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Azalin Rex, Darklord of Darkon
Azalin Rex, Darklord of Darkon
The Lich-Lord Azalin as he appears in 5e
A powerful and tyrannical wizard-lord originally from Oerth, who executed his own rebellious son and then turned himself into a lich to try and ensure his legacy would live on despite that. Was initially brought into Ravenloft as an "ordinary" lich and spent time as an unwilling servant to Strahd before he escaped into the Misty Border, which opened up to reveal Darkon. His curse is that his magical abilities are locked where they were when he entered the Mists; he cannot increase his magical power, nor can he learn any new spells, even though he can still design new magic. Also has something of a secondary curse in the form of his son's ghost, who constantly tells Azalin that he forgives his father for killing him, and should just let go so his soul can finally rest in peace. Azalin, of course, is utterly incapable of this.
- Always Second Best: As a darklord, a lich and a Sorcerous Overlord, he is by far one of the most powerful darklords in Ravenloft, but he always fell short of Vecna, who are all those things and a god to boot. According to Minsc and Boo's Guide to Villainy, Irenicus is also a Dark Lord and thus he's less of a Lich King as well.
- The Archmage: The most powerful Wizard in the Core, magically and politically, and perhaps even in the whole Demiplane. This is in spite of his inability to learn any new spells. Meredoth and Vecna are (or were) actually higher-level than Azalin, but the former's a recluse, the latter lacks power outside his domain, and both live in Islands of Terror or Clusters beyond the single "continent" in which the most important Domains of Dread are found.
- The Bus Came Back: Like most darklords aside from Strahd, he was Put on a Bus in 5th edition. However, the late 2020 sourcebook Tasha's Cauldron of Everything included a picture of him (identified in the caption), as an example of an immortal being group patron. Then subverted with Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, where Azalin was entirely left out due to having escaped the domain (though there is something strange about the mysterious wanderer going by the name Firan Zal'honan...)
- Creepy Ravens: His elite spies are a breed of sentient ravens (King's Ravens, or Corvus Regi).
- Cursed with Awesome: One of the more blatant examples in Ravenloft. With his curse came vast magical powers, absolute control over all undead in Darkon, and the ability to read and rewrite the memories of any of his subjects. He easily rivals Strahd for being the most powerful Darklord, both in and out of game. Azalin also knows everyone in his realm, down to their deepest secrets, and can disguise himself as any of them. He also generates supernatural cold wherever he goes, sharply limiting how well he can manipulate his subjects with these abilities.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Azalin's name is his Knurl title, Azal'Lan, as misspelt by Barovians. Azal'Lan means "Wizard-King". Yes, Azalin Rex translates to "King Wizard-King"
- The Determinator: No matter how many times he fails to escape, no matter how much damage it does to him, He. Will. Not. Give. Up. As of 5th Ed, he's apparently succeeded.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He cannot even fathom how one can rule without being at best the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, which is what alienated him from his more altruistic son. Made painfully obvious in a short first-person recount of his situation, where he does a bit of good old-fashioned projection by claiming his son had no comprehension of the strength required to bear the burden of rulership (i.e. crush any dissenters as fast and as hard as you can so they can be examples, even if it's your own flesh and blood).
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: Castle Avernus is a jumble of towers stocked with undead, fell magic and such. Oh, and it kills any bird whose shadow falls upon its walls (except scavengers).
- Greater-Scope Villain: Despite Strahd being the most famous of Ravenloft's Dark Lords, Azalin is easily a greater threat, not only to the inhabitants of the Mists but also posing an interplanar threat should he escape. Multiple adventure campaigns are dedicated to preventing this. In 5e, with his implied escape, Darkon is gradually disintegrating. Most of the methods of saving the realm and its people involve forcing Azalin's return. In the meantime, however, several would-be heirs make for more direct antagonists.
- I Have No Son!: Subverted. He executed his own son in a heartbeat when he found him hiding rebels, but has secretly regretted it ever since.
- I Just Want to Be Free: Escaping from Ravenloft is something of an obsession for him.
- It Amused Me: When Rudolph Van Richten runs off into the night in pursuit of the Vistani who kidnapped his son, Azalin encounters him and decides it sounds like a fun idea to not only give him protection from the undead roaming Darkon, but to let van Richten have temporary control over an army of zombies. Which, to Azalin's amusement, van Richten then sics on the Vistani when he catches them.
