NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="QuentinGeorge" data-source="post: 8309923" data-attributes="member: 20990">If this is a topic that interests you, you really need to find a copy of the Ravenloft Gazetteers from the early naughts. The -best- deep dive on the classic domains, including their origins and history. I'm sure it would still be useful even with some of the changes 5E has inflicted.There is actually more than 2 domains with roots in the same world as Barovia -Borca, Dorvinia, Gundarak, and Invidia. All of them except Gundarak speak Balok (the same language of Barovia),(Gundarak speaks Luktar). Since Barovia is fantasy-Romania, and Borca fantasy-Italy and Invidia heavily influenced by Spain, think of Balok as effectively an equivalent of vulgar Latin in our world (the parent of Romanian, Italian and Spanish). Dorvinia was merged with Borca and Gundarak with Barovia in the Red Box, and 5E did away with them altogether.The Gazeeters mention historical events that the current incarnation has left out, like Strahd's efforts in combating the Terg invasion of Dorian/Durakan, the pre-Demiplane religion of Andral, the survival of the patriarch Leo Dilisinya as a vampire, and the efforts of his great-nephew in founding the religion of Ezra.The original Grand Conjuction adventure path shows us Prime Material Barovia in Roots of Evil (or From the Shadows, I don't really remember) and it still exists, complete with king and queen. Strahd attempts to take over in an attempt to return to the real world. Basically the Dark Powers stole every person from the real world, but merely duplicated the lands and buildings. On the real world it looked like Strahd and his entourage had "vanished". More can be found in the novels of Vampire of the Mists and I, Strahd.Either through ignorance of the sources or more likely, deliberate reasons not much from the 2002-2008 run ended up in Curse of Strahd, though a few elements maybe snuck in via Claudio Pozas' Barovia the Beautiful, which Perkins used as a source. Pozas was a fan and artist during the Arthaus run of Ravenloft, so he was familiar with it. For me, its a shame not more of that ended up in the current incarnation as it was certainly the deepest and richest look at those domains. None of what you have there is directly incompatible with any of the old lore, except the stuff about the Vistani. (pre Curse of Strahd Madame Eva is a time-travelling immortal with no relation to Strahd) and perhaps the age of Borca. (Borca wasn't drawn directly from the Prime Material, the Dilisnyas and Boritisis were already in the Demiplane, resident in Barovia)</blockquote>

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