D&D 5E Ravenloft Previews of Dementlieu, Lamordia, and Har'Akir

WotC has been sprinkling previews of individual Ravenloft domains to various websites -- including Dementlieu, Lamordia, and Har'Akir. Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is only a couple of weeks away, coming out on May 18th!

Dementlieu​

• Forbes takes a look Dementlieu, which has inspirations like Cinderella, The Masque of the Red Death, and Dark City. "Dementlieu is one of over 30 domains of dread detailed in the book. It’s a sharp contrast to Barovia’s dark forest and looming Gothic castle on a hill. Instead it’s covered in a glamorous sheen of fine clothes and fancy parties. Everyone is dying to be invited to the Grand Masquerade held by Duchess Saidra d’Honaire every week on her private island. And, in many cases, killed if they are discovered at the ball if they’re not supposed to be there."
• Syfy Wire looks at Lamordia, inspired by Frankenstein. "Many of the Domains of Dread are inspired by some horror tale or piece of creepy folklore, and Lamordia definitely has its roots in Frankenstein. But while the Domain is inspired by that classic horror story, its elements are then shot through the lens of D&D adventures and explored to dozens of horrific extremes. Mordenheim's land isn't just about resurrection gone awry, it's also the Domain for all different types of science gone wrong, bizarre experiments, body horror weirdness, and grim tales of society versus a frigid land. Just as there's more to Frankenstein than a scientist who abandoned his child, there's more to Lamordia than stitches and semi-dead flesh."
• Polygon has Har'Akir, an Egyptian-themed domain. "Why is there a Domain that is a desert that is riddled with these ancient, inexplicable haunted monuments and ruined pyramids? How does a Domain like that exist? How does it make sense? To an extent it doesn’t, and it’s going to be the players that come and explore that, who are some of the only people that realize that the entirety of the domain is, to an extent, gaslighting them."

Ankhetop, darklord of Har'Akir

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[Charlaquin]

Could anyone familiar with Ravenloft give me a phonetic spelling of Ankhtepot?

 

[JEB]

My guess is that very few groups of modern D&D players care or even know how it was depicted over 20 years ago.

If true, then why revive the old setting at all?

 

[Charlaquin]

Note that the article indicates that the Har'Akir Domain is "to an extent, gaslighting them" (them being the players). Perhaps it appears to be a stereotypical Egyptian horror setting (as in the picture you found), but underneath it is really a steampunk Egypt, masked with illusions, or mind control, or hypnosis, or holograms - it's almost like a Westworld type setting (Pharoahworld?). The domain with the most primitive "tech level" is actually fairly advanced "under the hood."

This is probably fairly accurate, but... Am I the only one who feels like this is a misuse of the term “gaslighting”? If the domain is just different than it initially appears to be, that’s not gaslighting, it’s just deceiving.

 

[humble minion]

Could anyone familiar with Ravenloft give me a phonetic spelling of Ankhtepot?

Rhymes with bank step hot, with the emphasis on the first syllable. (My phonetic skillz are a bit too shaky to do a proper phonetic spelling, sorry...)

 

[Charlaquin]

Rhymes with bank step hot, with the emphasis on the first syllable. (My phonetic skillz are a bit too shaky to do a proper phonetic spelling, sorry...)

Thanks! That works just as well, possibly better.

 

[overgeeked]

Could anyone familiar with Ravenloft give me a phonetic spelling of Ankhtepot?

Ah-ngk. Tep. Ot.

Dentist: say ah.

The ngk from sink.

Step without the s.

Hot without the h.

 

[JEB]

Rhymes with bank step hot, with the emphasis on the first syllable. (My phonetic skillz are a bit too shaky to do a proper phonetic spelling, sorry...)

This pretty much lines up with how they pronounced the name in Dragon Talk, as well. (Though considering they mangled "Dementlieu", that might not be a reliable source...)

 

[Charlaquin]

Ah-ngk. Tep. Ot.

Dentist: say ah.

The ngk from sink.

Step without the s.

Hot without the h.

That makes more sense to me, given that Ankh is generally pronounced with that “ah” sound.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Could anyone familiar with Ravenloft give me a phonetic spelling of Ankhtepot?

It's not entirely simple. That name is based on real hieroglyphs. Which, as a pictorial writing form, has no vowels or accents. So we don't have much real idea how this (or real world ancient Egyptian) names would have been pronounced. The traditional pronunciations are seen through the culturally biased lens of western European translators. So the middle syllable could be "teh", it could be "tea", it could be something completely different.

 

[Mecheon]

If true, then why revive the old setting at all?

You don't need to know the history of G1 Transformers to enjoy Rescue Bots, Prime or Beast Wars. You don't need to have watched The Thing From Another World (1951) to understand The Thing (1982), but if you have, well, you'll get the references and the labor of love that remake has

Folks like the ideas behind it but there were issues with these in the past so, stuff can be reinvented for a new modern audience. Plus, y'know, its kind of canon in Ravenloft going from day 1 it sort of just, restructures things and reshuffles who's where at any point in time. Being too beholden to what Ravenloft was will just be a dull, dated setting with nothing catching folks imagination, given how hard Ravenloft goes for its pop culture references at times.