Gwydion

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Let's say the Arak came into Ravenloft and left Gwydion behind, with Loht becoming darklord; then, during the Grand Conjunction, Gwydion found his erstwhile slaves and appeared to reclaim them. Unfortunately for him, the (metaphorical) door slammed shut while he was half-way through it, leaving him half-present in Ravenloft, where his massive reality wrinkle distorted what had been Arak, creating the Shadow Rift.

Nice! And the DPs could've shored up this leakage in the fabric of their demiplane, by slapping darklord status on Gwydion instead of Loht. That reinforced and stabilized Gwydion's entrapment just outside the fringes of Ravenloft, keeping his presence from further distorting the Core. It's not the situation they'd have wanted, to have an overly-powerful presence lodged in the planar bedrock of the demiplane -- if nothing else, Vecna would've taught them a lesson about messing with epic-plus level villains -- but at least it kept the whole danged Core from dropping into the Rift.

[Willowhugger]

I think for statting Gwydion I'm going to use Titans. Gwydion is a Tuatha De Daanan in my campaigns and thus he's an "elder god" or a "godlike but not quite god yet still might be worshipped as one" being, only he's Celtic rather than Greek.

Titans would also have amazingly powerful reality wrinkles.

[Igor the Henchman]

I like the Shadow Rift; it allows for a legitimate basis for superstition, fear, and anxiety in Tempest and the surrounding environs. I think the confusing status of Gwydion and the Shadow Rift and them being out of place adds to the setting because it confounds people's abilities to explain the nature of Ravenloft and the powers that rule there. The Core needs one alien, non-humanocentric domain in it.

I quite agree with the last statement, but I don't think it really applies to the Shadow Rift. From the point of view of the rest of the Core, the Rift is not a domain. You can't tread on it, can't explore it, can't have adventurers crossing into it from neighboring lands. It doesn't even work as a looming menace: nothing comes into it, and nothings comes out. Its a thing you must bypass and watch out not to fall into. That's it.

The invisible fey domain just below the Rift, now, is an interesting place, but it can't even be accessed via the Rift itself. Instead, you must journey via hidden subterrean passageways, in much the same manner you would use Mistways to reach domains beyond the Core. Actually, in many ways, Gweydion's domain is even more tricky to reach than many Islands and Clusters. It feels far less of a domain than a parallel fey dimension, with its different time flow and weird landscape. Quite simply, there's nothing about Ravenloft's fey realm that requires it to be located beneath a great cosmic chasm that sucks up reality. Outside sharing the same shape, the Rift and the land that lies beneath have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.

This is what's frustrating me with the Shadow Rift concept. And despite what Wiccy says, I can't really get rid of its presence, not without having to draw a new Core map myself, and override 20 years of canon political realities that stem from the Rift's presence. I'd have to rework most of the Core realm's foreign policies almost from ground up.

[Willowhugger]

Here's my recommendation then.

Have people enter the Shadow Rift Fey Realm when they levitate down there.

Simple?

Why do people not go there more? The Fey border patrols kill them.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

You can't levitate down the rift, you cease to exist after passing through 100' of the mists, And no, there is no coming back, no mortal magic can overcome this effect.

Also, the domain of Arak at the bottom of the Rift may or may not be truly anchored to that polace, okay the bottom shows the walls going up into the mists that create the sky and we see chasm walls sinking down into the mists when from viewed from above, but the temporal fugue presents a problem over whether the domain of Arak really is where people think it is, or somewhere else entirely different

Personally, I have placed the domain of Arak as a floating Core domain out in the mists, it just have very reliable routes in and out of many parts of the demiplane via the fractures.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

You can't levitate down the rift, you cease to exist after passing through 100' of the mists, And no, there is no coming back, no mortal magic can overcome this effect.

I think willowhugger was suggesting removing that effect to truly anchor the rift-as-domain to the rift-as-hole-in-the-ground.

I personally had trouble coming to grips with the rift. I thought it was collosally dumb to put a big hole in the Core, especially without describing it. then they put fairies in in, and I got even less happy. Then I read The Shadow Rift and suddenly I got it. It's the fact that you can't get in that makes it so charming. It's the bogeyman, the dark place no one goes. Even the vistani are afraid (see DoD). It's devastation, where there used to be whole countries. I like it.

