Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Changed line(s) 61 (click to see context) from:
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Jaerdaph's confidence in his natural longevity being more valuable than the technical immortality offered by undeath comes off as misplaced to those fans who came into the game in later editions, as it's rooted in his being created during the era of [=AD&D=]. Originally, drow were stated in the TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons1stEdition Dungeon Master's Guide to have a lifespan of 800 to 1,000 years, with some TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms sources stating that nobody actually knew ''what'' the drow's lifespan was, as no drow had ever died of old age. Creator/RASalvatore featured several prominent drow characters with lifespans in excess of 1,000 years in his drow-centric novels. But, from TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition, drow lifespans became progressively shorter, with "The Complete Book of Elves" stating they only live up to 525 years normally. In TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition, their lifespan was raised to 750 years, on par with the surface elves, only to be lowered to around 300 years in TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition before TablertopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition raised it back up to 750 years again.
to:
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Jaerdaph's confidence in his natural longevity being more valuable than the technical immortality offered by undeath comes off as misplaced to those fans who came into the game in later editions, as it's rooted in his being created during the era of [=AD&D=]. Originally, drow were stated in the TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons1stEdition Dungeon Master's Guide to have a lifespan of 800 to 1,000 years, with some TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms sources stating that nobody actually knew ''what'' the drow's lifespan was, as no drow had ever died of old age. Creator/RASalvatore featured several prominent drow characters with lifespans in excess of 1,000 years in his drow-centric novels. But, from TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition, TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons2ndEdition, drow lifespans became progressively shorter, with "The Complete Book of Elves" stating they only live up to 525 years normally. In TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition, their lifespan was raised to 750 years, on par with the surface elves, only to be lowered to around 300 years in TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition before TablertopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition raised it back up to 750 years again.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Changed line(s) 61 (click to see context) from:
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Jaerdaph's confidence in his natural longevity being more valuable than the technical immortality offered by undeath comes off as misplaced to those fans who came into the game in later editions, as it's rooted in his being created during the era of [=AD&D=]. Originally, drow were stated in the TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsFirstEdition Dungeon Master's Guide to have a lifespan of 800 to 1,000 years, with some TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms sources stating that nobody actually knew ''what'' the drow's lifespan was, as no drow had ever died of old age. Creator/RASalvatore featured several prominent drow characters with lifespans in excess of 1,000 years in his drow-centric novels. But, from TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition, drow lifespans became progressively shorter, with "The Complete Book of Elves" stating they only live up to 525 years normally. In TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition, their lifespan was raised to 750 years, on par with the surface elves, only to be lowered to around 300 years in TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition before TablertopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition raised it back up to 750 years again.
to:
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Jaerdaph's confidence in his natural longevity being more valuable than the technical immortality offered by undeath comes off as misplaced to those fans who came into the game in later editions, as it's rooted in his being created during the era of [=AD&D=]. Originally, drow were stated in the TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsFirstEdition TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons1stEdition Dungeon Master's Guide to have a lifespan of 800 to 1,000 years, with some TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms sources stating that nobody actually knew ''what'' the drow's lifespan was, as no drow had ever died of old age. Creator/RASalvatore featured several prominent drow characters with lifespans in excess of 1,000 years in his drow-centric novels. But, from TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition, drow lifespans became progressively shorter, with "The Complete Book of Elves" stating they only live up to 525 years normally. In TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition, their lifespan was raised to 750 years, on par with the surface elves, only to be lowered to around 300 years in TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition before TablertopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition raised it back up to 750 years again.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Uncanny Valley is IUEO now and the subjective version has been split; cleaning up misuse and ZCE in the process
Deleted line(s) 29 (click to see context) :
* UncannyValley: InUniverse. Ernst’s voice and emotionally reserved demeanor unsettle people, to the point his questions literally weakened a listener’s willpower in AD&D.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 90 (click to see context) from:
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Sorrows'', the second of the ''Books of S_''. The son of a wealthy family from a small town along Darkon’s Vuchar River, Mynilar’s parents never realized how little their wealth actually meant to the local farmers, and so he grew up being tormented and abused as the “snotty local rich kid” by his fellows. He only won acceptance when he wound up loving an obscene tattoo that they forcibly gave him, impressing them, though that acceptance was lost again when he learned about his allergy to liquor, preventing him from getting involved in their friendly drinking. He eventually moved to Martira Bay, where his realization that he was still an outsider led him to indulging in more tattoos, body piercing, and a growing obsession with writing depressing poetry. Eventually, he learned he could influence people to do what he wanted, and he began honing his talents in this direction. When he tried to make one of Lady Kazandra’s pupils into one of his conquests, he was quickly inducted into the Kargatane, and equally quickly dispatched to the Vallaki cell. The Midway Haven Observatory fan-splat ''The Book of Storms'', SpiritualSuccessor to the Kargatane’s ''Books of S_'', reveals Mynilar’s fate after the burning of Vallaki: [[spoiler: he was actually murdered by his companions and became some kind of undead, trapped in the ruins of their former shop. One member of the Observatory’s in-game characters, Craydon, found the bound undead and received the InUniverse Book of Storms from him, and then another, Druinor, unceremoniously shot him truly dead when he attacked Craydon]].
to:
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Sorrows'', the second of the ''Books of S_''. The son of a wealthy family from a small town along Darkon’s Vuchar River, Mynilar’s parents never realized how little their wealth actually meant to the local farmers, and so he grew up being tormented and abused as the “snotty local rich kid” by his fellows. He only won acceptance when he wound up loving an obscene tattoo that they forcibly gave him, impressing them, though that acceptance was lost again when he learned about his allergy to liquor, preventing him from getting involved in their friendly drinking. He eventually moved to Martira Bay, where his realization that he was still an outsider led him to indulging in more tattoos, body piercing, and a growing obsession with writing depressing poetry. Eventually, he learned he could influence people to do what he wanted, and he began honing his talents in this direction. When he tried to make one of Lady Kazandra’s pupils into one of his conquests, he was quickly inducted into the Kargatane, and equally quickly dispatched to the Vallaki cell. The Midway Haven Observatory fan-splat ''The Book of Storms'', SpiritualSuccessor [[invoked]]SpiritualSuccessor to the Kargatane’s ''Books of S_'', reveals Mynilar’s fate after the burning of Vallaki: [[spoiler: he was actually murdered by his companions and became some kind of undead, trapped in the ruins of their former shop. One member of the Observatory’s in-game characters, Craydon, found the bound undead and received the InUniverse Book of Storms from him, and then another, Druinor, unceremoniously shot him truly dead when he attacked Craydon]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Up To Eleven is being dewicked.
Changed line(s) 132 (click to see context) from:
* TheGadfly: Taken UpToEleven in comparison to the “asshole” Kargat members. To put this in perspective, he has a special quality to represent how annoying he is. Anyone who spends more than 24 hours in his presence has to make a difficult Willpower save or be unable to resist trying to kill him. He is ''that'' annoying.
to:
* TheGadfly: Taken UpToEleven up to eleven in comparison to the “asshole” Kargat members. To put this in perspective, he has a special quality to represent how annoying he is. Anyone who spends more than 24 hours in his presence has to make a difficult Willpower save or be unable to resist trying to kill him. He is ''that'' annoying.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Minimizing the navbox for ease of maintainability.
