Dread Elemental Domains

[Galeros]

14 is a netbook, dude!

Maybe we should submit Blood, Graves, Pyre, and Mists first? Three of those four are at least partly done, and they tie in most closely with canon sources.
The other ones can be part of a follow on article or series.

If ManofEvil submits his Burning City domain for the same issue, he could possibly link it to "Pyre", as previously suggested.

I'm still down for brainstorming/doing work on all the domains, as the inspiration comes to use, of course!

Yeah, I agree that submitting the ones that are most tied to the classical elements first works well. I already have a pretty good image of what I want Mist to look like, I may also include a tie to Ezra.

[ewancummins]

Kewl beans!

[Manofevil]

What you guys are talking about with the maggots sounds vaguely like the most recent incarnation of the mummy, you know, with the insects constantly eating the man alive.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Trying to come up with a full set of para- and quasi-elemental domains may, IMO, be taking a good idea a step too far. Some of them may be cool ideas, but with so many to decide upon, others are bound to be a bit lame. :-/

Maybe it'd be better to have those suggestions that do seem interesting be pocket domains within the larger elemental domains, rather than completely separate places. A scab/clot/hematoma-themed haunted estate could exist within the Domain of Blood, for example, and the Burning City can simply be an urban enclave surrounded by the Domain of Pyre. That would make the full elemental domains a bit more varied and interesting as adventure settings, without us getting bogged down in trying to decide what's a good negative-energy-plus-Mists (or whatever) combination.

Not trying to be a party pooper, I just don't want to see good ideas get tossed out because they don't fit the para-/quasi- framework. This way, we can fit in both "scab" and "fever" themes, among other advantages, without worrying about breaking a symmetry that's possibly more constraining than useful.

[Galeros]

Trying to come up with a full set of para- and quasi-elemental domains may, IMO, be taking a good idea a step too far. Some of them may be cool ideas, but with so many to decide upon, others are bound to be a bit lame. :-/

Well, I already feel like I have good ideas for most of them anyways. Ewan also already has some ideas for Noxious Fumes and Toxin, so I think none of them are going to be lame. At least I think so.

[ewancummins]

I do like the idea of pocket domains within the four 'Ravenloft elemental' - domains.

I've followed Galeros' ideas on this one, because he got this project started.

Roti brings up some good points.

If you ask me, I really don't think we need an elaborate 'Ravenloft Inner Planar' cosmography with quasi and para planar equivalents for any of our domain ideas to work. I'm not really excited about 'noxious fumes' or 'thunder' as 'corrupted elements.' I think it might be too much, you know?

Now, don't get me wrong. I really like Galeros' ideas for a thundercloud-dwelling darklord, a subtropical forest that is home to the Worm that Walks, etc. Likewise, I think my own ideas as presented here are mostly workable. I just don't see a need to make these places into para or quasi elemental 'miniplanes' within the Demiplane. They can be pocket domains, or simply 'normal' domains using the themes and villains we are developing. The framework has spawned good ideas, but I don't think we need to feel bound to stick with a complex variant cosmology.
(Maybe such a cosmology could be given as a Dread Possibility in a sidebar?)




I hope you don't take any of this as negative criticism, Galeros.

[Galeros]

Hmmm. if we went that route than "Metamorphosis" could either be a pocket domain within Positive or adjacent to it. Thunder could be located adjacent to Mists.

...

I think that might work. I would still keep the elemental themes for the domains, but they would not be called "Dread Elemental Domains" (Well, the four main ones would).

[Galeros]

I have really dropped the ball on this.

The last three weeks have been lacking any sort of inspiration for me and thus I got nothing done.

I can not say when I will do the writeup for Mists, but hopefully I will find the inspiration to do it soon.

[Galeros]

DERP!

Sorry, the last month has been rough on me with family issues and lack of employment. I have finally begun to get over my "Writers' Block" and actually write up the domain of Mists. Here is what I have so far.

Dread Elemental Domain of Mists

It is believed the Dread Elemental Domains of Mists came to be when the Demiplane first formed a little over four centuries ago. It is the first of the Dread Elemental Domains. The domain itself simply appears to be an endless foggy plain, with a single, small town on its landscape. The people of the town are mostly human, and they all have no memory of their lives before they came to be in the domain of Mists. The Vistani can sometimes be found traveling across the domain, if confronted and asked if they know anything about the land, they will very quickly become hostile and escort the asker from their camp. It is thought that they have a connection to the domain of Mists. One theory is that the land is how they travel through the Mists to other parts of the Demiplane unharmed, but that is merely a rumor. And the land itself is far from being entirely safe. Travelers have been known to simply vanish from the landscape, where they go is unknown. There are also more conventional threats, such as rampaging Mist elementals and there are also Ghosts who wander about the land. The inhabitants of the abovementioned town make their living by growing what sparse crops they can manage to grow in the land, they have few livestock, and most of their diet consists of fruits and vegetables be necessity, most of their supplies are gotten from traveling Vistani merchants. The townspeople know not to question the Vistani about the land, and so they simply trade their food for supplies.

