What Are the Mists?
Discover the supernatural Mists of Ravenloft, where roads disappear, worlds collide, and travelers can be carried into the Domains of Dread without warning.
G.R. Vinces4 min read
Welcome to Ravenloft · Reading 3 of 8
The road ahead disappears.
Not into darkness.
Into fog.
At first, there is nothing unusual about it. Cold air. Damp clothes. The sound of your companions somewhere nearby.
Then the sounds stop.
You turn around.
The road behind you is gone.
You keep walking because there is nowhere else to go.
And when the fog finally clears, you are standing beneath a different sky.
In Ravenloft, the Mists are more than weather.
They are borders, pathways, barriers, and perhaps even instruments of whatever power controls the Domains of Dread.1
And nobody truly understands them.
The Borders of Ravenloft
Every Domain of Dread is surrounded by the Mists.
They separate places like Barovia, Darkon, Lamordia, and the other domains from one another, allowing each nightmare realm to exist in supernatural isolation.2
But imagining the Mists as an ocean surrounding islands doesn’t quite work.
An ocean has geography.
The Mists don’t have to.
A traveler entering them might emerge in another domain.
They might return to where they started.
They might wander for what feels like hours—or much longer.
Or they might never reach their intended destination at all.
Distances within Ravenloft don’t necessarily behave like distances on a map.
The Mists decide what connects.
The Mists Can Find You
More disturbing is that you don’t have to already be in Ravenloft to encounter them.
The Mists can reach beyond the Domains of Dread and draw creatures into Ravenloft from elsewhere in the multiverse.3
That means an adventure can begin somewhere completely ordinary.
A road through a familiar forest.
A mountain pass.
A ship sailing through heavy fog.
A campsite surrounded by mist during the night.
Then the world disappears.
When the Mists retreat, the travelers may find themselves somewhere they have never seen before.
This is one of Ravenloft’s defining ideas:
You don’t always find Ravenloft.
Ravenloft can find you.
Traveling Through the Mists
Travel between Domains of Dread is possible.
It simply isn’t dependable.
Most people who enter the Mists without knowing how to navigate them risk becoming lost.4
But some have learned ways to travel through them.
Certain individuals known as Mist Wanderers possess unusual experience crossing the boundaries between domains. There are also mysterious routes called Mist Talismans—objects connected to particular domains that can help travelers reach specific destinations through the Mists.5
Even then, certainty is dangerous.
Ravenloft is not a world where a road and a compass guarantee arrival.
The journey itself can become part of the horror.
When the Mists Become a Wall
There is another reason travelers should fear them.
A Darklord can often close the borders of their domain.6
When that happens, escape may become impossible.
The Mists might become deadly.
A supernatural storm might appear.
Some other manifestation connected to the domain might prevent travelers from crossing its boundaries.
The exact form differs from one Domain of Dread to another.
But the message is the same.
You are not leaving.
Not yet.
What Controls the Mists?
That question is harder.
The Mists are deeply connected to the Dark Powers, the mysterious forces behind the Domains of Dread.7
But Ravenloft deliberately refuses to explain everything about them.
Are the Mists alive?
Are they merely a tool?
Do they have intentions of their own?
Do they carry travelers somewhere for a reason?
Official Ravenloft lore leaves much of that uncertain.
And that uncertainty matters.
The moment the Mists become completely predictable, they stop being frightening.
Ravenloft works because neither its inhabitants nor its visitors can ever be entirely sure where the fog will lead.
Don’t Follow the Road
Somewhere in another world, someone is traveling tonight.
Perhaps they are heading home.
Perhaps they are searching for shelter.
Perhaps they see fog gathering between the trees.
They won’t know about the Domains of Dread.
They won’t know about Darklords.
They won’t know what waits beyond the road.
They will simply walk into the mist.
And somewhere in Ravenloft…
the Mists will part.
Sources & Further Reading
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Wizards of the Coast, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (2021), chap. 3, “The Mists.” The Mists surround the Domains of Dread and function as supernatural boundaries and pathways throughout Ravenloft.
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Ibid., chap. 3, “Domains of Ravenloft.” Domains exist as isolated demiplanes surrounded by the Mists rather than as ordinary neighboring countries on a continuous landscape.
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Ibid., “The Mists.” Ravenloft’s Mists can draw travelers into the Domains of Dread from elsewhere.
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Ibid., “Traveling the Mists.” Movement through the Mists is supernatural and unreliable; entering them does not function like ordinary overland travel.
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Ibid., “Mist Talismans” and material concerning travelers familiar with the Mists. Talismans associated with domains can help guide journeys through the Mists.
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Ibid., individual Domain of Dread descriptions and rules for domain borders. Darklords can close their domains, producing supernatural effects that prevent creatures from simply crossing the border.
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Ibid., chap. 2, “Creating Domains of Dread,” and chap. 3. Ravenloft connects the Mists and Domains of Dread with the mysterious Dark Powers while intentionally leaving the Dark Powers’ exact nature undefined.
Bibliography
- Wizards of the Coast. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2021. Especially chap. 2, “Creating Domains of Dread,” and chap. 3, “Domains of Ravenloft.”
- Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft — D&D Beyond
- Wizards of the Coast. Curse of Strahd. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2016. Barovia provides the setting’s most famous example of the Mists enclosing a Domain of Dread and trapping those who enter.
- Curse of Strahd — D&D Beyond