Changed line(s) 2,5 (click to see context) from:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClasses Character Classes by Edition]]:'' 1st to 3rd ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesFirstToThirdEditionCoreClasses Core]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesOtherPreThirdEditionClasses Pre-3rd]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesOtherThirdEditionClasses 3rd Other]]) | 3rd & 3.5 ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesThirdEditionPrestigeClasses Prestige Classes]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesThreePointFiveEditionNPCClasses NPC Classes]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesFourthEditionClasses 4th]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesFifthEditionClasses 5th]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesA A]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesB B]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesC C]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesD D]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesE E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesF F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesG G]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesH H]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesIToL I to L]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesM M]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesNtoQ N to Q]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesR R]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesS S]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesT T]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesUToZ U to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsDemons Demons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsDevils Devils]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsYugoloths Yugoloths]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeities Deities]]'': Real-World Deities ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRealWorldDeitiesAtoF A to F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRealWorldDeitiesGtoZ G to Z ]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsLiteraryDeities Literary Deities]] | Non-human Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDemihumanDeities Demihuman Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGiantDeities Giant Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGoblinoidDeities Goblinoid Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsScalykindDeities Scalykind Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUnderdarkDeities Underdark Deities]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsElderEvils Elder Evils]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRaces Playable Races]]''\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesA A]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesB B]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesC C]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesD D]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesE E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesF F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesG G]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesH H]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesIToL I to L]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesM M]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesNtoQ N to Q]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesR R]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesS S]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesT T]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesUToZ U to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsDemons Demons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsDevils Devils]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsYugoloths Yugoloths]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeities Deities]]'': Real-World Deities ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRealWorldDeitiesAtoF A to F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRealWorldDeitiesGtoZ G to Z ]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsLiteraryDeities Literary Deities]] | Non-human Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDemihumanDeities Demihuman Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGiantDeities Giant Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGoblinoidDeities Goblinoid Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsScalykindDeities Scalykind Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUnderdarkDeities Underdark Deities]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsElderEvils Elder Evils]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRaces Playable Races]]''\\
to:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClasses Character Classes by Edition]]:'' 1st to 3rd ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesFirstToThirdEditionCoreClasses Core]] Classes]]'' | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesOtherPreThirdEditionClasses Pre-3rd]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesOtherThirdEditionClasses 3rd Other]]) | 3rd & 3.5 ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesThirdEditionPrestigeClasses Prestige Classes]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesThreePointFiveEditionNPCClasses NPC Classes]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesFourthEditionClasses 4th]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClassesFifthEditionClasses 5th]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesA A]] Creatures]]'' | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesB B]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesC C]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesD D]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesE E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesF F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesG G]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesH H]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesIToL I to L]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesM M]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesNtoQ N to Q]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesR R]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesS S]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesT T]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesUToZ U to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsDemons Demons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsDevils Devils]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsYugoloths Yugoloths]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeities Deities]]'': Real-World Deities ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRealWorldDeitiesAtoF A to F]] Deities]]'' | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRealWorldDeitiesGtoZ G to Z ]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsLiteraryDeities Literary Deities]] | Non-human Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDemihumanDeities Demihuman Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGiantDeities Giant Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGoblinoidDeities Goblinoid Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsScalykindDeities Scalykind Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUnderdarkDeities Underdark Deities]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsElderEvils Elder Evils]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRaces Playable Races]]''\\
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 4 (click to see context) from:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeities Deities]]'': Non-human Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDemihumanDeities Demihuman Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGiantDeities Giant Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGoblinoidDeities Goblinoid Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsScalykindDeities Scalykind Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUnderdarkDeities Underdark Deities]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsElderEvils Elder Evils]]\\
to:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeities Deities]]'': Real-World Deities ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRealWorldDeitiesAtoF A to F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRealWorldDeitiesGtoZ G to Z ]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsLiteraryDeities Literary Deities]] | Non-human Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDemihumanDeities Demihuman Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGiantDeities Giant Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGoblinoidDeities Goblinoid Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsScalykindDeities Scalykind Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUnderdarkDeities Underdark Deities]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsElderEvils Elder Evils]]\\
Changed line(s) 6,7 (click to see context) from:
''Campaign Settings:'' Characters/{{Dragonlance}} | Characters/{{Eberron}} ([[Characters/EberronDragonmarkedHouses Dragonmarked Houses]] | [[Characters/EberronFaiths Religions]] | [[Characters/EberronNations Nations]]) | Characters/ForgottenRealms ([[Characters/ForgottenRealmsGods Gods]] | [[Characters/ForgottenRealmsFactions Factions]] | ''Characters/TheLegendOfDrizzt'') | Characters/{{Greyhawk}} ([[Characters/GreyhawkDeities Deities]]) | Characters/{{Planescape}} ([[Characters/PlanescapeFactions Factions]] | [[Characters/PlanescapeRaces Races]]) | [[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Ravenloft]] ([[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The Kargatane of Vallaki''' | [[Characters/RavenloftTheFraternityOfShadows Fraternity of Shadows]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheGreatFamilies Great Families of the Core]] | [[Characters/RavenloftGods Faiths]]) ]] -]]]
to:
''Campaign Settings:'' Characters/{{Dragonlance}} | Characters/{{Eberron}} ([[Characters/EberronDragonmarkedHouses Dragonmarked Houses]] | [[Characters/EberronFaiths Religions]] | [[Characters/EberronNations Nations]]) | Characters/ForgottenRealms ([[Characters/ForgottenRealmsGods Gods]] | [[Characters/ForgottenRealmsFactions Factions]] | ''Characters/TheLegendOfDrizzt'') | Characters/{{Greyhawk}} ([[Characters/GreyhawkDeities Deities]]) | Characters/{{Planescape}} ([[Characters/PlanescapeFactions Factions]] | [[Characters/PlanescapeRaces Races]]) | [[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Ravenloft]] ([[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The Kargatane of Vallaki''' | [[Characters/RavenloftTheFraternityOfShadows Fraternity of Shadows]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheGreatFamilies Great Families of the Core]] | [[Characters/RavenloftGods Faiths]]) | Characters/{{Spelljammer}} ]] -]]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 6,7 (click to see context) from:
''Campaign Settings:'' Characters/{{Dragonlance}} | Characters/{{Eberron}} ([[Characters/EberronDragonmarkedHouses Dragonmarked Houses]] | [[Characters/EberronFaiths Religions]] | [[Characters/EberronNations Nations]]) | Characters/ForgottenRealms ([[Characters/ForgottenRealmsGods Gods]] | ''Characters/TheLegendOfDrizzt'') | Characters/{{Greyhawk}} ([[Characters/GreyhawkDeities Deities]]) | Characters/{{Planescape}} ([[Characters/PlanescapeFactions Factions]] | [[Characters/PlanescapeRaces Races]]) | [[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Ravenloft]] ([[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The Kargatane of Vallaki''' | [[Characters/RavenloftTheFraternityOfShadows Fraternity of Shadows]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheGreatFamilies Great Families of the Core]] | [[Characters/RavenloftGods Faiths]]) ]] -]]]
to:
''Campaign Settings:'' Characters/{{Dragonlance}} | Characters/{{Eberron}} ([[Characters/EberronDragonmarkedHouses Dragonmarked Houses]] | [[Characters/EberronFaiths Religions]] | [[Characters/EberronNations Nations]]) | Characters/ForgottenRealms ([[Characters/ForgottenRealmsGods Gods]] | [[Characters/ForgottenRealmsFactions Factions]] | ''Characters/TheLegendOfDrizzt'') | Characters/{{Greyhawk}} ([[Characters/GreyhawkDeities Deities]]) | Characters/{{Planescape}} ([[Characters/PlanescapeFactions Factions]] | [[Characters/PlanescapeRaces Races]]) | [[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Ravenloft]] ([[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The Kargatane of Vallaki''' | [[Characters/RavenloftTheFraternityOfShadows Fraternity of Shadows]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheGreatFamilies Great Families of the Core]] | [[Characters/RavenloftGods Faiths]]) ]] -]]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 3 (click to see context) from:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesA A]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesB B]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesC C]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesD D]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesE E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesF F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesG G]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesH H]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesIToL I to L]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesM M]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesNtoQ N to Q]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesR R]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesS S]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesT T]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesUToZ U to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
to:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesA A]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesB B]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesC C]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesD D]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesE E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesF F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesG G]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesH H]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesIToL I to L]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesM M]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesNtoQ N to Q]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesR R]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesS S]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesT T]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesUToZ U to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsDemons Demons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsDevils Devils]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiendsYugoloths Yugoloths]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 6,7 (click to see context) from:
''Campaign Settings:'' Characters/{{Dragonlance}} | Characters/{{Eberron}} | Characters/ForgottenRealms ([[Characters/ForgottenRealmsGods Gods]] | ''Characters/TheLegendOfDrizzt'') | Characters/{{Greyhawk}} ([[Characters/GreyhawkDeities Deities]]) | Characters/{{Planescape}} ([[Characters/PlanescapeFactions Factions]] | [[Characters/PlanescapeRaces Races]]) | [[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Ravenloft]] ([[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The Kargatane of Vallaki''' | [[Characters/RavenloftTheFraternityOfShadows Fraternity of Shadows]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheGreatFamilies Great Families of the Core]] | [[Characters/RavenloftGods Faiths]]) ]] -]]]
to:
''Campaign Settings:'' Characters/{{Dragonlance}} | Characters/{{Eberron}} ([[Characters/EberronDragonmarkedHouses Dragonmarked Houses]] | [[Characters/EberronFaiths Religions]] | [[Characters/EberronNations Nations]]) | Characters/ForgottenRealms ([[Characters/ForgottenRealmsGods Gods]] | ''Characters/TheLegendOfDrizzt'') | Characters/{{Greyhawk}} ([[Characters/GreyhawkDeities Deities]]) | Characters/{{Planescape}} ([[Characters/PlanescapeFactions Factions]] | [[Characters/PlanescapeRaces Races]]) | [[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Ravenloft]] ([[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The Kargatane of Vallaki''' | [[Characters/RavenloftTheFraternityOfShadows Fraternity of Shadows]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheGreatFamilies Great Families of the Core]] | [[Characters/RavenloftGods Faiths]]) ]] -]]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 3 (click to see context) from:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesAToE A to E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesFToI F to I]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesJToO J to O]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesPToZ P to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
to:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesAToE A to ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesA A]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesB B]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesC C]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesD D]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesE E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesFToI F [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesF F]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesG G]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesH H]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesIToL I to I]] L]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesJToO J [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesM M]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesNtoQ N to O]] Q]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesPToZ P [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesR R]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesS S]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesT T]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesUToZ U to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Removed a bit of conversation in the trope entry; the addition of Early Installment Weirdness in my previous edit was meant to coincide with this, but I forgot.
Changed line(s) 72 (click to see context) from:
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Privately, he feels like the Kargatane have absolutely nothing to offer him; even the promise of immortality through undeath is meaningless to him, since as a drow he’ll “live forever” anyway (he won't, elves in D&D have a lifespan of about seven to eight hundred years), undeath forfeits earthly pleasures, and [[UndeathAlwaysEnds even the undead can be destroyed]], making it an ultimately meaningless goal to him. The only reason he remains part of the Vallaki cell is because he’s secretly appropriating all the spells and magical items he can from their acquisitions.
to:
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Privately, he feels like the Kargatane have absolutely nothing to offer him; even the promise of immortality through undeath is meaningless to him, since as a drow he’ll “live forever” anyway (he won't, elves in D&D have a lifespan of about seven to eight hundred years), anyway, undeath forfeits earthly pleasures, and [[UndeathAlwaysEnds even the undead can be destroyed]], making it an ultimately meaningless goal to him. The only reason he remains part of the Vallaki cell is because he’s secretly appropriating all the spells and magical items he can from their acquisitions.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Jaerdaph's confidence in his natural longevity being more valuable than the technical immortality offered by undeath comes off as misplaced to those fans who came into the game in later editions, as it's rooted in his being created during the era of [=AD&D=]. Originally, drow were stated in the TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsFirstEdition Dungeon Master's Guide to have a lifespan of 800 to 1,000 years, with some TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms sources stating that nobody actually knew ''what'' the drow's lifespan was, as no drow had ever died of old age. Creator/RASalvatore featured several prominent drow characters with lifespans in excess of 1,000 years in his drow-centric novels. But, from TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition, drow lifespans became progressively shorter, with "The Complete Book of Elves" stating they only live up to 525 years normally. In TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition, their lifespan was raised to 750 years, on par with the surface elves, only to be lowered to around 300 years in TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition before TablertopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition raised it back up to 750 years again.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 3 (click to see context) from:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesAToE A to E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesFToO F to O]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesPToZ P to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
to:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesAToE A to E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesFToO [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesFToI F to I]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesJToO J to O]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesPToZ P to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Direct link.
Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* PsychicPowers: Focused on {{Telepathy}} and [[{{Seer}} Clairsentience]] powers.
to:
* PsychicPowers: Focused on {{Telepathy}} and [[{{Seer}} [[{{Seers}} Clairsentience]] powers.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Dewicking the various historical pantheon pages so they can be cut.
Changed line(s) 4 (click to see context) from:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeities Deities]]'': Historical Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesMajorHistoricalPantheons Major]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesAncientHistoricalPantheons Ancient]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesReclusiveHistoricalPantheons Reclusive]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesOtherHistoricalPantheons Other]]) | Non-human Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDemihumanDeities Demihuman Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGiantDeities Giant Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGoblinoidDeities Goblinoid Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsScalykindDeities Scalykind Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUnderdarkDeities Underdark Deities]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsElderEvils Elder Evils]]\\
to:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeities Deities]]'': Historical Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesMajorHistoricalPantheons Major]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesAncientHistoricalPantheons Ancient]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesReclusiveHistoricalPantheons Reclusive]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesOtherHistoricalPantheons Other]]) | Non-human Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDemihumanDeities Demihuman Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGiantDeities Giant Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGoblinoidDeities Goblinoid Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsScalykindDeities Scalykind Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUnderdarkDeities Underdark Deities]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsElderEvils Elder Evils]]\\
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
[[center: [-[[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Return to the main index]] | [[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The Kargatane''' | [[Characters/RavenloftTheFraternityOfShadows The Fraternity of Shadows]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheGreatFamilies The Great Families]] | [[Characters/RavenloftGods Faith]] ]]-]
to:
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsClasses Character Classes by Edition]]:'' 1st to
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesAToE A to E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesFToO F to O]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesPToZ P to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsFiends Fiends]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeities Deities]]'': Historical Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesMajorHistoricalPantheons Major]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesAncientHistoricalPantheons Ancient]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesReclusiveHistoricalPantheons Reclusive]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDeitiesOtherHistoricalPantheons Other]]) | Non-human Pantheons ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDemihumanDeities Demihuman Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGiantDeities Giant Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsGoblinoidDeities Goblinoid Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsScalykindDeities Scalykind Deities]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUnderdarkDeities Underdark Deities]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsElderEvils Elder Evils]]\\
''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsRaces Playable Races]]''\\
''Campaign Settings:'' Characters/{{Dragonlance}} | Characters/{{Eberron}} | Characters/ForgottenRealms ([[Characters/ForgottenRealmsGods Gods]] | ''Characters/TheLegendOfDrizzt'') | Characters/{{Greyhawk}} ([[Characters/GreyhawkDeities Deities]]) | Characters/{{Planescape}} ([[Characters/PlanescapeFactions Factions]] | [[Characters/PlanescapeRaces Races]]) | [[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Ravenloft]] ([[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 3,4 (click to see context) from:
A secret cell of Azalin's secret police, the Kargatane, boldly operating out of the Barovian village of Vallaki and secretly gathering forbidden lore right under the nose of Azalin's enemy, Strahd. Or so they think. In reality, these Kargats have all proven utterly worthless or simply too annoying to be around, so their superiors banished them to Barovia in the hopes that, even if Strahd didn't kill them, they'd at least be out of harm's way. Oblivious to their superiors' contempt, the Vallaki cell busied themselves with gathering as much information about the Demiplane as possible, eventually deciding that they had been compromised and burning down their bookstore in order to flee. Their locations are now unknown. The core members were detailed in the ''Forgotten Children'' fan-splat by the Secrets of the Kargatane, with extra members being detailed in several of the ''Books of S_'' series of fan-splats.
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[center: [-[[Characters/{{Ravenloft}} Return to the main index]] | [[Characters/RavenloftDarklords Darklords]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheCarnival The Carnival]] | '''The Kargatane''' | [[Characters/RavenloftTheFraternityOfShadows The Fraternity of Shadows]] | [[Characters/RavenloftTheGreatFamilies The Great Families]] | [[Characters/RavenloftGods Faith]] ]]-]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 58 (click to see context) from:
* EvilVsEvil: He’s a thoroughly wicked EvilSorcerer himself, but he dedicated himself to brutally fighting his people’s native ReligionOfEvil before he was cast into Ravenloft.
to:
* EvilVsEvil: EvilVersusEvil: He’s a thoroughly wicked EvilSorcerer himself, but he dedicated himself to brutally fighting his people’s native ReligionOfEvil before he was cast into Ravenloft.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 58 (click to see context) :
* EvilAlbino: Thoroughly evil (ChaoticEvil, in fact), and also an albino due to a birth defect.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 65 (click to see context) from:
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Privately, he feels like the Kargatane have absolutely nothing to offer him; even the promise of immortality through undeath is meaningless to him, since as a drow he’ll “live forever” anyway, undeath forfeits earthly pleasures, and [[UndeathAlwaysEnds even the undead can be destroyed]], making it an ultimately meaningless goal to him. The only reason he remains part of the Vallaki cell is because he’s secretly appropriating all the spells and magical items he can from their acquisitions.
to:
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Privately, he feels like the Kargatane have absolutely nothing to offer him; even the promise of immortality through undeath is meaningless to him, since as a drow he’ll “live forever” anyway, anyway (he won't, elves in D&D have a lifespan of about seven to eight hundred years), undeath forfeits earthly pleasures, and [[UndeathAlwaysEnds even the undead can be destroyed]], making it an ultimately meaningless goal to him. The only reason he remains part of the Vallaki cell is because he’s secretly appropriating all the spells and magical items he can from their acquisitions.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 123 (click to see context) from:
to:
[[/folder]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
was in wrong namespace, moved from Ravenloft.The Kargatane Of Vallaki
Added DiffLines:
A secret cell of Azalin's secret police, the Kargatane, boldly operating out of the Barovian village of Vallaki and secretly gathering forbidden lore right under the nose of Azalin's enemy, Strahd. Or so they think. In reality, these Kargats have all proven utterly worthless or simply too annoying to be around, so their superiors banished them to Barovia in the hopes that, even if Strahd didn't kill them, they'd at least be out of harm's way. Oblivious to their superiors' contempt, the Vallaki cell busied themselves with gathering as much information about the Demiplane as possible, eventually deciding that they had been compromised and burning down their bookstore in order to flee. Their locations are now unknown. The core members were detailed in the ''Forgotten Children'' fan-splat by the Secrets of the Kargatane, with extra members being detailed in several of the ''Books of S_'' series of fan-splats.
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:'''Shared tropes''']]
* AuthorAvatar: The Vallaki Kargatane were created as tongue-in-cheek {{Self Insert}}s of the founders/admins of the Shadows of the Kargatane, the first official Ravenloft fan-site and the original publishers of Ravenloft fan-created material. The "Burning of Vallaki", in which their bookshop burned down and they fled into the darkness, is an in-universe explanation for their meta disbanding.
* TheDevilIsALoser: Invoked; they're all evil and willingly sworn to an evil organization, but this is presented in ways to highlight just what absolute ''losers'' they are.
* EvilIsPetty: Calling them "small minded jerks" would not be unwarranted.
* TheGadfly: All of them are in some way highly obnoxious and irritating. Lady Kazandra's spymaster, the half-ghoul Sir Bartholemew Nylreave, hates them so much that his efforts to try and torment them are starting to affect his work.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: With how laughably pathetic they are, it's easy to forget that they're vicious, ruthless, depraved killers who will murder and torture without a second's hesitation if they think it necessary.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: The basic idea behind them all; whether they were incompetent or just plain annoying, they were all sent to Vallaki to get them out of the Kargatane's hair.
* SmallNameBigEgo: They all think that they're actually highly respected and admired by their peers, and that what they're doing is vital, respectable work. Even if they think other members of their cell are idiots, they're convinced that ''they'' are the exceptionally talented OnlySaneMan in comparison.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Ernst Turgadon]]
Born the scion of an Il Alukian noble family, Ernst Turgadon might have grown to a quiet, respectable normality had he not been born with psionic power. Growing up, he was an eerie child, always asking questions that seemed tailor-made to unnerve and unsettle the person he questioned. He was quickly accepted into the Kargatane and made an interrogator when he pointedly asked Lady Kazandra why she worked for Lord Azalin when she seemed to be only loyal to herself. Eventually, she sent him to lead the Vallaki cell, giving him a strange box and telling him to open it in private. When he did so, he found himself knocked unconscious by an unearthly screaming wind that continued to echo in his head afterwards, coloring his voice.
* DissonantSerenity: Ernst never seems to get angry, always seeming calm or even mildly amused, even when he’s being verbally abused or physically attacked. People find this almost as creepy as his voice.
