I could certainly do without Death. This guy has almost no personality and his curse is less than poetic. IMO, this darklord is unnecessary and most certainly one the Realms of Dread could do without. Plus, without the Shroud, adventures in Darkon could be sped up as characters don't take time to avoid Il Aluk. Or maybe a campaign based on taking back the city from the undead that linger after Death is destroyed and the Shroud negated? Dachine (Death) has always been something of a loser in Ravenloft (going back to 2e) and I'd gladly get rid of him in the canon if I could.
He would have almost no dealings with live PCs, and I have no interest in running an undead campaign. However, an adventure path that ultimately leads the PCs to destroy Necropolis would be seriously awesome. I'm working on a floorplan of bits of the Black Vault to let my PCs run through, and it could have extradimensional bits and pieces to it, which would allow them to assemble the Rift Spanner and detonate it to salvage Il Aluk from the Shroud.
Ivana Boritsi, Ivan Dilisyna, and Gabrielle Aderre always struck me as being eminently replaceable. If I had low level PCs who wanted to take a fight to the darklord, I'd probably choose one of the poisoner twins. For midlevel PCs, Gabrielle Aderre would be interesting.
How about darklords that you think should not, under any circumstances, be killed? I always thought the Eternal Triumvirate of Undead Bad-ass-itude (Azalin, Ankhtepot, Strahd) were basically unkillable, and not just for the reason of their power. They were so cool that even going up against them would be an honor. If I were a Ravenloft PC, going up against them and dying would be enough to justify playing the campaign setting.
Also, Lord Soth was awesome as well. He was drastically underused in 2nd ed, and his disappearance in 3rd ed sealed that. But I'm thinking of a campaign setting which would have him as a major mover and shaker of politics in the southern Core. What's more, there's no way you can dethrone him because he's of a core far harder than any other nearby Darklord.
Aderre is one I could take or leave. She's not the most gripping darklord, but I have seen worse. Her own twin sister would probably make a good replacement.
You can't kill Azalin (as the Requiem shows). He's just too good at being bad. Strahd is the cornerstone of Ravenloft; you destroy him and you destroy the entire Realm of Dread (if the Grand Conjunction adventures are right). Ankhtepot is another keeper, yes. Cursed to appreciate but never enjoy the pleasures of life for his blasphemies.
Soth didn't get much use mostly thanks to contention about which world he was actually in. The Dragonlance folks didn't like him as a darklord, and they clashed with the Ravenloft folks. As I read it, the Night of Screaming Shadows he was loosed from Ravenloft back to Krynn, where he was destroyed in the war against the One God.
Of course, my dislike for its darklord may be due to the fact that Dementlieu was the most BORING domain I EVER read about, it took me twice as long to get through its chapter in the Gazetteer. I realize it has its place, and i'm sure many DM's have a use for it, but as my players absolutely hate political intrigue, I have no use for it personally. I'm sure about 5 people are about to respond violently to my post.:D
I agree that Strahd and Azalin are just way cool. You can't kill them. They will just come back more powerful.
Bluebeard: As currently written, this guy is just plain silly, and his curse already more or less taken up by Urik von Kharkov. And since I don't really care for von Kharkov...
Tristen ApBlanc: Man, Azalin sure wasn't lying when he referred to this lord as "unusually pathetic"... His domain is interesting and has potential, he himself; not so much...
Captain Alain Monette: Unless developed, this guy is just a big monster that attacks people, and due to the nature of his domain, any encounter with him is going to be of the kill-or-be-killed variety. Not very fun.
Frantisek Markov: Moving him to his own island (of Dr. Moreau) was a step in the right direction, but he still strikes me as more ridiculous than creepy. Markovia might remain, but he should be overthrown and replaced with an unusually nasty specimen of his creations. As it stands, both Verbrek and the Wildlands has it beat for feral horror scenarios.
Lord Wilfred Godefroy: Gazetteer no. 3 went a long way towards making this fellow more menacing, but out of the more "classic" Darklords he still remains one of the more loseable.
Death: If he had actually had some sense of mystery or dread about him, then maybe... He should have been written without much of an explanation, and left to fire up the DM's and players' imagination, not unlike his near-namesake the Red Death.
