Editing Ravenloft Campaign (section)

=About Ravenloft=
So here's what you need to know about the setting.  Your character won't know most of it at the beginning of the campaign, but much of the basics of the history and culture stuff we can assume they pick up pretty quickly once in the village.  The stuff about the Mists and the Dark Powers they may never learn, but it gives you the player some insight into what's going on so that things make sense.

==Real-Life History==
The original Ravenloft module was written sometime in the late 70's and early 80's by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Hickman Tracy Hickman], who submitted it to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSR%2C_Inc. TSR] as an example of his design while attempting to get a job there.    It was eventually published in 1983 and was extremely successful.  It inspired a sequel module in 1986 (Tracy Hickman's last module before he left TSR), a choose-your-own-adventure style book in the 80's and a boxed-set campaign setting in 1990.  TSR published three editions of the setting for AD&D 2nd Edition, and after TSR's acquisition by Wizards of the Coast, Ravenloft was licensed out to White Wolf, who published two editions for D&D 3rd Edition.  Then Wizard's ended the license, publishing another revision of the original module and are now once again publishing Ravenloft novels.

==Demiplane of Dread==
<div style="float:right;margin:15px">http://www.tabcreations.com/rpwiki/barovia.jpg</div>Ravenloft isn't really an entire world so much as it is a finite demiplane, adrift somewhere in the astral.  Occasionally, it will touch upon other worlds in a process known as a masque, drawing in others from those worlds within its confines.

===The Dark Powers===
Unknown to most, Ravenloft is reigned over by some entity or collection of entities referred to only as the Dark Powers.  The Powers are terrible and dark and beyond the ken of mere mortals.  Their motive, or purpose, or even why Ravenloft exists is unknown.  They reign distantly and serve in some way as jail wardens, keeping eternally trapped the domain lords.

===Domains===
Ravenloft is sliced up into a number of domains--regions of land, some as big a country and other as small as a single structure.  In some ways, each domain acts almost like its own plane.  Each domain is perpetually surrounded by gray mists, impeding travel and communication between the domains unreliable at best... often downright impossible.  Somewhere in each domain exists a domain lord--perhaps an actual ruling figure, perhaps not.  Each domain lord is eternally trapped in their own domain, unable to leave.  Each perpetually seeking something they are never going to attain.  The Dark Powers see to it that they never achieve what they seek and that they never give up hope.  The domain lords are without exception terrible people.  And in some ways, every domain is something like their own personal hell.

===The Mists===
Each domain floats somewhere, surrounded by the mists.  These supernatural fogs make travel through them difficult.  Sometimes journeys through the mists seem to last for others, other times they seem to last for weeks.  And it is never the same feeling twice.  Navigation is impossible; even normally reliable beasts soon become lost and disoriented.  Sometimes travelers walk for days only to wrap back around to where they began, or another part of the same domain.  Other times they someplace else terrible and totally unexpected.

===Effects on Magic===
Some magic works different in Ravenloft, particularly magic that makes use of the planes.  Ravenloft is not on the Prime Material, and it is hard to escape from.  Summoned beings are may remain when a summoning spell ends and spells that make use of the ethereal or astral may have strange effects.  Also of particular note is divine magic.  Where as before the divine caster might have felt the presence of their deity, once in Ravenloft they feel only an emptiness.  Spells cast to speak to their deity are answered by a strange presence.  But the spells still come.  Perhaps they're just granted by... something else...  Maybe even the Dark Powers themselves.

==Barovia==
<div style="float:right;margin:15px">http://www.tabcreations.com/rpwiki/barovia_village.jpg</div>'''Barovia (Village):''' Nonstandard NG 300gp limit; Assets 3430gp; Population 782; Human 100%.

Barovia is a remote village surrounded by the mists located in a valley overlooked by the fearsome Castle Ravenloft.  It has remained isolated for generations, the last townsfolk having left the village and traveled elsewhere some three generations ago.  Most people in the town make their living working on small farms in the surrounding land, but the village also possesses a number of bakers, butchers, cobblers and other folk.

