Long to Reign Over Us
Prologue
It was a cold morning in the March of 1947 when a reanimated...
Prologue
It was a cold morning in the March of 1947 when a reanimated...
Long to Reign Over Us (Promethean: the Created Quest)
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User Total EarthScorpion 4
Prologue
Long to Reign Over Us
Prologue
It was a cold morning in the March of 1947 when a reanimated corpse who went by the name of Victoria woke from a dream-filled slumber. After washing her face in ice-cold water, she headed outside to a frosty lawn to watch the sun rise.
The dawn's light stirred the alchemical reagents that made up her blood into life. Her heart beat faster. She sighed, rubbing her corpse-cold hands together. As the sun shone down on her, her flesh warmed. It made her feel more alive. Whenever she could, she tried to ensure she rose before dawn.
She was not quite two years old, if such a term applied to a creature such as her. The borrowed flesh she had been made from was certainly older than that of a two-year old child. Her mind was not a child's mind. And yet the her that thought these thoughts had been born on the 8th of May, 1945. That was why she was called Victoria. It was not the name of the dead woman who had previously inhabited this body. It was her name, and it suited her well enough.
Shaking her head, she headed back inside to prepare what food she had for breakfast. She was running low, but that was fine. She didn't intend to stay in this little town much longer. Victoria knew she had outstayed her welcome. She'd heard the whispers about the strange, unmarried woman. The rumours that she was some kind of troublemaker. The woman in the grocery store had muttered that she'd heard rumours that Victoria had tried to steal Claire's husband. Nonsense. She didn't even know a Claire.
But she knew why they were doing it.
Humans knew she wasn't meant to exist. They could somehow feel that she should be dead. They suspected her, rejected her. The world rejected her too. The house where she was staying was already suffering. It was crumbling, the soil turning sour, the plants dying.
No, time to move on. Before the mob came, with the torches and the pitchforks.
Those were her plans when she rose. Unfortunately, Fate was not so kind.
Information and Rules
This is a Promethean: the Created Quest. Yes, the rules have been extensively modified to work for Questing, and there have been setting hacks on top of it. Yes, the basis is Promethean 1e. Don't assume there's anything else in the shadows of the World of Darkness that isn't part of Promethean. Not all blood-drinking monsters are vampires. Understanding of the setting is not necessary, as a) Victoria will not act in ways that are a result of voter ignorance, and b) look, Promethean is a pretty niche game, so I'm not going to ask for extensive knowledge.
This quest is not going to be one continuous story. There are going to be time skips, where the voter base gets to decide what she tries to do in that period. Expect in-character downtime.
We'll be running off a d6 based system. When I ask you for a nd6 roll, roll n dice. 5+ is a success. Pretty simple, right? More will be explained later, as and when it's relevant.
What is a Promethean?
Prometheans are reanimated corpses, new minds created within a dead body using stolen divine fire. They are haunted by angels and demons, born from the same fire. Monsters stalk them. Some Prometheans are made by a mortal demiurge, who through obsession and genius has stolen fire from the gods, but most are made by other Prometheans.
Prometheans are more than mortal. They can eat almost anything. They're tougher than men and women. You have to hack them to pieces to kill them, and even then they can sometimes come back to life. Their alchemical flesh can reproduce many powers, and to that end they practice their refinements. Electricity heals their wounds.
Prometheans are less than mortal. The world rejects them, and wastelands form where they stay for too long. Mortals suffer the phenomenon called 'Disquiet' around them, instinctively turning against them - though the strong-willed are much more resilient. The Torment of Prometheus wracks them, driving them to madness when they're pushed beyond their limits - think of Frankenstein's monster driven to a rage by the torches of a mob. Sometimes the false flesh that makes them look mortal fails, and reveals the monster below. And fire burns them terribly - it's the surest way to kill one.
To that end, Prometheans seek to become human. Through self-growth, studying the world and harsh lessons, they purify the flame within themselves. It burns brighter. It burns stronger. And if they are determined and perhaps a bit lucky, the false soul within them becomes a human soul and they become mortal.
