Expanding AWOD

[Ganbare Gincun]

The Carthian Movement - The Phrygian Assembly

They are from France though. Phrygia is in Turkey.

-Username17

Was thinking of this when I made the suggestion. Adopted as a symbol of republican liberty during the French Revolution, it seemed like it might have a similar symbolic place amongst the supernatural creatures that formed the Carthian Movement.

[Username17]

Although this will confuse the fuck out of current aWoD players, the best name for the current "Ventrue" is actually Nosferatu. Since they look and act exactly like the guy from the movie, Nosferatu. This leaves us needing a new name for the Astral Vampire, but that's actually okay, because we only named them that in the first place as a WW reference.

Point of history:

AD&D Gazeteer - 1987 - TSR
Nightlife - 1990 - Stellar
Vampire: the Masquerade - 1991 - White Wolf
Paranormal Animals of Europe - 1992 - FASA

What they all have in common is that they have "Nosferatu" as a special flavor of creepy looking vampire from Eastern Europe. That's just the name that vampires whose schtick is "creepy looking" get. Has been since before Rein*Hagen was a name.

I know what it means. But the rest of the Dominate abilities are verbs or nominalized verbs, explaining what you do to your victim. This one explains what your victim is like afterwards. It's a thematic mismatch, unless you changed "Conditioning" to "Disciples" or something. Also, it's seven fucking syllables and kinda pretentious. That's fine for a sorcery, but again, the rest of Dominate is much plainer.

That's pretty much true for the original "The Forgetful Mind" as well, but you're right. How is "Cloud Memory"?

-Username17

[Orion]

"Cloud Memory" works great. If we want to get down to one word, "Revise" would work.

[Judging__Eagle]

Assuming a Supernatural creature rate of 1 per 11666.6... humans (aka, 600k in a pop of 7B); then some places can have a lot of supernatural creatures.

Currently, I'm going to finally be running a game set in and around the Canadian Golden Horseshoe (from Niagara to Montreal along the great lakes and out and down a bit; with a definite presence in London Ontario, even if it's not part of the Golden Horseshoe).

Assuming an average population of about 15m in that are; then that means that there are about 1200 (1285) supernatural creatures from Niagara, up to Hamilton, through to Missisauga, Toronto; and then up northwards. Even some of the smaller cities in the 120k population range are going to have seriously, seventy supernatural creatures just roaming about. Meaning that there are the equivalent of seven major supernatural gangs in a place sometimes known as "Borington".

Personally I like the prospect of running the game in my backyard, and better still, having enough 'other' characters in the immediate region that the PCs ever think that they're the only show in town.



=========

I know what it means. But the rest of the Dominate abilities are verbs or nominalized verbs, explaining what you do to your victim. This one explains what your victim is like afterwards. It's a thematic mismatch, unless you changed "Conditioning" to "Disciples" or something. Also, it's seven fucking syllables and kinda pretentious. That's fine for a sorcery, but again, the rest of Dominate is much plainer.

I guess I'd just use "Plant Memory" or "Falsify"

I think the idea is to use actual terms whenever possible, since they're easier to remember. Making the setting and system easy to ken is sort of the goal since the start of the project.

[CatharzGodfoot]

I was just listening to Most Exalted Potentate of Love, and... "potentate" is a great word to refer to luminaries who have become playable monsters.


[edit] Also, "grindylow" is still a good low-baggage one word name for deep ones. [/edit]

[Winnah]

I may be completely misinformed, but I thought the Sabbat was formed out of a pre-rennaisance Anarch movement. The Promethians were formed out of an earlier Anarch movement. Icconu were formed out of a classical period Anarch movement.

All rebelled against the status quo of vampiric society and formed their own organisations. I'm not sure how useful these groups are to a crossover campaign. Werewolves are not likely to give a damn about the politics and philosophies of ancient vampires, so trying to get them involved in some shihad plot may be a little difficult.

[Draco_Argentum]

I'm not that up on oWod but the IP-scrubbing on the currently posted bits looks good.

