What do I need to know about the Boritsi?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I've decided to have Bevel Boritsi randomly dumped by the mists in the middle of my new homebrew cluster.
I'm doing this because I love Ravenloft's tradition of in-world narrators, and, like - the VRGs gave us the narration of a wise old mentor passing on his knowledge to the new heroes, then that of a combined effort between scholars and adventurers around the realm to gather and spread on knowledge; The Gazetteers (then many FoS articles) gave us the narration of a lowkey-villanous expert, who can coldly examine horrors a more virtous character would be startled by or feel obligated to pick a fight against and thus access more dubious places and people; What wasn't done yet, or at least not as famously? The narration of a guy who really wasn't expecting to be there and do that, who's trying to figure out on the way what in Ezra's socks is going on, who is morally grey but more in a 'I don't have the energy to try and be good in this cruel world, leave me alone' way than a 'I casually meddle with dark powers I really shouldn't meddle with because I have no morals and would literally do anything for knowledge and power, but I'm also likable and not as evil as some other guys around here' way, who's the last person you'd have expected to do amazing things and yet somehow finds himself flying on a dragon's back. Also, bro needs to learn an important lesson about the dangers of greed, and what a better way there is to do it than to send him on a journey in a dragon domain?

But for this to be good, I need to do research.
And for this, I need your help.

1) In what sources, other than Legacy of the Blood, can I find the most information on the Boristi family as whole and Bevel especially?
2) What exactly does the Boritsi Trading Company trade in? Like, probably more than one product, but what are some important ones? And what other companies do they work with?
3) What are Bevel's relationships with his family? And what do we know about their personalities, typical behaviours, maybe some interesting anecdotes?
4) Did the Gennivel plot line (I mean Gennifer and Bevel's romance plot) continue beyond Legacy of the Blood? And what's your personal opinion about it?

[Joël of the FoS]

1) Gaz4 covers Borca, and it's the best source of info for the domain. You'll find it quite different from the VRGtR version.

If you are into campaign journals, I sent my players to Borca and I had a lot of fun compiling things from canon and non-canon sources, to put them in my campaign (session # 14, 15, and mainly 86 to 95) as well as fleshing maps (Cathedral, Levkarest)

2) It was never defined. I imagine the BTCo as a chain of general stores (or counters in the smaller cities) where everything can be bought, traded or ordered.

3) What are Bevel's relationships with his family? And what do we know about their personalities, typical behaviours, maybe some interesting anecdotes?
4) Did the Gennivel plot line (I mean Gennifer and Bevel's romance plot) continue beyond Legacy of the Blood? And what's your personal opinion about it?

Other than LotB and Gaz4, not much more information about Bevel and the quickly ended romance (IMHO, you'll see after reading LotB, I do not see Gennifer pursuing this relation afterward).

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

1) Gaz4 covers Borca, and it's the best source of info for the domain. You'll find it quite different from the VRGttM version.

If you are into campaign journals, I sent my players to Borca and I had a lot of fun compiling things from canon and non-canon sources, to put them in my campaign (session # 14, 15, and mainly 86 to 95) as well as fleshing maps (Cathedral, Levkarest)

2) It was never defined. I imagine the BTCo as a chain of general stores (or counters in the smaller cities) where everything can be bought, traded or ordered.

3) What are Bevel's relationships with his family? And what do we know about their personalities, typical behaviours, maybe some interesting anecdotes?
4) Did the Gennivel plot line (I mean Gennifer and Bevel's romance plot) continue beyond Legacy of the Blood? And what's your personal opinion about it?

Other than LotB and Gaz4, not much more information about Bevel and the quickly ended romance (IMHO, you'll see after reading LotB, I do not see Gennifer pursuing this relation afterward).

Thanks

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

1) Gaz4 covers Borca, and it's the best source of info for the domain. You'll find it quite different from the VRGttM version.

