Expanding the 100 Shades of Dark

[Leliel]

Because some of these darklords freaking deserve it, that's why!

I already have in mind something for the Mothman; he isn't trying to stop or cause disasters, he's doing both as an occult protection racket/Munchausen's by proxy; he's the cursed form of a diviner who was renowned for his wisdom, but became egotistical and started to lie to clients who showed him insufficient respect. He's cursed with both a monstrous appearance and his inability to communicate clearly (thus people fear him and he's lost the simple joy of being able to talk outside of the confines of his job) and his 3-month cycle is really the average of how long it takes before one of the irons in the fire he uses to blackmail his "cult" (people who retain memories past wipes and haven't realized he's part of the problem) falls out and destroys everything.

EDIT: Also Maia; while I see what was being aimed for, I also have a less cliche addendum; the reason her utopia keeps failing is that her citizens invariably discover she's a tyrant, and quite on their own enlist male foreigners to help them escape the whole toxic system. She keeps on blaming men for her failures, when in fact she is just blind to how much she's continuing the cycle of abuse (and it is always men she blames, especially when the invaders are not actually male; the last set was actually the all-female crew of the Hecate, which actually was formed to provide safe haven for abused women-they specialize in smuggling girls out of forced marriages and other awful home lives-but isn't headed by an abuser, though she still has a knee-jerk distrust of the male gender).

[The Lesser Evil]

Shimdon's domain, a land where everybody has an imp familiar bound to them, is interesting in what it implies about cultural and psychological identity of its people. Each person having an imp implies everybody can use magic, which can have all sorts of interesting ramifications of entitlement. Each person having a personal imp/dread familiar that takes on forms personal to the individual might also suggest that a person might disconnect a bit of their personality and distill it into the imp ala psi-crystals. You could get some fun play with the Jungian shadow here, that everything a person is proud showing in their shining characters, and everything in the shadow being a part of the imp (which may function as a sort of "not me ghost" from the Family Circus comics.) This is not to say that the Shadow traits might be all negative- as the Shadow is everything not acknowledged by the conscious mind- but will probably be pulled into a negative bent, ala the recommendation for psi-crystal personalities.

Shimdon himself would likely have once been a mortal, perhaps (at least at first glance) an obsequious, bootlicking yes-man who indulged his bosses with whatever they wanted (including abusing him) until they went too far and provoked his pent-up wrath. He then figuratively stabbed them in the back and betrayed them to a new replacement. Yet Shimdon was more than merely following orders, he was an enabler, because to a certain degree the dark desires often served his well enough. Yet Shimdon fancies himself with a conscience, and rationalized his betrayals as standing up for decency. Eventually, his brownnosing and betrayal went too far, and he was whisked away to a domain with power he never knew before, but his obsequious service was now bound with a formal contract. Shimdon is now forever cursed to be bound to a series of self-indulgent and disgusting rulers that he can manipulate but never take direct action against.

Edit: Shimdon is #87

[The Lesser Evil]

#31, the Amalgam. What if the “Well of Souls” used to hold the various spirits that became the Amalgam was some kind of add on to the Apparatus? Such that the spirits merged were using that dread artifact? Maybe some other mage might try to recreate or rebuild it.

The idea of ghosts and other spooks congregating, mixing, and eating each other interests me. If a ghost could boost its Magnitude or character levels by gaining power from other ghosts, it seems like an interesting way around the general fact that ghosts are “locked in place” and essentially static. I imagine the Amalgam as a mix of Ghash, the poltergeist gang leader from the “Slimer, Come Home” episode of The Real Ghostbusters, and Whitman von Ness, the ghostly bordello owner from he “Of Grave Importance” episode of Supernatural who killed people and imprisoned their ghosts inside his home in order to feed on their power. I kind of like the Amalgam as less a “kill everyone and assimilate them” and more of a tempter of ghosts first. The Amalgam could offer freedom, power, or fellowship to lonely or wanting ghosts and then integrate them into its being or have them simply hover around and call them when needed. I could even see the Amalgam offering immortality to the living as ghosts. Not that it couldn’t murder and assimilate, but maybe it just gets more power from getting victims to submit willingly. Maybe even a cult of some kind.