* NeatFreak: A downplayed example. He’s much more concerned with keeping his space neat and tidy than his room-mates are, and has something of a nervous tic of making tiny adjustments to the positions of paintings, books and other objects around the store.
* NoodleIncident: Just what it is that he did to get banished to Vallaki. The other Kargats have very clear reasons why their presence would be considered embarrassing or futile, but Ernst seems quite professional.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Despite his apparent competence in comparison to his cell, he does get involved with a lot of the crazy things they do. Like insisting that Ryven is alive and well, in complete contrast to the actual reality.
* PsychicPowers: Focused on {{Telepathy}} and [[{{Seer}} Clairsentience]] powers.
* TheQuietOne: He doesn’t speak much, both because his haunted voice attracts attention and because ''he finds it creepy too''.
* UncannyValley: InUniverse. Ernst’s voice and emotionally reserved demeanor unsettle people, to the point his questions literally weakened a listener’s willpower in AD&D.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: A variant; Ernst’s voice is constantly underlaid by the faintest unsettling echo of tormented, insane screaming.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:William Gruhman]]
Once, William was the kind of man who would have opposed the evils of the Kargatane. Now, he isn’t that man. Indeed, he’s not any sort of man at all. He’s a podling – a vegetative clone of the original William Gruhman created by a doppelganger plant. The original’s adventuring buddies tried to save their friend’s soul by capturing the podling and forcing a Ring of Mind Shielding onto him before using various protective spells and rights. They severed the bond between the podling and its mother-plant alright, but had failed to account for the podling’s true nature; all that was left behind was an empty shell with the memories of William. The podling killed the adventurers, and then wandered off into the world. Adrift amongst humanity, it found its way into the Kargatane by sheer chance, and then sought to work its way up the ranks; when Lady Kazandra realized that this highly aggressive and ambitious Kargat was immune to her vampiric charms, she quickly sent the potential liability off to Vallaki, telling him that he was to serve as her secret agent amongst their ranks.
* DeathSeeker: Averted. He despises what he is now, but he fears the NothingAfterDeath even more, which is why he stays loyal to the Kargatane; he desperately wants the promised immortality of undeath. Of course, it’s unclear if a podling like him could even ''become'' undead…
* DisproportionateRetribution: When angry, William goes utterly ''berserk'', determined on inflicting as much pain and suffering on whoever has angered him as possible.
* ForgetsToEat: Partially because he doesn’t eat, instead using a magical ring to leech life energy from kills to sustain himself, but because of his nature as a soulless podling, he generally does absolutely nothing unless someone or something else is occupying his attention. If left to his own devices, he tends to sit in a chair and just gather dust.
** Also, truer to the spirit of the trope, he sometimes forgets to use his vampiric regenerative ring, resulting in him starving close to death before he remembers to restore himself.
* HairTriggerTemper: His wrath is easily aroused and legendary amongst his fellows for its savagery.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: He doesn’t understand humanity ''at all'', partly due to being a podling and partly due to being soulless. This makes him prone to asking all kinds of inappropriate questions – the fact he’s obsessed with understanding everything to figure out “the Great Joke” that he believes Fate is playing doesn’t help, of course.
* {{Planimal}}: As a podling, he’s closer to a plant than to a humanoid.
* ShoutOut: As a podling, he’s basically based on the alien clones from Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers.
* SoullessShell: This is true for all podlings, really, but William’s severed connection to the overmind of his mother Doppelganger Plant means he can actually understand what he’s missing, which drives him mad.
* StrawNihilist: He sees all of existence as “the sick joke of an insane higher power”, and has dedicated his unnatural existence to figuring out what this “Great Joke” is.
* TrapMaster: Tends to occupy himself by setting up lethal booby-traps around the bookshop, apparently just for the hell of it.
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: He’s freakishly good at predicting people’s behavior, except when they are being motivated by love. He simply cannot understand the emotion at all, and so his predictions ''always'' fail if he tries to use them on someone being driven by love. This drives him into a frenzy of hate.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Holder Crosspen]]
A Darkonian mage whose fascination with the powers of the occult attracted the attention of the Kargatane; however, Lady Kazandra soon came to regret her decision when she realized just what a grating, abrasive asshole he was. Compounding this with a total inability to respect the chain of command, she quickly sent him packing off to Vallaki. Not that he cares overmuch, given it gives him a perfect opportunity to indulge in his passion for obscene occultic lore and dark magical secrets. The other Kargat find him equally obnoxious, but his ability to perfectly find anything they need in the immense clutter of their bookstore makes him too useful to get rid of.
* AnimateDead: He’s gained the ability to do this once per week as the result of a dark magical pledge he made, involving making the only woman who he cared for and who cared for him into a HumanSacrifice.
* BlackMagic: He’s fascinated with the study of it, and it’s the main reason he works with the Kargatane.
* EvilSorcerer: A pretty standard depiction of one.
* JerkAss: He’s one of the biggest assholes in the cell.
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: He doesn’t really give a damn about the Kargatane’s goals or even his cover job; he just wants to acquire as much secret knowledge as he can, the darker and more obscure, the better. Fortunately, his current role in the cell provides him with vast opportunities to expand his library of secrets, so he’s quite happy to stay with them.
* RedRightHand: He’s picked up two deformities as a result of his evil deeds; his eyes have white irises and grey-red sclera, and his chest is covered in fine gray scales.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jaerdaph Baeloss]]
An albino drow originally from Menzoberranzan, of the Underdark of [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Faerûn]], Jaerdaph grew up in a life of misery and torment even greater than usual for a male drow, due to having been born an albino. Eventually, the cruel treatment of his mother and elder sisters drove him to act out, and he became a rebel against Lolth’s theocracy, progressing from defacing the drow god-queen’s shrines to murdering her priestesses. Eventually, his mother caught him just after he had murdered one of his elder sisters, and only the Mists saved him from her wrath. He wound up in Il Aluk, where he first disrupted Lady Kazandra’s mission to slay a rogue werewolf member of the Kargatane by mistaking her for a whore and accosting her, and then saved her by slaying the forewarned werewolf with his magic. She took him in as a Kargat, and cast him out almost as quickly when she found out what kind of an asshole he was.
* CainAndAbel: In spirit, anyway, since both he and his victim were evil.
* EvilAlbino: Thoroughly evil (ChaoticEvil, in fact), and also an albino due to a birth defect.
* EvilVsEvil: He’s a thoroughly wicked EvilSorcerer himself, but he dedicated himself to brutally fighting his people’s native ReligionOfEvil before he was cast into Ravenloft.
* FatBastard: He’s quite portly, and also a real piece of work.
* {{Gonk}}: Ordinary drow are noted for their eerie, unearthly beauty even despite their cruel hearts. Jaerdaph has the typical drow evil, but is, frankly, repulsive. His albinism makes his skin disgustingly pale, an almost scaly-looking pink-tinged white, and gives him brittle, sickly yellow hair in lieu of the typical drow’s lustrous whiteness. Not that he has much hair, being mostly bald, and he’s also quite fat, in contrast to the usual supple slenderness of his people.
* TheHeretic: He hates Lolth and enjoys killing her priestesses.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Let’s face it, nobody ''really'' cares about his spree of serial killing in his homeworld, since he was targeting Lolth priestesses.
* NeatFreak: A variant; because of his arachnophobia, he’s constantly trying to dust and fumigate the bookshop in order to keep spiders from settling there. He’s been known to offer prisoners a chance to escape if they’ll eliminate all of the shop’s cobwebs and spiders – even the slightest failure, however, elicits vindictive torture.
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Privately, he feels like the Kargatane have absolutely nothing to offer him; even the promise of immortality through undeath is meaningless to him, since as a drow he’ll “live forever” anyway, undeath forfeits earthly pleasures, and [[UndeathAlwaysEnds even the undead can be destroyed]], making it an ultimately meaningless goal to him. The only reason he remains part of the Vallaki cell is because he’s secretly appropriating all the spells and magical items he can from their acquisitions.
* TheStarscream: His ultimate goal? Nothing less than ''overthrowing Azalin and conquering Darkon for himself''.
* VerbalTic: Damage to his lips and tongue gives him a peculiar buzzing sort of lisp, causing him to make elongated Z sounds whenever he tries to use words with an S sound.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He absolutely '''hates''' spiders, being intensely arachnophobic, as a result of his family torturing him with such when he was a child. In fact, it’s so intense that A: he can’t use any spells that make use of spiders in any fashion as part of their material components, and B: he can actually be paralyzed on the battlefield by showing him a spider, after which he’ll instinctively try and flee.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Drawden Selrach]]
A knowledge-seeking, constantly-questioning riddle-peddler, Drawden was lured into the Kargatane by virtue of a dark aspect of his personality, only to be sent on to Vallaki when his weak will and other questionable personality traits proved he was less than capable as a member.
* CommanderContrarian: A variant. Courtesy of a streak of madness planted in him by a wild magic surge, if ever he falls victim to a MindControl type effect, he has a chance to act in the exact ''opposite'' fashion to what he was initially influenced to do.
* FlatCharacter: We know… almost nothing about him. Seriously, his entry in ''The Forgotten Children'' contains barely as much personal information as ''Ryven’s''. Yeah, he’s almost as much of a blank slate as the ''corpse''.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: He can sure sound convincing, and is very quick to offer information to anyone who he thinks needs it, but he really knows a lot less than he has convinced himself. Those who listen to his apparently “expert” advice may occasionally receive some astute information, but will more likely receive absolute drivel that will probably put a person in mortal danger if they take it seriously.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ryven Trylbare]]
The most enigmatic of the Kargat cell, for a simple reason: he fell off of his horse shortly after arriving in Vallaki and smashed his head in, dying almost instantly. Dumbstruck by this, the rest of the Kargat refused to accept his death. They pickled him with quicklime and left him to mummify in a distant corner of the shop, occasionally interacting with him and utterly convincing themselves that he’s still alive.