But there are other paths. Failed Prometheans are known as Pandorans, and they are horrifying monsters who seek to devour Prometheans for the tastes of power within. Some Prometheans embrace that tainted power, becoming the hundred-handed monsters striding away from humanity. And then there are the angels and devils that haunt the paths of the Prometheans, seeking to aid and harm them.
This quest is not going to be one continuous story. There are going to be time skips, where the voter base gets to decide what she tries to do in that period. Expect in-character downtime.
We'll be running off a d6 based system. When I ask you for a nd6 roll, roll n dice. 5+ is a success. Pretty simple, right? More will be explained later, as and when it's relevant.
What is a Promethean?
Prometheans are reanimated corpses, new minds created within a dead body using stolen divine fire. They are haunted by angels and demons, born from the same fire. Monsters stalk them. Some Prometheans are made by a mortal demiurge, who through obsession and genius has stolen fire from the gods, but most are made by other Prometheans.
Prometheans are more than mortal. They can eat almost anything. They're tougher than men and women. You have to hack them to pieces to kill them, and even then they can sometimes come back to life. Their alchemical flesh can reproduce many powers, and to that end they practice their refinements. Electricity heals their wounds.
Prometheans are less than mortal. The world rejects them, and wastelands form where they stay for too long. Mortals suffer the phenomenon called 'Disquiet' around them, instinctively turning against them - though the strong-willed are much more resilient. The Torment of Prometheus wracks them, driving them to madness when they're pushed beyond their limits - think of Frankenstein's monster driven to a rage by the torches of a mob. Sometimes the false flesh that makes them look mortal fails, and reveals the monster below. And fire burns them terribly - it's the surest way to kill one.
To that end, Prometheans seek to become human. Through self-growth, studying the world and harsh lessons, they purify the flame within themselves. It burns brighter. It burns stronger. And if they are determined and perhaps a bit lucky, the false soul within them becomes a human soul and they become mortal.
But there are other paths. Failed Prometheans are known as Pandorans, and they are horrifying monsters who seek to devour Prometheans for the tastes of power within. Some Prometheans embrace that tainted power, becoming the hundred-handed monsters striding away from humanity. And then there are the angels and devils that haunt the paths of the Prometheans, seeking to aid and harm them.
Character Sheet
Character Sheet
Name: Victoria
Lineage: ???
(More Coming As You Add It)
Name: Victoria
Lineage: ???
(More Coming As You Add It)
Character Generation
Character Generation
So, first you need to pick what kind of reanimated corpse she is. You have the choice of four kinds, each representing a particular take on the concept. In addition, two concepts are provided for each one. Write-ins are allowed, but I'll reject them if I feel they're not in line with the game.
Each background will come with an assortment of plot hooks and skills and the like. Don't worry about being screwed over by picking a "non-optimal" one - the intent is that they'll all wind up pretty similar in "power level". Instead, choose based on the genre and the feel of the story you want.
Questions
Unlike most quests, Long To Reign Over Us does not start at the start of Victoria's story. She was created on VE Day in 1945, but the story begins in 1947. She isn't shambling into the world as a raw amnesiac. Instead, she's already lived through a story. In this section of character generation, this is your chance to define who she's become from that raw character concept above.
These questions will, among other things, generate her initial progress through the Refinements and her Merits, as well as personality traits. We'll be using vote-weighted choices, and Victoria will act in line with the background you establish.
These questions are not definitive. They're here to try to prompt you into thinking about the character you're going to play. If you want to just describe her and what she's been doing in the year and a bit since she's been made, go ahead! I'm just trying to shape discussion and make it clear that the mechanics will arise from the character in this quest, not the other way around!
So, first you need to pick what kind of reanimated corpse she is. You have the choice of four kinds, each representing a particular take on the concept. In addition, two concepts are provided for each one. Write-ins are allowed, but I'll reject them if I feel they're not in line with the game.
