gothic falkovnia

[eidolon]

my players and I enter Falkovnia for the first time. I've read my share of material, but I just can't put my finger on what makes the place gothic.
Pictures and themes suggestions, anyone?

thanks

[Jasper]

Two words- Opression and Hoplessness.

Falkovnia dosn't fall into the tradtional image of mist shrowed moors with the crumbling grey stone castles that the word gothic brings up but its has its own unique twist.

Vlad is the undisputed ruler of Falkovnia due to the fact that he can back any order with a show of force. He can take your daughters on there first night, your sons into the army, can put you in chains for having non human blood all because no one stop him from doing so. Anyone that steps out of line finds themselves on the wrong end of a pike screaming in pain as Vlad has his evening meal.

After years and years of seeing there so called "Heros" ending up dead and Vlad enrages many of the Falkovnians just gave up and resigned themselves to thier fate.


A good way to get into the feel of Falkovnia is the watch such movies as Shindlers list. Vlad and his talons resemble Hitler amd his SS in many ways.

[Ronia Sun]

I have no idea where you live, but if you can, take a trip to some slums. Be careful, of course, but pay attention. Better yet, if you can get to some Eastern European slums, then you've *really* got the idea...

Don't just play up the hopelessness and despair, but really play up the physical manifestations of this. Assault your players senses with descriptions of squalor, of the stench of death and sewage. The description of Falkovnia in the Gazeteer left me with the impression that , despite the country's fertility, its settlements are postive holes of misery both physical and spiritual. It didn't strike me as a place where there are many 'happy' visuals.

[Tertius Bellamont]

I must admit, that the thing that has always really struck me about Falkovnia is its mundanity. This place doesn't rely on any kinds of supernatural trappings, it isn't a realm of vampires or ghosts - this is simply man's inhumanity to man in full flow.

If anything, I'd even mute the references to Drakov's, and his enforcers', more extreme actions. Although his impaling is fabulously gruesome, just the little things, such as the domain which makes a fortune out of selling wheat being full of people with little more than rags is chilling enough.

After all, Falkovnia's scares come a lot from being a domain that not only could be real, but has been pretty close on a few occasions.

Played right, the sordidness of Falkovnia can leave you longing for a vampyre to turn up... There aren't really very many innocents to save...

[Ronia Sun]

I think, perhaps, that the mundane aspects were the point of Falkovnia. Every other realm, for the most part, has exotic supernatural things as the source of its darkness, but Falkovnia...

"Man's inhumanity to man" is a good way to describe it. If you read the history books about Germany's economic conditions in the years following World War I, and of course what was endured under Hitler then, yeah, that's Falkovnia. I also think that more recent examples of this can be seen in many countries during the USSR's reign. I spent some time in Romania. It's a beautiful country, and at one time was the breadbasket of Europe--fertile lands perfect for growing wheat. However, under the dictator Ceaucescu, thigns underwent a drastic change. Much of the food the country produced was shipped out. A huge percentage of the population was relocated to the cities, where they would be easier to control. The most glaring scars of this time can still be seen in Bucuresti, the capitol, where the unfinished luxury apartments for Ceaucescu's cronies slowly rot. The workers walked away from them when the revolution occured in '89. Even more chilling are the 'Hunger Domes', huge buildings where Ceaucescu planned to distribute all food--a plan which would have enabled him near-complete control over the population. If there was unrest, then all he had to do was cut off the food supply...One of them was finished, but never used. I believe it was converted into a shopping mall (and there's irony for you). The other I've actually seen, in Sector 5 in Bucuresti, unfinished and hulking among the apartment blocs like a nightmare.

So, comparisons to Hitler and his secret police notwithstanding, for me Falkovnia resembles more what countries like Romania underwent during the reign of people like Ceaucescu. Although Romania is doing much better these days, there are still deep physical and spiritual scars on the landscape, and some of the hopelessness can still be seen in the slums.

[Tertius Bellamont]

Powerfully put there, and I'd agree with every word.

In fact, I'd add the word "Stagnation" to Falkovnia's description. Unlike real world states, where revolution and change have been able to topple such appaling regimes, Falkovnia seems impossible to change, and has become set in its ways for so long that it seems almost futile...

Mind you, that could apply to most of the domains! But isn't that your perfect gothic trope - a self-perpetuating inertia that will drag all hope and light away simply through being impervious to change.

Actually, in a lovely Ravenlofty "Gothic Fantasy" type way, Falkovnia literally scars its citizens in a way that other would only psychologically scar them - its brands. Treating people like so much property, rather reminds me of "Hard Times" actually...

On an entirely different tack, Falkovnia might also work well as a domain to be contrasted with its neighbours. All around it, domains hide their bigotry and horror - Falkovnia revels in it. If you manage to make your players run, only to be so ensnared by the mind games of Dementlieu or the curses of Mordent that they wish they were back in Falkovnia where the villains wore hawk symbols... then that's the wonderfully inescapable nature of the game.

[eidolon]

very clear pictures and mood drawn here. but I want to avoid overuse and overdose. The misery soon becomes common if mentioned that often. The blinded child playing with the two broken pieces of a doll, the girl in with the turn brides dress, the crying in man under te cage holding his starving wife. Those are the pictures you've inspired to me.
I'm using the land for a dark version of a Robin Hood-esque tale since Falkovnia stroke me a most typical medieval country. I just needed to find the gothic in it. Still searching, but thanks for the starters.

