Review thread of VRGtRL 5e

[alhoon]

Hello everyone! It's been a while!

I really and truly hate to say this...but...

I kinda like it? I mean, I love the section on different kinds of horror. It gives me all kinds of new ideas.

But *most* of all - I like that each domain appears as if there is something to *do* and that those goals are within reach of the player characters. For the longest time, the Darklords seemed untouchable or unreachable to many people. When I went around to conventions all around the country, that's the number one complaint that I always heard. I remember one particular fan that was *convinced* that there was a part in one of the books that said that the Darklords could not be permanently killed. (Of course, no such thing in any of the books is written, but for many fans...it seemed like that was the case.)

For that reason, many people ran Ravenloft like a tour. People would go around the Dark Realms and were supposed to stand in awe of the Dark Powers. Here, much of the book is dedicated to constructing actual adventures with an achievable goal.

Now, that said - I love the analysis here and many of the criticisms, in my opinion, are totally valid. It is what it is, you know?

As for the Islands in the Mist shift, one giant help to me was the new Netflix series Shadow and Bone. If you haven't seen it, it's really fun. But it shows how one could have trade and communication between two Domains with the Mists as a barrier. In my version of Ravenloft, I'm going to have the Vistani be guides through the Mists so that trade and communication can take place.

Anyhow - my two cents, for what it is worth. One more thing - I see a lot of love for the 3E version of Ravenloft. Thank you! It warms the cockles of my black heart.

Ruuuuuuuuuucht!!! Long time no see!
Don't worry buddy, I like the new book too. Full of new domains. I like most of the new domains and I like most of the "new" domains - i.e. domains like Dementlieu that I will simply change the name to something else and have it exactly as it is presented. Awesome domain.

[Rucht Lilavivat]

Since the books don't specifically say that they can't be killed (except some exceptions who are either reforming or have a specific task you have to do like kill all the wolves in the domain), I believe this assumption is probably based on DM's liking so much the darklord stories and characters and wanting them to stay alive

That's definitely part of it. All I am relating is the overwhelming opinions that I encountered around the U.S. going from convention to convention and speaking with fans over the past few decades.

Now, however, Ravenloft has a complete different reputation. As I said before, CoS changed all of that.

I remember ages ago if I refered to Ravenloft to other people outside my party there would be some kind of discrimination against the setting but that was based on ignorance, as all discriminations are. I remember that if someone else joined in the game I DMed and realised they were in Ravenloft they would have the "We are going to die" feeling right away, which was a false assumption based on their experience with other DMs or rumors about the setting.

It wasn't just that. Many DMs saw Ravenloft as some place that was a meat-grinder. So, their version of "horror" was to make the odds against the PCs overwhelming and or to make the game extremely frustrating. DMs would make spells take different or odd effects. Bad guys would have "cheat" abilities. Etc.

But now this is the only canon, how does this help the setting evolve?

In my opinion, the "weekend in hell" thing isn't what gave Ravenloft it's bad rap. It's the "weekend in hell" with supremely frustrating bad guys, monsters, and effects did.

For me, personally, this newest book does a lot against that because it really encourages adventures with a beginning, middle, and end - with particular solutions to problems. So many DMs I saw running Ravenloft would only have vague ideas in mind, and present threats that were clearly unkillable or overwhelming.

And all of this is because running horror is hard. That's another reason I like this book - it shows you that running horror doesn't have to be hard.

And...also, I am not intending to use this book as a "weekend in hell" resource. Rather, I intend for all of the domains to be connected.

I suppose, over the years, I've seen many of my beloved settings radically altered from their original state. The Forgotten Realms. Planescape. Shadow Run. Etc. So, I am used to this kind of thing now. And what I always do is to take what's good and put in the old stuff as I see fit. We've seen this happen before.

[Rucht Lilavivat]

Ruuuuuuuuuucht!!! Long time no see!
Don't worry buddy, I like the new book too. Full of new domains. I like most of the new domains and I like most of the "new" domains - i.e. domains like Dementlieu that I will simply change the name to something else and have it exactly as it is presented. Awesome domain.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Ruuuuuuuuuucht!!! Long time no see!

What alhoon said. Welcome back, Rucht and thanks for your thoughts on the book.