- Knight Templar: He considers his harsh, tyrannical methods to be the only way for his kingdom (any kingdom, really) to prosper. His son disagreed, leading to tragedy for both.
- Lawful Evil: In-Universe — it's the official Character Alignment given in his profile writeups. Notably, Azalin is just as committed to the Lawful part as to the Evil. In one instance he, somewhat irritably, broke up an attempted gang rape of a servant girl, informing her that she could return to her family and tell them that her attackers had been punished. It is less benevolence and more that he feels that his job as a noble is to impose law and order.
- Necromancer: His control over the dead of his Domain cannot be overstated.
- Offing the Offspring: Bitterly regrets doing it. In fact, one of his stated reasons for being so dead-set on escaping Ravenloft is to go back to a world where reliable resurrections can be made so as to bring his son back to life to make a second go at molding him into a worthy heir.
- The Plan: Specifically stated again and again to be his modus operandi.
- The Punishment: Of course, between the death of his kind-hearted son and heir and the loss of his ability to learn new spells, the only two things in life he truly loved, all of Azalin's power and influence have not really made him happy.
- Secret Police: The not-so-secret organisation the Kargat serves him in this capacity, as well as being his agents abroad.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In his own twisted way of course; see Offing the Offspring above.
- Sorcerous Overlord: Pound for pound, probably the most powerful in the Land of Mists. Meredoth has more raw magical punch, but Azalin has political clout and genuine leadership skills.
- Training from Hell: When Azalin occasionally takes on an apprentice, this is his method. He also raised his own son this way to make him a fitting heir for the kingdom. It didn't work out well.
- Transplant: From Greyhawk.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Meets a random man on a vengeful tear one night, and on a whim grants him the power to fulfill his vendetta. Thus, Azalin helps create Van Richten. Subverted in that Van Richten, at his best, is still woefully out of his depth with Azalin.
Death, Darklord of Necropolis
Death, Darklord of Necropolis
The dread personification of death itself, the grim specter at the end of life, ruler over all who dwell beyond the grave... or so he would like to think. In life, Lowellyn Dachine was born from one of Azalin's many efforts to escape his curse and learn new magics. He used powerful sorcery to impregnate several women across Darkon with near-identical clones of himself, hoping to guide these "offspring" to learn spells that he could not and surreptitiously capture the results. The attempt failed and those of these creations who survived were forgotten, one of which was Lowellyn. Learning some small threads of his past, he saw himself as Azalin's bastard son and entered his service in the Kargat, hoping to earn his "father's" favor. He later participated in the Grim Harvest, a vast campaign of murder across the Core by Azalin's agents to gather life energy for his latest attempt at escaping the demiplane. His test of a prototype device designed by Azalin transformed him into a unique brand of elemental, and his presence in Il Aluk during Azalin's attempted Requiem transformed him even further and shattered his sanity completely. He was now Death, nothing less than the unchanging and eternal ruler of all undead. But powerful and unique though he is, he will always be the bastard child whose entire existence was nothing but a side effect of a failure, and all his powers nothing but an accident, and the curse of ruling over his dead city is that no matter how deluded or delusional or insane he might become, he will never ever be able to forget that.- Cast from Hit Points: By imbuing undead with portions of its own life force (or animating force, or whatever), Death can create very powerful and fanatically loyal servants, like the Four Horsemen. However, this really came around to bite Death in the ass when Azalin unexpectedly destroyed the Horsemen and contained their energies, robbing Death of a major chunk of its power.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Not only was its creation an unintended result of Azalin's experiments, but it murdered the entire city of Il Aluk soon after. It later became its Domain.
- The Grim Reaper: It's a powerful, skeletal undead being and fully believes itself to be the real deal in this regard. It's not, however — it's actually a rogue experiment of the lich Azalin's, which went rogue, went insane and became severely deluded.
- The Necrocracy: Necropolis is a Type I, where everyone — rulers and ruled — is undead.
- Necromancer: It can create and command undead.
- Neutral Evil: Its official In-Universe alignment.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted (we think). The darklord Death isn't the same creature Strahd bargained with.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Death has an aversion to objects associated with birth, and will recoil from objects such as an infant's blanket. It will also lose some special abilities it has if it hears the crying of a newborn creature.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Though, at least according to S, he was already unhinged — the transformation just undid the final screw.
