree on hunting down and getting rid of. I guess what I'm saying is that this is an okay concept but it needs more work to really... uh, work.
The Famed and Infamous - I do like the addition of more pirates (the high-captains) and towns into this domain. It is a much needed revision to flesh out this domain and make it more three-dimensional. Mistmaster does a good job of differentiating their personalities and modus operandi. And there's a lot of good subplots mixed in with the rest of the NPCs presented here.
But again, none of this seems uniquely flavored by jealousy or tied into the Darklord or his curse. Why not utilize these high captains to drive home the jealousy aspect highlighted at the beginning of the article? Surely one of these guys wants to take over the top spot from Bluebeard? Heck, why just one? Why not have all of them working on schemes to take over? They're frickin' pirates, for Pete's sake!
OVERALL
Poor Blaustein... this domain seems cursed to never get a write-up that is just right. Nathan's FoS survey was too one-note and bloodthirsty (in the wrong way) for me, and while Mistmaster's attempt is more well-rounded it seems too bland in terms of its theming and atmosphere.