Wanna help me with a dragon domain?

[Mistmaster]

Maybe zeir child championed the rebels and ze killed zem?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Maybe zeir child championed the rebels and ze killed zem?

Thought about it, but then it sounds a bit too much like Azalin and Irik.

[Mistmaster]

Then zeir mate did.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I was thinking about how the human interpretation of dragons is centered around greed.
Cause greed is a very human source of evil, and possibly the most common one. It takes special circumstances for people to kill eachother over lust or revenge, I think - but we all cooperate to some degree with systems that ruin the planet cause the other option is more expensive - systems that keep existing because the people who run them want more money. (I have more examples, but I'm gonna stop before I start sounding like a communist.) This sin is too integral to the human economy for us to effectively call it out, so we project it on a clearly inhuman creature - such as a giant, flying, fire-breathing lizard - because allegory lets us say things we can't say explicitly.
So I had this idea:

First, maybe my second domain in this cluster is going to be centered around hypercapitalism and consumerism.
But second:
Ravenloft has a long tradition of presenting gameplay content through in-world narrators - from Dr. Van Richten, through "S" and the WF sisters, to the FoS - which I extremely appriciate. It's an excellent way to present worldbuilding, and I have special love for the underrated art of conveying a character's personality solely using its writing style.
So what if I continue the tradition, but use a very unlikely narrator? Someone clever and interesting, but not a professional adventurer or scholar? Someone who never expected to see dragons, but nethertheless finds himself talking, fighting and flying with them. Someone corrupted by greed himself, but with a potential for redemption - someone who needs a mirror to be put in front of him.
How about Bevel Boritsi getting dragged by the mists on an unexpected journey?
At first he’d feel surrounded by unknowable monsters - but then he'd start realising that as different as these creatures seem, they actually bear a disturbing similarity to the people he works with, to his family, even to himself. Then he could be like ‘well, if dragons think in the same ways as Borcan traders, I can handle them the same way’ - or he could think ‘This is horrible - wait, but didn't I do the same things back home? What does it mean about me?’. I’d love to somehow combine both. And then, after he had this epiphany, maybe I can tie in Niranjan https://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Niranjan - maybe expand a little on the tiny paragraph we were given in VRGtR - and have him almost fall to Sarthak’s manipulations only to realise what's going on and escape at the last moment - making him revert a bit to his old cynicism. Eventually, he’d confront Avadorn and learn zeir true story, revealing that there's a lot more than simple greed to it and reminding that his personal journey doesn't wholly reflect the cluster. He’d then have a final test, maybe an option to return home with mountains of gold at the price of abandoning his comrades, and choose to save them and return home empty-handed - thus unwittingly purifying himself from his failed powers check.
Maybe the article will be written as a letter to the only person in his life who might understand this sort of experience: Gennifer - continuing the little romantic plotline we saw starting in Legacy of the Blood.
The problem is that this plot sounds more epic-fantasy than horror. Which makes sense, cause this is a dragon story. Dragons are the evil that seems alien but is actually incredibly familiar, that seems all-powerful and terrifying but actually can be defeated. And because I do read a lot more epic fantasy than I read horror. And I do want Bevel to have this there-and-back journey and return as a better man.
Do you think I should make it darker? How can I give it light-horror twists without losing the optimistic conclusion?
Maybe let Bevel go a little further down the path of corruption and start turning into a dragon before redeeming himself?
Or maybe I should emphasize and play on the contrast, dance on the line between Lovecraft and Tolkien in unexpected ways?
Another concern I have is this being too many layers of secondary belief, cause what I’m doing here is basically an isakei story that starts in an already fantastic setting. Do you think Borca is realistic enough - or familiar enough to average fan - For the readers to accept it as Bevel’s ‘real world’ and distinct from the new domain he's transported into?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