- The Unishment: In his initial incarnation, he was quite happy to be ruling a city of undead, and didn't consider his darklord status to have any downsides. 3e reworked him a bit. He's constantly tormented by the inescapable knowledge that he's not really the grim reaper, as well as filled with shame at being surrounded by the domain of his greatest enemy.
Saidra d'Honaire, Darklord of Dementlieu
The woman of the hour, every hour
Born a peasant girl, Saidra was told as a child by her father that he was a noble, deposed and exiled by his evil brother. She lorded her supposed nobility over the other children, even as her father remarried and she was forged into servitude by her wealthy stepmother. Only when the local noble died and Saidra thought her father could reclaim his throne did he reveal the truth to her; That he was merely a servant, fired for stealing silverware. Saidra ran away from home, but was approached by a kindly spirit. It clad the girl in finery, telling her to go to the ball held at a local noble's estate. There, Saidra danced with a handsome young noble, thinking that if she couldn't be born noble, at least she could marry noble. Unfortunately, as the clock struck twelve, everyone at the ball were afflicted with a horrid plague. As Saidra and her dance partner lay dying, he admitted that he was not a noble, but the son of a servant who had been fired for stealing silverware. Enraged, Saidra slew the boy she now realized was her brother, and as the plague claimed her life, the mists claimed her soul.
Now, Saidra has everything she could ever want. She's a wealthy noble that hosts fabulous masquerade balls weekly. Anyone who pretends to be anyone attends them, but at the same time she's terrified that somehow her adoring guests will realize that she is nothing but a peasant dressed in finery.
- Blue Blood: She has none herself, but she's fully bought into the idea. Half the reason she killed the noble that was romantically interested in her is that she discovered that he was adopted, and thus wasn't actually nobility by birth, even though he was still a duke.
- Compensating for Something: Non-penis example. She kills anyone who fails to maintain noble standards at her balls in a vain attempt at preventing people from realizing that she herself is faking being a noble.
- Composite Character: Saidra is a combination of Cinderella and The Red Death.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For how obsessed she is with nobility and Blue Blood, she's not willing to engage in Brother–Sister Incest.
- Fake Aristocrat: Saidra was born a peasant, but as the richest and most powerful individual un-living being in Dementlieu, she is essentially a noble, and claims to be of noble birth. Since Impostor's Syndrome is the major theme of her domain, she's constantly terrified that someone will find out.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: Saidra is essentially Cinderella if she was more murderous, obsessed with nobility and momentously self-absorbed.
- Hypocrite: Any who attend Saidra's balls without an invite or failing to appear noble enough are stripped of their masks and disintegrated by the lady herself, dismissed as impostors. Saidra herself is a peasant posing as a noble. She is actually aware of her own hypocrisy, and terrified that soomeone will find out.
- Masquerade Ball: Saidra hosts these weekly. Attending is the best way to increase your social standing in Dementlieu, but Dark Powers help you if she catches you sneaking in.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Saidra is explicitly a wraith, having died before the Dark Powers claimed her. By day, she dresses in her finery and looks every part the noble lady. By night, she stalks the streets as red-tinged ghost the denizens of Dementlieu know as the Red Death.
- The Punishment: The Dark Powers has made sure that Saidra, despite having everything she could ever have wanted, suffers constant impostor's syndrome, terrified that any moment now someone will realize that she's a fraud and the social fallout that would follow. She can never escape this fear, and the Dark Powers further stoke the flames by occasionally sending her letters from the only people who knows the truth about her, making her think that they are out there somewhere and there is only a matter of time before they return.
- Reduced to Dust: She can cast the spell Disintegrate on those unfortunates who get caught trying to sneak into her balls.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The fact that Saidra is undead is pretty obvious, though no one in the domain remarks upon it.
- Wicked Stepmother: Continuing with the Cinderella motif, Saidra's stepmother treated her like a servant, and the abuse was part of the reason she ran away (the other reason being learning that her father lied to her about his nobility). They also factor into Saidra's torment, as she will occasionally receive letters from them, fueling her paranoia that they will some day show up in Dementlieu and reveal her as a fraud.
Vladeska Drakov, Darklord of Falknovia
Vladeska Drakov
Death before dishonor. Repeatedly.
A brilliant tactician who, on her homeworld, conquered a large swathe of the world and established an empire. After thousands of innocents were put to the sword under her command, the mists claimed her, and she found herself in Falkovnia. She swiftly conquered the domain and established her capital, but as darkness fell on the night of the new moon, countless undead steped out of the mist, quickly destroying most villages and laying siege to the capital. Now, Vladeska leads her people in a futile struggle against the dead, knowing that each new moon brings a fresh tide of horrors. Cowards who try to flee are put to the stake, for Vladeska will be damned before she gives up, unaware that she already is.
