The Powers had no goals that anyone could confirm but seemed attracted to people and creatures that committed evil acts or suffered from some terrible loss.
The Demiplane of Dread was controlled by the almost completely unknown Dark Powers and sections of the demiplane were ruled over by dark lords. For that reason, it was impossible to determine the exact size of the domain. Other locations, on the other hand, routinely collapsed or disappeared entirely. In particular, many of the individual domains that made up the demiplanes had originally been locations in worlds of the Prime Material plane, dragged and bound to the Shadowfell by the mists over a period of several centuries.
The mists that surrounded the domains prevented anyone caught inside from leaving through conventional means.
In some versions of the Great Wheel cosmology, the Domains of Dread were considered part of the Ethereal plane, while other versions and the World Axis cosmology acknowledged them to be located in a remote, but easily accessible region of the Shadowfell.
