A quick collection of various contacts, NPCs, and nemeses mentioned during character creation.

• Vampiric Harem of Luna Duscae: Collective consists of approximately 200-250 women across the world and within the chancel. Most have an active interest in some element of an active night life, though not all. Only a small handful (about 10-15) vampires are among the list, her vampiric daughters. Few have positions of major authority or influence, but most have some sort of connections. In some towns, she has as many as five, while many host only about 2. All benefit from the effects of being an Anchor, her guidance when they are in need (and her Shine, when that comes up.) Luna frequently accepts blood from her harem, though also spends time in their company. Her various lovers are aware that she has many lovers, and are generally OK with that, with some of them also having other partners (or even in several cases, partnering up with others of her harem). When she possesses one of her anchors, she can manifest her vampiric powers and miraculous gifts through them via their blood link - each anchor is claimed with a small taste of her blood, not enough to turn them (usually), but enough to create the potential, which manifests when she possesses, and recedes when she departs (usually).
  
  
• Luna Duscae's Former Sire: "He's hurt so many, me included..."
  
  
• The Chancel's Five Vampire Clans (The Noctem):
  • The Dark Crescent: Most vampires have heard of Luna by now, and some of them know she's some sort of weird uber-vamp or something similarly impressive. Certainly she's more than an elder in power somehow. The vampires of Noctem, though, all know she's some sort of blood or night goddess or some unholy terror. And it was only a matter of time before Luna attracted the attention and reverence of some of the more spiritually enterprising and occult minded. This faction consists of vampires that actually at worst revere and many times outright worship Luna as the goddess of night or as an ascended blood god, and they develop rites and ceremonies to try and bolster their power and commune more with the power of Night, the vampire princess who lives on the moon and can walk in the sun freely. Some of these cultists are pretty benign, and others are into things like blood magic and sacrifices and such as they've discovered a new divine source of power to align with and seek to ever expand their craft. It is rules by "The Coven of Four," each a vampire or vampiress of great mystical prowess.
    
    
  • The Blue Thorn: A corporate class of vampires entrenched in the financial sector. They consider themselves the blue-bloods among the chancel vampire population and are ruled by a suave and sexy high-class elder vampiress named Vanessa. Vanessa is all silk on the outside and sharp blades on the inside, but she never breaks a deal as the reputation of the faction is paramount to her. Doesn't mean she won't become your worst nightmare if you do though, or otherwise oppose the faction. This faction is highly hierarchical.
    
    
  • The Crimson Triad: This faction has an unusually strong Asiatic influence, with about 75% of their members being of Asian descent. The faction is ruled by three elders who had falling outs with the vampire societies in their home countries of China, Japan, and South Korea respectively. They and their surviving followers each separately wormed their way into the chancel and settled there, and for a time there was conflict and friction before the three elders decided they had more mutual interests than not and they merged into the Crimson Triad. They are heavily involved in the criminal underground.
    
    
  • The Silver Chain: The punitive democracy of the chancel. It's special in that it isn't ruled by an elder or a small group but instead is democratic, with elected representatives that are chosen yearly by the whole via popular vote. Each vampire in this faction is there because they were initially (or still are) on Luna's Shit-List. These are vampires either from other factions or out in the world that tried her patience too far and she gave them an ultimatum: "either be rehabilitated or I'll fucking kill you." These vampires are forced to join the Silver Chain, which is under more scrutiny from Luna than normal however as long as they are following the chancel's rules and maybe some individual ones she sets at sentencing she lets them live and even prosper. This isn't to say all of these vampires are nice, just that they have a direction they must follow and there's enough of them to form their own power bloc.
    
    
  • The Covenant of Night: This faction consists of vampires whose main desire was always to try and view humanity as equals. While they aren't necessarily all "the good guys" they are the nicest of the five factions and actively work to try and maintain their human temperament, maintain human connections, and try to feed as humanely and with as much consent as possible. They are the faction that most will mingle with the other residents of the chancel, and they work hard to control their bloodlust and see Luna as something of a savior or at least a good example of how a vampire can beat down their lusts and keep their human sides strong. Now, this isn't to say that there aren't human-friendly vamps in the other factions, but this faction has the most actively and truly human friendly among them. They aren't paying lip service or trying to slide under the radar. They actively feel a responsibility to the entire chancel and not just Nightside or individual family and friends. They are ruled by a council of 9 vampires that are elected by the faction members as a whole, but that then keep their positions forever unless they die or are voted out by the rest of the council.
  
