Roja Dorn was born to the patriarch of the Dorn clan on the frozen world of Inwit. Inwit has a desolate world covered in ice, with the natives living in vast ice hives and eking out an existence by mining for mineral miles below the icy surface. The people of Inwit were as harsh as their planet’s climate, with strict sets of rules and inherence to rules, tradition, and hierarchy. Though they were hard, the people of Inwit also placed a very high value on honor, bravery, honesty, and a devotion to duty.
It was in these values that Roja Dorn was raised. Her father was a man who personified the values of his society. Cold and aloof, he taught Roja Dorn harsh discipline and the value of dedication to duty and loyalty to her clan and to her rightful superiors. The clans of Inwit were highly patriarchal, with the patriarchs ruling over the men of the clan with an iron fist just as a husband ruled over his own wife and household. So Roja Dorn was not raised to be the great warrior she would one day become, but was instead taught to be an obedient wife for what ever noble lord her father chose for her. Roja Dorn was a young girl of great intellect and ability, though she took her father’s lessons to heart and came to embody those values which her society most treasured - dedication to duty, obedience, and honor. While her brothers and male cousins trained to fight or even went off to war, Roja studied feminine pursuits. Though Roja paid close attention to all that she saw around her - war, political machinations, industry, and kept that knowledge stored within her mind.
By the time Roja was in her teenage years, she had herself become a paragon of Inwit virtue. A well mannered noble lady, obedient to her father and brothers, dedicated to the welfare of her clan but ready to serve what ever husband was selected for her by her father. Roja had followed her father’s example, suppressing her emotions and turning away from her own wants, for the ideal lady of Inwit, duty came before all else. Her marriage was arranged to the patriarch of another clan and while Roja barely knew this man, she dutifully accepted her father’s choice. As was the tradition for all girls on Inwit, she was to be married upon her 17th birthday. Events would come to pass that would prevent this marriage and change Roja’s life forever, this would be the coming of the God Emperor of Mankind.
The Emperor arrived on the planet of Inwit, sensing the presence of his lost daughter across the void of space. Inwit did have contact with other planets in the surrounding system, though the inhabitants had no idea that such powers existed as the Imperium. The Emperor sought out Roja Dorn and told her that she was created to serve a great purpose, to be a general and lead to fleets of mankind to victory. To Roja this was the most bizarre event imaginable, a request in complete contradiction to everything she had been taught since birth, yet there was some part of her which was not surprised, as if she had dreamed of this moment. Of course, in keeping with the obedience she owed her father and clan, Roja refused the Emperor’s offer. Her father had pledged her to another, it was her duty to marry him. She could not leave, regardless of what was offered her. She could not remain single past the age of 17, that would be to break with tradition and to bring shame to her and her family.
The Emperor would not be denied his lost Primarch daughter. Though he tried to reason with Roja, telling her that ultimately this man she was betrothed to was irrelevant, and that she could truly make a difference to all of humanity, she still refused. Roja would die before she would turn away from her duty. Roja’s father and her fiance were not so stubborn, and when the Emperor offered each of them large bribes to make their clans the most wealth on Inwit, they both decided that they could break off the engagement despite being a breach of etiquette. Roja was shocked that her father would break off the engagement for money, though she was still obeyed his wish.
Because it would bring great dishonor to the Dorn clan for Roja to remain unmarried, the Emperor and the Dorn patriarch decided on a plan. Roja would be married to the Emperor before the great clans of Inwit. This would allow Roja and her father to save face and considering Roja staunch devotion to duty, it would insure her loyalty to the Emperor until such time as she accepted the reality of their situation. The Emperor had no intentions to remain married to Roja or to take advantage of the situation, he would merely keep Roja in his service and explain to her that this marriage was not important to either of them. The Emperor did not realize the significance that the marriage would hold to Roja Dorn.
As wife of the Emperor, Roja set her mind to obey her new master in all things, to strive to please him and to be a dutiful loving wife. When the Emperor told Roja that he did not desire a wife, that he only wanted her for a leader and general, Roja was crushed, though she would obey her husband and strive to be all that he wanted her to be. The Emperor told her not to speak of the marriage, as so she did not, but she thought of it always as it defined for very existence.
