Shadow Domains

[KingCorn]

One problem I've always had with the core is the Necropolis and the Shadowrift, these giant no-go zones. Cause while there are plenty of things about Ravenloft that don't make sense, having people disbelieve magic or gods when a city of zombies exists and a giant hole of darkness just shows up. I like Arak and I like Necropolis as ideas but not the execution.

One solution I have comes from the Dread Possibility from Falkovnia: Shadow Cities. The idea that there are domains that can only be accessed by shadows, a sort of deeper level to the Land of Mists reserved for particular evils, such as outsiders.

Perhaps Il Aluk did not explode/get covered in a permanent death shroud, but instead created a pocket domain that lies within the shadows. Everyone in the city, from an outsiders perspective, disappeared in an explosion of black light. While people have resettled the city, it is now a place of suspicion, the epicenter of a shadow war between Azalin and Death, where the dead do not obey Azalin nor the Eternal Order.

Perhaps the great conjunction did not leave a hole in the core, but instead a large tract of land now clear of people. Now one knows where the people of Markovia or G'Henna went, all they know is that there's a lot of land to settle, and it started a war of land grabbing between Falkovnia, Borca, Darkon, Barovia, and Nova Vassa. The pickings are good, but conflict in constant, and things seem to live in the shadows. Often times settlers go mad, or just disappear. Many speak of a world of faeries that exists in the shadows. And in the center of the land, a dark shadowy void appears some nights (the shadow cast by the Obsidian Gate onto the core)

It could be that Shadow Domains are how the Dark Powers deal with Darklords of Outsider origin

[Mistmaster]

Not many people disbelieve in magic, the majority of people simply fear and mistrust it. However, Necropolis and the Shadowrift are things I have discarded too.

[Mischief]

I agree with most all of this. I interpret the big hole in the Core map center as an invitation for the DM to make up their own domain to plunk down there. The rest of the problem I think could be solved by actually having a properly sized Ravenloft continent at least 800 miles across, so information and cultures actually have to travel a ways. I don't hate Necropolis, but Darkon is simply too small to accommodate it.

[ewancummins]

I like your shadow domains concept.


I once posted a Nightmare Lands variant for the Core (the Nightmare Lands was part of the Core until the Grand Conjunction).
In that version, the domain appeared as open grasslands and low hills but anyone who fell asleep there entered the Nightmare Lands.

Although I have run a (slightly variant) postGC game, I actually prefer the original geography of the Core to what came later.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Even with Bluetspur included?

[ewancummins]

Even with Bluetspur included?

Yes, although my personal , never-quite-finished, version of Bluetspur is less alien, at least above ground.
It's still an unsettled mountainous region with weird rock formations, but with more wildlife and vegetation than the Black Box describes.

[The Lesser Evil]

A number of plot threads- like Darkon's attempts to attempts to build/find a new road/center of trade due to the main roads through Il Aluk being broken by the Shroud, or the Requiem's biological effects throughout the rest of Darkon- are based upon the Requiem occurring. How would you handle these in the proposed Shadow Domain Ravenloft, or would the need to be abandoned?

What sort of terrain would replace Markovia and G'Henna? Or would the terrain map largely be the same, minus the civilizations? Would the land grabs escalate into all-out war or just be limited to minor skirmishes given the cursed nature of the land?

[KingCorn]

A number of plot threads- like Darkon's attempts to attempts to build/find a new road/center of trade due to the main roads through Il Aluk being broken by the Shroud, or the Requiem's biological effects throughout the rest of Darkon- are based upon the Requiem occurring. How would you handle these in the proposed Shadow Domain Ravenloft, or would the need to be abandoned?

What sort of terrain would replace Markovia and G'Henna? Or would the terrain map largely be the same, minus the civilizations? Would the land grabs escalate into all-out war or just be limited to minor skirmishes given the cursed nature of the land?

I would just toss the Darkon threads for the most part. I figure there would be an attempt cause the Requiem would cause such a bad reputation that people wouldn't trust Il Aluk anymore.