What does VRGttM have to do with it? Do you mean VRGtR?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I'm starting to read Gaz 4.
Notes:
- The Twinwood. 'Most trees here have two trunks growing from a single root system. In many cases, one of the trunks is parasitic, growing strong while the other shrivels and dies. In other trees, the trunks spiral and twine around eachother, as if frozen in the midst of a dance - or a fight for dominance.' Totally not a metaphor...
- The Hellsprouts. 'Hot springs that were once considered dragon lairs but now used to supply hot running water to mansions' is so realistic. That's my favourite part about worldbuilding, the way the same phenomenon can have such wildly different implications at the same time. Also, I love how Mr. Dungeons and Mr. Dragons know their customers just well enough to know someone will try to summon a geyser elemental from the and write rules for that.
- 'Not all that is violet is deadly and not all that is deadly is violet' is my favourite book quote now.
Dam, I'll never say landscape sections are boring again.
- "So we have what we call 'passionflesh fruit'." "You mean passionfruit?' "No! Passionflesh fruit!" "Ugh..." "It's a toxic eggplant that symbolises love!"
- I'd look back at VRGtR when I finish the article, but so far I think the main edition changes to Borca are either due to the Core dissolving into islands of terror (It's much harder for Borca to trade with other domains or to be culturaly influenced by them if they're seperated by the mists.), due to moving away from Ivana's 'black widow' element - Which is lovely. Traditional Ravenloft lore has too many 'black widow' darklords IMHO - and shifting the focus towards her as an underrated evil genius (meaning a lot of the 'deadly love' theme became irrelevant), or due to VRGtR's focus on what the PCs can do in each domain (Assuming if you're setting an adventure in Borca, it's for the political intrigue, not the ghosts in the forest.)

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I'm starting to read Gaz 4.
Notes:
- The Twinwood. 'Most trees here have two trunks growing from a single root system. In many cases, one of the trunks is parasitic, growing strong while the other shrivels and dies. In other trees, the trunks spiral and twine around eachother, as if frozen in the midst of a dance - or a fight for dominance.' Totally not a metaphor...
- The Hellsprouts. 'Hot springs that were once considered dragon lairs but now used to supply hot running water to mansions' is so realistic. That's my favourite part about worldbuilding, the way the same phenomenon can have such wildly different implications at the same time. Also, I love how Mr. Dungeons and Mr. Dragons know their customers just well enough to know someone will try to summon a geyser elemental from the and write rules for that.
- 'Not all that is violet is deadly and not all that is deadly is violet' is my favourite book quote now.
Dam, I'll never say landscape sections are boring again.
- "So we have what we call 'passionflesh fruit'." "You mean passionfruit?' "No! Passionflesh fruit!" "Ugh..." "It's a toxic eggplant that symbolises love!"
- I'd look back at VRGtR when I finish the article, but so far I think the main edition changes to Borca are either due to the Core dissolving into islands of terror (It's much harder for Borca to trade with other domains or to be culturaly influenced by them if they're seperated by the mists.), due to moving away from Ivana's 'black widow' element - Which is lovely. Traditional Ravenloft lore has too many 'black widow' darklords IMHO - and shifting the focus towards her as an underrated evil genius (meaning a lot of the 'deadly love' theme became irrelevant), or due to VRGtR's focus on what the PCs can do in each domain (Assuming if you're setting an adventure in Borca, it's for the political intrigue, not the ghosts in the forest.)
- "It is said that Borcans demand to know the rules that shape their lives - if only to know how to cheat." - This is perfect, I'm so paraphrasing this.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Okay. Gaz 4 has nothing on Bevel himself, but it did give some good insight about the Borcan mindset, which was invaluable: I need to understand a character's cultural background to write them properly.
I think now I'll recheck LoTB and start drafting ~ but if you have any other sources to reccomend or any details you think I should know, please comment.

[Mistmaster]

Boritsi are rich, have businness everywhere, are very ambitious and have a penchant for backstabbing and poisoning.

[Joël of the FoS]

1) Gaz4 covers Borca, and it's the best source of info for the domain. You'll find it quite different from the VRGttM version.

What does VRGttM have to do with it? Do you mean VRGtR?

VRGtR indeed.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Boritsi are rich, have businness everywhere, are very ambitious and have a penchant for backstabbing and poisoning.

That's the basics. I'd know that, or I wouldn't have chosen to write about them. What I'm asking for is the little details.

[Mistmaster]

Then Gazetteer and the book on bloodlines are your must to have"

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Then Gazetteer and the book on bloodlines are your must to have"

Already read them.
Isn't there more niche stuff? Maybe things that were only mentioned in a specific adventure module?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Sorry if I sound like an angry boss or something

VIEW CONTENT:

I'm getting into character lol

.
It's just that I hope to get this Bevel project into next year's Quote the Raven as my first ever netbook article, and I want this to be perfect. When I write, I like knowing everything possible about my characters ~ Favourite foods, speech patterns, random childhood memories, opinion on the state of lettuce in Gundarak... ~ Cause I believe that every detail brings me closer to understanding them. And in original fiction, I can make up all that detail myself but when writing a fanfiction, about an existing character? I might write, for example, the funniest paragraph ever about how much Ivana likes teddy bears, only to find out she canonically has a petrifying phobia of them!
So I feel like I need to know everything from Helena's favourite colour to Sulo's catchphrases.
Maybe I'm exaggerrating, maybe I won't even need this information, but I'm kinda the new kid in the fandom and most writers would probablly be guys who'd been playing Ravenloft since before I was born, so I want to impress y'all. To show you what I've got. And what I've got, what I know people love about my writing style, is the ability to ground in reality a perfectly unreal story by giving more details than I should be able to make up.

