The Tyranny of the Night [OOC | Open]

[G-Tech Corporation]

The Tyranny of the Night

IC

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The year, 1898. An unremarkable year, by most standards. Until, one night in November, a strange event occurs that leaves the world in chaos. All across the Old World, from London to Prague, Lisbon to Constanta, a dark mist envelopes the towns and cities of men- day is turned to night, and anarchy reigns in the streets. The scientific community is left clueless, and there is a great deal of speculation in the halls of power and across Europe as to the origin of the dark mist... meanwhile, rumors of supernatural occurrences spread at an alarming rate. The dead do not rest easily in their graves, and it is said that fell things stalk the night roads and forests. Fear and confusion reign in Europe, for the nights grow dark, and they are helpless before this rising terror... unaware of the true origins of the choking blackness that rises across the world.

A few men and women, though, scientists, explorers, clergy, know more. An ancient prophesy speaks of a dread vampire who would one day awaken and bring an end to the days of light and progress, a prophesy a privileged few are aware of. The gathering darkness must be his doing, and he must be stopped. Slowly, through correspondence, those with knowledge of his evil aims determine that they alone can stand against the growing night, and band together in London to hunt down this menace and put an end to his designs for mankind. The hunt for Dracula begins!

The Old World

Key
Cities are in red.
Railroads, dark red. Dracula may not travel by railroad.
Roads are in deep brown.
Sea lanes, light blue.
Traveling on Sea Lanes or Railroads requires that the Leader purchase a Ticket for the Party.

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The lights have gone out across Europe, and they will not be lit again if the fell vampire, Dracula, cannot be stopped. Do you have what it takes to face this supernatural monster, brave explorer? Choose a class, a fate, and prepare to test your might against that of the Master of Midnight.

Classes available: 1 Clergy, 1 Scholar, 3 Gentry, Adventurers.

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Dramatis Personae
Raphaella de Infercanté - Tinkerer
Stephen Graf - Vampire Hunter
John Blackfield - Adventurer
Heinrich Stephan - Clergy
Marshall Savarian Strong - Scholar
Simon Oláh - Scholar
Drostan Campbell - Adventurer

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Code: Select all

[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Class:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Backstory:[/b]


The Game
Your goal, as the Party, is to foil the plots of Dracula across Europe, prevent the Old World from falling to darkness, and eventually confront and slay the bestial Lord. To this end, you will travel from city to city on the Continent and her environs, assembling clues about Dracula's whereabouts, countering his schemes, and gaining both knowledge and strength to put the bloodsucker down for good.

Dracula is fearsome strong, an immortal demon of the ancient past. No mere mortals can hope to defeat him, certainly not alone. You must cooperate with your allies if you are to have any hope of success- but beware! Dracula's dark schemes, if allowed to come to fruition, can turn your allies against you, raise minions to oppose your plans, and even snuff out the spark of your lives, those who would oppose him. You will have to be cunning and shrewd if you seek to turn back the darkness. If he succeeds in Corrupting Europe's great cities and turning mankind to his will, it will all be over...

You have not fled in terror of what is to come? Good, carry on...

Every character fits an archetype, a class. This determines how skilled they are at various activities, what actions they may undertake, and what Tokens they generate. More on those later. Note that all Abilities may only be triggered once per day.

The Vampire-Hunter: Most deadly of Dracula's adversaries, a man or women sworn to destroy him and all of his ilk wherever they may lurk. Their combat prowess against the undead is legendary, though without men of skill and influence at their sides they suffer in seeking to track their quarry.
Skills: 3 Might, 1 Influence, 1 Cunning, 2 Lore, 2 Will
Ability: Bloodhound - At any time, as long as the Events in a City do not say this Ability is disallowed, the Vampire-Hunter may determine if Dracula has been in the City within the last three days. This ability cannot fail.
The Vampire-Hunter may hold four Tokens, and draws from Might, Lore, and Will.

The Clergy: Holy men and women, empowered by a deity or deities to stand against the unnatural and abominations of the darkness. They offer hope where their comrades may falter, and excel in turning the hearts of their fellow men from evil.
Skills: 2 Might, 2 Influence, 1 Cunning, 1 Lore, 3 Will
Ability: Purge - At any time, as long as the City a Clergy is in has not completely been Corrupted, a Clergy may remove one level of Corruption from the City. This ability requires a Will Skillcheck based on the level of Corruption.
The Clergy may hold six Tokens, and draws from Influence, Lore, Will, and a special Token, Holy.

