What is gothic earth?

[NykylaiHellray]

Sorry if I sound like a fool, but I have only recently got into d&d and ravenloft, and was wondering what gothic earth is.


Is it a seperate world to the main ravenloft domains?

[Spiteful Crow]

Yes, it's a separate world.

Basically, it's the Earth (yes, the one we're living on) except that it's been corrupted by an evil force called the Red Death. It's the setting for the game Masque of the Red Death, and takes place during the Victorian era.

[NykylaiHellray]

since the title is ravenloft, can one assume that this exists in the demiplane of dread like ravenloft prime?

[Spiteful Crow]

No, it doesn't exist on the Demiplane of Dread. It takes place on Gothic Earth, a material plane of its own that has been cut off from the rest of the multiverse by the Red Death.

[NykylaiHellray]

I found this, does this mean there may have been a connection once?

In theory, there is no connection between Gothic Earth and any other world, plane, or demiplane, including Ravenloft. The most recent incarnation of the Ravenloft campaign setting (Domains of Dread), however, mentions at least one such connection: the domain of Odiare, home of the carionette lord Maligno, is said to have been snatched from Gothic Earth. My explanation is that, in Gothic Earth's renaissance period, the power of the Red Death had not yet grown to its present (1890s) levels, and Gothic Earth was not yet completely isolated from contact with other planes, which allowed the Mists of Ravenloft to draw in this domain.

Of course this confirms that they are seperate, but it makes me wonder.


As gothic earth seems to be more of our cosmology then d&d's

Sooooo how can the mists pull from things outside d&d cosmology.....


Then again I heard a theroy once that if a a being accidently found themselves in another cosmology, there voysage between the two would cause a permenant link, that would encorage beings from with comos to travel between the to. The idea that once the knowladge to travel between them exists, and that people know that the other exists, then people can travel.


Acoording to one website the red death is parttly responible for d&d monsters appearing in gothic earth.

So maybe the red death is a d&d god that has escaped and travelled beyond its own multiverse.


The resuling connection has then allowed ravenloft access to lands from that place.

Meh who knows

[Spiteful Crow]

Actually, it's been hinted that the Red Death is a reject Dark Power from Ravenloft, or at least came from Ravenloft, seeing how the Vistani arrived around the same time it did.

And D&D's Great Wheel cosmology is only theoretical. There are plenty of quirks to the multiverse that in game characters don't know about. There's nothing saying the Dark Powers can't snatch people off of Gothic Earth. The term Dark Powers implies that there's more than one, so they kinda outnumber the Red Death anyway.

[NykylaiHellray]

So in some ways it is a rouge experiment. Maybe it thought it could do better then the rest of the DP's =P

[Spiteful Crow]

Well... the way the story goes is, there was this sorcerer back in Ancient Egypt who tried casting spell to make the Pharoah immortal, but instead ended up summoning the Red Death. It's hinted that the spell only summoned the Red Death because it was already being kicked out of wherever it was before. Hence, my use of the word "reject".