Random Darklord Concepts

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I just get ideas for these at the most random moments and I thought it would be a good idea to dump them somewhere.

[The Dark]

I don't have the Planescape knowledge to flesh this character out, but a concept that popped into my head for a Planescape Darklord is a Guvner who's sure they can find a loophole to escape.

Another one that I did flesh out a bit but I don't think I'll use is an Oriental dracolich who (when living) decided humans were too destructive toward nature. The dragon started attacking them, got told to cut it out by the Celestial Bureaucracy, and went rogue, eventually getting Misted. It's the Darklord but not the temporal ruler. The humans of its domain hunt dragons and reanimate them through necromancy to protect their cities from the dracolich, thus removing nature's protectors to create undead guardians from a creature that wants nature protected. By refusing to compromise, the dracolich is making things worse for nature than if it did nothing at all. My inspiration for this one was "The Draconomicon" in Dragon #234, which had rules for creating undead dragons in 2e.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I don't have the Planescape knowledge to flesh this character out, but a concept that popped into my head for a Planescape Darklord is a Guvner who's sure they can find a loophole to escape.

Another one that I did flesh out a bit but I don't think I'll use is an Oriental dracolich who (when living) decided humans were too destructive toward nature. The dragon started attacking them, got told to cut it out by the Celestial Bureaucracy, and went rogue, eventually getting Misted. It's the Darklord but not the temporal ruler. The humans of its domain hunt dragons and reanimate them through necromancy to protect their cities from the dracolich, thus removing nature's protectors to create undead guardians from a creature that wants nature protected. By refusing to compromise, the dracolich is making things worse for nature than if it did nothing at all. My inspiration for this one was "The Draconomicon" in Dragon #234, which had rules for creating undead dragons in 2e.

That's cool AF.

[The Dark]

I like both ideas, since the "home" settings (Planescape and Oriental Adventures/Kara-Tur) are underutilized in Ravenloft. My problem with the first, as I noted, is that I don't have particularly strong knowledge of Planescape. For the second, I have two problems:
1. Somewhat like Bluetspur, it's the sort of domain most PC groups will want to get out of ASAP. Undead dragons and necromancers are bad news in a regular campaign world, let alone Ravenloft. I tend to prefer domains that aren't quite so prone to triggering a Nope Nope Nope reaction from the party.
2. My current homebrew project is on a cluster or small core of domains, and this one doesn't particularly play well with neighbors. It's fine as an island, but for me right now it's not worth developing further. Maybe I'll get to it eventually, but it's very low on the priority list.

[Baron Von Stanton]

I have this idea for a darklord who is an eccentric artist. Before coming to Ravenloft, they were a skilled but frustrated, and insecure artist, always chasing after inspiration and validation in equal and voracious measure. Despite being an extraordinarily talented artist, few attended their shows, and the critics alternated between apathetic and cruelly scathing. This took its obvious toll on the artist's psyche until, upon completion of what they had hoped would be their ultimate masterpiece, the artist underwent a psychotic break where they destroyed their art piece in a fit of despairing rage and set fire to their art studio, with them inside of it.

When the haze cleared, though, the artist found themself in a grand palace filled with their art, transformed into opulent treasures, and staffed by beautiful golem servants who lived only to fulfill the artist's every whim. Outside the palace was a vast garden filled with fabulous vistas and bejeweled pavilions ready to host events at a moment's notice. At the center of the artist's new palace was a rotunda featuring eight huge, blank canvases. With some experimentation, the artist realized that these eight canvases could be used to create entire worlds. By the time they had started a list of ideas, the artist had already created and completed seven such worlds with the canvases. It was then the artist realized that there were only eight of these canvases, and once used, they would lose the ability to create these new idea-lands if they were unwilling to go back and destroy what they've already created.

To add further insult, the palace servants are not sentient, being capable of, at very best, regurgitating a preprogrammed list of polite affectations. The artist receives few visitors and, when they're not wandering the palace halls or the garden paths, they're moping within one of their painting-realms, bemoaning their artistic paralysis.

[SkiBird]

I have this idea for a darklord who is an eccentric artist.

Speaking of art-themed darklords ...

A lot of the OG darklords were a pastiche pulled from existing literary works. Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau, etc.

