From Introduction:
What is Ravenloft?Somewhere, deep within the ethereal mists that fills the void between worlds and link the lands of the living and the lands of the dead, where the passions can be as tangible as iron, a dark and nameless dimension is ruled by dark and nameless powers. Some say it is a prison for the damned; some say it is a crucible to test the virtuous. It is a land of mist and shadow, love and death, sacrifice and seduction, beauty and horror. It is a land of whispered fears made manifest. It is the Realm of Dread.
Perhaps you have sensed its touch? Tendrils of its ethereal Mists sometimes reach out to caress the Material Plane at the behest of its Dark Powers. They stroke the skin at the back of your neck when a creaking floorboard warns that you are not alone in the dark. They are drawn to innocence and villainy, to loathing and desire, to obsession, and to despair. They seek out squandered dreams and inner demons. They savour the decay of the spirit. The Mists snatch up fiends at the moment of their ruin and steal upon heroes in their moments of doubt.
The land itself is a construct, stolen from other worlds or created wholesale from the Mists in imitation. The misted lands respond like no other to the passion plays and conflicts carried out upon them, becoming impregnated with emotion and warping to reflect the most evil villains imprisoned within them.
To what end do the Dark Powers add these souls to their tarnished collection? To torment them? To purify them? To answer the eternal question of whether Good can triumph over Evil? None can say, for although the Mists are easy to enter, they are almost impossible to leave, and few drawn into the Realm of Dread ever leave to tell the tale.
Welcome to the Land of the Mists. Welcome to Ravenloft.