Ravenloft has been my introduction to D&D back in the early 90s. Only now, nearly 30 years later I realise how good our DM was to slowly strip all hopes and ambitions from my character without me realising it.
When I used to DM back in the 90s, I had my players in this realm. I let them get more and more powerful, but I also increased the difficulty and the levels of their enemies as they leveled up, thus giving the illusion that they could win when they really could never. I was a fan of psychology and horror movies, and that fueled my imagination for torturing them in the campaign. But we all had a lot of fun.
This was incredibly well done! I have been playing since 2nd edition and I am highly impressed with the way that you gently melted together the changes in the Editions. The artwork you chose was also phenomenal. I can't wait to watch the second part.
Just found this channel last night while looking for something to watch. Really enjoying the content. I wish there was as much enthusiasm on youtube for Forgotten realms lore as there is for lore of some other fictional universes, so we need all the talented creators that we can get!
Currently running a 2 plus year expanded CoS campaign. It's our 1st game, and going crazy well. I love your work and appreciate this video. Keep it up!
Again and again, I say, "Well done!". I don't think it quite enough praise though. Ravenloft as a whole is one of my favorite settings. Playing AD&D modules and some homebrew adventures in the late 80s & 90s had me convinced that dark horror fantasy was my favorite escape from the mundane. Because of the design of the domains, they could be stand-alone adventures or be inserted into a long-running campaign from any of the other worlds. We even played an Oriental Adventurers campaign one time that took a brief spin-off to retrieve some magic items from Azalin Rex and Ankhtepot. It was a blast being a Drow Ninja moving around in so much darkness.
I had the Black Box and all the campaign books. Sadly, all I have left is the main campaign book from the Black Box... my ex kept all of my other books (including the entire Dark Sun series) and tried to sell them after our split. A friend of mine's mom (our moms were colleagues) was an ebay WIZARD, found all the books up there, reported her for selling stolen property lol I don't think my ex has been able to register an eBay account in the last 15 years LOL But, that aside, the Black Box and its campaign books were and still are, the greatest iteration of Ravenloft. Sharr can go kiss a Mind Flayer :P
I am so very thankful for growing up during 2e. Sure it was insane bloat, but there were so many ideas floating around it was like an all you can eat sampler. Got to play in Krynn, Ravenloft, & Athas as a teenager.
A lanky, shivering peasant, clutching the tome and torch, inches forward. The thick fog concealing the dangers of the moor. Silent and barren was the land. The shadows clawing away from the flame. "Where, in the gods, am I?" The peon scan the area. The fog obscures the view. A lone Raven caws, drawing attention. On its foot: a letter. "Ah! Oh, its you," the poor man accuses. He ran up to it. Carefully removing the letter, the familiar blue seal greets him. "Oh! My lord... I am lost." [ It is to my deepest regret, that you are summoned. The entity of the realm has coveted more souls. Among them, yourself. Fear not my dear servant, you are still under my watch...] The peasant breathes out, hope restored. "The Great One still sees purpose in me." [ ... but be mindful of the dark gods and their jailers. They conspire to bind you to these lands. And so, my raven shall guide you. Until my arrival, my familiar will be in your company. Your favored companion and friend, the master of a thousand faces, Nyarlathotep Oh, and one more thing: Stay in the light. ] The peon chuckles. "Master and his strange monikers. He loves to don the identities of others." The raven flies towards a tree, cawing. "I'm coming, Imma coming!" He chases the bird...
Holy hell. I work in Salem, Mass and I have kinda not cared about the history after working there for so long (I grew up in city next over), but that actually made me smile.
I was definitely looking forward to a Ravenloft video and I will say that this is a nice lore dump when alluding to 5e lore, specifically. However- the dreadlords definitely knew that they were imprisoned in older editions. At the very least, Strahd and Azalin did. We don’t like to talk about the weird offshoot that happened with Strahd and the “Alchemist” in Mordent, because it was a weird storyline in general. But the reason it happened was specifically Strahd and Azalin (begrudgingly) working together to try and figure out a way to escape Barovia. Back when Azalin was temporarily its prisoner as well, before being officially ensnared as a fellow darklord of Darkon. Assuming you haven’t already, I’d read “I, Strahd: memoirs of a vampire” and “I, Strahd: War against Azalin” by P.N. Elrod on the older lore. The Ravenloft novels were very much considered a part of cannon (for the most part. There are books like Lord of the Necropolis that were actually taken out of cannon- because they gave the dark powers too much of a form or a solid idea or concept. And that was against the wishes of the writers of the setting at the time. Though 5e seems to have wanted to go much more all in on giving them more form through what they can do as an entity and through the vestiges. which… I suppose times change?) I think a greater torment though comes from being vividly aware of your prison. Ignorance is bliss, after all. There are many contradictions in the lore, but that is just one of them. Another BIG part of earlier lore, speaking of Azalin- was his prison bust attempt. I’d look into “The Grand Conjunction/The Great Upheaval.”
