Café de Nuit

If you are interested in Odiare, please give a look to my Collodi Thread.

Carrion Crow wrote:That's what I like about this forum - you suggest an idea and someone comes back with a way of looking at a particular character that you might not have previously thought of.

I had not considered the Batman/Joker analogy in relation to Sir Tristen/Malken and really, really like it. I seem to remember that there was an Elseworlds comic 'Batman: Two Faces' which suggested that both Batman and the Joker were the same person, just opposite sides of the coin.

However, saying that, whilst I do like Sir Tristen/Malken as a character, I just don't feel that Nova Vaasa is the right setting for him. But now you've opened my eyes to a new way of looking at the character, one that makes sense to me, I can see certain possibilities for him...but elsewhere.

As I mentioned in the first post, I was planning on transplanting the character to Paridon, as I felt this was a better fit for the character and your comments have now set the fuse burning for this idea.

If we think of Paridon as a turn of the Century Gotham, with Sir Tristen as one of the only righteous men in a city rife with corruption, this equates to the Bruce Wayne archetype. Occupying a possition of power, such as chief of police or somesuch and being uncorruptible, his enemies decided to try and reduce him to their level. Maybe a potion or a Helmet of Opposite Alignment was used, but the end result was that his force of will caused his personality to fragment, with his darker impulses creating firstly his alternate ego of 'Malken', but seeds of darkness spreading out across the city and finding fertile ground in a variety of other places. A doppleganger who had quietly and peacefully blended in with Paridon society suddenly found his head filled with thoughts of conquest and murder. A wooden puppet, doted upon by his creator, suddenly brought to unholy life...

Sir Tristen, the righteous crusader for justice, was now confronted by a veritable 'rogues gallery' to combat, none of which he can truly vanquish, as each criminal is actually a facet of his own personality. And in the background, orchestrating the depredations of these unpleasant individuals, is the gnarled, shock-headed Malken...

NB: I had planned on intergrating Odiare into Paridon as a Pocket Domain, but having a "Little Italy" part of Paridon just seemed to good an opportunity to miss.

Jamesfirecat, I thank you! My players, however, will probably be cursing you!

"Quick, to the Sir Tristen-Signal!"

EDIT: I'd just like to point out that prior to posting the above, I hadn't actually read the "Batman in Ravenloft" thread, so independently came up with the above.

I'm glad that you found my post enlightening to why I like the Malken/Tristen dynamic.

When you talk about Tristen being chief of police, remember that in Enemy Within, that sort of was his job, he was Captain of Kantora City Guard if memory servers properly.


Also just to refresh the "Batman in Ravenloft" idea if you need more Rogue's gallery ideas for Tristen.

Poison Ivy: This one is like the easiest transplant ever. Paridon is the second most advanced domain in the Core (beaten out only by Nosos) which makes it "fertile soil" for a NE druid who sees everything that is wrong with Paridon (the corruption of its civilization, the over abundance of dopplegangers, the whathever) as blame to be laid squarely at the feet of the fact that humanity has "advanced" to the point that it is has gotten out of synch with nature, nothing is keeping humanity's natural vices in check any more, and something/someone needs to do that particular job. Her path of corruption would probably involve picking up a bunch of plant like abilities, druids automatically get Ivy's "immunity to poisons" ability eventually, but she would also probably gain a plant like immunity to mind affecting spells/abilities, which helps mark her a thorn (pun intended) in the side of dopplegangers because it makes her immune to their mind reading ability. Would also be why she surrounds herself with plants and plant themed minions, they're the one thing she can count on to be loyal to her in Paridon.

Mr. Freeze: Alchemist has beautiful wife, who comes down with one of those mystical diseases that even D&D magic can't cure (maybe "Elevens" if you want to bring some Nosos to this version of Paridon?) and so needs to put her into suspended animation until he can fix it. Things go wrong because of X, and he ends up awakening latent sorcerer powers and or being transformed into an ice golem.

Killer Croc: Do something with the Marikith.

