You see, I thought that the Feywild and Shadowfell were more about mixing the positive and negative energy planes with the material plane, respectively.
Wat a fack dude why no warning for spoilers about Strahd?! You jokedly but said his history which is strong spoilers! Damn it, bloody hell why didn't you warn?
also Darkon is just really neat in general, the whole realm is literally falling apart without a Darklord to base itself around, and as a result the whole Domain of Dread has descended into a power struggle over who should succeed Anakin as Darklord of Darkon
@@laurenbastin8849 and I love how open-ended it is in who can succeed him: a player, a resident of Darkon, a neighbouring Darklord (potentially even by fusing their two realms together), or just grabbing azlin and forcing him back in
One thing I loved about old ravenloft lore was that the darklords could technically leave at any time. All it took was _admitting that they were wrong_ and that their current situation is entirely their own fault. Of course, if they actually had the strength of character to do that, they wouldn't be darklords
My players are currently aiming for this exact solution with Strahd in a CoS campaign. I await to see if they'll actually manage to pull off that miracle through dice luck and sheer brilliance. They just might...
Yeah I like that chance for redemption but it’s so astronomically small because everything including the dark lord themselves are working against it. It may never happen but it’s still possible
My favourite part about the dark powers is that Cyre 1313 is in Eberron, which is cut off from the rest of the multiverse. This means that the dark powers are more omniscient and arguably more powerful than anything else, including the gods, which just makes them far more mysterious.
Potentially true. Even in old school Ravenloft it was hypothesized that clerical powers in Ravenloft were actually supplied at the whims of the Dark Powers.
@@malcolmcampbell3912 That's actually true in this Ravenloft! In Har'Akir, the population worships a set of false gods created by the Pharaoh Ankhtepot. The various priests of the Pharaoh receive their power from the Dark Powers, as the gods they are worshipping aren't real. You can find this info in the Har'Akir section of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft!
@@BigBoi237 One of my favorite Dark Lords that didn't make the cut was a werewolf who led a cult to a wolf god but his curse was that he'd revert from his werewolf form if he felt any strong emotion (a weakness that would collapse his entire self-made religion if it were ever discovered). The Wolf God, in so much as it exists, was almost certainly the Dark Powers messing with the guy.
I will admit that I had really hoped that Lord Soth would have been included in the book. Death Knights haven’t gotten enough love in 5e. But hey, it’s not like anyone can stop me from adding him to my Ravenloft campaign anyway.
@@periscope1986 But Soth is mentioned by name in other 5e books, Dragonlance characters are named dropped in the Unearthed Arcana for Draconic Spells, and Sithicus is alluded to (granted not by name) in that one domain where all abandoned domains are slowly consumed by the Dark Powers. I think the reason that Soth isn’t in this book is obvious, Soth is the Dark Lord that was able to beat the Dark Powers at their game and managed to escape the Domains of Dread, retconning Soth to still be in Sithicus would take away one of his most memorable achievements. We’ll probably see Soth if we get an actual Dragonlance book.
@@kinggeo8545 your stereotypical bard living on emotion and probably getting everyone in trouble And the stereotypical blood Hunter who is *dark* and cynical, when asked the blood Hunter will claim he's just being rational when in reality he's kinda just killing the mood Note: this is stereotypical not every game or every bard or every blood Hunter
I dont think that the Canon its more feylife is pure life wild and never ending and shadowfell is death. Its not that they just lose emotion but the spark of life itself. That why people all look sick and dying over time because they are basically living dead people. And he just using a simplification
See, now I thought the lore said that the Feywild was a reflection of the material plane, but warped by extra energy from the positive energy plane. Thus, everything is overgrown with excess life everywhere competing for space. On the other hand, the Shadowfell is a reflection of the material plane, but warped by extra energy from the negative energy plane. Thus, there's excessive death and decay, resulting in the horrors of that plane.
I think he trying to say emotion is life in a way that why the people in the feywild are emotional and every changing But shadow emotionless and stagnant It's a simplification just because he not really a heavy lore channel just his opinion on topics
@@MrNickPresley Not too familiar with the lore but from a quick google search some killers are tortured endlessly to do The Entity's bidding. Definitely not a traditional Domain of Dread but it comes pretty close.
Yup. Lord Soth the Knight of the Black Rose from the Dragonlance setting. His entire trilogy of novels is about that...which actually makes it pretty dull reading, sadly.
Lord Soth the Death Knight from the Dragonlance setting. He didn't just grow apathetic, he apparently began agreeing with the banshees that the Dark Powers set to constantly wail and sing about how he was a failure. The Dark Powers actually grew so bored of him they chucked him out.
Shame they didn't incude Nedraagard (or however you spell it) and Lord Soth in the book. His time in the mists is easily one of the coolest because he manages to escape by basically saying "You know what? Fuck it. I don't care anymore, I'll be in my chambers meditating," and basically just refused to engage with his ironic punishment for so long that they let him go.
@@Em3.14re I don't think so. Soth is mentioned and has destriptions in other 5e books. Something else is going on... Other than WotC screwing up D&D as usual. Maybe he'll be in a new Dragonlance book?
