Demiplane of Dread
The Demiplane of Dread is a unique Demiplane - or, perhaps more accurately, a series of interlinked demiplanes - within the Great Wheel cosmology of Dungeons & Dragons. This is the actual "world" in which the campaign setting of Ravenloft is based, and so the name is often used when trying to describe the "Ravenloft world".
The precise origins of the Demiplane of Dread are lost to history. Its creators are enigmatic beings known only as "The Dark Powers", who maintain and defend their creation with mighty magic and jealous zeal. It's believed they have some kind of mutual non-aggression pact with the various gods of the Great Wheel, but nothing canon is ever defined. It is believed to lie where the Ethereal Plane meets the Plane of Shadow, but is able to manifest portals absolutely everywhere, even in places normally restricted to planar portals, such as Athas or the Phlogiston. Such portals usually appear as banks of fog or mist, but will adapt themselves to other sight-obscuring phenomena - and are usually one-way. Getting in is easy, but getting out? Canonically you won't be able to leave unless the Dark Powers will it, short of using artifact-level items like the dreaded Rift Spanner which just so happens to be the kind of item that could turn you into a Darklord just from getting it to work properly.
Aaand then came 3.5 which opened a doorway into the World Serpent Inn, breaking the whole point of this prison plane. Here it's a failsafe for DMs when their parties reach their 16th birthday and are sick of Goth. Its doorway on the Demiplane's side of things changes every night.
Planar Traits
The Demiplane of Dread's creators have molded the reality of this world into a new fashion, forcibly imposing the rules of Gothic Horror on the setting. There are many ways that this molding manifests, but some of the more overt include the following:
- Necromancy spells are empowered and rendered more dangerous; spells like Animate Dead will call up more creatures than the caster may be able to control, whilst spells that instantly kill their victims usually cause such victims to arise spontaneously as the undead - and often as ones quite pissed off at their killer. Certain non-necromancy, non-instant-kill spells even have a chance of doing this, such as Disintegrate turning a completely disintegrated victim into an incorporeal undead! Using any necromancy spell provokes a powers check unless it's purely defensive, doesn't affect undead, and doesn't manipulate life force; that list of "safe" spells is quite narrow.
- Divination spells are pretty much worthless; spells that detect moral alignment invariably fail, spells aimed at detecting monstrous species either are unreliable (Detect Undead) or flatly won't work (using True Seeing to look for natural shapechangers), spells that revolve around mental contact risk driving you mad if you accidentally use them on certain inhuman creatures, and in general you can't trust the result of divination spells because the normal awareness of when such a spell has failed doesn't occur in the Demiplane of Dread. Oh, and Scrying type spells create a visible sensory apparatus that can alert your target that you're scrying on them, which can even serve as a conduit for things like gaze attacks. There's a practical reason for this; horrific things aren't quite as scary if you know their true nature too early, and so this element was put in to keep from having the DM tip their hands too soon and ruin the scare.
- Conjuration allows entities from other planes to be summoned, but they won't be able to return home when the spell expires. Obviously, quite a few of them will be very upset with their summoner because of this. Even before they figure this out, the binding aspects of conjuration spells are weaker in the Demiplane of Dread, giving summoned creatures a chance to escape its bonds the moment it arrives.
- Abjuration spells that banish creatures to another plane do not work. Rather, they appear to work but just toss the target somewhere else within the demiplane.
- Illusion spells that manipulate shadows are 20% more powerful, but the caster risks losing control of it when the spell ends, releasing a free-willed shadow.
- Spells that directly interfere with the fabric of a Domain, such as manipulating weather, can often attract the attention of the resident Darklord, and who might be able to subvert or negate these same spells if they have related powers.
- Teleportation spells are restricted; each domain is treated like its own separate plane of existence. High-level teleportation spells can overcome this if the border is not closed. Nothing can teleport out of a closed domain or the Demiplane entirely.
- Curses are empowered, and even non-spellcasters can potentially lay deadly or deforming curses on people if their rage or grief is intense enough to catch the notice of the Dark Powers.
- The Dark Powers are watching everybody and seem to enjoy turning people into monsters that reflect their own evil deeds. When a creature performs some evil act, which range from casting necromantic spells to premeditated murder, the Dark Powers might notice and start the process. The changes are subtle or even helpful at first, allowing the victim to more easily perform his evil acts, which lures the victim into more evil, gaining more attention and transformation, until he is completely transformed into a monster or even a darklord of his own domain.
- Intelligent undead, like vampires, can tell if their minds are being read and can choose which thoughts they will project. Depending on the circumstances, this may be a false image passing them off as human or an up-close look at the most evil parts of their minds meant to drive the would-be mind reader insane.