* TheAce: The Vallaki cell thought he was everything an aspiring Kargat should be, which is why his fatal accident disturbed them so.
* InsaneTrollLogic: The reason why the other Kargat refuse to accept his death – the Kargatane promises immortality to those who are worthy, and Ryven was an excellent servant of the Kargatane. Ergo, ''it’s not possible for a Kargat to die'', and so by that logic, Ryven ''can’t'' be dead.
* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: As mentioned, despite the fact that Ryven is well and truly dead, the rest of the Kargat talk to him and interact with him all the time, treating him as if he were just TheQuietOne.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mynilar Sannom]]
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Sorrows'', the second of the ''Books of S_''. The son of a wealthy family from a small town along Darkon’s Vuchar River, Mynilar’s parents never realized how little their wealth actually meant to the local farmers, and so he grew up being tormented and abused as the “snotty local rich kid” by his fellows. He only won acceptance when he wound up loving an obscene tattoo that they forcibly gave him, impressing them, though that acceptance was lost again when he learned about his allergy to liquor, preventing him from getting involved in their friendly drinking. He eventually moved to Martira Bay, where his realization that he was still an outsider led him to indulging in more tattoos, body piercing, and a growing obsession with writing depressing poetry. Eventually, he learned he could influence people to do what he wanted, and he began honing his talents in this direction. When he tried to make one of Lady Kazandra’s pupils into one of his conquests, he was quickly inducted into the Kargatane, and equally quickly dispatched to the Vallaki cell. The Midway Haven Observatory fan-splat ''The Book of Storms'', SpiritualSuccessor to the Kargatane’s ''Books of S_'', reveals Mynilar’s fate after the burning of Vallaki: [[spoiler: he was actually murdered by his companions and became some kind of undead, trapped in the ruins of their former shop. One member of the Observatory’s in-game characters, Craydon, found the bound undead and received the InUniverse Book of Storms from him, and then another, Druinor, unceremoniously shot him truly dead when he attacked Craydon]].
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler: How he is ultimately slain.]]
* CantHoldHisLiquor: Literally. A single mouthful is enough to make him violently throw up.
* CharmPerson: His favorite spells are this and others along its line, like Suggestion and Friends and Forget.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: His former partners chained him up in a room in their bookstore and then left him to die when they detonated the firebomb they set off in the shop, either from being burned alive, from being crushed in the collapse of the building, or from either smoke inhalation or asphyxiation. Ultimately, he suffered the relatively quick and painless death from smoke inhalation.]]
* FelonyMisdemeanor: He was shipped off to the Vallaki cell because… he insists on going around shirtless to show off his body modifications and he refuses to stop reading people his poems.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: The rest of the Vallaki cell can hardly be said to get on well, but they’re united in their disdain for Mynilar, whom they consider a lazy, arrogant, pretentious, obnoxious prat with an unseemly love of flaunting his body modifications and with an irritating habit of reading them his poetry all the time. [[spoiler: Eventually, this makes them leave him to die in their shop before they flee Vallaki.]]
* {{Goth}}: His love of depressing poetry, tattoos, body piercing and laziness all invoke a pretentious goth-punk poseur sort of motif.
* KarmicDeath: Of a particularly cruel irony flavor. [[spoiler: He is abandoned and left to die by the same “dimwitted louts” he scorned, becoming undead. Then, the aspiring fame seeker has his brains unceremoniously blown out of his skull by a random hero, with neither his killer nor the last person he ever spoke to knowing his name or his history, condemning him to oblivion and obscurity. Nobody will ever remember him in the slightest.]]
* MundaneUtility: He’s very fond of using his CharmPerson abilities to woo attractive women to his bed and to make other people do things for him.
* OnlySaneMan: His attitude pushes him closer to JerkassHasAPoint territory, but he is in many ways the sanest and most stable of the Vallaki cell. For starters, he’s the only Kargat besides Wyan who realizes that Ryven is dead and tries to convince the others of this.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Even by the Vallaki cell’s standards, Mynilar is full of himself, considering himself “above” the mundane drudgeries of their work and refusing to do anything but write poems, read and spy on his fellows.
* TheTeetotaler: Enforced by his allergy to alcohol.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Wyan Twichell]]
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Shadows'', the fourth of the ''Books of S_''. Born to wealthy parents in Nartok, Wyan shunned traditional learning in favor of self-teaching himself about the occult, fascinatedly devouring lore on creatures of the shadows such as vampires and werebeasts. Teaching himself the basics of the conjurer’s art, he became convinced of two things. The first was that vampiredom was a darkly blissful form of immortality, and that to become a vampire was to gain all eternity in which to enjoy depraved hedonism. The second was that the Kargatane’s upper echelons were filled with vampires. He set off to Martira Bay, clumsily ingratiating himself with the Kargatane along the way, and ultimately found his way into their ranks. Inevitably, his blatant commentary about his suspicions saw him packed off to Vallaki within days of joining.
* TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight: The Kargatane really does include a lot of vampires. And other monsters besides. Doesn’t make Wyan any less of an idiot.
* DirtyCoward: As ferocious as his temper is, he’s also a total coward and instantly wilts in the face of anyone standing up to his tirades.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Amongst the Vallaki cell’s personal hierarchy, it’s all agreed that as bad as Mynilar is, Wyan is worse, and they’re united in their contempt for him. They all think of him as talkative, immature, self-important and generally abrasive. Meanwhile, Wyan hates the rest of the cell right back, having little respect and less patience for them, as well as openly considering them to all be dangerously insane.
* HairTriggerTemper: His temper is legendary amongst the Kargat he works alongside, and even minor irritations result in him screaming profanities, smashing whatever is to hand and threatening violence to anyone who catches his eye.
* OnlySaneMan: Aside from Mynilar, he’s the only Kargat in Vallaki who realizes and accepts that Ryven is dead, and the rest of the cell’s refusal to do so causes him to disdain them.
* PetTheDog: The only exception to Wyan’s general lack of compassion is his familiar, Sweetums, an obscenely fat orange tabby cat whom he dotes on shamelessly to a sickening degree.
* TooDumbToLive: He openly voiced suspicions about the secrets of the Kargatane’s upper echelons. That the basic fact – that they were vampires – was true doesn’t change the fact his comments were shocking in both audacity and sheer stupidity. It’s sheer good luck that he wasn’t just killed out of hand.
** Also, he researches the habits and nature of outsiders mostly by summoning and then trying to survive their rampages when the spells wear off. He’s succeeded so far, but as a summoned creature in Ravenloft is trapped there, it’s inevitable that one of his former “test subjects” will eventually come after him.
* WrongGenreSavvy: As stated above, he believes becoming a vampire is a dark sort of paradise, granting you all eternity in which to explore and sate your darkest desires and passions. This is not the case in Ravenloft, no matter how vampires may try and delude themselves otherwise.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Marcel Vendark]]
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Shadows'', the fourth of the ''Books of S_''. The son of a Tepestani wise woman formerly of Kelee and an unknown father, he was tormented and shunned through his life by the superstitious villagers. When he was nine, one of the villagers died despite his mother’s efforts at treating him, forcing the woman to flee with her son lest they be burned at the stake as witches. They settled in Darkon, where Marcel’s growing resentment against his mother led him to steal their money and run away. Found by Vistani, he offered them his mother’s money if they would take him to the nearest town. The Vistani did as asked…by selling him to a Kargatane agent as a slave. However, the Kargat, a skilled wizard, recognized potential in his new serf and took him in as an apprentice. Marcel learned quickly, and eventually killed his teacher and took his place. Unlike the others in Vallaki, he wasn’t assigned to them; rather, he chooses to spend time with them as part of his various plots.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The scary iron helmet he wears makes him look a lot more intimidating, but impedes his ability to see and hear, and muffles his voice to the extent his risks failing spells.
* ControlFreak: He’s obsessed with trying to have control over everything around him. Of course, that’s doomed to failure in a land like Ravenloft, but he’s too demented to care.
* HairTriggerTemper: The slightest hint that things aren’t going smoothly, and he goes absolutely mental, swearing profusely and lashing out at his surroundings – and with his combination of powerful spells and physical strength, he’s truly scary to be around when that happens.
* KlingonPromotion: He killed the Kargatane wizard who taught him and then usurped his holdings and, eventually, his rank in the Kargatane.
* NerdInEvilsHelmet: He wears his trademark scary helmet because, underneath, he’s a rather unimposing baby-faced sort of character. He’s still dangerous, he just doesn’t look intimidating at all.
* NeverMyFault: His sheer arrogance means that he refuses to accept his role in the many, many failed schemes he has suffered.
* UnequalRites: Has a self-loathing fueled resentment of sorcerers, due to the fact that his own failure to inherit sorcerous talents from his Halan witch mother lead to her indifference to him and to him suffering burning feelings of inadequacy.
[[folder:Jorhlan Raynor]]
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Sacrifices'', the fifth and final of the ''Books of S_''. It was quite plain to anyone that the sweet-natured, gentle, child-like, naive, optimistic and good-hearted Jorhlan was not suited to join the Kargatane. His father, an inner circle member named Magnus, refused to accept this, and pulled in every string and favor he could to get his son into the Kargatane. Jorhlan promptly got himself killed on his first mission. But his guilt and determination to please his father allowed his spirit to linger, transforming him into a body-snatching incorporeal undead called an odem… unfortunately, this didn’t change his fundamental nature, and now he was a bungling idiot who was to all intents and purposes immortal. Finally, in frustration, Lady Kazandra sent him to the Vallaki cell, where he would be out of the Kargatane’s way.