If Domain1 (I'll pick names last, after I have the concepts fleshed out) has a darklord from the draconic side of the rebellion, I think Domain2 should be from the dragonborn one.
The thing about revolution, is that when you do let it get violent, it's very easy for the formerly opressed to become the new opressor. Nadrah was to find this out before she even won.
Other members of the resistance spoke of honour, but the young woman knew from the beginning that there's no way for a humanoid to win a dragon in a fair fight. So from the moment she took her slain leader's place, she used every underhanded tactic and made any sacrifice she thought was needed to destroy the dragon empire ~ even at the cost of other slaves' lives.
Eventually, she realised there isn't a chance in the world for the resistance to win on its own, and sought the help of an eldritch being for an unknown price, which was heavily implied to be worse for her people than life under the dragons; she didn't care, as long as it would help her bring the oversized lizards to their knees.
What was that price going to be? Nadrah would never know, for at the millisecond she signed the contract, she and her warcamp was claimed by the mists.
Domain2 hadn't changed a day since its emergence: Nothing more than tents and cabins is built on the charred ground. Nadrah's martial rule persists, even though it's been decades since the domain's inhabitants were in active war. Nadrah have given up a dragonborn's honour in all ways but one: Once she'd vowed to do something, she'd never give it up. She actively discourages (often violently) any attempts on behalf of her people to settle down and develop the domain, because even though they practically recieved the autonomy they wanted, she won't stop until she crashes down her old masters. Much like Hazlik, she is determined to avange herself against enemies a campaign setting away ~ But she drags her entire domain down with her.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Domain3 would be very different, I think.
I want it to be CL12, and themed around the concept of consumerism and 'fast fashion'. A city where everything ~ clothes, furniture, books, pets, streets, hopes and dreams ~ is disposable. Government is either nonexistent or negligble, because the real power is in the hands of the corporations. You can buy a house for a silver piece there, but that's because the workers were each paid half a copper piece for the whole job and the materials are so shoddy it will fall apart within a month. There's a huge class difference, but even the rich people can't buy things of higher quality, only more of the cheap stuff. Keeping any property around for more than a few weeks is considered a sign of poverty or madness. Opinions and loyalties change just as quickly ~ the idea of lifelong friendships is unheard of.

The two darklords are a dragon who decided to masquerade as a human businessman & an actual human businessman, who started their world's version of Shein.
When a disaster ~ due to an infrastructure issue they were perfectly aware of and refused to fix purely out of miserliness ~ in one of their factories resulted in the death of hundreds, they were claimed by the mists.
The human, a lover of fashion, was cursed to turn into a dragon unable to wear cloths. Also, his family is out of touch with him ~ he thinks it's because they can't stand his monstrous appearance, but the truth is they simply realised how much of a jerk he is.
The dragon, on the other hand, was cursed to permanantly turn into a human, losing forever the freedom of fight. Also, he has no real hoard: he has billions of dollars in credit, but any physical objects in his possession or proximity quickly erode or decay in some way.

Now, this is getting a bit similar to Borca ~ two related darklords with opposite curses etc ~ which is nice for my framestory, but I don't want to copy too much.
So if Ivan and Ivana are rivals, I'll do that Human~Turned~Dragon and Dragon~Turned~Human pretend to be rivals ~ the heads of the two largest corporations, competing against eachother ~ but the truth is that they're sercetly still partners, always collaborating to crush or assimilate smaller companies that might threaten their status in the market.

[Baron Von Stanton]

What was that price going to be? Nadrah would never know, for at the millisecond she signed the contract, she and her warcamp was claimed by the mists.

Forgive me for nitpicking, but I think, unless aforementioned eldritch beings were the Dark Powers, it would make for better drama if Nadrah were to see, even if just a momentary glimpse, just how much more terrible her new benefactors were than the dragons.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

What was that price going to be? Nadrah would never know, for at the millisecond she signed the contract, she and her warcamp was claimed by the mists.

Forgive me for nitpicking, but I think, unless aforementioned eldritch beings were the Dark Powers, it would make for better drama if Nadrah were to see, even if just a momentary glimpse, just how much more terrible her new benefactors were than the dragons.

