[Dark Urban Fantasy] Chains of Retribution

Tiko

Tiko

Draconic Administrator/Mentor
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Mentor
Nexus GM
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Chains of Retribution primarily takes place within the small, impoverished country of Lutetia.

With most of the wealth within Lutetia concentrated into the hands of the small upper class, the rest of the populace is left to live in squalor. Disease and illness run rampant in the poorer regions of Lutetia, and crime rates are record high.

Lutetia is ripe with supernatural elements as well. Urban werewolf packs own the streets, and vampires have staked a claim to the night. Necromancy, witchcraft, and wizardry are a thing of the norm among the populace, and an underground struggle wages between the church and the supernaturals.

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The focus of this roleplay will be on the urban packs of the above summary. It will explore their dynamic within the city of Lutetia and the perpetual circle of violence as pack feuds and crime leave a trail of blood and tragedy in their wake. If the roleplay picks up enough steam, we may introduce spin-off roleplays exploring other elements of the city, but for now we'll be focusing on the werewolf packs.

This will be a dark and gritty roleplay, with little filter in regards to the violent nature of urban pack life. We are primarily looking for people interested in really bringing that aspect of the roleplay to life. In our initial launch of this roleplay we wound up with too many players wanting to make characters striking out against the mold so to speak which created an imbalance in the setting and pack dynamics. We want to stabilize that imbalance with more characters designed to fit the darker theme of the setting, rather than more characters that are an exception to the norm. So anyone looking to join, please keep that in mind with character ideas.

Note: For those interested in joining Chains of Retribution, this is a roleplay that originally ran within the Chronicles of the Omniverse and is now being split off into its own independent roleplay. As such there is some already established history between the two primary packs that the story will be incorporating. However instead of picking up exactly where we left off and expecting new players to slot in at that point, we'll instead be writing up a summary of past events into a 'history/background' for the new roleplay and modifying that history as needed to incorporate new characters into that history and to make some modifications to the story to better fit its new direction. So the original roleplay events will just be a guideline to drawing up the history we will be laying out for this roleplay once we determine how many new characters we will be adding. This means new players will not need to be familiar with the former roleplay to join.

 
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Werewolves in Lutetia​


Lutetia possesses one of the largest concentrations of urban werewolves in all of Issunar. Due to this large mingling and genetic diversity, Lutetian werewolves are characterized by their highly variable nature. There are two primary methods of passing on the genetic anomaly that is lycanthropy.

The predominant one is birth. Typically the pairing of two werewolves will produce a werewolf offspring, while the pairing of a werewolf and a human will leave the offspring with a fifty percent chance of being born a werewolf.

The second method is through the bite of a werewolf.

Whether born, or bitten, each werewolf is characteristically unique with the DNA of the human bonding with the genetic mutation. As human DNA is infinitely variable, so too are werewolves. Werewolves that are born - or who were blood relatives prior to being bitten - are more likely to possess similar trait with one another, much as human siblings might share similar physical characteristics. A werewolf that contracts lycanthropy through a bite is far more subject to variable outcomes, and often there is no way to predict how the process will affect them.

Typically the turning process spans about two weeks, with an early onset of fever, aches and pains that steadily grows more debilitating around the second week. By the third week the fever spikes, and the pain is enough to drive a victim to delirium. When the fever breaks in the final hours, the first transformation isn't far off. A victim will typically describe these hours as feeling like they're being torn apart inside. The transformation itself typically spans only a few minutes, but is a brutal ordeal and many don't survive their first turning.

There is a small percentage of bitten werewolves who present with lunentia, a degenerative ailment that is characterized by insanity. Early onset of lunentia can only be detected during shapeshifting, which will produce a feral beast driven by primal instincts and raw aggression. As time progresses though, the division of man and wolf will begin to blur until all sense of humanity is lost. In one famous documented case, an individual suffering from late stages of lunentia was found to have disemboweled his neighbors before feeding on their flesh. He was later arrested while running naked through the streets coated in the blood of his victims, raving about the moon.

Characteristics of Lutetian werewolves vary from wolf to wolf, and some may possess silver allergies while others don't. Others might have wolf forms, while others have bipedal hybrid forms. Some can change at will, others can only change on the full moon. Lifespan is equally as variable, though typically it appears to be tied to regenerative capabilities. Werewolves with true regeneration and the ability to heal wounds instantly seem to have indefinite lifespans, while those with accelerated healing have lifespans of a few hundred years. Those who heal as humans heal seem to live on par to human lifespans.