[Grek]

Votes for names:

Game World: Dead of Night

The Camarilla: The Makhzen
The Carthians: The Assembly
The Sabbat: The Heresiarchy

Black Spiral Dancers: Entropic Choir
Circle of the Crone: Maenadic Coven
Glass Walkers: Limbuenots (based off of Huguenots)
Order Tremere: Sanguine Cabal

Get of Feris: Blood of Hroovitnir (another name for Fenrir)
Ventrue: Strigoi
Children of Ether: Icarids

Vanish From the Mind's Eye: Hide in Plain Sight
Call the Lamprey: Tap the Soul
Theft of Vitae: Life Leech
Parambulum in Tenebris: Umbral Pathway
Chimerstry: False Visions

[CatharzGodfoot]

Renaming the Sabbat or Get of Fenris is probably unnecessary. The Tremere aren't primarily vampires anymore, so "Sanguine Cabal" would actually be a better name for the Circle of the Crone. Tremere might better be renamed something like 'Brethren of Cuezaltzin'.

But I'm digging Striogi. What's that from?

[Username17]

I may be completely misinformed, but I thought the Sabbat was formed out of a pre-rennaisance Anarch movement. The Promethians were formed out of an earlier Anarch movement. Icconu were formed out of a classical period Anarch movement.

All rebelled against the status quo of vampiric society and formed their own organisations. I'm not sure how useful these groups are to a crossover campaign. Werewolves are not likely to give a damn about the politics and philosophies of ancient vampires, so trying to get them involved in some shihad plot may be a little difficult.

In oWoD timeline, the Sabbat takes form at the end of the "War of the Princes" which takes place over the course of the 1300s. The Sabbat is declared just in time to see the fall of Constantinople in 1452. This is however not super relevant to Dead of Night. For one thing, there is no Camarilla/Sabbat war or anything especially similar. Not only can different supernatural types be members of the same cults and syndicates, but the competing syndicates are not "at war" and are merely competing for resources, territory, and membership. Different players can be in the same Scooby gang and still not be in the same syndicate.

Also, the history isn't especially similar because there was never a Methuselah War in 150 BCE. Here's the "Sabbat" writeup for Dead of Night:

---

The Covenant
“A bishop of the Covenant can believe anything, but most of us don't.”

The effect of the Roman Catholic Church on human history is hard to over estimate. As Rome itself was coming crashing down, Europe was largely cut off from the Middle East, Africa, and points further in Asia. Europe became isolated, and the influence of the Makhzen all but vanished. It was at this time that the supernatural creatures of the European region created a new organization modeled on the fledgling Roman Catholic Church.

The Covenant has extremely confused theology and you are specifically not allowed to be excommunicated for heresy. After all, the Covenant's primary role is to facilitate social interaction and conflict resolution between members rather than to advance any specific theological agenda. The Covenant is led by an Anti-Pope who wears a mask and whose identity is nominally secret. The Anti-Pope leads the council of Cardinals, from whom he or she is nominated, and does so for an unspecified amount of time before being replaced – occasionally by themselves in a different mask. Below the cardinals are bishops, below bishops are priests, and everyone else is referred to as “Flock.” Other organizations refer to Covenant members derisively as “Sheep.”

The Covenant maintains a number of parallel hierarchies in addition to the primary one. Rather than being a bishop or priest (which is regional), one could be Apostolic Exarch (which governs a region that is not under Covenant Control), a Military Ordinal (which handles defense of the order regardless of location), or a Palatine (which is organizational and has personnel but no fixed territory). All of these titles carry approximately the same weight as Bishop. The Covenant also recognizes some of its members as “saints.” Once a Covenant member has descended into sainthood they carry a status that cannot be taken away, which essentially allows them to speak and be listened to on any issue by any church conclave at any organizational level. Since the membership of the Covenant are supernatural in nature, the requirements of miraculous activities is entirely a formality and being recognized by the Anti-Pope as a Saint is entirely political. Saints are given spiffy blood red uniforms when they serve in any official capacity and are thence known as Sanguines regardless of their rank or duties.

Law in the Covenant is confusing and pre-baroque, grounded in Roman law and medieval superstition. It is doctrine in the Covenant that canon law is infallible, and thus no law is ever replaced or contradicted. The immense amount of doublethink required to make this function at all is produced by Glossators, who philosophize the inordinately convoluted structures whereby contradictory statements can be rationalized as merely seeming to contradict each other. Canon law itself is crafted by a group of bishops called the Heresiarchs who draft documents for potential Anti-Papal blessing. Who sits on the Heresiarch council at any time is highly variable, as a seat becomes vacant whenever a Heresiarch misses two meetings in a row, and an empty seat is filled as soon as seven bishops not on the council, three bishops on the council, or the Anti-Pope nominate one of the other Bishops into the seat.