Isn’t there a reference to Soth’s Domain in that one Domain that is basically every domain that lost its darklord slowly getting into a black hole? Honestly I’m fine that Soth isn’t in Van Ricten’s, because the fact that Soth was able to get out of Ravenloft is part of what made him interesting, just retconning it so Soth is still in Ravenloft would be cheap.
You missed the other ways out of Ravenloft. The Soth method of basically shutting down in depression and no longer giving a damn...he got dumped out of the setting. The strange method, each full domain has an access point to the World Serpent Inn...get there and you can end up anywhere in, basically, any campaign setting. And the nuclear method, aka Vecna blasting his way out while ascending to godhood...
IMO I still prefer the older explanation of the Domains of Dread being their own plane of existence run by a group of eldritch beings rather than the Shadowfell itself, but I suppose that is the joy of D&D - I can just headcanon it.
@@marmato9332 I agree, a domain that is its own lord. I guess it's problem is that knows it was made to be lighthearted and not be be taken seriously. Yet it became so overwhelming that even nonsense is taken highly seriously. Like a dark lord of pure emotion when it was supposed to be empty.
I really like the domain of Har'Akir. After all, its darklord seems to know the way out and seeks some escape from the domain. He actually acknowledges that his quest for power is ultimately futile, and now wants only escape.
Fascinating video. I've never liked the whole soulless NPC thing. I think it's more interesting to just let them have souls and still be depressed or hopeless because of their dour and dire surroundings. I'd also introduce that 1 out of 5 born in the Domains of Dread to native parents have some kind of dark gift or mutation such as being one of the mongrelfolk or a werewolf or dhampir, etc. There could still be a distinction between those who have old souls who have given into sadness or suffer from a form of PTSD and new souls who might be more cheerful and lively.
I hate the whole shadowfell and soulless npc thing, and prefer Ravenloft to be its own thing entirely with its different prisons and domains. I feel if every npc is soulless then why should I give a damn.
This reminds me of the curse of straid game I DMed and finished 4 days ago. The party got to the amber temple and instead of fight the dark power in the coffins. They made a deal with them. The dark powers will let them leave if they kill straid, but the catch is that the dark powers can at anytime call the party back and make them go to another dread land and have to fight another dread lord. If they beat them they'll have to do this till the end of their days.
want to run a dnd campaign ware the players are trapped in the Domains Of Dread and every time they die they appear in another domain (often revisiting previous domains) until they're able to escape, solve the core problem of the domain in question, or become numb and accept the nightmare like so many others trapped in there with them, content to merely find what little solace there is in the barely stable villages and towns inside the domains. Essentially they become another husk like the locales. Although I've only got plans for about 4-6 domains so far and I'm terrible with names so I just usually just use titles: The necropolis, a land ruled by a powerful curse that ware all who die rise again as an undead, and even the corpses of adjacent domains mysteriously vanish and appear here to join the massive legions and constructs of the dead. The endless blizzard, a frozen waist land ware the only thing more dangerous than the mysterious bests that tirelessly hunt the poor souls trapped within it, is the unforgiving weather itself. The shifting ruins, a subterranean domain of crumbled stone and ancient once grandiose architecture that is constantly being repaired and destroyed by two competing forces who both use tools crafted from petrified and broken victims. The city of whispers, a city of cramped buildings and narrow streets where mysterious voices constantly pester, tempt harass, and judge all who reside, enough to drive anyone insane. The hunting forest, a dense woodland full of blood thirsty predators, both man and beast. And a few other more vague ideas that the players shouldn't be in for more than a session or two. Like more obvious and dramatic perils where they spawn already inside the stomach of a great beast or an already sinking ship, or more depressing and quiet domains like a locked inescapable room built around a pit ware the only way out is to throw yourself into the pit and die.
"When a person from the material plane commits an act of evil so atrocious it can never be forgiven... the Shadowfell sucks the monster into their own domain of dread" _Oh my god, one of the domains of dread is The Reichstag._
This was a great episode, though I would really love a series where you review and explain each domain in the book. Plenty of videos there, and I love this book.
Something that wasn't included in the 5e book unfortunately, for some reason, is the Domain of Kalidnay. This domain came from the world of Athas in the Dark Sun setting. The Sorcerer-King of Kalidnay was Kalid-Ma, but he's currently in a comatose state ever since Kalidnay fell into the Demiplane of Dread. So the current reigning dark lord of Kalidnay is his high priestess Thakok-An. And as an interesting tidbit, the Athasian residents' reaction to their realization that they're in the Demiplane of Dread was a... Happy one. Apparently they find their lives in the Domains of Dread much easier and happier than they did back on Athas... The Shadowfell is a happier place to live in... Than Athas... Let that sink in. [EDIT] Athasians when they find themselves in a place filled to the brim with undead and terrifying monsters, but then they see there's water: th-cam.com/video/tUx1AQopcHc/w-d-xo.html
I really like your headcanon. It imply that there could be domain where someone performed enough good deeds to be sucked into the shadowfell, where the relief and hope they inspired would be preserved forever but in a world that slowly fade.
