Year 780 is close!

[Mistmaster]

It might. But I still prefer the idea of him dieing in a final duel against his former best friend Gondagal. They are the founders of Falkovmia in the Mistworld, and I think it fits for a new Falkovnia to begin with their mutual destruction.

[The Dark]

Brainstorming briefly on other alternatives for Die Drakov Die!, because I like people to have options:

Starting with the poison options, there's just the basic Red Widow if we want to chump-dump Drakov and emphasize that he was a rather pathetic Darklord (a terrible person, but just not up to the level of Ravenloft's supernatural horrors).

Second would be an ermordenung sent by Ivana. A little more directed than a random Red Widow, and fitting all the personalities involved.

Moving over to the Children of the Night books, Jander Sunstar. While mostly a vampire hunter, he's not exactly a fan of Vlad.

Vjorn Horstman would be another possibility, although probably by accident when a Primal Serum test gets out of hand and one of his super-soldiers breaks loose.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Okay.
So back to the technological angle.

I think Mordent would have a hard time starting to industrialize, because of the whole 'the restless dead enforce the old ways' thing. Many of the ghosts would want the domain to stay as it always was, and they'd impose difficulties on anyone trying to research and spread a technology that could significantly change it.
However, I think some people would keep trying. It'd be a conflict between the past and the future, tradition and progress - a conflict we can build plots around.
I'd absolutely play a campaign that's about a bunch of artificers trying to design, install and activate a train between Blackburn Crossing and Mordentshire while dealing with frequent, increasingly dangerous hauntings.

And then we have Lamordia. An incredibly science-minded domain, failing to realise they live in a fantasy world. TBH they never made sense to me, cause I think part of scientific thinking is being willing to forgo a hypothesis that was disproven. A really good scientist in a fantasy world wouldn't be like 'This can't be magic cuz magic isn't real' - she'd be like 'Okay, we have magic, let's find out how it works and why!'
I'd like a conflict somwhow confronting the Lamordian scientists with their logical fallacy. They'd have to either start researching the supernatural principles controlling their world, or become the scholarly equivalent of Vlad Drakov.

I know Darkon is considered 'dark-age to chivalric', but they have a very high literacy rate, trade with pretty much everyone else in the core, and have a practical enough attitude towards magic to try combining it with technology. I think the only thing stopping them from advancing really fast is the system. Every aspect of Darkonian society is designed to keep the people timid to the point of paranoia, and this sort of a culture doesn't encourage curiousity or experimentation.
So if I may offer a radical idea...
Azalin tried escaping once more, resulting in the TOUD - maybe even succeeding, but only temporarily. While he was gone, the people decided they're kinda tired of a king who demands blind loyalty but keeps abandoning them, and a peasant uprising started. The Kagrat had already crumbled due to infighting and vampire hunters. Both The Eternal Order and the Nevuchar Springs sect of CoE are now considered obsolete as the apocalypses they predicted already came and passed - giving way to Ezra's non-evil sects and to the Church of the Overseer (that by now got out of the Kagrat's control and started giving real cleric spells by the power of placebo ).
You'd expect the domain to be on fire, but no! they formed a democratic government, and started experimenting with magic-based technology advancing them to CL 11 - and when Azalin finally comes back, 5 or 10 years from now, he's going to find out his domain is doing just fine without him. He'd be trapped there again, but this time with no political power, and with his magical power no longer being so special! He'd find himself irrelevant, no longer feared or admired, and realise how foolish he was to keep chasing what he could never have rather than be content with what he was given. Then again, might be too radical.

[Mistmaster]

I have always shared your opinion on magic and Lamordia. That is the reason in my version of the realm they see magic as snother form of science.

[The Dark]

One thing that's popped up with Darkon during past shenanigans is that it won't be without some sort of power trying to run it. When Azalin vanished after the Requiem, the realm divided into seven mini-realms (which would each be a decent-sized domain in their own right, given how big Darkon is) with each having a demilord that was being tested by the Dark Powers to see which (if any) was evil enough to become a new Darklord. Only Lowellyn Dachine/Death ended up "succeeding," remaining the Lord of Necropolis after Azalin's return.

I think the other six (Trillen Mistwalker, Glennis McFadden, Galf Kloggin, Beryl Silvertress, Yako Vormoff, and Damon Skragg) are all still around as of Gaz II. Maybe they get a second chance at claiming their own domains, or maybe the Powers take interest in other candidates after their failures.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

One thing that's popped up with Darkon during past shenanigans is that it won't be without some sort of power trying to run it. When Azalin vanished after the Requiem, the realm divided into seven mini-realms (which would each be a decent-sized domain in their own right, given how big Darkon is) with each having a demilord that was being tested by the Dark Powers to see which (if any) was evil enough to become a new Darklord. Only Lowellyn Dachine/Death ended up "succeeding," remaining the Lord of Necropolis after Azalin's return.

I think the other six (Trillen Mistwalker, Glennis McFadden, Galf Kloggin, Beryl Silvertress, Yako Vormoff, and Damon Skragg) are all still around as of Gaz II. Maybe they get a second chance at claiming their own domains, or maybe the Powers take interest in other candidates after their failures.

I know about the requiem. I just wanted to do something different this time.

VRGtR basically did the 'demilord competition again but different candidates' angle. I wanna be original.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Moving over to the Children of the Night books, Jander Sunstar. While mostly a vampire hunter, he's not exactly a fan of Vlad.

Now that's an interesting option. The most human vampire VS the most vampire-like human...

(Side note: it will never stop being funny to me that RL has darklord expies of both the historical and the literary Dracula)

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I think Harkon Lukas is still very much alive, but not quite what he used to be. The DPs have slowed his aging but not that much, and maybe rumours of his sinister side have caused younger people to 'cancel' him.