Culturally, the urban packs of Lutetia have a long and bloody history of pack feuding and criminal activity within the city. It should also be noted that the urban packs are more prone to developing their human aspects than the more feral werewolves of the wilds.

Public perception of werewolves in Lutetia remains mixed, but there are many who feel that the decision to grant them citizenship was a mistake. Racism runs rampant and there is a strong push within the government to treat lycanthropy as a deadly disease to be segregated out of public schools and hospitals. This general hostility towards the werewolf packs within the city serves to sustain the culture of violence that they have become so well known for. Pushed to the fringes of society, the urban packs are more apt to embracing crime and anarchy over law and order.

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Urban Pack Life​

For a Lutetian werewolf, urban pack life is often a short and bloody affair of cultural violence, blood feuds, and crime. It is a way of life that has perpetuated through the generations as the packs grew to be almost gang like. They can be characterized as unruly, poorly regulated, poorly controlled, and possessing of little regard for local laws that have never done anything to help them.

Anarchists many call themselves. Realists others would say.

Some stake a claim to various organized criminal enterprises ranging from drugs to guns, money laundering and prostitution. Others prefer a life of petty criminal endeavors and flaunting of the law when it suits them. Some sit on high in their casinos sporting suits, while others blaze through the streets sporting their leather and bikes. Each pack maintains its own identity and values, separate from others, and rarely do these packs coexist peacefully.

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Prominent Lutetian Werewolf Packs​
  • The Bloodstones - [Details Pending]
  • The Scions of Aodhan - [Details Pending]
(more coming soon!)​

 
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What we're looking for in players: We're' primarily looking for mature writers looking to tell a story, rather than people viewing the roleplay as a 'game' to win or lose. We're pretty flexible and laid back when it comes to our expectations, so we have no word limits or player age requirements. What we do expect though are players that write well with others, who don't take things too personally, and understand that while we don't maintain word limits on our posts that this isn't a beginner roleplay. Our focus is on quality vs quantity, and it takes skill to get across a lot of depth with fewer words rather than over-writing something to death that has no depth. We don't turn people away for preferring to write concisely as long as what is written has substance. We're also looking for players who are at a skill level as to able to make complex characters and partake in intricate roleplay developments. We like characters who feel like people rather than cookie cutter molds that never change or grow as they experience things.
 
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Awesome. I'm working on getting the roleplay setup along with the more in depth history and lore information for people, as well as a rundown of the groups we're looking for players for. I'll let you know when it's up and available so people can start working on character ideas.
 
Okay I've got some general setting information written up. Unfortunately I didn't quite make it to the write-ups for the packs tonight. I'll tackle that, as well as a general historical overview tomorrow. Once that's done, should be able to start hitting people up to talk character ideas.
 
The history writeup is proving a bit more complex than I anticipated. It's coming along and have a good outline done up, but don't quite have it finished. Dash will be free to help knock out some of the unfinished stuff tomorrow as well so if all goes well, we'll be ready to start working on getting peoples characters done up by the weekend.
 
Okay! Got the Bloodstone History posted up. https://www.storytellerscircle.com/threads/werewolves-of-lutetia.6882/#post-119451 Apologies that it may be a bit of a read. Had to summarize a lot of previous roleplay content into a historic summary to pick up after.

We're still working on the church write up, but people shouldn't need that to get started on characters. To give a rough idea of what the church is... they're a Vatican styled entity in that they have their own sovereign 'country' inside of the city. They're also racist as fuck, hate all things supernatural, and have a history of exterminating werewolves and vampires, and burning witches and necromancers and other such things alive. You know, all that fun stuff before it became illegal to do so.

Anyways!

For now we'll just be taking characters for the Bloodstone pack, but later down the line if things are going smoothly we'll start adding more players to the Scion and Nomad packs as well.

As it's late tonight, I'll start getting with people tomorrow to talk character concepts.

Also just as a headsup. We really want players that are a good match for this roleplay rather than simply 'lots of players'. So be ready to sell me on your characters and what you're bringing to the table.

If anyone already has character ideas in mind, feel free to PM them to me, otherwise I'll touch base with everyone tomorrow to start kicking around ideas with people.
 
