Mother Lorinda gets a creepy new look in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within

Mother Lorinda, Darklord of Tepest, has a creepy and disturbing new look in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. The ancient green hag was previewed in a recent social media post, showing her presiding over what appears to be a ritualistic sacrifice, likely tied to the Tithe. Lorinda looks far more grotesque than her previous depiction in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Based on the flower crown and folksy other trappings of the ritual, it appears that Tepest will be keeping with the "Folk Horror" theming from Van Richten's Guide, with Midsommar being an obvious inspiration.

You can check out Lorinda's new depiction below, followed by what she looked like in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

Lorinda was originally depicted as part of a trio of sisters who became cannibalistic serial murders and were eventually transformed into hags and imprisoned by the Mists. Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft kepts Lorinda's origins, but expanded upon it so that Lorinda captured her sisters after they refused her request to help her create a child of her own. Lorinda continuously creates strange homunculi that she calls her children, but only live for a few weeks except for during the Tithe, a regular festival in which one of Lorinda's followers is sacrificed.

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within will be released on June 16th.

 

[Stormonu]

The Face of Bo.

Don't you mean Lady Cassandra?

 

[Tonguez]

The only thing I didn't like is there is exactly one village in it, meaning if you want to have a PC from there, they already know the the whole Mother thing. Be nice if there was a few extra villages that PCs could be from. Cie la vie

Keellee is called out as an abandoned village in Tepest, now haunted. So a PC from Tepest might be from there or there might be other abandoned villages elsewhere

 

[Morrus]

Don't you mean Lady Cassandra?

Looks more like Bo than Cassandra to me. I think he meant Bo, like he said.

 

[SothFan]

There may be more in this video where I saw that image above.

 

[VashVet]

That’s the power of artwork there - straight up Midsommar and The Wicker Man vibes immediately came to mind.

 

[Afroconan]

That art is dark and I hate (love) they aren't afraid to get there.

 

[Nord Ronnoc]

View attachment 436530

Of course that is the first reply here!

 

[Zaukrie]

And people think DS is too much? That's very dark.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One of the main themes of folk horror is the massive divide between “outsider” and “local”.

 

[Stormonu]

Looks more like Bo than Cassandra to me. I think he meant Bo, like he said.

But Bo is a whole head, Cassandra's just a stretched face

(I do think the Bo reference is funnier, though).