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This is a helpful guide to reading Laurell Kay Hamilton's Ravenlofts: Death of a Darklord. I'm saddened to think that it isn't a very sought after novel, but I very much enjoy all the works by LKH. I am sad to say that she didn't get good reviews writing this or Nightseer. But I very much enjoy her Anita series as well as her Merry and can't wait for the new Merry book ETA Dec. 12!



1. Out of Story, What is Ravenloft?: Out of Story, Ravenloft is a setting for the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game where customers would set their stories. It also is the host for a series of novels set in the world. Death of a Darklord is one of those novels.



2. In-story, what's Ravenloft?: In-story, Ravenloft is a "Dark Dimension" where mysterious beings called the Dark Powers pull people from various worlds (mostly fantasy orientated). The dimension, called simply 'the world' by the people inside it, is a Renaissance Era world with a lot of Dark Age level civilizations around it.



The various kingdoms composing Ravenloft are ruled over by individual Dark Lords, these Dark Lords are evil human beings or monsters who have attracted the Dark Powers attention. When they arrive in Ravenloft, the Dark Powers create their kingdoms with whole populations. These populations have false memories and assume they've always been alive, with the surrounding kingdoms also assuming they've always been there.



3. Weird, so where does Death of a Dark Lord take place?: Death of a Dark Lord takes place in Kartakass, a kingdom in the "Core" of Ravenloft. It is a Medieval German themed region where all of the villages are ruled over by Bards. It's Dark Lord is Harkon Lukas, a wolfwere.



4. A wolfwere?: Yes, in D&D werewolves are humans who turn into wolves. Wolfweres are wolves who turn into humans.



5. So what's Harkon Lukas' story?: Lukas is a wolfwere who likes humans and human culture. So he decided to embrace the life of a human. He basically is a flamboyant fop, womanizer, and swordsman. As a bard, it is his greatest regret that he can't leave the domain of Kartakass and is trapped there. He wants to wander the world and build a kingdom for himself, seeing himself a a great leader.



6. Sounds like a nice guy: No, as LKH writes in her book, he's a real jerk. Monsters in Ravenloft can't be good. They're all pretty much evil. In Lukas' case, he's willing to step over any number of corpses to get out of his tiny domain.



7. Why is he trapped there?: All Dark Lords are permanently trapped in their respective kingdoms. They often suffer an additional curse to this. Many Ravenloft novels are about the attempts of a Dark Lord to escape either their kingdom or the dimension itself.



8. Why is magic so screwed up in the novel?: The gods of the D&D universe cannot reach the dimension of Ravenloft. So, instead, the miracles that D&D priests can perform are possibly granted by the Dark Powers. LKH took some dramatic license by making the spells cast in the novels horribly twisted. This isn't normally the case in Ravenloft, with most priestly magic functioning normally.