Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Lutetia

Tiko

Draconic Administrator/Mentor
Administrator
Mentor
Nexus GM
Lutetia

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Lutetia is a small, impoverished city state nestled within the eastern reaches of Issunar, on Valore. Despite its impoverished nature, Lutetia has carved a name for itself for its artful and fashionable community. Lutetian art, music, fashion and cuisine are world renowned, and its rich historical background make Lutetia a marvel to scholars and historians alike.

For those living within Lutetia though, a very different picture is painted. Most of the wealth within Lutetia is concentrated into the hands of the small upper class, while 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 run rampant through the streets of the cities, 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 Evêquec church and the supernaturals. Mercenary groups have risen to prominence within these internal conflicts, and their numbers can oft be found widespread throughout Lutetia.

For those RPing within Lutetia please be mindful that Lutetia's local culture is loosely influenced by a mingling of French, Gaul, and urban fantasy concepts, but due to general immigration, other cultural denominations are present as well in smaller number. Lutetia maintains a dark urban fantasy atmosphere with both modern and supernatural elements. Please be mindful that while Lutetia is inspired by French concepts, it is not France, nor do the locals speak French. The dominant language of the region is Queran, and while individuals are encouraged to maintain a French *feel* to Queran words and character names, they should avoid words pulled straight from a French dictionary.

Furthermore, the players of Lutetia respectfully ask that all players joining into RP within the region try to respect and preserve the atmosphere of Lutetia: a dark urban-fantasy city with local character driven plot and low-mid power leveled characters to encourage more street level RP, and inter-group/city politics.

 
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Law Enforcement

Lutetian Law Enforcement is comprised of a single national police agency that is largely centered within Lutetia City. Smaller towns and villages are enforced by an appointed constable whose duty is to form a local night watch of citizens to maintain law. Larger towns might have the luxury of a fully functional precinct at their disposal.

Within Lutetia City itself, the Lutetian Law Enforcement are often a formidable adversary for the more criminally minded. Though their influence and resources waver in the poorer regions of the city, their presence is a prominent one within the wealthier quarters of the city.

Lutetian Officers are well trained and well equipped to handle most day to day crime within a city ripe with supernatural elements, and sub-human criminals. One should note though, that there is a great deal of tension between the Lutetian Police officers, and the Evêquec church. In matters of local crime, the Lutetian Police maintain jurisdiction over most cases. Any arrests made by the church, are expected to be turned over to the police for processing, and crime scenes reported to the police. However the church - which functions in more of a military capacity - has a reputation for spinning many supernatural crimes as foreign elements and national threats, and playing the courts to get cases pulled out from under the police in a never ending power struggle of law vs religion.

 
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Military

Lutetia doesn't maintain a military in the traditional sense, but rather, the Evêquec church serves to function as its military. The paladins of the Evêquec church - the noble knights of the Evêquec faith whose skill in battle is surpassed only by their commitment to their god - make up the brunt of the military body. Garbed in highly-advanced plate armor that blends the best of arcane technology and wielding a deadly assortment of guns, swords and flames, the paladins of the Monastic Order are a fierce and formidable foe.

Though typically the paladins of the Monastic Order are charged with rooting out the servants of Ténèbre and fighting the evil of the First Ashes in the hopes of creating a world where mankind can exist in peace, historically they have often stepped forward to defend Lutetia from foreign threat, be it supernatural or human in nature.

 
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Religion

The Evêquec faith is a militant-humanist theistic worldview dedicated to the exaltation and perpetuation of humankind and all facets of reality believed to be associated with it. It is fervently loyal to all things 'human' and abstinently against all things 'paranormal' or anything that may be perceived as not being human in nature and origin. This staunchly xenophic outlook is a stark contrast from the rest of Valore, a planet whose population includes a significant number of nonhuman species. As such, the Evêquec faith remains existent almost exclusively in Lutetia and Issunar, with virtually no presence on any other continent of Valore.

The Evêquec faith believes in one god - Elueu - who created the universe and fashioned mankind in his image as his chosen race. All other sentient species are corruptions of Elueu's work, formed by Ténèbre, the Evêquec incarnation of evil, to destroy mankind. To save them, Elueu sent his daughter, Selene Evêquec-Fille d'Elueu, to defeat Ténèbre. Selene accomplished this at the cost of her own life and ascended to the side of Elueu upon her death, charging her former general, Jacques Eclaron, to continue her work on the earth on her absence. Filled with divine prophecy, Eclaron established the first church in the city of Lutetia and laid the framework for what would eventually be known as 'Evêquecism'.

Though the church once ruled all of Lutetia in a single-minded theocracy, a 'philosophical renaissance', occurring in the last two hundred years or so greatly shifted the balance of political power away from the church. Science, philosophy and art came to dominate Lutetian culture, and although adherents to the Evêquec faith remained strong, many believed that there should be a separation between church and state.