Lord Soth the Death Knight managed to un-Dread Lord himself by basically refusing to engage with his designated torment until the Dark Powers got bored and tossed him back to Krynn. Vecna also escaped but I can't tell you how.
I preferred it when Ravenloft was floating around the Astral Plane. It made more sense to me. Because it explained how it could pick things up from different Worlds.
You know, though there isn't a lot to go on in playing Cyre 1313, thanks to claustrophobic masterpieces like Snowpiercer, I could see a really cool campaign come out of that.
I once played an adventure where one of our party members was a paladin and ended up doing something so against the paladin code that he was almost immediately sent to ravenloft and became a dread lord there.
You could also leave the domains of dread by bribing the vistani with exorbitant amounts of wine provided you're not in Barovia where they work for the Darklord.
I like how they gave Eberron a dark lord in Ravenloft. Even fits the Mists thing without explicitly linking the Day of Mourning to any cause. Do they still have the Dark Sun realm? That's always an interesting thought experiment: Which place is worse?
Great video. Do you think you'll go over some of the prominent domains in a future video? There's some really cool ones like Darkon, Borca, Hazlan, Falkovnia and Lamordia.
Running a Falkovnia setting where it is WH40K minus the xenophobia. The shoulder pads in the art remind me of the Blood Ravins. Yes there will be chainsaw-guns.
Very late but if you find me here; fun headcanon: The Entity from Dead by Daylight behaves very similar to the Dark Powers of Ravenloft. So let’s say the Entity is one of these who was cast out for being too wicked themself, and so is, while no longer part of the Dark powers, still does their job but instead of torturing their quarry, they let them tire themselves out through the infinite trials that wear down the will of the killers playthings until they are consumed.
This is PERFECT! So I am making a homebrew world I will use if I ever do which is based on the idea of virtual particles. Basicallly everyone knows matter and energy can’t be created or destroyed. There is sort of a way to get around this. Virtual particles can be created and destroyed inside of a vacuum. In a vacuum which is nothing both Mayer and an equal amount of antimatter can be created and bump into each other destroying them. I use this idea as well as the philosophical ideas of things like yin and yang and the general fact that something can’t truly exist without the opposite. Basically reality comes into existence when the 2 true gods come from nothingness. The god of order and good and the god of chaos and evil. The good and evil is less of a thing but they do go hand in hand with order and chaos in my world. Their feuds make reality meaningless since nothing can really exist amoung all the constant change and reshaping and push and pull of who has domain over what. This is the primordial age where some stuff does exist and lives like aberrations. They still are otherworldly and therefore not really very account able to the rules of reality which is made after. Eventually the god of order convinces the god of chaos to agree to and sign the celestial tenants. The god of chaos want too happy with doing it but did realize he benefitted more from it than without out. The true gods do hate each other and their domains but do realize in can’t exist without the other so they treat each other like bitter rivals. The celestial tenants do 2 things which is also sorta the same thing. 1) the true gods created the outer planes for themselves to be sorta banished to because they realized having direct influence on the material plane ruins everything. 2) they create the archons and the planes which they have domain over. The archons are sorta like demigods but not really. They rule over the elements, life, death, peace, war, etc each with their own specific domain (I’m not exactly sure what other ones to use so if you guys have good ideas for domains that aren’t too specific and with opposites I would appreciate it). The archons have a sorta direct influence with the material plane because they do it via avatars of their will. The communicate directly with their avatars and the avatars are supposed to do their will. The archons also do have a bit of direct influence over the material plane like the elemental ones cause stuff like wildfires and tornados and floods and the ones of life and death do literally go to the material plane for their own agenda (they have the most direct influence). Anyways, the domains of dread work wonderfully for my world as potentially the plane of death or at least part of it. I was having a very hard time figuring out a plane that life and death would have domain over that wasn’t the material plane. And the domains of dread work great because the idea of death basically being a quarantine works well in my idea of how reality works for my world. Everything. Is based on the shifting valence of all aspects of reality and if something goes to much in one direction it can cause everything to fall apart like if an act of so much evil happens it will make good very very weak and in order to make sure reality doesn’t implode on itself those people are banished to a domain of dread to make sure reality doesn’t fucking die. Death would be like the sort of destroyer of things to make sure reality does due when new things by a come to be.
Geeze, whatever force created the Domains of Dread sounds like a far more vile entity than any of the so-called Dark Lords could possibly be. The Dark Lords might deserve to suffer, sure, but their unending punishment goes beyond accountable justice - and any innocents caught up in all of this suffer for no reason.
