Café de Nuit

The title really says it all. I see many of the cultural influences in Ravenloft, but Nova Vaasa stumps me. I thought there were Spanish influences there but upon reading more of the Gazetteer I'm not so sure.

Nordic countries, but that seems more apparent in 3E sources than the older stuff.

Some guys like to put a Fantasy Old West spin on it.
Cattle Barons who are literally barons, 'boltslingers' with hand crossbows, dirt farmers, saloon girls, etc.

The language is Norwegian/Danish. Culturally, it's a bit of a mishmash. Some Russian, some wild west, a good deal of Tolkein's Rohan, a dash of Egyptian.

I have always played them as Cossaks.

Mistmaster wrote:I have always played them as Cossaks.

I see this influence a lot, now that you mention it. Right down to the mustaches

Cool.






https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... kiv%29.jpg

There is also, presumably, as much British Victorian architecture and urban society as DMs need to properly replicate the atmosphere of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

That, is the major elephant in the room; I always felt that Tristen and Malken were out of place.

Mistmaster wrote:That, is the major elephant in the room; I always felt that Tristen and Malken were out of place.

With the rest of the domain, absolutely. I feel like the writers wanted the Jeckle/Hyde villian more than the rest of the domain was given details. There is a lot of possiblities for Nova Vaasa, but it's barely given much attention.

Jekyll/ Hyde. Not enough coffee yet this morning, I'm afraid.

I think the lack of obvious analogue makes Nova Vaasa my favourite domain! But I agree that it also makes things problematic.

The schizophrenic identity is partly by design (to mirror the Jekyll/Hyde nature of the lord) but sadly also due to an uneven publication history! Arthaus, as always, put a very definite and more internally-consistent stamp on it, using Danish as their language analogue.

But Arthaus' interpretation might not be for everybody. In particular, I prefer to keep the flavour Slavic and reserve Swedish/Danish for Lamordia.

I personally do it like this:
- cities are CL8 and based on a kind of squalid, urban Russia
- countryside is CL7 or sometimes 6 and based on the Eurasian Steppes
- if in doubt, I think of Hungary (Kantora = Budapest, country = Pannonian Plain with leopards)
- everybody in the Core wants a Vaasi horse but only Tepestani or Invidians would want to live there!
- I use Latvia and Lithuania as my language inspiration. Natives pronounce "Egertus" as "Ej-YEAR-toos" to make it sound less humdrum!

If done right some of the things that make least sense in Ravenloft can be sources of horror precisely because they defy expectations and feel wrong - like the Egyptian-style tomb in the middle of the Steppes from the Awakening. But I concede that capturing this can be difficult.

I agree, the Slavic influence is more appealing. Lamoridia works well as a Ravenloft Sweden, that's how I use it.

Well, to me, Lamordia has always been akin to Switzerland.