The Tinkerer: A person of science who doesn't necessarily believe in all this supernatural malarkey, but is along on the trip for their mechanical skills, and mastery of the machine, because the rest of the party thinks they may be useful.
Skills: 1 Might, 2 Influence, 3 Cunning, 2 Lore, 1 Will
Ability: Fabricate - At any time, a Tinkerer may attempt to Improve any Basic Item, or Fabricate a new Basic Item. This ability requires a Cunning Skillcheck of trifling difficulty.
The Tinkerer may hold eight Tokens, and draws from Influence, Cunning, and Lore.

The Scholar: Men and women of learning, dabblers in the occult, as is so common in the Old World these days. They know ought of the terrors that lurk beyond the veil of reason and order which normal citizens cling to, and are particularly skillful in combating these denizens' powers.
Skills: 1 Might, 1 Influence, 2 Cunning, 3 Lore, 2 Will
Ability: Investigate - At any time, a Scholar may search for scraps and fragments of the knowledge of the ancient world, seeking after forbidden powers and prowess. This action cannot fail, but requires a Will Skillcheck of random difficulty to prevent gaining one Madness. The success or failure of the Will Skillcheck is hidden from other members of the Party.
The Scholar may hold six Tokens, and draws from Cunning, Lore, Will, and Dark.

The Gentry: Folk of high society, those invested in the social order of the world, hedonists and dabblers in the darkness who at the same time may be interested in preventing Dracula from bringing an end to their playground.
Skills: 2 Might, 3 Influence, 2 Cunning, 1 Lore, 1 Will
Ability: Connections - When Tokens are being drawn, a Gentry may choose to exchange one of the Tokens they gain (so long as it is not a Dark Token) for a Wealth Token. Wealth Tokens count for 2 Tokens when browsing marketplaces or bazaars, and are very useful when resolving certain Events. What Token a Gentry discards in exchange for a Wealth Token is not revealed to the Party.
The Gentry may hold four Tokens, and draws from Might, Influence, and Cunning.

The Adventurer: A man or woman of many backgrounds, soldiers of fortune, scamps off of the street, debutantes, artisans, their reasons for joining the party are many, and their general ability in many fields very handy to the party. They are the bodies who stand against the darkness, and these everymen and everywomen may prove crucial to preventing Dracula's victory.
Skills: 2 Might, 2 Influence, 2 Cunning, 2 Lore, 1 Will
Ability: Fervent Drive - Once every seven days, an Adventurer may, prior to the Party's arrival in a new City, declare that they are using this Ability. If they do so, they may conduct three Actions in the City in the first day of their arrival, instead of the usual two.
The Adventurer may hold eight Tokens, and draws from any category save Holy (this includes Dark!).

Events
Every day that passes, an Event will occur at the end of the Action Phase. These Events are usually crises that must be averted by the Party to prevent Dracula gaining power and influence, but will occasionally instead be breakthroughs or discoveries which will benefit the Party if they can succeed. These Events, and passing them, are the purpose of Tokens- all Events will have a certain type or type of Tokens which must be invested in them to pass, with different thresholds governing whether an Event is wholly passed, partially passed, or failed. Note that even if a Token is not Dark, if it is not of the correct type, it still counts against a success. It is better to put in no Tokens at all if you cannot aid the Party, but to not help your comrades may look suspicious...

When an Event occurs, all members of the Party will be given an opportunity to invest any amount of Tokens in the event- including Servants of the Darkness. Importantly, when Party members are investing tokens, which tokens they choose to invest is not revealed, only the amount. This aggregate amount of Tokens from the Party will then be added to by the Chance deck, which will add an amount of Tokens equivalent to the Corruption of the City the Party is in, with Cities of Corruption tiers 0 and 1 always adding two Tokens.

These Events can be of use not only to fight Dracula, but also to endeavor to root out any traitors in your midst. All Characters and Classes draw two Tokens per Day, unless otherwise modified.

Leadership:
The Party must have a leader. By default, the Leader will begin as the Vampire-Hunter, but a vote may be called at any time by another member of the Party (or even the current Leader) to change that. Each character receives a number of votes equal to their base Influence Skill. A vote may only be called every week. The Leader doesn't do anything in most situations, but some Events will require the Leader to make a choice about potential outcomes, and only the Leader may move the Party to a new City. The Leader also draws one additional Token every Day, and may choose at any time to send a Character to Isolation, where they can only add one Token to any Events, and may only conduct one Action per Day.

Actions:
Every Day in any City, a variety of Actions will be available for all members of the Party. These may range from using an Ability, to shopping for gear, to schmoozing with the local nobility, and so on. By default, each party member may take two actions per day (one at dawn and one at dusk), with only one of those actions being secret- the other must be publicly declared and RPed in the IC thread. It is not required to take any actions in a day, but idleness only gives Dracula more time to gain power. Many Actions will provoke a Skillcheck, of one Skill or another, in order to succeed, though some of particularly banal nature such as resting may automatically succeed.

