An Illustrated History of the Core

[Ryan Naylor]

Did not the grand conjunction add the nocturnal sea or did that come later?

Later. That comes in 751 BC.

[Ryan Naylor]

You've done your homework man. Lots of useful information, makes me wanna run a campaigns in Ravenloft's past for my group.

In my campaign the present day Core is torn up a bit. I've had a lot of fun changing the geography of The Core in fact. For starters, Vlad Drakov was slain on a hunting trip by a powerful ghoul, becoming one himself, but somehow maintaining his free will. The ghoul lord who had dined on his corpse was named Lazarus, a worshiper of Yeenoghu hailing from Verbrek. Lazarus ended up absorbing half of Drakov's domain as his own. Seemingly overnight ancient corpses and sarcophagi started rising up from the ground and with them came hordes of hungry dead. Eventually as the campaign unfolded a ghoul hunter named Boden The Grave slew Drakov. The darklord had lost control of much of his realm since becoming even less personable as a ravenous ghoul. Unfortunately Drakov's second death caused Lazarus to gain total rulership of the Domain which would come to be known as Sepulchral as more and more unburied corpses turned up, along with strange carrion eating beasts (namely hyenas and gnolls), and undead. The name Sepulchral was started by the Eternal Order of course as Falkovnia's fate fit in perfectly with their canonical predictions.

There is more too if anybody is interested.

Go on then. Start a new thread and see what you get. I'd be interested in seeing a bit more.

[Nemesio]

Thanks for the advice man. I'm not a very confident writer, but this seems like an excellent place to practice and get feedback. I'll give it a shot.

[Ryan Naylor]

Two more points on the Grand Conjunction I forgot to add earlier:

From Lord of the Necropolis, we know the Dark Powers re-write people's memories in some insidious ways.

According to Azalin, he sent PCs (Oldar) back in time so he could kill Strahd, not steal the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. And Roots of Evil never happened. While this does make more sense, it's less interesting as an adventure. Perhaps Azalin's not as strong willed as he thought he was and the Dark Powers have tampered with his memories after all?

[Ryan Naylor]

744: Castle Island forms.

A blatant King Arthur fractured tale, but since I wrote it, I have no one to blame but myself. A few odd differences between the original Book of S article and Gaz V, and I'm not sure why some of the changes were made (I didn't write that).

Another darklord that the Hags like to antagonise.

Not a lot else to say about this one really.

[Ryan Naylor]

748: Dominia joins the Core.

According to Bleak House, which is set in 750 BC, Dominia has "recently" joined the Core. So this is an approximate date; it could be a year either side. Heinfroth has earnt the right to rejoin the Core due to his depraved experiments into the physical causes of madness.

This means that the modern Sea of Sorrows is now complete: Blaustein joins the Sea in around 741 BC (late enough it's not on the Red Box maps, early enough for the Blausteiners to get a name for themselves and make a mark on ocean piracy), and the others were all there in the immediate aftermath of the Great Upheaval.

In other news, elsewhere in the Core, Malocchio has replaced Gabrielle Aderre as ruler (although not darklord) of Invidia, having shattered her mind in The Evil Eye; the Shadowborn cluster has just formed; Azalin has set in motion the preparations for the Grim Harvest; the Lamordian colony on Markovia vanishes without a trace; and the Nocturnal Sea is mistbound but sort-of present (so the eastern side of the Core now has a coast, but not necessarily a sea, if that makes sense). Given the presence of Hilda Borganov in Tidemore, it may be that the Drowning Deeps have joined the Core, but the rest of the domains that form the Sea, including Nebligtode, haven't, which would mean that it's still mist-bound because the Deeps don't have a surface until Nebligtode settles over the top of it. Actually, I quite like that idea.

So a busy couple of years in Ravenloft.

[Hamiclar]

Here a question where is the symbol of Ravenloft after the Roots of Evil module? Following that Azalin sent agents back in time and that they were successfull in getting the item to those on the other side of the castle draw bridge to agents waiting, is it assumed that it may be in Borovia still or in Darkon?

The Blaustein and Dominia arriving I wonder what the first lostones or maddones thought when the ship taking them was seized as a prize of those heathen pirates. I wonder how long that negotian took to secure between the islands.

[Ryan Naylor]

No one knows where the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is now. Officially, it's lost, so you can have it turn up whereever you want.

In my Carrion Crown campaign, it's being held by skum at the bottom of the Sea of Sorrows, in Wake of the Watcher.