See my next post

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Now, for Domain4, I want the real dragon nightmare.
You see, domains 1 and 2 were tailored to dragonborn nightmares: Avadron's madness~inducing gift of psionics, Nadrah abandoning her kind's famous honour by going too far with it... Domain3 is a nod back to the human view of draconic evil.
But now we have to get to the question I've been avoiding:
What are dragons afraid of?

Now, I know you're going to say 'losing their hoards'. But... If you steal a dragon's hoard, they wouldn't be afraid. They'd be furious, and then you are the one who should be afraid.
No. Dragons are the apex species of generic fantasy, and they know it. They know they can eat alive anything that dares to meddle in their business. Thus, they must view themselves the center of everything ~ much like how modern humans do themselves (as a species, not individuals).
What terrifies the species that has it all?
What comes next! What's the bigger fish! The idea that maybe, just maybe, we aren't as eternal as we seem and we'll be outlived by beings that couldn't care less for us.

I have a couple of ideas about it.

1) A domain that lulls any who enter it into a bewitched slumber that can last eons.
It can be resisted by a sucessful will/charisma saving throw, but the DC of that saving throw is your own CR or character level and it needs to be repeated every day ~ meaning level 1 PCs can go in and out unscathed, but the most dangerous monsters have little to no chance. It's full of terasks, krakens ~ and yes, dragons ~ all asleep. Which is unsettling, but not as much as the thought of what would happen if they all wake up at once.
The real horror, though, is what happens when you wake up and leave: How much time did you miss out? Days? Months? Decades? Millenias? What if everything you ever aspired to is no more, not even in memory? (You should probably have a very good idea for the 'future' part of the campaign if you're doing big time skips, though. I'd stick to 'you've wasted five days out of the week you had for the quest and now have to come up with a faster plan'. 'You missed a year and now everything is ruined/was saved by other heroes/is irrelevant because Strahd was turned into a mindflayer' At most.)
The darklord is either something so unknowable even your dear author doesn't know what it is (Which would be most appropriate for the cosmic horror vibe), Or (If you're one of those who say the God Brain of Bluestpur is a human who betrayed its kind because you don't get that horror genres other than gothic exist), a goblin who was taught the value of friendship by his adventuring party but still chose to betray them, and is now cursed to never have friends again because anyone he could talk to falls asleep.

2) A domain plauged by an extreme version of the Smothering of Reason.
It's not just spells failing: any evidence of anything we'd call 'imaginary' is somehow hidden by the mists. While in the domain, demihumans transform into humans, monsters into natural animals of similar shapes (though not necessarily sizes), stuff like that. Even cloths and equipment are automatically adjusted to the local fashion. It's CL11, and going to stay CL11 forever, for the simple reason that the inhabitants don't have enough imagination to invent new technologies beyond what they were granted by the mists. The very idea of other lands or eras is barely concievable to them. The false history is basically 'Things have always been normal ~ that is, as they are now ~ and you should be normal too, and don't more ask questions.' Literature is unpopular and all 'realistic', and the only thing on the TV is reality shows and (extremely reptitive) news. There's an unproportional amount of accountants, bankers and insurance agents. This is frightening to any adventurer (or interesting person in general), but dragons are especially humiliated: They turn into tiny lizards, sapient but incapable of comminucation, and have to watch in horror as the humans around them say over and over again that dragons don't exist.
The darklord is a bestselling fantasy author who used her power over her fandom to spread hate and intolerance, betraying the values her own books originally educated to, and driving hundreds of teens around the world ~ many of which were among her fans ~ into suicide. She's now cursed with an eternal writing block, stuck among people even more narrow~minded than she is who can never appreciate her life's work, and worst of all, painfully aware that's she was transported into a fantasy world, and yet will never be able to see, hear, smell, taste or touch magic.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

This is all nice and scary, but these are all concepts. These are the 'A Hundred shades of darkness' entries. I wanna get this to Gazeteer level.
VRGtR has a nice questioneer for homebrow darklords, but it's design philosophy regarding domains is very gameplay-centric and very darklord-centric, and I think I want something more balanced. So I'll start working on the VRGtR questions, but if you have other domain questioneers or just questions of your own, ask.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I'll list here the VRGtR darklord questions for easy reference.


