Category:Graben Family: Difference between revisions

This section contains canon info from officially published sources

Canon Information

Descended from jewel merchants, the Graben Family are the effective rulers of Graben Island (albeit distant ones), owning the (unclaimed) land and much of the wealth of that island.^[1] They are also a family of Lebendtod, having originally been murdered and reanimated by Meredoth (see below). Four generations of the long-lived Grabens all reside in the on a single family estate.^[1]

The Graben Family are infamous among the people of Graben Island, though Grabenites are reluctant to speak ill of the Family. Although the Grabens seen ordinary, it is fortunate that the family is fairly withdrawn. Those whom cozy up to the Family usually meet with unfortunate and mysterious fates. Only the youngest adult generation and their offspring is seen with any regularity in the Village of Graben, and none ever visit Seeheim or Kirchenheim.^[1]

The Grabens are the first settlers of Graben Island. They alone have the power to grant land to newcomers. They are not necessarily opposed to doing so, but they never grant land near their estate.^[2] Although the family may seem hospitable, there is a dark side beneath their apparent generosity. The Graben Family serve as grave robbers to gather subjects for Meredoth's experiments.^[3] Colin Graben usually speaks with any foreigners who wish to visit with the Grabens.^[4]

More canon information on the Graben Family can be found in the "Ship of Horror" module. Although it is likely that many of their number might have been dispatched in that module,, authors of later sources have described the family as still being in power in later sources.

The Graben Family and Meredoth

Following the formation of Nebligtode, Meredoth surveyed his domain and discovered the Graben Family. After Meredoth developed a way of making them into the properly subservient undead, Meredoth poisoned them all in in a horrible act of mass murder. He then commanded them to rule the island on his behalf and to ensure a chain of cadavers continually reached Todstein.^[4]

Noncanon Information

This section contains netbook-canon info from netbooks

Family History

In the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer, the Graben's Family's dark, mysterious history (and false history) goes back well before Meredoth's interference. From the beginning, the elitist Grabens always kept themselves apart from the rest of Grabenite society. Arranged marriages with foreigners has always been the standard practice for matrimony within the Graben family household. Their demanding and reclusive eccentricity has gone so far as to demand any spouse "marrying in" adopt the Graben surname, spawning all sorts of rumors.^[5]

One folktale speaks of the family's founder, Efraim Graben was no one of special status but rather a fraud, a forger, and a thief who fabricated the Graben name from whole cloth.^[5]. As it happens, Efraim Graben Was a Fraud is largely true (as far as false history goes). In 580 BC, the wealthy jewel thief arrived to the island and built Graben Manor. In 610 BC, the family now known as the Grabens adopted the island name for their own as they settled the land full time.^[6] To his credit (at least according to how he is remembered), Efraim is remembered for Efraim's pact with some Anatal refugees (forebears of the current Grabenites), which provided the latter with hospitality, land, and sustenance in return for recognition of the Graben clan's seniority over the island.^[7]

More recently, one Graben in particular has shown a trend towards roguishness. Colin Graben, the Graben Family's current patriarch and emissary, was once merely a vice-ridden hedonist and exploiter of the Grabenite people. In 672 BC, Colin's criminal activities threatened his ascension to power over the clan. He arranged the deaths of three of his victims, but his uncle Danar Graben investigated the killings. To conceal his dirty deeds once again, Colin murdered both Danar and his wife Bryanna Graben and made it seem like a carriage accident.^[8]

Colin's treachery would come back to haunt him when he sold several of the Graben family's gemstones to pay off debts. These gems would eventually attract the attention of Meredoth, whom proceeded to kill and then reanimate the Grabens in the 672 BC Graben Family Massacre.^[8] Only the youngest of infants survived- those too young to be useful to Meredoth and to eat the poison. These children were later raised with no knowledge of their ancestors' transformations into undeath- or least long enough to keep the Graben Family line going for each generation.^[5]

Since being transformed into lebendtod in 672, the elder Graben family have served Meredoth as his lebendtod agents and cadaver collectors.^[5] In 737 BC, Meredoth was slain, along with many of the undead Grabens, and Graben Manor was razed to the ground. Colin survived, and Meredoth's clone reanimated, but both took the debacle as a rude awakening. The family has become more subtle, and they rebuilt the Manor. Colin Graben spread slander and lies that the adventurers responsible were bloodthirsty madmen, thus saving his family's social prestige.^[9]

The Grabens Today

In the public eye, Colin's will is thought to be made through his appointed emissary, Josiah Graben. Josiah rebuilt the family's prominence in now prospering economy of Graben Island and Graben-town.^[10] In reality, Josiah is merely an alias for the undead Colin, whom remains the patriarch of the Graben Family.^[11]

Because of Efraim's agreement, the Graben clan retains ownership over the land of Graben (but not Knammen Island or the Schlammholme Iselets) not inhabited by a family of 5 generations or less. Although some families have kept their land for that long, as they have expanded, they have fallen under the influence of the Grabens as they petition the famaily for more land. The Graben's cannot charge their tenants for the land nor force them off, but they can deny the current inhabitants the ability to sell the land or grant it as inheritance.^[12]

Chronology

(Everything below is only unless otherwise specified.)