And the fracture (now fractures, as of the Gaz's) show that rules are made to be broken, especially by PC's. You can't get into the rift (except for you, heroes who found the way.) You can't escape Ravenloft (except for you, PC's who were in a weekend of terror adventure). You can't kill a darklord (except for you, PC's in an adventure that calls for it.) You can't go into Necropolis without dying (except if you've got necropolitan amaranth..). Telling someone that no one can go somewhere or do something, and then having them do it makes great drama, IMHO.

IMC, I have only used the Rift tangentially so far, but it's key in one NPC's backstory. My clockwork golem fell into the rift, and wasn't killed by the mists, since he wasn't truly alive. He crashed into the bottom, making a crater, and nearly destroying him, but some curious Firs patched him up.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

I thought that anything that entered those mists in the Rift ceased to exist, not just die

Read The Shadow Rift again (and possibley Gaz 5) and look for material on The Descent. Those working on it vanished, everything they had on them vanished also. Still, cool idea with the golem. Perhaps the entity that is contained within the artificial creature is some instrument of the Dark Powers, making it immune to the effects of the churning black vapours? Is worth thinking about

One of the things I liked when I first read The Shadow Rift is that the enter domain of Arak is twisted and tarnished by the shadow energies that permeate it. Of course, that is the Osbidian Gate's fault heheheh.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I thought that anything that entered those mists in the Rift ceased to exist, not just die

Umm... er..... would you believe a freak wind picked up and blew a gap in the mist for him?

I knew it made you fade out of existence, but I thought it only affected living creatures. Oh well, in my campaign that's the way it works, even if it's not canon. I find it nice and eerie if the occaisional pile of clothing and gear lands in the valley with no sign of an occupant.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Random Sahdow Fey works on his garden when lots of clothing, weapons and a saddle fall out of the sky.

"Tsk, not again, thats the forth time this century my roses have been crushed by people trying to escape Tepest."

Hey, if it works for you, that's what matters, I just like to keep Arak and The hadow Rift canon in my games. It's one of the few things that has stayed canon, almost everything else has be altered in some way. I even had Gregor survive Dark of the Moon... well sort of... he's undead now, out for revenge on those who killed him.

[Catman Jim]

What's exactly so important about this character? The review says that if he escaped, he might be able to challenge the Dark Powers themselves. Is he a God? A Demon? What?

Is Gwydion a renegade Dark Power?

No, he is the 7th level bard that frequents the Blackard Inn in Mordentshire and challenges Docteur Germaine D'Honaire on all things scientific in I10 Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill.

I was just re-reading I10 and came across that, I hadn't caught it before.

[Cole Deschain]

I left "Arak" right where it is now... but the Shadow rift itself doesn;t feel quite right.

Where keening is now, I just slapped onto Darkon. It's already huge, so why worry?

So guess who took over when every living soul on Markovia and G'henna vanished one night? In my campaign, Keening is much larger, but it also isn't populated by lesser undead. In fact, it's not populated by much of anything. Tristessa, obviously, runs the place, but any encounters are going to be with Arak groups heading for the surface (with the added bonus that Tristessa hates them, so they tend to leave in a hurry), or with the ghosts of the children Tristessa has acquired over the years (Where do these kids come from? Well, IMC, G'henna moved... but its children did not).

Tristessa rules the surface, while Loht rules underground.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The name Gwydion may be interpreted as "Born of Trees". A name from Welsh mythology. In the Mabinogion, Gwydion was a powerful magician who made his nephew a wife from flowers (Blodeuwedd, meaning "face of flowers").

[alhoon]

That sounds an interesting story. What is the mabigonion?

[Mephisto of the FoS]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabinogion

[Jeremy16]

I'm sooooooooooo glad this thread was resurrected!

I've been tinkering with the idea of Gwydion punching holes in the Demiplane (ala Superboy Prime from Infinite Crisis) as a way of having parts of the Shadow Rift invading the under areas of various domains. I mean, ol' Gwyd has to be doing something in that corridor between realities, right?

So far, I only have an initial concept - each Shadow Rift "pocket" is called an Under-Garden, and the Dark Delvers have discovered these and assigned Under-Wardens to guard them and try and figure out a way to prevent them from expanding. I also want them all of these area to connect via a central nexus deep under Mt. Nirka in a cavern full of doors known as the Turbide Tomb.

I just don't know where to go from there...