Hey guys,
As much as I love the Quoth the Raven and Sea Scrolls, I do think sometimes it's just easier to post ideas and throw them out before springing them on my players.
Some of my worst failures at writing were stopped because of the mailing lists thread.
This is a thread for all your home brew domains and also 're-imaginings' of domains into new forms that fit better your tone. In fact, just post the modifications of existing domains if you want to.
The new Domain and Domain's "Re-imagined thread"
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Willowhugger
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 218
- Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 1:14 am
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Willowhugger
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 218
- Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 1:14 am
This is just my adaptation of Silent Hill into Ravenloft.
Whispering Meadow
Demidomain
The Land where Every Man is a Dark Lord and Every Man a King of his own Private Hell
The Book of Souls is a object of power that has been used very rarely in Ravenloft, for it is a direct tie to the Dark Powers. Only one time in its existence was it ever used to try and incarnate one of the Darknesses into the physical world. The spell let loose caused the entire population of the Modent village it was cast in to be ripped into the darkness beyond and vanish without a trace.
Whispering Hill is unpopulated, officially, but it exerts a strange influence on certain individuals that can and does result in individuals thinking the place is populated fully and still active as a thriving part of the land. This can extend to people walking into the town and dwelling there for a time without any sense there's something wrong. Curiously, the domain has recently begun to move and it takes on the appearence of a place's local and individuals who enter it may suddenly develop memories that they were from this place or it holds some special importance to them.
It is also clear that the place IS inhabited but it's not inhabited by anything physical. Instead, the servants of the Dark Powers dwell in the ever present mist and are shaped into physical things by the forces of the town.
Culture and Geography: Whispering Meadow's incarnation is going to be shaped by the experiences of the PCs to no small extent. Their longings, their desires, and their feelings manifest themselves in places to tend their wounds and fill their personal needs (bar with favorite drink, brothel with a girl with that 'special something', church of their deity). The place is not blatantly a paradise but it is a place that caters to what is missing from a person and usually is someplace deeply soothing that fits the ideals of all members of the party as best it can without tipping them off that something's wrong. The exception to this is the innocent who find the place completely empty and deserted. Even then, they often find themselves seperated from the rest of the group.
Gradually, Whispering Meadow will start pulling out desires that the PCs have that are a bit more intimately related to their troubles. The PCs causally find their father's lost sword, a slain romantic love of their distant past has an exact duplicate in the place, or a PC finds causally a reference to a dead family member whose demise set them on their quest. More and more clearly the impossible is here and born from their darkest and most tortured longings.
It is during this time that the PCs may start flashing images of nightmars amongst this paradise where for moments they are found in a twisted parody of their childhood homes or in hellacious charnel houses. It is during this time that they most certainly will discover that they are not 'alone' in this place of illusions. The enemies of the past, their worst fears, and greatest guilts are drawn forth by the house and gradually become real.
Whispering Meadow turns the past and most important moments or beliefs of a PC against them as it ultimately will test their morality and sanity to the very limit. If they hold to their morality or redemption then Whispering Meadows may send other tortured souls they've caught in this place but whom are still alive against them and likely will simply let them go at the end (it rarely holds anyone more than 24 hours). If they turn to evil, embrace the 'gifts' of Whispering Meadow despite their curse, make a pact with the force behind it, or commit suicide to join with the power behind it, then they will be taken into their own domains in the darkness and never seen again.
It is important to realize that not everyone is "fake" in Whispering meadows and sometimes innocents are brought in just to prevent 'guests' from necessarily taking the world for granted. The created are often very clearly REALLY the person left behind (or at least how they remember it) and are innocents despite their unknowing service to the darkness of Whispering Hill. It may even be a legitimate way of 'ressurection' in some ways of looking at it. Though a person who takes their love from Whispering Hill may find them fading away, alive but....different, or having invited the devil to his bed.
Closing the Border: Whispering Meadow closes it's domain almost as soon as they have developed their trap and this usually manifests simply as a huge fog that always leads back to Whispering Meadow but gradually includes deep craigs, lava pools, monsters, and more as the nightmare continues. However, at the start it is merely something uneasy that keeps its victims from leaving.