The question of where or how the Amalgam stores its victims presents an interesting quandary (if it doesn’t just absorb them). It could store them inside its gut (ala Ghash) or maybe have some exterior prison (like von Ness’ bordello/house). Or maybe the Amalgam can store a limited number of ghosts inside it but needs an exterior containment unit to hold more. The construction of such a vessel might present an interesting plot hook.

Here's links on the characters I referenced.
https://ghostbusters.fandom.com/wiki/Ghash
http://supernatural.wikia.com/wiki/Whitman_Van_Ness

[Jack the Reaper]

Hey, great thread! You should have tagged me here

I love your ideas (the one about Maia was an interesting direction), and that was actually the goal of 100 Shades Darker - to offer seeds for inspiration and further expansion by other DMs.
Please keep them coming!

[Leliel]

Hey, great thread! You should have tagged me here

I love your ideas (the one about Maia was an interesting direction), and that was actually the goal of 100 Shades Darker - to offer seeds for inspiration and further expansion by other DMs.
Please keep them coming!

Huh. Don't know how to do that.

Anyhow:

#21, Daniel De Silva: I happen to be a fan of Horns, so let's say he's kind of an inversion of the book's theme and morals. Where Ig comes to accept people at their darkest and learns how to tempt people into less self-destructive decisions (he's a perfect example of someone who failed a couple powers checks but halted his descent, finding redemption-albeit as a what might be an eldarin in D&D, not a human), let's make De Silva a stand-in for Lee Thorneau. More specifically, let's have him as a version of himself who became the manipulator he is purely out of his own selfishness, no brain injury leading to his ego problem. Let's have our actual Ig stand-in, let's call him Roecliff, be someone who was born a tiefling due to a family curse, and always could tease out the darker instincts of people with his voice, but due to his family accepting it wasn't his fault and accepting that was just part of who he was, he became kind and empathetic, if extremely cynical. De Silva befriended him purely to use him as a minion to blackmail others, but then there was a love triangle with a cleric who found herself falling in love with Roecliff during his confessions over his increasing doubts about his loyalty to De Silva, and he found that what darkness he could show...well, wasn't very dark (her worst thoughts were her real feelings on what the church thought of women and demihumans, and a bit of a miserly streak). There was a fight, and Roecliff was murdered-and then De Silva performed his Act of Ultimate Darkness, framing the cleric for it and doing absolutely nothing to prevent her from being lynched. His devilish form is part of her death curse; if he wanted what Roecliff had with her, then he would have everything Roecliff had, including his appearance and being ostracized.

He's since chosen to reinterpret this as simply bringing his own inner darkness to the surface, enhanced by the mutative effects of his powers, the Aura of Stigmatism. Of course, he's dead wrong-the more mutated by his domain's effects (and not powers checks-you succumb to the curse by doing things that are socially wrong, not evil, and given how warped morals are in his homeland, it's actually inevitable that Good people look outright infernal over time) you are, the more you inherently resist his enchantments; people who accept their Jungian shadows find it is less easily tamed by someone who very much hasn't, and is instead just accepting the ideological out of "everyone's is worse than mine!" He exerts influence by secretly peddling a drug that removes mutations, especially to the corrupt religious and governmental institution-it's not addictive, but it might as well be to avoid the more social stigma of the Unclean (though the ones who tell the church where it can stick its concerns call themselves the Revelers, in honor of the unashamed god of music and festivals). Besides the blackmail material, he's known to quietly force people to perform some scandalous actions he knows they have-in public, he claims it's because he loves sin and corruption, but in reality, it's so he has a steady customer base who are willing to pay for the problem just to avoid having their reliance on the drug revealed. His real danger is a moral one-he's figured out powers check-worthy acts do not (blatantly) mutate people, so he's learned how to lead people down the path to becoming creatures of the Mists loyal to him by telling them that the reason they don't suffer Stigma is because they're quietly blessed by the gods in this endeavor. His ambassador, for example, is a false angel (really a vain elf who became a siren when he cultivated her since of racial superiority and desire to manipulate people who wanted to be more like elves).