- Adaptational Heroism: "Heroism" is a bit strong, she's still a Darklord, but 5th edition removed most of her racism and sexism, and she is no longer an explicit rapist. Still a monstrous dictator, though.
- Badass Normal: Vladeska is a normal human being, aside from the conditional immortality granted to all darklords, but she has still survived wave after wave of a zombie apocalypse.
- Dark Secret: Those zombies that come out the mists every month? Every single one of them has the face of an innocent person that she or her troops in her homeworld put to the sword. Vladeska has never told anyone of this, but she knows the zombies are coming for her.
- Expy: Interestingly, she's not that similar to Vlad Dracov who was one for Vlad the Impaler and A Nazi by Any Other Name but has a lot in common with other Ravenloft Dark Lord Elena Faithhold.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride. Vladeska knows deep down that the battle for Falkovnia is lost, and the only sensible thing to do is to retreat, but her pride would never allow her to do that. Retreat means admitting failure, and she would rather die than fail. And she's going to take all of Falkovnia with her.
- Hired Guns: Ex-soldier of fortune, until she decided conquest was more rewarding than servitude.
- Hopeless War: What her curse really amounts to. There's nothing she can to save Falknovia but keep throwing more troops at the Zombie Apocalypse.
- Gender Flip: Went from the male Vlad to the female Vladeska, which also toned down her less politically correct aspects.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Vladeska fully believes that everything she does is necessary for the survival of Falkovnia, from drafting civilians who can barely fight to use as distractions, to sacrificing entire districts for the good of all.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Not quite to the degree of her male predecessor, but Vladeska still does this from time to time as a warning about what happens to deserters.
- The Punishment: Vladeska's every waking hour is spent preparing for the next horde, and she never has a moment to rest or enjoy the trappings of wealth and power. While she may have enjoyed that on her homeworld, in Falkovnia it's just endless horror because the zombies aren't an enemy she can defeat. She's delaying the inevitable, and she knows it. The zombies also all have the faces of innocents that her soldiers put to the sword, and she knows they are coming for her, though the obvious symbolism goes over her head.
- The Strategist: Vladeska Drakov is, for all her faults, a brilliant tactical mastermind. She would have conquered her homeland with ease hadn't it been for the Mist, and she got all of Falkovnia under her heel in less than a month after arriving. Currently she's fighting of a zombie apocalypse, and doing quite well, even if it means she has to sacrifice a lot of civilian lives, and there is no actual hope of winning.
- Zombie Apocalypse: What has happened to Falknovia and what she is, futily, attempting to stop.
Tristessa, Darklord of Keening
Tristessa, Darklord of Keening
A ghost who constantly writhes in agony from the pain of her death. Formerly one of the shadow fey who dwelled below Arak, who was converted to the worship of the Spider Queen (Lolth) by visiting drow, and went on to lead a cult to the Spider Queen. Became a Darklord after Loht of the Unseelie Court staked her (and her child) to Mount Lament and she was exposed to the sun, causing a sandstorm that wiped out all life in Arak.- Amazing Technicolor Population: Her skin is solid black and her her hair solid white like all dr—uh, "Zelldrow".
- Ax-Crazy: If you're alive, it doesn't matter what you do; sooner or later, she'll attack.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: In her pre-Retcon story, it was more like "Deformity Equals Murder", since the drow civilization of Arak killed Tristessa and her child because the latter was born as a drider rather than a normal drow.
- Blow You Away:
- In both versions of her backstory, her death caused a sandstorm (called The Scourge in 3.0)which killed all life on the surface of Arak.
- When she wants to close her borders, a wall of powerful winds keep people from passing through.
- Breath Weapon: The undead villagers of Marbh-Cathair (called The Scourged in 3.0) have the ability to emit a searing hot blast of sand from their mouths. If killed by this attack, the victim becomes a Scourged themselves.
- Brown Note: If you see her, you have to make a saving throw or run away in terror. If you hear her wail during the day you have to make saving throw or be paralyzed; at night you have to make the throw or die and become yet another undead.
- Casting a Shadow: One of her drowlike powers is to cast the darkness spell as an ability.