• Mid 300s BC False History Svidi Full-Sails of theAnatal leads his tribe to colonize Graben Island, displacing the resident monastic community at the Black Chapel. The nuckalavee is conjured by the expelled clergy, then geas-bound and sent into hibernation by the Anatal. To placate malign powers such as it, the Anatal begin sacrificing condemned humans, creating the Strangled.^[13]

• Mid 400s BC False History Svidi's colony is wiped out by a plague, leaving behind ruins and the Island's ancient runestones. The nuckalavee remains quiescent.^[13]

• 580 BC False History Graben Manor is built on Svidi Full-Saills's former island by a Efraim Graben, a wealthy ][jewel-thief]] from the south.^[13]

• 610 BC False History The Graben Family moves onto the Island full-time, adopting the island's name for their own.^[13]

• 630 BC False History The Anatal, ancestors of the Grabenite villagers arrive on Graben Island, as refugees fleeing the Óvinur Ódn (= "enemy storm") besetting the "North Wild" (March). Graben-town is founded (August). Settlers are initially led by clerics, with assemblies filling an advisory role.^[14]

• 635 BC^[15] Meredoth Poisons His Subjects In a brutal winter, Meredoth poisons his subjects and reanimates them as undead to keep them from bothering him for help. His island (or a version of his island) is taken to an unfamiliar land.^[16] The domain of Nebligtode forms as a number of islands^[17] in the Sea of Sorrows.^[18] After spending some time exploring, Meredoth kills and reanimates the Graben Family.^[19]

• 635 BC Genuine Graben Island history begins.^[14]

• 642 BC Araby Graben abandons Graben Island and her heritage to run away with a sea captain.^[20]

• 650 BC Colin Graben is born.^[21]

• 660 BC In the Transpossession Temptation dread possibility, Lydia Graben tells her son, Colin Graben, stories about the Apparatus.^[22]

• {672 BC The Graben Family Massacre In Nebligtode, Colin Graben murders Danar Graben and Bryanna Graben.^[23] Bryanna possibly curses Colin.^[24] Regardless, Meredoth massacres him along with the rest of the Graben Family. Meredoth reanimates the lot of them as lebendtod and commands them to gather subjects for his vile experiments.^[23]

• 675 BC Ezekiel Graben lays claim the Graben Family Tombs on Todstein.^[25]

• 708 BC Matthais Graben loses his (un)life in a shipwreck, leaving Colin Graben as acting head of the Graben family.^[26]

• 716 BC On this year or a few years prior, the spouses of Ezekiel Graben and Marietta Graben perish.^[27]

• 737 BC The Death of Meredoth: Adventurers kill Meredoth and most of the undead Graben Family. Meredoth's clone animates. Both the new Meredoth clone and his Obedient Dead undergo several changes.^[28]

• 737 BC Colin Graben pulls himself together from various scattered pieces of his body and becomes a Swarm-Shifter.^[29] In a fit of rage against Meredoth after temporarily regaining his free will, Colin Graben murders his cousin, Olsain Graben^[30]

• Meredoth's clone animates, and he regains control over his lebendtod minions, including Colin Graben. Colin retains the ability to hate Meredoth and the ability to take actions on his own, but he still must follow the will of Meredoth.^[31]

• {{netbook-small}]737 BC The Graben Family quit storing dead bodies in Todstein. Instead, they store bodies below the Graben Estate.^[25]

• 751 BC Colin Graben appoints "Josiah Graben", his alleged grandson, as his proxy in Graben-town, allowing him to take a more active hand in the port's economic transformation from backwater to boomtown.^[32]

• 760 BC or shortly before (Transposession Temptation Dread Possibility] Colin Graben finds a cache of notes in Egertus. The notes mention the Apparatus as sought by a man known only as "M".^[22]

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Ship of Horror Download Now!
		Ravenloft Third Edition - p132 Ship of Horror - pp44,50-53 Download Now!