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The Next D&D Book is JOURNEYS THROUGH THE RADIANT CITADEL
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<blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 8583053" data-attributes="member: 7635"><p>There seems to be a misconception as to what "soulless" means in Ravenloft. Soulless doesn't mean artificial, it means they lack the spark of life needed to do great things. To have a soul in Ravenloft means you have something special. Drive, ambition, a sense of curiosity. They look at the Mists and see more than fog, they see mysteries. They are the kind of people who go on to gain character classes, learn magic, become brilliant in a field of study, or devote themselves to the service of evil. Great heroes and great villains have souls. Strahd, Azalin, Viktra, and Harkon all do, but so do Gennifer, Laurie, Alanik, and Rudolph. Important people have souls, and there are plenty of important people. </p><p></p><p>To be soulless doesn't mean you are a robot, a ghost, or an illusion. You still have thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams, fears and doubts. You still get hungry, laugh at jokes, or love your spouse and kids. But it's a life of resigned acceptance. You know Strahd is the lord of the land and he rules with an iron grip, but there is nothing you can do about it. You couldn't rally enough people to storm the castle with torches and pitchforks, so why even try? The best thing for you to do keep your head down, work hard, pray to whatever gods there may or may not be (you don't know nor question) and hope you survive another night. They simply don't have the spark, the soul, to change the world nor to give in to utter despair. They simply move through the stages of life doing their part to survive and never question the bigger picture. </p><p></p><p>What's important to know is that these people, even if they lack a soul, are still people. I can't prove you or I have a soul, but that doesn't give me the excuse to murder you or believe you don't exist or aren't worth attempting to keep alive. They are made of flesh and bone. They have personalities, dull as they may be. They would much prefer to live in a better place, but they are dulled down to the point such things are fantasy and unobtainable. That's not to say they won't certainly help the doomed adventurers who promise to slay the vampire and rescue them from tyranny, but that they know such plots often end in tragedy and they aren't going to follow them on some fool's crusade. Nothing ventured, nothing lost. </p><p></p><p>And sometimes soulless parents give birth to a child that has a soul; usually an echo of a soul that died and was trapped in the Mists long ago and now have reincarnated into this new person. Tatiyana/Ireena being the quintessential example. But that doesn't have to be the case. If you view having a soul in Ravenloft like children who remember past lives of Indigo children, you have a clearer idea of how souled children end up in soulless families. Certainly, Ravenloft plays into this with reborn's "memories of a past life" or the dark gift "echoing soul" which implies how some souls are reborn countlessly in this purgatory of a world, hoping to break the cycle eventually. </p><p></p><p>Lastly, if there are no souls, where do all the ghosts come from? </p><p></p><p>I think it's easy to read CoS/VRGR and come away with soulless as being props of no value, no life to lose, no more real than a dream. But I think the intention was to explain why so many people in the DoD are simply content to live normal lives in a place where surrealness and darkness abound. Why people don't try to explore past the Misty boundaries, question where their food is coming from, or attempt to overthrow the darklord. How many people are content to go to work, get married or raise children in a bleak nightmare of a world full of monsters and terrors. The soulless do so because they don't see a reason why not to. The souled see past the curtain and opt to do something about it, be it good or ill. </p><p></p><p>When put like that, the light of Ravenloft's heroes burn brighter because they ARE the ones who seek change in a world otherwise filled with compacity and apathy. Any resemblance between that and our real world is purely coincidental.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Remathilis, post: 8583053, member: 7635"] There seems to be a misconception as to what "soulless" means in Ravenloft. Soulless doesn't mean artificial, it means they lack the spark of life needed to do great things. To have a soul in Ravenloft means you have something special. Drive, ambition, a sense of curiosity. They look at the Mists and see more than fog, they see mysteries. They are the kind of people who go on to gain character classes, learn magic, become brilliant in a field of study, or devote themselves to the service of evil. Great heroes and great villains have souls. Strahd, Azalin, Viktra, and Harkon all do, but so do Gennifer, Laurie, Alanik, and Rudolph. Important people have souls, and there are plenty of important people. To be soulless doesn't mean you are a robot, a ghost, or an illusion. You still have thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams, fears and doubts. You still get hungry, laugh at jokes, or love your spouse and kids. But it's a life of resigned acceptance. You know Strahd is the lord of the land and he rules with an iron grip, but there is nothing you can do about it. You couldn't rally enough people to storm the castle with torches and pitchforks, so why even try? The best thing for you to do keep your head down, work hard, pray to whatever gods there may or may not be (you don't know nor question) and hope you survive another night. They simply don't have the spark, the soul, to change the world nor to give in to utter despair. They simply move through the stages of life doing their part to survive and never question the bigger picture. What's important to know is that these people, even if they lack a soul, are still people. I can't prove you or I have a soul, but that doesn't give me the excuse to murder you or believe you don't exist or aren't worth attempting to keep alive. They are made of flesh and bone. They have personalities, dull as they may be. They would much prefer to live in a better place, but they are dulled down to the point such things are fantasy and unobtainable. That's not to say they won't certainly help the doomed adventurers who promise to slay the vampire and rescue them from tyranny, but that they know such plots often end in tragedy and they aren't going to follow them on some fool's crusade. Nothing ventured, nothing lost. And sometimes soulless parents give birth to a child that has a soul; usually an echo of a soul that died and was trapped in the Mists long ago and now have reincarnated into this new person. Tatiyana/Ireena being the quintessential example. But that doesn't have to be the case. If you view having a soul in Ravenloft like children who remember past lives of Indigo children, you have a clearer idea of how souled children end up in soulless families. Certainly, Ravenloft plays into this with reborn's "memories of a past life" or the dark gift "echoing soul" which implies how some souls are reborn countlessly in this purgatory of a world, hoping to break the cycle eventually. Lastly, if there are no souls, where do all the ghosts come from? I think it's easy to read CoS/VRGR and come away with soulless as being props of no value, no life to lose, no more real than a dream. But I think the intention was to explain why so many people in the DoD are simply content to live normal lives in a place where surrealness and darkness abound. Why people don't try to explore past the Misty boundaries, question where their food is coming from, or attempt to overthrow the darklord. How many people are content to go to work, get married or raise children in a bleak nightmare of a world full of monsters and terrors. The soulless do so because they don't see a reason why not to. The souled see past the curtain and opt to do something about it, be it good or ill. When put like that, the light of Ravenloft's heroes burn brighter because they ARE the ones who seek change in a world otherwise filled with compacity and apathy. Any resemblance between that and our real world is purely coincidental. [/QUOTE]
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