- Chaotic Evil: In-Universe — it's the official Character Alignment given in her profile writeups.
- The Dead Can Dance: Assuming some of the villagers had dancing as part of their daily routine, why not?
- Death World: There are no proper flora or fauna in Keening—nothing can sustain them and the place terrifies the latter, causing them to flee even when prodded by experienced handlers. Only lichens grow on its rocks, and some of them are dangerous to be exposed to. There's a pall over the miserable land, which keeps all but the undead out. Indeed, the place seems to appeal to the undead, with the more vicious members of their kind finding it an excellent staging area for raids on other realms and widderribhinn roaming around the place fulfilling Tristessa's confused whims. Once in a while a treasure hunter or some Darkon dwarves seek to mine Mount Lament for its rich mineral ores and shadow fey artifacts, but they're lucky if they make it out again. Peculiarly, provided you have a supply of food and water, the village full of zombies is the safest place in the whole domain. All the other undead stay out of it, and the villagers do their thing whether you're there or not (unfortunately, this includes the Dawning Scream). As such some people such as outcasts, lunatics or treasure seekers may spend a bit of time there. These encounters aren't necessarily safe, but it beats the land outside.
- Doorstop Baby: Since she's constantly searching for her baby, some bright spark got the notion of leaving a baby where she could find it in order to assuage her rage and despair. This doesn't work for long—the poor things who aren't twisted to death by her touch eventually starve—but it usually buys enough time to pass through Keening without dealing with Tristessa. As such, the Vistani and others still do it.
- Dying Curse: In the revised backstory, Tristessa laid one down as she died in the sunlight, causing a sandstorm that killed everything on the surface, namely the Arakian humans who'd been an interesting diversion for the shadow fey in their eternal lives.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In life, she and the cult she led were depraved even by the standards of the Unseelie Court of the Shadow Rift — which is a pretty high bar to clear.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Attacking one of the zombies in the village causes every zombie in sight to attack you.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: "The City of the Dead", the only village in the tiny realm of Keening (named Marbh-Cathair in 3.0) is full of undead. Some were killed when Tristessa died and created a sandstorm, others are her victims. It might take you a bit to realize they're all dead, since it's so busy.
- Fantastic Racism: Was the subject of such during her time in Arak in her previous backstory. Originally, the subterrainian dwellers of Arak were envisioned as drow: Dark elves living in great underground cities much like Menzoberranzan. Later reworks replaced the drow with the shadow fey, but kept Tristessa as a regular drow who had found her way to the fey realms with her worship of Lolth, as tolerated for a time as an amusing outsider, and then was killed by Prince Loht when her cult became too disruptive to his rule. The most current writeup has her as a native Unseelie shadow fey who was introduced to the Lolth cult by visiting drow elves.
- Freak Out: Tristessa's death sent her insane. She believes her child is still alive, but has been taken from her. A surrogate can satisfy her... but only temporarily.
- God Is Displeased: In her original backstory, one theory about why her child was born deformed was that as a priestess of Lolth she offended her goddess by not sacrificing a male consort in her name.
Then it says that nobody knows anything about the drow of Arak and that it seems unlikely that Lolth would be able to reach into the Deimplane, so it's not certain. - Going Through the Motions: The one village in Keening is a mockery of a bustling medieval city, full of zombies (and wights in 2e) who endlessly repeat the daily routines they had in life down to the tiniest detail, e.g. bartering over dessicated animal corpses and rotten meat, washing and putting up the same tattered scrap of cloth over and over, playing inaudible music on instruments whose strings broke years ago, wiping non-existent sweat from skeletal brows etc. The safest thing to do is behave like you're visiting a perfectly normal village, as any attempt to disrupt them is ill-advised.
- Good Shepherd: Like everything in Ravenloft, this trope is twisted. Unwald Rottentail, a gnome Cleric/Abjurer/Mystic was once a sentinel with the Eternal Order who entered Keening with a team of clerics and knights, believing The City of the Dead to be a threat to Maywin. Everyone but Unwald was wiped out by widderribhinn before they even set foot in the place, and Unwald's mind shattered. Once he staggered into Marbh-Cathair, he became obsessed with the delusion that the villagers were his living parishioners and that he is their "priest", becoming the only permanent resident of the town. He's not too lucid and reacts violently if anyone in his presence even so much as speaks about harming the villagers, but has learned a remarkable amount about Keening and its Darklord, and can be a useful source of information if approached correctly.
