[WoD] Aperta Terra (Vampire: Dark Ages)

[Starship Tical]

Thanks for the sweet character submission!
That was some good evening reading! Looks great so far!

I think that I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but just to briefly summarize (not your fault for not finding it as my comments on this were lost somewhere in the general discussion): We're not going to be overly realistic in our depiction of this era to the point of identifying - including all the various different local dialects in each region of Europe. Spain had different branches of the Spanish language, etc... it all gets to be very unwieldly and ridiculous-- do players really want to have to waste precious dots and XP on having to rack up a few dozen languages just to operate in certain areas (how realistic is to assume that a vampire would be able to pick up other languages after only a few nights passing in game?).

We're only using and recognizing the major language groups at this time: French, Latin (usually limited to the more educated classes and nobility), Vulgar Latin (common; used for Italian and Spanish), Middle English, etc. Basically, for France and other surrounding border areas, French would be sufficient and for England and other areas, Middle English would be sufficient. Vulgar Latin would be good enough for Spain, etc.

I always try to google things and do some research before putting out a post to keep things relatively historically correct, nonetheless, this is a world with werewolves, vampires and other creatures, so we do not necessarily have to keep things completely real.

[Andor]

Gotcha, I won't get carried away...lol.

[In the Mix]

Name: Christopher Carmack

Clan - Bloodline: Cappadocian

Demeanor: Christopher is stoic. Careful. Vigilant. She watches wearily, always expecting something to come out of the shadows.

Sire identity & concept: Valentini of Campania. Her sire followed King Richard the Lionheart to the Holy Land during the Third Crusade. He hoped to learn more of death, and perhaps glean knowledge from the Muslim religion while there. He brings along Salome the Flawless, as his protector.

Physical Appearance: Christopher is rather tall, for a woman, standing at an incredible height (for the time) of 5'9". She bears the trademark pale skin of the Cappadocian clan, her dark eyes have sunk into their sockets and her dark hair has grown thin, pulling back from her forehead. All this has given her an almost skeletal visage. Her body is likewise thin and frail looking. Those who look upon her, out of her armor, would swear she is dead. Thankfully, she rarely is seen outside of said armor.

Personality: Christopher is reserved and quiet. When not defending her Sire, and is allowed to "relax", she prefers to read one of the many books that Valentini is done with. When around other Cainites that Valentini trusts (foolishly, in her opinion), Christopher is rather timid and has trouble looking them in the eye when conversing with them. But for those few who she has gotten to know, she can be... kinda friendly. Though, she prefers to speak of what she knows: war. When talking about that, she becomes a bit more animated, and happy?

Mortal History: Christopher was born in the year of the Lord; 1197. Her mother, Drexana, was the second wife of Duke Gregory of Carmack, a Duchie to the East of the Black Forest within the Holy Roman Empire. Soon after her birth, there was complications, and her mother bled to death three nights later. Soon after, Duke Gregory announced to his people that his first born son had been born, and he named her Christopher.

From then on, Christopher was raised as a boy. And although Gregory took other wives, none of them bore him another male heir. At least, none that survived to puberty. By the time Christopher was fourteen, she had thirteen younger siblings: five brothers who had all died (the longest living to twelve, before dying of a fever) and eight sisters. Of the sisters, only three have died last Christopher knew.

In the year 1212, word spread of a boy from Cologne, by the name of Nicholas. The boy had a vision that only the pure of heart and flesh could retake the Holy Land. Children, and virgin women, were leaving their homes and following his call to go to Italy. Excited by this news, and wanting to prove to her father that she was worthy of his love, Christopher pleaded with Duke Gregory to give her leave and servants to follow God's chosen one. Duke Gregory was not fooled by this boy's supposed heavenly guidance, and refused his son's request.

Undaunted, Christopher waited for her father's suspicions to relax, not showing any sign that she would betray his trust. But in the end, she did just that. She followed after Nicholas' Crusaders, about a week behind him, taking with her provisions and gold that should last her about a week, maybe two if she conserved her energy and didn't eat too much. Wearing her best armor (leather armor), she also took along her favorite bow, with a quiver of thirteen arrows, and the shortsword her father had given her on her fourteenth birthday. She would show him. She would make him proud.