Yeah the dark powers are so bad woc doesn't even want to give them any focus so they stay a mystery..so in a way there worse then evil gods and demons as they only want to hurt people. Like thing of all work timat or orcus has to do to do anything on the moral play yet thos things are just steal who countries without being stopped or even becoming a problem
That's what the fucking Shadowfell is? When I was building my Hexblade Warlock I took the Shadowfell part of the flavor and ran with it but like all of my research into it provided very little information. If I knew some of this I might have something for tangible for her backstory. Especially since her Patron can very likely be a Darklord. Warlock got banished to the Shadowfell, met a powerful Blacksmith/Mafia lord who needed help expanding his domain into the material plane and promised to send her back in exchange for servitude and used the blade he forged to maintain contact.
this reminds me of a demiplane in my world where a powerful spirit imprisoned themselves after haveing introduced weapons and combat to humanity expecting it to be used for selfless purposes and not things like war, conquest and stealing. so whale watching a huge battle he destroyed all the weapons and killed everyone fighting and than used the metal to chan himself to one spot in a demiplane for the rest of time. which is now whaer all broken weapons go
So, his domain is a weapon graveyard, constantly under siege by opposing forces, and he is basically stuck there, watching his mistakes play out again and again forever? I'd say that makes for a fine Domain of Dread.
@@MrNickPresley whale that is really cool, no. first it's self imposed and second thare is no war in it he just trapped himself (and maybe some of the people who were fighting I'm not sure about that). I REALLY like your idea though edit: I came up with this before I knew about DoD so it isn't quite the same thing
If the darklords are merely taking away regions affected by strong mass emotions, that begs the question… could those emotions be positive ones? Could someone become a darklord by committing an act of *good* that spurred their people to a strong sense of happiness?
I don’t like that Tatyana’s soul can inhabit twins, because it perpetrates the misconception that twins are basically the same person. They are not, and while twins can sometimes be closer than other siblings, this is partly due to an age similarity. Twins are unique people with different personalities and the like.
Now with music!
Hi
I was 1 minute into the first playthrough and was so confused.
Big fan davvy chappy
You see, I thought that the Feywild and Shadowfell were more about mixing the positive and negative energy planes with the material plane, respectively.
Wat a fack dude why no warning for spoilers about Strahd?! You jokedly but said his history which is strong spoilers! Damn it, bloody hell why didn't you warn?
The cool thing is they even show a Dark Lord who Left his DoD behind in Darkon. So you can have a BBEG that has a DoD that they left behind
also Darkon is just really neat in general, the whole realm is literally falling apart without a Darklord to base itself around, and as a result the whole Domain of Dread has descended into a power struggle over who should succeed Anakin as Darklord of Darkon
I believe Lord Soth also left his domain of dread and returned to Krynn.
@@laurenbastin8849 his name is Azalin not anakin...
@@laurenbastin8849 and I love how open-ended it is in who can succeed him: a player, a resident of Darkon, a neighbouring Darklord (potentially even by fusing their two realms together), or just grabbing azlin and forcing him back in
One thing I loved about old ravenloft lore was that the darklords could technically leave at any time. All it took was _admitting that they were wrong_ and that their current situation is entirely their own fault. Of course, if they actually had the strength of character to do that, they wouldn't be darklords
My players are currently aiming for this exact solution with Strahd in a CoS campaign. I await to see if they'll actually manage to pull off that miracle through dice luck and sheer brilliance. They just might...
Yeah I like that chance for redemption but it’s so astronomically small because everything including the dark lord themselves are working against it. It may never happen but it’s still possible
Except that one guy who was like "fuck this! you cant hold me!" and he was right, and he left which threw Darkon into a never ending power vacuum.
It's not dark lord it's dread lord
@@kinggeo8545 the ravenloft book calls them dark lords...
My favourite part about the dark powers is that Cyre 1313 is in Eberron, which is cut off from the rest of the multiverse. This means that the dark powers are more omniscient and arguably more powerful than anything else, including the gods, which just makes them far more mysterious.
Phenomenal cosmic power, Itty bitty scope.
Yeah, I heard there used to be a domain from Dark Sun which was also cut off from the rest of the cosmology.
Potentially true. Even in old school Ravenloft it was hypothesized that clerical powers in Ravenloft were actually supplied at the whims of the Dark Powers.
@@malcolmcampbell3912 That's actually true in this Ravenloft! In Har'Akir, the population worships a set of false gods created by the Pharaoh Ankhtepot. The various priests of the Pharaoh receive their power from the Dark Powers, as the gods they are worshipping aren't real. You can find this info in the Har'Akir section of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft!
@@BigBoi237 One of my favorite Dark Lords that didn't make the cut was a werewolf who led a cult to a wolf god but his curse was that he'd revert from his werewolf form if he felt any strong emotion (a weakness that would collapse his entire self-made religion if it were ever discovered). The Wolf God, in so much as it exists, was almost certainly the Dark Powers messing with the guy.
A note for fans of Eberron: the Eberron plane of Mabar behaves VERY similarly to the Domains of Dread, and is even ruled over by.... the Dark Powers.
I will admit that I had really hoped that Lord Soth would have been included in the book. Death Knights haven’t gotten enough love in 5e. But hey, it’s not like anyone can stop me from adding him to my Ravenloft campaign anyway.
Sorry bud, Lord Soth can’t appear due to licensing issues, that’s why he was kicked out in the first place.