Gwydion: An elephant in the room. Too big to ignore, too big to be set loose. Either he gets the full Vecna treatment, or he goes.
Baron Urik von Kharkov: Ugh... This one, much like his domain or Tristen ApBlanc, is too much of a conceptual mash-up. Cribbing from Hammer Horror is fair enough, but why on Earth take one's cues from the Blaxploitation genre?!
Tsien Chang: Quite possibly the most blatant example ever of a Darklord set up just to be destroyed. Needs expansion, or needs to go.
The Phantom Lover: Actually, this concept seems quite ok, but I wouldn't mind downgrading him from lord status to make him a roaming creature instead.
The Headless Horseman: Like the Phantom Lover, this one doesn't actually need to go, but there's no reason why he needs a domain of his own, especially when the one he has is essentially just a big "gotcha!"-moment.
Darklords that should (have) stay(ed):
Count Strahd von Zarovich: Done right, this one looms large indeed, and the setting would not be the same without him.
Azalin Rex: He sometimes seems a little too comfortable with his place as a Darklord, but otherwise a great blend of formidability and depraved evil.
Dominic D'Honaire: With all due respect to the commentor above, anyone this repulsive needs to stay. ;)
Vlad Drakov: With many Darklords, their evil seems either convoluted, abstract, and/or not really sufficient to make them a creature of utter darkness. Yet others seem too much like conventional D&D-monsters. This guy manages to beat both: there's no question that he belongs where he does, and he manages it through the force of character rather than through supernatural menace.
Harkon Lukas: Cunning and creepy.
Adam: Another lord it would seem odd for the setting to lose, not least since he strikes me as one that can be quite flexibly applied.
Meredoth, Duke Nharov Gundar, The Nightmare Man, and Anton Misroi: These four could be better developed, one reckons, but their respective concepts have made them endearing. :D
Lord Soth, Vecna, Kas the Destroyer: Bah! These folks were far better employed in the Demiplane of Dread than outside it. Given the grave damage inflicted by the release of Vecna, he especially should have been kept under lock and key. :P
Yagno Petrovna and Elena Faithhold: Pitiful, yet hideous.
Gwydion: An elephant in the room. Too big to ignore, too big to be set loose. Either he gets the full Vecna treatment, or he goes.
I completely agree. Loht would make a much more compelling darklord. A son trying to live up to his father's legacy, but cursed to never fully measure up.
Honestly, I didn't like Dominic very much. I realize that Darklords don't all have to be uber powerful, but really... a 10th level aristocrat... come on. Dementleui has many other potential darklords (the Brain being my favorite) that would fit the bill just fine.
Of course, my dislike for its darklord may be due to the fact that Dementlieu was the most BORING domain I EVER read about, it took me twice as long to get through its chapter in the Gazetteer. I realize it has its place, and i'm sure many DM's have a use for it, but as my players absolutely hate political intrigue, I have no use for it personally. I'm sure about 5 people are about to respond violently to my post.:D
I agree that Strahd and Azalin are just way cool. You can't kill them. They will just come back more powerful.
A political setting is always a good change of pace by placing horrors upon smiling human faces, but as you said its something you personally do not care for. Players tend to adapt their DM's likes and dislikes over the course of a campain.
Personally I love the darklord. Art 10 yes, but dirty rotten to the core just like the rest of them.
Firan Al'Zhonan, A.k.A azalin: I just love the way he's represented as some dark spider spinning webs that at any moment could unravel the very fabric of the Realm. Also, he's compelling in his motivations: Power, yes, Freedom yes. But also bringing his son back to life, building a great kingdom, creating a lasting legacy, knowledge...
Strahd Von Zarovich: Cunning villain, master manipulator, tragic gothic figure what more could you want?
Vlad Drakov::SADISTIC...EVIL...DESPOT...WITH...SICK...HABITS...
Akthenpot: "Thou shalt respect that wich is holy..."
Harkon Lukas: There's so much fun to be had with that evil bard...
Jacqueline Renier: There's a lot that can be said about masks, deceit, jalousy and broken hearts...
