Pandora: Song of the Absent (Roleplay)
2
Prologue
The lume of the crescent moon hung adrift the sea of myriad stars. With the curtain of the nights fallen and the cleansing radiance of God—sunlight—thus amiss; the dwellers of the night would prey at the unsuspecting.
In a world far advanced where one would be able to †˜call’ one via the usage of an intricately-made device, or use a mechanically-powered vehicle to †˜drive’ and thus cross great distance without having to exert great amount of energy, or access wide arrays of information with the click of their so-called †˜mouse’, there would be those coming across the lone, eerie presence in the streets.
You would assume that he is ordinary.
But is he?
Look deep into his eyes—oh, yes—those mesmerising pair of crimson beacons under the darkness of his bangs, what do they imply?
Fear erupts in your heart. One that you may have never felt before. Your legs pull you away—instinct beckoning survival of your kind before you knew it.
Yet you wonder why—why you have fallen. Why those canine fangs have violated the purity of your skin and being whole.
Realisation dawns—but reactions are in severe lacking. A sensation of ecstasy never-felt-before is experienced. Everything is a blur from there, but it was a miraculous experience.
By the time it is over, however, you would soon learn that your life have been bound forever by a chain known as the †˜unlife’.
From under the veil of the Masquerade comes an invitation to a world behind the curtain, and their many odd-residents. Odd—only to you and your kind. Previous kind. It may be a little rude to brand the dwellers of the night as such. One such as you should strive to find a better term, so as to have your limbs intact, or perchance your newborn unlife.
Like a shower of whispers the intrigues of the underworld surrounds you, and the many rules of the Masquerade only adds to the number of chains that keeps you bound. The laces of order and civility are seemingly endless.
Listen well to your sire or suffer a fate akin to wandering a large and puzzling maze.
Congratulations child, you are a vampire now.
Welcome to the World of Darkness.
The lume of the crescent moon hung adrift the sea of myriad stars. With the curtain of the nights fallen and the cleansing radiance of God—sunlight—thus amiss; the dwellers of the night would prey at the unsuspecting.
In a world far advanced where one would be able to †˜call’ one via the usage of an intricately-made device, or use a mechanically-powered vehicle to †˜drive’ and thus cross great distance without having to exert great amount of energy, or access wide arrays of information with the click of their so-called †˜mouse’, there would be those coming across the lone, eerie presence in the streets.
You would assume that he is ordinary.
But is he?
Look deep into his eyes—oh, yes—those mesmerising pair of crimson beacons under the darkness of his bangs, what do they imply?
Fear erupts in your heart. One that you may have never felt before. Your legs pull you away—instinct beckoning survival of your kind before you knew it.
Yet you wonder why—why you have fallen. Why those canine fangs have violated the purity of your skin and being whole.
Realisation dawns—but reactions are in severe lacking. A sensation of ecstasy never-felt-before is experienced. Everything is a blur from there, but it was a miraculous experience.
By the time it is over, however, you would soon learn that your life have been bound forever by a chain known as the †˜unlife’.
From under the veil of the Masquerade comes an invitation to a world behind the curtain, and their many odd-residents. Odd—only to you and your kind. Previous kind. It may be a little rude to brand the dwellers of the night as such. One such as you should strive to find a better term, so as to have your limbs intact, or perchance your newborn unlife.
Like a shower of whispers the intrigues of the underworld surrounds you, and the many rules of the Masquerade only adds to the number of chains that keeps you bound. The laces of order and civility are seemingly endless.
Listen well to your sire or suffer a fate akin to wandering a large and puzzling maze.
Congratulations child, you are a vampire now.
Welcome to the World of Darkness.
***
Good evening all, and welcome to possibly my third attempt at an RP. After two failed attempts, it took a great deal of mental preparing and guidance from a few friends to gain the courage to get back in the saddle. In actuality, this started off from a simple conversation of spit-balling and whatnot. Hop, skip and jump around, Pandora was eventually born from the condensed ashes of my own crumbling psyche. This RP possesses that of a dark mystery setting, which players—or readers—may or may not become lost to as the story presses on. To clarify, Pandora follows the story of vampires, the fabled beasts of the night, and even goes in depth on their daily lives filled with conflict—with human kind, their own kind, and sometimes themselves. Make no mistake; though there may be some instances where the air becomes clear for a moment and everyone has their "happy moments". They will be shot down with a little tragedy here and there. Keep that in mind.
Additionally, the RP's system takes from the Vampire: the Masquerade Roleplay book, however some facets of the system were either abridged, or taken out completely.
Now, as a man who is not as experienced a GM as he wishes, I only ask for everyone to please: bear with me, for there will be times where I may get stuck or — even worse — confused. Which is why I have my trusty sidekick Cinia Pacifica acting as my co-GM in case I screw up.
Now, to summarize the story before I continue to ramble.