Personality: Whispering Meadow is like a Dark Power without any sense of justice. The Domain wants more than anything to know "just how much would you GIVE for your deepest and darkest desire?" It wants to know how much you'd sacrifice, how much pain you'd go through, and how much your morality means to you if it means getting what you don't have.
Whispering Meadow even obeys the mind of the PCs to some extent as their nightmares are their nightmares to twist to some extent but at heart, it loves it's 'children' and will never let go those who 'agree' with it that people will always choose their heart's content over ethics. Sometimes it satisfies even perverse desires like a person's need for torture over guilt.
Whispering Meadow
Demidomain
The Land where Every Man is a Dark Lord and Every Man a King of his own Private Hell
The Book of Souls is a object of power that has been used very rarely in Ravenloft, for it is a direct tie to the Dark Powers. Only one time in its existence was it ever used to try and incarnate one of the Darknesses into the physical world. The spell let loose caused the entire population of the Modent village it was cast in to be ripped into the darkness beyond and vanish without a trace.
Whispering Hill is unpopulated, officially, but it exerts a strange influence on certain individuals that can and does result in individuals thinking the place is populated fully and still active as a thriving part of the land. This can extend to people walking into the town and dwelling there for a time without any sense there's something wrong. Curiously, the domain has recently begun to move and it takes on the appearence of a place's local and individuals who enter it may suddenly develop memories that they were from this place or it holds some special importance to them.
It is also clear that the place IS inhabited but it's not inhabited by anything physical. Instead, the servants of the Dark Powers dwell in the ever present mist and are shaped into physical things by the forces of the town.
Culture and Geography: Whispering Meadow's incarnation is going to be shaped by the experiences of the PCs to no small extent. Their longings, their desires, and their feelings manifest themselves in places to tend their wounds and fill their personal needs (bar with favorite drink, brothel with a girl with that 'special something', church of their deity). The place is not blatantly a paradise but it is a place that caters to what is missing from a person and usually is someplace deeply soothing that fits the ideals of all members of the party as best it can without tipping them off that something's wrong. The exception to this is the innocent who find the place completely empty and deserted. Even then, they often find themselves seperated from the rest of the group.
Gradually, Whispering Meadow will start pulling out desires that the PCs have that are a bit more intimately related to their troubles. The PCs causally find their father's lost sword, a slain romantic love of their distant past has an exact duplicate in the place, or a PC finds causally a reference to a dead family member whose demise set them on their quest. More and more clearly the impossible is here and born from their darkest and most tortured longings.
It is during this time that the PCs may start flashing images of nightmars amongst this paradise where for moments they are found in a twisted parody of their childhood homes or in hellacious charnel houses. It is during this time that they most certainly will discover that they are not 'alone' in this place of illusions. The enemies of the past, their worst fears, and greatest guilts are drawn forth by the house and gradually become real.
Whispering Meadow turns the past and most important moments or beliefs of a PC against them as it ultimately will test their morality and sanity to the very limit. If they hold to their morality or redemption then Whispering Meadows may send other tortured souls they've caught in this place but whom are still alive against them and likely will simply let them go at the end (it rarely holds anyone more than 24 hours). If they turn to evil, embrace the 'gifts' of Whispering Meadow despite their curse, make a pact with the force behind it, or commit suicide to join with the power behind it, then they will be taken into their own domains in the darkness and never seen again.
It is important to realize that not everyone is "fake" in Whispering meadows and sometimes innocents are brought in just to prevent 'guests' from necessarily taking the world for granted. The created are often very clearly REALLY the person left behind (or at least how they remember it) and are innocents despite their unknowing service to the darkness of Whispering Hill. It may even be a legitimate way of 'ressurection' in some ways of looking at it. Though a person who takes their love from Whispering Hill may find them fading away, alive but....different, or having invited the devil to his bed.
Closing the Border: Whispering Meadow closes it's domain almost as soon as they have developed their trap and this usually manifests simply as a huge fog that always leads back to Whispering Meadow but gradually includes deep craigs, lava pools, monsters, and more as the nightmare continues. However, at the start it is merely something uneasy that keeps its victims from leaving.
