Setting Information [Judgement Night]
Dec. 10th, 2012 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daidoji_giseiThis is the introductory information I sent out to my players. Sorry for any formatting weirdness; someday I'll figure out how to force DW to indent paragraphs.
Judgement Night Setting Information
by Nancy M Sauer
The world has been under assault by demons for about two hundred years now.
The exact start of it is hard to place, because the attacks have been piecemeal, poorly organized, and have yet to threaten the long-term stability of even a city, much less a nation. Most people have come to regard demons as another kind of natural disaster--they cause death and destruction, and then the survivors get on with rebuilding their lives.
THE WORLD
For all intents and purposes, the game world is our world with a few tweaks. As I see no reason to come up with alternate names for things like North America, Jack Daniels, and M 1911s, I am going to use the existing names for things that we already know. The world does have a slightly different history and background than ours, but in general I will cover the changes as they become relevant.
The technology level is somewhere around that of the '80s or '90s. The characters have cell phones, but they are larger than they are currently and are very basic: they take phone calls and access voice mail and that's it. Smart phones are still the stuff of science fiction.
The dominant religion is similar to the ancient Roman religion with its mix of household god, lares, and ancestor worship. The cult of the element of fire is growing in popularity, and the Fire Saints officially support the cult, though it has no specific doctrine and does not proselytize.
HUMAN, DEMON, EATEN
Humans in the game are people like us, though they may be somewhat stronger, faster, or have paranormal abilities not found in reality. Demons are monsters invading from another level of existence--they are horrific to look upon, possess supernatural strength, speed, and vitality, and sometimes paranormal abilities as well. Their size invariably scales to their power: a demon the size of a horse is far more dangerous than one the size of a dog. They usually manifest as some chimerical creature; the ones who have manifested in a more-or-less human form manage to look even more wrong than the ones that look like a cross between giant insects and squid.
The more intelligent of the demon lords have recognized that simply showing up and destroying a few city blocks will not advance their plans for world domination and have attempted to think of some more effective strategies. The best of those to date has been the creation of the Eaten--humans who have had their humanity consumed and replaced by the will of a demon lord. To achieve this a demon lord places a portion of its spirit in a sword, and then causes the sword to come into the hands of a human. If that human unsheathes the blade at any time, the demon lord will attempt to possess them. If the demon succeeds (and since they can make multiple attempts, this is generally a matter of 'when', not 'if'), the human spirit perishes and the body becomes the tool of the demon. An Eaten retains their old memories and skills, making them useful tools. Their big drawback (from the demon's point of view) is that any of the standard tests for demonic magic will reveal their presence. They also die as easily as normal humans, having normal human strength and stamina.
It is not known why demons use swords in creating the Eaten, though it is completely obvious why they don't use guns. (See below.) It is also unclear why they use only swords, and never daggers or kitchen knives, though some have suggested that there is a certain minimum amount of metal needed to contain the demon's spirit. An Eaten will always seek to fight with the sword that created it, and will keep it as close to hand as possible without betraying its nature.
WEAPONS
Since the dawn of humanity fire has been its protection against predators, and it continues in that role still. The element of fire loathes demonkind, and it shows this in various exciting ways. A demon set on fire will burn like hay soaked in gasoline. (This is less useful than it sounds, as a burning demon will do a lot of running around, and the resulting secondary fires are extremely difficult to put out.) Any open flame in the vicinity of a demon or an Eaten will burn blue and consume its fuel at approximately twice the normal rate. (This includes jet plane engines, which is why airport security checks in this world focus on finding Eaten, and not terrorists.) And finally highly reactive substances like gunpowder and nitroglycerin will spontaneously explode when touched by a demon or an Eaten. (This is why action movies involving demons will invariably include a scene where the hero lures/tricks a demon into entering an armory or other ammunition stockpile.)
That being able to use a gun proves that you are fully human is one of the two reasons why demon hunters around the world have adopted firearms. The other is when you are fighting an opponent who can smash ribs or disembowel you with a single blow, inflicting damage from a distance is the right thing to do.
Another weapon humans have is ward magic. While primarily used defensively, to keep demons out of a defined area, a Wardwight with the right training can either keep a demon from inflicting more destruction in an area or pen them up for easier killing.
The greatest of human weapons is their ability to cooperate with each other to carry out complex, large-scale plans. For all their inherent power demons apparently suck at coordination and large-scale strategy, and while an individual demon is strong and hard to kill even very large demons can be killed with relative ease by a group of humans. There are many observations of one demon taking orders from another; there are no observations of demons freely cooperating with each other. Even pack behavior patterns seem beyond their abilities.
DEMON HUNTERS
Around the world various warrior societies have sprung up to battle demons. In the West the largest and best known are the Fire Saints. The Fire Saints employ a large number of Gunslingers, Wardwights, Investigators, and other support personnel in its effort to keep humanity safe from demonic invasions. It is known throughout the world, and well-respected enough that if a member should need to travel outside of its sphere of influence on a mission they can usually count on the local warrior society to accept them as a guest. (It need not be said that this is considered a favor that someday will have to be repaid.) All PCs in Judgement Night are members of the Fire Saints.