There are dark rumors that float about the town that the Vistani know all about the true nature of the land and also that the land may actually be the “birthplace” of the Vistani peoples, while there is no known truth to these matters, there is a dark secret behind the land itself. The land is home to a powerful Vistani Ghost who betrayed those closest to her long ago.


For the Darklord, I am thinking of making her a Vistani who travels the domain.

[Galeros]

Still here, I know the deadline is coming up in two weeks. I will get this finished before then. My family situation has been rough, lets leave it at that. Here is more of the Mist writeup. Let me know what you think. I kind of just blurted it all out on the screen at a rapid pace. I suck at names, so I will come up with something other than "Young Woman" before this is finalized. Oh, and this is meant to be a sort of "Lost History" thing, which means no one really knows about it.

Dread Elemental Domain of Mists

It is believed the Dread Elemental Domains of Mists came to be when the Demiplane first formed a little over four centuries ago. It is the first of the Dread Elemental Domains. The domain itself simply appears to be an endless foggy plain, with a single, small town on its landscape. The people of the town are mostly human, and they all have no memory of their lives before they came to be in the domain of Mists. The Vistani can sometimes be found traveling across the domain, if confronted and asked if they know anything about the land, they will very quickly become hostile and escort the asker from their camp. It is thought that they have a connection to the domain of Mists. One theory is that the land is how they travel through the Mists to other parts of the Demiplane unharmed, but that is merely a rumor. And the land itself is far from being entirely safe. Travelers have been known to simply vanish from the landscape, where they go is unknown. There are also more conventional threats, such as rampaging Mist elementals and there are also Ghosts who wander about the land. The inhabitants of the abovementioned town make their living by growing what sparse crops they can manage to grow in the land, they have few livestock, and most of their diet consists of fruits and vegetables be necessity, most of their supplies are gotten from traveling Vistani merchants. The townspeople know not to question the Vistani about the land, and so they simply trade their food for supplies.

There are dark rumors that float about the town that the Vistani know all about the true nature of the land and also that the land may actually be the “birthplace” of the Vistani peoples, while there is no known truth to these matters, there is a dark secret behind the land itself. The land is home to a powerful Vistani Ghost. The young Vistani woman was from the Zarovan tribe of Vistani. This young women found she has even more power to manipulate time and the Mists than most other Zarovan Vistani do. She believed she could use these powers for the good of the Zarovan tribe, and for other Vistani and even Giorgio as well. She desperately desired to use her powers to help transport people safely through the Mists, she thought that if she helped out non-Vistani she could improve upon the Vistani’s image. The members of her tribe, the Zarovan were divided on what to do about her, some felt that her idea was a good one, they felt that it was time to show the Giorgio that the Vistani were not a people to be feared, others felt that the Vistani people should not deal with Giorgio unless they had to. They also made a rather cryptic comment that the Vistani must remain aloof from Giorgio or something terrible would happen to all Vistani, what this terrible thing was is unknown, but it, more so than simply not wanting to associate with Non-Vistani is perhaps the true reason for their not wanting for the young woman to try and help out Giorgio for free. The young women eventually decided to strike out on her own and she took those who sided with her with her to help out with her mission. She began offering anyone who wanted it safe transport through the Mists. Her fellow Vistani followers helped out by spreading rumors that there was a young Vistani who was more than willing to help non-Vistani through the Mists of the land safely and at no cost. Her actions soon spurred other Vistani to act, they were concerned that her actions would erode the Vistani reputation and make Giorgio too familiar with them and their ways and that it would cause the abovementioned terrible event to occur. They decided to send a close friend of hers, one who secretly supported her endeavors, but was too afraid to speak up, to try and convince her to stop her foolishness. If she could not be convinced to stop, the Vistani reluctantly all agreed that she would have to be silenced, the decision was not made easily, but it was made. The young woman’s friend agreed to do what was necessary. While she was the young woman’s friend and she agreed with her views, her ultimate loyalty was still to her people. She went to the young woman and tried to convince her to stop her actions, saying that she agreed with what she was doing, but that she must remember that Vistani and Giorgio can never be truly close.

[Galeros]

DERP!

I am completely re-doing the Mists domain. It will still involve a Vistani Ghost, but that is about the only similarity between my new version and the old one.

[Galeros]

Dread Elemental Domain of Mists

It is believed the Dread Elemental Domains of Mists came to be about three centuries after the Demiplane first formed a little over four centuries ago. It is the first of the Dread Elemental Domains. The domain itself simply appears to be an endless foggy plain, with a single, small town on its landscape. The people of the town are mostly human, and they all have no memory of their lives before they came to be in the domain of Mists. They are all terrified of a Ghost who is said to roam the endless foggy plain on which their town is situated. They are also frightened of wandering Mist Elementals that are often found near sites where the Ghost as they simply know him, has been. The Vistani can sometimes be found traveling across the domain, it is rumored that they utilize this land to travel quickly across the Core. The origins of this land are a mystery to most everyone in the Demiplane, but here is the truth of this land’s origin.

