Mischief wrote:The whole idea has gotten pretty muddled with time though (I haven't been around long enough, but I think most people think it gets everyone).ewancummins wrote:I don't give Azalin any control over it.
I never liked that bit.
As a poster noted above, the Black Box is clear about how it works. Outsiders lose their old memories and come to believe their families have lived in Darkon or in neighboring domains for generations.
The problem that now arises by putting a restriction on it so the BoN only affects outsiders is the BoN looks like a tool the DM inserted for their own convenience than something that it makes sense for Azalin to possess. Unless Azalin is making a point of collecting outsiders and studying their histories for some plot, then it's only a matter of time before outsiders try to pick a fight with him or break in to his castle, which I imagine canon Azalin detests.
Why not make BoN universal in Ravenloft affecting all outsiders and Azalin just happens to have it at his castle then?
Like ewancummins, I don't give Azalin any control over it. I also don't have a BoN. The claiming is a natural feature of Darkon, and one that's not particularly known, since everyone already knows Outsiders are crazy (they tell stories about silly things, like worlds where there aren't any Mists!) and they are the only ones affected by it, so even if they do notice it, its not something they can explain to natives.
I suspect that the claiming does, however, serve as a small frustration for Azalin. Outsiders are probably one of the more promising opportunities Azalin has to enact plans to escape Ravenloft, or at least to further his goals and research in that regard. Having them forget they are outsiders in the first place makes it harder for him to use them in several ways, I suspect.