[Dark Ages Vampire] Roses & Thorns

[mystictiger]

It is the year of Our Lord 1198, and the Long Night is finally drawing to a close. Pawns are being moved into play amidst the shadows and violence of the lands that lie between The Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Kingdom of Hungary. These are desolate lands, populated by hardy folk that work the land under the watchful supervision of warlike nobles from their castles.

It is an ancient land, populated by Slavs, Celts, and all manner of tribal people, and has long been in service to the Tzimiscie Voivodates. But Germanic settlers are arriving in increasing numbers, and with them come Ventrue. At the moment, the western visitors live as polite guests, watching the feuding Tzimiscie with barely concealed glee.

Amidst all of this, the lord of a small castle perched along a trade route sickens and approaches death. Factions - mortal and Cainite - smell advantage.

I have in mind running a Dark Ages: Vampire game. The setting will be 1198 to 1230ish Europe. I aim to provide players both with a home-domain to explore, develop, and cultivate but a also a chance to see the wider Dark Medieval World, meet interesting people, and so on.

i would rather people use the mainstream DA clans (but if you're dead set on something exotic like a Salubri or a Lamia, knock yourself out).

Players should come up with interesting concepts that can get along with others. So if you want to go and play Loner-no-Mates the Gangrel, this might not be for you. Coterie task / premise will initially be to secure the middle-of-nowhere castle identified about. Your success, failure, decisions, and desires will determine what happens next.

In terms of material, Dark Ages: Vampire 20 will be the primary source. Anything that arises from other books (e.g. the various Road books, or Vampire: Dark Ages splat books) might be acceptable but will require approval.

 

[dancrilis]

Dancrilis: Well, I was hoping on being the legitimate heir, since that would make things much simpler, also, I like the idea of an arranged marriage (As if there were any other kind at the time?) but the hopes were to marry the daughter of some otherlocal noble,

If you want to be be heir that is cool - maybe marrying a bride from a more powerful but distant family, who might be the plant that my character pretends to work for - if that works for you.
As mystictiger wants us at least partially in the know though I am not sure who you would be working for?

So I am thinking the following is the current status:
Area: small castle perched along a trade route with an ailing lord, not particularly noteworthy until recently - now becoming a focus for political interest due to escalating conflicts both mortal and supernatual. This leaves it without significant vampiric presence for the time being as elders don't want to make a risky journey and don't trust some of there lessers to.

dancrilis: Working for the Giovanni branch of the Cappadocian Clan she has been sent to secure family interests (such as the trade route).
SweetKissHardBite: the young heir of the castle seeking to secure there claim against more powerful local nobles who might try to take advantage of the current lords poor health.
kckolbe: a new undead arrival smelling opportunity after some past disgrace they escaped from.

LadyStarWarsFan: I don't want to put words in there mouth.


Possible connections between characters:
SweetKissHardBite has recently been married to a young foreign noble who has now moved into the region - one of her servants seems oddly tuned into everything and the noble bride is oddly deferential to them.
Mystictiger part of their escape from there past life was faciliated by the cappadocian and now a favour and a chance to raise has been called in - but it involves working with mortals.

Your two characters might know each other via however SweetKissHardBite's character is in the know also.

 

[mystictiger]

I very much like where this is going.

Mystictiger: There would also be one more option for a troup of old Vampires that would also make the ST have to work a little bit less, we get together, we come up with our characters, their stances, relationships (Kinda like in Fate) and the NPCs we would inevitably, drag along: Vampires and ghouls that work for them, by instance, rivals, enemies, lovers, we could populate a small place with about 20 Vampires in no time, best part is, you could still decide to change things and keep us guessing with either newcommers of duplicious bastards (Most Kindred anyways)

That sounds like a really interesting way of populating the "Big City" (tm), assuming people are up for it / don't get bored of me by then!

Dan's summary is spot-on. The issue with "Little Castle" (tm) is that there's no living heir. This means that the following could take place:
Lasombra-dominated Catholic Church gets a sizeable donation
Obertus-Tzimiscie Orthodox Church gets a sizeable donation
Neighbouring Ventrue puppet-lord is asked to step in to preserve stability / peace through martial means
Neighbouring Tremere are given new land as a result of magical / mystical cure attempts
Voivodate-Tzimiscie puppet may simply recognise the patriotic Slavs in the area at risk from Germanic domination and send in the ghouls.

The Giovanni interest here would be mercantile. I'm struggling to think what Toreador might do. Oh. and of course the Anarchs might also be interested.

There's nothing really here for the Order of Bitter Ashes unless there's a PC knight-vampire. Now, the Cainite Heresy (a dedicedly strange precursor to the Sabbat that we know and love from modern nights), by contrast are always looking for more land.

In essence, the Vamps are waking up, and have all spotted a power vacuum.

Bah. I'm getting carried away with this. I'll hush now

 

[SweetKissHardBite]

Well, since you said we could claim it for our own, I figured an 'heir apparent' wouldn't be terribly out of line, after all, one thing is having a paper saying you own it, other is actually going and taking it, since of course, there is always someone else with a just slightly more flimsy conection wanting to take it

After all, with marriages and intermarriages amongst nobles, there usually always at least few people with some form of right over it, which is were the conflict usually comes from, everyone having 'an excuse' to go and take it

If we HAVE to pick a side each, I'd probably go with the Voivodate, because Tzim of course


Back on the option of the 'Big City' I'd be more interested in that one, since sure, we might eventually grow into a power to be reconed with, but we'll never be Big Movers and Shakers, unless we make this game last really long, which doesn't tend to happen online, so I'd prefer start things from the interesting spot instead of ifs and maybes

 

[mystictiger]

Hrm. It looks as though we have two factions in terms of players already:

KC + SweetKiss = start as Vamps
Dan + Lady = start as mortals.

I'm not sure how to reconcile this. Unless, of course, KC + SweetKiss start as Vamps in a reasonably large city, and Dan + Lady arrive there ... on a mission from somewhere else?

 

[kckolbe]

I think I might pass on this. Based on the last few posts, I'd have a ton to catch up on and put together, and my plate doesn't have a lot of room. Best of luck.

 

[dancrilis]

Ok so this is what I am thinking for a starting sheet:
Viridis Giovanni

Backstory (not complete pending on what we decide)

Viridis Giovanni comes from a minor branch of the family and was effectively raised since birth to not only serve it but also to be noted by it - her seven elder brothers failed in that second task, two died on family business, one got scared and needed to be removed, one nearly had the eye of someone important but made a mistake that having the eye was having protection and over stepped themselves (what happened to them is unknown), and the remaining three serve faithfully but not enough to draw attention.

Viridis was different - from childhood she was able to see what others couldn't and was bright enough to use this knowledge when needed and to avoid it at other times, her letters were thought to her when she was young and she picked up languages easily. This allowed her to begin to acquire secrets that she might not otherwise have gotten - and this attracted the attention of the Family.

Her training and testing was brutal during her formative years - tests of loyalty, training in important knowledges she might need, how to kill and avoid detection, by fifteen she had killed no less than four people for the family and had learned more than about most academic topics than most did in there lives - easily comfortable having a conversation on virtually anything.

At this point one of the Masters took her in and began formal training on the occult and what it hid from most people - and she found out about how the elders of the family drank blood to survive and bound the spirits she could see to do there bidding.

She has now been sent away to prove herself worthy of the time that has been invested in her.

 

[Slayer Knight]

Is it too late to join? I'm thinking of playing either a Toreador or a Lasombra. I was going to start my own Dark Ages game but if this is still open, I'll join.