For this project, I wrote Sumun, Domain of the Grieving King. This domain is a retelling of one of my favourite pieces of ancient literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, inspired in particular by Gilgamesh’s grief-stricken wandering in search for eternal life, following the death of Enkidu.
Whether you’ve read The Epic of Gilgamesh or not, Sumun offers a Ravenloft domain inspired by dark fantasy and disaster horror, and informed by the civlisations of ancient Mesopotamia, where on the receding floodplain of the river Buranun, the lone city of Ašuru stands as the last crumbling holdfast of civilisation, with the horrors of the desert probing its walls for weaknesses. A sputtering flame against the desert winds.
Captain Snowmane’s Guided Cruise Through the Domains of Dread includes a guide to the locations of Sumun, suggestions of how to play a Sumunian character, rules to incorporate the ancient Mesopotamian pantheon into your Ravenloft (or other D&D) games, and several adventure hooks in the land of the spreading desert, as well as rules for its darklord: Shimushnirgal, the Grieving King.
