Canon Q&A With Storytellers

[Azraeth]

I was writing bei last night and glimpsed at the rituals and ingredients. I noticed some rituals required things like mooncalf bones and other things that might not exist pre cobb days. Did some tomes not exist in the old days, or were the ingredients different than?

I ask because I thought cobb was associated with using his necro powers and making evil nasties, or did mooncalves, ancient zombies and the like exist in other parts of the world?

I ask because of a couple things:

504 C.E. - The Duchess Theodosia, whose vampirism has driven her to the point of insanity, begins sacrificing humans to what she sees as the Mother of all vampires, a deity she claims to have regular conversations with. Gradually, she develops a morbid fascination with inflicting pain on others and uses her vampire gifts to torture and disfigure her subjects for amusement. When she begins twisting the forms of her servants, claiming their new monstrous visages to be art in homage to her Goddess, her experiments soon lead her to discover the talent of necrotic flesh melding. The first Mooncalf is created. Only 1st generations should know of it, but only by word of mouth, so it can't be validated.

So in other parts of the world were she wasn't doing this, there shouldn't have been mooncalves, right? Or greaters or anything else related to those-like those zombified animal parts we get from them when killing those whatever are in the one raid?

And :

Mooncalfs are undead creatures created by master necromancers, which are an amalgamation of zombie parts, merged together to craft one massive powerful, terrifying monster. No one knows how these creatures have come to be in present day Harper Rock as there are no known living master necromancers.

Would lead me to believe they weren't around much/at all until Cobb came?

Any Necromancer in the past could have made zombies - a powerful necromancer could have raised ancient zombies. Any master necromancer could have crafted a Mooncalf. Theodosia was the first, but that doesn't mean she was the only one to have done it. Ergo, anywhere there would have been a master necromancer, there could have been Mooncalfs. Noted - this would have been rare, but still possible.

[Azraeth]

Caligrace's player has the right of the other questions you asked. I think any substantially older classed character would require permission from David, and would probably be a prize for a competition. It's actually something I've been meaning to talk to him about for some future contests I have.

However, by default, they would still be within their normal mortal lifespan - but that's due in large part to the fact that an older classed human would start with substantially more skills/powers than a new one, and it wouldn't make much sense to have a powerless 200 year old Sorc running around.

[Elizabeth]

I was writing bei last night and glimpsed at the rituals and ingredients. I noticed some rituals required things like mooncalf bones and other things that might not exist pre cobb days. Did some tomes not exist in the old days, or were the ingredients different than?

I ask because I thought cobb was associated with using his necro powers and making evil nasties, or did mooncalves, ancient zombies and the like exist in other parts of the world?

I ask because of a couple things:

504 C.E. - The Duchess Theodosia, whose vampirism has driven her to the point of insanity, begins sacrificing humans to what she sees as the Mother of all vampires, a deity she claims to have regular conversations with. Gradually, she develops a morbid fascination with inflicting pain on others and uses her vampire gifts to torture and disfigure her subjects for amusement. When she begins twisting the forms of her servants, claiming their new monstrous visages to be art in homage to her Goddess, her experiments soon lead her to discover the talent of necrotic flesh melding. The first Mooncalf is created. Only 1st generations should know of it, but only by word of mouth, so it can't be validated.

So in other parts of the world were she wasn't doing this, there shouldn't have been mooncalves, right? Or greaters or anything else related to those-like those zombified animal parts we get from them when killing those whatever are in the one raid?

And :

Mooncalfs are undead creatures created by master necromancers, which are an amalgamation of zombie parts, merged together to craft one massive powerful, terrifying monster. No one knows how these creatures have come to be in present day Harper Rock as there are no known living master necromancers.

Would lead me to believe they weren't around much/at all until Cobb came?

Any Necromancer in the past could have made zombies - a powerful necromancer could have raised ancient zombies. Any master necromancer could have crafted a Mooncalf. Theodosia was the first, but that doesn't mean she was the only one to have done it. Ergo, anywhere there would have been a master necromancer, there could have been Mooncalfs. Noted - this would have been rare, but still possible.

Okay, I'm just a little confused or maybe I misunderstood something in general I guess when I was asking you stuff before via chat before finalizing things with Atabei. I was under the impression that mastery didn't really exist. Or was it bridges? I forgot which one, so when I came across mastery and such-I was kinda like er, wat? So mastery did exist back then, how long would a vampire have to be alive to be considered a master roughly? I mean, for instance, we have some elders that are anywhere from 500ish years old to like 200. Would any of them theoretically been masters of their path by any of those ages-if they so choosed?

Also: You're saying all tomes existed than with all the ingredients we have/need now? So I can rp having the tomes in her possession, hidden somewhere mebbe? And nothing would have changed about them? Obvs it's just for rp-I would need to purchase them on grid.

[Azraeth]

Okay, I'm just a little confused or maybe I misunderstood something in general I guess when I was asking you stuff before via chat before finalizing things with Atabei. I was under the impression that mastery didn't really exist. Or was it bridges? I forgot which one, so when I came across mastery and such-I was kinda like er, wat? So mastery did exist back then, how long would a vampire have to be alive to be considered a master roughly? I mean, for instance, we have some elders that are anywhere from 500ish years old to like 200. Would any of them theoretically been masters of their path by any of those ages-if they so choosed?

Also: You're saying all tomes existed than with all the ingredients we have/need now? So I can rp having the tomes in her possession, hidden somewhere mebbe? And nothing would have changed about them? Obvs it's just for rp-I would need to purchase them on grid.