Health:
Each member of the Party starts, by default, with five Health. This may be reduced through events, or combat, and may only be recovered at a Hospital, through Events, or through Items. Party members on low Health are more susceptible to being turned to the Darkness, and if Health is at any point reduced to zero, that Party member is likely to perish. Death is not necessarily the end of a character, but returning to the realms of the living will take serious effort on the part of the rest of the Party... effort not directed towards stopping Dracula.

Victory:
If Dracula raises half of the cities of Europe to full Corruption, or kills all the members of the Party who remain uncorrupted, he will become unstoppable and be victorious.
If the Party succeeds in slaying Dracula and all of the Servants of Darkness (or imprisoning them), they will be victorious.

[Lunas Legion]

Well this seems nice and interesting, now just to decide on which of Vampire Hunter, Tinkerer or Adventurer to run with.

Edit: Also, do you have a map of what counts as 'cities' for the purposes of this RP?

[G-Tech Corporation]

Well this seems nice and interesting, now just to decide on which of Vampire Hunter, Tinkerer or Adventurer to run with.

Edit: Also, do you have a map of what counts as 'cities' for the purposes of this RP?

I’m currently working on one, indeed.

[Lunas Legion]

Well this seems nice and interesting, now just to decide on which of Vampire Hunter, Tinkerer or Adventurer to run with.

Edit: Also, do you have a map of what counts as 'cities' for the purposes of this RP?

I’m currently working on one, indeed.

Ah, nice. I think I'll wait a bit, see what other people are interested in taking, and then take whichever of Vampire Hunter and Tinkerer remains untaken.

[Lavan Tiri]

This seems highly interesting.

[G-Tech Corporation]

This seems highly interesting.

Glad you think so. She is an idea that has been fermenting for some time.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Reserving me a vampire hunter.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Reserving me a vampire hunter.

At this point I am not taking reservations- merely finished applications. But in the event of a conflict, I will keep your interest in mind.

[Lunas Legion]

Name: Raphaella de Infercanté
Class: Tinkerer
Gender: Female
Backstory: Before one speaks about the life of Raphaella de Infercanté, one must first talk about the history of her family, the de Infercanté. The de Infercanté are an ancient family, tracing their descent back to Dante Alighieri and from him the crusader Cacciaguida degli Elisei along with a cadet branch of the famed Van Helsing family of vampire hunters. The de Infercanté have retained extensive family histories, stretching back to between the 1100s and the 700s depending on the family line in question, which chronicle the lives and experiences of their ancestors, written either by the ancestor in question, or by a later writer using what sources could be gathered.

The family tradition really took hold in the 1100s with Michael de Infercanté, a papal archivist and librarian at the Papal Library. He made it a personal mission to research the history of the de Infercanté, and much of the information on the members before Michael de Infercanté originates with him. Little of the history goes outside of the direct family line, except in the case of particularly interesting cases. The de Infercanté as a family remained attached to the Papal Archives for several centuries, with occasional forays into other parts of the Papacy, never with much success.

This habit of archiving family history became a family quest to build a library to rival that of Alexandria; members of the family became Inquisitors and prowled Europe for heretical books, officially for destruction, unofficially to add to the library. Many also recorded the so-called prophecies of witches and the like, which became their own section of the de Infercanté library. Crusaders brought back books from the Arab world and Constantinople; conquistadors brought back their writings on the New World while others interviewed the crews of merchants and those who traveled the Silk Road. The family in the Papal archives made abridged copies of everything they were made to write out, preserving copies of texts lost during the Sack of Rome in 1527.

With the age of the printing press, however, the family's quest was simply overloaded. Instead of acquiring contemporary works, they turned to historical works; the classics, Roman and Greek writings, although contemporary works deemed to be of particular interest were still archived alongside the family's own history.

As time moved on, and the number of printed works increased, the de Infercanté family quest changed from building a new library to preserving the one they had, especially after they lost their association with the Papal Archives in the mid-1700s. Members were expected to memorise several important and interesting books, if not by heart then knowing a good description of the subject matter. Originally located at the family library in Rome, the library moved to Genoa in the 1200s and finally to the Sardinian estates in the 1500s after the Genoan family manse was sold.