As for the Shadow Rift, the terrain would remain the same, just the people would be gone. While there would be plenty of attempts to grab land and colonies, it would never get far cause the area has become...strange. The whole area is basically a Misty Border for Arak, and reality begins to break down as one gets deeper into the domain. That, fey going in an out all the time, and the leftover cursed things from Markovia and G'Henna makes it difficult to establish too deeply. Thus its mostly fighting the land itself.

[Starscream]

Shadowrift and Necropolis have alwyas make me thinking "hell, what decision have created those?"
I frankly dislike more Necropolis than the Shadowrift, they don't match my idea of Ravenloft.

So in my campaign Il Aluk is still a living city and not Necroplis exists, I keep it as an idea for some other city somewhere else, but with less importance.
I have then cut the Shadowrift, using the brilliant idea on Quoth the Raven 22, the Ustalav Gazetteer.
I have always liked Ustalav in Pathfinder, since it is the "horror" region of Pathfinder. Having it in Ravenloft is what I could have asked for.
So the Shadowrift became a sort of "Underdark" if you let me use the Forgotten Realms concept. It is UNDER the core, with some access spread everywhere. So I can use the Shadowrift and every concept that fits a Underdark region.

the concept of a "shadow" domain still intrigue me though, and I am planning to build the Shadow Empire, a domain built around the shadowari (from Forgotten Realms)

[kourkenko]

In my group of players, i've two planescape fans so i'm trying to put planar travel in my campaign. Of course this "plane" would not be infinite and i think Necropolis and the Arak would fit inside, as Bluetspur, Monadhan and Sunderheart for examples.
I'm working currently on it and i would like to have opinions and advices about it. I'm taking inspiration from the two first Insidious movies, Vanishing on the 7th street and the game Don't Starve. I'm currently working on domains inside and i will make a map for easier vizualisation. English isn't my first language, nor the second one ^^ so you will find typos and mistakes.

https://mega.nz/#!ymxR2IiS!Otis0NVMRNwC ... V-EQBnE4FI

Travelling this place and discovering its mysteries is REALLY dangerous ! And it's the main purpose of it because my players asked for higher level content for numerous years. I would like to have help designing a darklord for the so-called Darklands.

[KingCorn]

In my group of players, i've two planescape fans so i'm trying to put planar travel in my campaign. Of course this "plane" would not be infinite and i think Necropolis and the Arak would fit inside, as Bluetspur, Monadhan and Sunderheart for examples.
I'm working currently on it and i would like to have opinions and advices about it. I'm taking inspiration from the two first Insidious movies, Vanishing on the 7th street and the game Don't Starve. I'm currently working on domains inside and i will make a map for easier vizualisation. English isn't my first language, nor the second one ^^ so you will find typos and mistakes.

https://mega.nz/#!ymxR2IiS!Otis0NVMRNwC ... V-EQBnE4FI

Travelling this place and discovering its mysteries is REALLY dangerous ! And it's the main purpose of it because my players asked for higher level content for numerous years. I would like to have help designing a darklord for the so-called Darklands.

Honestly, this seems more like a part of the Grey Wastes of Hades than the demiplane of dread, it could be a part where the two almost intersect. As for a Darklord, you already have the Headless Horseman.
If you don't want the Horseman as lord, it could be a fallen paladin, who during an assault on the lower planes that went awry had to abandon his friends to save himself. Now he is trapped in the Neverwhere, convinced he has been damned for his sins (which in a way he has), but thinks if he has a successful assault with another group of adventurers, such as the PC's, he can finally absolve himself. In the end, he always ends up betraying them to save his own skin.

[kourkenko]

I was never too much into planar stuff, i had to look at the forgotten realm wiki for the grey wastes. i didn't even knew it was destroyed... Well, i'll just say it's difficult to be original after the wheel of plans created for planescape, it's just my point of view about a shadow plane filled with negative energy and, with honesty, if i present just a classical shadow plane to my players, they'll know exactly what to expect from it and i can already see the bored look they'll throw at me... I'll stay with the second edition canon: Ravenkoft is in a crystal sphere located in the deep etheral (heavily implied in the spelljammer setting)

And for a darklors, i've already a dracolich (or dracowraith in the 5th edition), tieflings and a god brain (and some others i'm working on), i'll have to find something more... creepy for the Darklands