Bridges were the thing that didn't exist. Masteries did, though.

I'm honestly not sure how long it would have taken a vampire to become a master. I'll need to think on that a little bit more before coming up with a concrete answer, because masteries aren't even out yet on the grid and I need to wait for David's input on why that is, or even if there is an IC reason for it as opposed to a developer one.

Bear in mind also that the shadow realm would have stripped away many of an ancient vampire's powers, with time.

Ancient rituals (prior to the holocaust) were different to modern rituals. For one, there were far fewer ritualists. The rituals themselves were also easier. But due to the relocation of fae and demifae, a lot of older rituals wouldn't mechanically work the same. So yes, tomes can totally have existed prior to the holocaust, but they wouldn't be entirely accurate.

[Elizabeth]

Bridges were the thing that didn't exist. Masteries did, though.

I'm honestly not sure how long it would have taken a vampire to become a master. I'll need to think on that a little bit more before coming up with a concrete answer, because masteries aren't even out yet on the grid and I need to wait for David's input on why that is, or even if there is an IC reason for it as opposed to a developer one.

Bear in mind also that the shadow realm would have stripped away many of an ancient vampire's powers, with time.

Ancient rituals (prior to the holocaust) were different to modern rituals. For one, there were far fewer ritualists. The rituals themselves were also easier. But due to the relocation of fae and demifae, a lot of older rituals wouldn't mechanically work the same. So yes, tomes can totally have existed prior to the holocaust, but they wouldn't be entirely accurate.

Thank you and yeah I know they would have had everything stripped, but say for rp purposes, since liz is about 500 years old and stuff, if I did a backdated rp towards the final life span of her before getting the axe (more or less), would it be possible for me to do that (once we hear what masteries are that is >.> )?

And I rp'd atabei doing a will shift on her sire in her final nights to come in my first post. So that would be incorrect then? I mean she is a ritualist and always has been (human years and afterwards), so I'm trying to figure out which tomes would exist. Or maybe the types of tomes? Would any of those shifts exist? or is it more for like...er idk....survival stuff essentially since times were tough?

Again, thank you for answering these questions and the prior.

[Azraeth]

Thank you and yeah I know they would have had everything stripped, but say for rp purposes, since liz is about 500 years old and stuff, if I did a backdated rp towards the final life span of her before getting the axe (more or less), would it be possible for me to do that (once we hear what masteries are that is >.> )

I'll poke David about what the ancients would have known as far as masteries go, whenever the mastery powers get released, yeah. Once he confirms though, I don't have any issue with it.

And I rp'd atabei doing a will shift on her sire in her final nights to come in my first post. So that would be incorrect then? I mean she is a ritualist and always has been (human years and afterwards), so I'm trying to figure out which tomes would exist. Or maybe the types of tomes? Would any of those shifts exist? or is it more for like...er idk....survival stuff essentially since times were tough?

The main difference between the rituals wouldn't have been the content, so much as the syntax of the Fae language. For example, the ifrits were entirely wiped out, so trying to call and cage one today would be impossible. But the actual rituals themselves probably wouldn't have been terribly different. So the same basic structure, ingredients, purpose, etc. In the case of ingredients that wouldn't have existed in a previous era, you could probably claim some sort of replacement.

[Trahir Trahison]

This person has already been inspired.

Does my vampire know this on a failed inspire attempt?

[Trahir Trahison]

P.S. Bridges existed pre-holocaust, Shifter bridge was actually seen as a Path and the Beasts of Pompelia were entirely founded around being on that bridge.

1111 C.E. The Beasts of Pomerelia are formed in northern Europe. The group is a coming together of 4 vampires with shifter abilities whose initial aim is to protect vulnerable human villages against demi-fae and similar monsters. At first they protect communities containing their own human offspring or families from when they were mortal. <3>

]

650 C.E. - Septumvirate Oculos is formed in Byzantium. They are a group of just 7 vampires whose coming together is an attempt at secretly pulling the strings of what remains of the Roman empire, in the hopes of rebuilding and perhaps one day ruling the world posing as human kings and queens. The seven are selected as representatives of "vampiric nature". Before this time, vampires rarely distinguished between different "paths" or attempted to theorize on the nature of vampirism and the variations found therein. Interestingly, the Septumvirate recognized not 6 paths, but 7. The seventh path, they felt, was what is today known as the "Shifter's Bridge". It seems that the vampires of this age saw other bridges such as Seeker, Summoner and Immortal less distinct, and merely offshoots of the other 7 basic natures. <3>

There are documented histories of that fact according to canon. Noted by the 3 at the end^

[Azraeth]

P.S. Bridges existed pre-holocaust, Shifter bridge was actually seen as a Path and the Beasts of Pompeii or whatever were entirely founded around being on that bridge.


There are documented histories of that fact according to canon. Noted by the 3 at the end^

Bridges did not exist as vampires currently understand them. What vampires commonly think of as bridges today wouldn't have been seen as such in the pre-holocaust world, and they wouldn't have been 'bridges' because they didn't connect the various paths together. Ergo, it would have been the Path of the Shifter during that time period.

However the vampires would not have called them bridges, and if they did have (some) of those powers, they would have been variations on the Base paths.

[Azraeth]

This person has already been inspired.

Does my vampire know this on a failed inspire attempt?

That's purely an OOC game mechanic.