I think a lot of the bad rap RL has gotten from players in the past is due to the fact that early versions of the setting gave DMs a lot of powerful tools but not much guidance on why they were there and when to use them. Closed domain borders, Mist travel, Powers Checks, Curses, nerfed magic, pseudo-familiars, Darklords with respawning abilities, ... all there to enhance the sense of horror and the mood of the setting and the storytelling possibilities. Not to railroad the players, or browbeat them for their decisions, or to make the game unwinnable. But without that guidance, a lot of bad DMs used those tools poorly, and scared a lot of players. Not in a good way, but scared them off from the setting.

[alhoon]

In my experience as a Ravenloft DM and a DM-that-played-homebrew because his players heavily buckled at Ravenloft I can tell you that:
I had players tell me "What? Ravenloft? No, thanks. If you play there please don't invite me." Like... the majority. And I am not talking a 55% majority here. People online and people I know for 10+ years.
Now, I also had players that I played Ravenloft with as late as 5e, ones that have not been exposed to Ravenloft. Remember the adventures I said were very easy to run in 5e?
Well, one of those players doesn't want to play Ravenloft ever again, because I used the crystal daggers of Grim Harvest there, saying that 2 of the damage (1d4+2d6 necrotic) was permanent drain. The table nearly went up in arms when I told them after a long rest "nope, that hp don't come back."

I wish I have read the 5e Ravenloft book that advised people like me to discuss beforehand with the players if you do radical changes to their characters. I honestly found out the hard way that something that for me was minor-ish (2 hp for a 7th lvl warrior?!) caused severe issues. When THAT happened, the mood changed from "let's help this people / solve this problem / perhaps kill Drakov?" to "Let's get the #### out of here!"

I have to cherry-pick things and adventures from Curse of Strahd and put them in my homebrew world cause Ravenloft is a no-no word for some of my online players.

[Jack of Tears]

This isn't all bad news, I told my players that if the book turned out awful I would run a short 'Abbot and Costello go to Ravenloft' style game with the new content, so that should be fun.

[Nirnel]

Well, I finished the book today.

First of all, I liked its tips for horror campaigns. I am a mediocre DM, and as a rule I appreciate very much these things. Nothing negative to say in this matter, although I don't understand very well why these tips were not in the same chapter discussing horror genres. I think they would have complimented each other very well.

As for the rules themselves, in the context of 5E, I found them OK. I liked the section for curses, fear and stress (and of course we already had Horror and Madness rules in the DMG, although a mention of these would have been nice). I missed things like Powers Checks and altered magic (while planar travel was addressed, Divination was not).

Character options are not bad. I do find having the same wpeed no matter what your base race is somewhat irksome. Two of the better addition (Seeds of Fear and Dark Gifts) felt like they were pretty much copied from Jester's Heroes of the Mists, though.

The new monsters are good, although they are few and the book lacks options for escalating monster's power like every RL setting up to 3.5E did

And... I'm done with all the OK parts. Let me get a paper bag before I get to the lore.

So, they practically erased all of the previous canon except for the occasional Easter Egg. Some things can be introduced in ongoing campaigns, like the new domains, but they actually went out of their way to make our lives difficult if we want to run any old adventure or otherwise convert old material to 5E.
This feels intentional to me. They could have made new domains for Cinderella, the zombie apocalypse and the huntress with the battle royale, and they could have made the creepy old man with clockwork toys a new Darklord. Instead, they smacked old and recognizable names onto them so we don't use the "old versions". Some new ideas (all right, MANY new ideas) were pretty interesting on their own. As an addition they would have been a huge asset, and I still plan to adapt them; but not at the cost of casting better ideas away.
The most positive takeaways in this section are Bluetspur (which became much interesting and easier to introduce IMO) and I'Cath (which had next to zero material before this book). While all of them as a rule feel very one-dimensioned, I can salvage Cinderland (the domain with Cinderella as a Darklord, which I refuse to call by the name they use in the book), the Bastion (the one with the zombie apocalypse) and Kalakeri (putting it in the verdurous lands, renaming Ramya's siblings and maybe changing their appearance not to confuse them with their neighboring Darklord). Ankhtepot and Godefroy received a positive update, so they can be much more active now.
As for Darkon and Tepest, I can see these versions as a possible future. Next of Azalin's experiments? Boom! Cue the PCs trying to track him down so he can be forcibly restored to Darkon (or not). In the ToUD there would be a sense of urgency in which the one-dimensionness of these domains can be a good thing in a way.
There were other good ideas in the "other domains" section but, alas, this section can only count as a source of inspiration. The new domains (Cyre 1313, Klorr, Niranjan and the Vhage agency) are interesting ideas, and there's a splattering of nice nuggets here and there (like a town of deafened people in Keening, an interesting concept).
Curiously, Barovia managed to fall short of my expectations by introducing as a new material the table of Tatyana reincarnations. A Dragonborn? Really? How is Strahd supposed to identify them? I already was biased against it after CoS (which I might have liked if not for the fact that I loathe levelling in mid-adventure and because it started the 5E trend of thrashing RL lore).