[Mistmaster]

Sorry if I sound like an angry boss or something

VIEW CONTENT:

I'm getting into character lol

.
It's just that I hope to get this Bevel project into next year's Quote the Raven as my first ever netbook article, and I want this to be perfect. When I write, I like knowing everything possible about my characters ~ Favourite foods, speech patterns, random childhood memories, opinion on the state of lettuce in Gundarak... ~ Cause I believe that every detail brings me closer to understanding them. And in original fiction, I can make up all that detail myself but when writing a fanfiction, about an existing character? I might write, for example, the funniest paragraph ever about how much Ivana likes teddy bears, only to find out she canonically has a petrifying phobia of them!
So I feel like I need to know everything from Helena's favourite colour to Sulo's catchphrases.
Maybe I'm exaggerrating, maybe I won't even need this information, but I'm kinda the new kid in the fandom and most writers would probablly be guys who'd been playing Ravenloft since before I was born, so I want to impress y'all. To show you what I've got. And what I've got, what I know people love about my writing style, is the ability to ground in reality a perfectly unreal story by giving more details than I should be able to make up.

Buddy I feel for you. But, I grant you no one is going to eat you alive for making lore mistakes. I litterally created my own alternate universe and people have been supportive and useful. So do not worry and just do your best.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Fine, so I'll start speculating based on what I already know.

LotB mentions Bevel has a younger brother called Lollar who was sent to the clergy due to inheritance issues. Lollar is said to be 17, neutral good and weirdly zealous. Bevel admires his devotion, but doesn't trust him as much as he does their sister.
Now, this is important, cause if you'd ask me how Mr. 'It's a 'dog eats dog' world' feels about his innocent and faithful little sibling, I'd suppose he dismisses them as either an idealistic fool or a hypocrite. But no, Bevel likes this about his brother. Maybe he's glad that unlike him, Lollar can stay out of the intrigue and betrayals of the business world, stay as pure and kind as the child he helped raising. Bevel himself has already been tainted by the darkness, but Lollar can stay forever in the light ~ Or can he?
My first thought was to have Lollar betraying him or turning out to have been on the dark side all along (Maybe loosely inspired by the Scions of Yakov Dilisnya idea that was edited out of Gaz 4?), but nah, that would break whatever little faith Bev had left in humanity. which I'm trying to restore. Also, neutral good, remember?
But while Lollar isn't likely to be a traitor, he's very likely to get involved in something beyond his compenhension. He's too enthusiastic, too sure he's right, and a lot bolder than his family might realise. Like, if we take his suggested plot hook as a real thing that happened, bro collaborated with an adventuring party to steal Ivana's divinatory Icon of Ezra ~ which neither Ivana nor those straw centrists in the Home Faith are pleased with. What is he going to do next? Escape with the adventurers? There's always a demand for support classes. He'd travel around the core, meet people from all walks of life, get in and out of trouble, find himself more than once in a prison cell or a haunted house or a haunted prison cell... He'd grow up. His boldness would be refined by experience and given more important fights to pick. He'd turn from a teenage boy who thinks he knows everything to a real hero ~ and from the naive child Bevel wants to protect, to a tough man more likely to save his brother than be saved by him.
And what if all this drama happened while Bevel was on the other side of the mists? What if throughout his journey his sole comfort would be that Lollar is safe at home, he thinks the boy wouldn't believe him if he tells him what he saw, only to find out in the end that bro is involved in far wilder stuff? I'm debating whether to do this reveal in the climax or the epilogue, and whether to make the twist horrific ("Lollipop, what are you doing here?" "No time to talk bro, I'm being chased by our aunt's mercanaries, the Kagrat and the Vistani, and might have been cursed to slowly turn into a mermaid"), eucatastrophic ("Thanks for the rescue, sir. May I have your name?" ~removes helmet, revealing a scarred but familiar face~ "You're welcome, brother.") or comic ("And here's the story of how I defeated a dragon in a riddle contest. You probably think I'm nuts now ~ " "Bro, that's nothing to compared to the time I danced zomba with zombies." "the time you what?!") or a mix of all.