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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kalani" data-source="post: 6826568" data-attributes="member: 88085">According to Tracy and Margarett - Soth was never in Ravenloft, he was instead trapped by Takhissis (but that is a major tangent). As far as the Vistani leaving Ravenloft is concernedThat is not entirely true. Vistani can freely travel through the closed borders of Barovia due to the potion given to them by Strahd which protects them from the deadly poison (the forumula is a closely guarded secret of theirs). They do not however, have any special ability to travel through the mists (other than an uncanny ability to always exit the mists in the domain of their choice).  There are cases of Vistani being prevented from leaving through the closed borders of other domains however, but there are also cases of them being able to ignore the closed borders of other domains - so, it appears that some Vistani can freely travel the mists, while others are less talented.The only known Vistani who can come and go from Ravenloft is Madame Eva. She has traveled to other worlds on occasion (including Toril), but has never revealed how she does so. She is also extremely old, and IIRC was alive in Barovia prior to the Mists claiming it (making her over 100 years old) .... This is further supported by the fact that in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, Madame Eva is no longer human (but is instead an annis hag). When Strahd fell and his land was corrupted, she (along with her coven) were transformed into hags as a result. This is consistent with her long lifespan, however this could also be due to the fact that her particular tribe exists in a non-linear timespan (as Madame Eva has been seen after her murder at the hands of Jaqualine Montarri). It is unknown whether all Vistani have this potential, or whether it is a gift unique to Madame Eva. If it is a unique gift (likely in the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft chronology), that makes me suspect she has some connection to the Dark Powers that has never been revealed as the Dark Powers are suspected of even being able to prevent gods from leaving the demiplane.This matters little in respect to season 4 however. Curse of Strahd is essentially a retelling and expansion of I6 Castle Ravenloft (for a total of 2 reboots to I6). As such, it occurs early in the timeline of Ravenloft, prior to Azalin entering the demiplane. As such, no other domain (other than Barovia) exists at this point in the chronology. In fact, Strahd himself has not yet met any creature even close to his equal (Jandar was the first to come close to that, and he walked into the sunlight to face his final death, while Azalin was the first that was truly his equal and was granted a domain for his efforts).Expedition to Castle Ravenloft vs. Curse of StrahdWhile both of these products are a retelling and expansion to I6, Tracy Hickman had nothing to do with EtCR (it was written by James Wyatt and Bruce R. Cordell). CoS however brings back the original authors and gives them licence to retell the story with a bigger budget and higher page count. As such, CoS is essentially the story Tracy would have written if I6 was a hardcover adventure. To that end, I now consider EtCR as "extended universe/legacy" while CoS is canon (to use the Starwars canon reference for a moment).</blockquote>

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