The Emperor desired a general and a great warrior and so Roja saw it as her duty to become what her master desired. She dedicated herself to the study of warfare and conflict. She listened to all that the Emperor’s most learned experts and veterans had to teach her, she read every book and battle account which she could find, she tested herself in every way possible to improve her tactical and strategic mind. She learned from Roboute Guilliman and Angron Helvic, she studied the victories of the other Primarchs and their loses. While at first she lagged slightly behind, within several years she was equal to or superior to any Primarch as a war leader, so much so that the Emperor even gave her slight consideration for Warmaster despite his great love of Horus.
Roja Dorn also became a skilled commander of soldiers, leading them by example and demanding the same high standards from them as from herself, her legion was soon commonly thought to be the most dedicated and loyal soldiers in the Imperium. Roja Dorn became a master of personal combat as well, driving her body to the limits of endurance learning practicing and training. She learned to focus her psychic power into her body, giving her superhuman prowess, to foresee the future so as to predict enemy actions, and even to tear great war machines with the power of her mind. Her psychic presence was such that those soldiers she commanded could feel in during battle, Roja’s bravery strengthening their hearts and minds. Roja truly became the Primarch that the Emperor desired her to be.
All this time, Roja though of the Emperor as her husband, though her spurned her affections and gave her praise only for her accomplishments on the battlefield. Though he made her Emperor’s Champion, his own personal guardian which was a great honor, it was not the honor which Roja truly desired. Roja came to see that the Emperor personified all of those traits she had been raised to uphold - honor, dedication to duty, bravery. She had her battle armor gilded in gold to match that of her husband and wore always the red cloak that her had placed upon her back at marriage ceremony. She grew to love him more and more with time and became increasingly sad that he did not return her feelings. She also felt ashamed that she felt this way in contradiction to to Emperor’s will, a form of disobedience even if it was only in her heart.
This shame and despair increased as time passed. Roja thought that she must purify her mind and soul, first through flagellating herself just as she had been beaten as a child when she disobeyed. Though this was far to little punishment for one such as her. She eventually moved up to more technologically advanced methods, machines which would inflict agonizing pain directly to her nerves. She began to wear such devices frequently, when she needed to physical pain to distract her from the emotional pain that she felt.
When Horus and the other traitors turned against the Emperor, none were more furious than Roja Dorn. When Horus attacked Holy Terra and began his siege, Roja was ordered by the Emperor to maintain the defenses of Earth, a most important duty which Roja through herself into completely. When the Emperor saw his chance to teleport aboard Horus’ ship and destroy the traitor Warmaster once and for all, Roja begged the Emperor to accompany him or to go in his stead. He denied her requests and said that she was too important to Terra’s defenses, and as she always did, she obeyed her master.
Roja Dorn, leading the defenses of earth then felt something terrible. With her psychic power, she felt the Emperor’s life slipping away from him. With great anguish, she decided she must disobey the Emperor’s last command to her and teleport to Horus’s ship with a handful of her elite retinue. There, she found the Emperor’s mutated and dying body, the last ounces of life slipping away from him. Roja Dorn released a scream of such horror and anguish the its echoes in the Warp harrowed the souls of even daemons. Roja was able to take him back to the Imperial Palace where his technicians could enshrine him upon the Golden Throne, keeping him in a state between life and death.
It is said that this day Roja Dorn went mad with grief. After the traitors had been repelled from the Sol system, she amassed a great fleet under her command and drove relentlessly at the traitor legions. Her fury was unquenchable, she paid no need to her own life, only avenging the Emperor against the foul traitors and Chaos worshipers. Some say that this great crusade was what truly broke the back of the Chaos legions, not just the death or Horus. Eventually Roja Dorn lead her forces against a far superior fleet of Chaos vessels, and engagement that her fleet won, but where Roja Dorn was killed when her flag ship took heavy damage, a sacrifice which many believe made the Imperial victory possible.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
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In the 14th century, after the toil that followed the disappearance of the masters. The elders of the major Revenant families which had once sworn fealty to Clan Tzimisce gathered together in for what would one day become known as the Constantinople Concordat. Here the six great families created what they called the Genos, the organization of Revenants that would enforce law among them and establish a system for these mighty families to coexist with each other. Those families which did not participate were those families created by the Giovanni and by a group called the Black Hand.