Other lore issues: Genderswapping was poorly done. They could have added new female Darklords (or expand on domains that already have female Darklords like Invidia or Keening, or include the last version of Sithicus or Demise), but instead they changed ones who were already established to be male while underusing powerful female characters like Elena Faith-Hold or Natalia Vorishkova. Drakov being male was important for the metaplot, too, so it adds to the previously mentioned perceived intention to erase the previous lore.

The domains being all islands of terror was not a surprise, although it's funny how they go out of the way to explicitly say that there is no physical border between them, in case you want to do otherwise. I like the concept of Mist Talismans, although I would prefer them to either improve the reliability of existing Mysty Ways, be less reliable themselves (or losing reliability with time, depending of their relative power) or both. Having everyone speak Common by default is a bit of a bummer, but at least they mention the option to do otherwise; although I always thought that the lack of the Common language would need bestowing additional languages to PCs (or using a system of language ranks so you can speak a little of a few languages instead of speaking one fluently)

The erasure of any mention of racial or ethnic bigotry (not even in concrete Domains) feels a bit dull. Even Vistani are now apparently viewed as generally good people to the point that the Radanaviches were just pretending to be ones, which is just lazy. Why not make them a complicated people so they can be used as antagonists once in a while? They lose much of their mysticysm when all of their tricks can be done by PCs, too.

The Dark Powers having names and all lose almost all of their mystery (I even thought about writing an essay with in-world theories of a number of sages discussing whether they were a single god, a pantheon of lesser godlike beings or a powerful race, with evidence pointing to each version). After CoS (in which their nature was hinted at) I was planning to say "yes, these remnants made Strahd a vampire... but it was the Dark Powers who trapped him in Ravenloft, and the remnants were trapped with him". Now... I just have other piece of new lore I have to kick in the face.

All in all, a solid MEH. There is a lot to salvage in this book, but it doesn't make the cut to be called a good book. It just serves as the foundation od WotC Canon (as opposed to TSR canon; I refuse to give it a name that implies that it is more official than classic Ravenloft).

[Jester of the FoS]

I like most of the "new" domains - i.e. domains like Dementlieu that I will simply change the name to something else and have it exactly as it is presented. Awesome domain.

As I work on the update of my darklord book I'm adding 3-5 darklords from the new book.
Which gave me the idea of adding a "Dread Possibility" sidebar that gave a way to incorporate them into existing canon. Some, like Chakuna, are easy. Kill the lord, take their stuff.
Others are harder.
But I had a couple really fun ideas on how to incorporate Duchess Saidra and Doctor Viktra Mordenheim...

[alhoon]

Hey there, be careful.
You said it yourself, we don't want people hitting hard on what we like. FoS-work is for years more canonical in my heart than WotC. So, if you turn my favorite (so far) new darklord, that I already like more than many of the old darklords, to something that I hardly recognize I will be disappointed and you would have tainted the NPC for me.
I don't care if WotC does it. They are far removed from me. The FoS is closer to 'my RL community' than WotC material.

Anyway, please address the following questions in your write-up:
- Is the Duchess actually a wraith, or she's an incorporeal human that disintigrates people and WotC slapped "wraith" because it was an easy word to put there? The part "she found herself a wraith" seems ... oddly fitting but also oddly not-fitting. I am not sure if I want her an incorporeal human or an actual undead.
- Is she a random D'Honaire that happened to be a servant's daughter or she's more closely related to Dominic?
- The three hag fairy godmothers: what gives? What it means "to owe something" to them?
- It is not clear to me whether the mask Saidra wears as the 'Duchess' creates a disguise self glamor or something to make her appear living or if people simply pretend she's a living, corporeal creature.
- The ghoul servants... man, that awesome seed needs expansion. Can she control them? Do they simply obey her out of fear because she can, literally, turn them to dust? Can they betray her? Do they feed on the dust she leaves behind?
- Did Saidra ... went further in her plan to seduce the 'duke' than the book says ?