@Renly Thank you for your feedback and taking the time to watch the video. I read War Against Azalin over 20 years ago, and do recall that Strahd learned Barovia was drawn into another dimension. However, I always took that as non-canon since nearly all other sources contradict the novel. Even if we took that as canon, I would maintain - at least for my table - that Strahd (nor Azalin) would have interacted with the Dark Powers, only a vestige. I know that the vestiges were not introduced until 5e, but I am personally convinced that the original designers never wanted the Dark Powers to be anything but vague, so that DMs can craft their own narratives. That takes nothing away from your comments, though and I thank you for sharing. As for the Great Upheaval, that was part of the 1994 Red Box and i will be covering that in the series. Finally, I never played but did read through Ravenloft II back in the day, it was too "jeckle and hyde" for my tastes. Rich
In my groups games, you can find a published journal of one of the characters from our CoS game. It's a fun way to immortalize that game in our future games.
Nice job on trying to tie the lore of all the editions together. Enjoyed the video and looking forward to the next parts. Also while I am not trying to rush you but how long do you expect for the next two parts to come out?
Oh, I know who escaped! Can't wait to hear you tell THAT tale 😁👍 This is an excellent start. PS: I'm ecstatic that you went back and referenced the OG Ravenloft. I played the original, then a great many years later, I took those very same characters to the demiplane. Because my characters were evil aligned they were almost trapped. 🤣 Can't wait for the next two parts 👍
It is tough to try and reconcile the conflicts. While I do actually like 5e, I still have a heavy lean into 2e/3e especially when it comes to lore. At the same time a lot of people play 5e so I try and find a balance. In any event, I can tell give you a peek behind the curtain of part 2, which will spend more time in the OG lore than the CoS 5e that I think has been covered pretty well. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Tracy Hickman was my Civics teacher at Kaysville Junior High in the late 80s. I had no idea until later that "Mr Hickman" was THE Tracy Hickman from some of my favorite books, lol.
If Shar was able to move Ravenloft to the shadow fell then any major God of her caliber can do the same. Eventually some greater god will tire of some extra planar knucklehead fooling around with their reality. Also it should be noted that there are far worse evil beings not imprisoned then what the mists hold captive.
Love this lore series every time, Riches and Liches!😍 Wonder what the next episode will be like though. Can't wait to see! It would be great if you could check your inbox by the way. We've sent you an email!🤗
Canon at my table is that the Amber Temple was constructed as a beacon of Good, which provoked a war between the Temple and the Dark Powers. The vestiges trapped in amber are the casualties of that war. This all happened some time before King Barov named this land Barovia.
I'm not sure where the lore of Dark Lords not knowing they are imprisoned comes from? Strahd, Azalin, and Vecna were all keeenly aware of this fact and have made several attempts to escape. Certainly they might not realize it right away, but as time goes on, it's something they come to find out. In my head cannon I've always had the impression that the "dark powers" are not sinister evil beings, but jailors who seek to punish evils of the material plane. They scoop up evil from the material plane and imprison it in the plane of dread. They're scoop just happens to not be super precise, more like an aoe and often captures innocents as well, and this is something they are OK with, so they're definately not super benevolent either.
Update from WOTC: To fit the designs of the Modern Audience, the following changes have been made to Ravenloft: -Strahd is now gay -The prejudicial and racist term “Werewolf” will never be used again, but will be replaced with “Canine Humanoid With Rage-Oriented Personality Disorder Challenges” -The unfair and disgustingly Republican term “evil” will no longer be used. All DMs are hereby ordered to refer to such beings as “Good-Alternative Oriented Individuals” This has been a Royal Decree by your Woke Overlords, WOTC
@HoosierJedi Well technically Borca and Ivana Boritsi did have a slide in the video, but your point is still valid. If you are a Borca fan, then you will be pleased to know that will be included in volume 2 as one of the few domains outside of Barovia (Vol 2 is dedicatd to Strahd and Barovia) and Borca will recieve significant coverage in Vol 3. Thank you for the watch and feedback!
I loved 90% of this video. The writing, the art work, the background ambiance and music. There is something about the delivery of the script, it sounds rushed and out of place with the setting and intent. This is my take though and the video was really well done overall.