  
  
• Locke Da'Variad: Reyfus' Father was a Deceiver of high lineage named Locke Da'Variad, who had the pseudo estate of "The Curiosity of Locke Da'Variad".
  
  
• Lasentha Da'Variad: His cousin is also a deceiver who takes the form of an attractive woman (she's not as sultry to the level that our Imperator is, but she's always "pretty cute" to any onlooker in a universal way). Her name is Lasentha Da'Variad. She's relatively benign as far as excrucians go, but she's not a helpless pushover and can be feisty when pushed too far.
  
  Some details about her. In the ongoing excrucian political debate of "Reyfus is an intriguing scion of our people that is becoming something new and supernal" versus "Reyfus is an abhorrent abomination that resulted when one of our own was in bed with the enemy whose existence is impossible" she definitely is in the first school or camp of thought where as his grandfather is in the latter (and sort of the leader of that school of thought).
  
  She also responded strangely to Jimmy's Alcohol estate, and its property of causing accidents and loosening the mind somehow interacted with her own pseudo-estate of "The Thirst of Lasentha Da'Variad" and caused her to fall for him. Since alcohol seems to drown out other things (at least for a time) and this includes her metaphorical thirst. She thinks Jimmy is super HOT, and she wants him to sate her thirst in a literal and figurative way. And she can be kinda intense about things she cares about or that hold her attention. She's often concocting absurd and sometimes comical plots to try and seduce him.
  
  She knows all about Reyfus of course and about our chancel and so on. Our Imperator and her have a live and let live policy right now. They used to be on more friendly terms when Locke was alive as they bonded over their love of fine wines but after his death Evanessa sort of withdrew from all Excrucians even the nice ones. Neither blame Reyfus for his father's death (they correctly blame his grandfather) but their relationship has been more civil than sisterly since then. She's on good terms with Reyfus though and he does see her now and then as she's the only friendly active family on his father's side he's got right now (the rest are outside creation or doing whatever). She really liked Locke - he was one of her favorite uncles - and was really upset with her grandfather's actions and pettiness. She is anxious to see what sort of god or god-monster Reyfus grows into one day, since she can tell he's still young in his power and in the process of changing into something else still. She basically sees him as a freak of nature, but in a good way.
  
  
• The Society of Eurytos: The Society of Eurytos: This mystery cult is thematically part Stone Mason, Part Illuminati, part religious group, and part sorcerous cabal. It is composed of members and their friends and families and has chapters around the world with interests in secular business, politics, and the esoteric. It initially began as an Excrucian cult centered around the outer god Locke Da'Variad (who's divine curiosity blessed the cult with knowledge and power) and to a lesser extent some of his allied excrucians like Lasentha. However, it has since changed hands and its sole patron is the god Locke's only child, the divine blossoming prince Reyfus Da'Variad. This is a wondrous collection of Anchors with access to sorcery of many types, although it only functions on the mundane level of normal or mundane-magical action without Reyfus expending Treasure MP.
  
  
• Horror/Eurytos: Originally known as Eurytos, this is one of the seven known abhorrent weapons on the Ash. Originally created by a powerful excrucian of high lineage named Lock Da'Variad, it was known as a divine relic that could inspire joy. But after being forced to kill its own maker by other excrucians, it now lives in utter horror of itself and became a sharp and barbed thing that ceased inspiring joy. It's self-loathing horror allows it to inflict horrific wounds on anything it strikes, and it is able to cut through and kill anything. It only withholds harm from and allows itself to be wielded by its maker's son, Reyfus Da'Variad. He one day hopes to help Eurytos move past its personal horror somehow but knows that will be a slow and long undertaking.
  
