Post by Bearpaw on Jun 24, 2004 1:22:28 GMT 1
Good news and bad news. First, the bad news, the World of Darkness created by White-Wolf, was destroyed a few months ago. After a decade of ominous predictions of doom, it all went down earlier this year. Just a couple of months ago, they shut down their website.
Now the good news, there will be a new incarnation of it in August 2004. Until then, I will be using this thread to tell those of you who missed it the wonder that was the World of Darkness.
The World of Darkness was a unique series of RPGs in that it didn't take place in another world or a different time. It took place here and now, in the modern world. The theme is that the monsters that we believe are myths are actually real and among us. The legends we speak of harken back to their glory days when they ruled, but each semi-human race fell and now they must live in fear of humans, protecting their true identities. Basically, each kind of creature is a metaphor for something in the real world, and the tue horror is taking real world problems and warping them through this monstrous lense into something far worse.
It all started with Vampire:the Masquerade. According to this game, the original vampire was Caine, cursed for killing Abel--to walk the Earth for the rest of eternity, drinking lifeblood from humans and never being able to face the light of day again. He passed this curse on to three others by feeding them his own blood after draining them of theirs. These three in turn passed it onto thirteen more, each of which founded a clan of vampires which continued to live through to 2004 A.D. Caine had tried to stop the propagation of vampires once he had the first two generations and the family he needed to keep him company. He tried to create a perfect city where vampires and humans could coexist. That city fell, Caine and his first three children fell with it. The thirteen that survived raised their clans to rule during the Dark Ages, but then fell again, and hard. Seven of the vampiric clans recalled the ancient laws of Caine and formed an organization known as the Camarilla to enforce these laws, the first being the Masquerade: no human may ever know the truth of vampires, vampires must always pretend to be human when among humans. The other six clans had their own plans. One clan wished to ressurrect their fallen leader the Egyptian snake god Set, one clan had inner ties which would not extend to other clans, one clan actually wished to rid the world of vampires altogether, another were simply too devious to even be trusted by their own kindred, and the last two formed the Sabbat, the polar opposite of the Camarilla, believing that they were above any laws, human or vampiric.
The next game to come out was Werewolf:the Apocalypse, soon to be replaced by Werewolf:the Forsaken. In Werewolf the Apocalypse, the story is that in the beginning, Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, had three children, the Wyld who begat all creation in it's chaotic primordial form, the Weaver who puts everything in order, and the Wyrm who ultimately destroys everything and returns it to the chaos from which it began. Eventually, the Weaver decided it didn't like it's carefullly crafted creations to be ruined by the Wyrm, and so it trapped the Wyrm in a net. The Wyrm became frustrated and when it finally broke free of the net it had become so frenzied that it decided to destroy everything, not waiting until it's proper time as before, but simply to destroy for the sake of destruction. To deal with these problems, Gaia summoned her guardian animals and granted them the power to change shape, to become human and take shapes in between that would serve them in their duties to bring down the Wyrm. The Werewolves were selected to serve the purpose of being Gaia's warriors. Somewhere along the way, they began to believe that they were Gaia's favorite and that all should bow down to them. When the other Changing Breeds refused the War of Rage began. Then they saw why the wolves were chosen as warriors, they traveled in packs and could fight in force. Only three of the other changing breeds traveled in groups and among them, only the werelions, restricted to the African savannah, stood a chance. The werewolves conquered the world. Next was the Impergium, when they culled the herds of humanity, abusing them into submission, filling them with such fear that now any human without werewolf blood will become delirious if they witness the supernatural acts of the werewolves, including shapeshifting and the use of their many other gifts. However, the werewolves had a weakness, silver. Luna of the Changing Face, Gaia's sister and spirit of the Moon, had given them the power to shapeshift and balanced it with a severe allergy to silver. While werewolves could heal most wounds, silver would inflict severe bleeding and scarring, possibly even death. When the humans learned of this, they turned against the werewolves, and their age also came to an end. Now the werewolves, split into thirteen tribes, struggle to reunite against the Wyrm to protect Gaia. Those few who survived the War of Rage also continue in their duties, but it appears that the Apocalypse looms near.
