Thrackazoggg wrote:Valachan reboot turning the domain into a Most Dangerous Game motif. The concept of this one just works for me. Urik Von Kharkov's origin story was always a bit off. The only black NPC of note in the setting, and he's saddled with a somewhat dull backstory about being a panther-were(?) turned vampire. I know doing some research into African folklore was just not a thing back in the early 90s of TSR, but still - what a missed opportunity. We'll see what Chakuna brings to the table.
Am I really the only one here who likes Urik Von Kharkov as a villain?I personally thought the panther story really creative. I still remember the first time I read about him decades ago, I was estranged and intrigued at the same time. Also his story from Tales of Ravenloft thinking of the beast inside him as a kind of curse, although it is his origin, was describing really well his psychology and curse, that after all this forms he is still an animal deep inside. His background as a Kargat vampire that learned about population control from one of the best in the area (Azalin) plus his darklord powers, Felkovik's Cat, Fang of the Nosferatu, three Dungeon magazine adventures set in his domain (or better 2 and 1/89 as the Laughing Man was more of a side treck adventure, and not an interesting one, sorry Paul) Lady Adeline, the Black Leopards and as I 've said in another post his portrait by Stephen Fabian which is probably my favourite darklord portrait. The only problem I had with Valachan was of how to depict it's culture until the 3rd edition. For instance while the White Wolf gazetteer was showing the people of Valachan similar to Andean there was a picture from Felkovik's Cat adventure that looked more like they were inspired by Azerbaijani or Armenian while Urik was depicted more as a evil version of Simón Bolívar.