Concubia Nocte

[KjetilKverndokken]

Concubia Nocte

(In the Dead of Night)

This is a teaser for the Gotich Neo Post-Apocalyptic setting I'm working with. Any ideas and comments will be gratefully accepted, and you may start the speculations at your whim. This is all the information I will release at this moment, and is the first of my RPG developments I will reveal on this board.

The Vatican Realm

The Vatican Realm is a stretch of shoreline land that goes from former Italy and most of the Mediterranean islands, all the way down to the former land of Egypt.

The Realm is a Religious state that borders the many kingdoms of Nyx, which it ferociously appose.

It is the oldest realm of man still in existence and have been around for over eight hundred years, the full time between the Cataclysm and now. The Realm lives in a special state of existence, that divides the common man and the clergy. While it haves advanced technology, the commoners do not have access to it, and lives only by means of what people did in the mid renaissance. The Priesthood of the Vatican has declared that it was the use of technology that led to the Cataclysm and therefor only the ones directly anointed by God shall be able to wield this devastating power of man, in whatever form it takes. This decree makes the dealings with The Commonwealth, tense at best. As it is, The Vatican Realm sees itself as mankind best hope of survival in the time of Concubia Nocte.

The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth is located in the former United States of America and have its borders in the north east part of it. Three massive Arcologies makes up the heart of the territory, with smaller towns in between.

In contrast to The Vatican Realm, the Commonwealth does not restrict the use of technology and actually have it advanced forward as fast as they can.

The Commonwealth is a conglomerate of many races and beliefs, but is run as a Parliament.

The people living in the Commonwealth often refer to it as the last resort of man or the newest brightest hope it has. It is the youngest state at the moment, only two hundred and fifty years old. And few understand how it was made possible as the technology of yore was thought lost to anyone outside the Clergy circle of the Vatican.

Ayori Shogunate

The Shogunate is an odd realm. After the Cataclysm, the few who traveled, believed that the Japanese people was totally annihilated. But for only hundred years ago a great sail fleet advanced over to the the shores of the China and a massive army occupied much of its territory, declaring it the Shogunate of Japan. The current ruler is Ayori.

Little is known about this secretive people, only that it primarily lives without the use of technology, though rumors have it that certain clans have in their possession the means and resources to make very advanced equipment. How much they actually possess is impossible to know, as their borders are closed to the extreme and they are pushing forward to the minor

Nyxian realm south of China.

The Commonwealth have had the most dealings with the realm, and they are neither aggressive or friendly towards them. The Vatican Realm have not tried to contact them, and does not seem likely to do so in the very near future either.

Nyx

Yes indeed, what is this realm called Nyx, the Nyxian Realm. All that shall be said for now is that it is the result of the Cataclysm that happened about eight hundred years ago. And the other thing that can be said is that they are responsible for the effect called: Concubia Nocte...

[KjetilKverndokken]

What made the Cataclysm happen?

For about 800 years ago, in the year 2214, the world had once again fallen into a state of cold war. Cyber-terrorism was in its height and countries usually had inefficient means to protect themselves from it.

What most people believed was that the nuclear network of silos in several major countries was the most vulnerable. Especially the USA, England, Russia, China and Japan that had at that time the biggest nuclear network in the world.

And when the rebuild in the US started to make the silos completely locked from outside influence, thats when a group of radical terrorist who's name is now hidden in old scroll-works, attacked one of the major connection sites. They managed before they where fully stopped, to launch several nukes towards Russia and China. And at this point in history, the second cold war was at its most tense. The two countries responded in equal and fired their own. Even though countermeasures where sent to stop the nukes, several got through and all three of the countries suffered horrendous losses.

But even though this was bad, that was not the reason for the big cataclysmic event. One stray nuke had a malfunctioned tracking system and instead of hitting the capitol of Russia, hit the city of Bucharest instead. And as the nuke devastated the city, it cracked open a hidden set of catacombs under the city that had been hidden for centuries - and its when those catacombs where revealed that the cataclysm happened and the world changed forever.

But what the cataclysm was/is will not be revealed quite yet....

