But any idea how the city of Knurl became the realm of Darkon....??
The city you name would continue to exist in Oerth, unless something happened to it. At difference with Barovia and Castle Ravenloft which were sucked into the demiplane whe it was created or with Mordent which was sucked when Azalin and Strahd visited the place.
Montalve
Originally posted by Aernestus
At difference with Barovia and Castle Ravenloft which were sucked into the demiplane when it was created...
Actually, Barovia still exists in the prime material plane, and the, for lack of a better word, Ravenloftian Barovia is simply a copy of the real version, as shown in Roots of Evil.
Originally posted by gibby701
Any idea of where the original Barovia is located on the Prime?
It was never given an official location, though in Roots of Evil, it appears to be a world with very few monsters, as the townsfolk of Vallaki mistake a zombie for a very ill person and throw it in jail. (This made for a very creepy encounter if the PCs are arrested...they end up getting thrown in the cell next to the zombie, which then starts throwing itself against the bars between the cells...when the PCs call the guards for help, the guards just tell them it's a sick man and to ignore him and then they leave the PCs to deal with it
)I was going to say it was low-magic, but both the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and the Icon of Ravenloft were made there before Strahd made his pact.
Originally posted by Zar Niln
I believe the original designers intended that Barovia and Strahd had come from Earth. As in the planet we're standing on. Somewhere in the realms of Eastern Europe I believe. Think about it. It would explain the "no monsters" thing and it's kind of creepy to think that such pure evil had come from our own planet.
Hmm, no, I don't see it. That same module introduced the original religion of Barovia as the worship of a god named Andral. Not to mention that magic does exist in the prime material version of Barovia (as I mentioned earlier about the creation of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind). I think it's just a safer place than the demiplane, and the prime plane Barovia is remote and far removed from most other places, so the people of Vallaki, which is still a rustic resort town, probably just never encountered that sort of thing before.
Originally posted by gibby701
Any idea of where the original Barovia is located on the Prime?
An unknown prime material plane, different from Greyhawk, FR, Krynn, etc.
Joël
Originally posted by Zar Niln
I believe the original designers intended that Barovia and Strahd had come from Earth. As in the planet we're standing on. Somewhere in the realms of Eastern Europe I believe. Think about it. It would explain the "no monsters" thing and it's kind of creepy to think that such pure evil had come from our own planet.
There were a great many monsters in the original modules, actually.
Originally posted by Malus Black
Actually, Barovia still exists in the prime material plane, and the, for lack of a better word, Ravenloftian Barovia is simply a copy of the real version, as shown in Roots of Evil.
Ack!!! Don't go there! The less I hear about the travesty that was "Roots of Evil" the better!
I simply choose to ignore it. Strahd's Barovia is THE Barovia as far as I'm concerned. His Ravenloft is THE Ravenloft, not some copy of the original. There were many lousy ideas in RoE, but this was one of the worst.
I'm pretty sure it came before any of the novels that dealt with Azalin, but but if you're interested, his origin was also featured in "King of the Dead", by Gene De Weese. (At least I think it was, I haven't read it so I can't be sure.)
Erm... anyway, it was first revealed in "From the Shadows", yeah.
I think.
Originally posted by QuentinGeorge
Roots of Evil and From the Shadows mentioned it. As did the Ravenloft boxed set and Domains of Dread sourcebooks.
Really which boxed set was that? I had both, but I can't remember ever reading about Azalin coming from Oerth. I'm pretty sure it wasn't mentioned in the original set, so I figure it must have been in the big Red one? Curse my poor memory!!!
I could be wrong though.
Originally posted by QuentinGeorge
It was the red one, I think - because it was set post-Grand Conjuction and thus incorporated material from the adventures.
I could be wrong though.
Oh yeah, I forgot that the Red Box came after the GC. That would make sense. You're probably right.
That might be why Darkon is what it is. The Dark Powers may have shaped the domain to reflect Azalin's subconscious beliefs about what a proper empire was like (essentially Aerdy but more magocratic, and ruled by him of course). That would certainly explain why Darkon is so multi-racial compared to other domains in the Core, because Aerdy had numerous demihuman provinces within it's borders.