Each background will come with an assortment of plot hooks and skills and the like. Don't worry about being screwed over by picking a "non-optimal" one - the intent is that they'll all wind up pretty similar in "power level". Instead, choose based on the genre and the feel of the story you want.
The story of Frankenstein and his monster is true. The creature still walks the earth, and he has made progeny. The Wretched are stitched together from many corpses. Yellow bile flows through their veins, making them choleric and ambitious. Some give up on trying to become human and revel in their rage, but others channel it to become the greatest of heroes.
They are often made from the best physical parts that their maker can acquire, but these are mismatched. They are seldom attractive conventionally, but their driven nature gives them a frightful allure. When the truth of their nature is revealed, then the stitches, the corpse pallor and the electrical contacts and bolts can be seen.
The Latter-Day Bride
Victoria's maker was the Monster himself. The first of the Wretched. He still roams the earth, and he has tried to make other Brides since his first, disastrous attempt. Victoria is just the latest, and she has heard his rambling, extemporised speeches. She knows he made her to try to capture the end of WW2, incarnate in flesh - and he considers her a failure.
Then came the monsters, and the row, and the firestorm, and the mob. She left beneath a storm-wracked sky as the building burned behind her. She doesn't know if the Monster still lives - but in her gut, she is certain that he's still out there. It's not him she's scared of, though. It's her elder 'sisters'. The true failures.
Keywords: Bride of Frankenstein, Well-Informed on the Promethean Condition, Sins of the Father
The Experiment
Dark things were happening towards the end of the war. Someone in the British Government had acquired some of Victor Frankenstein's notes. On a remote island in the north of Scotland, the Victory Project was working on something. Living weapon. Superhumans. A new man and a new woman. Adam and Eve.
Things went horribly right on the last day of the war, when the switches were thrown and the generator pumped tamed lightning into the sewn-together corpses. But their Eve woke in a mad, pain-filled rage and smashed her way out. She threw herself into the waters of the North Sea, and the body was never found. Their Adam became a monster, shedding his skin and becoming something they had no name for. Officially, the experiments were a failure and were shut down now that the Germans were defeated.
Officially.
Keywords: First Of Her Line, Made from Perfect Physical Specimens, Hunted by the Military
They are often made from the best physical parts that their maker can acquire, but these are mismatched. They are seldom attractive conventionally, but their driven nature gives them a frightful allure. When the truth of their nature is revealed, then the stitches, the corpse pallor and the electrical contacts and bolts can be seen.
The Latter-Day Bride
Victoria's maker was the Monster himself. The first of the Wretched. He still roams the earth, and he has tried to make other Brides since his first, disastrous attempt. Victoria is just the latest, and she has heard his rambling, extemporised speeches. She knows he made her to try to capture the end of WW2, incarnate in flesh - and he considers her a failure.
Then came the monsters, and the row, and the firestorm, and the mob. She left beneath a storm-wracked sky as the building burned behind her. She doesn't know if the Monster still lives - but in her gut, she is certain that he's still out there. It's not him she's scared of, though. It's her elder 'sisters'. The true failures.
Keywords: Bride of Frankenstein, Well-Informed on the Promethean Condition, Sins of the Father
The Experiment
Dark things were happening towards the end of the war. Someone in the British Government had acquired some of Victor Frankenstein's notes. On a remote island in the north of Scotland, the Victory Project was working on something. Living weapon. Superhumans. A new man and a new woman. Adam and Eve.
Things went horribly right on the last day of the war, when the switches were thrown and the generator pumped tamed lightning into the sewn-together corpses. But their Eve woke in a mad, pain-filled rage and smashed her way out. She threw herself into the waters of the North Sea, and the body was never found. Their Adam became a monster, shedding his skin and becoming something they had no name for. Officially, the experiments were a failure and were shut down now that the Germans were defeated.
Officially.
