Lord Soth became trapped in Ravenloft in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. He would make his way out, but let’s take a look at his domain within Ravenloft called Sithicus. Buy When Black Roses Bloom: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17528/When-Black-Roses-Bloom-2e?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
It’s known as the Land of Specters in elvish, let’s learn more about Lord Soth’s domain of Dread.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Sithicus, Lord Soth’s domain in Ravenloft. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. I am referencing Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Revised, Boxed Set and the When Black Roses Bloom Ravenloft Official Game Adventure for this episode. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below.
Discussion
Ravenloft is a terrifying, illogical realm, filled with a myriad of domains and islands all surrounded by mist. This mist is controlled by the Dark Powers, a wholly unknown, mysterious force that holds absolute power over who enters or leaves this Demiplane of Dread. To fully contextualize and understand the domain of Sithicus, one must understand its founding Dark Lord, Lord Loren Soth. I have produced a video all about Lord Soth’s rise to prominence in the Knights of Solamnia and subsequent fall to a Death Knight. I would recommend revisiting that video for context. Sufficit to say, one must understand the unflinching desire of Lord Soth to have the soul of his compatriot, the late Dragon Highlord Kitiara Uth Matar. They had worked together in the War of the Lance and the subsequent Blue Lady’s War, where Kitiara met her end. Lord Soth took Kitiara’s body, against the dying wish of Kitiara herself, who pleaded with Tanis Half-Elven to not allow Soth to take her. The problem arose when Takhisis, the Queen of Darkness took Kitiara’s Soul for herself. The Dark Queen would end up playing Kitiara’s Soul against Lord Soth and later Kitiara’s Blue Dragon Khellendros, otherwise Known as Skie or The Storm over Krynn in the Fifth Age.
Lord Soth sent his loyal Seneschal, Caradoc, a former knight himself, who followed Soth into damnation, to seek out Kitiara’s soul in the Outer Plane of Baator. Caradoc was actually successful, but withheld the soul, trapped in a Black Sapphire set into a medallion, from Lord Soth, until the Dark Lord spoke to Chemosh on Caradoc’s behalf, seeking to regain his life. Lord Soth was so furious, even though Caradoc was a ghost, he strangled him and broke his ghostly neck. Just then, the Dark Powers sent the mists to Dargaard Keep, and lured Lord Soth and Caradoc in with the voice of Kitiara. To make a long story short, Lord Soth sought and ultimately recaptured Caradoc at the misty border in Gundarak. Soth destroyed Caradoc for his treachery and the mists swallowed Soth, creating an entire domain of Dread around him in 720 Barovian Calendar, as the other Dark Lords suffered. The Dark Powers formed a land called Sithicus which acted like a prison for Lord Soth, forever keeping him from the soul he sought.
The domain of Sithicus is located in the southwest region of the core, east of Valachan, and south of Verbrek and Invidia. It is densely forested. Its massive trees blot out the sun, creating a sense of eternal darkness below. It is lush with tangled ivy and ferns that carpet the earth beneath, creating the perfect hiding place for all sorts of dangerous insects, rodents, and snakes. Travel in Sithicus is done primarily through main roads which connect its principal cities. Though there are a fair amount of worn wagon trails spanning all over the lands. The land itself consists of narrow valleys, crumbling cliffs and deep chasm’s. The lowlands are dotted with bubbling springs and shallow pools.
The domain is populated primarily by elves, not unlike the Silvanesti elves of Krynn. Again everything in the domain is meant to torment its dark lord, and as it was the elf maidens that turned Lord Soth back to Dargaard Keep to murder his wife and son rather than redeem himself by stopping the Kingpriest just before the cataclysm, he despises elves more than any other race. The elves themselves have nowhere else to go, they are as trapped in Sithicus as its dark lord is. The domain has darkened the natures of the elves, and their major cities of Mal-Erek, Hroth, and Har-Thelen are mere shadows of their Krynnish counterparts. The only humans in the realm are a Vistani tribe called the Wanderers, so named after Magda the Wanderer, a one time, unwilling guide for Soth. When Soth and Count Von Zarovich murdered her tribe, she formed a new one in Gundarak and mistakenly passed into Sithicus where they are now trapped. Sithicus is also home to a small band of vampire kender who dwell in the village Kendralind. The twenty five vampire kender were experiments of Lord Soth who invoked the favor of the Dark Powers. Lord Soth was looking for a new, absolutely loyal breed of undead. After torturing and murdering them, he used dark magics and around half survived to be damned for eternity, trapped in Sithicus, bound to do Lord Soth’s bidding, more out of fear than loyalty. Gone are their joy filled natures replaced by creatures of evil, cursed with a sad and tormented demeanor.
Soth’s castle is a twisted version of Dargaard Keep called Nedragaard Keep. It is nestled between two arms of an imposing ridge. It appears to have been carved from the very mountain it rests within, featuring tapered slopes which resemble a rosebud. The name itself means “not Dargaard’ in the ancient Solamnic tongue. Within its halls, the floors are covered with dust and sooty footprints from Soth himself. The furnishings are covered with mold and are actively rotting away. Lord Soth’s loyal knights are with him, even in death in the form of thirteen Skeletal warriors, who roam the halls, protecting their lord’s sanctum. Every night, Thirteen banshees torment their dark lord on his throne, singing his fall from grace. Though because this is a dark and twisted version, even of the dark and twisted Dargaard Keep, nothing operated quite as it should. The minions often wander or the tales differ slightly, adding further torment to the militaristic, and regimented mind of Lord Soth.
At night, the sky appears moonless, though it does hold Nuitari in the heavens, visible to black robed wizards exclusively. The phases of the moon affect wizards similarly to Krynn. The constellations are but tiny pinpoints of Krynn’s sky with Paladine’s constellation torn asunder, and Takhisis’ glowing bright. The borders of Sithicus are controlled completely by Lord Soth. He is able to seal his borders by repeating the dismal ballad of his fall, and all near the border may fall hopelessly mad from hearing it. Lord Soth finds himself lost to time and revelry of days long past. He lets his new Sceneshal, Azrael Dak, a dwarf-werebadger control the realm. They have been together since Soth’s initial entry into Barovia through the mists from Krynn. Azrael seeks to overthrow Lord Soth, with a Vistani named Inza Kulchevich, and nearly succeeded, but Lord Soth redeemed himself during the Hour of Screaming Shadows and either earned his freedom from Sithicus or the Dark Powers had their fill of him and returned him to Krynn in 752 Barovian Calendar. Azrael and Inza subsequently became the king and new darklord of Sithicus, which changed to reflect their natures.
Outro
But that is all I have to say about Sithicus. I hope you enjoyed the information. What do you think about Lord Soth’s Domain? Should TSR ever have taken Lord Soth from Dragonlance? And finally, have you ever played an AD&D 2e game set in Sithicus? Leave a comment below.
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Until we conquer the evils within ourselves we can never conquer the great evil that threatens to engulf us!
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