Given Dominiani's ships are crewed by cerebral vampires, I think it's the Blausteiners who'd get a nasty shock.

[Eric the Light Bringer]

Re: Castle Island

I always enjoyed that article in BoSh...I have often thought of using it as a misty, wandering pocket domain that could appear in any body of water... I'd expand it's borders a bit to allow an immortal avanc to patrol the island's shoreline.

[Nemesio]

Kind of funny how the island asylum of Dominia mirrors the one in Shutter Island, perhaps without the sheer rocky cliff shoreline, and add in roving cerebral vampires and madmen.

[Ryan Naylor]

Re: Castle Island

I always enjoyed that article in BoSh...I have often thought of using it as a misty, wandering pocket domain that could appear in any body of water... I'd expand it's borders a bit to allow an immortal avanc to patrol the island's shoreline.

Thank you. If you treat it as a pocket rather than a Core domain, then yes, wherever the Island goes, the avanc goes too, because it's part of the Lady's curse. It just never gets close enough to the Lady for her to talk to - which could involve getting right up on the shoreline when she's on the other side of the island, only to discover later that it was there, almost close enough for her to touch...

[Ryan Naylor]

Kind of funny how the island asylum of Dominia mirrors the one in Shutter Island, perhaps without the sheer rocky cliff shoreline, and add in roving cerebral vampires and madmen.

I suspect that's probably coincidence

Although Dominia does have cliffs on 3 sides.

[Ryan Naylor]

749: The Grim Harvest begins.

Thus making life worse (or at least shorter) for the people of Falkovnia. Death is created from Lowellyn Dachine, we discover Azalin's cloning project, and finally, in 750 BC, the Requiem occurs - Il Aluk is Slain, Azalin vanishes and the people of Darkon have a massive social convulsion about the Hour of Ascention, which in part leads to the success of the Darkonese sect of the Church of Ezra.

These adventures are not well liked, and for good reason. They have a dukkar (a male Vistani seer - obviously completely unintended), far too much magic generally and the Radiant Tower specifically, the Requiem rules for playing undead are clunky, and the changes made to Darkon were pretty unpopular. However, putting that aside, it does have it's good points: the 3 adventures link very closely together, are very evocative (Falkovnia particularly), have a real medieval tone (compared to the cod-Victoriana of most Ravenloft products), and give a real sense of jeopardy to what's going on - if you clean them up, they do form a pretty good campaign with massive implications. Also, the Ebon Fold is a great secret society, and it's a pity they all die mid-Death Ascendant.

In 3e, becoming undead actually works better (more coherently) for PCs than it did in 2e, so that's a good reason to look over them again for conversion.

The official word on what happened in the Requiem is that Azalin never stops being darklord of Darkon (which never stops being Darkon), although he does end up merged with the minds of the entire nation. His last coherent thought before being absorbed is that all he has created in a necropolis, which echoes through the minds of the Darkonese, leading them to think that Darkon has been renamed. Death is trapped in Il Aluk by the Shroud, but is not an actual darklord yet.

Also, the dwarf who loses his hand in the Shroud (from the Forgotten Children book the Kargatane released) is a great adventure - very evocative. I highly recommend it. I've in fact run variations on it three times in different campaigns.

On a related note, a Dragon issue at the time Requiem was released gave more undead classes, including the crawling claw, which I've always wanted to try for the role playing challenge. I also love Thing from the Addams family.

Over the next few years, Azalin tries to struggle back into wakefulness. Death, its delusions of grandeur assaulted by Azalin's "escape" from its grasp, creates three Horsemen to drain Azalin's power by destroying the Darkonese and funnelling his energy back to Death. Balitor, Oldar, Kazandra and the PCs get together to regenerate Azalin. Tavelia (and I think Galf Kloggin)form a third corner, trying to get Azalin back but to bind him to her will. Anyway, Kazandra wins, Azalin is restored but bound to Irik's body, has new powers which I feel GMs have always overrated in terms of their power, and sets about trying to salvage civilisation from a partially collapsed society. Death's power is much reduced by the destruction of the Horsemen, but he's been evil enough to attract the attention of the Dark Powers and becomes darklord of Necropolis. But we'll come back to that later.

[Nemesio]

Once again I'm impressed. You know your stuff man.

[Hamiclar]

Forgot one thing the Falkovian invasion of Darkon after Azalins supposed destruction. rom what Ive read when the dead of Darkon rose to protech their land Azalins concious was enabled to be a solid coherant thought which lead to the begining of his return.