[KjetilKverndokken]

More on The Vatican Realm

The capital of the Vatican Realm is Roma Sanctum, its not in its entirety really an Arcology. As it can seem at first glance. In the center of the City is a grand building: Neo St.Peter Cathedral. A massive structure going up to a hight of seven hundred meters, and span wise that in either direction. And there are several massive buildings in the city, though not that big. So from a long distance it can look like a huge gothic arcology.

The City sprawl itself looks like a mix of old roman and renaissance architecture all around, where the commoners dwell. Its like the whole city is built around a massive wall and the city goes up on stairs to the top of the wall from the middle, so everyone, wherever they are in the city will be able to look at the center of the city and watch the holiest place on earth, at least in the clergy's minds.

There are several more fortress like cities all around the realm, but none equals the size of Roma Sanctum. There are many smaller farmsteads and lesser towns scattered all around the realm.

The whole of the Vatican Realm, have a population of about 126 000 000 souls, and about half of them lives outside the Cathedral cities.

Each Cathedral city is based around a huge cathedral, devoted to a saint. Any one person can visit the cathedrals. They have massive halls that at the very least can take inn well over a thousand commoners. But the rest of the structure is limited to the clergy and their holy warriors only.

The Vatican Realm is protected by the holy order of the Paladinius Luminatus. Created on the sole purpose to defend against the darkness that is Nyx. Though they also function as the elite warriors in any battle situation. On a lesser level there are the Templars that serve as the common soldiers that does not need to be anointed clergy as the Paladinius Luminatus has to be.

But the most powerful branch outside the inner Circle of Cardinals and the Pope himself is the Inquisition, they scour the Realm for any presence of the Nyxians inside their border and sometimes travel outside the Realm and takes the shadow war to their enemies. The Inquisitors have the power to slay bishops without the fear of reprisals so long as they can give a good reason for why it needed to be done. But they are not the fanatical witch hunters of yore, that see enemies in every shadow, they are more like a holy agency with enormous resources and the will to use it.

The commoners are a naive people for outsiders. As they are shielded completely from technology. But the fact is that the commoners of the Vatican Realm, is resourceful and strong-hearted people, with an iron will of faith for its realm.

Edited September 24, 2009 by KjetilKverndokken

[Trifletraxor]

So a new setting for BRP! Like the sound of it.

SGL.

[KjetilKverndokken]

Yes it is indeed :-), and i hope people will like it. More to come in just a little while.

[KjetilKverndokken]

Well then, time for some more information, and this time a small reveal on the Nyx...

The Nyxian Kingdoms

The Cataclysm was the reason for this realms existence, but not the creation of its rulers.

The rulers of the Nyxian Kingdoms is a species that have existed almost as long as man, all the way to the biblical times. Some say they are descendants of Caine, other say that they are the children of Lilith or the creation of Lucifer himself. But they are nonetheless the masters of the undead, they are vampires, but they prefer to call themselves Nosferatu.

When the nuclear fires ravaged large parts of the earth, the hidden sanctuary to what is believed to be the vampire progenitor was destroyed and awoke him from and almost aon long sleep. The human realm was in disarray and helpless. For many ages ago the undead ruled minor kingdoms, he saw that the time was ripe to make it happen again. He is known as the Nyxian Emperor and a little over half the vampiric population on earth has sworn fealty to him. The rest have caved their own kingdoms and reject sovereign rule. This have made the Nyxians a people in a state of war against each other, and is part of what have made it possible for the humans to have survived free and made their own realms strong.

You must not believe what many do, the Nyxian realm is not made up of vampires. They are few, very few against the human population And many hundreds of thousands, even millions of humans live in their kingdoms as serfs and slaves. But the Nyxians have other servants, potent ones.

The dead do not rest easy in the Nyxian lands, lands thats always covered in a kind of magical darkness; what have been called as the Concubia Nocte effect. This darkness is created by dark pylons that is scattered throughout the Nyxian realm - and the darkness it creates makes it possible for the creatures of the undead to walk freely without the fear of the sun.

