Vistani

{{Short description|Fictional ethnic group}} {{Infobox fictional race | name = Vistani | other_names = | series =  | image = | alt = | caption = | first_major = Ravenloft: Realm of Terror | first_minor = Ravenloft | first_date = | last_major = Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft | last_minor =  | last_date = | creator = Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman | based_on = Romani people | iu_creator = | iu_created_date = | quadrant = | home_world = | capital = | base_of_operations = | type = | sub_races = | distinctions = | language = | currency = | religion = | affiliation =  | leader =  | members = }} The '''Vistani''' are a nomadic ethnic group in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. They are based on depictions of the Romani people, and over time this depiction has been criticized as overly stereotyped and pejorative, and subject to some revisions in the ''D&D'' canon.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":32" />

Since their introduction in the original ''Ravenloft'' module (1983) as fortune-tellers, they became a unifying element in the Ravenloft and Victorian Age Masque of the Red Death campaign settings, which offer Gothic horror scenarios.

== Publication history == The revised 2nd Edition boxset ''Ravenloft Campaign Setting'' (1994) provided an update to the description of the Vistani people that appeared in ''Ravenloft: Realm of Terror'' (1990). The boxset had "the best background" on the Vistani people until the dedicated 2nd Edition supplement ''Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani'' (1995).<ref name=":15">{{Cite web|last=Appelcline|first=Shannon|title=Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Revised, Boxed Set (2e) {{!}} Product History|url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28838/Ravenloft-Campaign-Setting-Revised-Boxed-Set-2e|access-date=2021-05-13|website=DriveThruRPG|language=en}}</ref> Depictions of the Vistani people were later revised in the 5th Edition ''Curse of Strahd Revamped'' (2020).<ref name=":22" /> Their portrayal was further retconned in ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' (2021).<ref name=":0" />

==Background== In a Ravenloft adventure, the players are generally confined to a region from which they must escape by solving one or more problems. The Vistani help the referee ("Dungeon Master") with the mechanics, especially in allowing players to interact and negotiate with strangers from a different culture. Their abilities have been developed accordingly.

* Vistani have some control of the Mists of Ravenloft, which divide realms.<ref>{{Cite web|date=August 6, 2020|title=Is Dungeons & Dragons Getting Ready to Return to Ravenloft?|url=https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/dungeons-and-dragons-ravenloft-return-subclasses/|access-date=2021-05-14|website=ComicBook.com|language=en}}</ref> Players generally need help from the Vistani to travel reliably from one open realm to another. * Vistani possess a powerful wanderlust, and cannot stay within a mile of a given point for more than a week before suffering a condition called "Static Burn," where the Vistani is afflicted with an illness resembling the flu or a fever. When this occurs, the Vistani has between 2 and 7 days to cross the necessary ground or permanently lose all of their mystical powers, becoming an outcast known as a ''mortu'', which translates roughly as "Living Dead." This mechanic ensures that contact with helpful Vistani will occur only when the Dungeon Master wishes. * Vistani possess powerful, innate magical abilities that recall Romani as imagined in popular culture. "Curse Potency" is self-explanatory: curses in Ravenloft have great power, and the curses of Vistani are more likely to come true. "The Evil Eye" is the ability to mystically blight another person's luck, whilst "the Sight" is powerful divination magic, allowing them to predict the future. The Sight is only allowed to exist amongst Vistani women; it does occur in Vistani men, but any male babe detected to have the Sight is slain. * Vistani society has ranks: ''Raunie'' is the title of the female Vistani in the camp with the most power in the Sight. A ''Darkling'' is a Vistani criminal who has been cast out from the tribe; they hate and are hated by Vistani. A ''Dukkar'' is a male Vistani born with the Sight who has grown to adulthood. Such a being will inevitably bring great suffering to the Vistani. The only Dukkar alive is a half-fiend who rules the domain of Invidia (but is not the darklord for that domain). The Vistani who wrote the prophecy foretelling the Grand Conjunction was inferred to be a dukkar.