@@periscope1986 But Soth is mentioned by name in other 5e books, Dragonlance characters are named dropped in the Unearthed Arcana for Draconic Spells, and Sithicus is alluded to (granted not by name) in that one domain where all abandoned domains are slowly consumed by the Dark Powers. I think the reason that Soth isn’t in this book is obvious, Soth is the Dark Lord that was able to beat the Dark Powers at their game and managed to escape the Domains of Dread, retconning Soth to still be in Sithicus would take away one of his most memorable achievements. We’ll probably see Soth if we get an actual Dragonlance book.
@@InquisitorThomas fair points all around, I know licensing was why he was removed in the first place, maybe they reached an understanding?
@@InquisitorThomas So, in 2023 we now have a Dragonlance adventure with Lord Sith as the BBEG! Things work out
So does this mean silent hill is a domain of dread?
That'd totally fit! :D
I dunno when they introduced the concept of Domains of Dread but that 100% fits
Yes yes
So the relationship between the fey wild and the shadow fell is the same relationship as between a bard and a bloodhunter? Good to know
Bard and bloodhunter?
@@kinggeo8545 your stereotypical bard living on emotion and probably getting everyone in trouble
And the stereotypical blood Hunter who is *dark* and cynical, when asked the blood Hunter will claim he's just being rational when in reality he's kinda just killing the mood
Note: this is stereotypical not every game or every bard or every blood Hunter
I dont think that the Canon its more feylife is pure life wild and never ending and shadowfell is death. Its not that they just lose emotion but the spark of life itself. That why people all look sick and dying over time because they are basically living dead people.
And he just using a simplification
See, now I thought the lore said that the Feywild was a reflection of the material plane, but warped by extra energy from the positive energy plane. Thus, everything is overgrown with excess life everywhere competing for space.
On the other hand, the Shadowfell is a reflection of the material plane, but warped by extra energy from the negative energy plane. Thus, there's excessive death and decay, resulting in the horrors of that plane.
Those concepts and the ones regarding emotion or lack thereof need not be mutually exclusive.
I think he trying to say emotion is life in a way that why the people in the feywild are emotional and every changing
But shadow emotionless and stagnant
It's a simplification just because he not really a heavy lore channel just his opinion on topics
Late, but.
What would be the Positive plane's version of the Nightwalker?
The main thing i took away from VRGtR is that Dead By Daylight is set in a Domain of Dread
It definitely could work. Though that raises the question of who it was made to punish, or if it just exists on its own, without a lord.
@@MrNickPresley Not too familiar with the lore but from a quick google search some killers are tortured endlessly to do The Entity's bidding. Definitely not a traditional Domain of Dread but it comes pretty close.
Moi aussi
Apparently in the previous iteration of the lore, one darklord grew so apathetic that the dark powers cast him out.
Yup. Lord Soth the Knight of the Black Rose from the Dragonlance setting. His entire trilogy of novels is about that...which actually makes it pretty dull reading, sadly.
Lord Soth the Death Knight from the Dragonlance setting. He didn't just grow apathetic, he apparently began agreeing with the banshees that the Dark Powers set to constantly wail and sing about how he was a failure. The Dark Powers actually grew so bored of him they chucked him out.
Shame they didn't incude Nedraagard (or however you spell it) and Lord Soth in the book. His time in the mists is easily one of the coolest because he manages to escape by basically saying "You know what? Fuck it. I don't care anymore, I'll be in my chambers meditating," and basically just refused to engage with his ironic punishment for so long that they let him go.
Copyright issues with the owners of Dragonlance, unfortunately
@@Em3.14re Oh I figured. It's just a shame was all I was saying.
@@Em3.14re I don't think so. Soth is mentioned and has destriptions in other 5e books. Something else is going on... Other than WotC screwing up D&D as usual. Maybe he'll be in a new Dragonlance book?
@@classicalteacher I agree. If they're going to put Soth in a Dragonlance sourcebook they can't have him wandering around Ravenloft at the same time.
Isn’t there a reference to Soth’s Domain in that one Domain that is basically every domain that lost its darklord slowly getting into a black hole? Honestly I’m fine that Soth isn’t in Van Ricten’s, because the fact that Soth was able to get out of Ravenloft is part of what made him interesting, just retconning it so Soth is still in Ravenloft would be cheap.
You missed the other ways out of Ravenloft.
The Soth method of basically shutting down in depression and no longer giving a damn...he got dumped out of the setting.
The strange method, each full domain has an access point to the World Serpent Inn...get there and you can end up anywhere in, basically, any campaign setting.
And the nuclear method, aka Vecna blasting his way out while ascending to godhood...
The darklord of dakon left somehow, but it isn't really specified how
Soth's method was Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman had legal issues with TSR over the character.
IMO I still prefer the older explanation of the Domains of Dread being their own plane of existence run by a group of eldritch beings rather than the Shadowfell itself, but I suppose that is the joy of D&D - I can just headcanon it.
Twitter's definitely a domain of dread, the question is: who is it's dark lord?
Also Twitter
@@marmato9332 I agree, a domain that is its own lord. I guess it's problem is that knows it was made to be lighthearted and not be be taken seriously. Yet it became so overwhelming that even nonsense is taken highly seriously. Like a dark lord of pure emotion when it was supposed to be empty.