World wide there are about a hundred bishops or bishop equivalents, and the substantial majority are in Europe.

Probably Established: 5th century CE, Rome.

Status and Office in the Covenant
You think you're bigger than God? Let me tell you, I am bigger than God.

The Covenant is an Ecclesiastical organization, and despite the fact that a majority of its members (and even leaders) do not believe in the theology on which they were founded, their structure has remained mostly constant. More so than the human church upon which they were originally based. The Covenant hierarchy is pretty rigid even if their apologetics are not. Promotion is always from above with the singular exception that the anti-pope is promoted from within by a democratic quorum of the heresiarchs. The organization's concept of “above” is slightly counterintuitive, as it is divided into orders whose offices are parallel in rank and function.

The Anti-Pope: The head of the Heresiarch's Council, the Anti-Pope is the first sentence and the final answer. Currently the Anti-Pope rules from the shadow city under Rome, but there is strong current of opinion that it should move to Ciudad de Mexico as that city has more than 8 times as many actual Covenant members in it and basically determines the Covenant's overall direction in a very real way.
Bishop: The ruler of each Covenant City is the Bishop. Bishops can run their cities pretty much however they want, and appoint (or approve) all of the Priests in their territory.
Cardinal: Some Covenant cities have a Cardinal instead of a bishop (or in weird cases, mostly in Italy, in addition to the Bishop). The Cardinal is a Bishop (or Bishop equivalent such as Prelate or Palatine) and also has more authority in the running of the Covenant globally. They are the Heresiarchs and when the Anti-Pope dies or resigns they meet to elect a new one. Most anti-papal decrees are actually drafted by the Heresiarchs (either singularly or in groups) and then approved by the Anti-Pope.
Apostolic Exarch: An Apolostolic Exarch is given the same respect due to a Bishop, but they do not control a city. They are given supervision of a region that the Covenant do not control. In ages past, an Apostolic Exarch was appointed “over” a hostile region with the understanding that if they could attract enough Covenant members to crusade against it to conquer it and make it a Covenant territory that they would automatically become the Bishop of that land. Tonight that practice has been officially abandoned by Covenant leadership, and an Apostolic Exarch is essentially an ambassador to another Syndicate. They speak for the interests of Covenant flock persisting or working in territories acknowledged as belonging to another Syndicate.
Military Ordinal: The Crusading Army of the Covenant has at times consisted of most of the Covenant's flock. The Anti-Pope divides the Crusading Army into military orders, and the leader of each order is essentially a Bishop. Anyone can ask for acceptance into any military order at any time, and if accepted they essentially answer to the Military Ordinal of it instead of the Bishop of whatever parish they happen to be in.
Prelate: The Covenant has a number of contemplative orders, each headed by a Prelate. These Prelates are roughly equivalent to a Bishop, save that they are in charge of an order rather than a region. Like with military orders, a member of the Covenant can apply to join a contemplative order, and if accepted, is considered to be “in” the order instead of the city they happen to persist in.
Palatine: A Palatine is an arbiter of Covenant Law. It is their responsibility to make decisions based upon the sum total of Anti-Papal decrees, to resolve differences between flock members and inflict punishments on those who have been accused by Bishops. Palatinate Courts move around a lot. Even the largest Covenant City (Ciudad de Mexico) only has about 5000 in its Flock and there aren't cases demanding their attention all of the time.
Priest: The Covenant requires each member of the Flock to check in with a member of the Church authority at least once a week. This ritual of intrusive government is handled by a Priest. Many Bishops have several Priests working under them. Each Priest will be assigned some members of the Flock to keep an eye on so they can deliver weekly reports on interesting developments to the Bishop. But a Priest isn't just a member of the secret police, they also serve a leadership and administrative function.
Monk: A Monk is roughly equivalent to a Priest in rank, but is a member of a military or contemplative order and is expected to act as a military coordinator for their personal flock (who need not be geographically located), or as a coordinator of whatever the contemplative order does (again, possibly in a non-geographical manner). Some orders bestow the rank of Monk on every member who joins after a period of apprenticeship.
Glossator: A Glossator is similar to a lawyer. They assist Palatines with the making of legal decisions by crafting arguments (called “Glosses”) that indicate how a situation could be reconciled with all previous Anti-Papal edicts such that none of the edicts contradict each other. Some of the logic is quite as tortured as those found guilty of breaking the edicts. Glossators follow adversarial principals in law, and an accused brought before a Palatine is permitted a Glossator to argue on their behalf.