The dead as said do not rest easy, souls of the dead are either used as energy in the necrotech forges, or made into malovent spirits that roams the land or bound into places as guard-dogs. The bodies of the dead are reanimated into walking corpses and make up the meatshields of the Nyxian armies. But there are other things to worry about as well. The power of necromancy and technology have been fused together to make necrotech a reality. With it they are able to create new undead warbeast and machines powered purely by souls. It have even made it possible to control and maintain the fury of werewolves, creatures that almost went extinct is now breed in pens and used as shocktroops, and those that prove the most resilient have become half beast and half necrotech cyborgs.

No real fullscale war between humans and the Nyxians have existed for over seven hundred years. Only minor border skirmishes and small incursions from both sides. But everybody knows, that the time will come when the darkness will begin to move and make its borders even larger.

The Vatican realm has dedicated it self, and all its people to be the defenders of mankind against this devil spawn and have strengthen its borders for centuries and built up a great holy warmachine for the time of the great purge, as they call it.

The Nyxian Kingdoms have engulfed most of Europe, and small parts of Asia and north America. And an unknown number of minor kingdoms all over the world.

---

Yes, it will be quite possible to play the Nyxians in the setting, and a whole chapter will go in depth on Necrotech and Necromancy. The Vampires will have a unique set of abilities graded for their age.

So, some will think the Nyxians to be cheesy addition, others will like them and the rest wont care - But this is Ghothic Neo Post Apocalysm :-).

[Trifletraxor]

Red = The Vatican Realm

Blue = The Commonwealth

Green = Ayori Shogunate

Grey = Nyx

Light brown = Wasteland/Freezone

The wastland, is it nuclear wastland, uninhabitable because of radiation, or just generally low populated due to the decreased population after the wars?

SGL.

[KjetilKverndokken]

The wastland, is it nuclear wastland, uninhabitable because of radiation, or just generally low populated due to the decreased population after the wars?

SGL.

The wasteland is a little bit of everything.

1 - It has no major settlements and no real claim of ownership. So it is also called the Freezone by those who live there. Many small Nyxian kingdoms litter the Freezones.

2 - It also have the most devastation wrought on it by the warfare and the nuclear attacks many centuries ago.

3 - There have also been an increase in mutation among animals so a good deal is become very aggressive. And many nyxian experiments have been let loose into the wasteland.

So players wanting to start anew, building their own place or start a rouge nation would have those opportunities in the Wasteland.

[KjetilKverndokken]

Sorry for lack of updates, but have been completely swamped.

The Commonwealth and Ayori Shogunate will come with a teaser very shortly. And if there are any specifics of the setting anyone wants to know about, just give the word an i shall see if I can give a teaser for it too.

I have a very rough estimate on when this will be completed... And it may be Fall 2010, very depending on the art for this. I'm an artist to, but with limited amount of time its hard to squeeze in to much time for the project, and my wife would kill me if I asked here to do artwork all the time.

So It may be stalled for lack of enough artwork - or if its no problem it may be planned with less artwork, we shall see.

If anyone wants to do art (it will have to be done pro bono as thats the AGL philosophy) just throw me an PM, and I will give a small art mission to see if the art style is fitting for the game.

(Yeah, mercilessly headhunting potentials )

Edited September 23, 2009 by KjetilKverndokken

[KjetilKverndokken]

Later today, I will reveal a bit of the special powers the Nosferatu have, the Strigosa, and their inhereted vampiric power.

And tomorrow the Commenwealth and Shogonate will finally get their teasers :-)

[KjetilKverndokken]

STRIGOSA

The Strigosa are the special dark powers used by the Nosferatu, this list is not at all a comprehensive list, but merely the most commonly used by the Nosferatu. Most Strigosa Cost blood to use, but some uses Power Points/magic points/holy points. And they do not last long, some are pay by use, others last a little while.

Which Powers is used by what type of Nosferatu

Voivode: Entrancement, Undead Might, Undead Speed, Necromancy (Full level), Undead Swarm, Hunters Senses (Half level), Corpse Resilience (Half Level).

Strigoi: Undead Might, Undead Speed, Necromancy (Half level), Undead Swarm, Hunters Senses (Full level), Corpse Resilience (Full level), Bestial Form, Corpse Claws.