  
• Jimmy's Cat
  
  
• Anthony Smith: When Neil Armstrong went to walk on the moon there were not three, like the history books say, astronauts but actually a fourth - Anthony Smith. And that during the first moonwalk there was an accident where the man had accidentally punctured his suit with a scalpel he had with him to try and gather moon rock samples on the dark side of the moon. And of course, the man had gotten a bit turned around and couldn't find his way back to the spaceship from oxygen deprivation. And as he began to slow down, droplets of blood floating into space from where he cut his suit (and his hand), he went through the stages of grief until finally he hit acceptance and prayed to die quickly and painlessly in the darkness. And that was enough...the chancel spirited him away as his drops of blood faded, fed to the chancel's magic. And he appeared on a different moon, this time that was on the "light" side of the moon. And he'd have died, if not for one of the chancel's powers being notified mystically and deciding to go and draw him down to the ground level of the cityscape proper to save him. He's in his 90's these days and still alive in Vespera. The history books only tell of three astronauts though - Anthony's true story became an addition to the estate of Hidden Truths to protect the privacy of the chancel.
  
  
• The Lunar Powers: A club of nobles whose estates and histories tie them closely to the moon herself. They are not tied together by familia or chancel, but there are rumors that their de facto leader Artemis has ambitions of setting herself up as an Imperator and poaching her club's members (and more importantly, their estates) from their original ymerae.
  
  
• Mari: A young and somewhat audacious noble who's been caught breaking into the chancel more than once, though she's never gotten quite far enough to cause any significant mischief, if that's even her goal. She's a very recently commenced Power of Curiosity who commands her estate well, but refuses to embody it, known to weaponize dark knowledge without ever learning it herself. She's openly suspicious about an Excrucian lineage and Excrucian cult gaining a foothold in Creation with something that mimics her own Estate.

This message was last edited by the GM at 21:51, Sat 22 Feb 2020.

Do let me know if I've already missed anything! Again, this is a quick and dirty copypaste job, so these descriptions will probably be rewritten as actual entries before too long.

This is also a convenient place to toss up more/rewritten information about NPCs and contacts in your backgrounds.

• Jimmy: Are you foregoing the Lifepath for now? If so, it might still help to go through that section of the book and pick a couple of contact options to flesh out you social situation. Also, it looks from your bonds like your cat is a pretty important facet of your character, so I'd love to hear more about that dynamic!
  
  
  
• Kassandra: I know you're still going over your character, so just let us know what direction you decide you want to go with with the suitor you described. I was a little uncertain what you meant when you said "an Apollo"? I was interpreting it the same way we use "an Adonis" metaphorically, but I'm not sure what Apollo would mean in that context. Or is it the specific Greek sun god in this context? (It's fine if it is, just clarifying.)

This message was last edited by the GM at 01:39, Tue 18 Feb 2020.

It's the specific Greek Sun God. I take the basis of Kassándra's myth to develop the character.

Apollo could be either an Excrucian (but it's maybe too many Excrucians) or a powerful being as a Noble, or even a powerful mage or Alchemist.

In reply to Hollyhock God (msg # 2):

1 i really do not want to do a life path since i jimmy due to one powerful hangover completely forgot about his mortal life possibly as a curse by some magical being that caused the imperator to petty him and grant him the power of alcohol.

2 his relationship with his cat is basically your normal relationship with a pet. Except that they are very close together. I'm thinking of maybe making the cat an anchor but so far I'm not sure.

Even if you don't have mortal memories, things have occurred since you were granted that power. Nobilis is a game where character development is very much tied to advancement, so you will probably want to think about some of the things going on with Jimmy.

Level 5 Bonds and Afflictions are the sort of things your very soul is pretty tied to.  A precious baby pet is like bond 3 :D  A loyal dog' is kind of bond 2. As it stands, if someone hurts your cat, they pretty critically wound your soul. Mind, you can do some miraculous things when your cat inspires you...

In reply to Luna Duscae (msg # 5):

If I myself were converted into a Nobilis character, I think it would be pretty reasonable to stat up my dog as a five point bond. Possibly an affliction of pathological devotion.

