I am searching for info on Strahd's original homeplane.
-Not the whereabouts, but some minor details like maybe neighbouring nations of original Barovia, NPCs from the original plane etc.
Any ideas, my friends?
Thank you,
Rafael
I opened a similar thread on the FoS you might want to check:
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=29182#29182
- RL Gazetteer I (accessory)
- Roots of Evil (module)
- I Strahd (novel)
- Vampire of the Mists (novel)
And, even in these cases, the amount of info is not enough to fill a full page. So, in essence, your guess is as good as any of ours.
Thank you!I'll check if I can get my hands on the lesser available of these resources!
;) I don't want to bash on a dead horse a again, so my interest lies not in the whereabouts of Strahd's domain, but in the general details we know about it. For example, Rotipher wrote on the FoS - boards:
Remember that Strahd wasn't actually Evil during his mortal life, just increasingly embittered and harsh as a lifetime of warfare made him weary. Up until Sergei's and Tatyana's happiness drove him over the edge with jealousy, he *wasn't* a villain, just a grouchy, unsocial, middle-aged veteran.
If (and it *is* a big "if"; who knows how much of that adventure was the DPs' trickery?) the Grand Conjunction's events in the module-series can be taken as truth, then Material Plane Barovia is currently in the hands of a Lawful Good king and queen. If you're locating it somewhere that's on the border between a demon-ruled realm and a more benign nation, you'll want to place it slightly on the *good* side of the border -- perhaps even making Material-plane Castle Ravenloft a "fortress for the defenders of righteousness", if that's not too cheesy for your tastes!-- with the implication that, if Strahd was once a puppet of a great Evil power IYC, the border of the Demon nation has been pushed back during the last 400 years, placing modern Barovia into Good territory.
I'd like to know what Strahd's realm looked like before the tragedies that changed it into *the heart of the core*... Maybe even a quest concerning Strahd's background as a soldier would be interesting...
Since I am running the great classics, ToEE and I6 this year. my inspiration was let loose!
:coolcthul
I only meant that it had been discussed at nauseam before without folks agreeing to anything except to disagree :P
I took a look at your thread on the FoS board, Raf, and I must disagree (gee, what a surprise!) with you on something. While I appreciate your.. ah.. enthusiasm at trying to bring back Aquaria into the big picture, I think it would be ill advised to 'force' Strahd's original realm where it doesn't belong.
As someone else pointed out, Strahd's world was 'low magic'. Maybe not anymore (judging by some NPC of RoE) but back then, yes. This means there is little to no chance of it being Oerth. As I've suggested before, I would rather place it on the world of Birthright. Magic in the hands of the aristocracy, invaders at the border, the notion that a nobleman is linked to his dominion, etc.. all point toward Birthright. Perhaps somewhere near the Vos border?
And, as someone else pointed out too, I hardly think I6 and I10 take place in the same world. Too different settings. I10, on the other hand, could very well take place on Oerth (which would be logical given Azalin was tasked by Strahd to open a gateway toward another world - so, why not his own?), albeit not anywhere in the Flanaess.
Ah well, my two cents...
I am a supporter of the BR theory as well, as two characters from RL can be found somewhere in BR as well: a girl named Tatyana (in Roehle, IRRC), and a hag named Eve somewhere else, if I am not mistaken. Had the BR line not been such a tragic flop, then maybe we would have seen that idea a bit more detailed... BTW, it's a shame that BR died so untimely; especially the Vos setting and the eastern lands in general would have been an even better campaign ground, if they had got the chance to evolve... So, I am still stuck in the Rjurik Highlands...Aquaria for me is only plausible because of the I series connection; but as the *Desert of Desolation* could be located in Zindia and Erypt as well, the matter is again open for discussion...
Personally, I am quite certain that I6 was written as a stand alone, without any obvious connection to any other gaming world.
Maybe, I6 was even written for the *Wilderlands* - setting, like the DA series for Blackmoor, as the setting used to be quite popular between the 80s veteran players, too which the Hickmans seem to have belonged. In any case, it was made to be playable as generic as possible. *Maybe there was even a connection to the Realms, as, IIRC, Daggerdale had some slight vampire problem in the past, too...*
Your idea about Mordentshire however, seems very logical to me. Now, the last thing one had do to proove that would be to find out if Azalin's background was already developed by the Hickmans or at least at the time of the BB release... Mordentshire, IMO, could be a part of Blackmoor, IMO. If we alter the story even a bit more, maybe Rary could be the mysterious sage...
However, keep watching the FoS thread too, my friend, as this is starting to get really interesting!