ReplyDeleteGrimaldi
This family has dedicated itself to pursuing wealth and gaining temporal power. Among their ranks are businessmen, lawyers, bankers, and others who pull the strings of modern society. They are a forward looking family who easily interact with mortals and stay up to date on current affairs, allowing them to become perhaps the wealthiest family in the modern era. On the downside, because they have married into powerful mortal families through the ages, the vampiric blood in their veins is a bit weaker and they have less supernatural potency than most of the other Revenant families.
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Dominate
Weakness: The Grimaldi family is less inbred than other Revenant families. This does have its advantages, but the down side is that their blood is less potent. Their maximum blood pools are 2 points lower than they otherwise would be and their Blood Purity score can never exceed 3.
Advantage: Because of their immense wealth and connections, members of the Grimaldi families receive 4 extra background points to start with.
Zantosa
A competitor with the Grimaldi for wealth and power. For the Zantosa family, are not a goal in and of itself but a means to achieve pleasure and debauchery. Members of this family seek out and indulge in every forbidden pleasure and also gain influence in helping the rich and powerful indulge in their own hidden desires. As time has passed, the Zantosa have slipped a bit in worldly influence, but are still considerably powerful.
Disciplines: Fortitude, Presence, Vicissitude
Weakness: Zantosas are rather weak-willed when it comes to resisting temptation. Accordingly, whenever a Zantosa is exposed to a particularly pleasurable experience, she must make a Willpower roll (difficulty determined by the Storyteller, depending on the experience in question). Failure indicates that the Zantosa is now obsessed with or addicted to that particular sensation (which can be anything from doing a new drug, to performing a particular sexual position, to enjoying a sumptuous wine, to torturing an unfortunate victim), and will do damn near anything to experience it again.
Weakness: Because the members of the Zantosa family have subjected their bodies to so many extremes of pleasure and pain, their penalties for being damaged are reduced by 1 dice. Furthermore, as members of the Zantosa have their bodies heavily modified even from a young age to be beautiful, a Zantosa character can automatically start with what ever Appearance rating the player desires, up to 5.
Grimaldi
ReplyDeleteThis family has dedicated itself to pursuing wealth and gaining temporal power. Among their ranks are businessmen, lawyers, bankers, and others who pull the strings of modern society. They are a forward looking family who easily interact with mortals and stay up to date on current affairs, allowing them to become perhaps the wealthiest family in the modern era. On the downside, because they have married into powerful mortal families through the ages, the vampiric blood in their veins is a bit weaker and they have less supernatural potency than most of the other Revenant families.
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Dominate
Weakness: The Grimaldi family is less inbred than other Revenant families. This does have its advantages, but the down side is that their blood is less potent. Their maximum blood pools are 2 points lower than they otherwise would be and their Blood Purity score can never exceed 3.
Advantage: Because of their immense wealth and connections, members of the Grimaldi families receive 4 extra background points to start with.
Zantosa
A competitor with the Grimaldi for wealth and power. For the Zantosa family, are not a goal in and of itself but a means to achieve pleasure and debauchery. Members of this family seek out and indulge in every forbidden pleasure and also gain influence in helping the rich and powerful indulge in their own hidden desires. As time has passed, the Zantosa have slipped a bit in worldly influence, but are still considerably powerful.
Disciplines: Fortitude, Presence, Vicissitude
Weakness: Zantosas are rather weak-willed when it comes to resisting temptation. Accordingly, whenever a Zantosa is exposed to a particularly pleasurable experience, she must make a Willpower roll (difficulty determined by the Storyteller, depending on the experience in question). Failure indicates that the Zantosa is now obsessed with or addicted to that particular sensation (which can be anything from doing a new drug, to performing a particular sexual position, to enjoying a sumptuous wine, to torturing an unfortunate victim), and will do damn near anything to experience it again.