Mapping the Demiplane
Geo-physically, the Demiplane of Dread consists of various bubbles of reality, ranging in size from a single room to full-fledged countries, all floating in a sea of ephemeral mist; each of these reality bubbles (called "Domains") is typically centered around a Darklord, a villain whose evil caught the eyes of the Dark Powers and so they responded by imprisoning them within the Demiplane. 3rd edition's unpublished splatbook "Van Richten's Guide to the Mists" introduced the concept of Oubliettes, which are basically prototype or abandoned Domains that don't contain a Darklord. A Domain may exist on its own (an "Island of Terror") or be physically coterminous with one or more more other domains, forming what is called a "Cluster". The largest and oldest Cluster in the Demiplane is called "The Core", and this is basically Ground Zero for the setting.
Traveling between Domains is a little tricky to describe. If two Domains are coterminous, you can simply walk between them, as if they were normal lands. If you want to get to a Domain that isn't coterminous, then you have to just walk into the Mists and hope you'll end up where you want to go. Certain spots are known to have what are essentially portals that can link different Domains together, in that traveling from these spots (which may require unique triggers before they kick in) will usually end you up in a specific Domain; known as "Mistways", these portals can be either one way or two way, and vary in reliability (aka, how likely you are to end up at the intended destination instead of fuck-knows-where) from "guaranteed" to "you rolls the dice, you takes your chances".
Traveling between Domains is made more complicated by the fact that most Darklords have a power called "Closing the Borders," which causes the borders of their Domain to become enveloped in a barrier of some sort unique to that Darklord that prevents escape in some fashion - some are non-lethal, most will kill you if you try. A rare few can be circumvented by the right esoteric circumstances (for example, undead or constructs can safely walk through poisonous borders like that of Barovia, because they're fundamentally immune to poison), but in general this is the ultimate Railroading tool the DM has to keep you from just saying "fuck this" and leaving the domain.
Precisely why the Dark Powers collect these Darklords is unknown, and theories abound; the Demiplane of Dread has been described as a prison, a gathering place for evil, a grand study into the nature of evil, a unique kind of Hell, or even a Purgatory by various fans.
Another great mystery is the nature of its native population. Some Domains were physically taken from their homeworlds, but most are described as "copies" rather than direct abductions of land. This then leaves players wondering: are the locals actually "real", or are they merely soulless simulacra - props in the grand theater of Gothic Horror tales that the Dark Powers are conducting? Nothing concrete has ever been given. This isn't entirely consistent however, with other originals becoming ruins (Like Kalidnay) or vanishing entirely (like Har’Akir).
The Core
As mentioned above, this is the "core" of Ravenloft, the sole normal-style continent where the bulk of the game focuses on. Think of it as something akin to the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms, or Ansalon in Dragonlance. The Core is made up of the following Domains.
Barovia
- Cultural Level: Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Mountains
- Motif: Blatant Dracula Knockoff
- Darklord: Strahd von Zarovich
This is the oldest domain in Ravenloft, the literal heart of the Demiplane of Dread. It's ruled by Strahd, and is basically Dracula in D&D. It is also home to the titular Castle Ravenloft, Strahd's humble abode. This domain has been visited in literally every single edition of D&D after BECMI; even 4th edition, the only edition without an adaptation of I6 to its titles, has the adventure "Fair Barovia" in Dungeon Magazine #207, which has the party exploring Barovia and completing assorted side-quests.
Borca
- Cultural Level: Chivalric
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Mountains
- Motif: Poisoners, Italy under the Borgia Family
- Darklord: Ivana Boritsi
Originally, Borca was ruled by the Darklord Camille Boritsi, and was half its present size, sharing borders with the near-identical domain of Dorvini. Ivana poisoned her mother because her mom seduced her boyfriend, and during the Grand Conjunction, her domain and that of her cousin Ivan Dilisnya merged together due to their great similarities.
Darkon
- Cultural Level: Dark Age to Chivalric
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills, Plains, Mountains & Swamps
- Motif: Generic Dark Fantasy
- Darklord: Azalin
Darkon is notable as the most overtly fantastical realm in the Demiplane of Dread, with a relatively huge population of demihumans that sees humans going from the usual 90+% population merit to only 75% as well as the greatest amount of local toleration for arcane magic.
If one spends a month in the realm they lose their memories until they leave the domain, thinking they've always been from Darkon. Unfortunately, the new state from having lost memories convinces one to never leave unless forced to.
Dementlieu
- Cultural Level: Renaissance
- Landscape: Temperate Forests & Plains
- Motif: Renaissance France/Victorian England
- Darklord: Dominic D'Honaire
Though not as overtly modeled on London as the domain of Paridon, Dementlieu definitely taps into the Gothic Urban Horror motif, as is made clear by the way it is home to myriad mystical mind-manipulators and the character Alanik Ray, who is basically Sherlock Holmes if he was an elf. It's considered the "cultural heart" of the Core.
Falkovnia
- Cultural Level: Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate Forests & Plains
- Motif: Military Horror, Fascism, Urban Squalor
- Darklord: Vlad Drakov
Slap together Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, paint it up in the most shit-awful and miserable stereotypes of Dark Ages Europe, and have the place be run by a man who melds Hitler with Vlad the Impaler and is so bloodthirsty they'd both be disgusted by him. Falkovnia is outright called the biggest shithole in the Demiplane of Dread.