Darklords that deserve more in-dept exploration:
Diamabel: This character could offer so much. He's a living paradox, a creature obsessed with purity, holiness, etc yet corrupted, self-hating, evil. he's seen as holy yet...
Aton Misroi: dance of the dead was good. But I don't no a New Orleans type domain, screaming Voodoo. How he reminds people of Baron Samedi. It seems like so much more could be pulled from this guy
Hazlik: He dillusions himself to sleep with potions. A self-hating, jealous, fearful coward. There's a lot that could be done with him.
darklords that deserve to die or should never have earned a domain
Gabrielle Aderre: While she does have a few interesting points. That fact is she does not seem to be even worthy of darklord status. At best a villainous presence in the domain. But man, talk about tame and Bland. Come on her son's right there...
Ivan Dylisnia and Ivan Boristi: Talk about pathethic... If they want to god decadent roman emperor road they should have built a better darklord to go with it. I like characters ala Nero, Caligula, etc. But thy seem to be too small scale to personify it properly,not to mention that they don't have any overeaching plans that should qualify such villains to make then interesting. Simply put, they must go. I want a real decadent aristocrat not two fumbling poisoners
Tristan Ap'Blanc: He has such a cool domain, why is he so bland?
Wilfred Godefroy: He's nothing but the ghost of a brutal husband. He doe'snt do anything. He has no plans. He did'nt do anything even close to what other darklords did, why is this guy even a darklord? Pity I like Mordent as a domain...
Death: Loser... even as a city of the dead, seems to me like a much better darlord could be crafted...
Baron Urik von Kharkov: I just think he serves no actual purpose in Ravenloft
These are a few of my ideas...
Ravenloft isn't supposed to be a campaign setting where you say "oh look! A tanar'ri doing battle against a ba'atezu with yugoloths standing by to pick up the pieces and sell them on the black market!" That sort of mythos is more cheesy than creepy to me at least.
Vecna had a load more potential when he was just a footnote in the DMG 2nd ed. as a powerful lich. Once he was portrayed in Vecna Lives and then in Die Vecna Die, he struck me as being not at all Gothic. He lives in a domain populated mostly by undead, in a fortress that is shaped like a gigantic skull, with buildings sticking out the top.
Eh?
His personal guardians are a golem called The Eye, which is made entirely out of eyes, and The Hand, which is made entirely out of hands. His cultists apparently sever their own hand and pluck out one of their own eyes.
Apparently, Vecna has been taking uniform lessons from the Joker and Two-face, who operate in the comic-book conventional way of clothing all their servants in the same type of uniform they wear. Or, in the case of Vecna, the body parts they lack. Because two-handed manipulation and depth perception are not at all useful for one's mortal servants.
This might not be out of place in Marvel Superhero Comics perhaps, where it seems frickin' radiation poisoning can give you all sorts of freakish powers and make you the delight of ravening fans the world over. But it didn't belong in Ravenloft, and I'm glad they got rid of Vecna and Kas.
Vecna plus Kas (two clearly out of place darklords) in a trade off to regain Azalin (arguably the most quintessentially Ravenloft darklord of them all).
A fair trade if you ask me.
"avenloft isn't supposed to be a campaign setting where you say "oh look! A tanar'ri doing battle against a ba'atezu with yugoloths standing by to pick up the pieces and sell them on the black market!" That sort of mythos is more cheesy than creepy to me at least.
Well, good thing that such a mythos doesn't really exist anywhere, in Ravenloft or elsewhere, then. ;)
As for the rest? Heh? Over-the-top as they were (and it goes more for Cavitus than Tovag), I do think the way the two domains were so inimical to life and the human spirit had its uses. If they erred in any manner it was in duplicating Falkovnia and G'henna to a fair extent. And a cult of people who maim themselves identically, while silly in a practical sense, doesn't really strike me as out of place in gothic horror.
What would make a better Darklord for this island? I think it would be good to stick with a cursed human, the core has enough undead, werebeast, & created Darklords. Personally, I'd like to see a human cult on Liffe along the lines of "The Wicker Man" movie (the original, not that horrid remake with Nicolas Cage) and the Darklord being it's leader. Yes, I know there are other cults already in Ravenloft, but a violent fertility cult appeals to me. "Children of the Corn" would be another example, but without the need for "He-who-walks-between-the-rows" unless it was a Spirit-of-the-Land under the control of the true human Darklord. I'd also like to see more trade between Liffe, Vechor, and the mainland, so Liffe needs an active ocean port city.
