Editing Ravenloft (section)

===The Dark Powers===
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The Dark Powers are a malevolent force who control the Demiplane of Dread. Their exact nature and number are deliberately kept vague, allowing for plot development in accordance with the [[Gothic novel|Gothic]] tradition of storytelling – where the heroes are frequently outclassed and outnumbered by unknowable evil forces beyond their control.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bicudo de Castro |first1=Vicente |last2=Coelho |first2=Heitor |last3=Frambach |first3=Danilo |date=2023 |title=Mistification: The Dreadful Side of Cloud Computing |url=https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/coolabah/article/view/43188 |journal=Coolabah |issue=34 |pages=91–111|doi=10.1344/co20233491-111 |s2cid=259964519 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The Dark Powers most frequently serve as a plot device for Ravenloft, especially concerning the Darklords, the {{lang|la|de facto}} visible rulers of the Ravenloft Demiplane. Where the player characters are often tormented and opposed by the Darklords, the Darklords are themselves tormented and opposed by the Dark Powers. The difference lies in order of power—while many ''D&D'' adventures focus on allowing a band of heroes to prevail over a Darklord (much as in the spirit of Bram Stoker's novel ''[[Dracula]]''), no such victory over the Dark Powers seems possible, or even conceivable, for the Darklords. [[Vecna]] and [[Lord Soth]] "escaped" Ravenloft, but are the only two Darklords known to have done so; Vecna by attaining the status of Greater God (and thus becoming too powerful for the Dark Powers to contain) and Lord Soth by ignoring his domain and punishment, causing the Dark Powers to lose interest in imprisoning him, and agents of his former curse on the world of [[Krynn]] coming to collect him.

Most frequently, the Dark Powers make their wishes and intentions known through subtle manipulations of fate. Thus, [[Barovia]]'s vampire lord [[Strahd von Zarovich]]'s many attempts to win back his love, Tatyana, are doomed to failure, but the Dark Powers arrange such that he never truly loses hope. Each time, for example, Strahd's own actions may be partially culpable for his failure, and as such he may go through crippling self-recrimination, rather than cursing the gods solely and giving up. Most other Darklords have similar tales of frustration, kept all the more unbearable because the flicker of the possibility of success is never truly extinguished.

Not all Darklords acknowledge the Dark Powers directly, however. Strahd, for example, in his own memoirs, speaks only of a force known as Death, who mocks him with the voices of his family and former colleagues throughout his life. [[Vlad Drakov]], the Darklord of Falkovnia whose military expeditions are doomed to constant failure, seems even to be totally oblivious to any non-mortal factors in his repeated defeats.

The Dark Powers also seem capable of non-evil manipulations. Although their machinations are often directly responsible for the misery of many of Ravenloft's inhabitants, they also appear to play a role as dispensers of justice. Some tales of innocents who have escaped Ravenloft for happier environs are attributed to the Dark Powers, who have judged a being worthy of reward and release from their misty domain.