Forlorn
- Cultural Level: Iron Age
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Plains
- Motif: Dreary Scotland with a dash of Brak Man Morn
- Darklord: Tristen ApBlanc
A vaguely Scottish Celtic themed domain that nobody gives a shit about because there's nothing in it but killer plants, giant bugs, and goblyns. 3e tried to fix this by adding a small population of native humans, but the overall domain is still a monster-infested backwoods, so nobody fucking cares. As for its resident asshole, ApBlanc is a vampyre by day, and a ghost by night, proving once and for all that the Dark Powers do, indeed, have a sense of humor.
Hazlan
- Cultural Level: Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate Hills, Mountains & Plains
- Motif: Dark Fantasy meets Yellow Peril
- Darklord: Hazlik
Essentially a tiny sliver of Thay transplanted into the Demiplane of Dread, where a tiny minutia (the Mulan ethnicity) rules over and brutally represses a far vaster majority (the Rashemani). One of only two places so absolutely shit that The Lawgiver is actually worshipped here.
Invidia
- Cultural Level: Chivalric
- Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
- Motif: Lethally Impulsive Stupidity
- Darklord: Gabrielle Aderre
A land of passionate, hot-blooded and constantly feuding individuals, including mercenary armies, ogres, giants, and wolfweres. The Vistani are executed on sight here, and as such, its hunter-mercenaries are on the collective shit-list of both Strahd von Zerovich and Ivan Dilisnya.
Kartakass
- Cultural Level: Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
- Motif: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
- Darklord: Meistersinger Harkon Lukas
A rural backwoods inhabited by proud, cocky, music-loving foresters who are quite happy with the way things are, thank you. They are totally oblivious to the population of wolfweres hiding amongst them.
Keening
- Cultural Level: None (formerly Chivalric)
- Landscape: Temperate Mountains (Bleached of Life)
- Motif: Endless Grief
- Darklord: Tristessa the Banshee
A cursed and forsaken realm, with a population consisting solely of its mad, grief-stricken banshee darklord, her court of half-insane undead fey, and a village of skeletons that constantly mime out the actions of their last day.
Lamordia
- Cultural Level: Renaissance
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Plains
- Motif: Mad Science ala Frankenstein
- Darklord: Dr. Mordenheim & Adam
A stuffy, tempest-lashed domain that prides itself on its scientific acumen and its staunch rationalistic beliefs, totally denying the fantastical nature of the world around them.
Markovia
- Cultural Level: Stone Age
- Landscape: Warm Forests, Hills & Mountains
- Motif: The Island of Dr. Moreau
- Darklord: Dr. Markov
It's literally just the Island of Dr Moreau in D&D. That's it. They even moved it from being part of the core to out in the ocean, but it's still a lazy shitshow of a domain.
Mordent
- Cultural Level: Renaissance
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Plains & Swamps
- Motif: Ghost-Haunted Rural Britain/Scotland
- Darklord: Lord Wilfred Godefroy
It's basically the setting for every ghost-related Gothic Horror novel ever written. High concentration of both incorporeal undead and mist creatures in a land dotted by small villages sheltering the living. Is also full of ancient ruined manors, decaying coats of arms and dying or dead noble families, furthering that neo-Britain impression by casting it as the decaying remnants of a once-mighty civilization. The false history implies they share a mutual background with Borca, perhaps having originated from the same nameless fantasy world.
Necropolis
- Cultural Level: Iron Age
- Landscape: Temperate Settled Area
- Motif: City of the Dead
- Darklord: Death
Once a bustling metropolis in Darkon called Il Aluk, the place was destroyed and turned into a city of sapient undead creatures protected behind a mystical veil that kills and reanimates any living humanoids that enter. This was caused by Azalin achieving an epic-level fuck up with his magic. Generally considered the worst domain in the Core because you can't go in there without being transformed into an undead, which in AD&D came with associated rules that, in the grand tradition of Ravenloft, utterly fucked you over pretty much from the get-go. Its Darklord, "Death", is an uber-powerful ghost with hyper-lethal abilities that was created from a clone of Azalin and which has gone absolutely insane, believing itself to be the literal spirit of death.
The Nocturnal Sea
- Cultural Level: Varies between islands
- Landscape: Temperate Aquatic (sea); Temperate Forests, Hills, Plains & Swamps (islands)
- Motif: Savagery of the Sea
- Darklord: See Below
The Western Sea of the Core is technically a cluster onto itself, with different islands being the lairs of different darklords. The closest thing to an overall Darklord here is Meredoth, an epic-level Necromancer from Glantri in Mystara. Lesser darklords who only rule over a single island consist of the Lady of Ravens (an insane sorceress from a Gormenghastian family), Captain Alain Monette (werebat who haunts one of the only lighthouses in the Nocturnal Sea), Baron Evensong (arrogant, elitist bard, eventually downgraded to one of several demilords in the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer project), and the fanmade Captain Anton Dusard (ghost pirate) and Xanthos Kastigir (Krynnish Half-Elf (Aquatic Elf) turned Sea Wolf.