[Jester of the FoS]

Hey there, be careful.
You said it yourself, we don't want people hitting hard on what we like. FoS-work is for years more canonical in my heart than WotC. So, if you turn my favorite (so far) new darklord, that I already like more than many of the old darklords, to something that I hardly recognize I will be disappointed and you would have tainted the NPC for me.
I don't care if WotC does it. They are far removed from me. The FoS is closer to 'my RL community' than WotC material.

Still early in the brainstorming phase.
My current idea is that she was born in Dementlieu as we know it and her story took place there. She's a native of Ravenloft.

When she became a darklord all on her own, the Dark Powers copied the city of Port-a-Lucine, the only part of the land she cared about.
So even her domain is pretending to be something it's not.

Anyway, please address the following questions in your write-up:
- Is the Duchess actually a wraith, or she's an incorporeal human that disintigrates people and WotC slapped "wraith" because it was an easy word to put there? The part "she found herself a wraith" seems ... oddly fitting but also oddly not-fitting. I am not sure if I want her an incorporeal human or an actual undead.
- It is not clear to me whether the mask Saidra wears as the 'Duchess' creates a disguise self glamor or something to make her appear living or if people simply pretend she's a living, corporeal creature.

I'll probably base her on a wraith. Like Adam is a flesh golem, Misroi is a zombie, and Timothy is a werewolf. Take a wraith, and turn it to 11.
She'll likely have the ability to disguise herself as a human. A veil, that is just another mask.

- Is she a random D'Honaire that happened to be a servant's daughter or she's more closely related to Dominic?
- The three hag fairy godmothers: what gives? What it means "to owe something" to them?
- Did Saidra ... went further in her plan to seduce the 'duke' than the book says ?

I'll probably leave that vague and for DMs to expand on. Beyond the scope of the book, which is brief bios and the mechanics.

- The ghoul servants... man, that awesome seed needs expansion. Can she control them? Do they simply obey her out of fear because she can, literally, turn them to dust? Can they betray her? Do they feed on the dust she leaves behind?

Good question.
Regular wraiths can create specters. She might be able to create specters AND ghouls, that are under her control.

[Joël of the FoS]

This isn't all bad news, I told my players that if the book turned out awful I would run a short 'Abbot and Costello go to Ravenloft' style game with the new content, so that should be fun.

I've always thought that visiting Castle Ravenloft when Strahd is in a Home Alone mood would be different.

[direheroics]

Domains of Dread presented six different possibilities for the Dark Powers:

1) They are evil
2) They are good
3) They are few
4) They are many
5) They are imaginary
6) They are real

All along with multiple story ideas for your campaign. I think the frustration that's felt is that for a toolkit book, it presents single answers: in this case, that they are evil jailors and here's some of their names. All within roughly the same amount of text -- ~a few paragraphs (less than a column).

While I could definitely do whatever I want, this book isn't really written to be that way. It presents Ravenloft as being a definite thing, rather than a mysterious thing, and that's generally disappointing. There are good parts of the book and good notions sprinkled throughout - (as I said, I don't think I ever made a player make a fear, horror or madness check, and I think the setting is improved by their absence). But the setting itself lacks from the way it's presented.

The choking mists from I6 were one of the most railroad-y things in gaming (you're staying in Barovia until you complete this adventure). I understand the mist talismans, and whatever, but the book doesn't present compelling reasons to travel between domains. It posits that the most rewarding reward is escape.

In truth, as mentioned above, this definitely is a reaction to bad DMs causing a hatred of Ravenloft. But I still think for DMs without mountains of time, or less able to create their own material, not providing options is to the detriment of the whole. And the decisions made (weekend in hell, soulless contructs, disconnected domains) remove more options than they give.

It's clear this Ravenloft isn't for everyone -- it's for people who enjoyed and wanted more Curse of Strahd, which like any adventure module has high and low points. It doesn't hurt me in anyway. I just have a great sense of disappointment, and a feeling of missed opportunity.

It's like this. I don't like Harry Potter, but I can accept what it's done for the popularity of reading and fantasy in general, and I can understand why people like it. I prefer the Chronicles of Prydain, and I wish more people would read it.

I still can have what I like. But I can still try to get people to admit that the version I prefer is the superior one.

And I can hold out hope that some enterprising individual creates a story that can show everyone else just how magical and alluring Ravenloft CAN be.

