Category:Vistani

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"Vistani Seer," by Talon Dunning
A Vistani Seer

The Vistani are a human sub-race of gypsy wanderers who centuries ago adopted the Land of the Mists as their home. It in turn has adopted them, granting them several unique abilities that command respect and inspire fear. It is possible that their place or origin either is lost to them or is mythical. It is suggested that they can still venture beyond the Land of the Mists and they have been encountered on Gothic Earth in particular.

The Vistani are a stateless ethnic group, tightly bound together by ties of blood and of culture. Individual vistani are not assigned a nationality even if the state of their birth is known. A vistani baby adopted by a family of giorgio or one raised by its parents within the confines a single domain would, however, be assigned a nationality. The Vistani are rigorously divided into three tasques and further subdivided into several tribes.

In 4th edition, Vistani can be found in many worlds, and are planar wanderers. Vistani outside of Ravenloft adopt like minded people of any race into their clan. A sidebar mentions that the DM can limit membership in the Vistani to certain races if it makes sense for the campaign world, a hint that in Ravenloft, the vistani may remain all human and bound by blood, not adoption.

Curse

Bitterblot

Evil Eye

The Sight

The Omen Watchers, based in Sidnar, study the prophecies of the Vistani.

Bigotry Against Vistani

The hunting of Vistani is the passion of Malocchio Aderre, who is in fact one-eighth vistani through his mother. No Vistana is safe within Invidia or in the immediate vicinity of its borders. Others certainly would like to harm vistani, the Syndicate of Enlightened Citizens for example, but few dare not do so directly and have difficulty finding proxies, such is the fear of the evil eye and the curse that lies in wait on the Vistani tongue. Monsters even seem to have some appreciation of the risks and prefer to seek out less dangerous prey.An exception is the fiend Credimori who is a sworn enemy of the Vistani, but his methods are subtle, fermenting bigotry against them in places so devoid of education or good sense that his victims are unconstrained by the honestly earned reputation of the Vistani for dire retribution.[1]

Encountering

It is said that one finds the vistani only when they wish to be found. As they are a nomadic people with a mobility unequaled by any other race in existence, the vistani can conceivably be found just about any where. The one place where they keep a near permanent camp is beside the Tser pool near the village of Barovia. The presence of Vistani may also be divined by spotting Vista-Chiri, a species of bird that follow Vistani caravans.

In Literature

The Blind Gypsy

John W. Mangrum's Vistani Lore[2]

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (local) or Knowledge (Ravenloft) can learn more about the Vistani. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC Result

  • 11 This aloof, colorfully dressed stranger is one of the Vistani, a mysterious, nomadic folk. This result reveals all humanoid traits and the human subtype.
  • 16 The Vistani are infamous for their ability to cast the evil eye or terrible curses on anyone who cross them. They have no respect for the laws of any society but their own.
  • 21 Vistani can navigate the Mists, and can lead others to any destination. Female Vistani possess the Sight, allowing them to see the future. The Vistani are usually willing to provide their services to non-Vistani, for a price. Vistani speak a patchwork language called patterna, but they often know other languages as well.
  • 26 Although Vistani are always on the move, a semi-permanent camp can be found at the foot of the Tser Falls, in the shadow of Castle Ravenloft in Barovia. The Vistani sell an antidote for the poisonous fog that surrounds the Village of Barovia.
  • 31 The Vistani must always stay on the move. If they abandon their nomadic ways, they destroy the strange magic that grants them their powers. Vistani are divided into several “tasques,” or nations. Members of each tasque specialize in different skills and talents.
  • 36 The Vistani fear a legendary foe called the Dukkar. Any male Vistana with the Sight is fated to become a Dukkar unless quickly put to death.