Twitter user: "this is a nice place to read funny memes"
Also twitter user: "your joke kills people your bigot"
"I hate it here! I wanna go home!" -Jaden Smith, in his Domain of Dread
"the Shadowfell is where emotions go to die."
Oh, yeah I remember middle school.
Hi Davvy. Can you go into the specific domains listed?
+1
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+99
I really like the domain of Har'Akir. After all, its darklord seems to know the way out and seeks some escape from the domain. He actually acknowledges that his quest for power is ultimately futile, and now wants only escape.
Fascinating video. I've never liked the whole soulless NPC thing. I think it's more interesting to just let them have souls and still be depressed or hopeless because of their dour and dire surroundings. I'd also introduce that 1 out of 5 born in the Domains of Dread to native parents have some kind of dark gift or mutation such as being one of the mongrelfolk or a werewolf or dhampir, etc.
There could still be a distinction between those who have old souls who have given into sadness or suffer from a form of PTSD and new souls who might be more cheerful and lively.
I hate the whole shadowfell and soulless npc thing, and prefer Ravenloft to be its own thing entirely with its different prisons and domains. I feel if every npc is soulless then why should I give a damn.
@@JTKcool every NPC isn't soulless, you can add plenty of npcs with a soul if you want, it's not like it's that rare
Lord Soth changed. He gave up, stopped caring, and became so apathetic that the Dark Powers grew bored with him & spat him out.
This reminds me of the curse of straid game I DMed and finished 4 days ago. The party got to the amber temple and instead of fight the dark power in the coffins. They made a deal with them.
The dark powers will let them leave if they kill straid, but the catch is that the dark powers can at anytime call the party back and make them go to another dread land and have to fight another dread lord. If they beat them they'll have to do this till the end of their days.
want to run a dnd campaign ware the players are trapped in the Domains Of Dread and every time they die they appear in another domain (often revisiting previous domains) until they're able to escape, solve the core problem of the domain in question, or become numb and accept the nightmare like so many others trapped in there with them, content to merely find what little solace there is in the barely stable villages and towns inside the domains. Essentially they become another husk like the locales.
Although I've only got plans for about 4-6 domains so far and I'm terrible with names so I just usually just use titles:
The necropolis, a land ruled by a powerful curse that ware all who die rise again as an undead, and even the corpses of adjacent domains mysteriously vanish and appear here to join the massive legions and constructs of the dead.
The endless blizzard, a frozen waist land ware the only thing more dangerous than the mysterious bests that tirelessly hunt the poor souls trapped within it, is the unforgiving weather itself.
The shifting ruins, a subterranean domain of crumbled stone and ancient once grandiose architecture that is constantly being repaired and destroyed by two competing forces who both use tools crafted from petrified and broken victims.
The city of whispers, a city of cramped buildings and narrow streets where mysterious voices constantly pester, tempt harass, and judge all who reside, enough to drive anyone insane.
The hunting forest, a dense woodland full of blood thirsty predators, both man and beast.
And a few other more vague ideas that the players shouldn't be in for more than a session or two. Like more obvious and dramatic perils where they spawn already inside the stomach of a great beast or an already sinking ship, or more depressing and quiet domains like a locked inescapable room built around a pit ware the only way out is to throw yourself into the pit and die.
I was in the middle of watching the previous one when it was taken down and this one was put up
Talk about dread all right
Thanks for explaining how this all works! I am a Curse of Strahd survivor but I never quite understood how the Mists and Shadowfell actually worked.
"When a person from the material plane commits an act of evil so atrocious it can never be forgiven... the Shadowfell sucks the monster into their own domain of dread"
_Oh my god, one of the domains of dread is The Reichstag._
Yoooo, does that mean that the Zombies mode in COD would also be a domian of dread? They have multiple maps set in WW2 Germany.
This was a great episode, though I would really love a series where you review and explain each domain in the book. Plenty of videos there, and I love this book.
This just proves that Ravenloft isn't so much a setting, but a prison with each domain as a cell.
Something that wasn't included in the 5e book unfortunately, for some reason, is the Domain of Kalidnay. This domain came from the world of Athas in the Dark Sun setting. The Sorcerer-King of Kalidnay was Kalid-Ma, but he's currently in a comatose state ever since Kalidnay fell into the Demiplane of Dread. So the current reigning dark lord of Kalidnay is his high priestess Thakok-An. And as an interesting tidbit, the Athasian residents' reaction to their realization that they're in the Demiplane of Dread was a... Happy one. Apparently they find their lives in the Domains of Dread much easier and happier than they did back on Athas... The Shadowfell is a happier place to live in... Than Athas... Let that sink in.
[EDIT] Athasians when they find themselves in a place filled to the brim with undead and terrifying monsters, but then they see there's water: th-cam.com/video/tUx1AQopcHc/w-d-xo.html
This is a great video. What a down-to-earth, easy-to-understand explanation for Ravenloft. THANK YOU.
I'm pretty sure Tatyana's last words before jumping were "hold my beer"...
Forever taunting Strahd by using a meme from the epoch * after * 2009.
