Ambiguously Human: Difference between revisions

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Ravenloft]]'':

* In ''Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani'', the good doctor himself (who might actually have something of an excuse to believe the Vistani are unholy abominations) does claim that the Vistani are not monsters, but people. Having said that, the Vishtani are very different from other humans in the demi-plane, as they seem to have a supernatural connection to the land itself that makes them stand out. They can navigate the mist far more safely than the average person, and their notorious curses have have a far better chance of taking hold than anyone else’s. (Although, one Vishtani in the aforementioned book told Van Richten that this is more a case of cultural knowledge of how the demiplane worked than any supernatural ability) they also have disadvantages that other humans do not have, which explains their nomadic nature. If a Vistani stays in one place too long, she experiences an illness called “static burn” that causes her to lose her connection to the demi-plane, and causes other vistani to regard her as an outcast.

** Taking this even further, the faction of Vishtani who travel with the Carnival, who are called the Skurra. These Vistani wear strange face paint (similar to that of mimes), never speak, and seem impervious to the Twisting, a curse that eventually inflicts a karmic type of body horror on anyone who travels with the carnival long enough. (Their spokesperson, who does indeed talk, claims the face paint is what shields them, and that not speaking is a condition for it to work.) Some believe they are, in fact, some type of ghosts, but [[Loose Canon| this is true only if the [[Game Master]] wants it to be]].

** The Aber Nomads, who populate the Nightmare Lands. Described as having a culture and language that is “completely alien to any found elsewhere in the demi-plane” (suggesting they are from [[Beyond the Fourth Wall]], seeing as they resemble Native Americans) they have do not dream and have an odd outlook on reality that gives them a natural resistance to the horrors of the domain; at very least, theirs are the only human communities able to live there safely.