Markovia, Gahanna, Bluetspur? Updated past 2nd edition?

[Gautsu]

Sorry if this information is posted elsewhere, but one thing I find is hard here is finding very specific information amongst the wealth of years. Have any of these three domains ever been updated since the Black Box? If they have a point in the right direction would be awesome

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Sorry if this information is posted elsewhere, but one thing I find is hard here is finding very specific information amongst the wealth of years. Have any of these three domains ever been updated since the Black Box? If they have a point in the right direction would be awesome

Well past 2nd edition no, past Black Box yes

G'Henna = Circle of Darkness and then there is info on the Reliquary of Starvation in Van Richten's Arsenal p.50-51

Markovia = Neither Man nor Beast

Bluetspur = Nothing official after Thoughts of Darkness (that needs a rewrite) but there are some really interesting articles in various Ravenloft Netbooks, one in particular has a really well written background story of the Illithid God Brain by Matthew L. Martin. You can download this from Kargatane.com it is in the Book of Sacrifices. The Realms Beyond by John W. Mangrum in the Book of Souls as also Marcu Vasilis and the adventure The Man Who Lost His Mind from the Forgotten Children netbook. These are all Bluetspur based but not necessarily in Bluetspur. There was also a short story by Ari Marmell called Before I Wake online on the WotC website but not anymore, if you are interested a thorough search you can find it.

[DocBeard]

Yeah, the BoS series pretty much seems to lay out what the Kargatine had planned for Bluetspur; not dissimilar to how the Far Realm works in 4 and 5e, an almost parallel reality that can invade and influence the rest of Ravenloft if invited in. This suits the Illithids's traditional role in D&D as manipulative alien masterminds, their 'underdark' just being the Mists.

There was also a running gag about it being moved to Raveloft's moon (and thus technically still Core) or a satellite in the sky way before the stars got tied to aberration-type monsters, but we never got anything official because of R 3e folding. Maybe there'll be something worth salvaging in the 5e book, Bluetspur's pretty popular. There are also a ton of non-ravenloft Illithid themed books in basically every edition, lots of stuff you could do to flesh their arsenal out or mine for schemes the God Brain and its attendants are hatching. In general I think a great rule of thumb someone...was it a Kargatine alum or other poster it's been like a decade...said here.

"In Ravenloft, if the Illithids win, the tone of the world changes. Gothic horror is ultimately human horror; evil is acknowledged as thus, and known to be evil. Illithids represent cosmic horror, the idea that everything beyond our savage origins is a comfortable delusions, and the real heirs to reality are so beyond our concepts of morality as to be unable to understand what the fuss is about." -in other words, they chafe at the Dark Powers daring to judge them like every other villain in Ravenloft, but their ultimate goal being changing the context of a narritive-driven universe to one that suits them better. It almost leaks into meta-horror in a really satisfying way for me.

As far as G'Henna and Markovia goes, the one consistent thing is that every coastal country in the western core has tried to settle Markovia and failed, which you'd think would get some attention. Unlike Blutespur and the Shadowlands, there's no real hint as to what the Kargatine had planned for either of those domains outside of a few Zhakatan relics.

On a personal note I think making G'Henna an island was a bad move. Yeah, there's the idea, like Vorostokov, that if you connect it to another domain everyone'll just leave, but I think part of, for lack of a better term, religious horror is that there's the option to leave but you do not take it. If you want Yango to be Ravenloft's Jim Jones, forcing his people to stay in a sandbox that's grown beyond his control, the option to leave needs to exist. If I had the keys to the kingdom I'd probably attach it to the Amber Wastes, if we're keeping a giant hole in the middle of the core, and have it be sort of like a crusader kingdom or a nation sized cult compound; they don't speak the language of the Akari or Phriaz, their religion clashes with everyone else in the area, there's a lot of sand and monsters and no one really knows how to live in a desert so you still maintain that isolated, starving feel but there is the faint chance of escape for the people that is needed to create a really proper cult leader villain.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Sorry if this information is posted elsewhere, but one thing I find is hard here is finding very specific information amongst the wealth of years.