I heard some things and stuff about this and it seems pretty Gucci so I'm in. If you'd have me. Will take competency tests if required.
 
Just a heads up, but we're still looking for players. Had two people change their mind about joining, so still plenty of room.
 
I'd still love to join, but I don't know much about the situation of the RP as it stands (as I see there's a large cast of characters following over, and history with it, I would assume) and there's still a couple pieces of the lore I'd like to see added. If a Bloodstone is really what's needed, I'll play a Bloodstone, but I'd like to see my other options before jumping off half cocked.
 
Yeah, Bloodstone is where we're currently taking characters. In the future we will be opening the Scions of Aodhan up for new characters (or for people to make second characters for), but we want to make sure for now that most of the players (especially people with only a single character) are in a single pack, for ease of roleplay and not having people segregated off from each other and thus unable to participate.

The history we have so far was mostly lead-up and early character development and easing into the story. Like the first few episodes of a TV show where a lot of shit hit the fan, but the scope of coverage was very small. So there's plenty of opportunity and openings to bring in new characters who for whatever reason weren't in the thick of things that night. We're planning to revise the existing history as well to make sure new peoples characters are am established part of things as well too. Which I can help people do, once I have a rough idea of their character. We can work on creating ties and a sense of history to other pack members from there.

For example, there were a lot of skirmishes that broke out in Cascastel. Likely some unmentioned pack members that where caught up in those skirmishes there that haven't turned back up yet. That kind of thing. Easily assumed they were around, but 'off screen'.

We especially are looking for 'old school' pack members. People in Baron and Ragenard's age group. We have a lot of younger pack members already created, but not many from the days of Baron's father being pack leader. And we only have rough ideas of the history back then, because that stuff was never roleplayed out. Easily adaptable to people's ideas. Also easier to establish as not being on hand when the shit hit the fan. leaving people the option of turning up IC and having their character need to get filled in also. IE: Could recently have gotten out of prison, or was traveling outside of the city for some reason or anothe (either pack related, or personal reasons). I have one that I had returning home after a stint in the military to explain why he hasn't been around for a while.

We're willing to do whatever we need to make peoples characters feel like they were part of the pack from the start.
 
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Tiko said:
Yeah, Bloodstone is where we're currently taking characters. In the future we will be opening the Scions of Aodhan up for new characters (or for people to make second characters for), but we want to make sure for now that most of the players (especially people with only a single character) are in a single pack, for ease of roleplay and not having people segregated off from each other and thus unable to participate.

The history we have so far was mostly lead-up and early character development and easing into the story. Like the first few episodes of a TV show where a lot of shit hit the fan, but the scope of coverage was very small. So there's plenty of opportunity and openings to bring in new characters who for whatever reason weren't in the thick of things that night. We're planning to revise the existing history as well to make sure new peoples characters are am established part of things as well too. Which I can help people do, once I have a rough idea of their character. We can work on creating ties and a sense of history to other pack members from there.

For example, there were a lot of skirmishes that broke out in Cascastel. Likely some unmentioned pack members that where caught up in those skirmishes there that haven't turned back up yet. That kind of thing. Easily assumed they were around, but 'off screen'.

We especially are looking for 'old school' pack members. People in Baron and Ragenard's age group. We have a lot of younger pack members already created, but not many from the days of Baron's father being pack leader. And we only have rough ideas of the history back then, because that stuff was never roleplayed out. Easily adaptable to people's ideas. Also easier to establish as not being on hand when the shit hit the fan. leaving people the option of turning up IC and having their character need to get filled in also. IE: Could recently have gotten out of prison, or was traveling outside of the city for some reason or anothe (either pack related, or personal reasons). I have one that I had returning home after a stint in the military to explain why he hasn't been around for a while.

We're willing to do whatever we need to make peoples characters feel like they were part of the pack from the start.
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I'm interested and certainly would be willing to play an old-school pack member.
 
Awesome! We're hoping to have some posting started this weekend, so if you want to get a character outline drawn up go right ahead. I would add that as we noted, we're really looking for characters that really come alive so to speak, but we also understand that a first outline may be a little slim, so if that's the case for you then view it as that. A first outline, and then we can touch base to build off that to tie things in with existing characters. Just try to make sure you give enough to get a good picture of the character, even if you need to be vague on specifics of history and what not for now.
 
Cool, so do I PM the outline, post it here? I have an idea abou the character's personality, brief history and motive already.
 
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