Further information on the internal structure, hierarchy, and history of the Evêquec faith can be found [link pending].

It should also be noted that while the Evêquec faith is the dominant religion within Lutetia, it is by no means the only religion. Other religious denominations and cult followings can be found in smaller numbers all throughout Lutetia.

 
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Werewolves


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 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 Psions of Aodhan - [Details Pending]
(more coming soon!)​

 
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Vampires


Order among vampire kind within Issunar is maintained through a monarchical rule of four elder vampire houses. The heads of these houses form a council, and each house maintains absolute authority within their domain on matters of policing and enforcing the laws of their society.

There exists one elder house for every city-state and country of Issunar, and existing within each of these territories are several lesser houses. The bloodlines of these houses vary as greatly as night and day, leaving each house with its own unique talents, characteristics, traits, and weaknesses. It is not uncommon for a house to maintain these weaknesses as carefully guarded secret.

Typically an elder house is headed by a single individual who delegates control of the towns and cities within his or her territory to trusted members of the house, or in many cases to lesser houses. The specific hierarchy and structure of each house varies from house to house.

Though each ruling house maintains their own laws within their individual territories, there are several laws that the council maintains over all of Issunar. These laws are typically regarding matters that directly impact the safety and continued existence of all vampire kind.

Among the foremost of these laws is that as long as a vampire remains within the territory of one of the elder houses, he or she is subject to the full authority of that house and its laws.

Furthermore, vampires entering the territory of any of these ruling houses are expected to present themselves to the house, both announcing their presence and purpose within the city or town as well as acknowledging the authority of the ruling house over the region. Failure to do so will typically be met with detainment and a forced audience that may or may not permit explanation for failing to comply with this Issunar tradition. Typically so long as a vampire announces his or her presence and abides by the laws of vampire society, travelers are free to come and go.

Another strongly held law is that the death of a vampire can only be ordered from within their own house, by the presiding Elder house, or individuals designated by the Elder houses. Vampires are also forbidden from betraying their own kind, be it directly or through providing compromising information to humans or other potential threats to vampire kind.

Matters of hunting and feeding must be performed discretely and not draw unwanted attention upon vampire kind. One should note that this law does not extend to protecting humans, so long as the death of a human doesn't draw the eye of authorities.

Lastly, a vampire is not permitted to sire any fledgling vampires within the territory of one of the elder houses without the consent of the house.

Summary of Issunar Vampire Laws:

  • While within the territory of another, a vampire is subject to the laws of the ruling house and none may challenge its rule.
  • When entering foreign territory, a vampire is required to present his or her self to the ruling house of the region.
  • Vampires are forbidden from killing others of their kind without the order of the ruling house of the region that they're currently residing within.
  • A vampire may not sire any fledgling vampires within the territory of another without the consent of the ruling house.
  • Matters of hunting and feeding must be performed discretely and not draw unwanted attention upon vampire kind.
  • Vampires are forbidden from betraying their own kind, be it directly or through the feeding of information to humans or other potential threats to vampire kind.

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The Elder Lutetian Vampire House

The Elder Lutetian House, House Sylvestre, prides itself on being the most refined and sophisticated of the four Elder houses. Their almost human-like physical characteristics, paired with strong mental manipulation and domination abilities have granted them one of the largest concentration of vampires within one location. Their ability to move unnoticed by humans, and to integrate themselves into human society gives them a level of influence within Lutetia that few other houses can boast. Their use of human thralls within local police agencies, hospitals, and news agencies only further enables their ease of movement. The risk of discovery further remains low with their capacity to simply remove memories from humans when required to maintain their secrecy. Humans in the service of House Sylvestre typically remain entirely unaware of their involvement, or of the vampiric nature of their house contacts.

Notably figures within the house consist of its head, Audric Sylvestre, and his two children, Sebastien and Adelaide Sylvestre.

Another practice, somewhat unique to all of the Lutetian houses - though most strongly enforced within House Sylvestre - is their penchant for building their houses around actual human blood lines. Generally all of the Lutetian houses maintain a foundation of human blood relatives. While non-relatives may be turned and brought into the family, they generally will not hold positions of influence or status within the hierarchy of Lutetian vampire politics. Another curiosity stemming from this practice is that unbeknownst to their human blood-relatives, they are afforded a measure of protection from the various houses through-out Lutetia so as to preserve the bloodlines in the event that culling is required to expand the vampire houses.

Their personal sense of sophistication extends well beyond just their blood-line practices though, and it is well known that politics and involvement in the affairs of Lutetian houses is something of a waltz. Knowing when to step and where, when to bow, when to be bold and when to be humble. Of all the Issunar houses, those of Lutetia are known most strongly for their sheer quantity of traditions and etiquette.

