Ravenloft Geography

[Le Noir Faineant]

Kartakass - Bavaria, the Black Forest.

More like Ungary or indeed Romania, I would say. Fits better regarding the names as well...

Hmmm,

But doesn't culture in Kartakass lean heavily on Wagner's 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg', with a liberal dose of the Brother's Grimm? Certainly, culturally, Kartakass is very 'olde worlde' Barvarian.
But Kartakass is relatively flat, so I don't see it being like the Carpathians.

Thinking about it Kartakass is probably, geographically, more like Finland (forest, flat, dotted with lakes and rivers).
(see at www.borealforest.org/world/world_finland.htm)

I am Bavarian, and I can safely say that what is detailed about Kartakass is mostly of the way Eastern Middle Europe is portrayed in Germany. Now, the meistersinger thing is indeed a point, but IIRC, there are many similar stories about Poland or the old Austrian empire.

I am curious of what the Kargatana might have thought when they wrote Gaz I...

[Archedius]

I feel sorry for Vlad. A product of his time really: he had to become crueler than his enemy to gain the psychological advantage over them, and as others have said- keep his people in line. I wonder if he enjoyed the pain he caused, or if he even felt the tinyest pang of disgust in himself- or both. A scary thought indeed would be if he was able to detatch himself from it easily (the way I picture Azalin). We all are capable of cruelty- just a matter of whether our environment, or our own predilictions encourage it.

[hidajiremi]

Real world geopgraphy? As I understand it from the Gazetteers and various stuff, here's a good series of comparisons:

Barovia: Transylvania/Romania/Wallachia (kind of obvious...)
Borca: Northern Italy
Dementlieu: Southern France
Forlorn: Northern Scotland
Hazlan: Denmark/the Netherlands (though the Hazlani look vaguely Persian or Greek)
Invidia: Southern Italy/Corsica
Kartakass: Black Forest Germany
Lamordia: Switzerland
Mordent: Scotland and Northern England, espcially the moors
Nova Vaasa: The Russian steppes, or the American Midwest
Richemulot: Northern France

Those are pretty much the clearest-cut ones. Others are tougher to do, either because of a lack of real-world analogue (Sithicus) or because of the breadth of terrain (Darkon).

Jeremy Puckett (Hida Jiremi)