Chronology

  • 475 BC - Madame Eva's grandson Petya brings Jander Sunstar to the Tser Camp. After Eva detects his vampire nature, she forbids him from ever coming back and marks him as a foe of her people should they meet again. She also informs Petya and Maruschka of Jander's unnatural nature.[8]
  • 477 BC Maruschka comes into the full Sight. [9]
  • 720 BC-722 BC - Magda Kulchevich spends two years fleeing from Gundarakite bounty hunters and the minions of Duke Gundar. Along the way, she begins gathering aa group Vistani followers that will eventually become the inter-tribe group known as the Wanderers.[18]
  • 746 BC - Nikolas is assaulted and beaten by some miners from the Veidrava Salt Mines. Inza witnesses it but tells nobody until after the search is on. Inza gloats to Piotr, believing he will share in the enjoyment of Nikolas' suffering. Piotr is appalled and tells the search party of Nikolas' predicament, but not Inza's betrayal. Inza lies about Piotr being the one who witnessed the beating. Piotr is almost exiled, but Nikolas interjects on his behalf. Still, Inza escapes with her treachery unpunished.[36]
  • 750 BC - Midyear Gabrielle Aderre and the Gundarakite rebels capture Castle Hunadora. Her hold on the Gundarakite rebels is strong, and they rebuke Malocchio's retaliation. Stymied against the rebels, Malocchio turns his eyes back to his pogrom against the Vistani[45]
  • 750 BC - Under Malocchio Aderre, Invidia negotiates a military alliance with Falkovnia. Aderre employs Falkovnian soldiers to boost his mercenary forces and help exterminate the Vistani.[46]
  • 752 BC - Inza Kulchevich betrays the Wanderers. She sabotages Gard using Novgor. She then instigates the salt shadows to attack the Wanders' camp. Gard's power fails, and it shatters as Magda Kulchevich tries to protect her tribe. She perishes in the battle. Following the attack, Inza manipulates some of Malocchio's ogres into attacking the surviving Wanderers in order to gain the personal protection of Lord Soth.[49]
  • 752 BC - The Night of Screaming Shadows Shortly after Madga Kulchevich's death, Azrael Dak enacts his ritual to gain control of Sithicus's shadows. However, he is disrupted by Ganelon. The shadows coalesce and besiege Nedragaard Keep, tearing it apart and seemingly destroying Soth.[47] Inza's treachery is revealed to Nabon and the three remaining Wanderers. To escape their wrath, she jumps into the Great Chasm, right into the thick of the gathering darkness. She survives the impact but becomes the new darklord of Sithicus. The Wanderers swear revenge.[50]
  • 757 BC - The incursion of Malocchio's mercenaries into Borca drives Ivan Dilisnya up the wall. By this year, he has commissioned his own killers for hire to terminate any Invidians that come over the border looking for Vistani.[53]


The Vistani on Gothic Earth

The Vistani exist on Gothic Earth much as they do in Ravenloft.[55] On Gothic Earth, they function as a Chaotic Neutral qabal. However. they are split into no less than twenty-four tribes (as presented in the original Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales boxed set. The tribes are differentiated only by a vague symbology rather than precise identification symbols as with other qabals.[56] As of the 3rd Edition hardback book version of the campaign setting, the Vistani are but a singular clan of much smaller numbers than in the Land of Mists. This version of the Vistani cherish giomorgo children much more than they do elsewhere.[57]

The connection between the Vistani of Ravenloft and the Vistani of Gothic Earth have varied by game source. In the 2nd Edition Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales boxed set, what connection (if any) the Gothic Earth Vistani may have to their counterparts in Land of Mists are unknown. If the Gothic Earth Vistani have knowledge of their relatives in the Land of Mists, they have never discussed it with those outside their kin. The Vistani have their practitioners of magic- adepts (usually qabalists) or mystics (usually mediums.) Their spells. psychic abilities, and magical powers seem unaffected by the Red Death.[55]

On the other hand in the 3rd Edition hardback book version of the campaign setting, the Vistani came through a a dimensional hole opened by the conjuration the Red Death to Gothic Earth[58] from the Demiplane of Dread.[59] The Vistani seer Neferi led her people from the Land of Mists into the sands of Ancient Egypt. Yet this knowledge has been forgotten by all save for a tiny handful of lorekeepers, even among the Vistani.[60]