Pandora is set in modern London, England where Vampires, after a long history of bloodshed, are at their peak. Many vampiric clans within London are stuck at the crossroads of ripping each other's throats out. Currently, it is a melting pot within the city, as each clan fights for the possession of Pandora's Box — a relic fabled to have caused the near end of the world once.
Despite what I've said, the choice of whether the box would want to be used for good, evil, or even at all, is up to the player. Would it be pursued to begin with? Who would want to use it if it meant a catastrophe that would bring human and vampire kind to their knees? Find out, soon.
Premise and Mechanics
1
Cinia Pacifica
Ojou-sama Writer
(OOC: Hi, the RP has started, but we're still accepting players. Send a PM to Ezlare if you're interested.)
Act 1: Newly Awakened
When Enoch proclaimed that our right to Embrace would be shackled forevermore—forbidding us from having our own childers—the Second City would enter a pure state of turmoil. Enoch would be assassinated, Sylah would be tricked, and Irad—hunted. The storm brought about by the horde of desire and pleasure would spiral beyond control that would last for centuries, if not millenniums.
Even then, those who had bypassed the will of God and survived the Deluge—thus known as the Antediluvians—hardly recognised the moment for restraint. Nay, with the concept of moral still in the making among the humans, we—the members of the Damned—hardly held many beliefs of restraint of our own. We were monsters, there was no denying that.
I still remember the days we would unleash upon each other our childes and compete in manners various. Ilyes set Troile against Malkav, and Malkav twisted the hearts of Lucien’s progeny. My childe, Artemis nearly destroyed a childer of Malkav because he sired Nissiku—a person she wanted to Embrace—thus causing a rift between me and my brother.
My habit to be a responsible person—and thus cleaning up after my dear Artemis—led to the war with us siblings. It all began with perhaps the most peaceful talk between my brother and I, where it ended with me finally declaring:
“I’m gonna show you the door the good old-fashioned way, because fuck your madman shit, dear brother.”
The war would bring about the end to the Second City and we would move on peacefully to settlements foreign and refreshing.
This is the story of I, one of the top-tier badass deities of mankind, Ishtar—attributed to war, love, sex, or was it fertility of the lands?—and the founder of the Clan of Ventrue.
What?
You knew none of this?
Forsooth—I mean, that is simply pitiful, young child!
Since you are so attentive, let me share with you the history of us night-dwellers that I have experienced since time immemorial.
The Beginning
It all began with Caine being exiled for having committed a sin, and thus wandering what was supposedly known as the Land of Nod. Wherever that was, Caine met someone we the modern Kindreds would refer to as the Dark Mother—Lilith. Under the care of Lilith—who too, was cursed by God, by the by—Caine had learned the secret wisdom, abilities and arts known today as the †˜Disciplines’.
When it dawned upon Caine that there was no more the Dark Mother could teach him, he had taken leave of the land, forsaking her to her loneliness once more.
The First City
Miserably lonely, the Damned scoured the barren earth for an unknown period of time before having located a dwelling of men. Think like a village in some third-world country—but worse—and you know how the place looked, more or less. Back then, such a settlement was the epitome of a cool place to live in because solitude was absolutely underrated for the Ancients.
Impressed and enamoured, the humans made Caine their King, having witnessed powers thought to dwell only in their wildest imaginations. The time of satisfaction passed quite fast, however. Before even a single generation was passed, no man could keep the lone King company. Perhaps it was the sheer difference in race. A certain worshipper begged for his Embrace, desiring wisdom and power both.
Against the wishes of Archangel Uriel, the deed was done. In his honour, the city was named after the first progeny of Caine—the City of Enoch. Subsequently, Irad was Embraced under the request of Enoch, who wished for Kindred brethren. Lastly, Caine fell deeply in love with Sylah—who was apparently very beautiful. As this woman had quite the strong will, she resisted him despite being a mortal—fully aware of his feelings for her. Caine chose to secretly feed her blood of his own, so that she would be bound to him, before finally Embracing her.
Thus the second generation of vampires were born.
These three went on to create progeny of their own. Embracing many more for differing reasons. For instance, Sylah Embraced Absimiliard because he was a brave hunter with great prowess, Irad Embraced Brujah for having approved his philosophical beliefs, and Enoch Embraced me—the first of the thirteenth Kindreds of the third generation—recognising in me beauty, sagacity, and kingship.
I was raised under the court of Caine before I was acquainted with Enoch, as our great father of all Kindreds had decided that I held in me not only nobility but a form of wisdom that Enoch may have lacked. We would never know the true reason. I speculate that Caine may have kept me as a reserve Queen in case things would go awry in time. Perhaps he was being cautious. Overly cautious. No one knew what he was thinking when he offered me to be sired by Enoch, but Enoch was honoured. Which was quite the contradiction, as he had feared that the King saw greater potential in me than him. It brought about an aspect of envy in him, which may have tormented him greatly.