Raphaella was the first of the de Infercanté to break with the family tradition; an only child, born in 1881, and with her father thoroughly disillusioned by the tradition but not willing to part with it himself, she instead took up the 'new' fields; the sciences. She added new works to the library; works on physics, chemistry and biology were added to the library; ancient works, deemed 'useless' by her new, future-seeking mind, were sold off after she inherited the family estates to fund a laboratory and an observatory. Many did not sell; after all, no one wants to read the rambling diary of a Papal inquisitor with poor penmanship, barely legible. Some, however, did; copies of texts lost from the Papal Archives in the Sack of Rome or otherwise lost were eagerly reacquired by the Papal Library, other texts or copies of texts made by her ancestors were also sold on, but she maintained at least one copy of each. The scientist in her simply wouldn't let her sell knowledge away, and there was the tradition to consider. Preserving knowledge for the future was a duty even a scientist could understand.

She became an inventor, tinkering with all manner of devices from weapons to transport and means of distant communications to solvents and solutions and medicines. Most of them didn't work, but that was fine; she enjoyed the designing, the planning, the construction and the testing. But eventually, she simply began to run out of ideas. Too much science had been done already, and her fields of knowledge were too broad, too unspecialised, to create something world-shaking. Idle curiosities were the best she could do.

And so when a darkness descended across Europe in 1898, Raphaella turned her mind towards uncovering the cause, eager for a new challenge, a new goal. She tried every scientific test she could for a cause; read through every text on meteorology and historical weather records for a prior example. Nothing. She turned to the histories, both of her family and of the world, searching for any accounts of such a thing or hearing of such a thing; nothing still. Thoroughly confused and befuddled, she turned to pseudo-science; alchemy and the like, and when that turned up nothing, she finally ventured into the family's collection of so-called prophecies; ramblings of all manner of witches, oracles, sooth-sayers and the like. Some had been contained in other works, but she had skipped over them, believing them irrelevant at the time, and the family's manner of archiving prophecies had been to give each a number, a reference to where the original was contained, and the exact points of the prophecy Regardless, she finally found something; bullet points on a prophecy 'of unknown origin'.

That in and of itself was confusing; all the other prophecies recorded had a single origin point, but here there were multiple references to fragments of the original prophecy, scattered throughout history. The ramblings of various witches and heretics, Nostradamus, Pope Innocent III, Beatus of Liébana, Irenaeus, Sextus Julius Africanus, John of Patmos, fragments of hieroglyphics found in Egyptian tombs and possibly even Akkadian depending on how one interpreted the translation and whether the translation itself was correct given the damaged nature of the source material. Potentially, they were not even all regarding the same prophecy, and were mere coincidence especially given the number of copies and translation involved in many of the works. Needing to confirm her translations and extremely tenuous links between the various texts that resembled a labyrinth of string between needles on a pinboard, she traveled to London and the British Library in search of more information on this rapidly-forming pile of nonsense that made a worrying amount of sense but that her soundly scientific mind all but rejected so she could put it back in the coffin of paranormal psuedo-scientific nonsense where it belonged.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Name: Raphaella de Infercanté
Class: Tinkerer
Gender: Female
Backstory: The de Infercanté are a minor family of Sardinian nobility, tracing their roots back to several Papal Inquisitors on one side and Dante Alighieri, the famous Italian poet on the other. Isolated on Sardinia, the family has no political power and limited money; what they do have, however, is history. The library of the de Infercanté contains copies of a considerable number of records from the Papal Inquisition, records of witch prophecies and other such occult-related writings.

Raphaella read them; it was family tradition, to memorise all of the unfulfilled prophecies recorded. Previously it had been so the Inquisitors and witch-hunters and later explorers and adventurers from the family would be equipped to deal with the paranormal; by her era, however, it was a meaningless tradition. The world had been explored, and there was no 'paranormal' that could not be explained by science. When not having to deal with other things, she turned herself towards the pursuit of practical science, studying electricity, steam power, clockwork and mechanics. Practical, meaningful things. She inherited the family's estates and library, selling off most of its contents to fund her private scientific experiments, building an observatory and a laboratory.

But she never forgot the prophecies instilled into her memory by rote in her youth. And when one night in November in 1898 mist enveloped Europe and day became night, she recalled one particular prophecy. She doesn't believe that it's actually true; it could just easily be coincidence, but when one has a world-ending prophecy seemingly coming true, one heads out to prevent it, and so she left Sardinia and her family estate behind, journeying to Europe to stop the prophecy in case this one actually happens to be true.

Very good, accepted. Welcome, Lunas.

[Lunas Legion]

Name: Raphaella de Infercanté
Class: Tinkerer
Gender: Female
Backstory: The de Infercanté are a minor family of Sardinian nobility, tracing their roots back to several Papal Inquisitors on one side and Dante Alighieri, the famous Italian poet on the other. Isolated on Sardinia, the family has no political power and limited money; what they do have, however, is history. The library of the de Infercanté contains copies of a considerable number of records from the Papal Inquisition, records of witch prophecies and other such occult-related writings.