Nova Vaasa
- Cultural Level: Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Plains
- Motif: Russia under Peter the Great
- Darklord: Sir Tristen Hiregaard/Malken
A horse-filled steppeland dominated by sweeping grassy plains and crushing urban poverty and squalor, presided over by a mixture of corrupt aristocrats and Lawful Good types who view "law" as more important than "good". This is the other domain shitty enough to have The Lawgiver as the state religion, and is such a hellhole that Barovians look down on its people as backward hicks.
Richemulot
- Cultural Level: Chivalric
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Plains
- Motif: Wererat Land
- Darklord: Jacqueline Renier
A pseudo-French domain distinguished mostly by being the largest breeding ground of wererats in the entire demiplane. The name is literally French for "Rich Mouse", which pretty much gives the game away from the start if you know the language..
The Sea of Sorrows
- Cultural Level: Varies between islands
- Landscape: Temperate Aquatic (sea); Temperate Forests, Hills, & Plains (islands)
- Motif: Savagery of the Sea
- Darklord: See Below
This is the Eastern Sea of the Core, and thusly it's the same deal as its western counterpart; more of a cluster scattered across an ocean than one singular domain. The most powerful Darklord and the unofficial Darklord of the Sea (meaning he can travel wherever he likes in it) is Captain Pieter van Riese, a ghost pirate based on the Flying Dutchman. Other Darklords of singular islands include Bluebeard (literally the character from the story of the same name), Dr. Daclaud Heinfroth (mad psychiatrist turned cerebro-spinal fluid-drinking vampire), Marquis Stezen d'Polarno (an expy of Dorian Gray), Althea (tormented medusa who wants a baby), the Barons of Gustavan (the ghost of the old baron and his equally cruel but still living son), Dr. Blake Ramsay (insane physician who murdered his wife and sons to use their organs to revive his daughter as a Flesh Golem), Elizabeth Michelle Cole III (vampiress) and Lord Willem Ducas (deranged cannibal). Most of these darklords were added (or at least expanded upon) in netbook material. This is also where Markovia was moved after 2nd edition.
The Shadow Rift
- Cultural Level: Unknowable
- Landscape: Eternally Dark Mysical
- Motif: Dark Faerie Tales
- Darklord: Gwydion the Shadow Fiend
This is the homeland of the Shadow Fey, and as such no mortals know anything about the place. The court is found at the bottom of a chasm filled with mist, protecting it from the sun, as well as erasing anything stupid enough to try penetrating so deeply into said-mist. In classic Faerie fashion, time works differently here, with a fortnight outside equaling a year inside.
Sithicus
The only domain in the Core that has a demihuman majority population, this was formerly the domain of Lord Soth, and is thus loosely based on the Dragonlance setting. May or may not contain vampire kender.
Tepest
- Cultural Level: Early Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
- Motif: Grim Faerie Tales Europe meets Salem Witch Trials
- Darklord: The Sisters Mindefisk
Hands down one of the most primitive and worthless backwaters in the Core, Tepest's trio of hag darklords are practically non-entities in their own land, with the focus instead being on how the ignorant superstitious peasantry are falling increasingly under the sway of a self-righteous inquisition of self-proclaimed fey-hunters and witch-burners. The sisters do fan the flames of said-group so they can harvest the bodies of anyone condemned, but mostly stick to hiding in their cottage.
Valachan
- Cultural Level: Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
- Motif: African Savages
- Darklord: Baron Urik von Kharkov
A rugged wilderness inhabited by dusky-skinned foresters who take pride in their absolute ignorance when it comes to book-learning or anything not related to the practicalities of forest-work, to the point they even look down upon their own priests. Befittingly, this leaves them too ignorant to realize they are being eaten alive by a hidden population of nosferatu and werepanthers.
Vechor
- Cultural Level: Classical
- Landscape: Warm Forests, Hills & Swamps
- Motif: Insanity Made Real
- Darklord: Easan the Mad
A vaguely India-esque domain ruled over by an insane elf wizard who has the power to reshape the surroundings based on his current mad whim.
Verbrek
- Cultural Level: Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Swamps
- Motif: Werewolf Country
- Darklord: Alfred Timothy
The obligatory werewolf domain, to contrast the Dracula and Frankenstein ones. Everybody here knows the wilderness (as embodied by the werewolves) is at their door, and live accordingly.
The Clusters
The Amber Wastes
- Motif: Dark Fantasy Egypt
It's Gothic Horror Egypt in D&D. What more is there to say? Its constituent domains are Har'Akir, Sebua, and Pharazia.
Har'Akir is a tiny little village of Egyptian peasants who live next to a tomb housing the darklord Ankhtepot, a pharaoh who blasphemed against the gods and was condemned to both eternity as a mummy and to be trapped in obscurity with only a single village of humble peasants to "lord over".
Sebua consists of an abandoned Egyptian manor next to an oasis haunted by both a tribe of feral children, who inhabit the nearby ruins of a fallen city, and the darklord Tiyet, a unique female mummy who appears as a gorgeous woman... save for her insatiable hunger for human hearts.