There was once a Vistani woman named Veria. She was known to often get close to Giorgio men and women. She found the lives of Giorgio, who so often stayed in one place for their whole lives fascinating. She often wondered what they did to keep themselves from being bored, besides their daily toils. She would often spend time in Giorgio cities whenever her tribe stopped to stay nearby one for a while. While she found the idea of staying put in one place for so long rather boring, she did find the cities Giorgio built amazing and full of surprises. She made friends quickly, and so she had a number of friends in every city she visited, and she always made a point to visit them again when she was in the area again. Other Vistani looked upon her strangely, but they did not stop her from making friends with Giorgio. She made close friends with one particular Giorgio man and always came to visit him when she could manage to sneak away. Her friendship with this man eventually grew into a romantic relationship, and one day she found herself with child. She searched for him when she visited the town he lived in, so she could tell him that she was with child. Unfortunately she could not find him, she heard rumors that he had disappeared one night on the way back to his dwelling from a tavern, perhaps the victim of some the many creatures that dwell in the Land of Mists. She despaired at not being able to find him, but accepted it and eventually she had the child. She kept him and named him Tirian, after his father. She raised the boy and he although he never quite fit into Vistani society, he still managed to make friends with other full-blooded Vistani. He was good friends in particular with a Vistani youth named Leran. He and Leran spent many hours together playing as youths and while Tirian may not have had access to all of the gifts a full-blooded Vistani may receive, he still did quite well for himself as he had quite the talent for tracking, both mundane forest creatures and also the dangerous creatures that can roam the Land of Mists. On more than one occasion Tirian managed to notice the signs of a dangerous creature such as a werewolf nearby before anyone else noticed. This earned him great respect amongst the Vistani he lived with, and he truly felt like a full-blooded Vistani. One day he noticed what looked like deer tracks leading to a nearby creek. The tribe needed more food, so he decided to go and see if he could find the deer so he could kill it and bring it back for food. His friend Leran went with him. A short while later Tirian came back to the tribe without Leran. He told his mother that he could not find the deer. His mother asked where Leran was, and Tirian told her that Leran said he was going to stay behind for a bit to have some time to himself. His mother accepted this explanation. Hours passed and Leran did not return, so another Vistana decided to go and look for him as they were going to leave their current campsite soon. The Vistana came upon Leran’s corpse; Leran looked to have died from stab wound in his ribs. The Vistana returned and immediately asked to see Tirian. Tirian asked him what was wrong and the Vistana accused him of murdering Leran. Tirian is confused as he left Leran perfectly alive by the creek several hours ago, and he saw no tracks of anything dangerous nearby. Tirian’s mother defended him, saying he would never hurt anyone, let alone any of his friends. The accusing Vistana pointed out that Tirian always carried a dagger with him, and that Leran had died from a stab wound. The Vistana asked to see Tirian’s dagger, it was perfectly clean, but that just meant Tirian had cleaned it off in the creek before he came back, at least that is what the Vistana said. The elders of Tirian’s tribe met and agreed that with what evidence they had, Tirian had to be the culprit. They decided Tirian’s punishment would be exile from the tribe. Tirian was furious with them, and tried to argue he would never harm his friends, but the evidence was against him. His mother tearfully told him that leaving would be best, but that she could not go with him, as she had duties to the tribe. Tirian become angry with her and began to yell at her that she was just like the rest of them. In his anger he drew the very dagger that was the supposed murder weapon used on Leran and stabbed his mother with it. She fell to the floor of their Vardo, and as she lay dying Tirian looked upon his bloodstained hands in horror. He ran from the Vardo and into the nearby woods. He was seen and soon there were shouts from the campsite that Veria had been murdered by Tirian, her own son. Tirian ran, but a group of Vistani caught up with him and he was shot in the leg with an arrow. Despite this, he still managed to continue running on pure adrenaline and hide from the Vistani. His leg wound was bad, and he had no way of treating it, the wound soon became infected and he was forced to limp about to even move. While he was in this state, he came upon a lone campfire with a man sitting before it. The man was wearing expensive looking armor and was polishing a finely crafted dagger. He noticed Tirian approaching and immediately got up and threatened him with the dagger, saying he had run across another one of his kind (Vistani) earlier and he had killed him, but was disappointed that he had no gold on him. Tirian looked upon the man in anger, but could not do anything to harm him as he was too badly injured. The man took Tirian’s anger to mean that Tirian was angry at him for threatening him. He killed Tirian with a quick thrust of his dagger into Tirian’s ribs and spat some slur against Vistani. Tirian’s last sight before he died was of the man rifling through his pockets looking for gold or anything else of value.

Tirian awoke on an endless foggy plain. He thought he was in the afterlife, but he soon found out that he was still in the mortal realm when he noticed he could pass through a nearby tree. He clenched his ghostly fists and let out a wail of anger. Now, he is an angry ghost who lashes out at anyone who comes near him. He wanders the endless plain, never to know rest.

What do you think? I need to submit this thing by Thursday so I need to know if it is okay or not. Did I portray the Vistani okay? I did not want to make them too unaccepting of Tirian.

[Galeros]

Here are all of the domains.

