A World Of Covens, Courts And Packs

Setting

Unsuspecting to most of its seven billion inhabitant, the planet Earth has a population of beings that are not entirely human. Some of them are not human at all. The secret is well-kept, people are in key positions to keep it from being spread. Times and times again, throughout history the humans have proved that they cannot deal with the difference as a mass. The sheep mentality kicks in, and the supernatural beings are hunted. Crusades, Inquisition, Witch hunts...

As the New World began to grow, Supernatural beings crossed the ocean. They contributed to shaping the new countries, and set down the roots for a peaceful coexistence between each other and with the human, mortal world. Vampires set up Covens ruling over a state and keeping its vampire population in line by claiming humans and sometimes other supernatural creatures as their blood doll, their willing blood providers. Shifters lived quietly among humans, setting up packs. Witches set up covens, and if not for a few mishaps during the big hype about witch trials where as many innocents were burned as witches were, they remained mostly unknown. Fae, like Vampires, masquerade as humans but keep their own to a strict set of rules.

Game Rules

• Do not create a character expecting a coven leader to break the news of vampires. It gets repetitive.
• 2-3 paragraphs are expected per IC post, more is okay. Less is tolerated once in a while but not constantly.
• Players are allowed 4 characters per coven maximum, more can be allowed per coven. Ask the GM
• To avoid drama, check with players involved before you:
  • Engage in a non-con scene
  • Use someone else's claimed doll
  • Use an unclaimed doll
  • Kill, harm or maim some else's character.
• Relationships may cover a wide range from Vanilla to Master/slave or pet. Make sure you and your partner are on the same page.
• Time is fluid, you can engage in more than one thread with the same character as long as they don't happen simultaneously. USE HEADERS.
• Advise a GM when someone is claimed or turned in order to keep the registry up to date.
• If you have an issue, take it to PM with the person you have a problem with, or with the GM. Don't take it further in the OOC thread.

Species

Each species have their own specifications, laws and societies. Should something be unclear or if you have questions, feel free to contact Aysande, Curvykitten or Vampyre Valkyrie.

Humans

This is the world of September 2013, so it is Earth as we know it today for most of them, with the same laws and same government, etc.

Interaction With Other Species

Fae

Some human children are stolen from their parents and raised to serve the Fae

Shapeshifter

often companions to the Shapeshifters, the relationship between the humans in the know and the shapeshifter are generally harmonious, with a few exceptions.

• A human that betrays the secret of the shapeshifter might find themselves facing death, or being transformed into the species they betrayed.

Vampires

The Vampires of North America are the first to include humans as member of their Covens, offering them protection in exchange for blood without thread to their health. Blood dolls, as they are called, can be claimed by one vampire who has grown fond of the human whether it is the blood, the body or the mind that pulls to the predator. Being claimed means that no other vampire may require their services, unless the doll's vampire agrees first.

• Vampires are a myth, a thing of movies and stories until they aren't
• Humans who are willingly giving blood are called blood dolls
• Blood dolls are a part of a coven and subject to their laws and customs.

Witches

If we excludes the Witch Hunts, Witches and Humans coexist peacefully the latter blissfully unaware that the former exists.

Fae

Interaction With Other Species

Human

Shapeshifter

Vampire

Witch

Shapeshifters

The legend has it that the first shapeshifters were created by a witch who felt that she needed protection over two thousand years ago. She had created a single one, made sturdy enough to live as long as she, and yet sturdier so that it could withstand the hardships that being a witch's familiar was. Her spell was taken by her coven, each witch creating her favorite animal. The knowledge spread, creating over a hundred different species. The witches quickly realized that the spell had limits. Insects, no matter how big, were impossible. Fishes, and mammals living in the sea were also on that list. Animals that were too small killed the target of the spell, and a too big animal exhausted the shapeshifter.

Although limited by the size range, it still encompassed most of the land and swamp animals, mammals or reptiles. After the craze that this spell knew, it was banished by the Council. Experimenting on humans was not to be done. Besides, they had realized by now that the bite of a familiar on a human, bite that broke the flesh, turned the human into a shapeshifter. Quickly, the witches began to try to stop what seemed to have become an infestation and managed. Still to this day, some shapeshifters agree to become a witch's familiar.