The fictional character Rudolph van Richten, a famous Monster Hunter in Ravenloft and author of a series of guides to hunting and slaying various monsters, had a great enmity for the Vistani for most of his monster-hunting career, but his opinion improved during his penning of ''Van Richten's Guide To The Vistani'', during which he befriended a ''mortu''.

==Legacy== The Vistani people were "described as superstitious"<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-10-22|title=Curse Of Strahd Revamped: What It Changes From The Original|url=https://www.thegamer.com/curse-of-strahd-revamped-what-changes-vistani/|access-date=2021-05-14|website=TheGamer|language=en-US}}</ref> and had "abilities to curse and hypnotize players or cast spells like Evil Eye".<ref name=":22" /> They were also originally stereotyped "as 'uncivilized' and heavy drinkers", however, this portrayal was removed in the 2020 ''Curse of Strahd Revamped'' adventure module.<ref name=":22" /> As part of the retcon in ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' (2021), the Vistani people are no longer considered superstitious but instead focused on their traditional practices and their abilities are grounded in the forms of magic found in ''Dungeons & Dragons''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Hall|first=Charlie|date=2021-05-18|title=Dungeons & Dragons retcons one of its most problematic characters|url=https://www.polygon.com/22440453/dungeons-dragons-ezmerelda-davenir-retcon-van-richtens-guide-to-ravenloft|access-date=2021-05-18|website=Polygon|language=en}}</ref>

Wizards of the Coast stated that in the 5th edition adventure ''Curse of Strahd'', "the adventure includes the latest errata and a revised depiction of the Vistani" who are based on stereotypes about the Romani people.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Macgregor|first=Jody|date=2020-08-03|title=Popular D&D tabletop campaign Curse of Strahd is being re-'vamped'|url=https://www.pcgamer.com/popular-dandd-tabletop-campaign-curse-of-strahd-is-being-re-vamped/|access-date=2020-11-21|website=PC Gamer|language=en-US}}</ref> In 2020, Wizards of the Coast announced<ref>{{Cite web|last=Rocket|first=Stubby the|date=2020-06-29|title=Wizards of the Coast Takes Steps Towards Changing Racist Dungeons & Dragons Content|url=https://www.tor.com/2020/06/29/wizards-of-the-coast-takes-steps-towards-changing-racist-dungeons-dragons-content/|access-date=2021-02-24|website=Tor.com|language=en-US}}</ref> that "in the editorial process for ''Strahd''’s reprint, as well as two upcoming products, Wizards worked with a Romani consultant to present the Vistani without using reductive tropes".<ref>{{Cite web|date=June 18, 2020|title=Dungeons & Dragons Team Announces New Plans to Address Race and Inclusivity in the Game|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/dungeons-dragons-team-announces-new-plans-to-address-1844084273|access-date=2021-02-24|website=io9|language=en-us}}</ref> On ''Curse of Strahd Revamped'', Jon Ryan, for ''IGN'', wrote "the updates to the adventure itself mostly consist of previously-published amendments to the book, such as tweaks to an additional character option or corrections of printing errors, but the most notable updates are to some items that were deemed insensitive or offensive after the original publishing [...]. It's worth noting that the book's illustrations of the Vistani still evoke Romani culture, and some players may still associate certain abilities [...] with outdated cultural stereotypes".<ref name=":32">{{Cite web|last=Ryan|first=Jon|date=July 27, 2020|title=Exclusive: First Look at D&D's 'Curse of Strahd Revamped' Collector's Edition|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/dnd-curse-of-strahd-revamped-reveal-unboxing|access-date=2020-11-21|website=IGN}}</ref> Julie Muncy, for ''Io9'', criticized the "granular changes" to the Vistani people as not very extensive and that "while there's a real opportunity here to do better work—the aforementioned diversity pledge also mentioned future works that will feature the Vistani people and aim to complicate their depictions—starting that work with a fancy collector's edition feels less like a promise to do better and more like a victory lap".<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|last=Muncy|first=Julie|date=July 27, 2020|title=D&D's Culturally Sensitive Strahd Revamp Is Here, But It'll Cost You [Updated]|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/d-ds-culturally-sensitive-strahd-revamp-is-here-but-it-1844521228|access-date=2020-11-21|website=io9|language=en-us}}</ref> Muncy highlighted that the errata and the ''Revamped'' edition "sought to undo some of the harmful stereotyping of the Vistani people, along with revising the book's approach to a specific character's disability to avoid ableist stereotypes. [...] While modifications do fix things like the stereotyping of the Vistani people as 'uncivilized' and heavy drinkers, the module still gives the Vistani abilities [...], along with unrevised art that heavily conjures stereotyped imagery of the Romani, leans into tropes that suggest the Romani have mystical, dangerous powers, tropes that have been used in the past to target Romani for persecution".<ref name=":22" />