[talozin]

"Cloud Memory" works great. If we want to get down to one word, "Revise" would work.

Or "Redact", which sounds somewhat less like studying for midterms; but that might get Julian May's lawyers all up in the collective grill.

[Orion]

Oh right. Not everyone is American.

[Lokathor]

But I'm digging Striogi. What's that from?

I literally opened up the wikipedia on Vampire and used the first awesome sounding word I saw and hadn't heard of before. It's Romanian apparently.

Below the cardinals are bishops, below bishops are priests, and everyone else is referred to as “Flock.” Other organizations refer to Covenant members derisively as “Sheep.”

Ah, remember what I said about the punctuation going outside the quotes when it's and emphasis and not a statement by someone. Keep this in mind if you have to write up more new sections when IP-erasing.

[Grek]

But I'm digging Striogi. What's that from?

Its the Romanian term for the thing Dracula was.

[Orion]

Tereme can't be "sanguine," because they're fire mages, not blood mages. Blood magic is practiced by the Circle of Crone, so if we were to make a blood joke they'd be the "Haemeritocracy" or something.

[Username17]

The Baali Tradition
“You will not remember what I show you now, and yet I shall awaken memories of love... and crime... and death... ”



Perhaps the most expedient manner to make one's human soul stop reacting poorly to magic is to set it on fire and be done with it. A Baali is someone who did exactly that. Some sell their soul off to demons, while others burn out their souls quickly or slowly with their own dabbling in dark power.

Baali tend to be emotionally distant and enraged by pictures of themselves (such as reflections, paintings, or photographs). This is probably to do with the fact that their souls are burned out husks or trapped far away in a mysterious hell dimension and reminders of their pasts as humans are infuriating. The thing where they usually fail at having normal relationships with people is probably much the same thing, albeit played out in a grinding process of ashy distance rather than inexplicable rage.

Baali refresh their powers by hurting people. This is functionally equivalent to vampiric blood drinking, but they don't specifically put any blood into their mouths. They still have to spend the same amount of time absorbing the proceeds of their wickedness. The actual distance they can be from the victim is about 1 meter per Potency each round after the wound is inflicted to draw a power point from the fresh injury.

The Baali Witch has an Infernal power source and a Feeding power schedule.

The First Baali?

The word “Baali” is an old Mesopotamian word meaning someone worthy of respect or allegiance. It has been handed around the Middle East and North Africa for millennia, and even such famous figures as Hannibal have reference to precisely that in their names. But the title used to mean someone who used Sorcery. That changed with the reforms of Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE, where people who had no magic at all could be known as a Baal. The first person in the secret histories who used Infernal magic to burn out their soul to keep the use of magic from destroying them was Marduk. He slew Tiamat and began the Marduk Society in the 25th century BCE. It is interesting to note that in the nights since, the Marduk Society has moved to favoring Astral magic, and no longer has many Baali members.

• Baali Starting Powers
  - Core Discipline: Authority -
• Command (Basic Authority)
• Mesmerism (Basic Authority)
  
  - Basic Powers -
• Aura Perception (Basic Clairvoyance)
• Hand of Flame (Basic Walk of Flame)
• Light of Ennui (Basic Descent of Entropy)
• Learn the Heart's Pain (Basic Names of the Blasphemies)
  
  - Advanced Powers -
• Cloud Memory (Advanced Authority)
• Fire Starter (Advanced Walk of Flame)
  
  Distinctive Flaw: Disloyal

Story Inspiration: The 1932 Mummy, Constantine, Bible Black, Devil's Advocate, Faust

[baduin]

Why not to call the equivalent of "Sabbat" traditionally, "The Synagogue of Satan"?

