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<blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 8033595" data-attributes="member: 5948">Agree with all this, von Kharkov was always one of the weaker core Darklords, from a narrative point of view.&nbsp; His story was needlessly complicated and just seemed like an attempt to layer as many origins on the guy as possible.&nbsp; Possibly all this had some meaning in the original module he was introduced in, but I've never read it, so I honestly don't know.&nbsp; But he never gave the setting anything it didn't already have with other vampire Darklords.&nbsp; Could they DONE something with a black vampire in Ravenloft, even core Gothic quasi-Eastern-Europe ravenloft? Hell yeah.&nbsp; There's an Othello analog just waiting to happen, for instance.As for more broad representation of African horror in the setting ... well, Ravenloft was always shaky-to-perfunctory when it ventured outside of its gothic comfort zone.&nbsp; Even something as low-hanging-fruit as the Egypt/mummy thing was an awkward fit.&nbsp; You have to decide what Ravenloft IS before you can decide how something like African (or Japanese, or whatever) horror fits into it.&nbsp; Is it a coherent setting of its own with its own inhabitants and cultures etc, or is it a nightmare dimension that exists only to torment its Darklords and provide one-shots for PCs on Halloween?&nbsp; CoS definitely took number 2, so I doubt WotC will be exploring the setting much more than they already have, to be honest.&nbsp; The 3e White Wolf team took door number 1, and I have very high regard for what were doing with the setting before it all imploded over there due to management conficts, so it's a shame we never got to see their take.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="humble minion, post: 8033595, member: 5948"] Agree with all this, von Kharkov was always one of the weaker core Darklords, from a narrative point of view. His story was needlessly complicated and just seemed like an attempt to layer as many origins on the guy as possible. Possibly all this had some meaning in the original module he was introduced in, but I've never read it, so I honestly don't know. But he never gave the setting anything it didn't already have with other vampire Darklords. Could they DONE something with a black vampire in Ravenloft, even core Gothic quasi-Eastern-Europe ravenloft? Hell yeah. There's an Othello analog just waiting to happen, for instance. As for more broad representation of African horror in the setting ... well, Ravenloft was always shaky-to-perfunctory when it ventured outside of its gothic comfort zone. Even something as low-hanging-fruit as the Egypt/mummy thing was an awkward fit. You have to decide what Ravenloft IS before you can decide how something like African (or Japanese, or whatever) horror fits into it. Is it a coherent setting of its own with its own inhabitants and cultures etc, or is it a nightmare dimension that exists only to torment its Darklords and provide one-shots for PCs on Halloween? CoS definitely took number 2, so I doubt WotC will be exploring the setting much more than they already have, to be honest. The 3e White Wolf team took door number 1, and I have very high regard for what were doing with the setting before it all imploded over there due to management conficts, so it's a shame we never got to see their take. [/QUOTE]

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