alhoon wrote:For Pharazia... it's interesting but so far I don't understand the "empire" thing. I'll have to read it carefully because an empire of domains sounds... intriguing but difficult to pull. If it comes down to that, I could just use the info for the Domain of Pharazia.
Basically? Supernatural Authority =/= Political Authority. Pharazia claims political control over these areas, but as far as the Dark Powers are concerned, they're separate domains.
Two examples:
Sebua is a Domain. The Darklord of Sebua is Tiyet. But the place is an uninhabited desert. On the political map, it's marked as the 'Sebua' region of the desert, and is considered part of Pharazia. There might be some Emir who has it as part of his territory, but he probably doesn't give a damn about it (and he and his city are likely to be in Pharazia-the-Domain as well).
G'Henna is a Domain. The Darklord of G'Henna is Yagno Petrovna. He's both the Darklord and the political ruler of G'Henna.
Technically he swears political fealty to Sultan Daud II, though he isn't part of the Pharazian Domain, and if you asked someone in Dementlieu, they'd tell you that G'Henna is a vassal state of the Pharazian Empire. Of course, given the weak state of Pharazian central authority, this is pretty much a legal fiction.
IrvyneWolfe wrote:Pharazia was more problematic for me for many reasons. The radical change in the geography of the core, and an article that says nifty magic things are unbelievably ancient and rare but where there are djinn selling things at market and no one seems to care. Finally there's Diamabel. You were absolutely correct that the closest thing to a Muslim domain in Ravenloft should not have a zealot with delusions of god-hood as the lord, but your article doesn't really present a strong alternative, and it turned what should have been a chance to make Diamabel into a three dimensional character into a slight disappointment.
I don't want to seem like I'm completely slamming your article, I'm not. The truth is there was so much great fluff there that it made me care enough to complain about the things I didn't like. I'd love to see what you have for Lamordia and Falkovnia.
Well. Caring enough to complain is an improvement.
Couple of things: First is that it helps to separate 'fantastic' races from 'high magic', which is something I should have clarified more. Basically, things with lots of magical power, Djinn and such, tend not to be easily accessible. Fantasy races, on the other hand, are more known, though still uncommon. Gnolls, Vishkanya, etc. But your typical gnoll is not going to have any more access to high magic than your typical human. He's bigger and fuzzier and has a lot more teeth, but he isn't a grand supernatural being.
That said, they're also pretty easy to excise. The idea was to harken back to Sinbad and stories in the Arabian Nights, where people are basically normal people, but a Roc is treated as an occupational hazard and not as a monster beyond comprehension. You can chop out the wemics and stuff and emphasize the "Djinn are far and exotic" pretty easily.
Diamabel... uh, think of it as more a case of "I'm focused on trying to fix the Domain, and fixing the Darklord is beyond my mission statement." Diamabel, in his original conception, was
deeply problematic, to the point where I think you'd need to rewrite him pretty much from scratch to make him into a classically Gothic character. And since Pharazia is already longer than the other Domains by about 40%, this wasn't something I wanted to get into (I'm trying to keep these things at a length where someone would actually read them).
Now,
personally, I think the New Diamabel is still pretty interesting. There's hints at all sorts of Fallen Angel and Agent of Destiny stuff in there, that if I ever actually used in a campaign could be spun out into all kinds of plots. But it's not really covered in the article.
As for Lamordia and Falkovnia, probably going to have to wait till Next Year, unless Gonzoron thinks spoiling them is appropriate.
