The Lesser Evil wrote:I looked at the 25 mb version, and I have to admit I admire the detail. In addition to the inclusion of the noncanon domains, many of which you fleshed out from whole cloth based upon brief darklord blurbs, you included a lot of obscure spots in the canon domains, like Malanuv, Virinthe, and others in Darkon. I'm curious in how you redefined some of the interdomain relationships/power dynamics. For example, what has replaced the Treaty of Four Towers in diplomacy against Falkovnia? And does Borca still share that link to Barovia with the Dilisnyas and (false) history?
I can recognize or guess most of the sources for the noncanon domains, but a few elude me. I don't recognize any of the following, so I'm curious about them: Agatha, Boroklahdny, Cecropia, Corcyra, Drydalis, Ibiswood, Kaarme, Lancaster, Nortenmark, Setsona.
Hey! Thanks for checking them out
One of my biggest motivations for making an alternate map was to play with the potential relationships between domains. In the original Ravenloft lore, one of my favorite domain interactions were between the Werepanther secret police of Valachan, the Sithican Armies of Azrael Dak, & the packs of werewolf patrols of Verbrek.
As of now, I'm mostly using the official lore with some revisions/edits that I liked from reading online, (like one pertaining to a populist rebellion fueled by mysterious merchants bringing gunpowder from the mists that I would link if I could find for you
.) A main difference I've introduced was another conjunction type event, this time adding new lands while rearranging the older ones. Valachan for example, finds itself amongst the
enlightened renaissance domains, desperate to fit within the surrounding nobility & high society. Baron Urik Von Kharkov is one noble especially enamored with his new surroundings, infatuated with proving his own status through elaborate gatherings & other eclectic affairs.
I'm still somewhat undecided about the state of the Treaty of Four Towers, seeing as in this timeline, Falkovnia ceases to be the breadbasket of the core. The new & sudden change of climate to the north forced the society to focus on the development of their infrastructure as opposed to outward aggression. Except for Verbrek, who is currently being subjected to a slow military takeover as the Falkovnian government has deemed them a suitable target for expansion. Their main form of resistance is from the werewolf packs of Verbrek, who aren't too keen on Vlad Drakov's invasion of their woods & hunting grounds. A lot of rumors say that the Falkovnian military has actually managed to capture several werewolves, attempting to use them to create super soldiers. Speaking of Drakov, this period of peace, societal advancement & lack of enemies to march upon is almost a state of torture for him with citizens starting to revere him as an architect & competent ruler instead of the fearsome, iron-fisted despot. Since I'm planning on having the current date about 50 years after the most recent conjunction event, I could see the treaty dissolving through a lack of immediate threat. The older generations who signed it have aged, allowing a newer generation unbeknownst to the atrocities & ferocity attributed to the old Falkovnian military to decide their future, believing many of the tales as exaggerations of past generations.
Borca still shares much of it's shared history with Barovia, but it's involvement in the Treaty would probably have been the first to dissapear, becoming engrossed in the quiet conflict of Darkon & Nova Vaasa attempting to absorb the newfound rural & forest domains of Agatha & Cecropia. Many merchant nobles hire out personal armies & mercenaries for any potential skirmishes or matters involving persuasion, usually with mayors & heads of towns. They rarely have any loyalty to these parties however, its very common for a force of troops or mercs to be in the employ of a lord from Nova Vaasa & a patron from Darkon.
& for the non-cannon domains you inquired about, I'll give my best hand at a quick description of each!
https://www.dndspeak.com/2018/11/01/100 ... t-setting/
(A lot of the non-cannon domains were inspired by entries on this list.)
Agatha is a heavily forested domain, very backwoods with a slight German influence. Within the domain there's a growing movement fueled by fear & suspicion of the supernatural. Just like the Inquisition of Tepest, they seek to burn the roots of evil & sorcery within their pure forests. "The people of this small domain burn every woman at the stake on her 40th birthday. Most women go willingly though tearfully to the stake, knowing that every day past this age the chances are growing for them to transform into monstrous hags and devour their beloved ones. The source of this curse is the spectral hag lord of the domain, who was burned at the stake herself, and only by destroying her can the curse be lifted."
Cecropia is another heavily forested domain, possibly from the same plane as Agatha, seeing as they both share the same language & culture for the most part. A lot of the paranoia enveloping Agatha is fueled by their odd neighbor. "Shadowy figures with wings and burning eyes, strange lights in the skies, haunting whispers in the heads, weird sounds coming from nowhere, crop circles, memory loses, time behaving strangely, second moon appearing, unnerving dreams on disaster, odd patterns of weather and animal behavior, mementos from the past reappearing, madness, bizarre behavior, laws of nature lapse - all of those eerie phenomena and more haunt the rural, Twilight-Zoned domain in the shadow of the mothman. The domain is actually locked in a time loop of 3 months and then destroyed by some calamity and restarted again. Nothing is known on the enigmatic mothman, and whether he is trying to stop the disasters or initiate them." (Still undecided what direction I want to take with the motivations of the "mothman." When I read it it reminded me of the giant moth demon flying around Barovia.)
Corcyra is a tiny domain made up of high mountains with breathtaking views, beautiful sunsets & nights full of stars. Many artists, poets, & thinkers make their way here to absorb the beauty of the domain. But unbeknownst to many, some whisper about a fountain of youth deep within the mountains. Almost none return from the mountains once they delve deep enough within.