Dread Elemental Domain of Grave

The Dread Elemental Domain of Grave is known to few in the Land of Mists. It is always found underneath the earth. It sometimes only appears if one delves deep into the earth, other times it can be found just digging a shallow hole. The domain itself is a seemingly endless field of graves and mausoleums, with a few dead trees every few hundred feet. Gravelights can sometimes be seen floating above some of the graves. This domain is the only place other than Darkon where gravelights can be found. Packs of Ghouls and other undead roam the massive graveyard. This domain is also the home of all Dread Earth Elementals that are summoned in the Land of Mists. The sky is pitch black with no stars in sight, this is because the “sky” is actually tons of rock that make up the surface of the Land of Mists.

This domain’s origins lie in the realm of Darkon, about a century or so back, during the 6th century in the Land of Mists. In that realm there was a man named Adros Janol who was quite an adventurer. He traveled all throughout the land, braving the Mists and the dangers that lurked within to win glory and riches. He did all of this alone as well, facing down horrors that would send even hardened adventurers running. His adventuring career proved quite profitable and he enjoyed it immensely for a decade. To him, it seemed as if none of the horrors that lurk throughout the land could truly threaten him. This all changed when on one of his journeys in Darkon he ran afoul of a powerful and hideous creature of the mists. He refuses to speak of the encounter, but it is known that he nearly died and that afterwards he quit his adventuring career.

He also had a younger sister, Serisia Janol. She would stay at home in the town of Maykle while Adros was off exploring. Adros deeply cared for her and would take care of her and see to any need or want she had. He would bring her gifts back from distant cities and towns he had visited. She also loved him dearly for taking care of her and for being so kind as to bring her gifts. There is no account of their parents, and it is not known if they were living or deceased during this time. She always envied her brother for his journeys, but she also knew that he would never permit her to go with him, as he was far too protective of her. Still, despite this, she decided to one day ask him if she could go with him on his travels. He refused to take her with him, as she expected. It was shortly after this that he had his brush with death and returned home. Serisia noticed that he stayed at their home for an unusually long time after he came back that one time and asked him why he was not leaving to explore the land like he always did after he had stayed for a while. He responded that the adventuring life was not is anymore, and that he would be staying with her at home. She was disappointed at this, as she always loved to hear tales of his heroics. One day she decided to ask him if she could travel the land if he went with her (she was unaware of his near death experience, as he never told her about it). He refused and told her that it is not safe to travel far in the Land of Mists, and that is best for her is she stays home. Despite his warnings, she chose to set out one night when he was asleep. She took some of his old adventuring gear, food, and some money she had saved up, figuring she could buy more appropriate weapons and armor for herself when she reached a major city.

Adros awoke that next morning to find his sister gone and some of his old equipment missing as well. He did find a note left for him that said she was going to go traveling for a while, and that she could handle herself. Adros was furious with her and ripped up the note in anger. He chose not to pursue her, figuring that she would come back after a day at most, but a day passed and she did not return, then a week, and then a month and a month became a year. At this point he had convinced himself that she would be coming back soon, even though he had said the same thing to himself months ago. He eventually decided to set out after her, he feared he had let too much time pass already, and that he would not be able to find out where she was. He set out from their home and as he passed through small communities he asked if anyone had ever seen a young woman who matched the description he gave of her. At first he found no one who knew who she was, he feared he may have to leave Darkon to find her, but while he was traveling down a road one day, he ran across a rather strange group of individuals, a Human man who wore the symbol of Ezra in the form of an amulet around his neck, an Elf who wore a colorful robe, and a Halfling who carried a multitude of weapons on his small frame. When he spoke to them and asked about his sister, much to his surprise, they said they had seen her, but that she was also no longer among the living. She had joined up with them and had helped deal with a number of problems, such as helping them exterminate a nest of undead that were causing trouble for a small community. She also helped them fight of a band of lycanthropes that attacked them in the wilderness. They told him that she had died fighting off a Human Necromancer; the Necromancer used a spell that instantly slew her. They were able to kill the Necromancer, but because of the nature of the spell the Necromancer used on her, the Priest of Ezra was unable to even attempt a resurrection, and he knew of no one else who could try. They had entrusted her body to a local small community and went on their way. They told him that they were sorry for his loss, but that there was nothing they could do. They did give him the name of the small community so that he might go and see her grave.

Adros left them in a daze and decided to go and find her place of rest. He found the community that the group had told him about, but when he talked to the people who lived there they said that they had never seen anyone who matched his sister’s description in the past year. Adros insisted that she must be buried in the community’s small graveyard. He went to look himself, but could find no tombstone with her name on it. He asked if maybe she had been buried without one, but the locals told him that everyone who is buried in town, even outsiders, have a tombstone made for them as a sign if respect. Adros left the community thinking that perhaps he had the wrong town and continued looking for his sister’s resting place. His search eventually took on a dark side as he began sneaking into graveyards at night and digging up bodies to see if they belonged to his sister. At this point he began to believe someone or something was hiding her from him, and so he figured that this entity that was hiding her had put her in a grave that was also someone else’s. He began hiring unscrupulous people to help him with his task, but he knew he had to silence them as graverobbing often carried a severe punishment in Darkon because of the fear of the disrespected dead rising to attack the living. So he murdered every person he hired and simply tossed their bodies in the graves they had dug up and left town the next day. During the time he was doing these dreadful tasks he sometimes would notice that his skin would feel a bit strange, it would feel cold and lost its color a bit, other times it itched fiercely. He also noticed that his teeth appeared to be just a little bit larger and sharper than normal. He quickly dismissed the oddities with his skin to having perhaps rubbed it on some poisonous plant by accident. He dismissed the slightly larger and sharper teeth to be his imagination, he was sure his teeth had always been like that and he had just never noticed before. He also started to take any valuable he found in the graves he dug up; they would be gifts for his sister, even though she could no longer enjoy them.