- Helping Hands: One strange threat in Tristessa's realm comes not from her, but from a group of undead guards who used to take tolls. At least one of them has a enchanted sword (+2), but if any of them is (heh) disarmed, their hand sticks to the grip and tries to choke the transgressor at night. It happens to be supernaturally empowered and can call more Crawling Claws to help it out.
- Holy Burns Evil: Holy water burns her.
- I Am Not Weasel: Thanks to the Retcon she's a creature who looks like a drow and has a number of drow-like powers (albeit with a greater range) but isn't actually a drow.
- Invisibility: One of the gifts she got as a darklord. She can become invisible at will, but moves at only half speed while so. In 3.0, this is changed to a shadow form.
- Misplaced Retribution: The sandstorm summoned by her death killed a village of innocent humans rather than the people responsible.
- Monster Progenitor: The first widderribhinn (undead fey) in the demiplane. All subsequent widderribhinn feel a compulsion to visit Mount Lament, where they fall permanently under Tristessa's sway. However, she's typically barely aware of them; when she does register them, she commands them to find her child and destroy her foes (the shadow fey).
- Mystical Pregnancy: In her revised backstory, she became spontaneously pregnant with a drider child after becoming the head of the Church of the Spider Queen. Some thought this was a sign of disgrace, but Tristessa loved her child.
- The Necrocracy: Tristessa is an undead shadow fey, and the only village in her domain is filled with zombies.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Undead shadow fey faux-drow banshee?
- Non-Human Undead: Undead shadow fey faux-drow banshee!
- No-Sell: Only weapons with +1 enchantment or greater can harm her, and she's immune to sleep, hold, charm and the like.
- Our Banshees Are Louder: She can kill up to ten people with a single scream. Fortunately, she can only do it once a day.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: She's a banshee, who as mentioned can kill with her scream and frighten with her appearance. Her touch deforms her victims, and she's harder to turn than others of her kind. In addition she has the drow-like abilities to use the spell-like abilities dancing lights, faerie fire and darkness three times a day, albeit with greater range than a drow. As a former priestess, she can use the spell-like abilities clairvoyance, detect lie, suggestion, and dispel magic three times a day. Finally, she can use levitate, know alignment and detect magic at will.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The villagers who died thanks to Tristessa's sandstorm all perform the same daily routine they had the on day they died. As of 3.0, they're called the Scourged and have a breath weapon of burning sand, which can create more Scourged from dead victims. At the start of each dawn, the Scourged all emit a deafening scream. Scourged are also tougher, harder to turn, and have the same abilities and intellect they had in life. In spite of repeating the same actions every day, the Scourged are not mindless.
- Percussive Pickpocket: Since the village echoes a medieval city perfectly, you might actually run into one. A dead one. Maybe you should just let him/her do their thing and then get caught by a dead guard instead of interrupting.
- Proxy War: In her revised backstory, The Law of Arak forbade one shadow fey from harming another, so her Chruch of the Spider Queen and the court of Prince Loht fought their war using mortal pawns and slaves. Loht eventually broke the Law by killing her (and her baby) directly.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Although perishable items within the village are worn and obviously old, they aren't nearly as much as they should be, given that the village was wiped out a century and a half ago. Food, rope, leather and such haven't rotted completely away, and buildings are largely unharmed.
- Retcon:
- In the earliest editions she was a Drow (as were the other inhabitants of Arak), but she was changed to a Fae when Ravenloft was licensed out to White Wolf and it stuck.
- The village used to have both zombies and wights in it, but as of 3.0 seems to be inhabited by powered up zombies called The Scourged instead.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Banshees can sense life within five miles. Tristessa can sense any living thing in her domain, though she has to be within five miles of it for an exact location.
- Single Specimen Species: As of 3.0 the only Zelldrow (drow-like shadow fey) in Ravenloft, though there apparently were/are others in the Shadow Rift.
- Slow Transformation:
- In her revised backstory, three outlander drow came to the Arak (of, um, Arak) bringing the worship of Lolth with them and forming The Church of the Spider Queen among the shadow fey. Those who joined Lolth's cult slowly took on the appearance of drow, including Tristessa.
- With her touch, she can cause a limb to become deformed, crippling her opponent. In this case, once the subject leaves Keening, there's a slow transformation back to normal.