[alhoon]

Hey there, be careful.
You said it yourself, we don't want people hitting hard on what we like. FoS-work is for years more canonical in my heart than WotC. So, if you turn my favorite (so far) new darklord, that I already like more than many of the old darklords, to something that I hardly recognize I will be disappointed and you would have tainted the NPC for me.
I don't care if WotC does it. They are far removed from me. The FoS is closer to 'my RL community' than WotC material.

Still early in the brainstorming phase.
My current idea is that she was born in Dementlieu as we know it and her story took place there. She's a native of Ravenloft.

When she became a darklord all on her own, the Dark Powers copied the city of Port-a-Lucine, the only part of the land she cared about.
So even her domain is pretending to be something it's not.

Anyway, please address the following questions in your write-up:
- Is the Duchess actually a wraith, or she's an incorporeal human that disintigrates people and WotC slapped "wraith" because it was an easy word to put there? The part "she found herself a wraith" seems ... oddly fitting but also oddly not-fitting. I am not sure if I want her an incorporeal human or an actual undead.
- It is not clear to me whether the mask Saidra wears as the 'Duchess' creates a disguise self glamor or something to make her appear living or if people simply pretend she's a living, corporeal creature.

I'll probably base her on a wraith. Like Adam is a flesh golem, Misroi is a zombie, and Timothy is a werewolf. Take a wraith, and turn it to 11.
She'll likely have the ability to disguise herself as a human. A veil, that is just another mask.

- Is she a random D'Honaire that happened to be a servant's daughter or she's more closely related to Dominic?
- The three hag fairy godmothers: what gives? What it means "to owe something" to them?
- Did Saidra ... went further in her plan to seduce the 'duke' than the book says ?

I'll probably leave that vague and for DMs to expand on. Beyond the scope of the book, which is brief bios and the mechanics.

- The ghoul servants... man, that awesome seed needs expansion. Can she control them? Do they simply obey her out of fear because she can, literally, turn them to dust? Can they betray her? Do they feed on the dust she leaves behind?

Good question.
Regular wraiths can create specters. She might be able to create specters AND ghouls, that are under her control.

You know what? You already influenced my vision. So I will write the new Dementlieu up and throw it in a thread for discussion.

[Gautsu]

You ever feel like you live under a rock? I never knew Ravenloft had that reputation; my experience was the opposite with players unenthusiastic about playing on Faerun or Krynn but always excited by Athas or Ravenloft. Most of the conventions I used to go to back in the early 90's in New York had a ton of Ravenloft games as well

[HyperionSol]

Well, admitting to being green here but I was introduced to Ravenloft through COS after I got into D&D. 5th Edition is the only system I've ever know for it. Still, having an actual horror adventure and reading Ravenloft had been in previous editions got me hunting on DMSGuild where I managed to track down digital copies of the setting books and old adventures and I fell hard for the lore and world of Ravenloft.

I'm no professional analyst or mechanics sage, but I am someone who loves the game even as I'm learning more about it, how to be a better DM, and someone who loves Ravenloft and just wants to voice their opinion.

Like a lot of people, I like the mechanics portion. The lineages are interesting and can help make for interesting backgrounds or plot devices for a DM. Likewise with the classes and how they fit into the Ravenloft setting. The definition of types of horror and ideas on how to make adventures for them is interesting and can help better guide me when I'm putting together a horror adventure. The rules of fear, stress, and other horror toolkit aspects are all useful and helpful for making a horror adventure. Love the bestiary, although it really is lacking a lot of the more iconic monsters and even the Dread template, making already evil monsters worse in the Domains of Dread. I was really sad not to see the Dread Elementals. Still, there is plenty of good horror-related monsters there so I won't complain.

The lore though...as someone who greatly enjoys lore in adventures and settings, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

A lot of what made Ravenloft so entrancing for me was the Darklords, their histories, and how it shapes their respective domains. Then as the Clusters formed, you got to see how they interacted with each other and by extension, a bit of how their Darklords would interact even if they really couldn't. Like, tensions rising as Invidia hunts vistani, only to earn the ire of Strahd who considers them to be trusted allies and holds great respect for them. What ideas passed from those domains to others? What new threats who were mundane in their own Domains only to become great threats in Domains utterly unprepared for them? A great example of that is the adventure, The Awakening which had a powerful mummy rise in Nova Vaasa.

When the Clusters were removed, it disappointed me. It turned Ravenloft from a gothic horror world which was slowly expanding as more evil was dragged into it to just a cluster of one-shot type settings where one main theme was prevalent. It took away the depth I had come to see in Ravenloft. Not a dealbreaker to be sure, I could just stick to the old lore, but one which gave me the beginnings of disappointment when I discovered it.