Shifters of the same species are guaranteed children of their species. Shifter and human have a 50/50 chance to have a shifter baby, interspecies will have human offsprings. The children will turn for the first time between 15 and 18 years of age. Also, under no circumstances other than madness or an outside source of compulsion will a shifter feel the need to have human flesh for its meal. They are protectors in the core, killers only if needed.

Strength

• After the age of 20, the shifter grows older one year per decade (a shifter looking like he's 40 would be 220 years old) but live to be about 500 years old.
• Old shifters sense other of his own kind within a few miles (<10)
• Enhanced senses and physiological attributes based on animal.
• Stronger, faster, sturdier than humans but not as much as vampires.
• Regenerates very fast, highly resistant to disease and poison.

Weaknesses

• Silver is bad, in any form. Touching silver for a few seconds causes a burn that heals a human speed.
• Beheading, fire, freezing, massive total injury or severe injury from silver-based sources cause death.
• A bitten shifter, as opposed to born, does not live as long (max 400 years).

Physiological

• The shifting process is quick, but the first few times it is painful.
• Shifting while keeping clothes is possible but requires practice and control
• On a full moon, shifting is mandatory and out of control of the human
• The day before and after the full moon, the shifter will be agitated, feeling the urge to shift, have mood swings, etc.

Shifting forms

• Human: They look normal, though still have some of their animal abilities as mentioned above.
• Hybrid: Still human for the most part, but bearing features of the animal. Eyes, claws, fangs, speech is still possible in this form.
• Wrath: Humanoid, but strongly laced with the animal's features. It is the fighting form of the shapeshifter with all of its strength at their peak. Claws and fangs become sharp as diamond daggers, skin is as touch as armor. It's the most primal form, very aggressive, though the human mind is still there.
• Animal:Final form, pure animal in shape and not easy to differentiate

Social Structure

• Conform to the organizational structure used by their animal form, like wolves will seek an Alpha if they are not one.
• Pack membership can be mandatory or optional, regardless of species, depending on the Alpha and Beta of the area.
• Should one break the law of secret, the shapeshifters deal with it in an expedient manner; be it a beating or death.
• Outcasts, those who do not wish to attached themselves to any pack or territory are Drifters. Beware that outcast are shunned by most packs unless they seek to join the ranks.

Interaction With Other Species

Fae

Mostly a friendly relationship, unless the fae proves to be threatening to the shapeshifter's charge

• Cannot be transformed into a shapeshifter, the bite is nothing more than an animal bite.

Human

Friendly, humans are often companions to the shifters.

• A bite will transform a human into a shifter of the same animal

Vampire

Although there had been tension over some age-old traditions of slavery of the shapeshifters by the vampires, they live mostly in peace whether it is on the old continent where shapeshifters are still enslaved or in North America where they have known freedom.

• Cannot be transformed into a shapeshifter
• In London, the shapeshifters are marked by a rune that enslaves them to the coven or to their vampire.

Witch

Witches have created the shapeshifter for their protection, and while they have forgotten how this spell works, they remember the one that allows them to bind a Shapeshifter to them in a mutually beneficial bond. The witch gains someone to protect them while they are busy, and the shapeshifter gains an increase regeneration rate, becomes stronger and needs even less sleep. The bond allow them a sense of empathy, feeling each other's physical state (Pain, pleasure, well-being, discomfort) but also the sense of the other's whereabouts, like a compass in their mind pointing at the other one.

• Biting & turning a witch will have them lose their ability to use magic
• A bond will fill the familiar with a sense of completeness, be fulfilling

Vampires

Pale in appearance, cold to the touch, they otherwise appear normal to humans. When they show their vampire form, however, they grow fangs, claws and some vampires have their eyes change to become all red, or all black. Any holy symbol bears no effect on vampires, one can even wear a cross against their skin as they would any other jewelry. Upon death, vampires leave no evidence behind but light ashes that the faintest of breeze carries away. A being with a sharp nose, however, would pick up the acrid scent.

