The Realm of Dread

Ravenloft is a world unlike any other. It is a construct, an artificial pocket

realm endlessly prowling the trackless Ethereal Plane. The implacable Dark Powers
crafted their realm from the hidden fears of the innumerable worlds of the Material
Plane, and shape reality to reflect their sinister sensibilities.
This section introduces the core concepts of the Ravenloft setting

Genets of Terror
On the surface, the Realm of Dread seems much like any low-magic setting
found on the Material Plane. Spellcasters are rare, and common folk seldom witness
the supernatural, understanding it only through folklore (though that folklore is
frighteningly prevalent). However, few of Ravenloft's denizens know that the natural
laws of their world have been insidiously rewritten.

Good and evil

Spell effects that detect ethical alignment (alignment on the law—chaos axis)
perform normally, hut no magic can directly detect moral alignment (alignment on the
good—evil axis). By shielding evil, the Dark Powers force mortals to rely on their
own judgment. Al though some people in Ravenloft come to dismiss the concept of
absolute morality as an antiquated myth, Good and Evil remain vital and omnipresent,
locked in eternal struggle. Characters that preserve their innocence are subtly
protected from the forces of darkness, while those who commit evil acts risk falling to
these eldritch powers, their minds and bodies slowly warping to reflect their inner
corruption. People who wholly embrace the lures of evil may eventually find
themselves trapped in prisons of their own

Necromancy and the Undead

Forces that tap into the corrupting power of the Negative Energy Plane are
potent and perilous in Ravenloft. The vile undead —creatures trapped in a twisted
mockery of life — become more powerful and are often shielded from magic that
would reveal their true nature. Those who dare command the undead must take care,
for with increased power comes increased resistance to control.
Necromantic spells are similarly enhanced, but few forces carry greater risks
of tainting the caster's soul than those that disrupt the natural cycle of life and death or
deny the spirits of the dead their final reward.

Divination
The Realm of Dread does not easily surrender its mysteries. Divination is
untrustworthy in Ravenloft. Magic that would reveal a creature's true nature, portend
future events or reveal the desires of the deities often produces skewed results or even
fails entirely. Only the Vistani, a nomadic, gypsylike race, can reliably reveal the
future's secrets, and they only reveal such to others for their own mysterious reasons.

Travel
The Ravenloft Mists often cause travellers to lose their way, or they abandon
them in strange lands. Even magical forms of transportation must contend with the
Mists' misdirection. Only powerful magic can transport subjects from one domain to
another, and not even the most powerful of spells can grant escape from a closed
domain. (See Domains, below.) The Mists even restrict planar travel: unless the Mists
allow it, no force short of a major artefact or the direct intervention of a deity can
provide passage to other planes.

The near ethereal

Although characters in Ravenloft cannot readily travel to other planes, they
can reach the Ethereal. Even then, these travellers can access only the Near Ethereal
— the border between the Deep Ethereal and other planes — like waders on the
shores of a vast and bottomless ocean. Ravenloft's Near Ethereal is a realm of restless
spirits, its landscape shaped by the lingering passions of the living.

Domains

The Realm of Dread is composed of scores of small pocket "nations" not too
far removed from planes themselves, like the cells of a honeycomb or the cells of a
prison. Each of these artificially constructed countries, called domains, is the prison of
a singular evil entity: its darklord. A domain may stand alone, an "Island of Terror"
surrounded by the Mists of Ravenloft, or it may join seamlessly with other domains in
clusters to form a continuous landscape.
Every aspect of a domain, from its climate to the creatures that call it home, is
a subtle reflection of its darklord, offering painful reminders of the transgressions that
forged the darklord's doom. The size of a domain may range from a single room, to a
lonesome manor and its grounds, to an expansive dominion containing numerous
towns and a thriving culture. Some occult sages believe that a domain's size may be a
measure of the darklord's force of personality, his squandered potential, or even of the
tragedy of his tale. However, the Dark Powers may grant a less compelling darklord a
vast but sparsely populated domain, furthering his isolation, or they may trap a
powerful darklord in a smaller domain, concentrating his evil.

Domain Borders
In regions made up of more than one domain, the edges of a domain may be
recognized as political boundaries, or they may be indicated only by physical
landmarks— a brook, perhaps, or the edge of a forest. In some cases, however, a
traveller may have no way to tell that she has crossed into a new den of evil.
Even worse, that traveller may find escape impossible, even if freedom is just
a few paces away. Almost all darklord’s can close the borders of their domains at will;
if a darklord cannot close his domain, the cause often lies in the nature of the curse
that hinds him to the land. When a darklord closes his domain, immensely powerful
supernatural effects manifest at the borders to prevent passage. As an example, many
travellers in Ravenloft have heard tales of the poisonous vapors that sometimes
surround Barovia, choking anyone who attempts to leave. No mortal magic can
overcome the effects of a closed domain border, nor can a dice throw.

