Adam

Adam

Adam is the darklord of Lamordia. Known as Mordenheim's Monster or the Creature, he is an extremely intelligent and nimble dread flesh golem, based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Adam is the most successful creation of Dr. Victor Mordenheim in his research into the creation of life, albeit the one that causes him grief unmeasured. Adam reduced the doctor's wife Elise to a vegative state and apparently murdered their adopted daughter Eva.

The two are inextricably bound together: Dr. Mordenheim has Adam's immortality, and in return Adam shares the doctor's anguish.

Usually hidden from sight, Adam is believed to spend most of his time on Isle of Agony, part of the archipelago known as The Finger.

Curse

Adam's curse, and his related darklordship, are a matter of some subtlety.

Mangrum calls our attention to the discussion with "S":

"S": "Lamordia is Mordenheim's, isn’t it?" Adam: "Yes. It should not be his, but it is. We are all his. We are all his children."

Lamordia is not in fact Mordenheim's, but it might as well be.

Mangrum continues by quoting from the Dungeon Master's information at the end of Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II: "Adam's hunger for acceptance runs deeper than even he is willing to admit, but it is his curse never to find it."

Adam wants to be loved, embraced, respected. And he is cursed to never so be.

In Mangrum's words: "Not even the very land created for Adam embraces him. His own domain reflects his despised creator, not himself. If Mordenheim was the darklord, absolutely nothing would change."

Strahd and Azalin can at least lose themselves for a time in the nicities of rulership. Their darklordships see them standing at the pinnacle of a hierarchy. Adam's darklordship leaves him perfectly alone with himself and this thoughts.

Gonzoron summaries the matter: "Adam's curse is not to be accepted, hence even his own land doesn't accept him, by reflecting his creator rather than him. His sin was one of jealousy (of Victor's love for Elise, and of Elise's love for Eva) and his curse is to forever be jealous of Victor's influence on Lamordia."

Adam would wield influence, would hold sway over hearts and minds, but finds himself locked away in an eternal winter, and one of his own making, despite his protestations that he was furnished with an evil soul.

Gonzoron continues: "He may have been given an 'evil soul' but in Ravenloft, even that is not an excuse. Perhaps he could've chosen a different path and fought the darkness (See Jander Sunstar), but instead he blamed Victor, and gave up responsibility, hence in a sense he gives up his domain to Victor as well. If Adam could accept his own fault in the events, perhaps Lamordia would start to reflect him. (And he'd be on his way to redemption, so it's as likely to happen as Azalin accepting that killing Irik was wrong.)"

http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4732&hilit=Adam+Adam%27s+Stats

Nathan's Dread Possibility

Over his career as a scientist on his home world, Mordenheim became obsessed with creating life; one of the things he believed most fervently was that "life" was purely a process of biomechanics, and that either there was no such thing as the soul, or that it contributed nothing essential or even interesting to the function of the organism. The gods of his world, seeing his hubris, resolved to show him the truth of the matter, and reached out to add one "contribution" of their own to Mordenheim's magnum opus: they endowed Adam with a soul--Mordenheim's.

From that moment, Adam was the creature with the mind of a child, built from corpses--but he was a construct with the soul of a man. Mordenheim, the human genius, was the soulless one. Of course, neither understood what had happened; Mordenheim was delighted to have succeeded beyond all expectation in his creating "life", and Adam was eager to learn from his "father". But as Adam learned about the world around him, the soul in him hungered for the place it had had in human society, and especially for the love and companionship of Elise. Adam's desire to take Mordenheim's place grew stronger, and his confusion and anger at being rejected by Elise, and later Eva, grew stronger as he grew in understanding. The soul of Adam/Mordenheim would not be thwarted in its desires by gods or by fate; Adam resolved to kidnap Eva and take his freedom, achieving the human dignity he wanted on his own terms. But he was found out by Elise in the attempt; he struck her down, and inadventantly killed Eva as he tried to complete his escape. Adam and Mordenheim were drawn into the Mists together; the domain that formed around them was patterned after Mordenheim's mind, to function as a prison for the soul now found in Adam.

Because he is a construct, Mordenheim is passionless and essentially without imagination; his attempts to revive Elise are the unreasoning obsession of a highly trained automaton. He cannot give them up, because he can literally conceive of no other reason for his own existence. Similarly, he can never create another "success" as great as Adam, because he has no second soul to impart to his creation. Adam, on the other hand, is the one with passions, desires, and dreams; his hunger to achieve humanity is the ultimate cruel joke, because if he were not already possessed of a human soul he could never desire it as deeply as he does. Without Mordenheim's intellect, Adam can only observe Mordenheim's experimentation with jealousy and incomplete comprehension--feelings which spur him to sabotage Mordenheim's experiments whenever he can, and to imitate them as far as he is able.

http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4732&hilit=Adam+Adam%27s+Stats&start=30

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Secrets of the Dread Realms Domains of Dread Adam's Wrath Mordenheim Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II
		Secrets of the Dread Realms - p39 Domains of Dread - p29 Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens - p78 Adam's Wrath - p16, front cover Realm of Terror - p109 Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II - p155
		Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp35-39 Domains of Dread - pp29 Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens - p78 Adam's Wrath - p18 Realm of Terror - pp108-109 Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II - pp154-157
		Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp7, 35-39 Domains of Dread - pp29-30 Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium I - pp224, 260 Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens - pp22, 75-79 Adam's Wrath - pp3-4 Van Richten's Guide to The Created - pp33, 71 Mordenheim - pp75, throughout Forbidden Lore - Cryptic Allegiances - pp20-21 Book of Crypts - p9 Realm of Terror - pp108-109 Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II - pp154-157
		Adam