Alone, Christopher at some point ended up lost and heading in the wrong direction. Instead of crossing the Alps into Italy, she found herself further East, climbing the Carpathians and moving Southeast into Bulgaria and Byzantine. She didn't know it, but luck, or perhaps Divine Providence, was on her side, as she was perhaps the only one of the so-called "Children's Crusades" to actually set foot in Constantinople, and therefore make it to the Holy Land as a Crusader, and not as a slave as many of the other children are believed to have done.

To be honest though, it was really Christopher's foot that first crossed into the Holy Land. It was her hand. By the time Christopher made it to Constantinople (not Istanbul), she was near starving. She had no gold left, no arrows. Her shortsword she had sold back in Hungary, to buy more arrows and food. And that had lasted her until three days out from the city that separated the East from the West. She was on death's door, with no where to go but through it. And yet, she smiled. She had done what her father had insisted she couldn't do: she had made it to what she thought was Jerusalem. How was she to know, in her delirious state, that she still had miles to go. This was the Holy Land.

Cainite History: It was nearly dawn when Salome carried a peculiar bundle into Valentini's study. "What have you there?" he asked the woman he entrusted his life to.

Salome quietly lays the child warrior onto her own bed. The girl before them was burning from fever. What should have been pale white skin was fiery red from the burning of the sun. "I found her face down on the trail, just outside of the fortress. Bandits must have gotten to her."

Valentini considered the nearly naked girl before him. "Or perhaps she was thrown out from her tribe?" he suggests. "Perhaps she was perceived to have committed sin against their Gods?"

"I don't think so." the warrior protested. "She speaks with the tongue of the Germanic people."

"Jerusalem. Must.... must fulfill... the prophecy." Christopher mumbles.

"I believe she is one of those children we heard rumors of." Salome says, looking fondly down at the girl. "I wish to keep her. She fought her way here. I want to make her mine childe, if you will allow it?" she asks Valentini.

Valentini considers the girl for a moment. Salome was right, there was fight in this young mortal. And it would be good to have a servant again, that could help out and protect him during the day. "So be it. But she is yours to guide. Do not allow her to get in my way." And with that, the scholar returns to what he was working on before this interruption.

It took more than a month, but Salome nursed Christopher back to health, and then began training her further to be a warrior and follower of the Dark Mother. Christopher took to the training easily, more so than even her teacher would have predicted.

Many years past, so many that Christopher isn't exactly sure what year it is anymore. Following Salome's teachings, Christopher has become a knight for their Master. No longer does she dream of making her father proud. Her only wish is to please Salome, and therefore Valentini. But she's still young, and still mortal. Valentini has come to value his mortal assistant's ability to go out into the sun. To conduct business and fetch him resources that would otherwise be a nuisance to retrieve.

But everything good must come to an end. And Valentini's time in Jerusalem is coming to that end. It is the year 1218, word of Pope Honorius III's plans to send a fifth Crusade has stirred up unrest in the region. But worse still, rumors are beginning to stir about a devil within their midst. An evil that must be cast out, before the next invasion of the Christians.

Valentini doesn't listen when Christopher, now twenty-one years of age (though she wouldn't know it), brings him news of this. Salome pleads for him to listen, but he will hear nothing of it. His studies are too important to be interrupted by rumors and hearsay. They have been careful, have they not? Certainly, it is just talk of a new plague or fear of the next war to come. It will pass.

Salome and Christopher obey, but are even more vigilant. But even their vigilance can only do so much when a small army of mortals attacks the old fortress the threesome call home. The mob attacks just after dawn, just as the vampires are about to slumber. Christopher alone holds off the first wave, calling out for Salome to awaken.

But the faithful Lamia warrior can only come so close, before daylight forces her to wait for the battle to get to her. Knowing this, and hearing her Mistress call for her to retreat, Christopher pulls back, leading the enemy further into the broken fortress. Together, Cainite and mortal fight against the forces who wish to expunge the evil from their lands. And in the end, they prevail. Except that only one of the survives to the next night.

That night, Valentini and Christopher pack up and leave the Holy Land. During the trip home, Valentini will relent to Salome's last wish, and turn Christopher. And though she will not be of the Lamia bloodline, she will follow the teachings of the Dark Mother, as Salome taught her.

[In the Mix]

It got long. Sorry. There may be some grammatical errors, as well. But I'm too tired at the moment to go back over it. Again, sorry.