Pharazia is a pseudo-Arabian city-state ruled over by its darklord Diamabel; a moralistic fanatic who led a campaign of genocidal terror in life, when felled by an arrow he arose as the shining angel he always wanted to become... only to find he transformed into a hideous undead version of himself at night.
The Burning Peaks
- Motif: Dark Fantasy
A two-domain cluster made up of Cavitus, the realm of Vecna, and Tovag, the realm of Kas.
The Frozen Reaches
- Motif: Dark Fantasy Russia
It's basically the frozen wintery hell that everybody imagines that Russia is transplanted into D&D. Its constituent domains are Sanguinia and Vorostokov,
Sanguina is an Early Medieval Russian kingdom ruled over by Prince Ladislav Mircea, a self-centered alchemist who accidentally transformed himself into a mutant vampire, possibly a Vrykolaka, that feeds on the Four Humours (blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile) in an effort to save himself from a deadly plague.
Vorostokov is a frigid Dark Ages wasteland of villages and forests trapped in a perpetual winter, ruled over by the Loup du Noir Boyar Gregor Zolnik.
The Shadowlands
- Motif: Medieval Dark Fantasy
Intimately tied to a single world, the Shadowlands are made up of three domains that all tie to one long story of corruption; Avonleigh, Nidala, and Shadowborn Manor.
Avonleigh is a monster-haunted forest ruled over by the darklord Morgoroth the Black, a planeswalker wizard who traveled to the homeland of the three domains and ended up destroying the not!Arthurian court there through accident. He is now trapped as a ephemeral shade unless the enchanted mirror that trapped him in this state is reassembled in his former mansion home.
Shadowborn Manor is a manor other than Morgoroth's that is the resting place of Ebonbane, a raging fiend trapped in a sword, which is itself trapped in a crystal sarcophagus. Ebonbane is so dangerous that Morgoroth actually uses his magic to assist in keeping the damn thing locked up.
Nidala is the only actually populated domain, and is ruled over by the self-righteous fanatical fallen paladin Elena Faith-Hold.
The Verduous Lands
- Motif: Tropical Dark Fantasy
The hot and humid hellholes, full of deadly predators and equally deadly plants. For some reason the moon is never seen here. Composed of the domains of Saragoss, Sri Raji, and The Wildlands. Sri Raji is fleshed out in Islands of Terror down below. Saragoss is an oceanic domain; a vast entangling sargassum patch full of wrecked ships crawling with ghouls and cannibal pirates above and sahuagin and sharks below, with a self-loathing wereshark pirate and cleric of Umberlee for a darklord. The Wildlands are basically grimdark Jungle Book; a tropical jungle full of asshole talking animals ruled over by the monstrous King Crocodile.
Zherisia
- Motif: Urban Dark Fantasy
Differentiating itself from other clusters, Zherisia is composed of the city domain of Paridon and Timor, a former Island of Terror now transformed into the sewers underneath Paridon.
Paridon is a sprawling London-esque city infested with a uniquely powerful strain of doppelgangers, whose darklord is a many-cursed psychotic doppelganger named Sodo.
Zherisia is a dripping hive of tunnels infested by xenomorph expies called Marikith.
The Islands of Terror
Bluetspur
- Cultural Level: Dark Age
- Landscape: Temperate hills, plains, and mountains
- Motif: Yog-Sothothery
- Darklord: The Illithid God-Brain
Meaning "Blood Trail" in German, it's a desolate wasteland with nightly, violent electrical storms on the surface. Beneath the surface lie the maddening and sprawling cities of illithids and their tortured and experimented slaves.
G'Henna
Here a starving population works the fields to produce food to be sacrificed for the god Zhakata. Unfortunately the god doesn't exist and priests of the god eat the offerings, while the farmers starve themselves waiting for a god that will never come.
I'Cath
- Cultural Level: Classical
- Landscape: Temperate Forest
- Motif: Chinese Ghost Stories
- Darklord: Tsien Chiang
A tiny Island of Terror inhabited only by its Darklord and her four daughters - the three evil daughters Hate, Spite and Scream, all of whom are variant Con-tinh (evil spirit women), and the benevolent, tormented good daughter Nightingale. Her domain is similar to Forlorn in that it's basically a glorified dungeon, with literally nothing to do except show up and defeat the Darklord or die trying, except it's Chinese, not Scottish. Tsien Chiang is a misandrist necromancer from Kara-tur, based on an incredibly minor character from the Forgotten Realms lore. She can also transform into an evil Treant.
Kalidnay
The city and lands surrounding Kalidnay in Athas, which are nothing but ruins within Dark Sun's setting proper. Its inhabitants actually prefer the Demiplane of Dread to actually living in Athas. Just let that sink in.
Odiare
- Cultural Level: Medieval
- Landscape: Temperate settled area
- Motif: Twisted Pinocchio
- Darklord: Maligno
Island from Gothic Earth's Italy, populated by children and the carrionettes who killed the adults that used to live here. Naturally, all the kiddos are quite concerned about what'll happen when they're old enough to be labeled an adult.