There's more but I'm going to take a break and let all that sink in.
Now the good news, there will be a new incarnation of it in August 2004. Until then, I will be using this thread to tell those of you who missed it the wonder that was the World of Darkness.
The World of Darkness was a unique series of RPGs in that it didn't take place in another world or a different time. It took place here and now, in the modern world. The theme is that the monsters that we believe are myths are actually real and among us. The legends we speak of harken back to their glory days when they ruled, but each semi-human race fell and now they must live in fear of humans, protecting their true identities. Basically, each kind of creature is a metaphor for something in the real world, and the tue horror is taking real world problems and warping them through this monstrous lense into something far worse.
It all started with Vampire:the Masquerade. According to this game, the original vampire was Caine, cursed for killing Abel--to walk the Earth for the rest of eternity, drinking lifeblood from humans and never being able to face the light of day again. He passed this curse on to three others by feeding them his own blood after draining them of theirs. These three in turn passed it onto thirteen more, each of which founded a clan of vampires which continued to live through to 2004 A.D. Caine had tried to stop the propagation of vampires once he had the first two generations and the family he needed to keep him company. He tried to create a perfect city where vampires and humans could coexist. That city fell, Caine and his first three children fell with it. The thirteen that survived raised their clans to rule during the Dark Ages, but then fell again, and hard. Seven of the vampiric clans recalled the ancient laws of Caine and formed an organization known as the Camarilla to enforce these laws, the first being the Masquerade: no human may ever know the truth of vampires, vampires must always pretend to be human when among humans. The other six clans had their own plans. One clan wished to ressurrect their fallen leader the Egyptian snake god Set, one clan had inner ties which would not extend to other clans, one clan actually wished to rid the world of vampires altogether, another were simply too devious to even be trusted by their own kindred, and the last two formed the Sabbat, the polar opposite of the Camarilla, believing that they were above any laws, human or vampiric.
The next game to come out was Werewolf:the Apocalypse, soon to be replaced by Werewolf:the Forsaken. In Werewolf the Apocalypse, the story is that in the beginning, Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, had three children, the Wyld who begat all creation in it's chaotic primordial form, the Weaver who puts everything in order, and the Wyrm who ultimately destroys everything and returns it to the chaos from which it began. Eventually, the Weaver decided it didn't like it's carefullly crafted creations to be ruined by the Wyrm, and so it trapped the Wyrm in a net. The Wyrm became frustrated and when it finally broke free of the net it had become so frenzied that it decided to destroy everything, not waiting until it's proper time as before, but simply to destroy for the sake of destruction. To deal with these problems, Gaia summoned her guardian animals and granted them the power to change shape, to become human and take shapes in between that would serve them in their duties to bring down the Wyrm. The Werewolves were selected to serve the purpose of being Gaia's warriors. Somewhere along the way, they began to believe that they were Gaia's favorite and that all should bow down to them. When the other Changing Breeds refused the War of Rage began. Then they saw why the wolves were chosen as warriors, they traveled in packs and could fight in force. Only three of the other changing breeds traveled in groups and among them, only the werelions, restricted to the African savannah, stood a chance. The werewolves conquered the world. Next was the Impergium, when they culled the herds of humanity, abusing them into submission, filling them with such fear that now any human without werewolf blood will become delirious if they witness the supernatural acts of the werewolves, including shapeshifting and the use of their many other gifts. However, the werewolves had a weakness, silver. Luna of the Changing Face, Gaia's sister and spirit of the Moon, had given them the power to shapeshift and balanced it with a severe allergy to silver. While werewolves could heal most wounds, silver would inflict severe bleeding and scarring, possibly even death. When the humans learned of this, they turned against the werewolves, and their age also came to an end. Now the werewolves, split into thirteen tribes, struggle to reunite against the Wyrm to protect Gaia. Those few who survived the War of Rage also continue in their duties, but it appears that the Apocalypse looms near.
There's more but I'm going to take a break and let all that sink in.