In summary: XP to Level 3's entire channel is a Domain of Dread.
I really like your headcanon. It imply that there could be domain where someone performed enough good deeds to be sucked into the shadowfell, where the relief and hope they inspired would be preserved forever but in a world that slowly fade.
Sounds equally as horrifying tbh
I'd love to see you cover each of the separate Domains of Dread in the book.
Obviously it was reuploaded to change the description from 'all roads lead to the land' to 'all roads lead back to the mist'
I sure am glad that it was removed before they saw that last image of strahd getting spanked.
thank you for the first couple minutes of pure clarification gold.
Top notch! Thanks so much! This really helped me contextualise the Strahd game I'm running!
Lord Soth the Death Knight managed to un-Dread Lord himself by basically refusing to engage with his designated torment until the Dark Powers got bored and tossed him back to Krynn.
Vecna also escaped but I can't tell you how.
I believe Vecna was able to ascend to Greater God status and was able to overpower the Dark Powers to escape.
@@Skydomer22 I didn't say I didn't know I said I couldn't tell, I hope the Nothic life treats you well.
@@fraidnaught9067 oh no
@@Skydomer22Yeah and it's the reason why the Multiverse almost got destroyed which is the canonical reason why went from AD&D aka 2E to D&D3E.
I preferred it when Ravenloft was floating around the Astral Plane. It made more sense to me. Because it explained how it could pick things up from different Worlds.
Exactly what I needed, thank you!
we need more books like this for 5e. I would love a lot more for other planes specifically
To think that Bill Murray as a selfish weatherman was almost turn into a dread lord is worth of homebrewing, think about it, it just fits.
You know, though there isn't a lot to go on in playing Cyre 1313, thanks to claustrophobic masterpieces like Snowpiercer, I could see a really cool campaign come out of that.
Watching this again in a background tab on mute so you get them views
Great, now I have to watch this whole video again cuz now it has cool music.
I once played an adventure where one of our party members was a paladin and ended up doing something so against the paladin code that he was almost immediately sent to ravenloft and became a dread lord there.
You could also leave the domains of dread by bribing the vistani with exorbitant amounts of wine provided you're not in Barovia where they work for the Darklord.
You’re so pog, Chap.
Best Davvy video yet.
Will we be getting a vid on the Dark gifts, and if so, will it include the ones from curse of strahd?
That was actually quite helpful
I always thought the feywild was life and shadowfell death interesting to see a different take
Urrrrrgh, now I have to get this book!!!
Thank you for the video.
With all the way Dark Lords are described all I could think of was Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Imagine Dark Lord Macbeth stuck in the tragedy...
I like how they gave Eberron a dark lord in Ravenloft. Even fits the Mists thing without explicitly linking the Day of Mourning to any cause.
Do they still have the Dark Sun realm? That's always an interesting thought experiment: Which place is worse?
Strahd is a Bi-con. Happy Pride Davvy.
Great video. Do you think you'll go over some of the prominent domains in a future video? There's some really cool ones like Darkon, Borca, Hazlan, Falkovnia and Lamordia.
Love your vids, just wanted to say that this one has high pitched ringing on headphones for some reason
Running a Falkovnia setting where it is WH40K minus the xenophobia. The shoulder pads in the art remind me of the Blood Ravins. Yes there will be chainsaw-guns.
It’s like Silent Hill, but D&D’er!
I don't like this idea, that anyone super evil gets zapped out of reality
Very late but if you find me here; fun headcanon:
The Entity from Dead by Daylight behaves very similar to the Dark Powers of Ravenloft. So let’s say the Entity is one of these who was cast out for being too wicked themself, and so is, while no longer part of the Dark powers, still does their job but instead of torturing their quarry, they let them tire themselves out through the infinite trials that wear down the will of the killers playthings until they are consumed.
Fuck's sake I made a wrong turn
Thought this was the Domains of Bread, my bad
haunting of bly manor is just about a domain of dread oh god oh fuck
5 people are agents of the Shadowfell.