@bonedragon7665 I appreciate the honest feedback and take all critiques seriously. If you have any example timestamps please share. The one thing I never do is rush, but that does not mean your point is invalid.
Appreciate what you're doing, but while it's not like I'm ideologically against generating diffused images for illustrations or anything, rather the opposite, they actually make me queasy and slightly nauseous when I watch too much, so I had to stop watching. 😕 It's kind of like motion sickness. Wish you could use less of it and more of nongenerated illos.
Ravenloft has been my introduction to D&D back in the early 90s. Only now, nearly 30 years later I realise how good our DM was to slowly strip all hopes and ambitions from my character without me realising it.
When I used to DM back in the 90s, I had my players in this realm. I let them get more and more powerful, but I also increased the difficulty and the levels of their enemies as they leveled up, thus giving the illusion that they could win when they really could never. I was a fan of psychology and horror movies, and that fueled my imagination for torturing them in the campaign. But we all had a lot of fun.
This was incredibly well done! I have been playing since 2nd edition and I am highly impressed with the way that you gently melted together the changes in the Editions. The artwork you chose was also phenomenal. I can't wait to watch the second part.
That is extremely high praise and it makes all the work I put into this series worth it, thank you. :)
2nd edition is the way the real game is played
Omg yes more lore
Please Please Please do a segment on Falkovnia & the Zombies that plague the domain monthly!??
@dannyakins7677
You can count on it... Falkovnia is easily in my top 5 personal domains, maybe top 3 :)
Just found this channel last night while looking for something to watch. Really enjoying the content. I wish there was as much enthusiasm on youtube for Forgotten realms lore as there is for lore of some other fictional universes, so we need all the talented creators that we can get!
I haven't a chance to play D&D tabletop in any form, but at least in online game Ravenloft is my favorite expansion.
Currently running a 2 plus year expanded CoS campaign. It's our 1st game, and going crazy well. I love your work and appreciate this video. Keep it up!
My second home of D&D after Dragonlance.
Strad zombies unturnable, genius move by the creators of this fantastic Vampire lord
Again and again, I say, "Well done!". I don't think it quite enough praise though. Ravenloft as a whole is one of my favorite settings. Playing AD&D modules and some homebrew adventures in the late 80s & 90s had me convinced that dark horror fantasy was my favorite escape from the mundane. Because of the design of the domains, they could be stand-alone adventures or be inserted into a long-running campaign from any of the other worlds. We even played an Oriental Adventurers campaign one time that took a brief spin-off to retrieve some magic items from Azalin Rex and Ankhtepot. It was a blast being a Drow Ninja moving around in so much darkness.
I had the Black Box and all the campaign books. Sadly, all I have left is the main campaign book from the Black Box... my ex kept all of my other books (including the entire Dark Sun series) and tried to sell them after our split. A friend of mine's mom (our moms were colleagues) was an ebay WIZARD, found all the books up there, reported her for selling stolen property lol I don't think my ex has been able to register an eBay account in the last 15 years LOL
But, that aside, the Black Box and its campaign books were and still are, the greatest iteration of Ravenloft. Sharr can go kiss a Mind Flayer :P
I am so very thankful for growing up during 2e. Sure it was insane bloat, but there were so many ideas floating around it was like an all you can eat sampler. Got to play in Krynn, Ravenloft, & Athas as a teenager.
You can still play in all those places. I've been running a huge Dark Sun game for my group for years now.
A lanky, shivering peasant, clutching the tome and torch, inches forward. The thick fog concealing the dangers of the moor. Silent and barren was the land. The shadows clawing away from the flame.
"Where, in the gods, am I?" The peon scan the area. The fog obscures the view.
A lone Raven caws, drawing attention. On its foot: a letter.
"Ah! Oh, its you," the poor man accuses. He ran up to it. Carefully removing the letter, the familiar blue seal greets him. "Oh! My lord... I am lost."
[ It is to my deepest regret, that you are summoned. The entity of the realm has coveted more souls. Among them, yourself.
Fear not my dear servant, you are still under my watch...]
The peasant breathes out, hope restored. "The Great One still sees purpose in me."
[ ... but be mindful of the dark gods and their jailers. They conspire to bind you to these lands. And so, my raven shall guide you. Until my arrival, my familiar will be in your company.
Your favored companion and friend, the master of a thousand faces,
Nyarlathotep
Oh, and one more thing: Stay in the light. ]
The peon chuckles. "Master and his strange monikers. He loves to don the identities of others."
