Let's make MARKOVIA in 5e!

"Not to go on all-Fours; that is the Law. Are we not Human?!"
Greetings once again, party animals! Today, we're visiting the Ravenloft Domain of Dread known as Markovia: a land inspired by H.G. Wells' 1896 novel "The Island of Doctor Moreau." As always, we'll review what the Domain is, list some media to help get an imaginative grip on it, and then sketch out an adventure. Today's adventure is in three Acts, taking PCs from Level 5 through Level 7.
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[@Weinder]

The character of Luther in Umbrella Academy would probably help picture the clumsy behaviour & struggles of a gorilla-man hybrid. Thanks for the vid!

[@justafox5356]

WHOA! THATS MY HEROFORGE MINI!

[@phdnd-drbowers]

Hell yeah! I’m glad I gave you credit! 😅 Thank you so much for making it and sharing it on Reddit. Awesome work! And thank you *very* much, too, for watching and commenting! Very best wishes, and cheers! 🦇

[@godforothchannel4272]

Very interesting stuff… Old Ravenloft sure has some interesting concepts… I kinda wonder how you could adapt the Wildlands and The King Crocodile into a 5E adventure

[@ethanwhite2210]

Glorious :) I love the split path between the Doctor and the brethren in the middle, it definitely opens up several possibilities. Well done, I’ve been waiting for this one!

[@phdnd-drbowers]

Thank you; I'm glad the branching adventure worked! Many of my adventure sketches are linear--albeit linear with clear options to adlib and deviate from the sketch--so this was really fun to do. I actually ran "Neither Man Nor Beast" several years ago, and the PCs had fun running around the island, going back and forth between Markov and the Brethren. The Table of Life, I think, is a particularly scary item. Its description alone is a kind of horror story, and it's one of the things about the original adventure that really seized my imagination. Any other Domains you've been waiting for, which I can check off the list? Thanks again, best wishes, and cheers!

[@ethanwhite2210]

@@phdnd-drbowers Paridon would be awesome, though likely a lengthy video as you'd need to incorporate the industrial urban hellscape above (stalked by Bloody Jack), and the cavernous undercity below (fighting against the xenomorph-like tide and their abhorrent queen). My other domain I'd like to see from you would be Ghastria, if only because I'm as curious about how you'd implement it as I was about G'Henna.

[@herkles5416]

Another good adventure. markovia was always neat for little side adventures you can slide in to other campaigns in the Sea of Sorrows as it is well an island. in the insperation section one thing I would include is the section from Full Metal Alchemist about Shou Tucker, the alchemist who created chimeras. Now while other Chimeras show up in the story, this is IMO one of the more horrorific and darker elements to the story, as he is all about creating animal-human hybrids, and is willing to use his own family as resources.

[@phdnd-drbowers]

Oh, thank you for that reference! I'll take a look soon; I had never before seen Full Metal Alchemist, actually, and it's sufficiently popular for that to be a shortcoming in my media literacy. One thing I forgot to include in this adventure is THE SCENE, as it were: the scene where PCs can follow Dr. Markov into the woods at night, and witness him stand on bonfire-illuminated pedestal before a worhipping crowd of animals. It occurs at a narrative climax in both H.G. Wells' story as well as Jeff Grubb's adventure. Alas, I was so caught up in everything else, it skpped my mind! Thanks very much for watching and commenting, and for this recommendation. Best wishes, and cheers!

[@EvanPiercy]

The talking animals just disappear and the 'Diosamblet' chants and taunts with them. This adventure has me wondering what specifically Markov was planning to do with the Table of Life. I would combine that question with the cultish fervor of Markovian fauna. What is Markov looking to create? Is he perhaps planning on using one of the PCs to create it?

[@KailumsRealm]

Was waiting for this one! Thanks

[@phdnd-drbowers]

Huzzah! I'm glad to be able to release it. Hopefully it lives up to some of your expectations! Are there any other Domains you've been waiting for? Please feel free to let me know, if you haven't already! Thanks for watching and commenting. Best wishes, and cheers!

[@tibot4228]

Love your vids as usual, man!

[@phdnd-drbowers]

Thank you so much! I always enjoy reading your comments. Any suggestions for future content? Best wishes, and cheers!

[@avalontheeldritchwhorror8212]

Love this Domain of Dread! I pledged because I want to help out an AWESOME KZbinr!

