History Characters / RavenloftOtherDarklords

* TheGildedAge: A clear inspiration for Nosos, where the rich live a luxurious lifestyle of parties and ConspicuousConsumption, while the downtrodden poor toil away in dangerous mines and pollution-spewing factories.

* DependingOnTheAuthor: The original God-Brain was basically never elaborated on, except that it was apparently quite smug. Subsequent writers, both fans and official, took it in wildly different directions, but almost all of them chose to make it hopelessly insane rather than smug. (It's worth noting that some writers of the time were losing the plot on the idea that Darklords should be miserable rather than overpowered and gleefully evil.)

* Eldritch Location: Most buildings in her domain. Each of her daughters' four towers are built from "the broken promises of men", described as looking like a web-like resin substance. Other trappings are described with equally flowery metaphors. But for all that, from a playability perspective, the domain is remarkably ''boring''. The whole of it is less than an acre, made up only of those four small eerie towers and a ruined courtyard, with no signs of life.

In 5e it is brought back in ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'', with a [[RetCon greatly revised]] backstory. Now, the keep was the site of a conflict between the conquering warlord Dalk Dranzorg and the knight Mara Silvra. After months of grueling travel to her ancestral home to retake it, she accepted a DealWithTheDevil to guaruntee that her forces would ''reach'' it - at the cost of never being able to leave. [[JackassGenie Dalk's forces captured her immediately afterwards]]. After the warlord announced his intention to entomb Mara and her underlings in the castle walls but spare those who agreed to spread the tale of her defeat, Mara turned the tables and slew him with her bare hands, then subjected the traitors to the entombment - along with the local nobles who had refused aid to her and treated Dranzorg's new rule as ''fait accompli''.

* {{Retcon}}: As of 5th edition, she's not considered a vistana anymore, having been retconed as merely a darkonian who claimed to be vistani. Ez d'Avenir, a new character introduced in ''TabletopGame/CurseOfStrahd'', was also revealed to be her daughter, though they do not get along.

* {{Zenafication}}: Edition changes turned Mara from a victim turned villian via GoMadFromTheIsolation, to a vengeful DarkActionGirl FallenHero.

* FantasticRacism: Versus wizards. It may be justified, since magic on Athas has ''horrible'' effects on the environment. However, we don't know if it works the same way in the mists. Seems very much like the Dark Powers to have her racism be based on rules that no longer apply.

* {{Irony}}: The act of sacrificing her family to help the Sorcerer-King brought Kalidnay into Ravenloft, ruining his ascension ritual and putting him into a coma. It's her creepy stalker crush on him that's keeping him there, trapped in eternal living death, where she can never truly have him either.

* {{Yandere}}: For the Sorcerer-King. He's all hers, now. [[{{Irony}} Too bad he's comatose]].

* PsychicPowers: Like everyone in Kalidnay.

The stern, perfectionist [[SorcerousOverlord wizard-queen]] of I'Cath. After saving her homeland from a foreign occupation, she was chosen as its ruler by the populace and ushered in a golden age. Yet over time, the same populace began to question her stern laws and eventually rose up in rebellion. When she retaliated by executing the rebel's families, assassins came for her own family. Having lost all she held dear, her perfect city burning, her four beloved daughters dead and the same populace she once had saved in revolt, Tsien Chiang tolled the magic bell she once had used to liberate her city. This time, however, it created her perfect I'Cath within a SharedDream. By day Tsien Chiang constantly overhauls her sleeping city, commanding [[ChineseVampire jiangshi]] to fulfill her visions. By night, she rules over the perfect version of I'Cath, knowing it is all just a [[AllJustADream dream]]...

* CameBackWrong: Not she herself, but her daughters after being resurrected by the Nightingale Bell. They retain their personalities and still long for their mother's love, but they returned to life in [[BodyHorror twisted forms]]: One of them consists entirely of [[ExtraEyes eyes]], another one of [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily teeth]], one got turned into a [[PlantPerson Dryad]] and her youngest is made out of [[FriendlyGhost living fog]]. Note that all of them are BenevolentMonsters.

* DreamLand: The 5e version of I'Cath exists twofold. The dream version is Tsien Chiangs perfect, golden city, but the real I'Cath is a crumbling, disorganized mess, looking like it was [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} designed by M.C. Escher]] and is constantly being overhauled by [[ChineseVampire undead servants]].

* FallenHero : She started out as a liberator of her home and was made queen by the people, ruling I'Cath sternly, but sensible. With a rising level of education and wealth, the people started to question her laws and demanded change, something she proved unwilling to give.

* {{Wutai}}: She retained her Chinese theme.

* WhipItGood: Narana wields Loviatar's favored weapon, a scourge.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Davion.

