Café de Nuit

Nathan of the FoS wrote:Dunno if this is quite what you were looking for, but I wrote up Saarkaath--a domain of orcs and half-orcs--for the Book of Sacrifices.

https://www.fraternityofshadows.com/wik ... h_(Domain)

I don't know why, but that last parenthesis did not make it into the url. When I click on that link, I go to an empty, un-created page called "Saarkaath (Domain". I will try adding the url tags:
https://www.fraternityofshadows.com/wik ... h_(Domain)

KingCorn wrote:
Or the DL is the Deathless itself. The deathless are meant to guide, but not expressly rule over the elves of Aerenal, acting sort of like old people in japanese families. As well, they DEPEND on their ancestors to worship them to keep them existing. One of them could have attempted to take control of all of aerenal, perhaps engaging in dark-powered necromancy as well as light in order to fuel his ambitions, perhaps looking to become a true god. Starting cults dedicated soley to him, and unearthing the necromancy secrets of the Qablarin Elves, he was eventually struck down. Now he rules over a domain split between light and dark, a demigod but in constant agony by his contradictory existance. His Moment of Darkness could be having his cults commit group suicide to fuel his ascension.

That's a interesting take too. Who are the Qablarin though? I haven't heard of them.

Edit: Nevermind, found them on the Eberron wiki. That's a nice source for necromantic knowledge, even for my version for the Eberron elf darklord. Nicely done, thank you.

There was a gnome darklord from USS 2002 named Kasselheim Blightlyng whom ruled Vulnara, a domain of mostly rock gnomes. However, he and the gnomes of his domain were kind of complete inversions on the normal gnome, having no sense of humor, use for illusion, or trickster elements. Instead, Kasselheim and the Vulnaran gnomes had a complete lack of humor. Kasselheim himself favored biomancy and High Alchemy to illusion.

I think if I were to do a demihuman darklord, it would focus on a twisted aspect of the demihuman's culture or psychology blown out of proportion it becomes a damning feature, rather than a direct opposite to the typical tropes. So for example, if I made a gnomish darklord, it might be a prankster without conscience, with genuine malice disregarding the welfare of other people. While the people of his domain may laugh a lot (perhaps too much), the prankster darklord might be cursed with the inability to laugh, made all the more terrible for his making other people merry.

Gnomes, prankster gone bad.

Dorfs, greed.

Halflings, gluttony?

Elves? Um...prancing about the woods sipping wine and festooning the trees with brightly colored ribbons? Being unjustifiably arrogant and supremacist?

My fave elf villain from published modules is Markessa from the Slave-Lords series.

ewancummins wrote:Elves? Um...prancing about the woods sipping wine and festooning the trees with brightly colored ribbons? Being unjustifiably arrogant and supremacist?

You could always dig into Tolkien. There are several tragic stories involving elves in his writings. Just off the top of my head, the Noldor's obsession with the Silmarils could easily furnish a darklord.

Nathan of the FoS wrote:

ewancummins wrote:Elves? Um...prancing about the woods sipping wine and festooning the trees with brightly colored ribbons? Being unjustifiably arrogant and supremacist?

You could always dig into Tolkien. There are several tragic stories involving elves in his writings. Just off the top of my head, the Noldor's obsession with the Silmarils could easily furnish a darklord.

Good one.

I might look at English and Anglo-Scots ballads and folklore involving the Fair Folk, the Tiend paid to Hell, changelings, fairy rings and all of that stuff.

Or Keats?
The Belle Dame Sans Merci, perhaps?

I don't think I'd do a whole domain for her, but La Belle Dame San Merci would make a pretty great NPC if worked up well.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Nathan of the FoS wrote:I don't think I'd do a whole domain for her, but La Belle Dame San Merci would make a pretty great NPC if worked up well.

Yeah, probably better as a special encounter/boss monster than a darklord.

A halfling darklord/domain could turn a normally harmless love for hearth and home on its head by turning said love into a militant paranoia against perceived threats to that status quo. Like something that motivated weeding out elements that were perceived to threaten that status quo (adventurers, social critics, adherents to new religions, "troublemakers", "deviants", etc.) You could get anything from violent bigotry to organized oppression, where seemingly calm and mild-mannered folks suddenly do a 180 and suddenly become snarling, torch and pitchfork types. The halfling domain could thus be used to highlight the banality of evil by contrasting the petty mundanity of its perpetrators with the horrors that they can perpetrate.

The Lesser Evil wrote:A halfling darklord/domain could turn a normally harmless love for hearth and home on its head by turning said love into a militant paranoia against perceived threats to that status quo. Like something that motivated weeding out elements that were perceived to threaten that status quo (adventurers, social critics, adherents to new religions, "troublemakers", "deviants", etc.) You could get anything from violent bigotry to organized oppression, where seemingly calm and mild-mannered folks suddenly do a 180 and suddenly become snarling, torch and pitchfork types. The halfling domain could thus be used to highlight the banality of evil by contrasting the petty mundanity of its perpetrators with the horrors that they can perpetrate.

So like an evil suburbia, or The Shire meets that village from Hot Fuzz

KingCorn wrote:

The Lesser Evil wrote:A halfling darklord/domain could turn a normally harmless love for hearth and home on its head by turning said love into a militant paranoia against perceived threats to that status quo. Like something that motivated weeding out elements that were perceived to threaten that status quo (adventurers, social critics, adherents to new religions, "troublemakers", "deviants", etc.) You could get anything from violent bigotry to organized oppression, where seemingly calm and mild-mannered folks suddenly do a 180 and suddenly become snarling, torch and pitchfork types. The halfling domain could thus be used to highlight the banality of evil by contrasting the petty mundanity of its perpetrators with the horrors that they can perpetrate.

So like an evil suburbia, or The Shire meets that village from Hot Fuzz

All for The Greater Good.

Nathan of the FoS wrote:

ewancummins wrote:Elves? Um...prancing about the woods sipping wine and festooning the trees with brightly colored ribbons? Being unjustifiably arrogant and supremacist?

You could always dig into Tolkien. There are several tragic stories involving elves in his writings. Just off the top of my head, the Noldor's obsession with the Silmarils could easily furnish a darklord.

Or 3 or 4 or 5 for that matter! For all their reputation for "goodness" Tolkien elves are at least partly responsible the two biggest evils in ME history. They are largely to blame for the War of the Jewels and good deal to blame for the War of the Ring.

a drow dark lord, but unlike other drow heard the call of good, had a chance to change and said no.
also became consumed with the drow ruling the surface, and loves the night sky and hate/envy of other elves. the dark powers her and she became dark lord of a elven land ruled by drow, with other surface elves hunted or subservient. the twist is the drow follow a good god (the one she rejected)and the other elves worship her evil drow god.