Pixel_Kitsune
2021-05-30, 04:46 PM
So in another thread someone pointed out that they felt changing the Darklord of Lamordia from a man to a woman impacted the meaning and emphasis of the story. I thought I'd try to lay out Shelley's original work intent, the 2e Victor Mordenheim and the 5e Viktra Modenheim.
Mary Shelley's original work: I won't spend a ton of time here. There are essays abound and more remakes than I could even name. But the original tale of a scientist bringing life from death, a creature not automatically evil but slowly pushed by people's unwillingness to accept and the Dr's drive to complete his experiments regardless of rather or not he should are the focus. More specifically I've seen it said that the primary focus is that Curiosity and Ambition must be tempered by Caution and Compassion.
As an aside some have put these on gender lines. That it is the Male Curiosity and Ambition of Frankenstein without the calming influence of a woman's caution and compassion that leads to the creature being created. I would only say that while such ideas were common once upon a time, the idea that these are gender lines is a societal matter. Nothing stops men from being Compassionate or Cautious, nothing stops women from being ambitious and curious.
2e Lamordian DarkLords: The Darklord of Lamordia in this telling is a twisted take on Frankenstein's monster, not Frankenstein.
Adam is a Chaotic Evil Flesh Golem who despite sharing a curse with his creator, is the true Darklord and power of Lamordia. Adam became increasingly cruel as he experienced life, ultimately attracting the Dark Powers when he killed Victor's wife Elise and kidnapped their daughter, Eva. Victor remains alive, not because Adam has any hidden layers, but because they are tied. Adam experiences Victor's pain and so will not strike at his hated father.
Victor is a slightly more sympathetic take of Shelley's Frankenstein. He shares the obsession with creating life, but he also cared for his family. The night his daughter was taken he discovered Elise was not quite dead and so began taking drastic measures attempting to save her life. He has since then been seen as a madman by the populace who otherwise avoid him. Since the start he has never managed to achieve what he did with Adam and he has been unable to save Elise. His failure drives him on. The truth is he will never save her but does not know it.
5e Lamordia: Viktra takes more of a page from what we expect of mad scientists, she was cold, aloof and distant fairly early on, obsessed with not just creating life but reversing death. This lead to a relationship with Elise, one of the grave robbers she employed. Eventually Elise became ill with something doctors and Viktra could not find a cure for and in desperation she pushed her science to the limit, experimenting and torturing living creatures as well as corpses and eventually creating the unbreakable heart and transplanting it to Elise, saving her life. As justice came for her, and people broke in, swearing she'd pay for her murders Viktra saw Elise rising, her chest glowing, but passed out. She awoke in Lamordia the Domain, where the people celebrated her as a genius and visionary. She doesn't understand them or why they won't leave her alone to her work. She hears rumor and story of a glowing woman in the icy north, but is never able to find the source when she tries to track it down.
So how do these two stories contrast and compare to the Mary Shelley story they come from?
2e's Lamordia is a stereotypical mad scientist story. He is a villain out of negligence. He made Adam without true purpose other than his ambition and it cost him his family. He becomes a somewhat sympathetic character alah Mr. Freeze of Batman fame. He just wants to save his wife. But the Darklord itself? Is a generic monster. Adam is cruel, monstrous, has no motivations other than power and strength. There's very little to him despite HIM being the darklord that must be overcome, not Victor.
5e's Lamordia is almost an opposite. We see a woman who cared, but only about things in her direct circles. She had a purpose for her experimentations, she wanted to further medicine and human life. Her worst crimes came when she was in the depths of her efforts to save Elise. She is a much more understandable figure as most of us have considered doing something wrong for the benefit of someone we care about. Even her current situation bears some more sympathy, she's trying to find her missing Elise, she's trying to live up to what she KNOWS she's done in the past. But ultimately fails. I feel like she's an example of a new kind of Dark Lord where MAYBE they're not quite as evil as we see them and maybe the DarkPowers don't have a twisted benevolence as we thought.
In some ways this makes Ravenloft potentially less frightening, if the Dark Lord isn't always a pure villain maybe you can work with them. But I also feel it allows a more compelling story in the hands of the right DM. Which would you rather play in? A game that involves hunting down a monstrous flesh golem and taking him out in physical combat, meanwhile there's this side story you can almost ignore unless you want to hurt a sad old man in order to get an edge on Adam.. Or would you rather play a game where the "villain" turns out to be far more redeemable and potentially beneficial to society than thought. Where the story to open the borders and save the land might involve finding a scared and lost woman and helping her cope with what she's become, or reunite with someone she loves if that's her wish?
