#Ravenloft novels manual#
#Ravenloft novels series#

The simple answer is that Ravenloft is the Demiplane of Dread ( Ravenloft Campaign Setting) but as Pratchett wrote, behind everything simple is a huge trailing tail of complicated. I will begin with the supplementary questions needed to answer this one: What is Ravenloft?

Whenever possible, I will cite my sources and make every attempt to label personal speculation as such.

#Ravenloft novels manual#

So I wanted to first spend some time declaring my sources: namely, the 2e books Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Darklords, and Islands of Terror, a selection of Ravenloft novels (including Carnival of Fear, Dance of Death, and others whose titles escape me), the 2e and 3.X Dungeon Master's Guide, the 3.X Manual of the Planes, the transitional module Die Vecna Die!. This requires answering a few other, related questions Another was in the demi-plane already when the Dark Powers noticed them. In the 3E materials from S&S, it's noted that at least one domain dark-lord was originally from the Demi-plane. The demi-plane does not provide inhabitants it captures them with the evil being. Source Note: It is worth noting that the nature of the Mists grabbing parts of the Prime Plane was the focus of one of the TSR Retail Play modules for AD&D 2E in that same module, PC's who do not flee the Mists wind up in Ravenloft as well. Even calling them entities or an entity is a stretch. The Dark Powers do not use manifestation forms, do not reveal themselves if they use mortal forms, do not grant spells, are not subject to commune spells. They have moved regions about, deleted regions, and made and deleted borders on an apparent whim. They can not, however, prevent Vecna from granting spells nor communing with his clerics, but they can prevent him from making personal appearances. It is worth noting that they control the demiplane, and can affect all within it. The area is removed from where it was, and attached somewhere in the demiplane. If they don't flee the Mists, anyone near the victim also is transported. The Dark Powers also search the multiverse (or at least the Prime Material Plane) for certain 'worthy' individuals, and set the Mists upon them. LOADS of power, but trapped forever there, and unable to get whatever it is they truly desired in life. Sufficiently corrupt individuals find a chunk of the demiplane altered to become their own personal hell. The Dark Powers are noted only by what they do, and that is, they reward evil acts with more power, but at a price of less freedom.

(Vecna, specifically, being the most noted, but there was another.) They are never described in character/deity terms, and in fact have imprisoned some impressively powerful beings, including a couple deities from other D&D game worlds. Though this novel lacks the baroque sensuality of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire or the streetwise humor of the author's own The Vampire Files, it is an exciting and original vampire tale.They are some form of super-deities, or perhaps a personification of some multiversal axiom about true evil. Elrod's strong prose and excellent pacing are not diminished by being confined to the boundaries of a pre-established universe. Although certain events and characters are depicted differently in all three novels, this is not a failing, necessarily, if readers keep in mind that this book is part of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons gaming world, in which each session at the gameboard produces varying scenarios. While this volume follows Vampire of the Mists (by Christie Golden) and Knight of the Black Rose (by James Lowder), the narrative's events seem to pre-date those of Golden's story. He tells of fratricide, suicide, treachery and a horrible curse connected to his beloved Tatyana. Strahd relates how he conquered the realm of Barovia, and how he became a vampire to win the love of his brother's wife, Tatyana.

#Ravenloft novels series#

The third entry in TSR/Ravenloft's open-ended series of Gothic horror tales,'' this is a chilling, dark fantasy again featuring powerful vampire Count Strahd Von Zarovich.