Judgement Night Setting Information
by Nancy M Sauer
The world has been under assault by demons for about two hundred years now.
The exact start of it is hard to place, because the attacks have been piecemeal, poorly organized, and have yet to threaten the long-term stability of even a city, much less a nation. Most people have come to regard demons as another kind of natural disaster--they cause death and destruction, and then the survivors get on with rebuilding their lives.
THE WORLD
For all intents and purposes, the game world is our world with a few tweaks. As I see no reason to come up with alternate names for things like North America, Jack Daniels, and M 1911s, I am going to use the existing names for things that we already know. The world does have a slightly different history and background than ours, but in general I will cover the changes as they become relevant.
The technology level is somewhere around that of the '80s or '90s. The characters have cell phones, but they are larger than they are currently and are very basic: they take phone calls and access voice mail and that's it. Smart phones are still the stuff of science fiction.
The dominant religion is similar to the ancient Roman religion with its mix of household god, lares, and ancestor worship. The cult of the element of fire is growing in popularity, and the Fire Saints officially support the cult, though it has no specific doctrine and does not proselytize.
HUMAN, DEMON, EATEN
Humans in the game are people like us, though they may be somewhat stronger, faster, or have paranormal abilities not found in reality. Demons are monsters invading from another level of existence--they are horrific to look upon, possess supernatural strength, speed, and vitality, and sometimes paranormal abilities as well. Their size invariably scales to their power: a demon the size of a horse is far more dangerous than one the size of a dog. They usually manifest as some chimerical creature; the ones who have manifested in a more-or-less human form manage to look even more wrong than the ones that look like a cross between giant insects and squid.
The more intelligent of the demon lords have recognized that simply showing up and destroying a few city blocks will not advance their plans for world domination and have attempted to think of some more effective strategies. The best of those to date has been the creation of the Eaten--humans who have had their humanity consumed and replaced by the will of a demon lord. To achieve this a demon lord places a portion of its spirit in a sword, and then causes the sword to come into the hands of a human. If that human unsheathes the blade at any time, the demon lord will attempt to possess them. If the demon succeeds (and since they can make multiple attempts, this is generally a matter of 'when', not 'if'), the human spirit perishes and the body becomes the tool of the demon. An Eaten retains their old memories and skills, making them useful tools. Their big drawback (from the demon's point of view) is that any of the standard tests for demonic magic will reveal their presence. They also die as easily as normal humans, having normal human strength and stamina.
It is not known why demons use swords in creating the Eaten, though it is completely obvious why they don't use guns. (See below.) It is also unclear why they use only swords, and never daggers or kitchen knives, though some have suggested that there is a certain minimum amount of metal needed to contain the demon's spirit. An Eaten will always seek to fight with the sword that created it, and will keep it as close to hand as possible without betraying its nature.
WEAPONS
Since the dawn of humanity fire has been its protection against predators, and it continues in that role still. The element of fire loathes demonkind, and it shows this in various exciting ways. A demon set on fire will burn like hay soaked in gasoline. (This is less useful than it sounds, as a burning demon will do a lot of running around, and the resulting secondary fires are extremely difficult to put out.) Any open flame in the vicinity of a demon or an Eaten will burn blue and consume its fuel at approximately twice the normal rate. (This includes jet plane engines, which is why airport security checks in this world focus on finding Eaten, and not terrorists.) And finally highly reactive substances like gunpowder and nitroglycerin will spontaneously explode when touched by a demon or an Eaten. (This is why action movies involving demons will invariably include a scene where the hero lures/tricks a demon into entering an armory or other ammunition stockpile.)
That being able to use a gun proves that you are fully human is one of the two reasons why demon hunters around the world have adopted firearms. The other is when you are fighting an opponent who can smash ribs or disembowel you with a single blow, inflicting damage from a distance is the right thing to do.
Another weapon humans have is ward magic. While primarily used defensively, to keep demons out of a defined area, a Wardwight with the right training can either keep a demon from inflicting more destruction in an area or pen them up for easier killing.
The greatest of human weapons is their ability to cooperate with each other to carry out complex, large-scale plans. For all their inherent power demons apparently suck at coordination and large-scale strategy, and while an individual demon is strong and hard to kill even very large demons can be killed with relative ease by a group of humans. There are many observations of one demon taking orders from another; there are no observations of demons freely cooperating with each other. Even pack behavior patterns seem beyond their abilities.
DEMON HUNTERS
Around the world various warrior societies have sprung up to battle demons. In the West the largest and best known are the Fire Saints. The Fire Saints employ a large number of Gunslingers, Wardwights, Investigators, and other support personnel in its effort to keep humanity safe from demonic invasions. It is known throughout the world, and well-respected enough that if a member should need to travel outside of its sphere of influence on a mission they can usually count on the local warrior society to accept them as a guest. (It need not be said that this is considered a favor that someday will have to be repaid.) All PCs in Judgement Night are members of the Fire Saints.