- Speak in Unison: Every dawn, the villagers return to the spots they were when the Scourge hit and let fly with an agonizing scream, which can deafen anyone too close, before going about their routine. Interestingly, this doesn't just include the native villagers present for the Scourge, but those killed in Keening and reanimated as well. During this time those few living people in the village head to the outskirts. Unwald Rottentail, on the other hand, is long-deaf and screams right along with his flock.
- Talking to the Dead: A peculiar toadstool within the shadow fey ruins of Mount Lament is the imago toadstool, which provides the eater with a vision of their parents (if they never knew their parents, this reveals their identity). If said parents are dead, the eater may ask three questions as with the speak with dead spell and get true answers.
- Undead Child: There's plenty in the village.
- Undying Loyalty: Guards still wait at their posts, but are willing to let travelers pass as long as they don't make any trouble (one even politely nods). However, there's a palace where nobles once lived full of guards who will defend the place to the "death".
- Weakened by the Light:
- In both her original backstory and her revised one she and her baby were staked to the ground of Arak at night and slowly killed by the rays of the sun. Their ashes became a mighty wind that started blowing, kicking up the sand into a storm that crossed Arak, killing every woman, child, and man in a village that happened to be nearby as well as all other life on the surface.
- It's more difficult for her to use her drow-like powers in bright light.
Viktra Mordenheim, Darklord of Lamordia
Viktra Mordenheim, Darklord of Lamordia
The brilliant mind
A brilliant doctor and scientist from the land of Lamordia, Viktra Mordenheim was obsessed with the idea of reanimating the dead. On one of her nightly excursions to gather raw materials for her experiments, she encountered the beautiful graverobber Elise, and the two carried on a whirlwind romance. Unfortunately, Elise fell sick soon afterward, and Mordenheim became obsessed with finding a cure for her illness, committing horrible atrocities to construct her magnum opus; The Unbreakable Heart. When Elise fell into a coma, Viktra took her to her lab and, without her consent, replaced hear real, beating heart with the one of metal. Just as the experiment was fulfilled, however, constables burst in to arrest Viktra, and, as Viktra struggled and Elise awakened on the operating table, the mists rose and claimed them both. Now, Viktra Mordenheim inhabits a realm that celebrates her genius, but her one true love and, more importantly, her magnum opus are forever beyond reach.
Viktra is the secondary protagonist in Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft - Orphan of Agony Isle, a comic following a young amnesiac girl who stays at Schloss Mordenheim after the good doctor saves her life.
- Abusive Parents: In the Orphan of Agony Isle comic, an amnesiac girl comes into Viktra's care. Viktra mostly neglects her, focusing on her work, and has several angry and occasionally violent outbursts whenever she disobeys orders even slightly or interrupts the doctor's work. Becomes even more apparent when it's revealed that Miranda is a sapient flesh golem, and effectively Viktra's daughter.
- Ambiguous Situation: Does Viktra really love Elise? Her writeup invokes
Alternate Character Interpretation on this. Obviously Viktra had some affection for her lover, but as soon as she was taken to Ravenloft, the writeup makes it clear that her motivation is first and foremost to retrieve the unbreakable heart. - Child Prodigy: Viktra became interested in the medical sciences as a child, and got her first doctorate as a teen.
- Create Your Own Villain: Well, political enemy at least. Viktra once "saved" the life of Lamordia's ruler, Rudolph von Aubrecker, by transforming him into a brain in a jar. Aubrecker is not at all happy about the situation, and would love to enact revenge.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: In Orphan of Agony Isle, Viktra revealing Miranda's origins to her is heavily framed like a parent giving their child The Talk, complete with grim twists on usual Stock Phrases.
- Expy: Of Viktor Frankenstein. Unlike him, Viktra is lesbian and actually a doctor.
- For Science!: Viktra became a doctor solely to have the chance to learn about the human body, she never had any intention of healing anyone more than strictly necesarry to keep her license.
- Gender Flip: From Victor Mordenheim in previous editions. Tropes referring to him can be found on the former darklords page.
- I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: Viktra is considered the greatest scientist Lamordia has ever known (which she is), and the domain's many universities would pay blood to have her teach. She is really only interested in her own experiments, however, and finds the constant attention annoying.
- Lack of Empathy: The term "consent" is apparently not in Viktra's vocabulary. Her character bond specifically states that she feels that those she experiments on are blessed, no matter what they feel about the situation, and she only became a doctor to satisfy her own curiosity. Even her love for Elise is suspect.