[The Lesser Evil]

I feel like Dumas, the traitorous psychopomp, maybe should have transformed into a sakhil (Bestiary 5/6) or grim reaper/lesser death (bestiary 5).

[Jack the Reaper]

I feel like Dumas, the traitorous psychopomp, maybe should have transformed into a sakhil (Bestiary 5/6) or grim reaper/lesser death (bestiary 5).

Could be, I just liked too much the memitim picture ^_^

[Jack the Reaper]

Ha, now I've got an idea for a curse for Andrew, the demilich lord of the Castle of Horrors, who was formerly a DM from earth:
He can only feed upon souls of PCs, not NPCs, but since his domain is only mentioned in a short paragraph in Quoth the Raven 25 (and its mirror on DNDSpeak), there are very few DMs who actually are going to send their players into the Castle of Horrors, so he is doomed to remain starved.... until WotC releases a new official Ravenloft edition, including his domain
Pity I didn't think about it when I wrote the article...

[The Lesser Evil]

I've been thinking about combining these guys together to form various clusters or joined lands. In one case, I imagined some parallels between Golarion and a few of these domains. Shimdon's imp-bound city seems like it would make for the capital of a corrupt empire somewhat like Cheliax and/or Taldor, with the domain of the Dreadknights adjacent that act as police force for much of the cluster. Brutus' domain sounds like The Hills Have Eyes feel of the region around Hook Mountain; perhaps it could function as the breadbasket/source of natural resources for the cluster (be sure to throw in food industry influences from the Jungle and factory farms.) Shadrakh seems like he would fit in here too as the coast.

[Jack the Reaper]

Yes, I had similar thoughts. Gebbeleth's domain will also fit in, always plotting to expand his power and occasionally sending troops of monstrous soldiers to engage the dreadknights in battles. Daniel Da Silva, Lilith Lathenus and Anita are another appropriate candidates for this cluster.

Another cluster, with a north-American flavor, can include the domains of the Wendigo, Jess the Left Hand of God, The Phantom Manor, Taitachak and Chomolungma.

Got any names ideas for them?

[Jack the Reaper]

There can also be a fairy-tales cluster, including the domains of the Storyteller, Griselda, Rothbart, Uzhos, Honeytongue and Tash.
(BTW, Uzhos means "fear" in Russian, like Schreck/Shrek in German)

[The Lesser Evil]

...Anita are another appropriate candidates for this cluster.

I forgot to say that Anita probably would make for an interesting darklord for a Mediogalti Island-like island domain off the coast.

[The Lesser Evil]

An alternate idea for Anthony: make him a bit like Ray from the Justice League episode with the Justice Guild, basically a super-psychic who recreates a false, simple, and more idealistic place from the past that was ruined by the adults (through magical disaster, etc._ Everybody is forced to go along and play the roles he assigns them. If you wanted to expand his domain, it could seem like a standard, or even idyllic, fantasy world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8C9jQYZJuI

[Jack the Reaper]

Nice! I haven't watched this series. The bloated-headed child looks like a darklord I created for the next list of 100 Shades of Dark, though...

[Leliel]

For Kazan Khan, we could make him an inversion of Genghis in one big way; Genghis was almost murdered by his blood brother, while Kazan should be someone who turned to kinslaying himself to start with in order to unify his people. On some level, Kazan desperately wants to believe the Neureni need his particular brand of ruthlessness to be a successful people; his curse is not only that the tribes are a minority in his own domain, but he's become an obvious monster who everyone recognizes as such; he can't hide his ambitions behind virtue anymore and expect anyone other than himself to believe it. Nobody looks to him as leader, and everyone remembers him as the source of the curse that threatens to send all Neureni to the Abyss if they don't somehow overcome Irlek's gravity in life, not a good leader.