* ForgetsToEat: One of the reason his living hosts often die is because, being both undead and kind of stupid, Johrlan has a bad tendency to forget about attending to his host’s vital needs, like food and drink, until it kills them.
* TheGadfly: Taken UpToEleven in comparison to the “asshole” Kargat members. To put this in perspective, he has a special quality to represent how annoying he is. Anyone who spends more than 24 hours in his presence has to make a difficult Willpower save or be unable to resist trying to kill him. He is ''that'' annoying.
* GoodIsImpotent: As his profile puts it, being attacked by Jorhlan is about as likely as being attacked by a damp tissue and only marginally more dangerous. He absolutely hates violence, and is convinced everyone could work their differences out if they’d just try. Unfortunately, he’s no more a diplomat than a fighter, and so inevitably any conflict leads to him fleeing, sobbing over the brutality and ignorance of humanity. He always bounces back eventually.
* GrandTheftMe: What makes him dangerous to others around him; as an odem, he possesses bodies and uses them for himself. Unfortunately, he tends to end up killing his hosts by accident.
* LethalKlutz[=/=]LethallyStupid: The combination of his bungling stupidity, a propensity towards clumsiness, and his nature as an incorporeal undead makes him an unusual example of this trope; he tends to get his hosts killed with alarming frequency, to the point he was going through an average of ''seven bodies a'' '''day'''. This means he’s a rare case of someone being so dangerously clumsy/stupid that they kill themselves, whether by irritating someone until they kill him, walking into danger, or just neglecting his host’s needs to a fatal extent. As an odem, he just left the mutilated corpse behind and went in search of another one. After switching to zombie bodies, he still gets into accidents, but he tends to just shrug off things that would have originally stopped him, like walking into William’s traps, getting stabbed by one of his cellmates, or eating poison.
* ManChild: Johrlan has a fundamentally child-like view on the world around him, an innocence that manages to go past “endearing” and right into “obnoxiously annoying”.
* MasterOfDisguise: Subverted. His attempt to disguise himself to infiltrate a group of smugglers was so damn awful – involving stereotypical pirate costume, complete with stuffed parrot – that the smugglers instantly realized who he was and beat him to death for it.
* {{Nepotism}}: A deconstruction of just how bad this can actually be. It was plain to anybody with eyes that he wasn’t suited for the Kargatane. His father pulled all the strings and played all the favors he could to get Johrlan into the society anyway. Johrlan promptly got himself killed on his first mission.
* ThePollyanna: Jorhlan’s brain is a world of butterflies and rainbows, of teddy bears and ice cream. He’s almost always cheerful, upbeat and optimistic, seeing only the good in life and quickly bouncing back unscathed from any exposure to reality’s cruelty.
* TokenGoodTeammate: He’s the only Vallaki member who has a good alignment (ChaoticGood, specifically). Of course, there are two types of good people in the world: those who inspire people to greatness through their selflessness and benevolence, and those who make the people around them want to kick them. And Johrlan, sadly for everyone around him, falls squarely into category #2.
* TooDumbToLive: Literally! His stupidity got him killed. Afterwards, his possessions tended to end up fatal for his hosts due to his clumsiness, ineptitude and general stupidity. It got to the point that the Kargat started creating zombies for him to occupy because it was generally less dangerous to preserving their cover than letting him continually ensnare living humans for his ultimately short-lived hosts.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Johrlan’s Pollyanna status is so potent that not only is he immune to mind-affecting magic, but anyone stupid enough to try and mentally contact him risks being driven insane by the sheer vapidity of his personality.
[[/folder]]
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:'''Shared tropes''']]
* AuthorAvatar: The Vallaki Kargatane were created as tongue-in-cheek {{Self Insert}}s of the founders/admins of the Shadows of the Kargatane, the first official Ravenloft fan-site and the original publishers of Ravenloft fan-created material. The "Burning of Vallaki", in which their bookshop burned down and they fled into the darkness, is an in-universe explanation for their meta disbanding.
* TheDevilIsALoser: Invoked; they're all evil and willingly sworn to an evil organization, but this is presented in ways to highlight just what absolute ''losers'' they are.
* EvilIsPetty: Calling them "small minded jerks" would not be unwarranted.
* TheGadfly: All of them are in some way highly obnoxious and irritating. Lady Kazandra's spymaster, the half-ghoul Sir Bartholemew Nylreave, hates them so much that his efforts to try and torment them are starting to affect his work.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: With how laughably pathetic they are, it's easy to forget that they're vicious, ruthless, depraved killers who will murder and torture without a second's hesitation if they think it necessary.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: The basic idea behind them all; whether they were incompetent or just plain annoying, they were all sent to Vallaki to get them out of the Kargatane's hair.
* SmallNameBigEgo: They all think that they're actually highly respected and admired by their peers, and that what they're doing is vital, respectable work. Even if they think other members of their cell are idiots, they're convinced that ''they'' are the exceptionally talented OnlySaneMan in comparison.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Ernst Turgadon]]
Born the scion of an Il Alukian noble family, Ernst Turgadon might have grown to a quiet, respectable normality had he not been born with psionic power. Growing up, he was an eerie child, always asking questions that seemed tailor-made to unnerve and unsettle the person he questioned. He was quickly accepted into the Kargatane and made an interrogator when he pointedly asked Lady Kazandra why she worked for Lord Azalin when she seemed to be only loyal to herself. Eventually, she sent him to lead the Vallaki cell, giving him a strange box and telling him to open it in private. When he did so, he found himself knocked unconscious by an unearthly screaming wind that continued to echo in his head afterwards, coloring his voice.
* DissonantSerenity: Ernst never seems to get angry, always seeming calm or even mildly amused, even when he’s being verbally abused or physically attacked. People find this almost as creepy as his voice.
* NeatFreak: A downplayed example. He’s much more concerned with keeping his space neat and tidy than his room-mates are, and has something of a nervous tic of making tiny adjustments to the positions of paintings, books and other objects around the store.
* NoodleIncident: Just what it is that he did to get banished to Vallaki. The other Kargats have very clear reasons why their presence would be considered embarrassing or futile, but Ernst seems quite professional.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Despite his apparent competence in comparison to his cell, he does get involved with a lot of the crazy things they do. Like insisting that Ryven is alive and well, in complete contrast to the actual reality.
* PsychicPowers: Focused on {{Telepathy}} and [[{{Seer}} Clairsentience]] powers.
* TheQuietOne: He doesn’t speak much, both because his haunted voice attracts attention and because ''he finds it creepy too''.
* UncannyValley: InUniverse. Ernst’s voice and emotionally reserved demeanor unsettle people, to the point his questions literally weakened a listener’s willpower in AD&D.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: A variant; Ernst’s voice is constantly underlaid by the faintest unsettling echo of tormented, insane screaming.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:William Gruhman]]
Once, William was the kind of man who would have opposed the evils of the Kargatane. Now, he isn’t that man. Indeed, he’s not any sort of man at all. He’s a podling – a vegetative clone of the original William Gruhman created by a doppelganger plant. The original’s adventuring buddies tried to save their friend’s soul by capturing the podling and forcing a Ring of Mind Shielding onto him before using various protective spells and rights. They severed the bond between the podling and its mother-plant alright, but had failed to account for the podling’s true nature; all that was left behind was an empty shell with the memories of William. The podling killed the adventurers, and then wandered off into the world. Adrift amongst humanity, it found its way into the Kargatane by sheer chance, and then sought to work its way up the ranks; when Lady Kazandra realized that this highly aggressive and ambitious Kargat was immune to her vampiric charms, she quickly sent the potential liability off to Vallaki, telling him that he was to serve as her secret agent amongst their ranks.
* DeathSeeker: Averted. He despises what he is now, but he fears the NothingAfterDeath even more, which is why he stays loyal to the Kargatane; he desperately wants the promised immortality of undeath. Of course, it’s unclear if a podling like him could even ''become'' undead…
* DisproportionateRetribution: When angry, William goes utterly ''berserk'', determined on inflicting as much pain and suffering on whoever has angered him as possible.
* ForgetsToEat: Partially because he doesn’t eat, instead using a magical ring to leech life energy from kills to sustain himself, but because of his nature as a soulless podling, he generally does absolutely nothing unless someone or something else is occupying his attention. If left to his own devices, he tends to sit in a chair and just gather dust.
** Also, truer to the spirit of the trope, he sometimes forgets to use his vampiric regenerative ring, resulting in him starving close to death before he remembers to restore himself.
* HairTriggerTemper: His wrath is easily aroused and legendary amongst his fellows for its savagery.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: He doesn’t understand humanity ''at all'', partly due to being a podling and partly due to being soulless. This makes him prone to asking all kinds of inappropriate questions – the fact he’s obsessed with understanding everything to figure out “the Great Joke” that he believes Fate is playing doesn’t help, of course.
* {{Planimal}}: As a podling, he’s closer to a plant than to a humanoid.
* ShoutOut: As a podling, he’s basically based on the alien clones from Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers.
* SoullessShell: This is true for all podlings, really, but William’s severed connection to the overmind of his mother Doppelganger Plant means he can actually understand what he’s missing, which drives him mad.
* StrawNihilist: He sees all of existence as “the sick joke of an insane higher power”, and has dedicated his unnatural existence to figuring out what this “Great Joke” is.
* TrapMaster: Tends to occupy himself by setting up lethal booby-traps around the bookshop, apparently just for the hell of it.