One night when he was performing his task of searching through graves, he and the people he had hired to help him came across a mausoleum in a cemetery. They had already dug through all of the other graves that Ardos suspected might have contained his sister’s body (He never had any real explanation for why he chose to dig up certain graves and not others, perhaps he had some sort of secret criteria he chose by). He had a feeling his sister had to be in the mausoleum, so he and his hirelings went in and began searching through the remains of the people inside. However, the mausoleum was enchanted to seal itself up and not open up again until a certain word was spoken outside its doors. Trapped, Adros and his companions tried to figure a way out, but no matter where they looked or what they tried, they found no route of escape, whoever knew the word to open the mausoleum was either long dead, or perhaps they had forgotten about the mausoleum and did not come to check on it anymore. Eventually hunger and thirst began to set in. Adros decided to silence the men he had hired at this time both because he had been planning to do so anyways, and so he could have a food source. He managed to kill the two men had had brought with him without much trouble, and he feasted on their flesh. After he did this, he heard a rumbling sound, and looked to the doors of the mausoleum. He was astonished, and horrified to find them opening. He thought it was whoever maintained the cemetery coming to see why the mausoleum had sealed itself off. Instead, he found no one was at the doors. He tentatively stepped outside and noticed that the cemetery he was in was much larger than the one he had entered the mausoleum in. He also noticed that the sky was pitch black and the air was completely still. He did not take many steps out of the mausoleum when he felt his entire body being enveloped in excruciating pain and he fell to the ground crying in agony. He writhed on the ground for what seemed like hours, and when the pain finally subsided he looked at his hand and noticed the flesh was now desiccated, he felt his face and felt his skin drawn tightly over his skull, his teeth were also much larger than they had been before. He finally realized what his cold and itchy skin and larger, sharper teeth had been of, they were warnings for him to turn from the path he was taking, warnings that went unheeded. He ran back into the mausoleum and shut the doors and curled up into a ball and tried to cry but he could not. He closed and opened the doors to the mausoleum again, hoping that he would emerge back in the cemetery he had been in before, also hoping that he would be restored to normal, but he only saw the endless field of graves and the pitch black sky. He was now trapped in this dead realm for eternity.

Adros Janol: Male Human Ghoul Lord Figher 7/Rogue 5, AL CE



Dread Elemental Domain of Blood

The Dread Elemental Domain of Blood is a swampy realm filled with noxious gases that rise from the red water. Red Fog can also frequently be seen in the air. Stirges can often be found in swarms, especially around the pools of pure blood that are scattered about the red soil.

The origins of this domain lie on the world of Krynn on the continent of Ansalon. The world had suffered from an event called the Cataclysm in which the gods hurled down a fiery mountain to restore balance to the world. The gods took their Priests with away from the world and since that time the world has not seen any new Priests. The most profound effect this had on the world was that healing magic was no longer available to mortals. People dying from diseases became far more common than it had before. People did start to become more skilled at mundane methods of healing, but these were nothing compared to the healing power once wielded by the Clerics of the gods.

In the city of Palanthas, about one hundred and fifty years after the Cataclysm there was a young man named Firal who worked as a healer. He was skilled in Herbology and even knew how to perform some surgical procedures. He was well known and well liked throughout the city because of his knowledge of healing procedures. Although he never charged much for his healing services, he still managed to make a comfortable living for himself in Palanthas. He had a friend named Jorah who had known since they both were young boys. Jorah was a merchant who mostly sold weapons and armor throughout Ansalon. A profitable business in the post-cataclysmic world of Krynn. As the two of them got older they were not able to spend as much time together as they would have liked due to Jorah’s chosen profession taking him all over Ansalon. Jorah still liked to stop by Palanthas every chance he got to see his friend Firal, however, and it was on one of these visits to Palanthas, after he was coming back from a trip to Nordmaar that he fell ill with some kind of fever. He also felt as if his blood was burning in his veins and arteries. He went to see his friend Firal, certain that his friend could heal his malady. Firal had never seen the sort of illness that plagued his friend before, but he was certain it had something to do with his blood. He thought that if he could replace his friends “bad blood” with healthy blood he would be able to cure him. He ran into the dilemma of where exactly to get this healthy blood, as he certainly could not give his own because he estimated this he would need to drain and replace nearly all of Jorah’s blood. He at first tried to get people to donate small amounts of blood. He would use some medical apparatus that he himself had crafted for the procedure, but he had no luck in convincing anyone to donate any amount of their blood. With Jorah’s condition worsening by the hour, he knew what he had to do.