Has there ever been a darklord/NPC/cursed object based on The Picture of Dorian Gray ?

[IanFordam]

I have this idea for a darklord who is an eccentric artist.

Speaking of art-themed darklords ...

A lot of the OG darklords were a pastiche pulled from existing literary works. Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau, etc.

Has there ever been a darklord/NPC/cursed object based on The Picture of Dorian Gray ?

Stezen d'Polarno, kinda sorta. He shares some vague similarities with Dorian Gray, but there are plenty of differences as well.

[SkiBird]

Awesome, thanks.

[Baron Von Stanton]

I have this idea for a darklord who is an eccentric artist.

Speaking of art-themed darklords ...

A lot of the OG darklords were a pastiche pulled from existing literary works. Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau, etc.

Has there ever been a darklord/NPC/cursed object based on The Picture of Dorian Gray ?

Stezen d'Polarno, kinda sorta. He shares some vague similarities with Dorian Gray, but there are plenty of differences as well.

d'Polarno is effectively the inverse of Dorian Gray, in that, although both have their souls bound to a portrait of themselves that grants them immortality, Gray becomes an immoral monster who can do whatever horrible thing he can conceive without consequence, while d'Polarno has his joie de vivre and raison d'etre stolen from him and kept on a timelock.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

A writer darklord, whose punishment is to first-hand witness the Death of the Author.
Maybe they haunt their domain as a ghost, maybe they reincarnated but have to use a new identity, but for some reason, they're forced to watch history unfold decades and centuries after their death, and see how 'future' (ie present) artists, critics and fans reinterpret their works in completely opposite ways to what they intended. They're never able to comment back and explain their original vision - and even if they could, nobody would care.

[edised]

A fighter in pursuit of martial prowess and to exercise weaknesses (like feelings of guilt or doubt) he removes his heart to become invincible. And proceeds to kill his superiors. He is now cursed to not feel much of anything except physical pain. And he remembers what he was like before

[Mistmaster]

A writer darklord, whose punishment is to first-hand witness the Death of the Author.
Maybe they haunt their domain as a ghost, maybe they reincarnated but have to use a new identity, but for some reason, they're forced to watch history unfold decades and centuries after their death, and see how 'future' (ie present) artists, critics and fans reinterpret their works in completely opposite ways to what they intended. They're never able to comment back and explain their original vision - and even if they could, nobody would care.

how would they be a threat for the PCs? Maybe they can communicate with a selected few fanatics and possess them as a ghost. But their fandom keeps dividing and fighting themselves instead that pursuing their goals.

[edised]

A king and father with a brutal belief in strength, survival of the fittest, he wanted to mold the perfect ruler to replace him. He constantly pitted his children against each other in tests. Always making them strive to be the best.
It came as a shock when he found one of his younger sons, one he deemed a faller, had gained a quiet straight. He gained power by being a diplomat, a negotiator, an administrator. He supported instead of competing with his siblings.
The king was enraged, how dare his son think he can gain the crown by trickery.
The mists came as he looked at his dead son blood on his hands.
Now in a domain deep in war for the crown, his children are taring the kingdom apart to be the last one standing. Worst everyone believes he is dead not naming a successor, his children believe a sibling killed their beloved brother.

[Mistmaster]

A fighter in pursuit of martial prowess and to exercise weaknesses (like feelings of guilt or doubt) he removes his heart to become invincible. And proceeds to kill his superiors. He is now cursed to not feel much of anything except physical pain. And he remembers what he was like before

So, he is now some kind of Death Knight?

[Mistmaster]

A king and father with a brutal belief in strength, survival of the fittest, he wanted to mold the perfect ruler to replace him. He constantly pitted his children against each other in tests. Always making them strive to be the best.
It came as a shock when he found one of his younger sons, one he deemed a faller, had gained a quiet straight. He gained power by being a diplomat, a negotiator, an administrator. He supported instead of competing with his siblings.
The king was enraged, how dare his son think he can gain the crown by trickery.
The mists came as he looked at his dead son blood on his hands.
Now in a domain deep in war for the crown, his children are taring the kingdom apart to be the last one standing. Worst everyone believes he is dead not naming a successor, his children believe a sibling killed their beloved brother.

it seems very similar to Ravenloft's alreasy existing Japan's expy.