The List

The Inquisitor walked into the old Gothic mansion. The wall paper had faded from its original black into something more charcoal gray, and the floorboard squeaked with each step, even though he took the lightest of steps. Then he heard something behind him, he turned and at the end of the large dining table a man sat, a large man with long black hair and the clothes of old an old noble man. "Welcome to my manse, my dear Frederich", he spoke with a fluent germane dialect, even though only a handful used that ancient language anymore. "Your days have ended spawn of Satan! I'm here to finally destroy you and end the terror you have created up here in the north of Italy", he was not quite sure if he was genuine enough in that claim when he said it. "You are, are you... Well, i would rather much more like if you took that gun of yours, put it against your temple and blow your insignificant brains out...." Frederich put his hand down on his gun, took it out and raised it towards his head, he did not want to, but still he felt that he must. A small tear ran down his chin just before he pulled the trigger...

Entrancement: Each 10% gives 5% on Communication skills. (Mastered – You will be able to persuade someone to kill themselves if you win in an contested PoW x5)

The damnable humans had hid inside the estate house, and the door was reinforced wood, to much for Donabars minions who hammered on it. He pushed himself through the crowd of the dead, and smashed himself against the door. Sure enough, it had metal brazing on the inside. He concentrated and fueled his muscle with the stolen lifeforce of others, and smashed into the door one more time, and this time.. The door gave away like rotten twigs.. He could hear the screams when his minions found the mortals, like sweet music to his ears...

Undead Might: Each 10% gives 1 point of strength (Mastered – You will be able to double your lifting capacity)

The paladins was right on Gustav's tail, the horses was fast, and he could not get away from them, this mission is to important to loose he thought and a red glimmer flashed before his eyes. Suddenly his speed increased manifold and he ran towards the Paladins, drew his daggers, and ran just past them. He stopped and looked back, the paladins did not stop, how could they he thought, when they both lost their heads.

Undead Speed: Each 10% Gives 1 point of Dexterity, when you raise it to 50% you can also get one more action in a turn. (Mastered – Gain a second action a turn)

The Voivode stood there alone, his army destroyed, his enemies marching towards him, celebrating furiously that victory was nigh, those fools. They had lost an abhorrent amount of men in the assault and their dead was littered behind them, half their strength at his disposal. He started the ritual and unleashed enormous black energies that struck the battlefield. The roar of celebration stopped, and was changed with the screams of fear as their former comrades attacked them from behind.

Necromancy: Each 10% opens up a new tier of necromantic rituals you can learn. (Mastered – Rituals only cost half to perform of power and/or blood).

"This is team Zeta, we are after target, one Strigoi male running into room 23B, all teams cover exits, we have him now". The Commonwealth strike team pursued the Nosferatu all through the Hotel, he had nowhere to go, this was the 78th floor, even one of them would take a fall like that without being incapacitated. The servos in his combat armor whirred heavily as they sped up through the stairs on the second floor of the hotel room. The massive combat shotgun leveled against the closet door they saw him run in to. "This is Zeta captain, any exits showing up on x-ray from the closet"? "Negative captain, its a dead end" They shot up the door, and fired each a centered round each. But there was no nosferatu in there, only two scared rats running into a small vent....

Undead Swarm: You can either turn into a swarm of bats or rats. When its raised to 50% you can take on both forms (but not at the same time). (Mastered – You can turn into a fog of greenish/gray mist).

The girl did her best to not scream, she held her breath as best as she could, but the monster was somewhere in the room. She had hid inside the hidden panel in the wall, there was only one way to open it, and that was by a hidden button in the closet next to it. So long as she kept still and did not make a sound she would be safe... Then the panel was ripped out from the wall and the monster grabbed her, and she screamed. "Did you think you could hide from me? I Can hear the beating of your small little frighten heart, here, let me show you how it sounds....

Hunter Senses: Each 10% gives 5% on Perception skills. (Mastered – You can see in the dark if you had infrared vision and can hear sound waves that humans can not hear).

Nokoto Ayuka of the 7th riders of the East Wind, galloped as fast as he could, his horse whinnied hard in refusal but still did what its master wanted. It was a straight charge against the demon, a charge that would end its bloody reign of terror in the desert of China. The Naginata would sever his skull and his unlife would be ended. With a warrior scream he swung the pole-arm with all his skill and force and smashed through the demons futile defenses, and it hit right where Ayuka wanted... He turned and looked triumphantly at his defeated enemy, and froze. "Is that the best you can do human". the demon said, with half his head gone, he staggered, obviously gruesomely wounded, but it was all the demon needed to make his attack...