Firal would take in patients as he normally did, he would take them into his home, where he did all of his work under the pretenses of helping them with whatever was making them ill. He checked to make sure they were not suffering from any thing that might potentially make their blood bad for transfusion, and then he would make them unconscious with a chemical concoction of his. It was easy to do this as he was a trusted man in the city of Palanthas, and so if he thought people needed to be put under for whatever procedure he needed to do, they would believe him. He performed the procedure to drain the blood from several patients, with complete success. He buried the bodies in his garden of medicinal herbs he kept. He stored the blood in sealed metal containers, chilled with ice he purchased at great expense. No one suspected a thing at first. He did get people asking after friends or family members who had come to him. He told them that he had treated them and that they had left and he had no idea where the missing people could be. Everyone who talked to him accepted this at first. He then decided to try and replace Jorah’s bad blood with the healthy blood that he had drained from several of his patients. Using the medical apparatus that he himself had made he slowly drained out his friend blood and began to replace it with the blood from his now dead patients. Jorah was delirious at this point and had no idea what Firal was doing. At first it seemed the process had worked. When he was done Jorah was finally able to talk coherently, and his fever had gone down. About only a day after the procedure had been performed however Jorah’s condition began to worsen again. Firal was convinced that he needed more healthy blood, so he again began to drain the blood from his patients in order to use it to cure Jorah. He did the procedure one ten patients before people began to notice that something was amiss. The news of so many people gone missing when they went to see Firal began to cast suspicion on even Palanthas’s beloved doctor. He soon found the Palanthas City Guard knocking on his door, asking to do a search of his house. He let them in, but they were unable to find the bodies buried in his garden. Firal did the procedure to replace Jorah’s blood again, and with the same results as the previous time he had done them, Jorah recovered for a short while before becoming ill again. Firal was near driven to despair at this point. He thought maybe he should try and gather more blood, but he was uncertain whether repeating the procedure would have any more effect than it had before. He also felt terrible guilt over murdering his patients to help Jorah, but he did not regret his decision. He was trying to fall asleep one night when he heard someone knocking at home’s door. At first he thought it was someone who was desperate to be treated, but when he went downstairs to check he noticed the noise was not coming from the front door, but from the door in the back of the house that leads to the garden. Jorah was still sleeping fitfully in one of the rooms he treated his patients in, so he knew he could not have gotten up and wandered outside. He went and opened up the door to his garden only to be confronted with the horrific sight of his once buried patients all shambling around his garden. They were twisted, rotted, disgusting creatures. One must have bumped against the door. They soon saw him and began to advance on him. Firal only had a mace for protection, so he took it and then barricaded the garden door. He could not run away into the streets, as they would follow and his secret would be found out if anyone recognized their twisted features for one of the missing people. He barricaded himself inside Jorah’s room and waited, trying to figure out what he should do. Soon enough the undead creatures broke though his garden door and began to pound on Jorah’s rooms door. Jorah was sleeping, but not very restfully. He tossed and turned in his sleep and mumbled incomprehensible sounds. Firal grasped his mace, as he knew the undead creatures would soon break through the door and the furniture he had put in front of it. In just a few moments time, they came bursting through the door. Firal began to lay into them with his mace; he managed to kill four of them before the other six overwhelmed him and pulled him to the ground. They began to rip and bite into him. He tried fending them off, but they were too strong for him and he soon had to feel the excruciating pain of being devoured alive. The creatures seemed especially fond of his blood. He lost consciousness when they were devouring him, his only regret that they may began to feast on Jorah when they were done with him.

To Firal’s surprise, he found himself waking in damp soil. He opened his eyes and looked around. He saw red soil with a large marsh in front of him. He also noticed there was a strange red fog in the air. He saw some fat, red, mosquito-like creatures that he had never seen before flying above the red marsh water. He got up and decided to explore his surroundings, perhaps find a way out of this strange swamp, although he knew in his heart there would be no escape for him.

Firal: Male Human Expert 10, AL NE


Dread Elemental Domain of Pyre

The Dread Elemental Domain of Pyre came to be when a young Ent named Tindertwig thought that his fellow Ents had become too stagnant and set in their ways. This thought was spurred by his interest in humans, who seemed to live life at a much faster pace than Ents did, he found their fast-paced lives fascinating, and he wished to learn more about them. He also thought the forests he lived in could benefit from controlled burnings to help new life grow. He got the idea when he heard from a friendly Druid that in some forests in other lands natural forest fires would occur so that old, dead wood and plant life could be cleared out to make room for new plantlife. He proposed the idea to the Elder Ents, but they ended up expelling him from the forest because they thought his ideas dangerous. Tindertwig was able to find some welcome in rural communities that had a Druid or Ranger in residence, but he found that he found no welcome in large cities, or even rural communities without a Druid or Ranger. People ran away from him in terror, or ran him out of any town he approached. Tindertwig began to grow bitter; he came to see that the people from the world outside the forest were just as unable to accept something new, him, as were the Elder Ents.

