Ravenloft Cosmology

[NykylaiHellray]

I made the idea to you know =P

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Wow, Roti. You're a darklord making machine!

Better be careful or else the DPs will take notice.

Subcontracting: It's the wave of the future! Now, if the Dark Powers would just increase my commission on these projects....

[NykylaiHellray]

Wow, Roti. You're a darklord making machine!

Better be careful or else the DPs will take notice.

Subcontracting: It's the wave of the future! Now, if the Dark Powers would just increase my commission on these projects....

-____-........I feel ignored

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Subcontracting: It's the wave of the future! Now, if the Dark Powers would just increase my commission on these projects....

-____-........I feel ignored

Awww, sorry about that! I'll split my commission with you once those bloody DPs pay up. (They promised the check is in the Mists....)

[Spiteful Crow]

Yes, I KNOW you're the one who made the idea for the mermaid. It's just that Roti's been the one to add the "finishing touches" to all of them.

[NykylaiHellray]

Yes, I KNOW you're the one who made the idea for the mermaid. It's just that Roti's been the one to add the "finishing touches" to all of them.

Okay Okay.....................=P dont have to shout about it


Anyway back to sying ideas.


So you have a fire guy (that witch burning person), a ressurectionist, and now a meremaid.

What would the person be for mist.....or would you have someone for elemental mist =/.........

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Well, we seem to have a running theme of darklords who are seeking out someone's body -- or, in the witch-burner's case, trying not to find one -- so why not have the Mist-darklord be searching for his own body...? He could be trapped in a disembodied form, perhaps a gaseous one (in contrast to the Rukoshiman lord's incorporeality), and can be looking for a body to replace the one he was separated from, due to his curse.

This would be a suitable curse -- being left gaseous and disembodied -- as IIRC the suit of Air in the Tarokka deck is the one that corresponds to Swords and the warrior-classes. A brutal fighter who'd exploited others through his great physical prowess would feel totally emasculated and powerless, if stripped of his corporeal form. Granted, the "stupid fighter" is a game-cliche, but it's actually a type of villain that's underrepresented in Ravenloft -- there's more than enough evil genius-types in the Land of Mists already; sometimes, the bad guy really is just a dumb thug -- so it could actually be a refreshing change, to encounter a darklord who's not remarkably intelligent, just very, very angry (Swords is the suit of storms as well as calm).

As for what he might have done, or been, before, I've no idea. I just like the idea that the Mist-lord would be trapped in the form of Mist, less capable of affecting corporeal objects than even a Mist horror can. He can't attack enemies directly, but he could infuse them with evil like a mist elemental -- a precursor to a possession-attempt, perhaps? -- or he might lead a horde of Mist-creatures which obey his commands.

[NykylaiHellray]

Nice idea

As for story hmmmmmm Ghengus Khan would be a good imsperation.

I mean he had harems of concubines, and killed many. A guy who loved his physical form, and also the pleasure he got from his physical form.

He loved himself to such an amount, that his ego is the size of the sun.

Such a person would go mad without a body

[Spiteful Crow]

Actually, I wasn't planning on including a "Plane of Mist". As you can see in my cluster map, where you'd expect to find the plane is just the normal misty border.

My reasoning for this, was that the only thing fit to be lord of mists are the Dark Powers themselves. Nonetheless, your disembodied man idea sounds pretty neat...

[Fuzzball]

I don't see the menace of a plane of mist, but maybe that's just me. However, I like Rotipher's idea. Here are some vague beginings you could use.


Clan’s leadership is based on a competition (make it something based on strength). X has been leader for many years. The first person who is able to beat him is his own son. Defeated, ashamed, and angry he goes to the local witch doctor. He is given a small rock and told to put it in a bowl of water near his son while he sleeps. When X does this the rock dissolves and a fine mist rises from the water. It kills his son, or weakens him…


Obsessed with strength, M believes that eating the heart of his enemies will give him their strength. As he ages he feels his own strength waning. He begins to kill his own people in order to eat their hearts and gain their strength. He uses an old legend of a creature coming out of the fog and taking people to cover his misdeeds…


If the plane of mist consists of more than just mist (noxious gases) then I have a different suggestion. It would be a person who came from a more modern world and killed with a gas chamber.

[Corrupted_Loremaster]

I don't see the menace of a plane of mist, but maybe that's just me. However, I like Rotipher's idea. Here are some vague beginings you could use.

Perhaps like the Darklord, people who linger too long here begin to fade, mentally, then physically, until there's nothing left of them. Or has that general idea been used too many times before?

Or maybe they have to endlessly solve boring, substanceless puzzles...oh wait, that's a different kind of "Mist"....

[Spiteful Crow]

Or maybe they have to endlessly solve boring, substanceless puzzles...oh wait, that's a different kind of "Mist"....

The dissolving thing is already present in the Shadow Rift.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

The Shadow Rift makes people dissolve into nothing at all. The domain of Mist might change its victims into gaseous, insubstantial forms instead ... perhaps even Mist horrors compelled to serve the darklord.

For that matter, there could be wandering patches of "thin" terrain in this domain, in which the very landscape gradually turns into mist. The first sign would be if the ground starts to feel spongy underfoot, despite being dry. Over time, it'd get so yielding and flimsy that it's difficult to walk on; those who fail to evacuate might find themselves reduced to swimming -- or even drowning -- in what looks like solid granite bedrock! Linger too long in a "thin" patch, to the point when it starts to actually look insubstantial, and you'll be transformed into a Mist horror ... or, perhaps, simply fall through the ground, ending up either in the true Mists (if the border is open) or in some fog-bound prison of the darklord's creation.

Such randomly-moving "thin" patches would fit in with the Ghengiz Khan idea, as it'd force any natives of the domain to wander constantly to avoid succumbing to the "thinning" effect. This might meet with the darklord's approval, if he thinks it's keeping them strong to remain nomadic, or it might frustrate him if he thinks it's reduced them to pathetic refugees, hence unworthy successors to his own grand conquests.

[NykylaiHellray]

Oh here is an idea.

Since the elemental plane of mist may seem silly.

I have a possible idea which would seem interesting.

In asiain cultures the element of air is not used.

There are 5 elements. Three are fire, water and earth. But the other two are wood and metal.

An elemental plane of rust and thorn, could be interesing ideas. What do you think?

Of course they would not function like normal elemental planes. They would be slightly different, but meh it is an idea.


For example on the plane of thorn. The darklord may off been a woodcutter. Who wanted to see nature burn.

He was cursed to become a tree or somthing.

[Spiteful Crow]

That darklord sounds too much like Malus...

I like your Rust and Thorn idea, though!

Thing is, there aren't any wood or metal elementals that I'm aware of, so you'd have to make those up before making up rust and thorn. Nonetheless, that'd be an EXCELLENT idea, especially if we wanna tie it in with the "Asia Cluster".