#ebonbane

Domain: Shadowborn Manor Formation: 611 BC Final Score: 💀💀💀 ⚫ ⚫ (3/5 Skulls) Sources: Darklords (2e), Secrets of the Dread Realms (3e), Ravenloft (3e), van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (5e)

Ebonbane is the Darklord of Shadowborn Manor. In van Richten’s most recent guide, the Mists have changed this from a single ancestral home to “The Shadowlands”, which is described as a forested land best known for its order of questing knights known as the “Circle” or the Order of the Circle.

Ebonbane’s history is tied directly to that of the Shadowborn family and in particular, Kateri Shadowborn. Ebonbane is a sword harboring an unnamed fiend forged for the sole purpose of destroying Kateri. The Shadowborn family was one of those do-gooder noble families that are all into donating to charity and other such nonsense, so, naturally, growing up amongst such piety, Kateri became a Paladin to increase her holier than thou aesthetics. Palidanhood suited Kateria and she traveled far and wide smiting foul creatures.

Being old and feeble, like some monster hunters I know that should have retired years ago, Kateri decided to hang up her sword and live out the rest of her days in the Shadowborn Family Manor. Of course, being a hunter of what she deemed to be “evil”, she made many enemies over the course of her life and some of them decided to seek vengeance. It wasn’t enough for them to just kill her, they wanted to do so in such a way that it would destroy her faith.

Priests of an unnamed evil deity created the Ebonbane to serve this purpose. The blade was fashioned from a strange metal from another dimension and carved with archaic, ominous runes of power that glow with an eerie black aura. The Priests summoned a being from the nether regions and sought to bind it to the blade, fully under their control. Foolish. They should have sought out the assistance of a powerful mage, but were secure in the belief that their own faith would be powerful enough to control this being. The spells they had cast to bind and control it were pathetically inadequate and they found themselves slaves to the Ebonbane instead of the other way around. Needless to say, the blade turned upon its creators.

Though, these Priests surprisingly weren’t completely inapt in their casting and they did manage to bestow their hatred for Lady Shadowborn into the blade. Knowing only this drive, the blade found its way into the hands of a monk that served Kateri and taking complete possession of the monk’s body and soul, it came into Shadowborn Manor. A battle of epic proportions raged on through the night, ending only when Ebonbane managed to destroy Kateri’s holy avenger and shortly after landed a killing blow on the aging paladin. This pulled Ebonbane and Shadowborn Manor into the Mists where the blade would be trapped forever as the Darklord of the newly formed realm.

Ebonbane, however, is not aware of its imprisonment, only its continued hatred for the Shadowborn. For, now Lady Kateri lives on as a geist and she can bring those of her blood into the realm in an attempt to slay the evil sword. As you can imagine, the Dark Powers do not make this easy and they play their game over the course of the centuries, neither ever truly winning. However, Kateri has the upper hand as she knows of four elemental keys that, once combined, can be used to destroy Ebonbane forever.

Interestingly, the 5e version of Ebonbane describes the sword as being Kateri’s accursed sword and ties the Shadowlands not only to the Shadowborn family but to Elena Faith-hold and Morgoroth. In past editions, Elena was a fallen paladin and Darklord of Nidala and Morgoroth was a ghost and Darklord of Avoleigh. Both Darklords were tied to the Shadowborn family and I shall be reviewing them in the future.

The success of Ravenloft depends largely on the appeal of its villains, the Darklords, so it makes sense that one of the first supplements for the campaign setting was a collection of additional Darklords, entitled, appropriately: Darklords.

The assortment here is a great one. There’s literary types like Bluebeard and the Headless Horsemen, there’s a couple mummies, a were-panther, an intelligent sword (there is a scenario in a Dungeon magazine that deals with that one brilliantly) and many more. They illustrate the depth and breadth of what a Darklord can be, both in the narrative sense and mechanically.

Which is also to say, they reveal the inherent problem with Darklords. They’re so damn interesting and fleshed out, they beg to be used as foes for your game, but using them presents a host of conflicting challenges. As they are already seasoned characters supported by the Dark Powers, they’re too powerful for any but the most experienced parties to deal with head to head (both physically and politically). But keeping them removed to a safe distance will lead to the party feeling like they can’t accomplish any change in the game world. And if the characters slip into evil, or attain the power to defeat a Darklord, that dilutes the bleak essence of the setting’s horror theme.

The riddle of the Darklords is the great failing of Ravenloft. It is an extremely compelling setting, but, in my experience, one that is extremely difficult to play in, largely because it uses D&D rules. D&D is about accumulating personal power. Horror is about negating personal power. Perhaps if it had mechanics more akin to Birthright or Pendragon?

This was the first issue I got with my Dungeon subscription back in the fall of 1991. I don’t know if it was just good luck, or a personal bias because it was my first, but I consider this a high water mark for the magazine (admittedly, I haven’t read many of them).