Raphaella read them; it was family tradition, to memorise all of the unfulfilled prophecies recorded. Previously it had been so the Inquisitors and witch-hunters and later explorers and adventurers from the family would be equipped to deal with the paranormal; by her era, however, it was a meaningless tradition. The world had been explored, and there was no 'paranormal' that could not be explained by science. When not having to deal with other things, she turned herself towards the pursuit of practical science, studying electricity, steam power, clockwork and mechanics. Practical, meaningful things. She inherited the family's estates and library, selling off most of its contents to fund her private scientific experiments, building an observatory and a laboratory.

But she never forgot the prophecies instilled into her memory by rote in her youth. And when one night in November in 1898 mist enveloped Europe and day became night, she recalled one particular prophecy. She doesn't believe that it's actually true; it could just easily be coincidence, but when one has a world-ending prophecy seemingly coming true, one heads out to prevent it, and so she left Sardinia and her family estate behind, journeying to Europe to stop the prophecy in case this one actually happens to be true.

Very good, accepted. Welcome, Lunas.

Woop. One question I should have probably asked first, what exactly are the items she can build?

[Strala]

If I made a character that was a common soldier how would he know about the prophecies

[G-Tech Corporation]

Very good, accepted. Welcome, Lunas.

Woop. One question I should have probably asked first, what exactly are the items she can build?

Any items that are “Basic” which she becomes aware of- either acquired by members of the party, or seen for sale. It is an ability that will expand with time, though technically useless at the beginning, as she will know of no items and nobody will have any items to modify.

If I made a character that was a common soldier how would he know about the prophecies

However you wish, within reason. Rumor, fortune-teller, myth, family history, encounter with a creature of the night, shade of a dead friend, etc.

[Lunas Legion]

Woop. One question I should have probably asked first, what exactly are the items she can build?

Any items that are “Basic” which she becomes aware of- either acquired by members of the party, or seen for sale. It is an ability that will expand with time, though technically useless at the beginning, as she will know of no items and nobody will have any items to modify.

Ah, so I've got the escalatory power then. Nice.

[Strala]

can I make a character that came from china or do the Characters have to be European

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Name: Stephen Graf
Class: Vampire Hunter
Gender: Male

Backstory:

It was many moons ago, that one fateful voyage would be undertaken to the mysterious new world. Disguised as an early attempt of colonizing North America in the name of Britain, instead it was a sham carrying a far more precious cargo, the coffin of a vampire. Seeking to corrupt the mysterious paradise beyond the atlantic, the vampire, known in the Old World as "The Beast of Bristol" had snuck his way aboard the ship amidst various other supplies. After the colonists established their colony at Roanoke, the Beast dissappeared into the wilds beyond. What happened next is lost to the history books. After enthralling a nearby tribe of Native Americans, the Beast returned to Roanoke with an army, enslaved the colonists, and dissappeared into the wilds of North America.

Nearly 50 years later, reports of vicious attacks near the borders of the Plymouth colony attracted the attention of Old World vampire hunters. Upon arriving in Plymouth, the Order, then known as the Knights of Whitby, discovered a large and thriving underground network of Vampires, corrupting almost all of England's colonial holdings. For the next 130 years, a massive war was fought in the shadows of english colonialism, occasionally surfacing during events such as the Salem Witch Trials, or the burning of Jamestown in Bacon's Rebellion. The slayers meticulously attacked and killed vampires across the colonies until 1776. Upon the outbreak of the revolutionary war, what was left of Vampire society aligned itself with the Patriots, while the Slayers remained neutral or worked with the British.

The Revolutionary war was a disaster for the American Slayers. Vampires gained much power and influence as the British began to lose the war, and the main order of hunters was shattered, with several different groups of differing ideologies branching off and founding several new orders. As the years went by following the revolution, these orders would become more and more fractured, eventually even fighting each other. Vampires rose to power again, establishing Atlanta, Georgia as their capital. Slayer's began to slowly go extinct, though they still tried to stem the tide against the Vampires.

The next major development in the "Shadow War" was the recent Civil War in America. This time, the Vampires took the side of the South, while what remained of the Slayers sided with the North. Though at first it seemed like the Vampires would once more prevail, the tide once more began to shift. The south, and vampires in particular, began to suffer massive losses. First, at Vicksburg, Slayers slaughtered dozens of vampires fighting with the Confederate army. Then, at the battle of the Crater, a large swath of Vampires was mowed down with the trapped Confederate troops. Finally, William Sherman, a Slayer himself, burned Atlanta to the ground, seemingly killing what remained of the Vampire population, including the Beast of Bristol himself. He then hunted down any survivors in the March to the Sea as they tried to flee to a back up capital in Savannah. Both wars were seemingly at an end.

