The Vampire War (Continued)

Major offensives over the past few years of the Vampire War have included the destruction of Senior Council member Pietrovich’s tower in Archangel; the taking of the White Council operations center in Cairo; and assaults on Madrid, Sao Paolo, Acapulco, Athens, and Belize.

An attack on the White Council’s base in Sicily was intended to lure the entire Senior Council to one place so they could all be taken out at once. When the wizards retreated into the Nevernever, the vampires followed—effectively declaring war on Faerie. (However, the Faerie Courts have been slow to respond to these incursions, since they are locked in their traditional enmity.) At this time, the Red Court also began summoning demons and lesser Outsiders to fight for them.

The White Council retreated to a hospital in Congo, and the Red Court sent mortal agents during daylight to use a sarin-like nerve gas against them. Everyone within six city blocks died—including thousands of innocent and uninvolved mortals. With this attack, the Red Court crossed every line, supernatural and mortal.

Also, the Red Court has some sort of tie to the Circle, in that the vampires timed a major offensive to tie up White Council resources at just the right time to permit the dark wizard Cowl to attempt a Darkhallow. Why? Well, the defenses of the White Council headquarters in Edinburgh are so strong they would require god-level power to bust through…and after a successful Darkhallow, Cowl would have that level of power.

The Red Court has continued to assault the White Council and its allies. Since the vampires keep mucking about with the safe paths through the Nevernever, the Summer Court of Faerie has, on at least one occasion, aided the White Council.

As occult warfare in Asia heated up (for example, a bunch of “bad old guys” under the command of a “big daddy rakasha” attacking White Council-allied monasteries), the King of the White Court of vampires met with the White Council under a flag of truce and temporary cease fire. The White King has agreed to approach the Red Court about negotiating the end of the War (despite disagreement within the White Court about this course of action).

While currently in a bit of a lull, the Vampire War grinds on, even today.

The Secret War

At any time, one may stumble across the plots and machinations of the Circle.

All that is suspected (for nothing is truly known of their overall plans) is that they are intensifying tensions between the supernatural nations for some mysterious goal of their own. Anything is game—any interaction involving multiple Accords signatories can be meddled with.

And almost always, this meddling leads to even worse situations.

It is likely they are aiming for a true Apocalypse.

The Objectives of the Denarians

While the Denarians on the whole are not involved in the Vampire War, somebody used Hellfire against Arctis Tor (the likely candidate here is Thorned Namshiel).

Nicodemus’ plans are—apparently—not related to those of the Circle. While widespread chaos only enhances the power of the Denarians, and short-term Circle activities certainly provide chaos, it is unclear if the long-term goals of the Denarians and the Circle are compatible.

And that wraps up our post series on the Old World Order.  Thanks for tuning in!

Current Conflicts

A lot of secret supernatural history actually gets canceled out behind the scenes. The White Council saves a settlement here; the Red Court takes over a European colony in South America there; volcanoes explode, killing thousands (and a number of nasty mystical critters); Milwaukee disappears for a weekend. These things happen.

The important thing about occult history is that it gives rise to long-standing grudges and vendettas among the supernatural factions. And often these centuries long animosities catch uninvolved people in the gears and grind them up, leading to new and different drives for revenge.

Life isn’t fair. That’s history, too.

The Vampire War

The White Council of wizards and its allies are currently fighting the Red Court of vampires and their allies in the Vampire War. It is a notable failure of the Unseelie Accords.

While the avowed cause of the War is the death of Bianca St. Claire, Margravaine of the Red Court at the hands of the wizard Harry Dresden of the White Council, there is evidence that this event was only a convenient excuse to start open conflict that had been long-planned by the Red King.

Harry refused to take Bianca’s “reasonable and acceptable” offer of truce (which would only have cost the life and soul of the woman he loved) and instead killed Bianca and most of her followers. The Red Court didn’t take this “affront” all that well. War was the only acceptable response.

Like most things in the supernatural world, this isn’t what it appears on the surface. Bianca deliberately lured Harry Dresden into an intolerable situation, expecting that he’d either get himself killed or lose the people he loved. When she died, other Red Court forces moved with suspicious speed. While some factions in the Red Court had wanted to delay the war with the White Council a bit longer, most of the major players were ready for it. They took advantage of the excuse provided by the broken Accords.

Matters could, in theory, still have been sorted out under the letter of the Accords, by executing Harry Dresden or handing him over to the Red Court. However, the White Council was aware that the incident was only a pretext, and that the Red Court would just have found or manufactured another excuse for fighting later.

Factionless Monsters

While the ghoul clans haven’t formally picked a side in the Vampire War, their past associations with both the Red and White Courts have led to their use as support troops in the Vampire War.

Most ghosts, being simple “recordings” of the death throes of strong-willed individuals, are not capable of joining a side in any supernatural conflict. However, their existence has been exploited during the run-up to and the execution of the Vampire War.

While the overall demonic “supernatural nation” of Hell/Downbelow has not declared one way or another with regard to the Vampire War, individual demons have been summoned by Red Court vampires for use against their White Council foes.

The Vampire War continues in April as we conclude this preview series.  Join us in two weeks.

So, we’ve been teasing out details of other chapters in the Dresden Files RPG as we build up to the release of the game. That’s all well and good, but we thought it was time to give you a preview with some real heft to it. We’d like to take you on a visit to a dark and dangerous little burg we’re using as our sample campaign setting in the book. A place we like to call Nevermore… though you may know it by a more familiar name. But names, as we’re so often told, have power…

Here’s the Baltimore chapter from The Dresden Files RPG: Your Story. All 39 pages of it: PDF Download (Approx 13MB) — you can save us a little bandwidth by downloading it from DriveThruRPG instead!

What story will you tell on the streets of Charm City?

Outsiders & Old Ones

We know little of the Outsiders and the Old Ones.

What is known is that the Outsiders are minions of the Old Ones. Both come from outside our universal reality, from beyond the limits of Creation, from beyond the Outer Gates.

Outsiders are creatures of utter chaos and nihilism. They are dedicated to the ending of all thought and order. Their only goal is the return of the universe to the void.

The fact that the Red Court has been able to summon the lesser servitors of the Outsiders in the course of the Vampire War is a cause for great concern among the White Council.

The Circle

There is a secretive group stirring up supernatural trouble. Always working behind the scenes, this group is providing resources and power to (seemingly) set the supernatural nations at each others’ throats.

Someone gave Victor “Shadowman” Sells training beyond that of a normal sorcerer. Someone arranged for the FBI Hexenwolves to get their magic belts and warned them about the White Council. Someone delivered a mysterious athame to Bianca St. Claire to be used as a gift to a powerful sidhe. Someone drove the Summer Lady Aurora mad. Someone provided the entropy curse ritual to the Evil Eye Franchise. Someone felt the need to interfere in the Chicago Darkhallow. Someone sent the Scarecrow to kill Lucius Glau. Someone used Hellfire against Mab’s stronghold of Arctis Tor. Someone had an interest in the “culling program” of the Skavis. Someone silenced Queen Mab of the Winter Court.

Harry Dresden thinks that all of these someones may be working together. And that they may have a spy in the White Council—possibly even on the Senior Council itself.

They have many names, granted by those who have seen their shadowy hand in action; they are commonly called either the Black Council or the Black Hats. But there is some evidence that they call themselves the Circle.

They are known to react badly to incompetence and murderously to deception. They’re hard.

What their ultimate goal is, no one knows.

HARRY: With regard to the Circle (or whoever they are), whatever it is, it ain’t good.

March ends with a look at current events in the supernatural world.

See you in two weeks.

The Order of the Blackened Denarius

The Order of the Blackened Denarius is composed of Fallen angels bound to thirty silver coins. These coins, said to be the payment to Judas Iscariot for betraying Christ, permit the Denarians to possess mortal hosts. Denarians are old, powerful, and very dangerous entities. They have rampaged across two millennia of history, opposed only by the Knights of the Cross.

The Denarians are led by Nicodemus. Nicodemus has possession of those denarii not currently in use (or captured by the Knights of the Cross), and he passes them on to suitable targets for corruption. It is suspected that his ultimate plans involve bringing about the Apocalypse.

Freeholding Lords

Under the Unseelie Accords, powerful individuals are permitted to be signatories. These are the Freeholding Lords.

Dragons, scions, and even old gods fill the ranks of the Freeholding Lords. In the view of the supernatural nations, they are arcane “city-states.”

Marcone’s Mafia

John Marcone is the first “pure vanilla” (i.e., non-supernatural) mortal to have signed the Unseelie Accords as a Freeholding Lord.

The majority of Marcone’s forces are mortal criminals who are somewhat clued-in to the supernatural. A small number are combat-ready mercenaries, unfazed by weird magic shit. Marcone also employs at least one magical contractor (see Sigrun Gard) for magical protection and information-gathering, in an attempt to understand supernatural issues.

It is likely Marcone will assist the White Council, at least in a limited fashion, against the Red Court in the course of the Vampire War. (Interestingly, most of his major conflicts have been against the Denarians and the Black Circle.)

Harry: Marcone confounds me. He’s criminal scum, no debate there. But, on occasion, he does something so…right, that I need to pause and consider. Damn him.

March continues with the Outsiders and the Circle, in two weeks.

Faeries

The Faerie fall into two rough divisions: the Summer Court (the Seelie) and the Winter Court (the Unseelie)—though there are various wyld powers in between these factions. Neither major Court is absolutely “good” or “evil.” Trying to assign each a moral stance vis-à-vis mortal perspectives is just dumb.

Each Court has three rulers: the Queen Who Was (the Mother), the Queen Who Is (the Queen), and the Queen Who Is To Come (the Lady). The Mother holds vast power, but she is beholden to the natural order and thus takes little active part in the rulership of the Court. The Queen holds a substantial share of power and uses it to rule. The Lady holds the smallest portion of power, but she also has the most freedom of action, the closest access to the mortal world, and the most ability to act independently.

Some of the fae prefer hanging out in the mortal world to spending their lives in the Nevernever. (Even the sidhe—see below—visit the mortal world on occasion, but they don’t spend that much of their time there.) This may be because humanity offers various fleshly pleasures (such as pizza), or because the fae in question needs to interact with humanity or nature in order to fulfill its purpose.

HARRY: Like how Lea feeds on blood and power from artists and poets, and grants inspiration in return.

While the Summer Court and the Winter Court are locked in their customary rivalry, the Summer Court has offered mild assistance to the White Council in the course of the Vampire War.

Sidhe

Among the faerie, Sidhe is a state of being that is somewhat political and somewhat biological. A sidhe has all of the abilities of their faerie type, raised to greater heights of power. They are the aristocracy of Faerie, and this mindset must be considered (no matter which Court—or no Court—they are associated with) when dealing with them.

Sidhe Knights

Sidhe Knights, the champions of the Courts, ensure the balance between the Courts of Faerie. While the Faerie Queens cannot kill anyone who isn’t attached to their Court through birthright or bargain, the Knights can. The Knights can also act in affairs not directly related to Faerie, making them the primary outlet of the Faerie Courts for intrigue in the mortal world.

This relative freedom is, of course, enabled by the fact that Sidhe Knights must be mortal—i.e., human.

March brings us the Order of the Blackened Denarius and the Freeholding Lords.

See you then.

The Red Court

The members of the Red Court are inhuman creatures inside human shells; their true form is a thing of warped flesh and twisted bone. While they can maintain a pleasant and even beautiful human appearance, under stress they show their real nature: half-bat monsters drooling black venom and stretching long angular limbs out to seize their victims.

The Red Court has great influence in international finance and politics, manipulating mortals through their narcotic venom, as well as mundane bribes and influence. The core of the Red Court power is based in South America; they have strongholds throughout that continent. Addicting entire communities to their venom, they treat mortals as livestock.

The Red Court is ruled by a King. Various aristocratic bloodlines advise and intrigue with (and against) the Red King. The high nobles of the Red Court are very powerful and very inhuman. A few of these aristocrats maintain a semblance of civilized behavior through strict personal codes of honor—but most of them don’t, instead reveling in their power.

Apparently, the Red King has been planning a war with the White Council for years. Only recently has he been given a pretext to attack. Interestingly, the Red Court seems to have gained a tremendous amount of information on magic and the White Council that they didn’t have before. Despite these advantages, the current war with the White Council is occupying much of the Red Court’s time and resources.

Red Court Allies

For its part, the Red Court is using ghouls in the mortal world (as well as demons and Outsiders in the Nevernever) against the White Council. It is also trying to bring the White and Black—and possibly the Jade—Courts in on their side to help fight the “mortal freaks” (as wizards are termed). The White Court is neutral (due to infighting and a recent major setback), the Black Court is very small, and the Jade Court is very mysterious, so they haven’t joined the Reds quite yet.

The White Court

The White Court are psychic vampires; they live off the emotions of others, to the extent that they can drain other people to death. They can feed off various different emotions and use that energy to empower their supernatural abilities. White Court vampirism is hereditary (not infectious).

There are a number of Houses in the White Court jockeying for power and status—Raith, Skavis, and Malvora are the most powerful. Lord Raith is the current White King. In conclave, White Court members speak ancient Etruscan.

HARRY: The real power behind the White King is a total secret.  Daddy Raith isn’t all the man he used to be.

Though the Houses are divided in their opinions on the overall White Court response to the Vampire War, the White King has called for diplomacy. This, of course, has led to even more internal division.

The middle of February brings faeries.  Lovers beware.

See you in two weeks.

Vampires

The Vampire Courts are some of the most pervasive, widespread groups of monsters out there. Fortunately for the other supernatural factions, they’re riddled with infighting and discord, frequently feuding with each other, and they require rigid levels of protocol and diplomacy in order to function at all.

In practice, the Black Court is drastically understrength when compared to the White and Red Courts (this can be directly blamed on the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula). The potency of the Jade Court is unknown—a wild card in the deck.

The White and Red Courts hold a lot of power in the modern world. The White Court has infiltrated the media (in particular, pornography and fashion), while the Red Court has worked its fingers into politics and finance. The complicated rivalries dividing each Court means that a Red Court vampire who’s currently up against a White Court rival can often find another White Court vampire who’s prepared to make a temporary alliance against this mutual enemy—and vice versa, of course. In a way, this benefits the rest of the supernatural world, as the Vampire Courts tend to keep each other’s numbers down.

The Black Court

Black Court vampires have all the vulnerabilities that are described in Dracula: holy items, holy water, garlic, fire, running water, and so on. This has left Black Court vampires rather thin on the ground. The ones who have survived are the old, powerful ones, who have the intelligence and the capabilities to avoid public attention and to protect themselves from other supernaturals.

The infrastructure of Black Court vampires is unknown. It may be that, post-Dracula, they are too fragmented to have any hierarchy at all. Their relations with the other Courts are tenuous, as the other Courts have them at a disadvantage and know it. There’s also the problem that Black Court vampires use up the local mortal population when feeding far quicker than the Reds or Whites do; this causes frequent disputes over territory between the Courts.

The Black Court frequently uses “Renfields”: humans who have had their wills broken and been fortified by black magic to act as bodyguards, minions, and cannon-fodder.

The Black Court is not involved in the Vampire War as a cohesive whole, though the actions of individual Black Court vampires have certainly played a part in the conflict.

The Jade Court

There are few details available about the vampires of the Jade Court. Even the other Vampire Courts don’t seem inclined to discuss it. It’s based in Asia, where it is well-entrenched and well-hidden. Either its members are more interested in staying out of the public eye than gaining influence, or they already have so much political and social influence that petty intrigues are no longer significant.

Shiro Yoshimo of the Knights of the Cross had some interactions with them, and it is possible that Ancient Mai of the White Council has some contacts in the Jade Court (or at least knows the protocols for dealing with them).

The Jade Court’s lack of participation (so far) in the Vampire War is a relief to the White Council.

Other Possibilities

The White, Red, and Black Courts are reasonably public in the supernatural world, at least. The Jade Court is more private, but is known to exist.

So what’s out there that isn’t known about? Could there be powerful vampires with different hungers and vulnerabilities who have managed to keep themselves so secret that nobody knows about them? Is there a Blue Court? A Green Court? A Purple Court?

Maybe. Nobody knows.

There are too many vampires to cover all at once.

Meet more of them in two weeks.

Spoilers ahead!

If you haven’t read up on the series, you’ll hear a few surprises below. If you have, it’s all old hat.

Knights of the Cross

The Knights of the Cross were founded to counter the Fallen angels who make up the Order of the Blackened Denarius. They protect the freedom of the mortal soul. To that end, they aid any mortals under the oppression of dark forces and try to help that person to win freedom from the darkness.

When a Knight meets a Denarian, he is supposed to offer the Denarian a chance to surrender his coin and repent. If the Denarian hands over his coin and asks for mercy, the Knight has to accept this and let him go, giving him a chance at repentance. (To be fair, there have been cases where this has worked and the ex-Denarian has genuinely repented, in one case actually becoming a Knight of the Cross himself; see Sanya.) If the Denarian says no, it’s time for a bit of the old choppy-choppy, slashy-slashy.

While primarily founded to thwart the Denarians, the Knights are usually willing to tackle other evils, should it be God’s will (“winning free of the oppression of dark forces” covers a lot of ground). Knights of the Cross are often Christians of some stripe, but a virtuous and faithful heart is more important than conscious belief in a theistic faith. After all, God believes in them, whether or not they believe in him in any particular way.

There are three Knights of the Cross at most, and sometimes there are fewer. Their tokens and their burdens are their three Swords: Amoracchius (a broadsword), Fidelacchius (a katana), and Esperacchius (a saber), each incorporating one of the three nails that pierced Christ’s hands and feet on the cross.

At the moment, there is only one Knight; Sanya, wielder of Esperacchius. The most recent wielder of Fidelacchius, Shiro Yoshimo, died at the hands of Nicodemus, the leader of the Denarii, during Nicodemus’ plan to use the Shroud of Turin to unleash the Black Death in a worldwide plague. More recently, Michael Carpenter, wielder of Amoracchius, was critically injured in a (successful) attempt to recover the Archive and John Marcone from the clutches of the Denarians.

Both of their Swords are at present in the custody of the wizard Harry Dresden; neither has yet been passed to a new wielder.

The Knights are quite simply and purely Good Guys. They do the right thing, and they risk their lives to do it. Armed only with a holy sword, (divine?) serendipity, some mild support from the Catholic Church (and, arguably, the angelic hosts of Heaven), and God’s blessing, they face down the forces of Hell, dragons, ghosts, the Vampire Courts, and anyone else who requires it.

The Knights—especially Michael Carpenter—were drawn into the Vampire War due to the personal and professional ties they developed in recent years with the wizard Harry Dresden. (Some feel that this involvement may be related to the Knights’ overall mission as well.)

In two weeks, Vampires.

White Council Allies

Aiding the White Council in the Vampire War are several allies: The Fellowship of St. Giles, the Venatori Umbrorum, and several individual temples and monasteries in the Far East. The White Council has also benefited in the Vampire War from the occasional assistance of the Knights of the Cross and the Summer Court of Faerie.

The Fellowship of St. Giles

The Fellowship of St. Giles is a refuge for the desperate, for people who have some kind of darkness within them that has eaten parts of them away. All of them are trying to hold onto their humanity by turning that darkness back upon those who would harm mankind.

The Fellowship has developed magical tattoos to control their members’ hungers. These allow the half-vampiric members of the Fellowship to enjoy the advantages of their supernatural abilities while maintaining a modicum of control and choice. However, they aren’t perfect; extended use of supernatural abilities returns the member to the mercy of those monstrous hungers. For this reason, the Fellowship usually works in pairs or teams rather than singly.

The Fellowship is working with the White Council in the Vampire War, channeling information and helping out in combat situations. They have a particular hatred for the Red Court and will take any opportunity to strike back at them.

The Venatori Umbrorum

The Venatori Umbrorum are literally “hunters of the shadows.” Often characterized as “Masons with machine guns” or “Masons with flamethrowers,” they are an ancient secret brotherhood of people with extensive knowledge of academic (especially history and folklore), commercial, intelligence and counter-intelligence, financial, legal, and military issues. They possess an understanding of basic occult countermeasures. They are a larger organization than the Fellowship of St. Giles (possibly even larger than the White Council realizes). Unfortunately, they seem to lack powerful magical practitioners.

As allies of the White Council, they usually provide intel and analysis to the wizards. Since the start of the Vampire War, they have also participated in combat operations against the Red Court.

Himalayan Temples & Indian Monasteries

Not much is known about these allies of the White Council from the Far East. It seems that, while they have less overall mystic power than the (mostly Eurocentric) White Council, they do have a modicum of mojo, along with greater knowledge and familiarity with the supernatural threats in Asia (like rakasha and the Jade Court of Vampires).

The year ends, and we move on from the Council and its… friends.

The new year brings the Knights of the Cross.  See you in two weeks.