|
Post by Admin on Jan 23, 2016 14:38:24 GMT
This is where we should start the discussion on our world lore.
|
|
|
Post by sawaian on Jan 25, 2016 5:06:34 GMT
I think that we should take a new spin on the origin of vampires. The approach should be obfuscated at first to the players, yet the base elements ought to provide for the depth of the vampire curse. Cannibalism is always a treat so I would like to put forth that the first vampires belonged to tribal cannibals before modern civilization. I'm not 100% gunning for this idea, so it is more just an effort to push some ideas out in this brainstorm.
The cannibals of this civilization we're punished and forever pushed into the darkness. It's just a brief thought, love to hear your guys ideas. I'll add more ideas when I have time.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2016 14:46:10 GMT
Awesome, this is exactly the type of discussion that we should be having. The origins of the curse in VtM (Caine /Lilith etc) were great but starting off on a completely new origin would definitely help set us apart.
Just thinking about curses, they are usually the result of something horrific- so the cannibalism idea works well.The curse could also be a result of something like a murder/fratricide, or perhaps something dealing with the death of a child. There's also the options of some sort of sacrifice to an ancient evil or just modernizing it to be some sort of genetic mutation.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2016 17:05:56 GMT
I dumped a ton of VTM pdfs I had here, for ideas and reference: PDFs
|
|
|
Post by sawaian on Jan 26, 2016 0:58:27 GMT
I definitely like the idea of some sort of murder involved. What I also like to put forth is some ancient civilization. What if there was an Ancient civilization who became desperate, with the emperor trying to maintain his/her power. And in this attempt, to do what he thought was right but was actually sinful, ended up being cursed. For example: he knew that his family members conspired against him, so when he executed them all, he ended up paying the cruel price. His empire fell and he was forever cursed to the night.
The first empire: He became enamored by the blood and would feed on his previous subjects.
But there has to be more to this idea as to why the God(s) would curse him. Similar to the Tower of Babel, the idea behind this would be his desire for power, however good it may have been, was obtained through a brutal inhumanity.
Likening this to King Henry the 8th, where he went about executing everyone who came into power. So now we have this Emperor who killed his entire family line and several wives to maintain his power.
Who cursed him will be interesting. With respects to creating new Gods of worship, what pantheon that would be like. Optional, definitely would be more work, but I think by spicing up our story with a Greek tragedy type deal reflects the darkness in humanity. We view vampires as something that is a shadow of human kind, a creature of darkness. Our ability to make them in our image, to be a reflection of our own dark desires I think can be parallel to our fear of death and attempts to overcome what we are.
The monstrosity of a vampire IS those traits we find undesirable.
|
|
|
Post by fullmetalbae on Jan 27, 2016 12:08:03 GMT
Another idea as an alternate to the Pantheon of gods would be to have the curse befall on the Emperor character through a gollum-esque transformation- Kinda parallel's Sawaian's idea above of vampires being a shadow of human kind, except that the curse is of human origin, not divine. His desires and appetites are so corrupt that over time, he is consumed by them, he becomes a nightmare creature drawn to blood and darkness. This could be played out in the game by fledgling-vampire characters going through a murderous and psychotic rage, or a consuming and secret madness. I think the process of this kind of curse where it eats away at your morality and willpower could be fleshed out in a far more sinister way than having it be a curse from a powerful deity, especially where it may concern the player character themselves, or a primary NPC.
It also opens up alot of possibilities for character-building with regards to how different vampires have adapted to the curse over the centuries- Did they develop parasitic communities with humans? Are vampires perhaps revered as earth-bound gods themselves, worshipped for their perceived divinity of eternal life and ability to raise people from the dead? That being the case, how do they decide whom among them is the most powerful? Perhaps some of them choose to live an isolated and anonymous existence, choosing to hide their vampiric nature by instead using blood banks, small rodents, and the odd homeless person for sustenance. The more daring vampires stalk and seduce their victims.
I'm also really liking the idea of making the setting of our game a character. Say for example that the whole game takes place in one city, that city should be a primary character in our story writing. I'm envisioning something really murky and oppressive- almost horror-like, but with a sense of creepy wonder. I'm drawing inspiration from Underworld, The Labyrinth, The Crow, Alice in Wonderland, Sin City, Dark City...
Interested to know what others think about the overall direction/mood/themes of the lore.
|
|