With the apparent extinction of Vampire kind in the Americas, the American Slayers have largely disbanded, retiring or traveling to various parts of the Old World. What remained conversed only through brief correspondence and recruited on a strict master-apprentice relationship.

9 years after the conclusion of the Civil War, Stephen was born in a farmhouse in western Kansas. His father was the son of a German immigrant, who had migrated from the midwest to Kansas, and his mother was the grandchild of pioneers. They met after Stephen's father returned to his home state after finishing his service to the Army following the War. Stephen was raised to be a rancher, as his father had used his earnings from the war to buy and manage a small herd every year. Though Stephen wanted to make his father happy, he knew that the Rancher's life was not for him. He longed for adventure beyond the flat plains of Kansas. He began practicing how to use a gun at age 5, and almost tore his shoulder out in the process. It was also at this age that Stephen's brother, Erik, was born. Erik was so named after the boy's paternal grandfather. The two grew up as two boys five years apart could be.

When Stephen was 12, a man rode into the town near the ranch. Claiming to be from Georgia, the man began to work as the barkeep for the Saloon, and quickly became popular. It didn't seem to bother anyone, besides Stephen and his father, that the man did not attend Church, or that the man refused to say anything more about his past then his homestate. The town was almost... enthralled by him. In the following year, the man, whom the family began to know as John Davis, quickly worked his way up in stature. He became a co-owner of the Saloon, was actively working with a railroad company to have a track laid through the town, had founded a school that Erik was attending, and was running for Mayor. Even Stephen's dad had seemed to fall under the spell.

As Stephen's world seemed to grow darker under the influence of the man known as John Davis, another stranger arrived in the town. Wearing only a duster over the ragged clothes of a trapper, he seemed like any other passerby. However, like Stephen, he seemed unaffected by Davis's charms. Davis even appeared to grow annoyed by the new stranger's lack of attention towards him. Given this circumstance, Stephen began to draw close to the new stranger. The newcomer, whose name was James Bolling, taught Stephen how to shoot better, how to hunt, survival tips, etc. After 7 monthes of this, Bolling offered to tell Stephen the truth behind his visit. Bolling was a vampire hunter, waiting for the right moment to strike out at Davis. After offering to take Stephen on as an apprentice, and bond was formed between the two.

The time to strike came the following month. The band of mercenarys Davis had hired as private security had decided to seek wealthier prospects in the far west, leaving Davis relatively unguarded. Bolling chose that moment to strike, and brought Stephen along so that he could learn. The initial slaying had been easy enough, they merely snuck into Davis's coffin chamber and slew him during the day while he slumbered, believing himself invincible in his town. It was here Stephen learned his first major lesson about slaying, always aim for the heart.

However, following the revelation of Davis's demise, all hell broke loose. Several fledglings who Davis had been keping in line went on a rampage, including several of the students in the boarding school Davis had been running. Recieving a gun from Bolling, Stephen ran home to find his worst fears realized. His father was on the floor, being fed on by Erik while his mother sat, frozen with shock in the corner. Stephen didn't even think. He brought the revolver forward, aimed, and fired, the silver bullet flying true and lodging in Erik's heart. The world seemed to freeze, unmoving as the corpses of his father and brother lay in the middle of the house, Stephen standing in the doorway, and his mother sat in the corner.

Bolling would later come by and discover the scene, quickly comforting Stephen. After recounting a tale of something similar happening to him, Bolling apologized to Stephen, telling him how the Slayer's path was nothing but heartache. Stephen then told Bolling that he wished to continue fighting the vampires. After burning the corpses of all who died in the horrific attack, and managing to convince what remained of the town that what had occured was a freak outbreak of rabies, Stephen and Bolling departed. The town would slowly fade away, with several members, including Stephen's mother, being institutionalized shortly after the event for issues relating to PTSD.

For the next 8 years, Stephen and Bolling travelled the country, hunting vampires. Bolling however, grew old, and could no longer work the way he had in his youth. Old wounds caught up, leading Bolling to retire and Stephen to hunt alone for the following two years. Then came the darkening of Europe. Recognizing some of the handy work of his prey, Stephen made the trip across the pond, investigating the darkness while meeting a few fellow investigators along the way. Eventually, he would call a meeting of those he had met in his current residence in the Fox and Rooster pub in London. The purpose behind this meeting: to prepare a great hunt for this master vampire that had plunged the light of civilization into darkness.