Keywords: First Of Her Line, Made from Perfect Physical Specimens, Hunted by the Military
The myths say that Pygmalion made a woman from marble, and the gods raised her to life in recognition of his virtue. But the Muses were never made from stone, and their bright red blood burns with the fire that Prometheus stole. Their sanguine nature leaves them courageous and passionate, but also prone to fixation and obsession. The ones among them who discard the search for humanity might have inspired many of the myths of vampires.
A corpse that would become a Galeteid must be flawless, undamaged and perfect. Only such a vessel will accept the stolen fire of the gods. Alas, such fire was not meant for mortals and so the true nature of a Muse is a creature of colourless artifice; ebony, ivory and marble.
The Beloved
Victoria's body wasn't nobody. It was somebody. She had a family. She had children. She had money, and lots of it. And then her maker… acquired the body. Not legally. Maybe they murdered her. Maybe they 'just' stole the body before anyone realised she was dead. After all, she wasn't a saint. She liked her morning pick-me up. And only poor people are drunks; the minor aristocracy are merely inebriated before noon.
But now there's a bereaved family looking for a wife and mother. A family with no small amount of resources and influence, fuelled by grief.
Keywords: Blends Into Society, Inherited Connections, Family Wants Her Back
The Angel-Marked
An angel whispers to her maker. Tells them to pick a woman to make a child. Ruins the woman's life. Tells them everything they need to do. Kisses her on the lips and tells her that she will do great and terrible things, just as her vision fades. Something of the angel has left itself with Victoria. She's wracked by visions that hover between ecstasy and madness. Her maker is scared of Victoria, tells her that the angel wore her form.
Only… sometimes angels and devils are very hard to tell apart.
Keywords: The Fire Burns Bright, Guardian Angel Or Possibly Devil, Slightly Mad
A corpse that would become a Galeteid must be flawless, undamaged and perfect. Only such a vessel will accept the stolen fire of the gods. Alas, such fire was not meant for mortals and so the true nature of a Muse is a creature of colourless artifice; ebony, ivory and marble.
The Beloved
Victoria's body wasn't nobody. It was somebody. She had a family. She had children. She had money, and lots of it. And then her maker… acquired the body. Not legally. Maybe they murdered her. Maybe they 'just' stole the body before anyone realised she was dead. After all, she wasn't a saint. She liked her morning pick-me up. And only poor people are drunks; the minor aristocracy are merely inebriated before noon.
But now there's a bereaved family looking for a wife and mother. A family with no small amount of resources and influence, fuelled by grief.
Keywords: Blends Into Society, Inherited Connections, Family Wants Her Back
The Angel-Marked
An angel whispers to her maker. Tells them to pick a woman to make a child. Ruins the woman's life. Tells them everything they need to do. Kisses her on the lips and tells her that she will do great and terrible things, just as her vision fades. Something of the angel has left itself with Victoria. She's wracked by visions that hover between ecstasy and madness. Her maker is scared of Victoria, tells her that the angel wore her form.
Only… sometimes angels and devils are very hard to tell apart.
Keywords: The Fire Burns Bright, Guardian Angel Or Possibly Devil, Slightly Mad
Eldest of the known Promethean lineages, the Osirans claim that Osiris was first of their line. Osiris, murdered and cut into many pieces; Osiris, restored to life. The humour of phlegm dominates them, leaving them dispassionate and cold. Water flows in their veins, infused with the essence of godhood. They find it hard to feel, and this sets them apart from humanity.
Just as it was for Osiris, so it is for his line. Their maker cuts the body into many pieces, and discards one, before sewing it back together. Then the body must be desiccated and bound and mummified. This is no small investment, which is one of the many reasons why the Osirans do not casually make more of themselves. Beneath the illusions, a dried corpse walks among the living.
The Willing Participant
What kind of woman would willingly let herself be murdered and cut apart, all to make an animated dessicated corpse? That's a question Victoria has to answer for herself - but the fact is, the woman whose body she was made from chose this path. She was a scholar, yes, and obsessed with the Egyptians. Maybe she thought that was the path to immortality.