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: He’s freakishly good at predicting people’s behavior, except when they are being motivated by love. He simply cannot understand the emotion at all, and so his predictions ''always'' fail if he tries to use them on someone being driven by love. This drives him into a frenzy of hate.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Holder Crosspen]]
A Darkonian mage whose fascination with the powers of the occult attracted the attention of the Kargatane; however, Lady Kazandra soon came to regret her decision when she realized just what a grating, abrasive asshole he was. Compounding this with a total inability to respect the chain of command, she quickly sent him packing off to Vallaki. Not that he cares overmuch, given it gives him a perfect opportunity to indulge in his passion for obscene occultic lore and dark magical secrets. The other Kargat find him equally obnoxious, but his ability to perfectly find anything they need in the immense clutter of their bookstore makes him too useful to get rid of.
* AnimateDead: He’s gained the ability to do this once per week as the result of a dark magical pledge he made, involving making the only woman who he cared for and who cared for him into a HumanSacrifice.
* BlackMagic: He’s fascinated with the study of it, and it’s the main reason he works with the Kargatane.
* EvilSorcerer: A pretty standard depiction of one.
* JerkAss: He’s one of the biggest assholes in the cell.
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: He doesn’t really give a damn about the Kargatane’s goals or even his cover job; he just wants to acquire as much secret knowledge as he can, the darker and more obscure, the better. Fortunately, his current role in the cell provides him with vast opportunities to expand his library of secrets, so he’s quite happy to stay with them.
* RedRightHand: He’s picked up two deformities as a result of his evil deeds; his eyes have white irises and grey-red sclera, and his chest is covered in fine gray scales.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jaerdaph Baeloss]]
An albino drow originally from Menzoberranzan, of the Underdark of [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Faerûn]], Jaerdaph grew up in a life of misery and torment even greater than usual for a male drow, due to having been born an albino. Eventually, the cruel treatment of his mother and elder sisters drove him to act out, and he became a rebel against Lolth’s theocracy, progressing from defacing the drow god-queen’s shrines to murdering her priestesses. Eventually, his mother caught him just after he had murdered one of his elder sisters, and only the Mists saved him from her wrath. He wound up in Il Aluk, where he first disrupted Lady Kazandra’s mission to slay a rogue werewolf member of the Kargatane by mistaking her for a whore and accosting her, and then saved her by slaying the forewarned werewolf with his magic. She took him in as a Kargat, and cast him out almost as quickly when she found out what kind of an asshole he was.
* CainAndAbel: In spirit, anyway, since both he and his victim were evil.
* EvilAlbino: Thoroughly evil (ChaoticEvil, in fact), and also an albino due to a birth defect.
* EvilVsEvil: He’s a thoroughly wicked EvilSorcerer himself, but he dedicated himself to brutally fighting his people’s native ReligionOfEvil before he was cast into Ravenloft.
* FatBastard: He’s quite portly, and also a real piece of work.
* {{Gonk}}: Ordinary drow are noted for their eerie, unearthly beauty even despite their cruel hearts. Jaerdaph has the typical drow evil, but is, frankly, repulsive. His albinism makes his skin disgustingly pale, an almost scaly-looking pink-tinged white, and gives him brittle, sickly yellow hair in lieu of the typical drow’s lustrous whiteness. Not that he has much hair, being mostly bald, and he’s also quite fat, in contrast to the usual supple slenderness of his people.
* TheHeretic: He hates Lolth and enjoys killing her priestesses.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Let’s face it, nobody ''really'' cares about his spree of serial killing in his homeworld, since he was targeting Lolth priestesses.
* NeatFreak: A variant; because of his arachnophobia, he’s constantly trying to dust and fumigate the bookshop in order to keep spiders from settling there. He’s been known to offer prisoners a chance to escape if they’ll eliminate all of the shop’s cobwebs and spiders – even the slightest failure, however, elicits vindictive torture.
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Privately, he feels like the Kargatane have absolutely nothing to offer him; even the promise of immortality through undeath is meaningless to him, since as a drow he’ll “live forever” anyway, undeath forfeits earthly pleasures, and [[UndeathAlwaysEnds even the undead can be destroyed]], making it an ultimately meaningless goal to him. The only reason he remains part of the Vallaki cell is because he’s secretly appropriating all the spells and magical items he can from their acquisitions.
* TheStarscream: His ultimate goal? Nothing less than ''overthrowing Azalin and conquering Darkon for himself''.
* VerbalTic: Damage to his lips and tongue gives him a peculiar buzzing sort of lisp, causing him to make elongated Z sounds whenever he tries to use words with an S sound.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He absolutely '''hates''' spiders, being intensely arachnophobic, as a result of his family torturing him with such when he was a child. In fact, it’s so intense that A: he can’t use any spells that make use of spiders in any fashion as part of their material components, and B: he can actually be paralyzed on the battlefield by showing him a spider, after which he’ll instinctively try and flee.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Drawden Selrach]]
A knowledge-seeking, constantly-questioning riddle-peddler, Drawden was lured into the Kargatane by virtue of a dark aspect of his personality, only to be sent on to Vallaki when his weak will and other questionable personality traits proved he was less than capable as a member.
* CommanderContrarian: A variant. Courtesy of a streak of madness planted in him by a wild magic surge, if ever he falls victim to a MindControl type effect, he has a chance to act in the exact ''opposite'' fashion to what he was initially influenced to do.
* FlatCharacter: We know… almost nothing about him. Seriously, his entry in ''The Forgotten Children'' contains barely as much personal information as ''Ryven’s''. Yeah, he’s almost as much of a blank slate as the ''corpse''.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: He can sure sound convincing, and is very quick to offer information to anyone who he thinks needs it, but he really knows a lot less than he has convinced himself. Those who listen to his apparently “expert” advice may occasionally receive some astute information, but will more likely receive absolute drivel that will probably put a person in mortal danger if they take it seriously.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ryven Trylbare]]
The most enigmatic of the Kargat cell, for a simple reason: he fell off of his horse shortly after arriving in Vallaki and smashed his head in, dying almost instantly. Dumbstruck by this, the rest of the Kargat refused to accept his death. They pickled him with quicklime and left him to mummify in a distant corner of the shop, occasionally interacting with him and utterly convincing themselves that he’s still alive.
* TheAce: The Vallaki cell thought he was everything an aspiring Kargat should be, which is why his fatal accident disturbed them so.
* InsaneTrollLogic: The reason why the other Kargat refuse to accept his death – the Kargatane promises immortality to those who are worthy, and Ryven was an excellent servant of the Kargatane. Ergo, ''it’s not possible for a Kargat to die'', and so by that logic, Ryven ''can’t'' be dead.
* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: As mentioned, despite the fact that Ryven is well and truly dead, the rest of the Kargat talk to him and interact with him all the time, treating him as if he were just TheQuietOne.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mynilar Sannom]]
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Sorrows'', the second of the ''Books of S_''. The son of a wealthy family from a small town along Darkon’s Vuchar River, Mynilar’s parents never realized how little their wealth actually meant to the local farmers, and so he grew up being tormented and abused as the “snotty local rich kid” by his fellows. He only won acceptance when he wound up loving an obscene tattoo that they forcibly gave him, impressing them, though that acceptance was lost again when he learned about his allergy to liquor, preventing him from getting involved in their friendly drinking. He eventually moved to Martira Bay, where his realization that he was still an outsider led him to indulging in more tattoos, body piercing, and a growing obsession with writing depressing poetry. Eventually, he learned he could influence people to do what he wanted, and he began honing his talents in this direction. When he tried to make one of Lady Kazandra’s pupils into one of his conquests, he was quickly inducted into the Kargatane, and equally quickly dispatched to the Vallaki cell. The Midway Haven Observatory fan-splat ''The Book of Storms'', SpiritualSuccessor to the Kargatane’s ''Books of S_'', reveals Mynilar’s fate after the burning of Vallaki: [[spoiler: he was actually murdered by his companions and became some kind of undead, trapped in the ruins of their former shop. One member of the Observatory’s in-game characters, Craydon, found the bound undead and received the InUniverse Book of Storms from him, and then another, Druinor, unceremoniously shot him truly dead when he attacked Craydon]].
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler: How he is ultimately slain.]]
* CantHoldHisLiquor: Literally. A single mouthful is enough to make him violently throw up.
* CharmPerson: His favorite spells are this and others along its line, like Suggestion and Friends and Forget.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: His former partners chained him up in a room in their bookstore and then left him to die when they detonated the firebomb they set off in the shop, either from being burned alive, from being crushed in the collapse of the building, or from either smoke inhalation or asphyxiation. Ultimately, he suffered the relatively quick and painless death from smoke inhalation.]]
* FelonyMisdemeanor: He was shipped off to the Vallaki cell because… he insists on going around shirtless to show off his body modifications and he refuses to stop reading people his poems.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: The rest of the Vallaki cell can hardly be said to get on well, but they’re united in their disdain for Mynilar, whom they consider a lazy, arrogant, pretentious, obnoxious prat with an unseemly love of flaunting his body modifications and with an irritating habit of reading them his poetry all the time. [[spoiler: Eventually, this makes them leave him to die in their shop before they flee Vallaki.]]
* {{Goth}}: His love of depressing poetry, tattoos, body piercing and laziness all invoke a pretentious goth-punk poseur sort of motif.
* KarmicDeath: Of a particularly cruel irony flavor. [[spoiler: He is abandoned and left to die by the same “dimwitted louts” he scorned, becoming undead. Then, the aspiring fame seeker has his brains unceremoniously blown out of his skull by a random hero, with neither his killer nor the last person he ever spoke to knowing his name or his history, condemning him to oblivion and obscurity. Nobody will ever remember him in the slightest.]]