Baron Urik von Kharkov: Ugh... This one, much like his domain or Tristen ApBlanc, is too much of a conceptual mash-up. Cribbing from Hammer Horror is fair enough, but why on Earth take one's cues from the Blaxploitation genre?!
.
I pity the fool who removes Von Kharkov from their game. He's the blackest character in DnD ever. Blacula don't have **** on Von Kharkov. He is the man behind the Fang of the Nosferatu, for crying out loud. And he has an Elf Vampire bodyguard/ assassin. Von Kharkov is in the 'loft for good.
Well, good thing that such a mythos doesn't really exist anywhere, in Ravenloft or elsewhere, then. ;)
No? Take a look at the official DnD adventures. Most of them have at least some hint of Outer Planar stuff as either the main baddie, or of influencing the main baddie.
Personally, I feel that hyperintelligent beings from a different plane of existence would probably NOT look like medieval demons, complete with bat wings, horns, and Evil Devil (TM) pitchforks. But that's just me.
(Actually, on a positive note, I like the Cthulhu mythos much more, and frankly the best example I've ever seen of a "different plane of existence" creature is Douglas Adam's species of creatures that's a "hyperintelligent shade of the color blue", satirical though it may be. There's a common fallacy that otherplanar creatures must be recognizable in physics to our own plane, in my opinion, and I'm surprised that TSR and WotC have done such a poor lackluster job of visualizing demons and devils when they've done such a wonderful job of fleshing out the various campaign settings of 2nd ed.)
As for the rest? Heh? Over-the-top as they were (and it goes more for Cavitus than Tovag), I do think the way the two domains were so inimical to life and the human spirit had its uses. If they erred in any manner it was in duplicating Falkovnia and G'henna to a fair extent.
Falkovnia and G'henna are realistic enough to be feasible. Military dictatorships have existed in the past and still do today (though when I think of Falkovnia I like to think of North Korea as an example, rather than Nazi Germany). G'henna is based on any fundamentalist religious dictatorship where the pretense of divine right is starting to wear thin and the ruling class of priests is desperately searching for ways to prop up the masquerade.
Cavitius is even worse than Necropolis in my opinion. Necropolis at least has the tragic graveyard feeling of a metropolis in decay - a common enough motif in Gothic literature. Cavitius is... sort of like a Death Star with skeletons instead of stormtroopers. Tovag is even more two dimensional - all you really know about it is that it exists only to send adolescent soldiers to their deaths. I have personal problems with seeing Vlad Drakov as a realistic darklord (because he does nothing that engenders pity or sympathy for me) but those problems are tenfold in Kas, who may as well be a machine pulling levers for all the emotional response he engenders in me.
All in all, we're well rid of those two darklords in my opinion. Firstly they were far too munchkinly powerful to belong in Ravenloft, and secondly they just didn't fit in with the Demiplane's feel.
And a cult of people who maim themselves identically, while silly in a practical sense, doesn't really strike me as out of place in gothic horror.
To each his own. I find the Kargat scary and convincing, and the Kargatane even moreso. They don't have badges or insignia or uniforms. They have a unity of purpose, and apart from that, there's nothing to distinguish them (to the casual observer) from the average man or woman. The fact that your enemies' informants could be masquerading as the commoner in the street - that's paranoia.
No? Take a look at the official DnD adventures. Most of them have at least some hint of Outer Planar stuff as either the main baddie, or of influencing the main baddie.
Personally, I feel that hyperintelligent beings from a different plane of existence would probably NOT look like medieval demons, complete with bat wings, horns, and Evil Devil (TM) pitchforks. But that's just me.