Harkon stepped down from the Meistersinger position a few years ago, and everyone assume he'd retired from performing as well - he hadn't, and he's tired of people thinking he had.
Now he endlessly struggles to keep up with the new trends in order to stay relevant, and fails miserably.
To dump some salt on his wounds, this is exactly when some change in the realm (Maybe a southren sea appearing? I'd like making up that one) starts making Kartakass less backwatery, meaning he would've had the perfect opportunity to start amassing power - if only he had the energy and supporters.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I have a really cool idea for Nova Vassa, but first I need to know: Is there a conversion of the Analyst prestige class to 5e?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Explanation:

I saw once a tumblr post complaining that 'I miss it when Disney villains were actually evil and not some generational trauma ----'. Someone commented - IDK if jokingly or seriously - that 'Generational trauma is the real evil!'

I'm telling this anecdote cause this is Malken in a nutshell. He's created out of the suppressed trauma of a 10-yo boy who fell victim to domestic abuse, then found himself turning into the abuser.
Or at least that's what I think it's a metaphor for. I won't get into what parts of the story are a magical curse and what's in Tristen's head, I don't think it matters that much.
What I am saying is that the question of Malken's future host is actually a question of whether or not the trauma is passed to the next generation, do we repeat the same wrongs that were done to us, or break the cycle.

So my idea is, that the way to break the curse and truly defeat Malken, is for the current host to accept the suppressed memories that form him. To dive into both the family history and his own childhood traumas. And to start healing.
This would not be easy - this means recalling every single one of Malken's crimes, accepting what was done to you and what you've done, and overcoming the pain and guilt of those deeds while also taking responsibility to not repeat them. And of course, there's always the risk of awakening Malken in the process...

And this is why Tristen - or whoever has the misfortune of inheriting him - needs a really good therapist, who'd also know what to do with a patient that transforms into a monster when triggered.
It would probably be easier to write as a fanfic, but I think it could work as a very unusual, very roleplay-centered solo adventure.

If this succeeds and Malken is no more, I think the domain would pass to the next greatest evil in Nova Vassa - probably Prince Othmar. How would the domain adjust itself to him?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Regarding Hazlan - I think VRGtR actually hit the spot there:
The Red Academy had been open for 40 years, producing almost two generations of amoral wizards - and we know that for all its faults, it gives equal opportunities to the Rashmeni. Even if the Mulan weren't wiped out, the racial conflict would have quickly become insignificant in the face of the actual, tangible gap in power between spellcasters and non-spellcasters.
About the same time, they'd also start feeling the consequences of reckless experimentation with dark magic: The ground is charged with arcane energy and rendered unstable, prone to (un)natural disasters; abberrations that escaped from one laboratory or another and started reproducing invade the ecosystem; And of course, increased birth rates of calibans and other planetouched (In this opportunity, may I reccomend Pointy Hat's arcaneborn? https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2P ... FgsSDg/pub. ).

With so many calibans around, I like the idea of Hazlani society having to do something about them. There just aren't enough basements. Now, 'Something' can be very good or very bad. But I like the idea of a 'caliban rights movement' starting.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Something just occurred to me about Hazlik.
Was his plan, like, to spend the next 50 years in a woman's body?
The guy who had such a fragile masculinity he tortured and murdered his former crush for tattooing him with feminine symbols? (Like, I'd be upset if someone tattooed me against my will regardless of the tattoo's shape, but the gender aspect seems to have been a big factor in this for him)
Even barring that. As one who has some experience with being a man stuck in a woman's body (I didn't kill and possess a girl. Relax. I'm just trans.), it's... Something I wouldn't say in front of my grandma.
And... Like, he could use magic or other means to give himself a more masculine form. But this would require one hell of an explanation! (I like the idea of the Rashmeni mages seeing Eleni as a hero of their people, so Hazlik is always admired for who he isn't. - and would piss off a lot of powerful people if they find out what he did to her.)
Of course, he could pretend to simply be trans - but remember what happened last time he tried to come out?
So he basically doomed himself to decades of gender dysphoria - as well as reliving his greatest humiliation.
And, well, he could just take a third identity, couldn't he?

My theory is that it wouldn't matter. Every form Hazlik takes will have a new way to constantly remind him of his past. Maybe when Eleni's body dies he'll take that of a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Orliab.
The idea is this:
Hazlik is an amazing mage. He can change the world around him in ways we can only imagine. Magic gave him power, magic gave him revenge, magic gave him a new body - but no spell can ever replace the psychological process he needs to do with himself. As long as he doesn't let go, no change to the external reality can grant him peace.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

He may simply anticipate casting alter self at need, or else sees Eleni's body as a stop-over while looking for a male host.
Or, given his amulet already warps any new body that wears it into a copy of his own, he expects to change into 'himself' anyway.

[doctornecrotic]

I've dabbled with this idea alongside my own metaplot that had some crossover with Planescape and even Spelljammer and Greyhawk. A cult of the Demiurge, a wannabe Oinoloth, messages/thoughts leaking to and from the Demiplane, an ultroloth somehow-darklord pretending to be the Oinoloth, Vecna exploding into paradoxical shards of reality, and other weird planar gimmicks.

As for the Demiplane itself? War. Lots of war. Vlad and Malocchio get what they want and violence tears up the western core. Civil war and zealotry carve up the eastern side. The war only really pauses because an unfathomable horror (see above) begins unleashing untold madness.

[Teravala]

I have a really cool idea for Nova Vassa, but first I need to know: Is there a conversion of the Analyst prestige class to 5e?

I haven't seen anything like that, sadly a lot of the established classes and lore kind of went out the window in 5e.