Well, Victoria isn't that woman - though sometimes some of her memories creep in. She knows more about the occult and Egyptology than she should. And there's a nagging sense of doubt about that sense of belonging.
And then the first letter arrives. From a conspiracy that thinks it's addressing the former occupant of the body.
Keywords: Memories from the Past, Occult Knowledge, Web of Conspiracy.
The Computer
Victoria's creator stumbled into something bigger than they expected. They made their new child from a computer. Not a mechanical one, no - a maths graduate who had been working on a government project. That woman had a security clearance. That woman was working at Bletchley Park.
As a result, the government is very much interested in her location. And she's got criminal charges hanging over her head due to the way she vanished. Fortunately for her, Victoria might not have the woman's memories, but she has all her brains. She will need them.
Keywords: Exceptionally Intelligent, Problem Solver, Arrest Warrant With Her Face On It
Just as it was for Osiris, so it is for his line. Their maker cuts the body into many pieces, and discards one, before sewing it back together. Then the body must be desiccated and bound and mummified. This is no small investment, which is one of the many reasons why the Osirans do not casually make more of themselves. Beneath the illusions, a dried corpse walks among the living.
The Willing Participant
What kind of woman would willingly let herself be murdered and cut apart, all to make an animated dessicated corpse? That's a question Victoria has to answer for herself - but the fact is, the woman whose body she was made from chose this path. She was a scholar, yes, and obsessed with the Egyptians. Maybe she thought that was the path to immortality.
Well, Victoria isn't that woman - though sometimes some of her memories creep in. She knows more about the occult and Egyptology than she should. And there's a nagging sense of doubt about that sense of belonging.
And then the first letter arrives. From a conspiracy that thinks it's addressing the former occupant of the body.
Keywords: Memories from the Past, Occult Knowledge, Web of Conspiracy.
The Computer
Victoria's creator stumbled into something bigger than they expected. They made their new child from a computer. Not a mechanical one, no - a maths graduate who had been working on a government project. That woman had a security clearance. That woman was working at Bletchley Park.
As a result, the government is very much interested in her location. And she's got criminal charges hanging over her head due to the way she vanished. Fortunately for her, Victoria might not have the woman's memories, but she has all her brains. She will need them.
Keywords: Exceptionally Intelligent, Problem Solver, Arrest Warrant With Her Face On It
Men have made Golems since Ancient Babylon. They might coat them in mud and pretend that they are merely animate clay, but wizards and priests alike have desired a perfect slave. Black bile laden with the dark earth dominates their humours and leaves them melanchoic. It is said that Ishtar made the first of the Tammuz - and thus perhaps they are siblings to the Osirans, for some say Ishtar was an alias of Isis. Regardless, holy words are written - or branded - onto the Golems. They are made as slaves, but their instincts seek freedom.
A corpse that would become a new Tammuz must be buried deep underground, and that same clay coats them. They all must crawl from the grave. Sometimes they resemble Irish bog bodies, dyed with tannins. Others are mud-slick and never dry.
The Revolutionary
Victoria is a product of hardy northern soils, and in her heart burns the faint embers of the passions of the woman who it used to belong to. She hums the Internationale when she doesn't pay attention. She speaks Russian as well as English. She has a certain familiarity with cryptography.
She thinks she might have been a communist. Maybe even a Russian spy. Is that so bad? Her head says yes, but her heart isn't so sure. And it certainly surges in her chest when she sees suffering and she sees the rich in a country which still has rationing.
Keywords: Surging Compassion, Strange Knowledge, Mysterious Past
The Foreigner
Victoria's maker wasn't a local, and neither was her body. Perhaps they came from the Indian colonies. Perhaps from South Africa. Perhaps they even were fleeing the Nazis. Regardless, the previous inhabitant of her flesh met her death on strange soil, was buried in strange soil, and from strange soil she burst forth. The land whispers to her, welcomes her as an adopted daughter, even as her presence poisons it.
And what was her maker fleeing? Something dangerous enough that they'd cast off their roots and run for a land where they were eternally a stranger. Whatever is after them, it's coming after her. And it won't stop until she's dead.