The Mists of Ravenloft

Thick fog blankets the melancholy moor of a Gothic tale, confounding
travellers and washing away the world. A film of vapor seeps along the headstones of
a graveyard, concealing hidden dangers. In Ravenloft, these Mists assume a life of
their own. The Ravenloft Mists act as the claws of the Dark Powers. Every child in
Ravenloft knows of the Misty Border, the churning walls of Mist that surround and
isolate domains and clusters.
 A traveller who enters the Misty Border hoping to reach another domain
quickly finds herself engulfed by a netherworld of obscuring white fog. Even the
ground beneath her feet fades away. Direction and distance become meaningless.
Unless a traveller uses a Mistway (a current in the flow of the Mists) or is escorted by
the Vistani or a powerful anchorite (a cleric of a goddess said to have merged with the
Mists), she has no control over where the Mists deposit her.
The Mists can even rob time of its meaning. Within the Misty Border, night
blends seamlessly into day, and no turning of the moon occurs. Legends are told of
travellers who emerged from the Mists weeks or years after — or even before — they
entered.
The Mists are not limited to the netherworld between domains. They can
appear anywhere and at any time in Ravenloft, boiling up from the earth to snatch up
creatures and place them where they will. Rumours also speak of more insidious
appearances by the Mists. Whispered tales tell of folk who wandered lost for days in a
small grove of trees, or of back alleys that became twisting labyrinths, or of a house
that contained more rooms than it physically could. People who encounter this
phenomenon are said to be "Mist-led." Opinions differ on whether the Mists disorient
these folk by fogging their senses or by imposing true, ephemeral changes to reality.
Regardless of how the Mists manifest, when they come, no force can stop
them.
The Mists appear as a bogeyman in countless legends. Ravenloft's folk blame
any had luck on the meddling of the Mists and often refer to the Misty Border as the
World's-End Mists or the Mists of Death. The Misty Border is the legendary home of
countless unfathomable horrors.
At the best guess of sages and scholars, the Mists are a manifestation of the
Near Ethereal, strands of the cobweb that hinds the Realm of Dread — but the Mists
are indistinguishable from normal banks of fog, even under magical scrutiny. The
Mists may also take other subtle forms. For example, in deserts they often appear as
clouds of dust or rippling waves of heat; in lands cloaked by winter, they may appear
as blinding snowstorms. Even the merest ripple in a calm sea may indicate a parting
— or closing — of the Mists.

Masques
Whether ordained by the Dark Powers or not, occasionally, some force from
Ravenloft reaches out to interact with and influence other worlds in ways different
from the norm. The Mists may project an aura of evil over a land not of Ravenloft,
stretch out a domain to overlap an existing world on the Material Plane or release an
entity to bring corruption to such a land. Such occurrences are known as Masques.
While extremely rare, a Masque can change any world it touches, altering the very
fabric of reality to conform to whatever differences the Mists bring and changing that
world's future forever.
The phenomenon received its name from the masques and the masked balls
popular among the nobility of some Ravenloft domains. Masques are theatrical
productions, often ones that feature convoluted plotlines that incorporate mistaken
identities, secret relationships, hidden treasures and dangerous tricks, magical or
otherwise. Occasionally, the supernatural forms a significant part of the story, with
family curses, strange birthrights, hidden agendas, long-lost inheritances and star-
crossed love affairs leading the way in popularity.
Masked balls also figure into the equation because of their nature — those
attending such entertainment wear masks, sometimes even elaborate costumes —
usually meant to delight, but also to confuse, trick or frighten the other attendees.
Though it's often the case that many of those attending recognize their friends and
neighbours, this isn't always so. One of the points of such masquerades is fooling
others and being unrecognizable to those who may see you every day in ordinary
clothing. The greatest benefit to a masked ball, however, lies in the ability of those
who have adopted successful disguises to engage in intrigue and seduction without
being unmasked.
These themes intertwine throughout the land wherever a Masque occurs.
Whatever a world's former culture and society, it alters to conform to the new pattern
laid over it by the Mists. Once a Masque takes effect, where there was nature, there
now exists the supernatural, magical knowledge changes to dangerous sorcery and
any power becomes sinister and suspect. The culture may essentially stay the same,
yet becomes oddly twisted, tainted by the touch of the Mists and usually left with
some great power to oversee its continued existence. Most people in such masked
worlds never realize that things were ever different. Their memories alter to fit the
changes wrought.
Yet, always there are some, a few who see through the deceptions, who
disbelieve the lies. Whether the patterning is flawed or incomplete in some way, a few
souls sense the truth. These brave people become heroes battling the terrible powers
left behind to rule to the Land of Mists, while the Masque of the Jade Dragon is
believed to have occurred in a strange, exotic land where mythic creatures of ancient
legend once ruled.
Masques provide ways to take Ravenloft into new dimensions, creating the
perfect vehicle for using the system in crossover games of all types. Theoretically, it's
possible to utilize Ravenloft and Masques to flavour any setting, from the most savage
to a high-tech horror chronicle set in outer space. While some skills, feats, weapons
and spells might need adjustments, the essence of the game —Gothic horror — would
still infuse the setting, bringing to it a style and character recognizable to fans of
Ravenloft. Characters used to their own worlds find new challenges and unexpected
developments as a Masque sweeps their world and changes everything they thought
they knew. Conversely, characters from Ravenloft may somehow obtain their escape
from the Land of Dread only to find themselves in unfamiliar territory where
everything is different but the threats and dangers remain dishearteningly familiar.
Even mixing two such groups could happen when the Mists creep stealthily across the
lands with the evils of Ravenloft drawn in their wake.

