Editing Ravenloft (section)

==History==
Ravenloft began as a 1e D&D module officially titled [[I6: Ravenloft]], created by [[Tracy_Hickman|the Hickmans]] fresh off the [[I3-4-5: Desert of Desolation]] series. Their reason for Ravenloft was that they believed that [[vampire]]s had become trite, overused and mundane, so they sought to go back to classic Gothic Horror novels and Universal Horror films to make a "truly scary" vampire (it ''was'' 1983 when they published it). Module I6 was later followed by the [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] module [[I10: Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill]], which was based on outlines that the Hickmans had written before leaving [[TSR]] and was officially credited to them; this introduced the rudiments of the later domain of Mordent and the future darklord Azalin the [[Lich]]. 

Both modules were huge successes, which inspired [[TSR]] to build upon lore from the two modules and craft the entire Ravenloft campaign setting. In AD&D, the setting's nature as a patchwork of prisons was played up; the default assumption was that it would be for "Weekend in Hell" games (a term the setting coined), where players would be outlanders swept up in the mists and jerked around by the DM before managing to escape. Ravenloft was loaned out to [[White Wolf]]'s [[Sword & Sorcery]] sub-company as part of 3rd edition, and Arthaus Publications drastically expanded the Ravenloft setting, making it into a more cohesive setting that functioned on its own, rather than being so cross-over defined; Ravenloft D20's assumption was that PCs should aim to be natives, and they toned down the [[grimdark]] to further facilitate that. Unfortunately, probably because of the fact it wasn't [[Wizards of the Coast]] who did the expanding, the D20 version of Ravenloft has been ignored by WoTC. It's not like they followed on from 2e-3.5 anyway in the 4e and 5e Ravenlofts. To note, the expedition to castle ravenloft module for 3.5 by WoTC is not canon (citation needed), and is simply a remake of the original adventure, the 2e demiplane of dread being the active plane of interest still rings true.

Ravenloft was reduced to just a few token mentions in the 4th edition, where Strahd appeared in the [[Open Grave]] [[splatbook]] and Domains of Dread were boiled back down to their "Weekend in Hell" idea as cursed realms within the [[Shadowfell]], but received a royal treatment in 5e with the release of [[Curse of Strahd]], an updated, rewritten release of the original I6 module.  Or, this was the case until a new book was announced, see below.

Ironically, the Hickmans are notorious for hating the setting they ultimately created, in one part because of their notorious disdain for "crossovers" between D&D settings and for another because a different author for TSR wrote a very well-written novel - ''Knight of the Black Rose'' - in which [[Lord Soth]] of [[Dragonlance]] was made into a Darklord.  Fans loved the idea, but in the end, he became the only Darklord ever to escape the Land of Mists when they first drew him back to Krynn, then killed him off so no one could have him.

The most important parts of Ravenloft are probably the contents on [[lich]] and [[vampire]] lore provided by professor [[Rudolph Van Richten]], the now deceased monster hunter of the demiplane, Ricky dick is known for getting back-stabbed by [[Vistani]] and being maybe too generous with the information he supplied in his works, on account of nearly getting his heart carved out by one of his best friends because he thought it was a good idea to detail almost all of the lich ritual requirements. In 3.5, you will find some of the salient abilities he wrote for Liches in Monsters of Faerun updated. He also literally wrote the book on several other Gothic monsters, namely [[therianthrope|werebeasts]], [[mummy|mummies]], [[golem]]s, [[fiend]]s and [[witch]]es - see [[Van Richten's Guide]]. 

When horror themes started becoming popular again in the years around 2010, people remembered again that Ravenloft existed. Wizards of the Coast reintroduced the world to the mainstream D&D cosmology by saying that its domains lie within a mirror-plane of the Prime Material, making the aforementioned connection device canon. There were also a bunch of [[Innistrad|imitators in settings and games where you really wouldn't expect it]].

So, yeah. If you like ''Wuthering Heights'', ''Ethan Frome'', or ''[[Castlevania]]'', you'll probably love Ravenloft. Fun fact; the Japanese version of the original NES Castlevania's cover art was basically ripped straight from the first Ravenloft cover art.