[G-Tech Corporation]

can I make a character that came from china or do the Characters have to be European

For ease of use, let’s stick to Europe/the Western Hemisphere. Characters from farther afield than, say, the US East Coast, or the ME, would be hard to justify arriving in London in a reasonable timeframe.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

can I make a character that came from china or do the Characters have to be European

For ease of use, let’s stick to Europe/the Western Hemisphere. Characters from farther afield than, say, the US East Coast, or the ME, would be hard to justify arriving in London in a reasonable timeframe.

I said my character is from Texas, but has been in Europe for a bit, as he was already a wanderer and left for Europe the moment he got news of the Fog.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Name: Stephen Graf
Class: Vampire Hunter
Gender: Male

Backstory:

It was many moons ago, that one fateful voyage would be undertaken to the mysterious new world. Disguised as an early attempt of colonizing North America in the name of Britain, instead it was a sham carrying a far more precious cargo, the coffin of a vampire. Seeking to corrupt the mysterious paradise beyond the atlantic, the vampire, known in the Old World as "The Beast of Bristol" had snuck his way aboard the ship amidst various other supplies. After the colonists established their colony at Roanoke, the Beast dissappeared into the wilds beyond. What happened next is lost to the history books. After enthralling a nearby tribe of Native Americans, the Beast returned to Roanoke with an army, enslaved the colonists, and dissappeared into the wilds of North America.

Nearly 50 years later, reports of vicious attacks near the borders of the Plymouth colony attracted the attention of Old World vampire hunters. Upon arriving in Plymouth, the Order, then known as the Knights of Whitby, discovered a large and thriving underground network of Vampires, corrupting almost all of England's colonial holdings. For the next 130 years, a massive war was fought in the shadows of english colonialism, occasionally surfacing during events such as the Salem Witch Trials, or the burning of Jamestown in Bacon's Rebellion. The slayers meticulously attacked and killed vampires across the colonies until 1776. Upon the outbreak of the revolutionary war, what was left of Vampire society aligned itself with the Patriots, while the Slayers remained neutral or worked with the British.

The Revolutionary war was a disaster for the American Slayers. Vampires gained much power and influence as the British began to lose the war, and the main order of hunters was shattered, with several different groups of differing ideologies branching off and founding several new orders. As the years went by following the revolution, these orders would become more and more fractured, eventually even fighting each other. Vampires rose to power again, establishing Atlanta, Georgia as their capital. Slayer's began to slowly go extinct, though they still tried to stem the tide against the Vampires.

The next major development in the "Shadow War" was the recent Civil War in America. This time, the Vampires took the side of the South, while what remained of the Slayers sided with the North. Though at first it seemed like the Vampires would once more prevail, the tide once more began to shift. The south, and vampires in particular, began to suffer massive losses. First, at Vicksburg, Slayers slaughtered dozens of vampires fighting with the Confederate army. Then, at the battle of the Crater, a large swath of Vampires was mowed down with the trapped Confederate troops. Finally, William Sherman, a Slayer himself, burned Atlanta to the ground, seemingly killing what remained of the Vampire population, including the Beast of Bristol himself. He then hunted down any survivors in the March to the Sea as they tried to flee to a back up capital in Savannah. Both wars were seemingly at an end.

With the apparent extinction of Vampire kind in the Americas, the American Slayers have largely disbanded, retiring or traveling to various parts of the Old World. What remained conversed only through brief correspondence and recruited on a strict master-apprentice relationship.

9 years after the conclusion of the Civil War, Stephen was born in a farmhouse in western Kansas. His father was the son of a German immigrant, who had migrated from the midwest to Kansas, and his mother was the grandchild of pioneers. They met after Stephen's father returned to his home state after finishing his service to the Army following the War. Stephen was raised to be a rancher, as his father had used his earnings from the war to buy and manage a small herd every year. Though Stephen wanted to make his father happy, he knew that the Rancher's life was not for him. He longed for adventure beyond the flat plains of Kansas. He began practicing how to use a gun at age 5, and almost tore his shoulder out in the process. It was also at this age that Stephen's brother, Erik, was born. Erik was so named after the boy's paternal grandfather. The two grew up as two boys five years apart could be.

When Stephen was 12, a man rode into the town near the ranch. Claiming to be from Georgia, the man began to work as the barkeep for the Saloon, and quickly became popular. It didn't seem to bother anyone, besides Stephen and his father, that the man did not attend Church, or that the man refused to say anything more about his past then his homestate. The town was almost... enthralled by him. In the following year, the man, whom the family began to know as John Davis, quickly worked his way up in stature. He became a co-owner of the Saloon, was actively working with a railroad company to have a track laid through the town, had founded a school that Erik was attending, and was running for Mayor. Even Stephen's dad had seemed to fall under the spell.