Weakness: Because the members of the Zantosa family have subjected their bodies to so many extremes of pleasure and pain, their penalties for being damaged are reduced by 1 dice. Furthermore, as members of the Zantosa have their bodies heavily modified even from a young age to be beautiful, a Zantosa character can automatically start with what ever Appearance rating the player desires, up to 5.
Bratovitch
The Bratovitch are the most savage and perhaps inhuman of the Revenant families. For countless generations they have removed themselves from humanity, living an dilapidated manors deep within the woods, raising animals and living almost as animals themselves. Many members of other families see the Bratovitch family as more of a liability than an asset in the modern nights, though this bizarre family have proven their loyalty to the Genos time and time again and they are magnificent warriors, trackers, animal trainers, and scouts. In the modern era, what little wealth that these bestial Revenants might have had in the past as largely been lost and they are forced to do services for wealthier families in exchange for payment or simply live simple lives off the land or on old farmsteads.
Disciplines: Animalism, Potence, Protean
Weakness: Bratovitches are easily angered — some would say psychotic. They make all rolls to resist frenzy as a vampire does, without a ghoul’s -2 to difficulty.
Advantage: The Bratovitch family has dedicated itself to combat and strife for centuries, with even children of the family being pitted against ferocious animals. As a result, members of the Bratovitch family receive a bonus die to all Strength and Stamina rolls.
Obertus
ReplyDeleteThe Obertus are a family of mysterious scholars and occultists. They are known not only for their libraries of ancient knowledge but also for their scientific endeavors and study of the strange mystical biology of Revenants. They also have a well known interest in experimentation on humans as well as supernatural creatures along with eugenics and breeding of sapient beings. The Obertus closely guard their secrets and are not only the mystics of the Genos, but information brokers as well. They are regarded as eccentric geniuses among the other families, for with their great minds also comes madness and obsession.
Disciplines: Auspex, Obfuscate, Thaumaturgy
Weakness: The Obertuses were bred for intellectual ability, sometimes at the expense of stability, and are thus prone to monomania and similar psychological disorders. All members of the Obertus family suffer from a single derangement from which they can never recover. From absorbing the Khazi into their ranks, many members of the Obertus family suffer from Albinism.
Vlaszy
The Vlaszy were once a noble respected family. They served the Tzimisce and knights and warriors, pledging their loyalty to their vampiric lords to the death. After the disappearance of their masters and absorbing several smaller families, the Vlaszy continue to follow the traditions of honor and obligation that the family has values for generation upon generation. Now they act as not only warriors of the Genos, but as police, mediators, and judges as their reputation still stands high among the Revenant families. They are also highly valued as diplomats and messengers both between the Genos families and among outsiders.
Disciplines: Animalism, Presence, Potence
Weakness: It is said that the Vlaszy were instilled by their vampiric masters with such a sense of honor that it runs through their very blood even in the modern era. Vlaszy must spend a point of Willpower in order to tell a lie and if one should ever break an oath, that Vlaszy loses a permanent dot of Willpower.
Khazi
The Khazi were once the fanatical servants of an ancient vampire that they considered a god. They served this ancient vampire without question and kept
Disciplines: Dominate, Obfuscate, Vicissitude
Weakness: The Khazi have pale white skin and hair like that of an albino. This skin carries with it some of the same sensitivity to sunlight that their vampiric progenitors had. Khazi suffer damage from sunlight in the same way that vampires do, though this damage is only bashing and they can soak it with Stamina. Furthermore, while they can change their size and shape with Vicissitude, they can never change the pale white coloration of their flesh.
D'Habi
ReplyDeleteDisciplines: Dominate, Obtenebration, Presence
Weakness: Because the blood of the D’Habi is tainted by infernal magic, they suffer from the effects of True Faith in the same way that vampires did.