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Noteworthy Lesser Vampire Houses of Lutetia
  • House Caeruleum - [Details Pending]
  • House Evariste - [Details Pending]
  • House Roax - [Details Pending]
  • House Terres - [Details Pending]
  • House Leclair - [Details Pending]
(more coming soon!)​

 
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Necromancy

Necromancer cults are an integral part of Lutetia's culture and history.

Hundreds and hundreds of years in the past, the necromancers of Issunar were revered and asked for help by the Evêquec church in a failing war. More of their soldiers were dead than alive, and it was the dead who turned the tide of battle and ultimately won the war.

With the war over, the church turned on the necromancers, who had been high standing citizens in their own land, and called them heretics and heathens. A short period of time passed where the church enacted a bloody inquisition, and untold numbers of necromancers were tried and put to death for their heathenish and unnatural acts.

The relationship between the church and the necromancers of Lutetia still festers and stinks like the maggot-ridden corpses of their ancestors, but not as loudly as before. Still, whispers can be more effective than cries.

In the modern age, the common necromancer is like everyone else, with families, jobs, and a neighborly charm. Many favors are asked of them due to their profession, and many find work ranging from exorcisms to séances, as well as raising the dead - a pointedly valuable trade skill among the underfunded law enforcement.

Legally there is no restriction over the practice of necromancy within Lutetia, so long as it's not used to carry out criminal activity.

 
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Government Overview

The Lutetian Government is a democratic body headed by a Prime Minister, who is responsible for building the rest of his or her government by selecting ministers. The Prime Minister’s government is then in turn accountable to parliament, a legislative body comprised of two branches: the democratically elected Commons, and the meritocratically selected Lords’ Assembly.

The Lutetian Prime Minister comes to power through the election of parliamentary représentants (or just ‘représentants’) to sit in the Commons on behalf of each different area of the country. Members of political parties stand for these seats, and the leader of the party who commands the most seats in the Commons becomes the Prime Minister. There are three-hundred and twenty five seats in the Commons, forty of which are filled by représentants of areas within Lutetia City itself. An election is held once every four years, although it can be held sooner if Parliament passes a vote of no confidence in the current government, which automatically triggers an election.

The Lords’ Assembly is a larger body than the Commons, comprised of (on average) four-hundred individuals, although this number is not static. There are two ways in which one can become a member of the Lords’ Assembly. The first is through religious merit, a position known as a Legate Pastorale. These seats on the Assembly are ostensibly none-partisan: owing no loyalty to nor possessing any affiliation with a political party. In the past, the Legate Pastorale were a majority on the Assembly, but since the secularisation of Lutetia a hard cap on the number of seats that may be filled by religious merit has been set at fifty. The Lords who sit in these fifty seats are directly appointed by the Church, and are largely comprised of the seniormost bishops of the Ecclesiarchy (although rarely Monastic Order Masters or High Inquisitors have been appointed to these seats).

The second means by which to become a member of the Lords’ Assembly is through ‘merit’, as determined by the existing members of the Assembly. Those holding these positions are known as the Legate Meritoire, and come in two further varieties. The first is a hereditary seat: a seat which can be inherited by a chosen heir within the family of the current Legate upon their death (an honour which can not be refused). The second is a non-hereditary seat, wherein upon the current Legate’s death, a by-election is held by the other members of the Assembly to fill the seat. Theoretically, the Legate Meritoire can be selected from literally any part of Lutetian society, provided an individual has demonstrated sufficient merit, is over the age of twenty-one, is a Lutetian citizen, and isn’t bankrupt or previously convicted of treason. In practice, the Assembly is something of an ‘old boys’ club’, wherein only the wealthy, influential and those well-liked by the existing upper classes are ever selected (often without any reason that could even vaguely be interpreted as ‘merit’).

Parliament as a whole is a tiered system, wherein the Commons forms the lower tier, and the Lords’ Assembly the upper tier. Laws and bills must be passed first through the Commons, and then through the Lords’ Assembly in order to be ratified into law. Whilst the Commons can and often does propose laws, the Lords’ Assembly retains the power to reject and force amendments to any laws proposed by the Commons, whilst the inverse is not always true - the Lords’ Assembly can (and at times does) force bills through without the approval of the Commons, although they exercise this power very rarely, so as not to draw the ire of the people.

The vast majority of bills and laws are proposed by the government itself, the ministers selected by the Prime Minister. These bills are usually discussed in both the Lords’ Assembly and the Commons, and the government’s ministers are drawn from both bodies. The majority of the senior-most ministers sit in the Lords’ Assembly as opposed to the Commons, although there have been some exceptions to that rule within most recent governments.