Corpse Resilience: Each 25% subtracts 1 point of damage from attacks. (Mastered – You'll be able to ignore damage completely by spending required amount of blood)

The Helipod flew at full speed over the forest, the Nosferatu was not getting away this time. It had taken the Special team six months to find this one, an old son of a bitch that had murdered dozens of families in the most grotesque fashions. This one would really feel it. It had changed into a wolf and tried to outrun them, futile, as no animal could outrun a helipod. Out of nowhere a massive winged monster landed on the windscreen, it roared in triumph and ripped out the door like scrap metal, its face a mouth of jagged teeth and eyes burning with red mist, the team had no where to run, it was futile against such a monster.

Bestial Form: You can either turn into a wolf or a big raven, when you raise it to 50% you can take on both forms (but not at the same time). (Mastered – You can take on a Nosferatu and Bat Hybrid Monstrous form).

The massed ranks of Templars in heavy armor got torn into pieces as the Nosferatu once again hit with the full force of his arm. The pure steel armor could not stand against the power of his claws and was torn to pieces like aluminum foil. The Templars had fear in their eyes as dozens lay behind the monster dead, as non of their protection helped. The Strigoi just laughed as he killed another two with a single swing of his arm...

Corpse Claws: Each 10% subtracts 1 point of armor in hand to hand combat. (Mastered: You can climb any kind of surface vertically and horizontally and gets 25% bonus on climbing).

INHERENT POWERS

Projectile Resilience: Bullets, that are not high caliber (50 and up) only make half damage rounded down against the Nosferatu. Their bodies do not have working organs, and the shock on the tissue made by bullets are not as effective as the cutting of tissue.

Kings of the Dead: All Nosferatu can command the the dead that is not also Nosferatu with a small flick of his will. But if a dead is controlled by another Nosferatu, its a Contested PoW x5.

Unmovable: Hot and cold do not disturb the Nosferatu (if the heat generates fire then its very serious for the Nosferatu), and they can function normally in condition that would have killed a human – also they never tire from straining activity.

Not Dead Yet: Vampires cant be knocked out or otherwise get unconscious (if not a magical/holy power). And they will not be completely dead before either the heart is completely destroyed or the head is cut off. Otherwise the Nosferatu will awaken under the first New Moon with 1 hp and completely ravenous.

Night-Eye: So long as its at least moonlight outside you can see as if it was almost daytime.

Edited September 26, 2009 by KjetilKverndokken

[KjetilKverndokken]

Updated the teasers of the Nosferatu powers with flavor text :-).

[Trifletraxor]

Cool.

Now, if we happened to be on the human side, what are their weaknesses?

SGL.

[KjetilKverndokken]

Cool.

Now, if we happened to be on the human side, what are their weaknesses?

SGL.

Nice that you like it.

I will have some updates very soon with the two remaining factions (tomorrow I promise) and then I will go into detail how each faction deals with the Nosferatu problem. And its very different.

After that, I will go more into the Wastland, then the social dynamics of each faction and a teaser of one Vatican Realm settlement called St.Henrik.

And then some creatures

Oh, Nosferatu is created the same way as normal humans (normal campaign level is Concubia Nocte designed for), and then you put the Vampiric template over. I will go more into that on a later date.

[KjetilKverndokken]

The Commonwealth

The place of liberty and freedom for all, a cultural blend of the best humankind have to offer. The cutting edge of technology and the best protection there is. No political belief that does not tell of hate or religion is cut off and everyone is welcome. That is what the Commonwealth lets everybody believe anyway, the truth is that they are keeping an eye on everyone.

The Commonwealth is the smallest of the three major states, with about 67 million inhabitants, but they are far from inferior. In exact opposites to the Vatican Realm technology is not restricted but found in abundance.