Past Life
1) Who was the darklord before the mists took them?
2) Who were the darklord's family?
3) How was the darklord's family oppressed, oppressive or both? (Note: Do they have to be either? Not every conflict has to be about oppression... Even though my current ones are...)
4) What was the darklord's childhood like?
5) Whom did the darklord care about?
6) Who cared about the darklord?
7) Who hurt the darklord?
Whose respect or love did the darklord crave?
9) What did the darklord value?

Wicked Personality
10) Ideal?
11) Bond?
12) Flaw?

Developing A Darklord
13) What was the first depraved act the darklord chose to commit, and how did their ideal encourage them down this path?
14) Was the darklord rewarded or celebrated for their evil? Did that reaction encourage greater crimes? Was that reward earned or justified?
15) Did the darklord repeat or escalate their wickedness to obtain something they selfishly desired?
16) Did the future darklord realise they were losing any hope of redemption, yet choose to commit other heinous acts in keeping with their flaw?
17) What act was so atrocious that the future darklord's friends and family reject them? Did the darklord think this was warranted or an unreasonable judgment? How did they react?
18) When and how did these acts attract the notice of the dark powers?
19) How did the dark powers use these acts to create the perfect prison domain for the darklord?

Monstrous Transformations

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I'll start with Nadrah Drorixerk.


Past Life
1) Who was the darklord before the mists took them? Nadrah was a slave who turned into a freedom fighter who turned into a terrorist and a war criminal.
2) Who were the darklord's family? Nadrah was named after her mother, who died in a mining accident while the girl was still in the egg. She was raised by her father, which many of her kind would say explains a lot: In dragonborn society, usually sons are raised by the father and daughters by the mother, and it's believed that a child not mentored properly would turn into a feral savage; But such claims are an insult to Nadrah's father, Rhesh, a kind man and a good parent who did his best to give the girl hope in a hopeless world. Nadrah's grandparents died when she was very small and she has no memory of them.
3) How was the darklord's family oppressed, oppressive or both? (Note: Do they have to be either? Not every conflict has to be about oppression... Even though my current ones are...) They were slaves to the red dragon Mag'ilorix, working in his mines from infanthood to death simply to add to his hoard. Many of the clan died prematurely due to collapses, lung diseases or extreme exhaustion, and those reluctant or too weak to work were often eaten by the dragon.
4) What was the darklord's childhood like? Nadrah worked in the mines since she could walk. Her being a child simply meant she could enter narrower spaces. There was no time for leisure or games during the day, but at night the clan would gather around the fire pit and sing together, and Nadrah's voice was always the loudest.
5) Whom did the darklord care about? Everyone in the Drorixerk clan. She learned very early how hard the clan's adults were working just so she and the other kids can survive, and soon took it on herself to shoulder their burden.
6) Who cared about the darklord? Her father Rhesh; Aunt Nira, the local leader of the rebellion; Clan Master Mathun, a man who deeply cared for his clan but strictly obeyed Mag'ilorix, believing resistance would only make things worse.
7) Who hurt the darklord? Mag'ilorix, obviously; Clan Master Mathun, who turned down the rebels.
Whose respect or love did the darklord crave? Aunt Nira, who indoctorinated her into the resistance movement. Nira was determined to bring freedom to her people, but only by honorable means, which doesn't go hand-in-hand with gorilla warfare. When Nira and her inner circle were turned down to the dragons and executed, Nadrah killed Mathun the traitor, took over both the clan and the resistance, and vowed to end the dragons' reign by any means necessary.
9) What did the darklord value? Freedom. Justice. Her Family. Oaths being kept.

Wicked Personality
10) Ideal? Honor. What's the use of promises if you don't intend to keep them?
11) Bond? I vowed to overthrow my opressors, and it will not be said that Nadrah Drorixerk is an oathbreaker.
12) Flaw? I refuse to change my mind, even if I'm clearly and disastrously wrong.

