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Welcome to V20-Dark Ages Shadows of Venice

09:16, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

V20-Dark Ages Shadows of Venice

Venice, a city of water in the center of a wide lagoon, built as a refuge from the barbarian hordes.  The kindred and kine alike have flocked to this metropolitan center over the centuries, that has served as a refuge for the living and the dead.

Venice is in a time of growth, empire, and peace in 1230 AD.  The spoils of the conquest of Constantinople are still trickling into the city by ship, and Venice now controls a coastal empire in the Aegean and Ionian Seas that is larger than the new Latin Emperor's own holdings!  The population of the city is booming, with new traders and merchants arriving every season, and a constant tide of maritime traffic keeping goods flowing into and out of the city.  In all, it is one of the greatest times in the history of the City of St Mark.

But the kindred of the Floating City do not share in the current optimism of the kine.  Prince Lucanus, an ancient Lasombra renown for his power and generosity to other vampires, has disappeared over two decades ago, shortly after the fourth crusade passed through the city.  His childe and appointed heir, Cyriacus, claims that his sire is in self-induced torpor hidden within the city, a claim supported by many of the city's elite.  But a rival claimant for the princedom, a Ventrue lord called Lenhard the Lion, claims he defeated Lucanus in single combat and has attempted to claim the city as his by right of conquest, but so far his claim has been denied.  Now he seeks a way to prove his claim, or otherwise take control.  Both Cyriacus and his Ventrue rival seek the support of the third faction of the city, a powerful minority led by the scholarly children and associates of Mordiacus the Galatean, a mysterious and some say tainted Cappadocian.  Mordiacus seems content to let them both vie for his assistance.

In the most recent nights, even stranger events are beginning to unfold.  Several of the kindred have claimed to have witnessed Lucanus in the Venetian night, only to again vanish.  But if he is awake and moving about, that would mean both his childe and his rival are lying.  Then what is the truth? Some amongst the wisest of the kindred whisper that there is an even darker force at work within the city. sowing this dissent.  Chaos and upheaval have come to the City of Canals, and none alive or dead know what has brought this period of change.  Many would give much to know what lies at the heart of this chaos.  And they would give even more to have control of it.