[Jester of the FoS]

Try emphasising a lack of colour. Look to Schindler's List for examples of that. Avoid actually mentioning there is no colour but only use grey, black, soot, coal, etc as colour discriptors. The place should be dim and cloudy, a perpetual overcast. At least in the cities and urban blights.
In the country things should be brighter, sun should poke through the clouds and there are endless fields ripe with food, but so much of this is siezed and sold that people still starve. Even then, the fields should be pale and drab. Light tan fields of wheat and the dusky brown of freshly toiled earth. Busting with life yet devoid of any vibrant hues and shades.

This is contrasted with the few brilliant colours. The bright crimson of the Falkonian flag. The sky-blue cloak of the elf slave being whipped down before it falls into the mud quickly soaking up the grey water.

[Ronia Sun]

On the other hand, you could do a complete overhaul of Falkovnia. Emphasize the beauty of the countryside, have the society--rather than a picture of despair and misery--seem outwardly pleasant. Then show the little things that indicate how wrong things *really* are...That would make Falkovnia more 'gothic'.

True, it wouldn't be the Falkovnia as described by the books, but on the other hand societies that pretend all is well when it is, in fact, very very WRONG are pretty darn creepy...

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Interesting idea Ronia - but it might apply to some of the smaller outlying villages, rather than the big cities.
These places would be specially engineered villages - kind of like the way the SS wanted to make Russia and Burgundy. The "villagers" are the decendants of soldiers and talons, who were selected for their purity. The real work is done by demi-human slaves, whom are kept out of sight when they aren't toiling in the fields.
The villages never realyl turned a profit - with teh demihumans doing almost all the work, the villagers don't do much but make shoddy goods.
The real value of the villages is maskerova - cameoflage that actively conceals. Visiting digintaries are often brought to these quaint places - to see the perfection of the Kingfeurer's vision.
Over the years, the fanaticism of these 'master race" villagers has waned. But, their talon overseers are always watching - making sure that no one is thinking impure thoughts or doubting their superiority.

[eidolon]

aaah yes, masterraces, good idea. I like the idea of jester, colour lacking, but only in the cities, the countryside is breathtaking.
this is a fruitfull thread, very inspiring

[Ronia Sun]

That *is* an intriguing idea. Could be rich ground for adventure material, too, whether it's organizing a rebellion among the slaves or helping disillusioned 'master race' members escape their gilded cages.

[Waldi]

If you want a more comic-book-like style of horror, "Castle Wolfenstein" or "Hellboy" could give some inspiration....

[Pariah]

I'm also actually working on a campaign in Falkovnia and here are some of the things I'm thinking of throwing in:

-brutality in the streets. People being beaten or worse in public, and how no one wants to help them. The people have been subdued and they know that to interfere is paramount to death (or, once again, worse) so they care more about their own skin and ignore the conflict. As my players are going to be 'freedom fighters,' if you will, they will also be faced with the decision to act out against the violence, risking exposure, or turn a blind eye and look at the bigger picture.

-the description within the Gaz states that some soldiers end up joining the military simply to save themselves and family from like brutality, so you can use that as a shadow of grey. Are your PCs killing people who are truly evil? Do you show mercy to people who place themselves above others? What would you do in the situation?

-once again, looking to the neighbours of Falkovnia...their sins are concealed under smiles, but don't discount their ability to manipulate events within Falkovnia. They could be lending more aid, but perhaps they're actually catalysts to certain events such as the mass executions of people in order to keep Falkovnia's economy from booming.

-for a bit of change from the up-front barbarism of the Talons, you could look slightly to the East and into the Rift for some subtle Shadow Fey, afterall the Falkovnians have problems of their own that will probably spill onto even the people fighting them. I don't think a Shadow Fey would thank the party for fighting the same people they are...especially considering the Fey aren't 'fighting' them at all, so much as they're toying with them.

-have the people your party is trying to help turn on them...sure the PCs are trying to help them, but under the threat of death I'm sure the citizens will gladly trade in the PCs for their own lives... Then they're faced with the difficult choice of continuing to help these people or saving their own hides.

-remember that Drakov is a man of cruel efficiency (as I like to see it)...if he has a problem he will solve it through straight-forward conflict. I would consider him smart as well though, so he won't do anything irrational. However, if he suspects his enemies are in a village, I think he'd be ready to send a unit of Talons to slaughter all the occupants of it so there's no place to hide there anymore. Not only will this cause his target's to relocate (assuming they were even at the village), but it will probably cause them to become filled with hatred which will (most likely) cause them to overreach. Then they're done for.

That's all I can think of right now, but this thread has already given me a coffin full of nasty ideas to throw at my players!

[Manofevil]

Hello all.
I have again fallen way behind on this board and will again be trying to catch up.

I have always been deeply disappointed in Falkovnia because I didn't see near enough of the legendary Impaler. (please note: I said Legendary, not Historical, which is discussed elsewhere in other threads) I studied the legendary Vlad the Impaler in high school in the late '80s. When all my classmates were freaking out over movies like 'Friday the 13th' and 'Nightmare on Elm Street', I got my nightmares from a book I found on the Impaler. I saw those movies in later years and found them tame by comparison. I will always make that association.
When I first read of Drakov in the Black Box, I had envisioned a recreation of this Impaler. Complete with fields of impaled people dead and dying. I find the current version far less disturbing and that is the essence of horror- the ability to disturb. My opinion.