hey! Awesome video Chappy
Izanami but very very complex
start a love train
This is PERFECT! So I am making a homebrew world I will use if I ever do which is based on the idea of virtual particles. Basicallly everyone knows matter and energy can’t be created or destroyed. There is sort of a way to get around this. Virtual particles can be created and destroyed inside of a vacuum. In a vacuum which is nothing both Mayer and an equal amount of antimatter can be created and bump into each other destroying them. I use this idea as well as the philosophical ideas of things like yin and yang and the general fact that something can’t truly exist without the opposite. Basically reality comes into existence when the 2 true gods come from nothingness. The god of order and good and the god of chaos and evil. The good and evil is less of a thing but they do go hand in hand with order and chaos in my world. Their feuds make reality meaningless since nothing can really exist amoung all the constant change and reshaping and push and pull of who has domain over what. This is the primordial age where some stuff does exist and lives like aberrations. They still are otherworldly and therefore not really very account able to the rules of reality which is made after. Eventually the god of order convinces the god of chaos to agree to and sign the celestial tenants. The god of chaos want too happy with doing it but did realize he benefitted more from it than without out. The true gods do hate each other and their domains but do realize in can’t exist without the other so they treat each other like bitter rivals. The celestial tenants do 2 things which is also sorta the same thing. 1) the true gods created the outer planes for themselves to be sorta banished to because they realized having direct influence on the material plane ruins everything. 2) they create the archons and the planes which they have domain over. The archons are sorta like demigods but not really. They rule over the elements, life, death, peace, war, etc each with their own specific domain (I’m not exactly sure what other ones to use so if you guys have good ideas for domains that aren’t too specific and with opposites I would appreciate it). The archons have a sorta direct influence with the material plane because they do it via avatars of their will. The communicate directly with their avatars and the avatars are supposed to do their will. The archons also do have a bit of direct influence over the material plane like the elemental ones cause stuff like wildfires and tornados and floods and the ones of life and death do literally go to the material plane for their own agenda (they have the most direct influence). Anyways, the domains of dread work wonderfully for my world as potentially the plane of death or at least part of it. I was having a very hard time figuring out a plane that life and death would have domain over that wasn’t the material plane. And the domains of dread work great because the idea of death basically being a quarantine works well in my idea of how reality works for my world. Everything. Is based on the shifting valence of all aspects of reality and if something goes to much in one direction it can cause everything to fall apart like if an act of so much evil happens it will make good very very weak and in order to make sure reality doesn’t implode on itself those people are banished to a domain of dread to make sure reality doesn’t fucking die. Death would be like the sort of destroyer of things to make sure reality does due when new things by a come to be.
Great video!! 😊
Ravenloft has been a favorite locale for twenty years.
More Eberron please!
Bluetspur is the best! Obviously barring Cyre 1313..
Thanks Davvy
Just like Dante's inferno, first they won't change and then they can't change.
5:37 I think he would be more pansexual because he doesn't care about form, only the soul but that is only my opinion.
Let Strahd pick which label he'll go bi
@@bray2964 ok
He 100% cares about form, you have to remember the only reason Strahd fell in love with Tatyana was because of her beauty.
I'm a simple man. I see E•MO•TION, I click like.
Geeze, whatever force created the Domains of Dread sounds like a far more vile entity than any of the so-called Dark Lords could possibly be. The Dark Lords might deserve to suffer, sure, but their unending punishment goes beyond accountable justice - and any innocents caught up in all of this suffer for no reason.
Yeah the dark powers are so bad woc doesn't even want to give them any focus so they stay a mystery..so in a way there worse then evil gods and demons as they only want to hurt people. Like thing of all work timat or orcus has to do to do anything on the moral play yet thos things are just steal who countries without being stopped or even becoming a problem
I wonder which one of the Domains of Dread would Voldemort be the Darklord of.
Great, now I know where my depression comes from. Am I a warlock?
That's what the fucking Shadowfell is? When I was building my Hexblade Warlock I took the Shadowfell part of the flavor and ran with it but like all of my research into it provided very little information. If I knew some of this I might have something for tangible for her backstory. Especially since her Patron can very likely be a Darklord. Warlock got banished to the Shadowfell, met a powerful Blacksmith/Mafia lord who needed help expanding his domain into the material plane and promised to send her back in exchange for servitude and used the blade he forged to maintain contact.
Take two?
What music is used? It's not specified below.
this reminds me of a demiplane in my world where a powerful spirit imprisoned themselves after haveing introduced weapons and combat to humanity expecting it to be used for selfless purposes and not things like war, conquest and stealing. so whale watching a huge battle he destroyed all the weapons and killed everyone fighting and than used the metal to chan himself to one spot in a demiplane for the rest of time. which is now whaer all broken weapons go
So, his domain is a weapon graveyard, constantly under siege by opposing forces, and he is basically stuck there, watching his mistakes play out again and again forever? I'd say that makes for a fine Domain of Dread.
@@MrNickPresley whale that is really cool, no. first it's self imposed and second thare is no war in it he just trapped himself (and maybe some of the people who were fighting I'm not sure about that). I REALLY like your idea though
edit: I came up with this before I knew about DoD so it isn't quite the same thing
What happened to the first one?
I guess you can call me a personal resident 😎
There is no punchline
I'm on the personnel side.
The victims of late stage capitalism line was extremely based
does anyone know where the image at 1:30 is from i need it for a campaign
Hmmm, looks like your earlier video mysteriously disappeared into the mists.
If the darklords are merely taking away regions affected by strong mass emotions, that begs the question… could those emotions be positive ones? Could someone become a darklord by committing an act of *good* that spurred their people to a strong sense of happiness?
There is another way to leave it’s through a tavern
Can I have permission to play with your head cannon mister mystical elf lord man lord? Pretty please?
Re-upload?
The Domain of Dread, AKA every edgelord's wet dream
I don’t like that Tatyana’s soul can inhabit twins, because it perpetrates the misconception that twins are basically the same person. They are not, and while twins can sometimes be closer than other siblings, this is partly due to an age similarity. Twins are unique people with different personalities and the like.
Thanks.
Something is wrong with the shadowfell guys. I started feeling depressed when I was 16 and it's never stopped.
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