Mary Shelley's original work: I won't spend a ton of time here. There are essays abound and more remakes than I could even name. But the original tale of a scientist bringing life from death, a creature not automatically evil but slowly pushed by people's unwillingness to accept and the Dr's drive to complete his experiments regardless of rather or not he should are the focus. More specifically I've seen it said that the primary focus is that Curiosity and Ambition must be tempered by Caution and Compassion.
As an aside some have put these on gender lines. That it is the Male Curiosity and Ambition of Frankenstein without the calming influence of a woman's caution and compassion that leads to the creature being created. I would only say that while such ideas were common once upon a time, the idea that these are gender lines is a societal matter. Nothing stops men from being Compassionate or Cautious, nothing stops women from being ambitious and curious.
2e Lamordian DarkLords: The Darklord of Lamordia in this telling is a twisted take on Frankenstein's monster, not Frankenstein.
Adam is a Chaotic Evil Flesh Golem who despite sharing a curse with his creator, is the true Darklord and power of Lamordia. Adam became increasingly cruel as he experienced life, ultimately attracting the Dark Powers when he killed Victor's wife Elise and kidnapped their daughter, Eva. Victor remains alive, not because Adam has any hidden layers, but because they are tied. Adam experiences Victor's pain and so will not strike at his hated father.
Victor is a slightly more sympathetic take of Shelley's Frankenstein. He shares the obsession with creating life, but he also cared for his family. The night his daughter was taken he discovered Elise was not quite dead and so began taking drastic measures attempting to save her life. He has since then been seen as a madman by the populace who otherwise avoid him. Since the start he has never managed to achieve what he did with Adam and he has been unable to save Elise. His failure drives him on. The truth is he will never save her but does not know it.
5e Lamordia: Viktra takes more of a page from what we expect of mad scientists, she was cold, aloof and distant fairly early on, obsessed with not just creating life but reversing death. This lead to a relationship with Elise, one of the grave robbers she employed. Eventually Elise became ill with something doctors and Viktra could not find a cure for and in desperation she pushed her science to the limit, experimenting and torturing living creatures as well as corpses and eventually creating the unbreakable heart and transplanting it to Elise, saving her life. As justice came for her, and people broke in, swearing she'd pay for her murders Viktra saw Elise rising, her chest glowing, but passed out. She awoke in Lamordia the Domain, where the people celebrated her as a genius and visionary. She doesn't understand them or why they won't leave her alone to her work. She hears rumor and story of a glowing woman in the icy north, but is never able to find the source when she tries to track it down.
So how do these two stories contrast and compare to the Mary Shelley story they come from?
2e's Lamordia is a stereotypical mad scientist story. He is a villain out of negligence. He made Adam without true purpose other than his ambition and it cost him his family. He becomes a somewhat sympathetic character alah Mr. Freeze of Batman fame. He just wants to save his wife. But the Darklord itself? Is a generic monster. Adam is cruel, monstrous, has no motivations other than power and strength. There's very little to him despite HIM being the darklord that must be overcome, not Victor.
5e's Lamordia is almost an opposite. We see a woman who cared, but only about things in her direct circles. She had a purpose for her experimentations, she wanted to further medicine and human life. Her worst crimes came when she was in the depths of her efforts to save Elise. She is a much more understandable figure as most of us have considered doing something wrong for the benefit of someone we care about. Even her current situation bears some more sympathy, she's trying to find her missing Elise, she's trying to live up to what she KNOWS she's done in the past. But ultimately fails. I feel like she's an example of a new kind of Dark Lord where MAYBE they're not quite as evil as we see them and maybe the DarkPowers don't have a twisted benevolence as we thought.
In some ways this makes Ravenloft potentially less frightening, if the Dark Lord isn't always a pure villain maybe you can work with them. But I also feel it allows a more compelling story in the hands of the right DM. Which would you rather play in? A game that involves hunting down a monstrous flesh golem and taking him out in physical combat, meanwhile there's this side story you can almost ignore unless you want to hurt a sad old man in order to get an edge on Adam.. Or would you rather play a game where the "villain" turns out to be far more redeemable and potentially beneficial to society than thought. Where the story to open the borders and save the land might involve finding a scared and lost woman and helping her cope with what she's become, or reunite with someone she loves if that's her wish?