[Starship Tical]

@Andor: We are going gritty realism 'light - diet' in our game. Yeah, we want this to feel historical, but creative freedom is allowed in certain areas just to be able to proceed with time in the game (or to allow for interesting things that can and should happen in a WOD world; with mages and vampires running around, there is bound to be ground breaking technology and the like that did not make it past the various shadow groups' censorship to our history books in circa 2023). I am not going to expect players to know everything about daily life in this era or throw up my hands in frustration if you got 1242 dental hygiene completely wrong in a post.

The beauty of the internet is that you can find instant information on pretty much any aspect of any time period, but again, we do not always have a lot of time before us for both RP'ing and doing historical research during the work week.

@In_the_Mix: Thank you for the application!

No need to worry about the length or the few errors! I am sometimes on my phone and that is when I put out my poorest quality posts! I hate using my phone and always prefer a keyboard, but sometimes it is necessary.

I never expected Clan Cappadocian to be so popular, but we have three in the thread so far!

Thanks again for your submission! Great read!

@ALL: I will be posting the finalists tomorrow at some point during the day.

I am probably only shooting for 4 players to round up the coterie to 5 (PabloMuerte had the original PC in the game so far); this seems like a number that I can reasonably handle and do justice.

Thank you to everyone who put in some material and I appreciate your interest!

[dr kekyll]

Application Name: Yusuf al-Kaysani Clan: Banu Haquim (Assamite) Physical Appearance: A handsome-faced Arab man of unassuming stature, Yusuf wears traditional middle eastern garb from the area that is currently the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Demeanor: Judge History: In life, Yusuf was a merchant with a wife and a son. Though he always felt he was missing something, he loved his family and they were happy. But in هـ494 (1099 AD), Latin Crusaders invaded Jerusalem and ravaged the city. Though Yusuf took up his father's sword to protect his loved ones and his home, he was struck down in the street and left for dead. That's where Adrina found him. Writing sample: WIP

I took over for a teacher that umm... "soft quit" this week. And since she hadn't been around for two weeks already, the kids were behind. And they have a writing SOL Tuesday which does not allow retakes, so... that's where my energy and attention has been. I'm still going to try and finish though... Nevermind I can't do it. I ate right after I made this post and practically passed out. My brain isn't functioning right now. Thanks though! Have fun everyone!

[Starship Tical]

@dr.kekyll: Thanks for the beginnings of the character sketch all the same! I am not a big fan of writing under pressure with a deadline looming either, so I do not blame you one bit for not just wanting to force something out just to do it. Who knows? We might cross paths again in the future!

@ALL:
As the deadline has come to a close, here are the selected players - PCs for the game (the players are in no particular order and no significance should be taken from how they are listed-- you are all equally beautiful in my eyes! ):

User: Apocrypha
Character: Isabella D’Agenais

User: Ladytron
Character: La Petite Ver

User: Elanir
Character: Brother Theophilus

User: Andor
Character: Guiscard de Brienne

This was not easy at all as we had some great submissions in the thread!
I thank everyone else for their time and effort nonetheless!

First items of business for the selected players of the game(game link):

1 - Character sheets need to be completed.
This will be a strictly by the book character creation process (Vampire Dark Ages 20th Anniversary) and please note where on the sheet you have spent your freebie points - original allotment of dots (attributes, abilities, etc.).

I do not hold players to the maximum of 3 dots for starting characters, so feel free to have your PC be more advanced in certain areas on the sheet.

I also accept specialties (rolling bonuses for certain activities) for any ability - attribute on the sheet at 4 dots and they do not have to be necessarily the examples listed in the book. If it makes sense to be attached to that ability or attribute you can run it by me and I will probably put my rubber stamp on it.

As discussed a few times already in the thread, languages have been simplified to the major language groups that would be expected to dominate the various regions of Europe. French is good enough for France and surrounding areas as is Middle English for areas of northern France - England and Vulgar Latin is sufficient for both Spanish - Italian. Latin is also kicking around for the more educated among you as well. If you are unsure about whether or not we're using a certain language (for other regions or more obscure languages that you might want on your sheet just for flavour or to use with your retainers, sire, etc.), drop me a PM.

If you have any questions or need help with the character creation process (for any first timers or beginners), again, feel free to send me a PM and I will provide direction.

2 - Start now or wait for the sheets to be finished?

If players agree, I am willing to throw out the starting post to officially start this thing off as you also work on the sheets.

I do not want to create more of a workload for players to have them work on sheets and then be expected to post in the game thread throughout the week. So, if you feel this is too much right out the gate, I can respect that and we can wait for the sheets to be all handed to me and approved.