In 2021, Charlie Hall, for ''Polygon'', wrote, "Those who open up ''Van Richten's Guide'' on May 18 will find a very different version of the Vistani. They are described without the primitive veneer of superstition that formerly accompanied them. [...] In addition, their culture is redefined as one steeped in tradition, but also one that looks with hopeful eyes toward its own future. While the Vistani keep their covered wagons and their nomadic lifestyle, their visitations across the many realms of the D&D multiverse are now celebrated, rather than greeted with near-universal suspicion. Most importantly, they are no longer subjugated by one of the game's most powerful villains".<ref name=":0" /> Marley King writing for ''Screenrant'' noted that the recent "retconning... did little to fix the problematic depiction of the Vistani", noting that while they are now allowed to have non-evil alignments and some controversial descriptions of them as uncivilized drunkards were removed, they still are generally portrayed as "wandering charlatans" with "dark, mysterious powers", including the "Evil Eye".<ref>{{Cite web|last=King|first=Marley|date=2021-08-02|title=Why D&D's Vistani Are Still Problematic|url=https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-vistani-race-romani-offensive-dnd/|access-date=2021-09-26|website=ScreenRant|language=en-US}}</ref>

==Additional reading== *{{cite book | last1 =Nesmith | first1 =Bruce | authorlink1 =Bruce Nesmith | first2=Andria|last2=Hayday|authorlink2=Andria Hayday | title =Realm of Terror | publisher =TSR | year =1990 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 0-88038-853-6}} *{{cite book | last1 =Connors | first1 =William | authorlink1 = William W. Connors | first2=Bruce|last2=Nesmith|authorlink2=Bruce Nesmith | title =Forbidden Lore | publisher =TSR | year =1992 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 1-56076-354-X}} *{{cite book | last1 =Nesmith | first1 =Bruce | authorlink1 =Bruce Nesmith |first2=Andria|last2=Hayday|authorlink2=Andria Hayday |first3=William|last3=Connors|authorlink3=William W. Connors | title =Ravenloft Campaign Setting | publisher =TSR | year =1994 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 1-56076-942-4}} *{{cite book | last =Wise | first =David | authorlink = | title =Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani | publisher =TSR | year =1995 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 0-7869-0155-1}} *{{cite book | last =Kurtz | first =Steve | authorlink = | title =The Evil Eye | publisher =TSR | year =1995 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 0-7869-0167-5}} *{{cite book | last1 =Connors | first1 =William | authorlink1 =William W. Connors | first2=Steve|last2=Miller |authorlink2=Steve Miller (game designer) | title =Domains of Dread | publisher =TSR/Wizards of the Coast | year =1997 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 0-7869-0672-3}} *{{cite book | last =Cermak | first =Andrew | authorlink = | author2=John Mangrum |author3=Andrew Wyatt | title =Ravenloft Campaign Setting | publisher =Arthaus | year =2001 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 1-58846-075-4 | edition =3rd }} *{{cite book | last =Mangrum | first =John | authorlink = |author2=Brian Campbell |author3=Carla Hollar |author4=Rucht Lilavivat |author5=Anthony Pryor |author6=Peter Woodworth |author7=Andrew Wyatt | title =Ravenloft Dungeon Master's Guide | publisher =Arthaus | year =2003 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 1-58846-084-3}}

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1983 Category:Fictional Romani people Category:Race-related controversies Category:Ravenloft characters Category:Works subject to expurgation