Personality: Whispering Meadow is like a Dark Power without any sense of justice. The Domain wants more than anything to know "just how much would you GIVE for your deepest and darkest desire?" It wants to know how much you'd sacrifice, how much pain you'd go through, and how much your morality means to you if it means getting what you don't have.
Whispering Meadow even obeys the mind of the PCs to some extent as their nightmares are their nightmares to twist to some extent but at heart, it loves it's 'children' and will never let go those who 'agree' with it that people will always choose their heart's content over ethics. Sometimes it satisfies even perverse desires like a person's need for torture over guilt.
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Willowhugger
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 218
- Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 1:14 am
Sithicus Revised
Sithicus Revised
Tech Level: Medieval
The new Domain of Sithicus is one that never had Lord Soth as it's Lord but another Lord entirely. The "Black Knight" rules from a court that he only rarely ventures from and it is a delapidated and horrendous castle that was once majestic and beautiful but is now a shadow of its former glory that is haunted by Skeletal Knights and Banshees that ape the wonders of the Court of the High King of old but butcher any who approach them with the reminder that they are not amongst the living anymore.
People: The people of the domain of Sithicus are divided into the serfdom class and the aristocracy whom all claim to be kings of various petty kingdoms that range from the size of baronies to great Duchies that could very well conquer the other lands and become Kingdoms. Indeed, it is the greatest note of other nations that the chief hobby of Sithicans is war.
The serfs of Sithicus care nothing for the wars around them and largely simply tend their farmland while paying the exorbiant taxes necessary to fund the ever present contests of arms. The serfs take a great deal of solace in their religion due to the fact that many of the knights are not so noble as their chivalry portends and enjoy themselves at their expense or attempt to deprive the enemy of resources. They are not allowed weapons, boots, or horses of their own as part of the local rules.
The noble houses of Sithicus are possessed of a strange duality in their personalities. The nobility focus constantly on upholding impossible codes of honor and value to the point of ludicrousness. The majority of them hold some aspect to their personalities that prevents them from reaching this impossible ideal though and it causes many of them to become that much more condemning of others in their behavior. Some of the most 'sucessful' nobles are those who drop all honor in private yet publically use it as a weapon. Of particular oddity is lust and the fact that sexuality outside of the pure ideal is reviled.
One of the main points of contention is the Crown of the High Kingship, that is being held in The Dark Castle and other regalia most believe will result in the reclaiming of the land. Many brave and valiant knights have gone to reclaim it from the Black Knight but all have failed in their attempts to reclaim it.
Small communities of elves, dwarves, and faeries live in this domain but they are actually resettled Shadow Fey and seem equally caught up in the fervor of the domain's relentless posturing.
History: The domain of Sithicus was once a united land under a great and glorious High King whom was annointed under the god Belenus with the aid of the druids whom saw that he was chosen for his great courage and honor. The High King, whom no one can name now, was betrayed from within his household by his wife and sister along with closest friend. In the end, he and his entire Royal Guard were lost and the majority of the nobility wiped out on one terrible day.
The surviving nobles turned upon one another with incredible fury and have since engaged the land in endless bloodshed ever since over the High Kingship. All of the nobility is related to the High King through marriage or lineage of one kind or another and those whose line is farther than others tend to use dishonorable deeds real or imagined to blacken the name of those whom are ahead of them. Alliances are short lived in this land with 'oathbreaking' making an individual a persona-non-grata. Yet, the politics means that very few truly have never broken an oath whether real or imagined and thus everyone is believed to be vile by SOMEONE.
There is two other movements in the Realm that potentially address this issue outside the endless war. The Druids speak of a prophecy known as that of the 'Once and Future King' that will come reborn from the land's inhabitants to reclaim the regalia and reunite the land. The other is the Black Knight himself whom some believe to be the former King or perhaps his Champion or perhaps even his son. The Black Knight is known to occasionally deliver messages and challenges to the Knights that often end the more devastating wars or even unite clans. His word is law but the outside observer has noted he also seems to keep the nobles from ever having a truly lasting advantage or peace as well.
There are other problems in the land with the Church of Ezra gaining a powerful root from it's missionaries from Borca and attempting largely to stamp out the druidism that many blame for the incessent fighting. Many peasants find the religion soothing and other nobles will do anything for a new advantage to the point of conversion from the religion of their ancestors.