* MundaneUtility: He’s very fond of using his CharmPerson abilities to woo attractive women to his bed and to make other people do things for him.
* OnlySaneMan: His attitude pushes him closer to JerkassHasAPoint territory, but he is in many ways the sanest and most stable of the Vallaki cell. For starters, he’s the only Kargat besides Wyan who realizes that Ryven is dead and tries to convince the others of this.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Even by the Vallaki cell’s standards, Mynilar is full of himself, considering himself “above” the mundane drudgeries of their work and refusing to do anything but write poems, read and spy on his fellows.
* TheTeetotaler: Enforced by his allergy to alcohol.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Wyan Twichell]]
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Shadows'', the fourth of the ''Books of S_''. Born to wealthy parents in Nartok, Wyan shunned traditional learning in favor of self-teaching himself about the occult, fascinatedly devouring lore on creatures of the shadows such as vampires and werebeasts. Teaching himself the basics of the conjurer’s art, he became convinced of two things. The first was that vampiredom was a darkly blissful form of immortality, and that to become a vampire was to gain all eternity in which to enjoy depraved hedonism. The second was that the Kargatane’s upper echelons were filled with vampires. He set off to Martira Bay, clumsily ingratiating himself with the Kargatane along the way, and ultimately found his way into their ranks. Inevitably, his blatant commentary about his suspicions saw him packed off to Vallaki within days of joining.
* TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight: The Kargatane really does include a lot of vampires. And other monsters besides. Doesn’t make Wyan any less of an idiot.
* DirtyCoward: As ferocious as his temper is, he’s also a total coward and instantly wilts in the face of anyone standing up to his tirades.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Amongst the Vallaki cell’s personal hierarchy, it’s all agreed that as bad as Mynilar is, Wyan is worse, and they’re united in their contempt for him. They all think of him as talkative, immature, self-important and generally abrasive. Meanwhile, Wyan hates the rest of the cell right back, having little respect and less patience for them, as well as openly considering them to all be dangerously insane.
* HairTriggerTemper: His temper is legendary amongst the Kargat he works alongside, and even minor irritations result in him screaming profanities, smashing whatever is to hand and threatening violence to anyone who catches his eye.
* OnlySaneMan: Aside from Mynilar, he’s the only Kargat in Vallaki who realizes and accepts that Ryven is dead, and the rest of the cell’s refusal to do so causes him to disdain them.
* PetTheDog: The only exception to Wyan’s general lack of compassion is his familiar, Sweetums, an obscenely fat orange tabby cat whom he dotes on shamelessly to a sickening degree.
* TooDumbToLive: He openly voiced suspicions about the secrets of the Kargatane’s upper echelons. That the basic fact – that they were vampires – was true doesn’t change the fact his comments were shocking in both audacity and sheer stupidity. It’s sheer good luck that he wasn’t just killed out of hand.
** Also, he researches the habits and nature of outsiders mostly by summoning and then trying to survive their rampages when the spells wear off. He’s succeeded so far, but as a summoned creature in Ravenloft is trapped there, it’s inevitable that one of his former “test subjects” will eventually come after him.
* WrongGenreSavvy: As stated above, he believes becoming a vampire is a dark sort of paradise, granting you all eternity in which to explore and sate your darkest desires and passions. This is not the case in Ravenloft, no matter how vampires may try and delude themselves otherwise.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Marcel Vendark]]
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Shadows'', the fourth of the ''Books of S_''. The son of a Tepestani wise woman formerly of Kelee and an unknown father, he was tormented and shunned through his life by the superstitious villagers. When he was nine, one of the villagers died despite his mother’s efforts at treating him, forcing the woman to flee with her son lest they be burned at the stake as witches. They settled in Darkon, where Marcel’s growing resentment against his mother led him to steal their money and run away. Found by Vistani, he offered them his mother’s money if they would take him to the nearest town. The Vistani did as asked…by selling him to a Kargatane agent as a slave. However, the Kargat, a skilled wizard, recognized potential in his new serf and took him in as an apprentice. Marcel learned quickly, and eventually killed his teacher and took his place. Unlike the others in Vallaki, he wasn’t assigned to them; rather, he chooses to spend time with them as part of his various plots.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The scary iron helmet he wears makes him look a lot more intimidating, but impedes his ability to see and hear, and muffles his voice to the extent his risks failing spells.
* ControlFreak: He’s obsessed with trying to have control over everything around him. Of course, that’s doomed to failure in a land like Ravenloft, but he’s too demented to care.
* HairTriggerTemper: The slightest hint that things aren’t going smoothly, and he goes absolutely mental, swearing profusely and lashing out at his surroundings – and with his combination of powerful spells and physical strength, he’s truly scary to be around when that happens.
* KlingonPromotion: He killed the Kargatane wizard who taught him and then usurped his holdings and, eventually, his rank in the Kargatane.
* NerdInEvilsHelmet: He wears his trademark scary helmet because, underneath, he’s a rather unimposing baby-faced sort of character. He’s still dangerous, he just doesn’t look intimidating at all.
* NeverMyFault: His sheer arrogance means that he refuses to accept his role in the many, many failed schemes he has suffered.
* UnequalRites: Has a self-loathing fueled resentment of sorcerers, due to the fact that his own failure to inherit sorcerous talents from his Halan witch mother lead to her indifference to him and to him suffering burning feelings of inadequacy.
[[folder:Jorhlan Raynor]]
Added to the Vallaki cell in ''The Book of Sacrifices'', the fifth and final of the ''Books of S_''. It was quite plain to anyone that the sweet-natured, gentle, child-like, naive, optimistic and good-hearted Jorhlan was not suited to join the Kargatane. His father, an inner circle member named Magnus, refused to accept this, and pulled in every string and favor he could to get his son into the Kargatane. Jorhlan promptly got himself killed on his first mission. But his guilt and determination to please his father allowed his spirit to linger, transforming him into a body-snatching incorporeal undead called an odem… unfortunately, this didn’t change his fundamental nature, and now he was a bungling idiot who was to all intents and purposes immortal. Finally, in frustration, Lady Kazandra sent him to the Vallaki cell, where he would be out of the Kargatane’s way.
* ForgetsToEat: One of the reason his living hosts often die is because, being both undead and kind of stupid, Johrlan has a bad tendency to forget about attending to his host’s vital needs, like food and drink, until it kills them.
* TheGadfly: Taken UpToEleven in comparison to the “asshole” Kargat members. To put this in perspective, he has a special quality to represent how annoying he is. Anyone who spends more than 24 hours in his presence has to make a difficult Willpower save or be unable to resist trying to kill him. He is ''that'' annoying.
* GoodIsImpotent: As his profile puts it, being attacked by Jorhlan is about as likely as being attacked by a damp tissue and only marginally more dangerous. He absolutely hates violence, and is convinced everyone could work their differences out if they’d just try. Unfortunately, he’s no more a diplomat than a fighter, and so inevitably any conflict leads to him fleeing, sobbing over the brutality and ignorance of humanity. He always bounces back eventually.
* GrandTheftMe: What makes him dangerous to others around him; as an odem, he possesses bodies and uses them for himself. Unfortunately, he tends to end up killing his hosts by accident.
* LethalKlutz[=/=]LethallyStupid: The combination of his bungling stupidity, a propensity towards clumsiness, and his nature as an incorporeal undead makes him an unusual example of this trope; he tends to get his hosts killed with alarming frequency, to the point he was going through an average of ''seven bodies a'' '''day'''. This means he’s a rare case of someone being so dangerously clumsy/stupid that they kill themselves, whether by irritating someone until they kill him, walking into danger, or just neglecting his host’s needs to a fatal extent. As an odem, he just left the mutilated corpse behind and went in search of another one. After switching to zombie bodies, he still gets into accidents, but he tends to just shrug off things that would have originally stopped him, like walking into William’s traps, getting stabbed by one of his cellmates, or eating poison.
* ManChild: Johrlan has a fundamentally child-like view on the world around him, an innocence that manages to go past “endearing” and right into “obnoxiously annoying”.
* MasterOfDisguise: Subverted. His attempt to disguise himself to infiltrate a group of smugglers was so damn awful – involving stereotypical pirate costume, complete with stuffed parrot – that the smugglers instantly realized who he was and beat him to death for it.
* {{Nepotism}}: A deconstruction of just how bad this can actually be. It was plain to anybody with eyes that he wasn’t suited for the Kargatane. His father pulled all the strings and played all the favors he could to get Johrlan into the society anyway. Johrlan promptly got himself killed on his first mission.
* ThePollyanna: Jorhlan’s brain is a world of butterflies and rainbows, of teddy bears and ice cream. He’s almost always cheerful, upbeat and optimistic, seeing only the good in life and quickly bouncing back unscathed from any exposure to reality’s cruelty.
* TokenGoodTeammate: He’s the only Vallaki member who has a good alignment (ChaoticGood, specifically). Of course, there are two types of good people in the world: those who inspire people to greatness through their selflessness and benevolence, and those who make the people around them want to kick them. And Johrlan, sadly for everyone around him, falls squarely into category #2.
* TooDumbToLive: Literally! His stupidity got him killed. Afterwards, his possessions tended to end up fatal for his hosts due to his clumsiness, ineptitude and general stupidity. It got to the point that the Kargat started creating zombies for him to occupy because it was generally less dangerous to preserving their cover than letting him continually ensnare living humans for his ultimately short-lived hosts.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Johrlan’s Pollyanna status is so potent that not only is he immune to mind-affecting magic, but anyone stupid enough to try and mentally contact him risks being driven insane by the sheer vapidity of his personality.
[[/folder]]
----