Keywords: An Outsider, The Land Speaks To Her, Hunted By Something
A corpse that would become a new Tammuz must be buried deep underground, and that same clay coats them. They all must crawl from the grave. Sometimes they resemble Irish bog bodies, dyed with tannins. Others are mud-slick and never dry.
The Revolutionary
Victoria is a product of hardy northern soils, and in her heart burns the faint embers of the passions of the woman who it used to belong to. She hums the Internationale when she doesn't pay attention. She speaks Russian as well as English. She has a certain familiarity with cryptography.
She thinks she might have been a communist. Maybe even a Russian spy. Is that so bad? Her head says yes, but her heart isn't so sure. And it certainly surges in her chest when she sees suffering and she sees the rich in a country which still has rationing.
Keywords: Surging Compassion, Strange Knowledge, Mysterious Past
The Foreigner
Victoria's maker wasn't a local, and neither was her body. Perhaps they came from the Indian colonies. Perhaps from South Africa. Perhaps they even were fleeing the Nazis. Regardless, the previous inhabitant of her flesh met her death on strange soil, was buried in strange soil, and from strange soil she burst forth. The land whispers to her, welcomes her as an adopted daughter, even as her presence poisons it.
And what was her maker fleeing? Something dangerous enough that they'd cast off their roots and run for a land where they were eternally a stranger. Whatever is after them, it's coming after her. And it won't stop until she's dead.
Keywords: An Outsider, The Land Speaks To Her, Hunted By Something
Questions
Unlike most quests, Long To Reign Over Us does not start at the start of Victoria's story. She was created on VE Day in 1945, but the story begins in 1947. She isn't shambling into the world as a raw amnesiac. Instead, she's already lived through a story. In this section of character generation, this is your chance to define who she's become from that raw character concept above.
These questions will, among other things, generate her initial progress through the Refinements and her Merits, as well as personality traits. We'll be using vote-weighted choices, and Victoria will act in line with the background you establish.
These questions are not definitive. They're here to try to prompt you into thinking about the character you're going to play. If you want to just describe her and what she's been doing in the year and a bit since she's been made, go ahead! I'm just trying to shape discussion and make it clear that the mechanics will arise from the character in this quest, not the other way around!
Victoria is a Promethean, a corpse animated with new life by the divine fire of creation. But someone made her. Who made her, and what are her foundational memories of them? What did they want her for? A bride? A daughter? Was she just something they had to do for their own Pilgrimage to become human? How does she feel about that early period?
[ ] Write-in (within the limits of your character generation choice)
In the autumn of 1945, she left her creator behind (or they lost her trail, if she was running from them). Why did she split from them? Did she part on good terms or was it rather more vitriolic?
[ ] Write-in (within the limits of your character generation choice)
[ ] Write-in (within the limits of your character generation choice)
In the autumn of 1945, she left her creator behind (or they lost her trail, if she was running from them). Why did she split from them? Did she part on good terms or was it rather more vitriolic?
[ ] Write-in (within the limits of your character generation choice)
In early 1946, she met a mortal who changed her life in some way. Who were they? What did they mean to her?
[ ] Write-in
Late in 1946, something hurt her deeply. Was it emotional or physical? Were the things that hurt her humans, Pandorans, another Promethean or something stranger?
[ ] Write-in
How is she fitting into the world? Is she poor or rich? If she has money, where does she acquire it? Does she try to work and seek gainful employment?
[ ] Write-in
[ ] Write-in
Late in 1946, something hurt her deeply. Was it emotional or physical? Were the things that hurt her humans, Pandorans, another Promethean or something stranger?
[ ] Write-in
How is she fitting into the world? Is she poor or rich? If she has money, where does she acquire it? Does she try to work and seek gainful employment?
[ ] Write-in
What does she look like when her disfigurements are hidden? How does she dress? What does that say about how she tries to depict herself to the world?