- Luke Iam Your Father: The twist in Orphan of Agony Isle is that Miranda is a sapient Flesh Golem, and the closest thing Viktra has to a daughter. Viktra even summarizes her creation in a way reminiscent of a parent giving their child The Talk.
- Mad Scientist: Why, of course. Viktra is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge above all things, and such pesky concerns as "ethics", "morals" and "the sanctity of human life" are beneath her.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: As befits any good Frankenstein expy. Viktra can explicitly create any construct or sapient undead, as well as transfer brains between bodies. In other words, she's a brain surgeon, roboticist, mechanic, medical doctor plus an expert in whatever they call the field focused on life force. Somewhat justified, as she does not know everything and many of her experiments and projects cannot work, but because of the Dark Powers, they work anyway.
- White Hair, Black Heart: She is depicted with white hair in the 5e artwork, though it's ambiguous if it's meant to represent age or if it's natural.
- Yandere: Whether her love for Elise is romantic or not is up in the air, or even if it's just a desire for her prize invention back, but whatever her desire is, it's twisted, toxic, and obsessive.
Laveeda, Leticia and Lorinda, the Three Hags, Darklords of Tepest
The Three Hags, Darklords of Tepest
All three were found on a doorstep. Had a penchant for murdering travelers for their valuables and... disposing of the bodies via cooking. Tried to seduce a gigolo to escape their farmstead, but he played them against each other and they killed him. The Mists then led them to their current domain in Ravenloft as hags. Having once been beautiful, their current state torments them, made worse by the fact they always see themselves and each other as they really are, no matter what shape they take.- Beauty to Beast: Their curse, to forever be aware of what they have become.
- Changeling Tale: Their pre-darklord backstory. Their mother asked the fairies for daughters, and found three infants on her doorstep. They were sickly babies, so she cared for them, their health improving as hers waned, until she died two years after finding them. Their father had never wanted daughters, and did his best to get rid of them, but they always came back until he gave up and let them stay... all of which might make someone suspicious as to just how human they originally were.
- Chaotic Evil: In-Universe — it's the official Character Alignment given in Laveeda and Leticia's profile writeups.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Though they'll settle for goblins in a pinch.
- Mage Species: They're hags, the Dungeons & Dragons take on this trope, which are an Always Female One-Gender Race of magically powerful beings who physically resemble the traditional hideously deformed elderly-looking Evil Witch.
- Same-Sex Triplets: Though they're each a different kind of hag; one annis, one green, and one sea.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: An inherent power of hags.
Lorinda, Darklord of Tepest
Mother of Viktal
In 5th edition, Lorinda has taken over as sole darklord of Tepest, imprisoning her sisters in a magical cauldron. She is desperate for a child to call her own, but her torment is such that, while she can create changelings for her adoring subjects, who all refer to her as Mother, she can never create one for herself, and her attempts all end up as man-eating monsters that die soon after their creation. Nevertheless, she tries and tries again to keep them alive, ordering the people to Tepest to hold festivals where a sacrifice is fed to her latest "child".- Affably Evil: She's the kind old grandmother whom the people of Tepest adore and refer to as their Mother. But she is also a hag who regularily sacrifices people to her "children."
- All Take and No Give: While Lorinda gives something, namely bountiful harvests and hexblood children, she is an immensely controlling and demanding person. Her children have to constantly show their adoration for her, and if someone disobeys her, she kills them.
- Cain and Abel: She's the Cain to her sisters, whom she betrayed and imprisoned.
- Changeling Tale: In addition to the backstory mentioned above which remains the same, very few babies are born in Tepest. Instead, parents-to-be appeal to Lorinda for a child, and she gives them a hexblood.
- Control Freak: Part of Lorinda's self-inflicted curse is her extremely controling nature, which causes her to destroy anything she feels is the slightest bit disobedient.
- Living Battery: Most of Lorinda's power comes from her sisters, whom she has imprisoned in a cauldron powering her walking fortress called the Gurgyl.
- Magical Barefooter: Her illustration depicts her without shoes.
- Neutral Evil: While not given alignment in 5e, previous editions had this as her In-Universe alignment.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Not only do all her "children" share the name Laoirse, but she has three dolls she calls Laoirse, Laveeda and Leticia, whom she also treats as her children. It's quite possible that she's just insane and thinks all the Laoirses are the same being.
- Replacement Goldfish: All of the monsters she creates to be her child is named Laoirse, and she treats them all like the same being even though they clearly aren't.