(Actually, on a positive note, I like the Cthulhu mythos much more, and frankly the best example I've ever seen of a "different plane of existence" creature is Douglas Adam's species of creatures that's a "hyperintelligent shade of the color blue", satirical though it may be. There's a common fallacy that otherplanar creatures must be recognizable in physics to our own plane, in my opinion, and I'm surprised that TSR and WotC have done such a poor lackluster job of visualizing demons and devils when they've done such a wonderful job of fleshing out the various campaign settings of 2nd ed.)
On a side note, in response to that, have you noticed how the newer demons and devils released by WotC lately have just been fatter and uglier? Man, some imp must be flyin' around the cosmos beating demons with ugly sticks...
No? Take a look at the official DnD adventures. Most of them have at least some hint of Outer Planar stuff as either the main baddie, or of influencing the main baddie.
Personally, I feel that hyperintelligent beings from a different plane of existence would probably NOT look like medieval demons, complete with bat wings, horns, and Evil Devil (TM) pitchforks. But that's just me.
(Actually, on a positive note, I like the Cthulhu mythos much more, and frankly the best example I've ever seen of a "different plane of existence" creature is Douglas Adam's species of creatures that's a "hyperintelligent shade of the color blue", satirical though it may be. There's a common fallacy that otherplanar creatures must be recognizable in physics to our own plane, in my opinion, and I'm surprised that TSR and WotC have done such a poor lackluster job of visualizing demons and devils when they've done such a wonderful job of fleshing out the various campaign settings of 2nd ed.)
Ah, indeed, let us steer away extraplanar beings from looking like plain mammals, reptiles, birds, and make them look like amoebae, cavefish, bacteria, octopi and light instead.
That is, after all, otherworldly.
Since most extraplanar creatures exist in the context of very much mortal mythos, why they also reflect the beliefs inherit in such really does not register as a problem with me.
Falkovnia and G'henna are realistic enough to be feasible. Military dictatorships have existed in the past and still do today (though when I think of Falkovnia I like to think of North Korea as an example, rather than Nazi Germany). G'henna is based on any fundamentalist religious dictatorship where the pretense of divine right is starting to wear thin and the ruling class of priests is desperately searching for ways to prop up the masquerade.
Yet both are massively blown out of proportion and caricaturized, way beyond being feasible as real-world counterparts (even the DPRK looks positively good compared to Falkovnia or G'henna). We are talking about a difference of scale here, not kind.
Cavitius is even worse than Necropolis in my opinion. Necropolis at least has the tragic graveyard feeling of a metropolis in decay - a common enough motif in Gothic literature. Cavitius is... sort of like a Death Star with skeletons instead of stormtroopers. Tovag is even more two dimensional - all you really know about it is that it exists only to send adolescent soldiers to their deaths.
The Death Star is a sterile battle station, formidable but probably neutral or even reassuring to those who man it, and probably not that much more menacing to those who would invade it. Cavitus is a place where the human condition is dictated by that which no longer can be described as even remotely human, a miniature Hell of sorts, where service to its lord is based on equal measures dread, insanity, and malice. Strikes me as a solid enough idea.
And Tovag, then, has people forced to grow up at twice the rate they should, mostly just to die, for a ruler who cannot see any other purpose for them or his land than this (even, Drakov, after all, has some kind of "internal" objectives for Falkovnia, even though they usually end up being rather unpleasant). This does not trigger your imagination or interest in how the society and the psychology of its inhabitants may come to look like? It certainly does for me.
I have personal problems with seeing Vlad Drakov as a realistic darklord (because he does nothing that engenders pity or sympathy for me) but those problems are tenfold in Kas, who may as well be a machine pulling levers for all the emotional response he engenders in me.
Darklords are not neccessarily picked based on how pitiable and sympathetic they are (how much pity and sympathy does one really feel for the Mindefisk Sisters, King Crocodile, Anton Misroi, Arijani, Harkon Lukas, Gwydion, Wilfred Godefroy, Ebonbane, Domnic D'honaire, Azalin, Pieter van Riese, Meredoth, Jaqueline Renier, most of the minor Darklords out on the Seas or the Islands of Terror, etc. etc.?). Kas was in essence led to live a lie, forever frustrated in the only pursuits that could hold meaning and worthwhileness for him, much like Vlad Drakov.