As Stephen's world seemed to grow darker under the influence of the man known as John Davis, another stranger arrived in the town. Wearing only a duster over the ragged clothes of a trapper, he seemed like any other passerby. However, like Stephen, he seemed unaffected by Davis's charms. Davis even appeared to grow annoyed by the new stranger's lack of attention towards him. Given this circumstance, Stephen began to draw close to the new stranger. The newcomer, whose name was James Bolling, taught Stephen how to shoot better, how to hunt, survival tips, etc. After 7 monthes of this, Bolling offered to tell Stephen the truth behind his visit. Bolling was a vampire hunter, waiting for the right moment to strike out at Davis. After offering to take Stephen on as an apprentice, and bond was formed between the two.

The time to strike came the following month. The band of mercenarys Davis had hired as private security had decided to seek wealthier prospects in the far west, leaving Davis relatively unguarded. Bolling chose that moment to strike, and brought Stephen along so that he could learn. The initial slaying had been easy enough, they merely snuck into Davis's coffin chamber and slew him during the day while he slumbered, believing himself invincible in his town. It was here Stephen learned his first major lesson about slaying, always aim for the heart.

However, following the revelation of Davis's demise, all hell broke loose. Several fledglings who Davis had been keping in line went on a rampage, including several of the students in the boarding school Davis had been running. Recieving a gun from Bolling, Stephen ran home to find his worst fears realized. His father was on the floor, being fed on by Erik while his mother sat, frozen with shock in the corner. Stephen didn't even think. He brought the revolver forward, aimed, and fired, the silver bullet flying true and lodging in Erik's heart. The world seemed to freeze, unmoving as the corpses of his father and brother lay in the middle of the house, Stephen standing in the doorway, and his mother sat in the corner.

Bolling would later come by and discover the scene, quickly comforting Stephen. After recounting a tale of something similar happening to him, Bolling apologized to Stephen, telling him how the Slayer's path was nothing but heartache. Stephen then told Bolling that he wished to continue fighting the vampires. After burning the corpses of all who died in the horrific attack, and managing to convince what remained of the town that what had occured was a freak outbreak of rabies, Stephen and Bolling departed. The town would slowly fade away, with several members, including Stephen's mother, being institutionalized shortly after the event for issues relating to PTSD.

For the next 8 years, Stephen and Bolling travelled the country, hunting vampires. Bolling however, grew old, and could no longer work the way he had in his youth. Old wounds caught up, leading Bolling to retire and Stephen to hunt alone for the following two years. Then came the darkening of Europe. Recognizing some of the handy work of his prey, Stephen made the trip across the pond, investigating the darkness while meeting a few fellow investigators along the way. Eventually, he would call a meeting of those he had met in his current residence in the Fox and Rooster pub in London. The purpose behind this meeting: to prepare a great hunt for this master vampire that had plunged the light of civilization into darkness.

Cool, I like this backstory. Happily accepted.

[Plzen]

Tag. Probably not going to join (too many obligations already), but I'll probably spectate.

I'll also be happy to make a map for you. I assume you want a map of about 40 cities, connected first through roads, then with railroads/sea-lanes connecting otherwise far regions of the map. How many levels of corruption in a city represents "full" corruption?

[G-Tech Corporation]

Tag. Probably not going to join (too many obligations already), but I'll probably spectate.

I'll also be happy to make a map for you. I assume you want a map of about 40 cities, connected first through roads, then with railroads/sea-lanes connecting otherwise far regions of the map. How many levels of corruption in a city represents "full" corruption?

Welcome!

I’ve actually already slapped together a map, crude but functional. Don’t sweat it.

[Plzen]

-snipped-

[The Imperial Warglorian Empire]

tag, i'd like to ask, will weapons and tech be like steampunk type tech or would it be like irl history with modifications and perhaps magical backgrounds?

[G-Tech Corporation]

tag, i'd like to ask, will weapons and tech be like steampunk type tech or would it be like irl history with modifications and perhaps magical backgrounds?

The world is much as it is irl at this point in history, aside from the odd bit of “secret history”. Magic, steampunk- those all are fine, but should be well-hidden curiosities of limited scale, rare artifacts of deep antiquity or very new minor inventions.

[The Imperial Warglorian Empire]

tag, i'd like to ask, will weapons and tech be like steampunk type tech or would it be like irl history with modifications and perhaps magical backgrounds?

The world is much as it is irl at this point in history, aside from the odd bit of “secret history”. Magic, steampunk- those all are fine, but should be well-hidden curiosities of limited scale, rare artifacts of deep antiquity or very new minor inventions.

Could I create a Lord who is a sort of Dark Magic user and Satanist that sees Dracula as a threat to his plans?

And exactly how influential would magic be in this RP?