No, what really broke my heart was all the retcons, reimaginings, and outright removal of the Darklords, their domains, and their histories. So much of Ravenloft was just butchered in a lot of ways. They completely retconned Dementlieu, turning into one city and just chopping off the rest of the domain just felt...so incredibly lazy. The gender flips and other changes follow that trend. Rather than make them their own domains and give them individual identity, it does really feel like they were trying to tack their ideas they weren't sure were going to work onto famous names from the setting.

There was also the disappointment of the Darklords not getting their own statblocks, but just substituting general stats instead. Some people may complain the Darklords are truly difficult to beat and put down, but to me, that's the point. They are the center of their domains, they are the source of evil, and the Dark Powers want them to stay right where they are so as to keep playing their games with them. Of course, a group of heroes is going to have the most difficulty in bringing them down. So, treating them like regular creatures felt like a disservice. The only Darklords I see that working with is Ivan and Ivana. Considering they are co-darklords and likely one can't be brought down while the other lives which plays into their curses.

A lot of the history which built up the Demiplane of Dread likewise was just removed and forgotten. The key one being the Grand Conjunction. That event was the lynchpin to later storylines. G'henna becoming isolated, increasing the religious fervor there. It was the spark that lit the fuse to the Tepestani Inquisition, a major plot element that gave Tepest some needed depth and conflict to lure in adventurers. It made a rebellion from the Gundarakites, which helped give new avenues for plots in Invidia, Borca, and Barovia. Now all of it is just gone like it never happened.

That said, there were some good things about what they did have.

Expanding on lore of Har'Akir and L'Cath was good. I am currently working on a campaign which will take my players to Har'Akir so having larger maps, more locations, and perhaps elements of Ankhtepot's new curse and story can be helpful. There will be more locations my characters can find, although I likely won't keep the new Ankhtepot's usurpation of the gods. The expanded HAr'Akir means I can have a true exploration of the land for the location my players need to find.

In some cases, the lore of the Darklords was okay. Tepest being ruled by a single hag who betrayed her sisters was an excellent progression of their lore since it is canon that the three hags despise each other, but have to work together to stay strong. Kharkov being beaten and replaced is also a good progression of history. TBH, I was never enthusiastic about Valachan since it's Darklord always felt like a weird style of enemy. I mean, a vampiric werepanther? Maybe that's just me though.

The new Darklords aren't a bad point in themselves either. They have good backstories, solid reasons why they are the Darklords, and when I read them, I can easily imagine ways to write them into the Ravenloft I grew attached to. It's a solid idea for campaign ideas to help these individuals who will eventually become the new Darklords, or Darklords of new domains.

Saidra is a (then unknown) relative of Dominic who was envious of the wealth and finery he and all nobility seemed to enjoy while she lived in poverty. When a ball was thrown, she arrived and perhaps tried to woo him so she could ruin him. Dominic, always trying to find a new lady to charm, was drawn to Saidra. Then the curse on her dress triggered and began killing everyone. The Dark Powers would have saved Dominic, but Saidra realized Dominic was a relative (or perhaps her father) and murdered him. She was granted rulership of Dementlieu which she wishes to have as her fairy tale, but life as a noble is not all she thought it would be and Dominic's now leaderless Obedient are constantly intruding on her for her input on how to rule Dementlieu. She doesn't care about anything beyond Port-A-Lucine's borders, so supernatural threats the people used to consider as minor threats are now becoming rather large threats thanks to her shallow indifference.

Viktra is a daughter or student to Mordenheim who seeks to outdo her mentor and complete the task he never could. She manages to create the heart which she uses to revive Elise. Of course, for all her immoral experimentation, she was given a domain of her own next to Lamordia, perhaps an island which is next to Lamordia, like Demise. Part of her torment is that her fame and scientific power are still dwarfed by Victor's despite accomplishing a feat of science she claims that he could not. This also truly puts Victor equal to Adam now as he is just as alone as the monster he made.

And for Falkovnia, it's simple. With Vlad's style of rule, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to overthrow him. Vladeska just managed to do it first with her Red Talons. Then in an attempt to harness the same power as their enemies in Darkon, and finally conquer the land her father could not, she tried to harness the dead only to have it go out of control and unleash the zombie apocalypse.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share my thoughts and rant. Hopefully, I made some good points in this review-turned essay. If not, well, thanks for letting me vent.