Catwoman: Natural Werecat (IE maintain personality while transformed) with a "harmless" catlike love of shiny things, and causing mischief. May or may not be a woman who Tristen secretly loves and barely manages to avoid being killed by Malken as the curse says should happen, because Lycanthropes are had to kill/Malken has no idea who she really is, since Tristen only ever sees her in hybrid/cat form, never in how she looks normally.

Riddler: Bored nobleman who is tired of traditional noble pursuits and so wants to make life entertaining by matching wits with supposedly some of the most brilliant men in the city, and seeing if they can stop his crimes/solve his puzzles...

Two-Face: Doppleganger who dove too deeply into the thoughts of one of his "victims" and now has issues with remembering if he's supposed to be the evil doppleganger who killed him, or the kind hearted human who was killed.

Ventriloquist: As you already suggested using Maligno and Guiseppe in place of Scarface and Arnold Wesker fits perfectly.

Joker: Malken himself.

I think what made Von Kharkov and Tristen/Malken work for me is the cognitive dissonance associated with their characters and how this made their inner selves conflicted.

Tristen/Romir/Malken was about hypocrisy and denial. Romir and Tristen were both refined and "enlightened", compared to their countrymen. However, both could be said to be hypocrites in that, while they show some admirable qualities, they suppress or downplay their shadows and don't really go all the way to make the world a better place. Romir had a rage problem that resulted in the murder of his innocent wife and another man, but when faced with the consequences of his actions, he takes his own life. Tristen is a bit more subtle, but evidence of his hypocrisy is their. He is charitable in the sense he tries to rid the world of lawbreaking transgressors like Malken and also gives to the poor. On the other hand, he doesn't really do a lot to change an oppressive regime and in fact enables Othmar to break the traditional cycle of power. Tristen's also quite entitled- "S" described him as "smug" and trying to seduce her, perhaps assuming she would naturally fall in line. In any case, the Hiregaard's higher aspirations has always been at odds with its darker impulses, and yet Romir/etc. have used the former to conceal the latter. Hence the curse of dual identities.

Baron Urik von Kharkov is different from the Hiregaards in that Von Kharkov not only acknowledges his guilt but he seems to wallow in it. Urik is a case study in how excessive guilt (and trying to escape from that guilt) can damn a person. In a fashion perhaps somewhat similar to certain takes on Easan, Urik tries to abdicate responsibility of his actions on his inner beast. (He pines about the humanity he (supposedly never had.) Urik's guilt complex starts with how Morphayas uses him to murder Selena, and rather than see justice given to Morphayas, Urik books it. Urik is not responsible for her death, but he is responsible for the murders he commits in order to indulge his "bestial nature' and forget about said guilt. When Urik goes to the Kargat and strikes a bargain with them, he hopes undeath will both enable him to control his inner beast and prevent him from becoming a tool again. I see the bridal lottery as something of the same sin- trying to "reinvent" himself with the proper wife. Perhaps like Easan, the source for Urik's damnation isn't some external taint on his soul but rather his efforts to escape and blame the taint on his soul.

With the above in mind, the important thing I take away is conflicting desires, aspirations to a higher good but impulses towards darker deeds. Therefore, I think your Urik von Kharkov could use something to makes his goals at odds with each other. Perhaps on some level Urik identified with and sympathized with the indigenous people, but he betrayed them anyway in the desire to pave the way for the destiny promised to his own people by the powers that be. The Dark Powers don't need to necessarily transform him permanently, but perhaps he changes back and forth involuntarily? (Reflecting a cat's fickleness, and perhaps Urik's). Nova Vaasa might be a domain you play up the lycanthropy-as-parasite metaphor, especially with that one Nova Vaasan dilemma/aphorisim I can't remember the name of.