References

  1. Children of the Night: Demons
  2. Mangrum's Monster Lore
  3. VotM pg. 51: Maruschka was born 20 years before Jander enters Barovia.
  4. Gaz 1, p 17.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Ravenloft Third Edition p.17
  6. 6.0 6.1 Ravenloft Player's Handbook p.19
  7. Domains of Dread p.16
  8. VotM p. 52-53, 64-65
  9. VotM pg. 284
  10. VotM pg. 284: “died four years ago.” RLMC I&II pp. 89-90: tells us how it happened.
  11. I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin - p71, pp109-117, pp167-171
  12. Children of the Night: The Created p.22, 26
  13. Tower of Doom; Domains of Dread p. 17 assigns a year to the events of this novel.
  14. 14.0 14.1 Van Richten's Arsenal, p. 4
  15. Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Van Richten's Arsenal, p. 6
  17. Bleak House: Homecoming p. 3 says one decade after her death, but Bleak House: Heroes, Monsters, and Settings p.16 says two decades
  18. 18.0 18.1 Heroes of Light p. 92
  19. Bleak House: Heroes, Monsters, and Settings p.16 says two decades after her death butBleak House: Homecoming p. 3 says one decade
  20. 20.0 20.1 Gazetteer IV p.145
  21. Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Realm of Terror (Red Box) p. 18
  22. Gazetteer IV p. 113-114
  23. Quoth the Raven Issue 20 p. 33, 35, 37
  24. JWM Timeline points to Van Richten's Guide to the Created p. 20: The golem appeared “the following year” after Vaasa’s soul is taken."
  25. JWM Timeline points to Van Richten's Guide to the Created p. 19 "just last year"
  26. Gazetteer IV p. 113
  27. Touch of Death p. 4-5
  28. Night of the Walking Dead p. 2-4
  29. 29.0 29.1 29.2 Ravenloft Third Edition p.18
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 Ravenloft Player's Handbook p.20
  31. Champions of Darkness p. 68
  32. 32.0 32.1 Carnival p. 40
  33. Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani p.5-7; 87-89
  34. Carnival p. 37
  35. Circle of Darkness p. 7-9, dating based on the year assigned to Circle of Darkness (Module) in Domains of Dread p. 17
  36. Heroes of Light p. 96
  37. Gazetteer IV p.147
  38. The Evil Eye
  39. Domains of Dread p.17
  40. Gazetteer IV p. 147; as told in the Evil Eye module.
  41. Gazetteer IV p.148
  42. Death Ascendant p.12-14
  43. Domains of Dread p. 17, as told in Bleak House, particularly Bleak House: Homecoming p. 58-63
  44. Carnival p.39
  45. Gazetteer IV p.47
  46. Gazetteer IV p.47-48
  47. 47.0 47.1 Gazetteer IV p.153
  48. Heroes of Light p. 100
  49. Heroes of Light p. 93
  50. Gazetteer IV p.157
  51. Ravenloft Gazetteer I, p35.
  52. Death Undaunted p. 5-6
  53. Gazetteer IV p.32
  54. Gazetteer V p. 4-5
  55. 55.0 55.1 Guide to Gothic Earth, Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales p. 128
  56. Gothic Earth Gazetteer p. 62
  57. {{Masque of the Red Death (Book)]] p. 192
  58. Masque of the Red Death (Book) p. 190
  59. Masque of the Red Death (Book) p. 5
  60. Masque of the Red Death (Book) p. 191

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Denizens of Darkness

Denizens of Darkness - p82

Denizens of Darkness - pp82-83

Denizens of Darkness - pp82-83

Human, Vistani Vistani Human


Ravenloft Third Edition
Domains of Dread

Ravenloft Third Edition - p206
The Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - p105, 109,112
Roots of Evil - p19 Download Now!
Feast of Goblyns - p9 Download Now!
The Evil Eye - p38
House of Strahd - p23

House of Strahd - pp17,20,22
Ravenloft I6 - p8,11,32

Secrets of the Dread Realms - p10,12,27-30,50,61
Ravenloft Third Edition - pp13-14,17,25,34-36,124,202-208
Domains of Dread - p135
Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium I - p8,208
Death Ascendant - pp12-15
Death Unchained - p62
The Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - p9, pp102-128
Mordenheim - p143 and onwards
House of Strahd - pp16-17,20,22-23
Roots of Evil - pp16-23 Download Now!
Van Richten's Guide to The Created - p19
Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts - pp81-82
Van Richten's Guide to Vampires - p4
Vampire of the Mists - pp50-67,284-289
Realm of Terror - pp35-37
Ravenloft I6 - pp7,8,11,32
Heroes of Light - pp66,69
I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin - pp44-65, pp109-117, pp167-171

Vistani, The Vistani


Subcategories

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Pages in category "Vistani"

The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 240 total.

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