FYI: As you might imagine, there should not be a ton of dice rolling for this first scene (it will be a lot more interactive - social-- an ice breaker of sorts for players to introduce their characters for the first time), so even if your sheet is not ready, this is not a huge issue.

Also, as discussed, the one post a day requirement has been relaxed and do not feel stressed out if you cannot post daily.

Anyways, let me know how you feel and we will proceed from there!

[Ladytron]

Hello all and ty @GM for inviting me into the game.

As for starting, I can go whenever. My char is done-but-not-done, as I have to assign a few things but structurally Ver is ready.

[Apocrypha]

Thank you! Can't wait to get started!

You've seen my sheet already, but is there anywhere in particular you'd like it "officially" posted? Does it go in the character thread?

[Elanir]

Thank you so much for accepting me, Starship Tical!

I will be needing some time for the character sheet because 1) this is my first “Vampire” game and 2) it has been a couple of very busy weeks at work, but I have nothing against starting the game even without character sheets, if that’s OK with you.

[In the Mix]

Good luck, everyone. Have a fun game.

[Andor]

Thanks for the invite, Starship!

I'll be back from vacation tomorrow, but will probably be too wiped out to do much. Should be all set up afterwards, though!

[Starship Tical]

Again, it is never easy making the final list of players and I feel bad that we cannot find some way to drag everyone along for a fun time!

If I ever start up another game or if we lose players at some point, I will revisit this thread and blow the dust off some of the character submissions already put up in here. Thanks again everyone and I hope we might find ourselves in some project together down the road!

@Ladytron: Thank you for the unique character that will surely make things around this coterie more interesting! Sounds good! Noted.

@Apocrypha: Ditto! Looking forward to starting the show!
I probably should of mentioned this before for everyone: I already have the character sheets that were submitted copy - pasted in a word file on my PC (again, I like keeping PCs a mystery to their fellow PCs and allowing for players to grow to know their coterie members organically in-game-- I know we're all adults and can separate OOC knowledge of the game world from our PCs, but revelations and suspense is just not the same when you already know who you are dealing with from the start), however, if you would like to keep a copy for yourself, feel free to do so in any format you would prefer. I will refresh my version of your character sheets as the game progresses if there are any changes to PC stats as the story unfolds.

I have created PC threads for all the characters in the game forum section if you would like to post pictures, quotes or a sanitized character sheet (please keep it barren of any knowledge that someone who just met your character should not know) for the other players to have an accurate portrayal of your PC.

These threads can also be used to keep track of any items, loot, equipment or notes that can be referred to in the future (or you can always note these things in your character sheet).

@Elanir: Noted. You had a pretty sweet Cappadocian, so I could not resist!

If you need any help on that character sheet, always feel free to reach out to me and I can clear up any issues you might have on this front. You will soon come to see that Vampire (and pretty much all White Wolf dot system games) are pretty intuitive when it comes to the rules; it all boils down to rolling a relevant attribute with a matching ability in 95% of situations when you are attempting an action (or resisting - reacting to an action). Nonetheless, I will break it down for you during the game and you can just tell me what you want to do with me telling you what to roll. Do not worry too much about the mechanics!

The game started out as a solo project for one of my friends to get them used to this hobby and to this system in particular, so we are a newbie friendly game.

@In the Mix: Thanks again for the submission and I hope that we can possibly cross paths in the future!

@Andor: No need to thank me for the invite as your PC needed to be in the game!

Noted. Again, we're only softly following the daily posting rate, so you can always post on another day when you're feeling more mentally fresh.

No one should be stressing on getting a daily post out.

@ALL: Well, it looks to me that everyone is pretty much onboard for a quick start, so keep your eyes peeled on the game forum for the new Chapter III thread.

[Ladytron]

@GM can you please create an OOC forum as well? You probably didn't need one before but with more people it might be a good idea.

Can we post in the game yet, or do we wait for your blessing?

Also, would a super-secret folder help as well? I can send you hidden stuff (I think) in the file you made but that would make it so anyone else looking for public info on Ver will have to sort through a lot of junk first.

[Starship Tical]

@Ladytron: Sure! Good idea! I will create the OOC thread shortly.

You have the green light to open fire in that thread! Everyone does really!

I would prefer having everything centralized in your character thread-- you can always just secret text things that should not be general knowledge. If you really want a secret folder, I can oblige you though. Let me know!