The Steel, the name of the military force, is probably the most advanced in tactics and weapon arsenal of any state. Pulsrifles, railartillery, Gauss Shotguns, Powered Combat Armor, biocybernetic implants, AR Glasses, Neural networks and so forth. So why have they not conquered all opposition? The first is that the Nyx has almost endless supply of troops and the forces of necromancy, The Vatican have extremely high powered amounts of technology and what seems to be divine favor, and the Shogunate, well, they have the largest known human army and stuff like the Samurai Exoskeletons... And the Commonwealth does not seek to subjugate, only try to survive in a time of great darkness.

The Commonwealth have very few cities, and most live in the three arcologies where Utopia is the largest. Housing 20 million people inside its massive infrastructure thats goes as far down as it goes into the sky.

But the greatest advantage the Commonwealth has is its space program. A huge space arcology that have taken the better part of three hundred years to finish is orbiting Earth and have a population of 44 thousand people. Discussion regarding orbital strikes have been thought of, but the fear is that someone could sabotage it and direct it against the Commonwealth instead – for if they are something it is paranoid.

The three greatest weapons the Commonwealth have against the Nosferatu is:

Powered Combat Armor: It enhances speed and strength, and most of all it has incredible protection against all types of mundane attacks.

Gauss Shotguns: This is a type of minirailgun firing 60 caliber rounds that will blow the head of an elephant. The power of the shot does not only make most types of regular armor moot, but even the resilience of the undead cant cope with the share firepower it has. It largest drawback is that it jams often and it has limited ammo capacity.

Novanades: A Novanade is a grenade that generates an intense light when it explodes and also gives off shrapnel. Its extremely lethal towards the Nosferatu – but also very hard to make in large quantities, and therefor only top personnel has access to it and the prospect of making large intercontinental missiles with it is out of the question.

[Trifletraxor]

Sounds like the setting is coming nicely along!

SGL.

[KjetilKverndokken]

Sounds like the setting is coming nicely along!

SGL.

Like we say, sometimes: I bøtter og spann. and other times not at all. But it is progressing :-) I'll press to have a playtest in a few weeks to have an actual play posted to have something more ingame to show.

But next up is the Shogunate....

[KjetilKverndokken]

Update!

Concubia Nocte will be made as setting material only!

Rules may come as individual sample - this because many i know want to use Gurps 4E with it, so I'm not putting rules in the book.

So it has now an expanded audience.

Anyway, first setting playtest will be tomorrow: The players do not even know it yet ;-).

They will be Templars under the Vatican State in one of the north border towns in former Italy. They will have the opportunity to find out about something called the Cult of the Dead (more down the page), and find a way to root it out, which will end in a small horde of zombies erupting from the local graveyard.

Cult of the Dead: Is a cult of Nyx, or rather something the Nyxians have implanted into human culture, its a veneration of the concept of death. And those that have progressed far enough into the cult will be saved from the dead horde at the end of the world, also known as The Coming of the Long Night. A few of the cultist learns minor forms of Necromancy, but most are just desperate in trying to survive or looking for some sort of power over their fellow man. Very few Nosferatu's actually involve themselves much with the cults they have created, except when it is within their own border and can take in the worship toward themselves.

But the cults are very dangerous, most become fanatical after a few months in the cults, and those that are further in.. are unpredictable to say the least.

It is hard to spot Dead Cultist, as they also are called, as they seldom take their ways back to home, or to show among others, they are not stupid, and most of them are hardened survivors. The corruption they spread can be devastating toward a towns defenses, as when the enemy attacks, the gate might be opened ore a minor attack group assaults from the inside.

Most hope to be transformed into a Nosferatu themselves, most have their hopes crushed, and a few regret they ever joined the cult.

[KjetilKverndokken]

WoW, not checking this site for six months and the forum is all changed!

Anyway, Concubia Nocte have been on hold, and the reason for this is that my main setting is getting all its attention... And much back and forth with rules system (it almost went Gurps 4E) I voted BR, but with add ons, especially an very extended and more specialized skill list.

The game is called Brent Jord (Burned Earth) and a thread will be up soon - this is also something that I may even try to get up as a Monograph or just a self publishing with POD.

Concubia Nocte is not dead, and is back in BRP hands, but its on a small wait.

Cheers and look out for a new thread soon...