Philosophy of Ravenloft
-
Rotipher of the FoS
- Thieving Crow
- Posts: 4683
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2003 4:18 pm
I'm not sure if Purgatory is the best analogy, because it would imply an awfully forgiving cosmological framework if the darklords represent the kinds of evildoers that routinely get a second chance! Purgatory is supposed to be for minor offenders, not the worst of the worst; if people who've committed darklord-grade offenses are still given an "out", then wouldn't Hell (or whatever your campaign's equivalent might be) wind up almost empty? Most villains' offenses aren't as warped as the darklords, and a cosmology where offenses have to be "Acts of Ultimate Darkness" even to condemn you to Purgatory (let alone damnation) isn't consistent with the stricter-than-D&D-average moral standards of the Ravenloft setting, itself.
OTOH, if you assume that there's something even worse than ordinary damnation in your cosmology -- a sub-Hell that makes the Lower Planes look pleasent by comparison, perhaps, or automatic annihilation for souls whose offenses sicken even the gods of Evil -- then a place like Ravenloft would make a suitable "test site" to find out which of the worst souls are irredeemable enough to merit such an extreme punishment. Or, if the demiplane were established out of self-interest by the powers of evil IYC, it could provide a means of sorting the foulest of all human souls from the masses of moderately-Evil ones, so the former can be transformed into the most powerful fiends or used in some overarching scheme we don't know about. The latter might actually be more plausible, since it seems the DPs aren't above rigging the odds in favor of darklords' choosing Evil in the end; their machinations in "Black Roses", in this context, helped to maintain Soth's depression and bitterness, and kept him from recalling how rewarding it'd been to be an honorable figure of heroism.
OTOH, if you assume that there's something even worse than ordinary damnation in your cosmology -- a sub-Hell that makes the Lower Planes look pleasent by comparison, perhaps, or automatic annihilation for souls whose offenses sicken even the gods of Evil -- then a place like Ravenloft would make a suitable "test site" to find out which of the worst souls are irredeemable enough to merit such an extreme punishment. Or, if the demiplane were established out of self-interest by the powers of evil IYC, it could provide a means of sorting the foulest of all human souls from the masses of moderately-Evil ones, so the former can be transformed into the most powerful fiends or used in some overarching scheme we don't know about. The latter might actually be more plausible, since it seems the DPs aren't above rigging the odds in favor of darklords' choosing Evil in the end; their machinations in "Black Roses", in this context, helped to maintain Soth's depression and bitterness, and kept him from recalling how rewarding it'd been to be an honorable figure of heroism.
-
Willowhugger
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 218
- Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 1:14 am
Soth is an interesting case actually. If we except "Dragons of a Vanished Moon" to be canon then when Soth returned to Krynn, he ended up refusing to ever aid the Queen of Darkness again. While there's question that he's irredeemable...essentially from an RL view after choosing once more to repudiate his crimes he decided to give up on Evil.