[ ] Write-in
What kind of woman does Victoria believe herself to be? If you asked her to describe herself, what would she say she was like?
[ ] Write-in
What is she actually like? How is she wrong about her self-opinion?
[ ] Write-in
[ ] Write-in
What kind of woman does Victoria believe herself to be? If you asked her to describe herself, what would she say she was like?
[ ] Write-in
What is she actually like? How is she wrong about her self-opinion?
[ ] Write-in
What is her better nature? What are her moral failings? Where will she rise above what she is, and where will she fall?
[ ] Provide an example of how she has risen above what she is.
[ ] Provide an example of how weakness of character has thwarted her.
How does she feel about mortals? Does she try to mingle, does she avoid them, or does she try to watch them from a distance? Why does she want to become mortal and what does she think she'll do when she's mortal?
[ ] Write-in
[ ] Provide an example of how she has risen above what she is.
[ ] Provide an example of how weakness of character has thwarted her.
How does she feel about mortals? Does she try to mingle, does she avoid them, or does she try to watch them from a distance? Why does she want to become mortal and what does she think she'll do when she's mortal?
[ ] Write-in
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[X] The Willing Participant
[X] Nigredo 1: Her creator was her original body's husband, on a shared quest of immortality. She volunteered to go first, or so he claimed, and he spent the time after her awakening desperately trying to rekindle her feelings for him.
[X] Nigredo 2: Heartbroken after a long efforts with limited success, he simply fled in the night one day, unable to live with her familiar features and unfamiliar mannerisms any longer.
[X] Albedo 1: A runaway teenager from an abusive home, who sought refuge with her for a time by chance. For a while, she had family again.
[X] Albedo 2: But when the teen's family tracked her down at last, Victoria was viciously beaten and left for dead, amidst vile accusations.
[X] Albedo 3: She takes the role of an reclusive author, travelling from place to place for inspiration. Most of her money however, stems from the accounts held by her creator and the original body, despite his disappearance, the checks keep working, and she has a modest amount of wealth between her intermittent work and her creator.
[X] Citrinas 1: A severe looking woman in her thirties, dressing in dark, conservative clothes, looking much like a stereotypical teacher.
[X] Citrinas 2: Serious, brilliant and well organized.
[X] Citrinas 3: Kind, meddlesome and prone to self justification after acting on an impulse. While she makes all possible efforts to adhere to the persona of her previous self, when put under pressure, inattentive or conflicted, her true personality comes through.
[X] Rubedo 1: Kindness, she reaches out to help others even if they would not appreciate or know of her aid.
[X] Rubedo 2: She continues to live a lie, wearing someone else's face, and bending to the expectations of others.
[x] Rubedo 3: She watches from a distance, wanting to be able to live her own life rather than borrowing a dead woman's.
Probably a little halfassed, but doing this from mobile is a little awkward
[X] Nigredo 1: Her creator was her original body's husband, on a shared quest of immortality. She volunteered to go first, or so he claimed, and he spent the time after her awakening desperately trying to rekindle her feelings for him.
[X] Nigredo 2: Heartbroken after a long efforts with limited success, he simply fled in the night one day, unable to live with her familiar features and unfamiliar mannerisms any longer.
[X] Albedo 1: A runaway teenager from an abusive home, who sought refuge with her for a time by chance. For a while, she had family again.
[X] Albedo 2: But when the teen's family tracked her down at last, Victoria was viciously beaten and left for dead, amidst vile accusations.
[X] Albedo 3: She takes the role of an reclusive author, travelling from place to place for inspiration. Most of her money however, stems from the accounts held by her creator and the original body, despite his disappearance, the checks keep working, and she has a modest amount of wealth between her intermittent work and her creator.
[X] Citrinas 1: A severe looking woman in her thirties, dressing in dark, conservative clothes, looking much like a stereotypical teacher.
[X] Citrinas 2: Serious, brilliant and well organized.
[X] Citrinas 3: Kind, meddlesome and prone to self justification after acting on an impulse. While she makes all possible efforts to adhere to the persona of her previous self, when put under pressure, inattentive or conflicted, her true personality comes through.