Rafastio
Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Koldunic Sorcery
Weakness: Rafastio are very susceptible to phases of the moon. With the New Moon they are -2 to all dice pools involving their Disciplines. With the Quarter Moon they are only -1 and Half Moon there is no penalty. On nights of the Full Moon, Rafastio have a surge in power and gain +2 to all dice pools involving their disciplines.
Enrathi
Disciplines: Dominate, Obfuscate, Potence
Weakness: The Enrathi were forced to perform horrible acts for centuries at the hands of their vampiric masters. After being freed from their bondage, the Enrathi turned from those terrible acts and now feel immense guilt for their dark past. When ever a member of the Enrathi family succeeds one a Conscience roll (after performing some immoral act) they experience such terrible guilt that they suffer a 1 die penalty to all actions per success on that Conscience roll. These penalty dice disappear at the rate of 1 per day and the effects can be ignored for one scene with the expenditure of a Willpower point.
Marijava
Disciplines: Celerity, Obfuscate, Presence
Weakness: The Marijava family are highly skilled in the arts of stealth and make spies, thieves, or even assassins without peer. However, despite being extremely dextrous, they aren’t as physically powerful as other Revenants are. Members of the Marijava family do not receive the Strength enhancement that is otherwise universal to Revenants.
Giovanni
Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Necromancy
Weakness: he Giovanni only existed for a short time as a Revenant family before vampires perished, leading to their bodies restoring the mystical energy of spent blood points more slowly Members of the Giovanni family only recover one half of a blood point each day regardless of blood purity. Additionally, their Blood Purity score can never exceed 3. Despite their limited Blood Purity, as masters of Necromancy the Giovanni can attain five up to five dots in Necromancy and Necromancy paths.
Advantage: As masters of Necromancy, the Giovanni may raise their Necromancy Discipline, including all Necromancy paths, to 5 dots regardless of Blood Purity.
Dunsirn
Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Potence
Weakness: Members of Dunsirn family have a tradition of cannibalism that goes back so far as to be mystically linked to the family. They cannot recover blood points naturally but must do so by consuming human flesh. All of the meat on a human body can restore 10 blood points to the Dunsirn. Through consuming human flesh, a member of the Dunsirn family may regain up to 2 blood points each day. Additionally, their Blood Purity score can never exceed 3.
Advantage: While they must consume human flesh to restore their magical energies, this allows them to recover more quickly than similarly thin blooded Revenants. Through consuming human flesh, a member of the Dunsirn family may regain up to 2 blood points each day.
Rossellini
ReplyDeleteIn the centuries since the Dead Masters vanished, the Rossellini have found themselves thriving instead of decaying. During the Italian Renaissance, their powers allowed them to amass wealth and influence, and to absorb within their ranks smaller families such as the Della Passaglia. Today they have interests in business, finance, firearms, and drug and human trafficking, and have houses from Hong Kong to Toronto, from Buenos Aires to St. Petersburg, from London to Johannesburg. But their center is always Rome, were the ancient palazzo Rossellini, rumored to have been built over a Roman villa, still stands.
The Rossellini swim in wealth and influence, but they are almost unknown to the wide world. They do not like the public spotlight, since the other thing they like to swim in is cruelty, depravity and pain. Few Rossellini children reach adulthood without having some reconstructive surgery, courtesy of the harsh methods of "discipline" of their parents. Those unfortunates that enter as help a Rossellini house soon discover that their new masters not only are very strict... they tend to manufacture "mistakes" in order to have something to punish them about. Many are not seen again. The Rossellini say they are disciplinarians and harsh methods are necessary, but in reality, they just like inflicting pain to an erotic extent.
Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Potence.
Flaw: The Rossellini are addicted to pain, pure and simple. They must make a Willpower check when confronted with an opportunity to harm somebody and cause pain, wheter phyiscal or mental. Of course, that is if they want to resist the urge...