All in all, we're well rid of those two darklords in my opinion. Firstly they were far too munchkinly powerful to belong in Ravenloft, and secondly they just didn't fit in with the Demiplane's feel.
The power level of Darklords, so long as they are not disposable at the merest flick of a sword or a spell, strikes me as mostly irrelevant. And the Demiplane's feel, so far as I can tell, has long since moved away from being strictly Gothic Horror/Hammer Films to more center around Sisophysian futility and the wages of evil. Seen in that light, the Burning Peaks would have been an odd fit in the Core, but was perfectly fine as a cluster.
To each his own. I find the Kargat scary and convincing, and the Kargatane even moreso. They don't have badges or insignia or uniforms. They have a unity of purpose, and apart from that, there's nothing to distinguish them (to the casual observer) from the average man or woman. The fact that your enemies' informants could be masquerading as the commoner in the street - that's paranoia.
And, in a less kind light, the Kargat is the "Vampire and Werewolf Secret Police" who lead around a bunch of people stupid enough to believe a story about a two-pronged blade in a world where vampires are unusually accepted as a possibility, the "VWSP" is in turn led by a snarky old man who does mad scientist experiments with magic and whose curse is not being allowed to make more magical power-grabs, as well as having the Mother of all dysfunctional father-son relationships. And yet I find Azalin, the kargat, and Kargatane quite compelling. It's all about perspective, right? ;)
And as much as the "you can't trust anyone because you don't know who you can trust"-scenario has great appeal to me, so does the idea of "you can't trust anyone because no one deserves trust", in cases where such trust is nonetheless required. The kind of scenario which Winston Smith of "Ninetheen Eighty-Four" found himself in, with the potential for no less severe an outcome.
And that's what a place like Cavitus is for.
[A very large amount of highly subjective, though perfectly valid, observations about Falkovnia, G'Henna, Cavitius, and Tovag.]
Hah! I respond to your subjective, fallible, personalized opinion with a much worthier rhetorical flourish...!
Namely, MY subjective, fallible, personalized opinion! Bwahahahahaa!! QUAIL ye mortals! ;)
But seriously, good points Estavan. If you're able to make changes in perception or presentation that allows you to get further mileage out of canon material, that's definitely a worthy calling. I find it stretches my disbelief and I'm not confident of my ability to present it in a way that my players would find palatable. But if you're able to do that yourself that merely proves you are the better craftsman for DnD.
Half-fiend/Half-red dragon T-rex should be a DL somewhere!
Yeah, he can have the Croc's job...
Who is Croc?
King Crocodile, "Darklord" of the Wildlands
King Crocodile, "Darklord" of the Wildlands
Question, have any adventures in the Wildlands ever been published for that matter does anybody have any real details on king crocodile other then he betrayed the animals who asked him to devour the humans coming to the forest?
Question, have any adventures in the Wildlands ever been published for that matter does anybody have any real details on king crocodile other then he betrayed the animals who asked him to devour the humans coming to the forest?
I think he was in the Darklords supplement for pre-conjunction Ravenloft 2nd ed., and quite possibly in the Domains of Dread core rulebook for post-conjunction Ravenloft 2nd ed.
Is this a Gothic version of The Jungle Book or something?
That was my first thought. It could possibly coexist on the lonely jungle outposts of Heart of Darkness as a dark fantastical landscape just on the verge of madness for foolhardly colonists.
The Wildlands are such an underdeveloped place in Ravenloft (the DMG even says something about "no sane human would ever go here" and apparently all man-made tools break down eventually. I believe it mentioned something about "jungle children" who live there, unless im thinking of another domain. I suppose the Croc doesn't really need fleshing out, hes a giant, greedy, sentient crocodiles who makes the animals give him gifts or he eats them. Inside, I suppose he could be a lonely reptile, but I guarentee the only thing a group of adventurers would be sad about, is that they can't make him into a handbag (as the tools would just break down:D ).
"Hey Bob, thats a nice pair of boots you got there. What brand is that?"
"Darklord."
Is this a Gothic version of The Jungle Book or something?
That's pretty much what I got from his backstory and the current affairs in the domain......
II believe it mentioned something about "jungle children" who live there, unless im thinking of another domain.