[X] Rubedo 1: Kindness, she reaches out to help others even if they would not appreciate or know of her aid.
[X] Rubedo 2: She continues to live a lie, wearing someone else's face, and bending to the expectations of others.
[x] Rubedo 3: She watches from a distance, wanting to be able to live her own life rather than borrowing a dead woman's.
Probably a little halfassed, but doing this from mobile is a little awkward
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
I did not expect to write 'Victoria, The Lonely Socialist Golem' when I got up this morning.
The Revolutionary
[X] Nigredo 1 -Victoria is a Promethean, a corpse animated with new life by the divine fire of creation. But someone made her. Who made her, and what are her foundational memories of them? What did they want her for? A bride? A daughter? Was she just something they had to do for their own Pilgrimage to become human? How does she feel about that early period?
She was made as an assistant, a fellow Revolutionary. She still burns with the same fervor her creator gave her. The revolutionary vanguard, selfless slaves to the betterment of the masses, doomed to selflessly struggle for the rights of all until the day comes. She knows she is a slave, but that makes her no different than the millions of downtrodden workers who toil endlessly in the farms and factories of industry. She knows they will hate her, but that her cause is just, and at the end, even if they do not thank her, she will know she has worked for the good of all.
[X] Nigredo 2 -In the autumn of 1945, she left her creator behind (or they lost her trail, if she was running from them). Why did she split from them? Did she part on good terms or was it rather more vitriolic?
It was a bittersweet parting. The Disquiet had grown too strong. The police, MI5, someone was coming for them. Or for her creator, at least. They left an obvious trail to chase, leaving Victoria hidden, drawing off the chasers so that Victoria could remain in the UK and continue their work. She does not know where they have gone, and no attempts at contact have been answered.
[X] Albedo 1 -In early 1946, she met a mortal who changed her life in some way. Who were they? What did they mean to her?
Alfonso de Cristo, Italian Socialist, was the first true friend she'd had. He had not turned away from her when he saw through her illusions, telling her that her and her creator's dedication to the cause was worth more than any fears he might feel from her unnatural state. He taught her that it was possible to have true friends, and even lovers among the mortal world. Their relationship was not long, he had to flee the police himself, but he promised to return when he could, and she knew he was sincere. He gives her hope. Not just that he might come back, but that he might not be the only one who could see her as more than a monster.
[X] Albedo 2 - Late in 1946, something hurt her deeply. Was it emotional or physical? Were the things that hurt her humans, Pandorans, another Promethean or something stranger?
An encounter with another Promethean. It did not go happily. They were mostly mad, driven, wild. Her hopeful early contacts quickly became a desperate flight, as the other tried to destroy her. She escaped and broke contact, but not without wounds that took weeks to heal, and a newfound fear of any new Promethean she does not know well first.
[X] Albedo 3- How is she fitting into the world? Is she poor or rich? If she has money, where does she acquire it? Does she try to work and seek gainful employment?
Not much. Her creator left some resources, and she has made some via work, but the life of the People's Vanguard is hardly one of vast wealth. She works not just to keep her sense of the workers and proletariat, but to keep from having to tap her small reserves as well.
[X] Citrinas 1 - What does she look like when her disfigurements are hidden? How does she dress? What does that say about how she tries to depict herself to the world?
She has an array of clothes of varying quality to blend in to many places, but usually dresses like a worker, as is only fitting. Her skin is slightly swarthy, features broad and Slavic, a mixture of southern Russia and the steppes. She tries to keep herself anchored in the world of the worker, always appearing slightly worn or dirty from productive work.
[X] Citrinas 2 -What kind of woman does Victoria believe herself to be? If you asked her to describe herself, what would she say she was like?
She is the People's Vanguard, tireless worker for the rights of Man and those crushed under the heel of the powerful and wealthy. She would almost happily call herself a slave, then explain she was a slave to the cause. It is literally her reason for being.
[X] