Seattle By Night Introductory Blurb

The World of Insufficient Light takes World of Darkness vampires, who have no real emotions other than rage, fear, and hunger, and only can remember other emotions from mortal life, and thus effectively have no chance to retain their Humanitas, and gives them a chance. Their impulses for evil are still far stronger than their now-existent conscience, but at least it's there. In vanilla VtM, all paths led to Hell. Now, this is not true. The conscience of a vampire is a dim candle in a vast, black cave, but perhaps this flame can be nurtured in time.

Further, in VtM nothing the players do really matters anyway, because the metaplot kills everyone in a few game-months (or thereabouts) anyways. Gehenna. Unstoppable, bleak, depressing, and as deep as a puddle. It's like whoever wrote the setting just wanted everyone to mope around the table until they all died (again). So, taking my cue from old eschatological theories that insisted the world was going to end in 1666, I set the date for Gehenna there, and whoops! It turns out that that crazy theory about Malkav setting up those prophecies as a joke was true. The psychic build-up of the awakening Elders mounted, and mounted, and... disappeared overnight (overday?).

Other than that, I'm going to revamp (haha) the core mechanic to make it better from a statistics perspective. I might crack open my VtR book again to see how the die rolling algorithm in there works, and maybe blatantly yoink it.

Oh, I know. It is a bit... rustic of a place, but I thought you might not want to be seen by anyone you know. After all, not everyone is so open-minded about this kind of thing. Besides, this place has a kind of charm all its own, which I am sure you will come to appreciate. Look at that man over there, the one in half a bull's worth of leather. See how his eyes slowly trace my curves, even though he knows I'm staring straight at him? There is a truly honest man. He is up-front about what he thinks and who he wants, and totally unafraid to admit either to the world. I only wish I could be as truthful as him...

Much better. Now we can talk privately. So, you mentioned you are studying philosophy? Fascinating. I wonder whether you have heard an old quote from Hamlet? "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so?" I've always thought it was an interesting idea, which certainly applies to nearly everything. Water, for example, can be good in the desert and bad in the ocean. Humans, as well. For you in particular, life is largely a matter of finding out what is good and what is evil, and deciding which path to follow. But what, I propose, if your yin and your yang, your good and evil halves, as they were, were out of balance? What if you had two devils on one shoulder, egging one another on against a tired and scared angel?

I want to show you something. So, you are going to sit right there and not move. For once, my pet, you need not worry about the ethics of this, for you have no choice. You can feel your legs defy you already, and now... watch as I slash my wrists, and watch well for you must see in order to believe.

Look well, my darling. You can see where the blade went straight in, and you can see the opened artery. You will notice, in that hazy, detatched way that humans do when they are under stress, that I am not bleeding, much unlike Shylock.

Now, to keep you from shouting before I am done explaining, you will remain still. This is not some parlor trick, duckling. The simple, inescapable fact of the matter is that you have been watched for weeks by, and then had a chance encounter staged by, an undead creature of the night.

I can see the word fighting to your lips, so I will say it for you. Vampire. Yes, you have it. Not some silly mysterious disease, or some Romanian lord inspiring a rather boring novel, but a carrier of a curse stretching back to nigh the beginning of human memory. However, the history of our Dark Father can and has filled a book. There will be time later to explain. Now, if I promise not to hurt you, will you promise not to run or scream?

Good. You may not believe this, but I do hate having to do that. I believe in the mastercrafts that are sapient minds. Ah, but your curiosity must be eating you alive, so let us return to the subject at hand.

Caine, son of Adam and Eve, was cursed by God for slaying Abel and he was the first vampire. The long version is tedious in the extreme, so I will save it for another night. The reason you have never heard of us is simple. If humanity knew about us, then the governments of Man would probably create an entire army to wipe us out. So, we hide, and any vampire that is not good at hiding does not last long, for all of our sakes. It's an old idea, and the technical term for it is the Masquerade, though I prefer to think of it as common sense. A regulatory body was created during the Roman Republic to attempt to enforce it and a bunch of other extraneous things, but it has lost a significant amount of power since what our historians refer to ironically as the Last Laugh, which occurred in 1666 and was supposed to more or less be the vampire apocalypse, Gehenna, but turned out to be a prank that a very old vampire called Malkav was playing on us all, so it appears that the oldest of our kind are not so much hungry as bored.

And thus, we hide, and we must fight our darker nature to survive. Have you ever seen some horrible tragedy, and felt nothing, and wondered why you could not feel anything? Did you try to force yourself to feel, to grasp the plight of your fellow man? That is what it is, to have the Beast within you. It dulls all senses but hunger, rage, and fear, and you must fight against it, because you still can feel. You can, but you must starve the devils on your shoulder so that the angel can survive. Because if that light dies within you, then you may never feel again, and all humanity is lost. That light still shines, if weakly, even in this dark place we inhabit. And yet, we must drain the blood of others to survive.

No, no, no. Not kill. We do not have to kill, even though the Beast incites us to. It's theoretically possible to go through eternity without killing another. Of course, possible and likely are two entirely different things...

What we find most interesting, perhaps, about human culture is the human idea of vampires. At one time, we moved openly, and this is where the stories largely come from, but humans are ever so inventive. It is true that if we catch a sunrise it is over, and fire can spell our doom as well, but we do not go up in smoke at a match-flame. As for the other banes of our kind- crosses, holy water, garlic, running water, and the like- they are largely ineffective. Stakes are somewhat dangerous, but a stake in the heart will only paralyze a Kindred, and- what?

... You are remarkably perceptive, duckling. Is it all that philosophy rushing around your head? Yes, you have guessed my plan quite well, and it is true that I would not bare my soul to you if I did not plan on making you fully party to my dirty little secret. But, as in all things, you should have a choice. You can die, and be reborn as I was. You can simply die. Or, you can forget. But I know you, much better than you know me. You won't turn away, or I would never have offered. I can see into your soul, child, and you may just have the strength you will need to walk my path. And you cannot wait to test yourself. Stupid, but so are my own motivations. So, come closer, and let us dare to be stupid together.