[Username17]

Why not to call the equivalent of "Sabbat" traditionally, "The Synagogue of Satan"?

Because the Syndicates have to function like adjectives in addition to functioning like nouns. "Covenant Forces" sounds rad, while "Synagogue Forces" sounds lame.

-Username17

[Blasted]

But I'm digging Striogi. What's that from?

I literally opened up the wikipedia on Vampire and used the first awesome sounding word I saw and hadn't heard of before. It's Romanian apparently.

It's also used by GW as one as their vampire bloodlines. It's not trademarked, though and I see no issues in using it.

[Draco_Argentum]

It's also used by GW as one as their vampire bloodlines. It's not trademarked, though and I see no issues in using it.

I checked for that, it wasn't on the first page of google.

Syndicate sounds kinda modern, probably because the most common use I hear is 'lotto syndicate'. What wold the first two syndicates have described each other as? I do like the very old words the bubble up in TDN.

[Winnah]

Perhaps a correlation between Baali feeding requirements and the sadist/dominant need for power and control could be made a little more obvious. Then again, the squick factor may be a turn off for some people.

edit: I was not very clear. I think the write up is a cool reboot. Expanding the description without crossing moral thresholds that may offend some readers may be difficult. It is AWoD though...

[Username17]

Syndicate sounds kinda modern, probably because the most common use I hear is 'lotto syndicate'. What wold the first two syndicates have described each other as? I do like the very old words the bubble up in TDN.

Syndicate is ancient Greek. I could spell it "σύνδικος" but that wouldn't really change much.

Anyway, more IP stripping:

---

The Strigoi: Serpents of Death
“A weapon you don't have in your hand will not kill a snake.”

Elegant and sophisticated or possibly simply old fashioned and resistant to change, the Strigoi are the aristocratic vampire of legend. The Strigoi have a long tradition of being in control in Eastern Europe. Traditionally, the Strigoi only transform people who are already rich, powerful, or socially connected. The transformation preserves the Strigoi's physical bodies against the ravages of sickness, hunger, and time and even enhances their physical power. But immortality and power do not come without cost, for the Strigoi must feed on the living. Strigoi regain power by drinking the blood of humans, and if they don't consume blood on a regular basis they are driven mad with hunger and pain.

While they present themselves as genteel, the Strigoi are serpents. Not just in that they lie, but that they have retractable poisonous fangs like a snake. Some Strigoi have their eyes change to snakelike yellow slitted affairs when their fangs come out. Strigoi are also inherently obsessive. Despite their healthy and timeless appearance, Strigoi are dead; and they will often display a strong aversion to certain things which remind them of their human lives, although such aversion is by no means consistent between individuals. Individual Strigoi usually display some symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, such as counting, cleaning, and otherwise ritualizing their lives.

The Strigoi and Nodferatu have a checkered history, with the Strigoi usually holding the upper hand. Strigoi lands were usually farther to the South into what is now the Balkans, but in those areas where both existed the Strigoi recruited from the top of society and the Nosferatu from the bottom. These social class differences persisted in the night as they did in the day.

A Strigoi has an Orphic power source and a Feeding power schedule.

The First Strigoi?

By far the most famous Strigoi was (is?) Dracula. He is actually rather hated by most Strigoi because his obsessive grandstanding over the years is basically a giant thumb in the eye of the Vow of Silence. He's been killed repeatedly, but various fanatics keep figuring out ways to bring him back from the dead. Which being a Strigoi mostly involves finding some significant portion of his corpse and pouring a bunch of fresh human blood on it. But Strigoi were running around being aristocratic blood drinkers for over two thousand years before Dracula was a major player in the Makhzen Covenant wars of the 15th century. The first Strigoi in the secret histories is Zalmoxis, who was a god king of the Dacians in the 12th century BCE. He enslaved other supernatural creatures and taught humans about Orphic magic. The secret histories are a little unclear on what exactly he did, because shortly after he was defeated the Tradition of Misdirection was created to prevent as much actionable sorcerous knowledge from falling into the hands of mortal humans as Zalmoxis had allowed.