The raven flies towards a tree, cawing.
"I'm coming, Imma coming!" He chases the bird...
Holy hell. I work in Salem, Mass and I have kinda not cared about the history after working there for so long (I grew up in city next over), but that actually made me smile.
I ran a campaign in the early 90's. It's still one of my all time favorites settings along with Dragonlance. 🇨🇦👍
I read almost all the dragonlance books and had no idea Tracy Hickman and his wife wrote ravenloft (I’m a late convert to D&D)
You did an amazing job here. This had to be my favorite campaign
Can you do a video on the gypsies?
Oh Ravenloft, my home sweet home.
I spent a summer vacation in the early 90s reading all the Ravenloft novels. Great campaign setting.
I was definitely looking forward to a Ravenloft video and I will say that this is a nice lore dump when alluding to 5e lore, specifically.
However- the dreadlords definitely knew that they were imprisoned in older editions. At the very least, Strahd and Azalin did. We don’t like to talk about the weird offshoot that happened with Strahd and the “Alchemist” in Mordent, because it was a weird storyline in general. But the reason it happened was specifically Strahd and Azalin (begrudgingly) working together to try and figure out a way to escape Barovia. Back when Azalin was temporarily its prisoner as well, before being officially ensnared as a fellow darklord of Darkon.
Assuming you haven’t already, I’d read “I, Strahd: memoirs of a vampire” and “I, Strahd: War against Azalin” by P.N. Elrod on the older lore. The Ravenloft novels were very much considered a part of cannon (for the most part. There are books like Lord of the Necropolis that were actually taken out of cannon- because they gave the dark powers too much of a form or a solid idea or concept. And that was against the wishes of the writers of the setting at the time. Though 5e seems to have wanted to go much more all in on giving them more form through what they can do as an entity and through the vestiges. which… I suppose times change?)
I think a greater torment though comes from being vividly aware of your prison. Ignorance is bliss, after all. There are many contradictions in the lore, but that is just one of them.
Another BIG part of earlier lore, speaking of Azalin- was his prison bust attempt. I’d look into “The Grand Conjunction/The Great Upheaval.”
@Renly
Thank you for your feedback and taking the time to watch the video.
I read War Against Azalin over 20 years ago, and do recall that Strahd learned Barovia was drawn into another dimension. However, I always took that as non-canon since nearly all other sources contradict the novel.
Even if we took that as canon, I would maintain - at least for my table - that Strahd (nor Azalin) would have interacted with the Dark Powers, only a vestige. I know that the vestiges were not introduced until 5e, but I am personally convinced that the original designers never wanted the Dark Powers to be anything but vague, so that DMs can craft their own narratives.
That takes nothing away from your comments, though and I thank you for sharing.
As for the Great Upheaval, that was part of the 1994 Red Box and i will be covering that in the series.
Finally, I never played but did read through Ravenloft II back in the day, it was too "jeckle and hyde" for my tastes.
Rich
Glad you a re feeling better. One more great work publish.
Thank you so much 😀
These books are absolutely wonderful
We need some new Ravenloft novels to look forward to.💀
33:07 You know, if you think about it, the closest thing to the Dark Powers are the authors designing the Modules and the DMs running the games.
Excellent narration as always!
In my groups games, you can find a published journal of one of the characters from our CoS game. It's a fun way to immortalize that game in our future games.
You are the only way I will get a peak inside these worlds! 🙏🏻
Nice job on trying to tie the lore of all the editions together. Enjoyed the video and looking forward to the next parts. Also while I am not trying to rush you but how long do you expect for the next two parts to come out?
This will be a great series.👍👍👍
Oh, I know who escaped! Can't wait to hear you tell THAT tale 😁👍
This is an excellent start.
PS: I'm ecstatic that you went back and referenced the OG Ravenloft.
I played the original, then a great many years later, I took those very same characters to the demiplane. Because my characters were evil aligned they were almost trapped. 🤣
Can't wait for the next two parts 👍
It is tough to try and reconcile the conflicts. While I do actually like 5e, I still have a heavy lean into 2e/3e especially when it comes to lore. At the same time a lot of people play 5e so I try and find a balance.
In any event, I can tell give you a peek behind the curtain of part 2, which will spend more time in the OG lore than the CoS 5e that I think has been covered pretty well.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Awesome vid cant want till part two
Classy as always
Awesome artwork! Great video!😊👍
Will you cover the era where Vecna was trapped in a domain of dread?
Cavitus is on the list! It may take a while but I "plan" to cover every single domain of dread across all versions.