Developing A Darklord
13) What was the first depraved act the darklord chose to commit, and how did their ideal encourage them down this path? Killing Mathun was already kinda grey, but understandable. Her first 100% evil act was slaying Mag'ilorix' youngest son, Lokhar, who was barely older than a hatchling and as loath of his father's cruelity as the rebels.
14) Was the darklord rewarded or celebrated for their evil? Did that reaction encourage greater crimes? Was that reward earned or justified? Nadrah taxidermified (is that how you say it? English isn't my native language) Lokhar's head and presented it, impaled on a spear, at the center of the clan's new warcamp, 'as a proof that dragons can be killed'. The murder resulted in a prize on her head, but earned her the admiration of the resistance and any clan aspiring to join it.
15) Did the darklord repeat or escalate their wickedness to obtain something they selfishly desired? It was never selfish, only in the name of liberation. Every broken egg, every decapitated wyrmling, not to mention the hundreds of other slaves who were killed as collatoral damage, can comfort themselves that at least they died for a higher purpose.
16) Did the future darklord realise they were losing any hope of redemption, yet choose to commit other heinous acts in keeping with their flaw? Nadrah knew she was cruel, but convinced herself cruelity was the only option: Dragons only understand power, they're no partner for peace; They were too mighty and cunning to be defeated in a fair fight; and surrender was too shameful to consider. She cared about honour as much as any other dragonborn, but to her, honour meant one thing alone: To never give up her goal.
17) What act was so atrocious that the future darklord's friends and family reject them? Did the darklord think this was warranted or an unreasonable judgment? How did they react? After twenty years of war, Nadrah hatched a plan to destroy Mag'ilorix. She sent on the mission three kids, orphans adopted by the resistance: A girl with a tail, a genasi boy who knew the names of every herb and flower in the realm, and a bookish human sorcerer with a peculiar scar on his chin. None of them was over level 2, but Nadrah made them all drink an elixir that will give them the power to end the dragon's life. Nadrah's own daughter, Delphi, insisted she should go in their place or at least accompany them: She was older and better-trained, and the kids were more terrified than they showed. Nadrah refused to send her. Delphi asked why.
Nadrah avoided the question at first, but when the youth pressed, she admitted the kids were never meant to survive: the elixir gave them no special powers; it would simply make them release an extremely toxic gas if they're to be burned or digested, so the wyrm may die with them. Enraged, Delphi told her mother that she's become what she swore to destroy, and that she~herself is going to warn them. Nadrah sighed, thinking the girl is too young to understand the sacrifices freedom demands, and had Delphi locked in a cage so that she won't interfere. The youth escaped after two days, but by that point the unwitting martyrs were already on their way. She tried to follow them, but was too late.
18) When and how did these acts attract the notice of the dark powers? Nadrah was in the warcamp, planning the resistance's next operation and worrying for Delphi's fate when, unknown to her, the mission was completed. The mists could claim Mag'ilorix, of course ~ he was more than worthy; But then they thought: Who's the worst war~criminal, the one who kills children, or the one who sends children to die?
19) How did the dark powers use these acts to create the perfect prison domain for the darklord? Era'i emerged from the mists as a lush green valley, perfect for starting a new, free dragonborn settlement. However, Nadrah's ideals would not allow her to do so: She would not lay down her sword while her brethern in Abeir still toil under the dragons, while her daughter is missing (there are enough domains where the darklord's rebellious progeny is still part of the picture, dead or alive. Delphi is still alive in her homeworld and I hope she'll have a good life and never catch a glimpse of the demiplanes of dread.), while she's unsure whether or not her revenge succeeded.
This devotion could be dubbed recommendable, even heroic ~ but as always with Nadrah, her good intentions take her on the highway to hell. While she tries to find a way back to Abeir, her people are content with building a new, peaceful life in the domain. To keep them on the task so she may return with an army rather than a handful of loyalists, she must constantly remind them the horrors they fled from, using magic and gunpowder to imitate dragon attacks. Nadrah is now the sole cause of misery for the people she'd sworn to save, and deep down she knows this.