We of the third generation started to indulge the pleasure of Embracing very soon. Needless to say, tragedy went hand-in-hand with these delicate affairs. By this time, humans and vampires lived together. However, they did not quite coexist happily, for the humans were to serve the Damned.
The Great Flood finally took place and to be frank, I doubt anyone would have missed the First City.
While God may have intended to wipe away all beings except for Noah and his few companions, we the prowlers of the dark managed to sneak on board.
Act 1: Newly Awakened
When Enoch proclaimed that our right to Embrace would be shackled forevermore—forbidding us from having our own childers—the Second City would enter a pure state of turmoil. Enoch would be assassinated, Sylah would be tricked, and Irad—hunted. The storm brought about by the horde of desire and pleasure would spiral beyond control that would last for centuries, if not millenniums.
Even then, those who had bypassed the will of God and survived the Deluge—thus known as the Antediluvians—hardly recognised the moment for restraint. Nay, with the concept of moral still in the making among the humans, we—the members of the Damned—hardly held many beliefs of restraint of our own. We were monsters, there was no denying that.
I still remember the days we would unleash upon each other our childes and compete in manners various. Ilyes set Troile against Malkav, and Malkav twisted the hearts of Lucien’s progeny. My childe, Artemis nearly destroyed a childer of Malkav because he sired Nissiku—a person she wanted to Embrace—thus causing a rift between me and my brother.
My habit to be a responsible person—and thus cleaning up after my dear Artemis—led to the war with us siblings. It all began with perhaps the most peaceful talk between my brother and I, where it ended with me finally declaring:
“I’m gonna show you the door the good old-fashioned way, because fuck your madman shit, dear brother.”
The war would bring about the end to the Second City and we would move on peacefully to settlements foreign and refreshing.
This is the story of I, one of the top-tier badass deities of mankind, Ishtar—attributed to war, love, sex, or was it fertility of the lands?—and the founder of the Clan of Ventrue.
What?
You knew none of this?
Forsooth—I mean, that is simply pitiful, young child!
Since you are so attentive, let me share with you the history of us night-dwellers that I have experienced since time immemorial.
The Beginning
It all began with Caine being exiled for having committed a sin, and thus wandering what was supposedly known as the Land of Nod. Wherever that was, Caine met someone we the modern Kindreds would refer to as the Dark Mother—Lilith. Under the care of Lilith—who too, was cursed by God, by the by—Caine had learned the secret wisdom, abilities and arts known today as the †˜Disciplines’.
When it dawned upon Caine that there was no more the Dark Mother could teach him, he had taken leave of the land, forsaking her to her loneliness once more.
The First City
Miserably lonely, the Damned scoured the barren earth for an unknown period of time before having located a dwelling of men. Think like a village in some third-world country—but worse—and you know how the place looked, more or less. Back then, such a settlement was the epitome of a cool place to live in because solitude was absolutely underrated for the Ancients.
Impressed and enamoured, the humans made Caine their King, having witnessed powers thought to dwell only in their wildest imaginations. The time of satisfaction passed quite fast, however. Before even a single generation was passed, no man could keep the lone King company. Perhaps it was the sheer difference in race. A certain worshipper begged for his Embrace, desiring wisdom and power both.
Against the wishes of Archangel Uriel, the deed was done. In his honour, the city was named after the first progeny of Caine—the City of Enoch. Subsequently, Irad was Embraced under the request of Enoch, who wished for Kindred brethren. Lastly, Caine fell deeply in love with Sylah—who was apparently very beautiful. As this woman had quite the strong will, she resisted him despite being a mortal—fully aware of his feelings for her. Caine chose to secretly feed her blood of his own, so that she would be bound to him, before finally Embracing her.
Thus the second generation of vampires were born.
These three went on to create progeny of their own. Embracing many more for differing reasons. For instance, Sylah Embraced Absimiliard because he was a brave hunter with great prowess, Irad Embraced Brujah for having approved his philosophical beliefs, and Enoch Embraced me—the first of the thirteenth Kindreds of the third generation—recognising in me beauty, sagacity, and kingship.
I was raised under the court of Caine before I was acquainted with Enoch, as our great father of all Kindreds had decided that I held in me not only nobility but a form of wisdom that Enoch may have lacked. We would never know the true reason. I speculate that Caine may have kept me as a reserve Queen in case things would go awry in time. Perhaps he was being cautious. Overly cautious. No one knew what he was thinking when he offered me to be sired by Enoch, but Enoch was honoured. Which was quite the contradiction, as he had feared that the King saw greater potential in me than him. It brought about an aspect of envy in him, which may have tormented him greatly.
We of the third generation started to indulge the pleasure of Embracing very soon. Needless to say, tragedy went hand-in-hand with these delicate affairs. By this time, humans and vampires lived together. However, they did not quite coexist happily, for the humans were to serve the Damned.
The Great Flood finally took place and to be frank, I doubt anyone would have missed the First City.
While God may have intended to wipe away all beings except for Noah and his few companions, we the prowlers of the dark managed to sneak on board.