When a human is turned, their body die. The transformation happens in a matter of hours and is basically painless. If a woman is pregnant, their child die and her body purges the stillborn. Vampires are unable to procreate. When first turned, the fledgling will share a bond with its Sire that allows one to track the other as if there was a compass in their mind pointing at the other half of the bond. The Sire also sense the Fledgling's thirst and is able to help control it, if the Sire has acquired a good grip on their own feeding. At all time the Sire is responsible for its fledgling and could possibly share its fate should the fledgling break the law.

When turned, the fledgling will acquire what is called a Dark Gift. The dark gift of the Fledgling may or may not be related to the one of their Sire. It will be out of control at first, and the young vampire has to learn to control it. By the age of 1000, the dark gift evolves and a second one appears. It is an offshoot, related to the first one. A telepath may develop empathy or memory manipulation, for example, but not control of fire.

Strength

• Immortal, they do not age or become ill.
• The older they are, the stronger they get.
• Fast, vampires are a blur to the human eye when moving at full speed.
• Enhanced sense of hearing and smell for tracking.
• Sleeping is optional
• Fast regeneration, dependent on their last feeding. The more thirsty they are, the less they heal.
• The bite induces a state of orgasmic bliss caused by the vampire's saliva as a means to control their victim.
• Gains sustenance from blood, but also memories from the bitten.
• Gains a Dark Gift when turned, and it develops into a second one at around 1000 years old.

Weaknesses

• Under 1000 years old, the sun reduces them to ashes. From 1000 to 2000 years old, the sun causes a rash but the immunity builds up.
• A stake through the heart, beheading, or immolating a vampire kills it.
• If their neck is broken, a vampire is paralyzed until it is healed.
• Vampire blood offers no sustenance to another vampire, but does share memories just the same.

Social Structure

• The older the vampire, the more respect should be shown.
• Vampire live in covens led by two vampires
• No human may be turned against their will.
• A vampire may not kill another vampire, with the exception made for coven leaders enforcing the law or those that the leaders have chosen to enforce the law.
• No human may have knowledge of vampires and be allowed to go completely free. They are to be killed, taken as a doll, turned, or influenced by a Dark gift (memory manipulation, oath-binding, etc.)
• Europe has 1 coven: London Coven
• North America has 4 covens: Alaska Coven, California Coven, Louisiana Coven, and Vermont Coven
• Vampires without a coven are called Drifters

Interaction With Other Species

All of them can be taken as doll, although Witches are strongly discouraged, due to the nature of their blood.

Fae

There is a tension between Fae and Vampire, but a treaty was signed so that the North American soil be kept a peaceful one. Before the discovery of the Americas, there was an age old feud between Vampire and Fae that caused fatalities on both sides. Some old vampires will remember those, and the rumor of how some of the oldest vampires were force-fed Fae blood, turned weak and human, then killed. No one even remembers what started the feud, but most of those over 500 years old would remember the fighting or rumors of them.

• Strong taboo: Fae blood turns a vampire into a human mortal for a few hours.
• Cannot be turned into a vampire

Human

They are food, but they are also the most likely companions. A human's body is warm and a vampire crave the warmth that its own body has lost.

• Most traditional source of food, and those willing are called Blood Dolls.
• Vampire blood heals a human who is not dying.
• Vampire blood turns a human who is dying.
• Human can be claimed by a vampire, and a claimed human cannot be touched by another vampire.

Shapeshifter

The two species have lived in a tentative harmony ever since the New World came to be. In North America, the shapeshifters are free, not to be enslaved, but in London they are the day guardians of the vampire, enslaved and belonging to the Vampire coven, marked by a dark gift to remain loyal.

• Drinking Shapeshifter blood sends the senses in overdrive, including lust.
• Blood has highly addictive properties, like a very strong drug.
• Cannot be turned into a vampire.
• Vampire blood helps the regeneration of the shapeshifter

Witch

The relationship with the witches is similar to the one with humans, save for the feeding since the witch's blood is poison, tainted by their ability to touch the nexus' energy.

• Their blood is poison.
• Due to the nature of their blood, there will be no vampire-turned witch

Witch

Interaction With Other Species

Fae

Human

Shapeshifter

Vampire

[List of available spells]