Rokushima Táiyoo
- Cultural Level: Dark Ages
- Landscape: Archipelago with forests, hills, and mountains
- Motif: Dark Fantasy Japan
- Darklord: Haki Shinpi
Four islands surrounded by a poisonous salt water ocean. Each island's ruler hates the others, whilst the Darklord (their father) is forced to watch as they tear apart his dreams of unity and peace. It's also the home of the Akikage (ghost ninjas), Hebi-no-Onnas (snake women), and Kizoku (vampiric womanizers). Despite a Dark Ages cultural level, it's interested in the gunpowder weapons of Dementlieu and Darkon. Fun fact: the Anesthesia spell is popular here, as its use allows the dying to face death with a clear mind, and thus die with honor.
Strangely, the capitals of the four warring brothers have the Japanese names of various real world countries: Beikoku (米国, United States of America), Eikoku (英国, England), Chuugoka (corruption of 中国, China), and Roshiya (Literally just Russia said funny). As long as it sounds Japanese! Sadly, that's more than can be said for the Dark Lord's name...
Sri Raji
- Cultural Level: Classical
- Landscape: Rain forests, hills, and mountains
- Motif: Dark Fantasy India / Sri Lanka
- Darklord: Maharaja Arijani
Formerly an Island of Terror, Sri Raji is a domain in the Verduous Lands cluster ruled by the Rakshasa Maharaja Arijani. The Verduous Lands cluster does not have a moon with potentially interesting consequences for lycanthropes having some part of the lunar cycle as their trigger condition. Equally, there should be no tides. Most of the human inhabitants of Sri Raji congregate in three cities, each located surprisingly close to the domain border. A fourth city, Mahakala, is less populated and commonly referred to as "accursed". It's basically Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but with more rakshasas, beastfolk and giant insects.
The Winding Road
- Cultural Level: Nonexistent
- Landscape: Random road
- Motif: Random Encounter
- Darklord: The Headless Horseman
Hands down one of the worst Domains in classical Ravenloft, the Winding Road is a glorified random encounter in which the party is suddenly attacked by the Headless Horseman, a powerful undead warrior mounted on horseback. Who is he? Well, there's three stories about where he came from. The first one is that he was an innocent man executed by Drakov's men. The second one is that he was a man who chopped off his own head rather than be killed by one of Strahd's men. And the third is that he was a bard who failed to entertain Ivana Boritsi as she bathed, so she chopped off his head and mixed his blood into her bathwater. If you think that none of those sound like a Darklord's backstory, you're not wrong. Oh, and you also have to fight the undead severed heads that precede and then follow the Horseman's run-by attack, which includes several medusa heads.
Cyre?
In Eberron, the nation of Cyre was destroyed in the Day of Mourning, leaving only the Mournland behind. That Cyre became a Demiplane of Dread is perhaps the most common theory on the origin of the Mournland within the fandom, as it checks all the boxes for explanations.
- The Mournland stops at Cyre’s artificial, political, borders and thus had to be caused by some intelligent actor. The Dark Powers certainly count. It also explains why it stops so exactly at the water that the docks were left behind.
- The Mournland’s border is a wall of “dead-gray mist”. The link is obvious. In 4th Edition, this dead-gray mist supernaturally drains people of hope.
- The Forge of War states that Dannel ir'Wynarn insistence that the crown of Galifar belonged to her was the only thing keeping the Last War going, making her prime Darklord material.
- Dark Sun material describes Kalidnay as having been destroyed by "unknown disaster" that left it only "a jumble of ruins". The ruins in the Mournland are described being "moved", "rearranged", "turned 90 degrees", or "found miles from where war-era maps say they should be", which certainly can be described as a "jumble". The one adventure that travels to the ruined city (DSM2) mentions several structures remain intact, and many appear to be ruins purely because they're centuries old, which fits the multiple Mournland adventures with surviving structures, and several people seem to have died suddenly in a way that their body was intact. (While some of the Mournland's signature features are absent, all outside descriptions of Kalidnay are centuries after the fact while all descriptions of the Mournland are 0-4 years after its creation.)
None of this will ever be confirmed, and it’s unlikely to be anti-confirmed, as the truth of the Mourning is one of Eberron’s mysteries that exist to have no answer but what the Dungeon Master gives them. The setting's creator has however concurred it's a good option if one wanted some bit of Eberron in Ravenloft.
The theory received a bit of a nod in 5th edition with the reveal of a new Domain of Dread that is a fragment of Cyre that was taken by the mists on the Day of Mourning.
4th Edition: Islands of Terror
In the World Axis, the idea of the Demiplane of Dread being its own independent universe was basically dropped. The idea, however, remained in the form of the Domains of Dread; regions in the Shadowfell created in response to great evils in the Material World, essentially mimicking the Islands of Terror format of the Demiplane, but with one major difference: these Domains are still part of the Shadowfell as a whole. As a result, if you can find the rite or secret or whatever it is that grants you passage, then you can flee the Domain through its misty veil and into the wider Shadowfell... which isn't necessarily that much of an improvement, but hey.