The Lesser Evil wrote:With the above in mind, the important thing I take away is conflicting desires, aspirations to a higher good but impulses towards darker deeds. Therefore, I think your Urik von Kharkov could use something to makes his goals at odds with each other. Perhaps on some level Urik identified with and sympathized with the indigenous people, but he betrayed them anyway in the desire to pave the way for the destiny promised to his own people by the powers that be. The Dark Powers don't need to necessarily transform him permanently, but perhaps he changes back and forth involuntarily? (Reflecting a cat's fickleness, and perhaps Urik's). Nova Vaasa might be a domain you play up the lycanthropy-as-parasite metaphor, especially with that one Nova Vaasan dilemma/aphorisim I can't remember the name of.

It's the the Rider's Dilemma.

I'll spell it out in full here just for the aid of anyone who wants to use it to figure out how to best reflect Nova Vassa in the future....


A powerful knight is about to go on a quest to slay a great beast. He's had his squires get him into armor, get his weapons ready, and he starts heading out for his stables to mount himself up on his best war stallion.

On the way to the stables however he sees a Plains Cat having a midday nap in the sun looking passive and gentle as can be, laying asleep on its belly.

With the saddle in his hands, the knight looks at the sleeping Plains Cat, and can't help but think to himself.... "You know, if I could just get this saddle up on that things back and mount it, without it tearing me apart, there'd be no beast in the entire realm I couldn't slay. I mean a war stallion is all well and good for riding into battle... but it's no Plains Cat..."



The underlying meaning of the dilemma is the choice between honor and safety (the horse) and raw power/self advancement (the Plains Cat). It is also a statement on how people who choose to do evil tend to end up being undone by their own actions/get in over their heads and engage with forces they can't actually control.

This is why in some fan fluff I've seen about Nova Vaasa criminals frequently get tattoos of either Plains Cat or domestic housecats on their bodies.

It is why "Malken's" name actually makes sense, and is actually surprisingly deep, he's not just calling himself "Cat", he's calling himself "Power" power that is unrestrained by either the outer rules of society or inner morals, just raw self indulgent self gratifying power.

It's also why it makes sense for Malken to have various cat control related powers/possibly choose to play up some feline verbal tics ("purrrfect...") now and again, because it's part of the image he's trying to build for himself, of what he is and what he represents. In a domain as tightly controlled by rules and laws as Nova Vassa is, he's the alternative, he's Chaos to Nova Vassa's Imperium Of Man.

Thanks for the input.

Based on the ideas presented by Jamesfirecat regarding the Batman/Joker analogy for Sir Tristen/Malken and my own ideas regarding a reworking of Zherisia with Sir Tristen/Malken as the Darklord, I think that's deserving of its own thread, so that will manifest at some point.

Getting back to Nova Vaasa, I think I'm going to go with Kharkov as the Darklord. However, the involuntary changing of form, rather than being permnanently stuck as a hybrid I do like. Perhaps his 'change' is related to his efforts to reclaim his lost legacy? So he is constantly striving to rebuild his life and reclaim his lands, but just as he reaches a point where his plans are about to reach fruition, he involuntarily transforms into the Beast of Borchava and rampages across the land, undoing everything he has so far rebuilt, then is hunted down like an animal and slain, reawakening healed after his death back in human form, to restart his efforts once more.

I see it that each 'death' he experiences leaves him physically scarred, so he is progressively becoming more 'ragged' after each death. I'm thinking that his hybrid form looks a bit like one of those alley cats you see skulking about, a mass of scar tissue, torn ears, possibly one eye being milky and constantly weeping - in other words a right mess.

The fact that Prince Othmar has effectively taken over Nova Vaasa and is succeeding in doing all the things that Kharkov wanted and can now never have just adds to Kharkov's misery.

So if the 'Beast of Borchava' is only triggered by his attempt to relaim what was his, does this mean that Kharov could foil the Dark Powers by simply walking away, abandoning his Legacy and starting anew elsewhere?

Because if that's all it takes, then the Dark Powers have Kharov in a trap as fiendish and clever as Strahd's eternal chase of Tatanya...he could be free of the Beast any time he wanted, BUT HE WON'T. I LOVE this new Kharov, regardless of which Domain he's assigned!