Tindertwig grew angry and bitter at Humans, and even at any other races that took up residence in towns and cities. An idea formed in his mind, if he could start a fire and a city, and then stop it from going out of control, then surely he would be hailed as a hero and finally find complete acceptance among town and city dwellers. Twindetwig decided that he would start a small fire in a nearby city, then let it grow for a bit, just enough to be noticed, then he would put it out. His plan may have gone perfectly had it not been for an unexpected windstorm which blew through the area the night he set the fire in the slums of the city. The fire grew too great for him to control and out and he was badly burned when he was desperately trying to put it out. Tindertwig fled the city and took refuge in a nearby river to assuage his burns. Meanwhile in the city, the fire continued to rage out of control ad hundreds lost their lives and many more lost their homes. Someone must have seen Tindertwig setting the fire, as he soon found groups of men coming to look for him. He had gone from a freakish curiosity to a hated and hunted public enemy. The fist men that came for him were found crushed to death. Tindertwig then ran to the woods of the city’s remaining park, but he was smoked out by the humans in the city. He escaped by floating down the river and hiding in the forested hills south of town. There, he decided he would return to the city and explain his error, and hopefully regain his chance to teach. The people of the city would not listen to him and he had to flee from the city once again when he tried to approach it again. The people of the city began to cut down trees to rebuild what Tindertwig’s blaze had destroyed.

Tindertwig grew even more upset at the people of the city. He decided that it would be better to burn them out and grow new people who he could teach and guide. People who would listen to him and not be tainted by the ignorant views of the current city dwellers. Soon fires began to break out on the outskirts of the city and nearby farms, always at night. A charred, twisted giant of living wood was seen stalking the lonely hills and creeping along the riverbanks to hole and sink boats with his mighty fists. Dozens of men and women were killed or driven from their homes in terror.

Tindertwig eventually began to study fire magic, so that way he could better learn the nature of the element and so he could start the fires he created without the aid of any tools. It was during this period of time when a group of humans came to cut wood from the forest Tindertwig was staying in. Tindertwig knew them to be from the city he had nearly destroyed the night he was burned. In anger he decided he would use his newly learned fire magic to burn them alive. He carefully approached the group of human woodcutters, the words to a fire spell on his wooden lips. The woodcutters recognized who he was and began to flee in terror, but Tindertwig let loose his spell and let forth a great column of fire on them. They all died screaming in pain. The fire from his spell was stronger than it usually was, and the surrounding area was caught in flames. Tindertwig began to panic, as the fire was spreading quickly and too fast from him to control, just like that night in the city. He tried to put out the fire using some water magic he had also learned, but it was no use and soon the fire had engulfed nearly all of the small forest he was in. Tindertwig tried to escape from the forest, but he found there was no end to it. He soon found himself back at the site where he had burned the woodcutters to death. There remains were still smoldering. Much to his surprise their remains caught fire suddenly and rose in a great conflagration and formed into what looked like fire elementals, but had the woodcutter’s remains visible in their bodies. They began to chase Tindertwig and so he ran from them, soon more of these strange fire creatures began to join in the chase and no matter how much he ran, he could only find temporary reprieve from them. Tindertwig was now caught in an eternal chase, one from which he may never escape.