The Minor Families
While the Rossellini stayed more or less true to their roots as Necromancers, the Giovanni family branched out and intermarried with a number of other families around the world, known either for their mystical abilities, great wealth and influence, or both. Some prominent minor families are the Rothsteins, the Pisanob, and the Putanesca. The Rothsteins are family with its fingers in organized crime, gambling, and banking as well as the mystic arts. The Pisanob, a family which traces it's ancestry and master of Necromancy back to pre-Columbian Central America. The Puttanesca are a Sicilian crime family known for it's brutality. While the blood is quite among these minor families, collectively they are quite numerous, extremely wealthy, and influential both in the legitimate business world and the underworld of organized crime.
Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, and Necromancy
Weakness: These families only became Revenants in the last few centuries from intermarriage between themselves and the Giovanni. As a result, they all automatically have the 4 point version of the thin blooded flaw. They can take the 6 point version, but only receive 2 points for it. Despite their thin blood, as experts in Necromancy, the Minor Families can raise their Necromancy Discipline score 2 dots higher than what would normally be allowed by their thin blood, though secondary paths can only be raised to one point above the limit.
Advantage: While these families are all thin blooded, the Giovanni usually chose to mix their blood with theirs because of the family’s skill in Necromancy. As a result, the Minor Families can raise their Necromancy Discipline score 2 dots higher than what would normally be allowed by their thin blood, though secondary paths can only be raised to one point above the limit.
Revenant Blood Purity Background
ReplyDeleteEach level in the Blood Purity background gives the Revenant a -1 dice pool penalty for a certain attribute, chosen by the player during character creation. These dice pool penalties represent the unusual effects of inbreeding such as a physical deformity or psychological condition. For example, a Revenant with a Blood Purity of 4 might have a -2 dice penalty to Appearance (representing a hideous appearance), a -1 penalty to Dexterity (from a curved spine that hinders movement), and a -1 penalty to Perception that might represent having impaired hearing or eyesight. Those Revenants with Appearance dice penalties cannot mitigate these from the use of Vicissitude. Even if they boost their Appearance to 5, they will still have a certain quality about them which makes them seem less attractive.
0: 6 Maximum Blood Pool, 1 blood point recovered per day, 1 maximum blood point expenditure per turn, 1 maximum Discipline for out of family, 3 maximum for in family Disciplines. 250 year average lifespan.
1: 8 Maximum Blood Pool, 1 blood point recovered per day, 1 maximum blood point expenditure per turn, 1 maximum Discipline for out of family, 3 maximum for in family Disciplines. 300 year average lifespan.
2: 10 Maximum Blood Pool, 1 blood point recovered per day, 1 maximum blood point expenditure per turn, 2 maximum Discipline for out of family, 3 maximum for in family Disciplines. 350 year average lifespan.
3: 12 Maximum Blood Pool, 1 blood point recovered per day, 1 maximum blood point expenditure per turn, 2 maximum Discipline for out of family, 4 maximum for in family Disciplines. 400 year average lifespan.
4: 14 Maximum Blood Pool, 2 blood points recovered per day, 1 maximum blood point expenditure per turn, 3 maximum Discipline for out of family, 4 maximum for in family Disciplines. 500 year average lifespan.
5: 16 Maximum Blood Pool, 3 blood points recovered per day, 2 maximum blood point expenditure per turn, 3 maximum Discipline for out of family, 5 maximum for in family Disciplines. 600 year average lifespan.
Each century of life increases the Revenant’s maximum blood pool by 1.
Thin Blooded Flaw (4/6)
For a 3 point flaw, the potency of the Revenant’s blood is quite low, perhaps this Revenant was born of a union between a normal human and a Revenant. A thin blooded Revenant must spend twice the normal number of blood points to do anything, including healing, using Disciplines, or enhancing physical attributes. Furthermore, the Revenant can only have up to 2 dots in Family Disciplines. Revenants with the 6 point version of this flaw are barely Revenants at all and have blood pools of zero, additionally they can only have up to a single dot in any Discipline. Obviously, a Revenant with this flaw cannot take the Blood Purity background. A Revenant with the 3 point version of this flaw can expect to live 150 years while a Revenant with the 6 point version will likely age only slightly slower than a mortal.