The idea of the Core is complete absent in 4th edition. Perhaps, if Ravenloft had been revived in this setting, the Core would have instead become more of a cursed but otherwise normal world, similar to and yet separate from the Domains of Dread seen in the Shadowfell. We'll never know.
The 4e Domains of Dread consist of the following:
Sunderheart
- Cultural Level: Classical
- Landscape: Half-ruined city on a cliff's edge at the edge of a swampy river dela
- Motif: Diabolist Grand Guignol
- Darklord: Ivania Dreygu and Vorno "The Ghoul" Kahnebor
Originally the Bael Turath city of Harrack Unarth, Sunderheart's doom came when it came under the control of the lovers Ivania Dreygu and Vorno Kahnebor, the Nentir Vale version of Romeo and Juliet... if Romeo and Juliet were debauched hedonistic tieflings who engaged in rape, murder and cannibalism and who massacred their entire families so they could be together. Eventually, Vorno became so vile that even Ivania grew sick of him, so she murdered him by feeding him a servant girl whom she had fed with a deadly poison. Then she woke up in Sunderheart with her ghoulified undead lover fused to her back like a monstrous parasitic twin. Now she rules by day over the half of the city still inhabited by the living, and Vorno the Ghoul rules over the undead-haunted ruins at night.
Graefmotte
- Cultural Level: Classical
- Landscape: Dense Pine Forest, Mountains
- Motif: Starvation
- Darklord: Lord Durven Graef
When the Yeenoghu-worshipping hordes of the White Ruin threatened the empire of Nerath in the Nentir Vale, Lord Graef was the ruler of a minor frontier province who had already lost two of his three children. Desperate to preserve his family legacy, he was determined that his final son, Geoffery Graef, would not answer King Elidyr's call to take up arms against the horde. When his son disagreed, they fought, and Lord Graef accidentally killed his son by causing him to fall and fatally strike his head. Which was when the gnoll warbands fell upon Graefmotte. Lord Graef led the fighting over the night, and was near-mortally wounded; disemboweled and with an arm bitten off, nobody expected him to cling to life for a day and a night... never mind for his wounds to fully heal. Ever since then, Graefmotte has been a land cursed, where its people face a slow, withering death by starvation, or a quick, bloody one at the jaws of the maddened gnolls and starvation-spawned ghouls that haunt the ever-shifting forest.
Monadhan
- Cultural Level: Classical
- Landscape: Tropical Rainforest
- Motif: Treachery
- Darklord: Arantor
During the war between Bael Turath and Arkhosia, the Silver Dragon Arantor and his daughter mrissa were called upon to destroy a remote Turathi military outpost, almost hidden within thick tropical rainforest, whose isolation and surroundings made it virtually unreachable by ground-based forces. But after they hit their target, they realized that their intel had been faulty; this was no military camp, it was a refugee center for Turathi civilians! Father and daughter quarreled over what to do, with Imrissa wanting to return to Arkhosia and take responsibility for their crimes, whilst the glory-hound Arantor insisted they conceal it and protect their reputations. The argument grew so heated that Arantor slew his daughter, and then, stricken by guilt, he massacred the survivors of his first attack before becoming a plague upon the Turathi until his death. Which was when he awoke as a dracolich in a cavern deep below a twisted reflection of Monadhan, which has now become a gathering point for traitors. The greater the betrayal, and the more pathetic the reason, the more likely the perpetrator is to find a place within Monadhan - whether by being swallowed by the Mists, or by awakening there alive and whole after dying for their misdeeds. As a result, Monadhan is now an oubliette for treacherous scum from across time and space.
The Endless Road
- Cultural Level: Classical
- Landscape: An endless road winding through forests, hills and plains
- Motif: You can't escape your sins
- Darklord: Eli van Hassen
The tiny little roadside town of Tranquility was a peaceful place, until the day a four-headed hydra lurched from the fens and began plaguing the people. When a wandering adventurer known only as "The Horseman" arrived and slew the beast, the people celebrated. But the town's ruler, Eli van Hassen, a man forever plagued by resentment and inferiority over his provincial abode, resented the hero's fame. He forced his daughter to slander the man, accusing him of rape, and whipped the people of Tranquility into a frenzied mob who executed their savior despite his former protests. Now Eli and his daughter inhabit a fortified mansion that sits on the side of a great road, which stretches on to infinity; unless the Road decides to let you go, which it can do to anywhere in the Multiverse, you can walk forever and never leave. Of course, that risks attack by the undead remains of the Headless Horseman, who wants revenge on the van Hassens, but will happily settle for anyone else he can get his hands on.
Timbergorge
- Cultural Level: Iron Age
- Landscape: Dense confider forest
- Motif: Nature's Savagery
- Darklord: Silvermaw
When a naive treant allowed humans to settle in the planeshifting forest that was an archfey's garden under his care, he was horrified when they began to create a fire to keep them warm as they slept. But when he attacked in an effort to quench the flames, he burned himself and then set the forest ablaze, leaving it to burn as he focused on slaying the human interlopers. For this, his master cut the garden away and banished it to the Shadowfell. Here, the tribal humans have become a pack of werewolves, endlessly hunting and being hunted by the mad, wounded treant, who has coated his mouth with molten silver so that he may better rend and bite his foes; hence his name "Silvermaw".