• Strigoi Starting Powers
  
  - Core Discipline: Fortitude -
• Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
• Revive the Flesh (Basic Fortitude)
  
  - Basic Powers -
• Vigor (Basic Clout)
• Bite of the Serpent (Basic Lure of Destruction)
• Gift of Health (Basic Path of Blood)
• Mesmerism (Basic Authority)
  
  -Advanced Powers -
• Restoration (Advanced Fortitude)
• Indomitability (Advanced Fortitude)
  
  Distinctive Flaw: Compulsive Behavior

Story Inspiration: Lair of the White Worm, Dracula, Ultraviolet

The Daeva
“It turns out that humans in general are a superstitious and cowardly lot. How marvelous.”

So thoroughly has the American vampire integrated itself into vampire lore that it is difficult for us to remember that before contact was established between the New World and the Old, that the bat vampire was a being only of the Americas (as indeed, Vampire Bats themselves are a New World creature). The Daeva were called Onaqui and Tlahuelpuchi by the Nahuatl speakers of Central America, but seemingly before 1492 not a single one of them set foot in Africa or Eurasia. And yet, in the most recent centuries they have spread throughout the world, and transformed Luminaries of every skin tone into more of themselves.

Daeva are vampires with an affinity for bats and fire. While the European name for the bloodline has long ago been claimed as Daeva by those within, they are named as demons in whispered tones by mortals and supernaturals alike. The Daeva do not burn, and small bat wings protrude from their backs. Some of them have spots like a jaguar on their arms or legs. A Daeva's distinguishing features can often be relatively easy to hide. Wearing a backpack or even a heavy jacket covers wings quite nicely. However, once discovered a Daeva's animalistic, even demonic traits are difficult to explain away as anything short of an extreme breach of the Vow of Silence.

The eldest of the Daeva represented much of the power behind The False Face when it considered itself a Syndicate, before the war with the Covenant. Tonight, Daeva are members of every Syndicate. Looking at the demographics of Daeva tonight, it would never occur to an observer that just five hundred years ago every Daeva on the planet was Native American.

A Daeva has an Infernal power source and a Feeding power schedule.

The First Daeva?

The word “Daeva” is actually from South Asia, where it originally referred to those Asura who were not part of any infernal kingdoms. The term was applied to American Vampires by European conquistadors who at the time were still hoping against reason that Aztlan was a kingdom in Indochina. The first Daeva called Daeva were thus the cannibalistic overlords of the Arawak people at the end of the 15th century CE. The mythical origins of the False Face and the bloodline of the Daeva were written in an Incan book called Inti Jiwana, which means “The Panther That Swallows The Sun”. This “book” was actually a series of strings upon which multiple knots were made that imparted information digitally – like a stack of punch cards. As far as anyone knows, the last copy of Inti Jiwana was burned by zealous and uncomprehending Spaniards. And it is also far from certain that anyone remains who knows how to read it anyway.

• Daeva Starting Powers
  
  - Core Discipline: Fortitude -
• Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
• Revive the Flesh (Basic Fortitude)
  
  - Basic Powers -
• Vigor (Basic Clout)
• Fire Walking (Basic Walk of Flame)
• Gift of Health (Basic Path of Blood)
• Awe (Basic Presence)
  
  -Advanced Powers -
• Restoration (Advanced Fortitude)
• Flight (Clout / Presence Devotion)
  
  Distinctive Flaw: Blatantly Magical

Story Inspiration: Lost Boys, Dark Stalkers, Underworld

[ETortoise]

I found myself with some free time and decided to do a version of the Baali above.

It's hard to shade people who are on fire...

I've got a spring break coming up and while I'll be working on a paper I should have time to do a couple of drawing. If we get a few other volunteers we could probably have the playable supernaturals done fairly quickly.

[angelfromanotherpin]

I think fire poi performers could be a good source of Baali pics. Not exactly sure how to tell what's public domain, though.

[Username17]

I found myself with some free time and decided to do a version of the Baali above.

It's hard to shade people who are on fire...

I've got a spring break coming up and while I'll be working on a paper I should have time to do a couple of drawing. If we get a few other volunteers we could probably have the playable supernaturals done fairly quickly.

That has an active, comic-booky feel. I could definitely see spicing up the combat section with a pile of cartoons of characters in action poses doing stuff.

-Username17