Tindertwig: Treant Wizard 5, AL CE


Dread Elemental Domain of Mists

It is believed the Dread Elemental Domains of Mists came to be about three centuries after the Demiplane first formed a little over four centuries ago. It is the first of the Dread Elemental Domains. The domain itself simply appears to be an endless foggy plain, with a single, small town on its landscape. The people of the town are mostly human, and they all have no memory of their lives before they came to be in the domain of Mists. They are all terrified of a Ghost who is said to roam the endless foggy plain on which their town is situated. They are also frightened of wandering Mist Elementals that are often found near sites where the Ghost as they simply know him, has been. The Vistani can sometimes be found traveling across the domain, it is rumored that they utilize this land to travel quickly across the Core. The origins of this land are a mystery to most everyone in the Demiplane, but here is the truth of this land’s origin. There was once a Vistani woman named Veria. She was known to often get close to Giorgio men and women. She found the lives of Giorgio, who so often stayed in one place for their whole lives fascinating. She often wondered what they did to keep themselves from being bored, besides their daily toils. She would often spend time in Giorgio cities whenever her tribe stopped to stay nearby one for a while. While she found the idea of staying put in one place for so long rather boring, she did find the cities Giorgio built amazing and full of surprises. She made friends quickly, and so she had a number of friends in every city she visited, and she always made a point to visit them again when she was in the area again. Other Vistani looked upon her strangely, but they did not stop her from making friends with Giorgio. She made close friends with one particular Giorgio man and always came to visit him when she could manage to sneak away. Her friendship with this man eventually grew into a romantic relationship, and one day she found herself with child. She searched for him when she visited the town he lived in, so she could tell him that she was with child. Unfortunately she could not find him, she heard rumors that he had disappeared one night on the way back to his dwelling from a tavern, perhaps the victim of some the many creatures that dwell in the Land of Mists. She despaired at not being able to find him, but accepted it and eventually she had the child. She kept him and named him Tirian, after his father. She raised the boy and he although he never quite fit into Vistani society, he still managed to make friends with other full-blooded Vistani. He was good friends in particular with a Vistani youth named Leran. He and Leran spent many hours together playing as youths and while Tirian may not have had access to all of the gifts a full-blooded Vistani may receive, he still did quite well for himself as he had quite the talent for tracking, both mundane forest creatures and also the dangerous creatures that can roam the Land of Mists. On more than one occasion Tirian managed to notice the signs of a dangerous creature such as a werewolf nearby before anyone else noticed. This earned him great respect amongst the Vistani he lived with, and he truly felt like a full-blooded Vistani. One day he noticed what looked like deer tracks leading to a nearby creek. The tribe needed more food, so he decided to go and see if he could find the deer so he could kill it and bring it back for food. His friend Leran went with him. A short while later Tirian came back to the tribe without Leran. He told his mother that he could not find the deer. His mother asked where Leran was, and Tirian told her that Leran said he was going to stay behind for a bit to have some time to himself. His mother accepted this explanation. Hours passed and Leran did not return, so another Vistana decided to go and look for him as they were going to leave their current campsite soon. The Vistana came upon Leran’s corpse; Leran looked to have died from stab wound in his ribs. The Vistana returned and immediately asked to see Tirian. Tirian asked him what was wrong and the Vistana accused him of murdering Leran. Tirian is confused as he left Leran perfectly alive by the creek several hours ago, and he saw no tracks of anything dangerous nearby. Tirian’s mother defended him, saying he would never hurt anyone, let alone any of his friends. The accusing Vistana pointed out that Tirian always carried a dagger with him, and that Leran had died from a stab wound. The Vistana asked to see Tirian’s dagger, it was perfectly clean, but that just meant Tirian had cleaned it off in the creek before he came back, at least that is what the Vistana said. The elders of Tirian’s tribe met and agreed that with what evidence they had, Tirian had to be the culprit. They decided Tirian’s punishment would be exile from the tribe. Tirian was furious with them, and tried to argue he would never harm his friends, but the evidence was against him. His mother tearfully told him that leaving would be best, but that she could not go with him, as she had duties to the tribe. Tirian become angry with her and began to yell at her that she was just like the rest of them. In his anger he drew the very dagger that was the supposed murder weapon used on Leran and stabbed his mother with it. She fell to the floor of their Vardo, and as she lay dying Tirian looked upon his bloodstained hands in horror. He ran from the Vardo and into the nearby woods. He was seen and soon there were shouts from the campsite that Veria had been murdered by Tirian, her own son. Tirian ran, but a group of Vistani caught up with him and he was shot in the leg with an arrow. Despite this, he still managed to continue running on pure adrenaline and hide from the Vistani. His leg wound was bad, and he had no way of treating it, the wound soon became infected and he was forced to limp about to even move. While he was in this state, he came upon a lone campfire with a man sitting before it. The man was wearing expensive looking armor and was polishing a finely crafted dagger. He noticed Tirian approaching and immediately got up and threatened him with the dagger, saying he had run across another one of his kind (Vistani) earlier and he had killed him, but was disappointed that he had no gold on him. Tirian looked upon the man in anger, but could not do anything to harm him as he was too badly injured. The man took Tirian’s anger to mean that Tirian was angry at him for threatening him. He killed Tirian with a quick thrust of his dagger into Tirian’s ribs and spat some slur against Vistani. Tirian’s last sight before he died was of the man rifling through his pockets looking for gold or anything else of value.

Tirian awoke on an endless foggy plain. He thought he was in the afterlife, but he soon found out that he was still in the mortal realm when he noticed he could pass through a nearby tree. He clenched his ghostly fists and let out a wail of anger. Now, he is an angry ghost who lashes out at anyone who comes near him. He wanders the endless plain, never to know rest.

Tirian: Male Vistani Ghost Ranger 9, AL CE

Please let me know of any improvements I could make to any of the domains quickly.

Oh, and Ewan Cummins definitely deserves credit for helping me so much with this project.

I may do some of those other domains I discussed earlier in this thread someday.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Not sure if Tirian's killing of his mother, by itself, is necessarily a darklord-worthy offense as written. It reads more like a fairly conventional second-degree murder, possibly even manslaughter, as he didn't actually mean to kill her and was carried away by emotions that, under the circumstances, can hardly be considered unreasonable. If that were all it took to merit a domain, Ravenloft would be bigger than the Forgotten Realms by now.

Possibly he could sneak back to camp after the rest of the band has given up on chasing him, and enact some revenge? Or he could lay a really nasty curse of vengeance upon everyone who'd doubted his word about Laran, with his dying breath.

[Galeros]

Not sure if Tirian's killing of his mother, by itself, is necessarily a darklord-worthy offense as written. It reads more like a fairly conventional second-degree murder, possibly even manslaughter, as he didn't actually mean to kill her and was carried away by emotions that, under the circumstances, can hardly be considered unreasonable. If that were all it took to merit a domain, Ravenloft would be bigger than the Forgotten Realms by now.

Possibly he could sneak back to camp after the rest of the band has given up on chasing him, and enact some revenge? Or he could lay a really nasty curse of vengeance upon everyone who'd doubted his word about Laran, with his dying breath.

Hmmm, I may have to do that. I hope the due date is by midnight tomorrow because I just got back in from a long day, but I am going to do what I can.