* AbusiveParent: Back when he was human and working for Vecna on Oerth, he had a bunch of bastard kids, whom he never really bothered with. However, one of them proved to have a powerful talent for sorcery, so strong that it caught the attention of Vecna himself. The jealous Kas shoved the kid into a magical ouibliette and forgot about him. As for the kid, he botched the spell he was using to try and get out and turned into an insane slime creature.
* AlwaysABiggerFish: Kas, as a vampire death knight, is a very powerful combatant and his grip over his own realm is strong. His army is disciplined and powerful. And yet, the only opposing force he can reach is Cavitus, home of the phenomeonally powerful Vecna, whose power dwarfs his own.

The Bleysmiths were once a minor noble family who ruled the county of Staunton. Torrence competed with his brother August for the attention of their father the count, a rivalry which eventually grew so intense that Torrence eventually arranged to have August killed by enemy soldiers from the rival duchy of Avergne -- only to find that the Avergnites weren't content to stop with his brother, but thanks to the information he had provided, rampaged into Staunton and killed many of its inhabitants, including the rest of his family. Torrence tried using black magic to compel the survivors of the attack to become a makeshift army to drive the invaders out, but it only resulted in their slaughter. The vengeful, guilt-ridden Torrence hanged himself -- only to find that the Mists had claimed his family's lands as the domain of Staunton Bluffs, with himself as its ghostly darklord. In 5e he was recommend into August's role, while the Darklord is now his [[GenderFlip sister Theresa]].

* PinocchioSyndrome: While most carrionettes are able to switch bodies with humans, Maligno's curse from the Dark Powers means that, despite desperately ''wanting'' to take a human body, he's stuck as a puppet.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Whatever ails Boromar (who talks to himself, hears voices, acts reclusive and paranoid, and whips around constantly to make sure no one's following him) is never spelled out directly, but seems to be schizophrenia. Given that this was 2e D&D, though, it might just be called "being ChaoticNeutral".

* DugTooDeep: There are signs that something bad is in the basement. [[spoiler:It's [[BiggerBad Very]] bad. An Amber Monolith containing a dark deity's vestige.]]

* DugTooDeep: There are signs that something bad is in the basement. [[spoiler:It's [[BiggerBad Very]] bad.]]

* Berserk Button: For warlord Dalk Dranzorg, it's Mara Silvra. For Dame Mara Silvra, it's Dalk Dranzorg and betrayal. For the house itself, it's attempts to smash or burn the architecture - which will cause it to go full MalevolentArchitecture immediately.

* Zenafication: Edition changes turned Mara from a victim turned villian via GoMadFromTheIsolation, to a vengeful DarkActionGirl FallenHero.

In 5e it is brought back in ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'', with a [[RetCon greatly revised]] backstory. Now, the keep was the site of a conflict between the conquering warlord Dalk Dranzorg and the knight Mara Silvra. After months of grueling travel to her ancestral home to retake it, she accepted a DealWithTheDevil to guaruntee that her forces would ''reach'' it - at the cost of never being able to leave. [[JackassGenie Dalk's forces captured her immediately afterwards]]. The warlord announced his intention to entomb Mara and her underlings in the castle walls but spare those who agreed to spread the tale of her defeat, Mara turned the tables and slew him with her bare hands, then subjected the traitors to the entombment - along with the local nobles who had refused aid to her and treated Dranzorg's new rule as ''fait accompli''.

In 5e it is brought back in ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'', with a [[RetCon greatly revised]] backstory. Now, the keep was the site of a conflict between the conquering warlord Dalk Dranzorg and the knight Mara Silvra. After months of grueling travel to her ancestral home to retake it, she accepted a DealWithheDevil to guaruntee that her forces would ''reach'' it - at the cost of never being able to leave. [[JackassGenie Dalk's forces captured her immediately afterwards]]. The warlord announced his intention to entomb Mara and her underlings in the castle walls but spare those who agreed to spread the tale of her defeat, Mara turned the tables and slew him with her bare hands, then subjected the traitors to the entombment - along with the local nobles who had refused aid to her and treated Dranzorg's new rule as ''fait accompli''.

In 5e it is brought back in ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'', with a [[RetCon greatly revised]] backstory. Now, the keep was the site of a conflict between the conquering warlord Dalk Dranzorg and the knight Mara Silvra. After months of grueling travel to her ancestral home to retake it, she accepted a DealWiththeDevil to guaruntee that her forces would ''reach'' it - at the cost of never being able to leave. [[JackassGenie Dalk's forces captured her immediately afterwards]]. The warlord announced his intention to entomb Mara and her underlings in the castle walls but spare those who agreed to spread the tale of her defeat, Mara turned the tables and slew him with her bare hands, then subjected the traitors to the entombment - along with the local nobles who had refused aid to her and treated Dranzorg's new rule as ''fait accompli''.

* Zenafication: Edition changes turned Mara from a victim turned mad villian via GoMadFromTheIsolation, to a vengeful DarkActionGirl FallenHero.