Darklord’s
Dark lords are the seed of evil at the heart of every domain, but few of Ravenloft's
denizens are aware they exist. Heroes have no infallible means of detecting who or
what is the darklord of any given domain. Some darklord’s control their domains
openly, acting as political rulers, while others skulk in the shadows, their very
existence a secret. Indeed, the very concept of a "darklord" isn't one that the average
citizen of Ravenloft is aware of.
Most domains are inhabited by a single darklord, though on rare occasions the Dark
Powers may grant a single domain to a small group of evildoers. These darklord’s are
usually linked both by blood ties and their crimes.
Mindless, slavering beasts do not become darklord’s. Mere evil is not enough to earn
a domain. Despite their corruption, darklord’s share the same motivations as countless
other folk: they hope for love, crave respect or even yearn for acceptance. Yet,
darklord’s are not poor, misunderstood souls damned through no fault of their own.
Their selfish natures pervert simple wants into obsessive lusts, and they earn their
domains through committing horrid crimes. Darklord’s are all the more monstrous for
the empathy one might feel for them, not in spite of it. Even when forced to face their
transgressions, most darklord’s remain obstinately blind to their own failings, lashing
out at the world for perceived wrongs.
A darklord is both the warden and the ultimate prisoner of his domain. A
darklord can trap others in his domain by closing the borders, but he can never leave.
Some of Ravenloft's darklord’s have spent centuries striving to escape from their
Mist-veiled prisons, to no avail. The curse that binds them to the land offers them
little rest; nor unlike Tantalus in the underworld, they are tormented by their greatest
desires.
Should a darklord be destroyed, his domain ceases to serve a purpose. If
another evil creature in the domain has earned damnation, the Dark Powers may
appoint it the domain's new darklord. Lacking an obvious ruler, a domain in a cluster
may be absorbed by its neighbours, expanding the prisons of other darklord’s. If
neither of these events occurs, the domain dissolves back into the Mists from whence
it came.

The Dark powers

The Dark Powers are the ultimate masters of the Realm of Dread, and its
ultimate mystery. They have created an entire world in their own image, but not even
the most powerful divinatory magic can unveil their true nature. Few of Ravenloft's
denizens are aware that the Dark Powers exist, blaming sinister events on the Mists or
their deities. Occult scholars who try to pry open the Dark Powers' secrets typically
end up pursuing the phantoms of their own minds.
What are the Dark Powers? Are they true entities or something more akin to an
elemental force? Mystics have proposed that they may be a banished pantheon of
deities, or strange and ancient foes of the deities, or even some dark aspect of the
divine subconscious. Some philosophers have even claimed that the Dark Powers do
not exist, that they are actually a sentient manifestation of human sin. None of these
theories is anything more than idle speculation, however.
Are the Dark Powers many or few? This book refers to them in the plural, but
this is a mere convenience. If the Dark Powers include multiple entities, do they act as
a unified whole, or are they fractious? Does the same force both punish and empower
evil, or are the Dark Powers locked in an internal struggle between light and
darkness?
This in turn leads to the greatest mystery surrounding the Dark Powers: are
they good or evil? Some sages point to the outlander darklord’s. The Dark Powers
have forever imprisoned these foul villains in realms of eternal perdition. The Dark
Powers never actively seduce the righteous into evil; they merely react to those who
have already succumbed to inner wickedness. The Dark Powers do not behave like
demons; they do not corrupt souls through malicious trickery. In this sense, the Dark
Powers are a force of austere justice, reserving their cruelty for the cruel.
Other sages, however, claim that the torment the Dark Powers inflict on
darklord’s merely drives those villains into an agonized frenzy, inflaming their
corruption. Perhaps the Dark Powers seek to raise an army of darkness to one night
unleash on the Material Plane. In this context, the Dark Powers are a sadistic engine
of suffering.
What of the innocents caught in the Dark Powers' clutches? What of the
villagers who fall prey to the horrors of the night, or the heroes who must do battle
with the forces of evil? Do the Dark Powers delight in watching the destruction of
innocence, or do they flaunt these pure souls in the faces of the darklord’s as
reminders of the path not taken?
Are the Dark Powers good or evil? Are they deities or monsters? What is the
ultimate goal of their grand and awful experiment? The truth may transcend mortal
comprehension.