Do you mean the Wild Children of Sebua?
An awakened croc. I think the whole domain is a crock (pun intended) and should be merged with Sri Raji. Honestly, what archetype is Crocodile supposed to represent, if any?
I never liked the Illithid God Brain. Oh, don't get me wrong, illithids make good additions to Ravenloft, but the whole backstory about its consciousness being that of a psionicist that unwisely did some kind of wacky experiment. Illithids ought to be inscrutable, and as such Bluetspur's darklord ought to be 100% alien.
I agree with you on this one. The only adventure to be set in Bluetspur (Thoughts of Darkness) really drew a blank and what the heck to do with this enemy. How do you fight a big ol' brain in a river?
The ending of that adventure was pretty lame.
The Minderfisk Sisters--darklords of Tepest. Honestly, the domain doesn't feel like it suits them. A member of the Tepestani Inquisition, yes. Three hags, no. How do they tie in with religious zealotry, willfull ignorance, and xenophobia? At best they're in the background, and at worst they're a footnote in the domain's description.
Actually, if memory serves, the hags predate the inquisition, with Tepest originally meant to be based on fairy tales in the Hansel und Gretel mould. Once the inquisition was added, they were meant to put the "witch" in "witch hunt". Then, when the Shadow Fey were invented, they had their thunder stolen yet further; perhaps fitting as their backstory has them start out their lives as hounded wallflowers... Nevertheless, while Tepest now has a number of elements (Hags & Goblins, Celtic flavor, an Inquisition, and Shadow Fey) that do not always have "natural" synergy, I reckon Gazetteer V shows fairly well how to balance and fit them together.
A more doubtful, but possible, long-term aim of this practice might then be to A) shift the perception to that any tale of "witches" in Tepest refers to human practicioners of the dark arts. Then, B) make the reputation of said practitioners benevolent enough that the inquisition starts becoming discredited and challenged, not least by their more socially entrenched and influential adherents. Possibly with a step C) Shift religious and social practices in Tepest towards a more matriarchial and magic-friendly slant, in the end perhaps even twisting the local religion into behaving as a reliable food supply (for example by having it take up the practice of human sacrifices, whether for the sake of ensuring healthy cattle, good crops, good weather, etc. or perhaps to stave of the Winter of the World a while longer).
* The Illithid God-Brain's psionicist backstory comes from a Book of S article (with all due respect to its author, Matthew L. Martin), not the actual product line. The closest canon has ever offered for the IGB's backstory is, "No human knows exactly what crimes the God-brain committed to earn its domain; perhaps no human could ever understand."
* It's been a few years now, so my memory's fuzzy, but when I passed my Tepest draft on to Steve Miller for Gaz V, it implicated, subtly perhaps, that the Three Hags were continually stoking the fires of the Inquisition so they could harvest the corpses of those it condemned. Was that not present in the published version?
* It's been a few years now, so my memory's fuzzy, but when I passed my Tepest draft on to Steve Miller for Gaz V, it implicated, subtly perhaps, that the Three Hags were continually stoking the fires of the Inquisition so they could harvest the corpses of those it condemned. Was that not present in the published version?
There was one line hidden in the Current Sketch text, and only about harvesting the individuals they seduced to become fodder for the Inquisition. I admit my mistake. Subtlety is not my forte.
A member of the Inquisiton being a Darklord wouldn't make much sense to me, as yeah, they may kill quite a few innocent people, but whats the one thing common to almost every darklord? Lasting young and life. Two aspects of fey. I don't think a member of the Inquisiton would last more than a decade or two as Darklord, with all their priests being so highly suspicious of such 'dark magic'. Even trying to pawn it off as "a divine gift from Belanus" wouldn't really work, as a human's mortality is what defines them as different from Fey.
* The Illithid God-Brain's psionicist backstory comes from a Book of S article (with all due respect to its author, Matthew L. Martin), not the actual product line. The closest canon has ever offered for the IGB's backstory is, "No human knows exactly what crimes the God-brain committed to earn its domain; perhaps no human could ever understand."
Huh. I checked and you're absolutely right. I must have read that on some fan site and mistaken it for canon. Thanks for setting me straight.