Monstrous Transformations: Since Nadrah was claimed by the mists, she resembles a dragon even more than the rest of her species. She's 3 meters tall, winged, and has an unsusually powerful breath weapon. This makes her a fearsome combatant, but she's always ashamed of using 'the opressors' weapon'. Yeah, the subtext kinda got over her head.

[alhoon]

Meanwhile, I will give the advice that was given to me ... years and years back. Or it is in some QtR. Not sure. But here it is:

In Ravenloft / Gothic-sense, dragons are not money machines, but destructive forces of nature, even the smaller ones. They are sentient but greedy, destructive and unpredictable.
A dragon domain should incorporate those, I think.
Personally, I wouldn't go with the easy route, i.e. a red dragon in a volcano-ridden domain. I would go with a white in an icy land, or a green in a poisonous forest, or a black in a swamp or a blue in a lighting-ridden desert, but not the warm kind, the cold kind like Gobi desert.
Greed would be instrumental in the dragon's fall. And why THIS dragon is a darklord? Because he or she entered Ravenloft and was caught up soon after.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Meanwhile, I will give the advice that was given to me ... years and years back. Or it is in some QtR. Not sure. But here it is:

In Ravenloft / Gothic-sense, dragons are not money machines, but destructive forces of nature, even the smaller ones. They are sentient but greedy, destructive and unpredictable.
A dragon domain should incorporate those, I think.
Personally, I wouldn't go with the easy route, i.e. a red dragon in a volcano-ridden domain. I would go with a white in an icy land, or a green in a poisonous forest, or a black in a swamp or a blue in a lighting-ridden desert, but not the warm kind, the cold kind like Gobi desert.
Greed would be instrumental in the dragon's fall. And why THIS dragon is a darklord? Because he or she entered Ravenloft and was caught up soon after.

Thanks for the advice.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Now for Era'i (Formerly Domain2) itself:

As a geek I love talking about monsters and evil wizards and dark powers, but let's be honest for a sec:
I'm an average Israeli teenager. The closest thing to horror I've experienced personally is being wakened up at the middle of the night by an alarm, running to the shelter and waiting for ten minutes trying not to think about how the odds I'd get out only to find out the rest of the house including all of my books was destroyed by a rocket are low, but never zero. I suppose it's even worse for folx in the south who have to deal with these bombings more frequently, or for those in the Gazan side (I'm a zionist but I have a lot of empathy for the Palestinians and I'm really glad the war is finally over.).
Why am I talking about this on the one place in the internet where I'm free from politics and other real~life crap?
Cause it just hit my that my real~life crap could be another person's amazing horror plot~hook.
Like, the idea of being locked in a room with only a handful of people, knowing that the world outside might as well be wiped out of existence? There's gotta be stories to tell about this.

But how do we make it more fantastic?
Easy.
Every once in a while ~ could be once a month, could be 3 times a day ~ Era'i is attacked from above by a thunder of dragons. The village is sprayed by rays of fire, lightning, frost and acid. The locals hide in underground shelters ~ some of those are linked by tunnels, which are useful but tend to be infested with monsters (see? I even got you a dungeon), while others are completely isolated from the outside world. Staying outside during these attacks is extremely dangerous even for experienced adventurers ~ but also quite a sight to see if you live long enough to recall it.
These attacks are also what prevents change in the domain: every time the people think maybe it's about time to start turning Era'i from a military base into a real town, emergency breaks and there's simply no time for this. All resources must be expended on training soldiers, building war machines, treating the wounded and expanding the tunnel system. (Maybe this might be exactly what Nadrah wants. She fears her people would 'grow soft' and forget their homeworld if they grow too at home in Ravenloft, so her war mages fake these attacks, imitating the results of dragon~scale breath weapons with powerful evocation magic. Should I make this canon, or a dread possibility?)

So that's the concept. I need while to think about locations and NPCs.