A good starting point when sifting through is Mistipedia: www.fraternityofshadows.com/wiki

Like all wikis, it's perpetually a work in progress, and something not being there isn't definitive proof that it doesn't exist, but a good starting point is to search there for the domains in question:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Bluetspur
http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/G'Henna
http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Markovia

Digging a bit deeper, you can try the "what links here" button on any page to see if there are mentions of it elsewhere.

That said... no, there's not a lot on these three post 2nd Edition. They all get their requisite half-page blurb in the 3e Core Rulebook/3.5 Player's Handbook, but not much more.

Markovia is the last part of our Sea of Sorrows Gazetteer netbook that hasn't seen the light of day in any way. Unfortunately, the author of that section moved on to other interests and never got much further than an outline. The rest of us keep talking about buckling down to finish it, but I'll be honest: there hasn't been much movement on it for years. I'd love to see it happen, but personally don't have time to do it.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Markovia is the last part of our Sea of Sorrows Gazetteer netbook that hasn't seen the light of day in any way. Unfortunately, the author of that section moved on to other interests and never got much further than an outline. The rest of us keep talking about buckling down to finish it, but I'll be honest: there hasn't been much movement on it for years. I'd love to see it happen, but personally don't have time to do it.

Hey... I am interested in writing about Markovia maybe I can use the same FoS character I am using for that Sea of Sorrows article I am writing for QtR28. If you send me the outline I would be glad to write something. It will be a chance for me to re-read the island of Dr Mureau (I read it in 2001) and watch Cat People for some new ideas as also colony stories from Papua New Guiney, New Zealand etc. Including the legends of the Tapestry of Souls, Markov's wife, any escaped Broken One outside Markovia, Legends about Saint Markovia and shipwrecks.

[Gautsu]

The only other thing I can think of off the top of my head were the excerpts on the Glutton of Gehenna from Van Richtens guide to the Walking Dead, although I don't remember how much actual domain details were in there off of the top of my head

[Mistmaster]

Markovia will be my next rewriting after I finish Invidia. Bluetspur will be next.

[The Lesser Evil]

Probably the biggest change since the Black Box is the rearrangement of the domains since the Grand Conjunction and the aftermath of these changes.

For Markovia, the climate and terrain changed from a temperate mainland domain to a tropical island in the Sea of Sorrows more fitting of a Dr. Moreau expy. This is commented/fleshed out a bit in to Niether Man Nor Beast. For Gehenna, it's the change to an island of terror, which has really cut off trade and isolated the land, which is addressed in Circle of Darkness. Both modules also offer a lot on their respective domains as kind of the most extensive sourcebooks on their respective domains. Circle of Darkness has about the most extensive encounter chart I've seen, and also mentions a lot of little locations for the DM to fill in.

Domains of Dread and the third edition campaign books would incorporate some of the changes from the above modules along with the Grand Conjunction changes. Domains of Dread briefly talks about how the freeing of Malistroi in Neither Man Nor Beast has shaken up Petrovna, but not really all that much. Ravenloft Third Edition and the 3.5 Ravenloft Player's handbook give us a few more mundane details about the people and currency of G'Henna (names for the copper piece, silver, and gold piece), as well as listing natural resources for both Markovia and G'Henna. Since Domains of Dread, these domains have been given culture ratings. Ravenloft third edition gave us classifications for ecology/terrain according to 3e rules, and Ravenloft Player's handbook gave us magic ratings.

The changes for Bluetspur have been relatively little. Thoughts of Darkness fleshed out its darklord and gave us vampiric illithids, a joint effort between the rebellious High Master Illithid and a relative of Strahd's in order to overthrow the Illithid Godbrain. These details were incorporated into Domains of Dread.. The 3e core Ravenloft book descriptions of Bluetspur are largely the same as in the Black Box, coming from a player facing aspect.

Edit: The third edition monster books gave us the Subdweller, a morlock-esque descendant of escaped underground dwelling Thaani humans. The 3e non-Ravenloft book on aberrations, Lords of Madness, has stats on vampiric illithids.