As well as parliamentary representatives, each town and city within Lutetia elects a mayor that is able to pass local regulations and dictate local policy in cooperation with an elected mayoral assembly, although they are subject to being overruled by parliament. Lutetia City is an exception to this, wherein the position of mayor is replaced by a ‘Custodian’, appointed by the Lords’ Assembly rather than elected, who heads a small adminstrative body that fulfills a similar role to a mayor’s office, but answers directly to the Lords’ Assembly. The current Custodian is a [dash’s guy]

Although there are a relatively wide variety of smaller parties, there are only two ‘politically dominant’ parties in Lutetian politics. These parties are: The Lutetian Democrats (socially centrist, economic right-leaning) and The Moderate Party (socially right, economic right). A third, smaller party - the Liberal Unionists (socially left, economically centrist) - is widely supported in the poorer districts of the cities of Lutetia but has so little support elsewhere it is unlikely to ever achieve a majority. The current party in power (and in power since over a decade ago) are the Lutetian Democrats, although they are polling poorly in recent weeks due to their relatively pro-werewolf policies. The current Prime Minister is a man by the name of Édouard Beaumont, who took office in the election last year.

Current named members of the Lords’ Assembly:
  • Evangeline Castellane
  • Damien Castellane
  • Florianne Nuvellon
  • Michel Voclain (archbishop of Lutetia City)
 
Commonly Encountered Laws

Language: Queran is the official language of Lutetia, but most Lutetian schools teach the Terran tongue as a secondary language, and with the exception of the poor and uneducated, most Lutetians speak both languages fluently. Lutetia utilizes a somewhat unique dialect of Queran that is sometimes known is Lutetia-Queran. It is mutually understandable with Queran speakers native to Quera, but has developed into its own distinct dialect that can make informal speech difficult to exchange between speakers from Quera and speakers from Lutetia. This is due to varied idoms, slang, vocabulary and local cultural references.

Firearm Regulations: The restrictions regarding the possession of weaponry within Lutetia are somewhat lax; however, restrictions are in place regarding what types of weapons can be owned and carried. Firearms must be registered through a local law enforcement agency, and a permit is required to carry concealed side-arms. Open carrying of a licensed side-arm is legal.

Possession of automatic, plasma, energy, and other weapons of equal or military magnitude are illegal.

Non-firearm Weapons: Deadly weapons that don't fall under firearms are prohibited from being carried openly in public, but in most cases may be owned. This includes but is not limited to many archaic styles of weaponry such as swords.

Non-lethal weapons such as pepper spray, tasers, and stun guns are legal to be carried in public. Blades under the length of six inches are also permitted to be carried in public.

Psionics/Metaphysics: No restrictions apply to possessing or utilizing such things, but using psionic or any form of innate metaphysical/supernatural abilities on another person is treated the same as armed assault. Laws are also in place regarding the use of metaphysical abilities to engage in criminal activity.

Necromancy/Druidism/Learned Magic: The practice of necromancy and other learned magical arts is only loosely regulated, but the practice of utilizing such things upon a non-consenting citizen is strictly prohibited and treated the same as armed assault. Furthermore, the act of raising one from the dead is only legal in regards to non-sapient life-forms. To raise a sapient being from the dead, one must have the consent of the next of kin paired with a court order - typically utilized in the event of a criminal investigation. The individual must be returned to rest at the conclusion of the investigation. True resurrection/permanent animation of the dead (such as what is commonly found within the neighboring country of Tiranoth) is highly illegal.


Drug Regulations:
  • Marijuana - Legal smoking age is 18
  • Tobacco - Legal smoking age is 18
  • Alcohol - Legal drinking age is 18
  • Cocaine - Illegal
  • LSD - Illegal
  • Heroin - Illegal
  • Opium - Illegal
  • Methamphetamine - Illegal
Adult Classification: 18
Military Enlistment: 18
Age of Consent: 16
Driving Age: 16

Prostitution: Illegal
Polygamy: Not recognized by the state
Homosexuality/Gay Marriage: Not recognized by the state
Slavery: Illegal

Citizenship:
  • Born in Lutetia
  • Born to parents who are Lutetian citizens
  • Marriage to a Lutetian citizen
Immigration: Legal
Visitation/Tourism: Legal
 
Technology

Technology within Lutetia is in a constant state of growth, but is currently pushing into modern level of advancements in most fields of science. It should be noted though that Lutetia is a markedly poor country, and many of the more advanced technological comforts are a luxury for the wealthy.

The further you get from the capital of Lutetia, the poorer ones quality if life is liable to be and many of the smaller towns and villages are little more than dredges. Even within the capital itself, the slums are often devoid of proper sanitation and even electricity, while the wealth of the city is predominantly centered into its upper class neighborhoods.

The average level of technology for a typical citizen in a middle-class region of Lutetia is largely on par with early to mid 1990's.

 
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