Closed Borders: The Borders close with an army of spectral knights that appear endlessly, the entire sum of those killed in the conflicts in this domain and whom reform if any are slain.
Dark Lord: Same stats as Soth....VERY different origin.
Tech Level: Medieval
The new Domain of Sithicus is one that never had Lord Soth as it's Lord but another Lord entirely. The "Black Knight" rules from a court that he only rarely ventures from and it is a delapidated and horrendous castle that was once majestic and beautiful but is now a shadow of its former glory that is haunted by Skeletal Knights and Banshees that ape the wonders of the Court of the High King of old but butcher any who approach them with the reminder that they are not amongst the living anymore.
People: The people of the domain of Sithicus are divided into the serfdom class and the aristocracy whom all claim to be kings of various petty kingdoms that range from the size of baronies to great Duchies that could very well conquer the other lands and become Kingdoms. Indeed, it is the greatest note of other nations that the chief hobby of Sithicans is war.
The serfs of Sithicus care nothing for the wars around them and largely simply tend their farmland while paying the exorbiant taxes necessary to fund the ever present contests of arms. The serfs take a great deal of solace in their religion due to the fact that many of the knights are not so noble as their chivalry portends and enjoy themselves at their expense or attempt to deprive the enemy of resources. They are not allowed weapons, boots, or horses of their own as part of the local rules.
The noble houses of Sithicus are possessed of a strange duality in their personalities. The nobility focus constantly on upholding impossible codes of honor and value to the point of ludicrousness. The majority of them hold some aspect to their personalities that prevents them from reaching this impossible ideal though and it causes many of them to become that much more condemning of others in their behavior. Some of the most 'sucessful' nobles are those who drop all honor in private yet publically use it as a weapon. Of particular oddity is lust and the fact that sexuality outside of the pure ideal is reviled.
One of the main points of contention is the Crown of the High Kingship, that is being held in The Dark Castle and other regalia most believe will result in the reclaiming of the land. Many brave and valiant knights have gone to reclaim it from the Black Knight but all have failed in their attempts to reclaim it.
Small communities of elves, dwarves, and faeries live in this domain but they are actually resettled Shadow Fey and seem equally caught up in the fervor of the domain's relentless posturing.
History: The domain of Sithicus was once a united land under a great and glorious High King whom was annointed under the god Belenus with the aid of the druids whom saw that he was chosen for his great courage and honor. The High King, whom no one can name now, was betrayed from within his household by his wife and sister along with closest friend. In the end, he and his entire Royal Guard were lost and the majority of the nobility wiped out on one terrible day.
The surviving nobles turned upon one another with incredible fury and have since engaged the land in endless bloodshed ever since over the High Kingship. All of the nobility is related to the High King through marriage or lineage of one kind or another and those whose line is farther than others tend to use dishonorable deeds real or imagined to blacken the name of those whom are ahead of them. Alliances are short lived in this land with 'oathbreaking' making an individual a persona-non-grata. Yet, the politics means that very few truly have never broken an oath whether real or imagined and thus everyone is believed to be vile by SOMEONE.
There is two other movements in the Realm that potentially address this issue outside the endless war. The Druids speak of a prophecy known as that of the 'Once and Future King' that will come reborn from the land's inhabitants to reclaim the regalia and reunite the land. The other is the Black Knight himself whom some believe to be the former King or perhaps his Champion or perhaps even his son. The Black Knight is known to occasionally deliver messages and challenges to the Knights that often end the more devastating wars or even unite clans. His word is law but the outside observer has noted he also seems to keep the nobles from ever having a truly lasting advantage or peace as well.
There are other problems in the land with the Church of Ezra gaining a powerful root from it's missionaries from Borca and attempting largely to stamp out the druidism that many blame for the incessent fighting. Many peasants find the religion soothing and other nobles will do anything for a new advantage to the point of conversion from the religion of their ancestors.
Closed Borders: The Borders close with an army of spectral knights that appear endlessly, the entire sum of those killed in the conflicts in this domain and whom reform if any are slain.
Dark Lord: Same stats as Soth....VERY different origin.