But yeah. Big chunk of your soul right there. (Incidentally, not all that big on the hypothetically harming mundane pets thing. Gut-wrenching miraculous attacks changing your relationship and history with your pet, maybe. Not actually hurting the kitty, though.)

Kassandra: Hmmm...I don't know enough about this Apollo figure you're referring to as we don't know your backstory yet. But it sounds like you wanted to have some connection to the real Apollo or at least someone supernatural named Apollo.

And honestly? I think it's an interesting idea. This Apollo should probably be one of your contacts though from lifepathing. And I'd like to suggest the Apollo from your backstory perhaps had a tie to you even before you became a power. It could be one of the many things that drew Evanessa's attention.

But anywhow...my proposal is that Apollo is actually THE Apollo from myth and legend, who is actually a very old noble with the Sun Estate that serves either an angelic or old god Imperator of some sort. Nobles are god-like in their power after all. Apollo was known in myth to bless/curse a few chosen people with prophetic visions. Maybe Kass had some amount of oracular ability at the wondrous level pre-commencement?


Jimmy: I agree with Luna fully on this. I really, REALLY want to see you spread around your bond dots more. Having so few bonds is kinda a disservice to your character and his backstory in my opinion and more diverse spreads are more interesting to storytell. And I'm loath to use 5 points for any single bond or affliction. I'd say 3 should be your upper limit, just to keep things spread out and diverse enough. And definitely anchor that cat! You need more anchors really.

I'd say something like this:

Bond 3: My pet cat (anchor)
Bond 3: I have a drinking Problem
Bond 1: I have bar-friends in every port (Collection of Anchors)
Bond 1: The bottle of Jack I was drinking when I lost my memory (anchor)
Affliction 3: I have no memories of my past prior to commencement
Affliction 1: I am unusually good at making friends with all sorts of folk
Affliction 1: No one beats me at drinking or drinking games

It's up to you what your anchor details are, but the Cat should be a mundane anchor, the bar friends be a mundane anchor, and the bottle of jack be a wondrous anchor (that probably has a power related to memories or dreams but ultimately your call but I think the thing should be magical and very much related to your memory loss).

I'll post this in your other thread too in case you miss it here.

@Apollo - I think this is more a case of drawing hard from the greek myth of Cassandra, in which the actual god Apollo is central. It's my impression we're wanting someone filling that role, not strictly exactly the god Apollo (conclusion reached based on several cases of Kassandra referencing the possibility of an excrucian or a power for the role)

Ultimately, though, I agree, whoever it is would make a perfect Contact for you, and the background thoughts, I am onboard with.

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As an aside, on the subject of reccomended Jimmy Bonds, an alternative to 'I have a Drinking Problem' : "I have a problem. Drinking is the solution."

Hmm, thought: Luna's vampire factions each have 'forms' of hers they revere more than the others.

The Crimson Triad favors her human shape with additional foxtails, often depicted by them as having three dark tails.

The Dark Crescent favors the hybrid form of bat and fox, black-furred, something unreal but wondrous.

The Silver Chain favors her fox shape, partially hybridized with her mist form.

The Blue Thorn favors her humanoid, bat-winged 'succubus' form. Other people prefer to just say they like the bloodsucking bat as a jab at them.

The Covenant of Night respects all her forms, the default human shape most clearly of all.

Her harem probably has individuals who favor one form over the other, too. I can imagine a few really liking her bat-hybrid or fox-hybrid forms :D

I can see Artemis and Apollo being, like I said, old powers of the moon and sun respectively and I like the implications HG is coming up with for the Lunar Powers Club.

Or maybe the Artemis and Apollo in this game are totally separate entities. I'd love to hear Kass chime in on this.

Like I can see Luna getting entangled in Artemis' drama, and them either becoming rivals, enemies, allies, lovers, or some complicated mix of the aforementioned things. The Night is very close to the Moon estate-wise. I don't think Luna would ultimately betray the chancel and the familia but I can see Artemis trying to seduce her away somehow., and that all causing dramatic tension between Luna and Artemis for sure.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:59, Tue 25 Feb 2020.

possibly, yeah. It could be good to work with :D