[@phdnd-drbowers]

A thousand thanks, very, very much! I'm extremely grateful for your views, comments, and especially your support in this campaign! I promise, the book is going to be a real treat, and we're all having fun working on it! What would you like to see me cover next on this channel? Best wishes, and cheers!

[@avalontheeldritchwhorror8212]

@@phdnd-drbowers I would love for you to cover the domains Paridon and Timor and how it shows the effects of Urban Decay and the fear of caves or the Underground. Also, I love the King in Yellow and especially your take on it and the Sonata you used for the 2nd trailer was AMAZING! You deserve more subscribers because you're an AWESOME storyteller!

[@isaacalien]

​@@avalontheeldritchwhorror8212 I second that request!

[@MerryGrey]

I'm running a character in my Curse of Strahd game just now who fled to Barovia from Markovia - in my backstory I fleshed out the island with a bit of a civilian population in isolated villages, and rather than being an animal hybrid, I had Dr Frantisek gain effective immortality my continually transplanting his brain into a new body as his current one gets too old and frail to carry on his work

[@RavenloftLore]

I never realized that Rod Serling wrote the script for Planet of the Apes. I love Neither Man Nor Beast but when I was young I had no idea what The Island of Dr Moreau was, until I got into H.G.Wells. Another great video sir. I'm amazed at your ability to mine inspiration.

[@isaacalien]

I wonder if i might pose a question to you? You're always curious and excited to know which Domains we would live to see you tackle, but now _I'm_ curious; which Domain do *you* Dread? What's your dragon to slay, which domain do you look at and wonder "How on Earth do I tackle *this?!*"

[@DiMadHatter]

woohoo, another PHD&D video! I find it fascinating how the island of Markovia, populated by misshapen beastmen who revere Markov as a god, is in no way related to Curse of Strahd's Abbey of Saint Markovia, populated by misshapen beastmen, again with some religious connotation. maybe that's an hommage, what do you think?

[@phdnd-drbowers]

Oh, that's a good question! I always assumed that the Abbey's name was an homage to the old 2e Domain. I also assumed that the name of Strahd's bride, Ludmilla, was an homage to Markovia, since that was the name of Dr. Markov's former wife. That could just be my Ravenloft-addled brain reading into things, though! What do you think? I assumed an homage is likely, but it could also be that the writers had a short list of eastern European names, and they coincidentally chose some with old Ravenloft connections... or? Thanks for watching and commenting, and thanks for reaching out in Discord! At your request, I am indeed looking into a deep, thalassophobia-themed Domain of Dread for another video. Keep a lookout for that! Best wishes, and cheers!

[@DiMadHatter]

@@phdnd-drbowers always a pleasure!

[@WonderfulWorldofDarklord]

I never made that connection, but I bet you are right! When they were making Curse of Strahd for all they knew this was the only Ravenloft or even Horror book that would ever be made for 5th edition, so they crammed in as much horror reference content as possible, it seems to me.

[@phdnd-drbowers]

@@WonderfulWorldofDarklord Yeah, well said! As far as the 5e team knew, this was their one shot at bringing the whole Ravenloft campaign setting to 5e, encapsulated in one big Barovian romp. So of course we get the Abbey of St. Markovia, the lich Exethanter (who in my head-canon is Azalin--see my Darkon video), the Tepest-esque hag coven, etc. Of course, this is hard to demonstrate in some cases, since it's not clear which fantasy tropes in the adventure are inspired by Darklords, and which Darklords of yore are inspired by existing fantasy tropes... By the way, I love your work; it's lovely to see you comment here. Let me return the favor this week! My apologies for being absent on your end. The first syllable of "Kickstarter" is no joke, and it's definitely been doing that to me! Let's stay in touch! Best wishes, and cheers!

[@WonderfulWorldofDarklord]

@@phdnd-drbowers Oh, no worries! Our episodes are...very long. The King in Yellow looks really cool, by the way, I'm excited to get a look at it. I think you did a good job upfronting the obvious question "why another lovecraft-adjacent rpg?" I did a bunch of spelljammer adventure seeds using Ravenloft monsters for a thing, and I made a "King in Yellow play is invading the real world" idea with a Star Spawn emissary as the boss fight (its D&D, got to have a boss fight). Good luck with the game!