===The Surrounding Lands===
Barovia is surrounded by a variety of fields mostly growing rye, cabbage, turnips, barley and cucumbers.  Surrounding the fields are the Svalich Woods--a dark and forbidding forest visited only by a few woodsmen, trappers and, of course, the Vistani.  Finally, making a complete ring around the lands of Barovia are the ever-present mists, cutting the region off from the outside world and disorienting would-be travelers.

===The Vistani===
The Vistani are people like gypsies are in stereotypes.  They are not part of the Barovia community and maintain their own camp somewhere out there in the Svalich Woods.  They're also the only people to have gone through the mists and entered or left the lands of Barovia within the last three generations--the means of which is a secret they guard greedily.  Otherwise, the Vistani are known for occasional trade and their ability to tell fortunates.  They are also feared for their ability to curse people who cross them.

===Castle Ravenloft===
Standing on a fortified peak overlooking Barovia is Castle Ravenloft, home to Barovia's current ruler Count Strahd von Zarovich.  The castle is solid stone, tall and foreboding.  No one who enters exists its grounds alive, safe for Strahn himself and his trusted allies.  All manner of rumors persist about what goes on there.  The von Zarovich lineage has ruled Barovia for generations upon generations, going back perhaps half a millennium.  Once the whole von Zarovich family resided in the castle, but one by one they died out.  Today it is just Strahd, called "the Devil Strahd" by the fearful inhabitants of Barovia.

===Culture===
The local culture in Barovia in many ways resembles traditional Eastern European culture.  People live clustered away in villages, each of which has a burgomaster.  People dress in drab colors, eat boiled foods and tend small gardens of cabbage and herbs.

===Religion===
The people of Barovia follow the cult of the Morninglord--a luminous sylvan entity whose face is smeared with blood.  The cult of the Morninglord was founded some 200 years ago in Barovia; the founder claimed that the Morninglord appeared to him as a boy and protected him from the dark menaces of the Barovian night.  Since that time the religion has become the sole one in the village.  It teaches that better times will come as long as people have hope.  It also teaches that the enemies of the Morninglord have the ability to offer mortals pacts for magic power, which results in the spread of sickness and corruption among humanity.  Any magic not of origin with the Morninglord is suspect.

===Views on Magic===
The people of Barovia are superstitious and distrustful regarding magic.  Not only does their religion speak poorly of most magics, but pretty much every instance of magic any of them have ever experienced in their lives--with the exception of a few church-related charms and blessings--has ultimately been harmful.  This has resulted in a strong distrust of magic-users, particularly of those whose magics are recognizably non-divine.  Known arcane casters and psionicists (which in the eyes of the people of Barovia is just another type of devil-magic) are looked at fearfully and not welcomed into many establishments.  Those who would flaunt their power or threaten with it, risk a good old-fashioned mob of villages with torches and pitchforks, looking to burn the warlock into ashes.  Divine casters aren't quite as suspect as their other magic-using counterparts, but may still be snubbed if their faith appears significantly different from that of the Morninglord.

Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, despite most magic being taboo, there is a significant trade in the village of magic items.  Most of these are of the good-luck charm or fertility charm variety.  And most aren't really magical.  Nevertheless, superstition runs strong and these are sought-after items.  There is even a small potion shop in town that does a decent business selling potions--some of which work as intended.  This is the one and only shop in town that deals in magic (not counting the village church, which offer a few low-level blessings and so on to members).

===Non-Human Races===
Non-human races are extremely rare around Barovia.  In fact, it's been several generations since anyone in Barovia has ever seen a member of a non-human race and some might mistake them for being a fairy tale.  Either way, the sudden presence of a non-human may make certain townsfolk uneasy, as no one knows what to expect from them.