Dryadalis is a forested coastal domain bordering the red woods of Sithicus. On their home plane, the land now known as Dryadalis was within an elven nation of a different name. At one point "there was a supremacist elven king who led a genocidal campaign against all other races, seeing them as inferior and impure. His plans backfired, resulting at the destruction of his kind. Now he is a skeleton warrior with long white hair and ornate armor, sitting on his throne among the ruins of his once magnificent city, his sword which turns flesh into dust in his hands. Surrounded only by ghosts and skeletons, he is fully aware that the other races thrive while he belongs to history - but still dreaming that his time will come...." The skeletal lord of Dryadalis plans on making the elves of Sithicus into denizens of his undead empire, preying on those too close to his borders or sending elven skeletons to steal the corpses of deceased elves. Not all elves resist or fear his ambitions. Some even worship him, suspecting he is the Black Rose incarnate.
Ibiswood is quite literally a forest devoid of any type of settlement. I wanted to have a domain comprised of a forest with the same amount of legend & mystery attributed to it as the Svalich Wood or Forest of Shadows. "There are legends of a owl-headed wizard who terrorizes this forested domain, helped by his daughter Odil, owls, owlbears and giant ravens. He has affinity for birds and polymorph magics, and among the rest has turned the local princess and her maidens into swans, who can assume their true shape only at night. Many princes tried to save her but failed. He also cursed a beautiful woman to change into a hawk every sunrise, and her lover to change into a wolf every sunset, so that they'll never meet as humans. Rothbart hates humanity and takes pleasure from causing misery and suffering." This one seems more fantastical than some others, with the inclusion of owlbears & an owl-headed wizard. I don't mind that kind of shift though, seeing as my Ravenloft has a lot of elements of dark fantasy instead of just solely gothic horror.
Karme as of now is a Lamordian colony (Portwych), serving as grounds to examine & explore the elven west & the bizarre lands to the south. The current darklord is the "Veiled Mistress", a medusa witch common in local folklore & children's tales as a figure of terror. I haven't fleshed this domain out as much yet, but I had themes of isolation in mind.
Lancaster is a sprawling but dying medieval French kingdom, sharing the culture & even language of real France (similar to Odiare speaking Italian). Sprawling spires can be seen from Kartakass across the Luna Bay, resulting in a beautiful sight. "The rightful heir to the throne, he was thrown away to the sewers as a child due to his deformities, while his good-looking brother inherited the kingdom. Growing in the company of rats, the Rat King - now a truly twisted, three-headed giant rat-thing - returned with a revenge and an army of disease-infected rats. Now he rules his plague ridden, debris filled kingdom from his crumbling castle, never seen in public. His domain reflects Europe during the Black Death, when fear and superstition ruled, and vile magic and twisted creatures abounded." Fading, dying kingdom + a meddlesome population of rat-weres? Sounds like a good time to me!
Nortenmark is essentially the named territory of Falkovnia's northern expansion & exploration into the new, frigid, & unforgiving north. It actually falls under the domain of
Taitachak, "a Lovecraftian-arctic domain of black ice, polar bears, wild native tribes, ancient temples buried under the ice, yetis, orcas, winter wolfs and ancient horrors. In the heart of the domain Taitachak is trapped in the ice, an ancient xixecal who brought an ice age to his world and wishes to expand it further. His evil thoughts and dreams affects the domain and its denizens." With Falkovnia's newfound interest in science (mostly researched by Lamordian minds, sponsored by Falkovnian capitol), it's only a matter of time until they come upon something they never should have meddled with or encountered in the first place.
Setsona is a domain of masquerades & treachery. "In this large, colorful Venetian-styled city, everyone wears masks of all types at all times; being seen publically without a mask is outlawed and considered utterly immodest. There are several noble houses in the city, guilds, cults and other groups, each with their own style of masks; intricate conspiracies, schemes and plots abound everywhere, and one can never be sure who (or what) is behind the masks. Many unhuman beings are drawn to the city as well, easily camouflaging themselves among the masked population. The prince darklord is a Master of Masks (see D&D Complete Scoundrel) with a huge collection of magical masks, each granting him some powers and traits of the role he is playing now - but he is tormented by his inability to figure out his own true identity." I'm leaning towards making the mask aspect a cultural thing rather than something punishable by law. But I love the image of opera houses, theatres, & decadent restaurants. I could see Mordentish nobles riding or sailing over for the weekend before returning to their affairs in Mordent.
Right below it in contrast is the flooded domain of
Blackwater, a place of crushing poverty & wet mud. Almost none of those who live there hold any fortune, scrapping what little money they can make from crops or anything they can get their hands on. These conditions make for some of the best crafts & tradesmen in the core, eager for any chance to get away from Blackwater. The darklord is a dark water elemental, risen from the dead after being drowned for his crimes in the prime material world. Another domain to develop as time goes on
Finally,
Borokhladny is a Norse inspired domain, with the main themes such as the dangers of tradition & man's struggle against nature & man itself. While the darklord is an old, aging warlord far removed from his prime, the true terror of the domain is the domain it holds
within it. The domain of
Graf exists under-bridges of Borokhladny, "inhabited by ravenous trolls. However, the human denizens don't believe in trolls, considering them nothing more than children's legend. When cattle or people are missing or found devoured, it will always be attributed to bears, bandits or natural causes. Even if someone actually sees a troll or attacked by one, he will forget it a moment later, believing the experience to be something else. When troll dies it becomes a stone, so no evidence is left to his existence. It is all part of the curse of the dread troll lord, who wants humans to fear and respect trolls, but can't make them even acknowledge their existence." As a dread possibility, I had an idea about an old noble clan known for marauding before the clans settled down to establish their kingdom. While far removed from the days of pillaging, they still believe that might is the ultimate decider of fate & true way of their peoples. So this prompted them to interbreed with the willing & select trolls, producing beasts of men who can be found in the employ of those with the money to hire & feed them.
.