I started eating right as you got to the sandstorm bit
Well then I am glad I apologized beforehand ;)
AMAZING! JUST AMAZING!
Tracy Hickman was my Civics teacher at Kaysville Junior High in the late 80s. I had no idea until later that "Mr Hickman" was THE Tracy Hickman from some of my favorite books, lol.
That is an amazing story! Thanks so much for sharing!
Well done!!!
Absolutely love this!! My favorite setting!! I would love to do some voiceover work with you on these videos.
If Shar was able to move Ravenloft to the shadow fell then any major God of her caliber can do the same. Eventually some greater god will tire of some extra planar knucklehead fooling around with their reality. Also it should be noted that there are far worse evil beings not imprisoned then what the mists hold captive.
@wreid4995
True on both counts!
Great feedback, thank you for sharing.
Love this lore series every time, Riches and Liches!😍 Wonder what the next episode will be like though. Can't wait to see! It would be great if you could check your inbox by the way. We've sent you an email!🤗
@Mega_Evolution_
My apologies for the delay, I will respond shortly.
@@RichesandLiches Thank you so much for your reply to my comment and email! I really appreciate it.🤗
Maybe the vessitges are dark powers that the other dark powers have imprisoned as well.
That is an excellent theory!
Canon at my table is that the Amber Temple was constructed as a beacon of Good, which provoked a war between the Temple and the Dark Powers. The vestiges trapped in amber are the casualties of that war. This all happened some time before King Barov named this land Barovia.
Really, I think he is misunderstood and just wishes to be understood!
@Delthfaithe
Your name wouldn't happen to be Rahadin, now would it? ;)
Oh man i didn't know i wanted you to cover ravenloft but now i can't wait for the next two parts!
Psyched for this 👍👍
Does anyone know the intro song? The violin/viola/cello part? Pls?
Sounds like Huell from California's gold
Ravenloft was my favorite place to DM and it felt so natural for me that my players loved being tortured there. 😈
I'm not sure where the lore of Dark Lords not knowing they are imprisoned comes from? Strahd, Azalin, and Vecna were all keeenly aware of this fact and have made several attempts to escape. Certainly they might not realize it right away, but as time goes on, it's something they come to find out.
In my head cannon I've always had the impression that the "dark powers" are not sinister evil beings, but jailors who seek to punish evils of the material plane. They scoop up evil from the material plane and imprison it in the plane of dread. They're scoop just happens to not be super precise, more like an aoe and often captures innocents as well, and this is something they are OK with, so they're definately not super benevolent either.
Update from WOTC: To fit the designs of the Modern Audience, the following changes have been made to Ravenloft:
-Strahd is now gay
-The prejudicial and racist term “Werewolf” will never be used again, but will be replaced with “Canine Humanoid With Rage-Oriented Personality Disorder Challenges”
-The unfair and disgustingly Republican term “evil” will no longer be used. All DMs are hereby ordered to refer to such beings as “Good-Alternative Oriented Individuals”
This has been a Royal Decree by your Woke Overlords, WOTC
Ravenloft. Or, if you prefer, "spoopy gothic shit: The Tabletop Game".
Aw, not even a mention of Borrca?
@HoosierJedi
Well technically Borca and Ivana Boritsi did have a slide in the video, but your point is still valid.
If you are a Borca fan, then you will be pleased to know that will be included in volume 2 as one of the few domains outside of Barovia (Vol 2 is dedicatd to Strahd and Barovia) and Borca will recieve significant coverage in Vol 3.
Thank you for the watch and feedback!
I loved 90% of this video. The writing, the art work, the background ambiance and music. There is something about the delivery of the script, it sounds rushed and out of place with the setting and intent. This is my take though and the video was really well done overall.
@bonedragon7665
I appreciate the honest feedback and take all critiques seriously. If you have any example timestamps please share. The one thing I never do is rush, but that does not mean your point is invalid.
did this inspire revendreth in some way?
Yes it's dark. But is it 40K levels of dark?
Used to be
@@KS-PNW Now they turned it into Dragon Age: The Veilguard
~_~
Only the original module was good.
Appreciate what you're doing, but while it's not like I'm ideologically against generating diffused images for illustrations or anything, rather the opposite, they actually make me queasy and slightly nauseous when I watch too much, so I had to stop watching. 😕 It's kind of like motion sickness. Wish you could use less of it and more of nongenerated illos.
IntRAdimentional = within the same dimension
IntERdimenrional = between different dimensions
Not the same word
You are 100% correct, thanks for taking the time to wach and give feedback.