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]

It's not entirely simple. That name is based on real hieroglyphs.

Oh, that’s dope though! I kind of assumed it would be vaguely-ancient-Egyptian-sounding nonsense in the same way Strahd Von Zarovich is vaguely-Eastern-European-sounding nonsense.

 

[Tonguez]

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

Unless youre an English humorist at which point it’s AahngkTeapot Because that’s much funnier

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Oh, that’s dope though! I kind of assumed it would be vaguely-ancient-Egyptian-sounding nonsense in the same way Strahd Von Zarovich is vaguely-Eastern-European-sounding nonsense.

The first syllable, ankh (meaning "life") would probably have been more like nh. But remember "no vowels": the "a" at the beginning was to make it more pronounceable to westerners. I'll have to get back to you on the other two glyphs.

 

[Hussar]

In my personal mental image, the 'great white savior' PCs etc who come along to delve in Har'Akir's tombs are actually a manifestation of Ankhtepot's curse.

He wanted to be immortal and rule an everlasting empire as eternal god-king. The Dark Powers cursed him to everlasting undeath, everything he touches dying, doomed to watch as his nation is buried by the sand and forgotten, and greedy foreigners raid its glories for drawing room curiosities.

Which would be fantastic, if we want to paint the PC's as evil, rapacious thieves and plunderers. However, I doubt most mainstream settings would try that though.

But that is what Strahd is: he is the 'not dracula' guy. The whole reason he resonated was people instantly recognized the dracula look was being invoked (even though it was nearly 60 years or so after the look had been established in movies)

Oh please. Even in the early 80's, you have a practically perennial Dracula movie. Never minding animated versions, and Count Chocula. I'd wager that Dracula is a fair bit more ingrained in pop culture that Karloff's The Mummy. Other than the fact that The Mummy had a mummy, I doubt most people could tell you anything about the plot of the Karloff movies.

My wife and her friends (all of them millennials brought in to 5e via Critical Role) all fondly remember the Brendan Fraser Mummy films. It's like a cultural touchstone, guilty pleasure.
Moreover, they recognize the classic 1930s Hollywood depiction too.
Anyone saying modern D&D audiences don't recognize those tropes is wrong.
I'm not saying Wizards shouldn't try to do something different, put their own spin on it, or try to be more culturally sensitive. But the trope is still there, recognized, and familiar to their target audience.

Not to be indelicate, but, that would put your wife and her friends at over 30. Which isn't really countering my point.

When Ravenloft came out the Mummy was nearly 60 years old, but most of us recognized the imagery because it was part of pop culture. I'd be surprised if it still isn't. But lots of genre settings don't bend the material because the audience lacks knowledge, they instead focus on introducing and acquainting the audience with the genre.

And when that genre is based on unbelievably racist underpinnings? Should we just whitewash those again as well the way that was done in the 1980's? Recycle them unchanged, introduce them and acquaint the audience with themes that quite frankly, should make people cringe? Is that what you're suggesting? Or, should we keep the stuff that's cool and interesting and doesn't make people want to wash their eyes out with bleach after reading it and cut out the stuff that reads like white supremicist fanfic?

 

[TheSword]

Sure, I get that some people might have these things in mind with the setting, but, really, a new take on the setting, one that isn't "Great White Savior comes and Saves the World from the Nasty Foreigner" is probably a better way to go.

Isn’t the Mummy more like, white savior works with Egyptian savior to undo the evil released by white meddler? I thought it firmly placed all the tomb robbing/archeology as a fairly stupid thing to do.

 

[Azzy]

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.

Here's a great video that goes into how the pronunciation of Old Egyptian is inferred from other languages in the Afroasiatic laguage tree.

 

[Rikka66]

So as a test to see whether the Mummy character still remains as part of the core "Halloween monster gang" I looked at the covers of the Hotel Transylvania films. And a mummy is on each of them. I therefore state with confidence that young people today are still aware of mummies and associate them with other classic horror monsters, even if they aren't making Fruity Yummy Mummy cereal anymore.

 

[JEB]

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.

All fair, but sort of missing the point I was raising.

If Wizards thought no modern fans cared about Ravenloft's history at all, then there'd be no point in reviving any aspect of the classic lore. Better to spend that energy on brand-new stuff that can appeal to modern sensibilities, a completely new setting built on modern horror tropes. However, there appears to be a lot of the old Ravenloft in there... so presumably they think modern audiences will appreciate it too, and like the idea of a setting with some history. It just seems that certain elements needed repaired, in their view.

(Also, I'm pretty sure plenty of new fans appreciate old lore. Look at all the lore videos on YouTube for stuff like comic book universes or Tolkien or Warhammer and such. Go to a bookstore and look at how many comic book trades, collecting storylines decades old, are still in print.)

None of that's an argument against updates, especially to smooth out troublesome elements, but it is an argument for respect. I guess we'll see how it turned out in a few weeks.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Unless youre an English humorist at which point it’s AahngkTeapot Because that’s much funnier

If you are referring to me, I prefer to identify as British, Scottish or European rather than English.

 

[humble minion]

Which would be fantastic, if we want to paint the PC's as evil, rapacious thieves and plunderers. However, I doubt most mainstream settings would try that though.

That's only necessarily true if your PCs spend their time in Har'Akir being plunderers. Aside from the possibility of actually having local PCs, you'd hope Har'Akir is being written as a living place with a functioning society so there's actual reasons for people to come here OTHER than looting. The looting is a temptation that PCs may or may not succumb to.