5th Edition: The Alternate Continuity
In February 2021, it was announced across the internet that the Demiplane of Dread would at last make an official return as a D&D setting for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition in the form of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. But it also openly announced that the 30 domains of dread that would be debuting in the book would include a mixture of brand new domains, classic domains, and revamped/reimagined takes on old domains - something that immediately began raising hackles amongst the Ravenloft fandom, who tend towards the grognardier side of the fence. Why did they do this? Was it because the last version of Ravenloft-as-setting was done by White Wolf and there were legal entanglements preventing Wizards of the Coast from reusing their inventions? Was it because a lot of Ravenloft classic lore was actually kind of stupid and in desperate need of revamping? Was it because of SJWs? (probably a little, but it doesn't mean they're wrong) Some combination thereof? The world may never know.
Either way, the 5e version of the Demiplane of Dread thusly has its own unique take on the different Domains, which this section will try to break down for comparison's sake.
Falkovnia: Drops the "Military Horror (Plus: Fascism Sucks!)" motif of its classical counterpart and goes with a Zombie Apocalypse motif instead. Also, Vlad Drakov has been replaced with a female Darklord called Vladeska Drakov instead.
Dementlieu: Aside from replacing the original Darklord, Dominic D'Honaire, with a woman named Saidra D'Honaire, the feel of the domain has changed from the Gothic Paris/London setting with its subtle mind-controlling horrors to a "Dark Fairy Tale" themed domain, with an emphasis on surreal magic and deadly masquerades. Y'know, because we didn't already have Tepest and the Shadow Rift.
Lamordia: Both the Baron Frankenstein and his Monster have gotten a gender-swap; now it's the realm of Dr. Viktra Mordenheim and her "Daughter" Elise. But Viktra is finally the official Darklord, so at least they finally got that right.
Valachan: The werepanther/nosferatu Blackula-expy Baron Urik von Kharkov has been replaced by Akuna, a cannibal huntress who stalks the now-rainforest environment with a pack of trained Displacer Beasts hunting intruders.
Kalakeri (or possibly Kalakiri): A wartorn India-based rainforest domain divided between three competing Darklords; Ramya, Arijani, and Reeva. Replaces Sri Raji. Was actually written by an ethnic Indian who lived in India before coming to America, something WotC has been quick to boast about.
- Barovia - Ruled by Strahd, of course.
- Bluetspur - Obscure domain restored to prominence, still ruled by the illithid God-Brain.
- Borca - Still shared between Ivana Boritsi and Ivan Dilisnya.
- The Carnival - Still ruled over by Isolde, but also shared by somebody called "Nepenthe".
- Darkon - Azalin has mysteriously disappeared so now his domain is currently ruled by someone or something called "The Inheritors".
- Dementlieu - New Darklord in Saidra d'Honaire.
- Falkovnia - New Darklord in Vladeska Drakov.
- Har'Akir - Still ruled by Ankhtepot.
- Hazlan - Hazlik is still in charge.
- I'Cath - A surprise return, considering it was widely regarded as one of the worst Domains of Old School Ravenloft. Speculated to have usurped Rokushima Taiyoo as the official Oriental Adventures domain.
- Kalakeri - New domain ruled by Ramya Vasavadan.
- Kartakass - Still ruled by Harkon Lukas.
- Lamordia - Now ruled by Viktra Mordenheim.
- Mordent - Still ruled by Lord Wilfred Godefroy.
- Richemulot - Still ruled by Jacqueline Renier.
- Tepest - Now ruled by "Mother Lorinda".
- Valachan - Now ruled by somebody called "Chakuna".
- Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail - The first ever Eberron Domain of Dread. On the day that Cyre was destroyed by the Mourning, a train was about to carry a bunch of refugees who saw the disaster coming out of Cyre, but the train's departure was delayed by some unknown VIP who threw a bunch of the train's passengers out to make room for himself and his retinue, and so the train departed too late. The train was taken into the mists when the Mourning hit where it became a mobile domain constantly running from the Mourning which the passengers think is still chasing them. The passengers still haven't noticed that the Mourning already killed them.
- Forlorn
- Ghastria
- G'henna
- Invidia
- Keening
- Klorr - New domain.
- Markovia
- The Nightmare Lands
- Niranjan - New domain.
- Nova Vaasa
- Odaire
- The Rider's Bridge - New domain, or possibly another reinvention of the Headless Horseman?
- Risibilos - A fairly obscure old domain revived (from Book of Crypts).
- Scaena - An old Island of Terror domain.
- Sea of Sorrows
- The Shadowlands
- Souragne
- Staunton Bluffs - Possibly new, more likely an obscure old domain.
- Tovag
- Vhage Agency - New domain.
- Zherisia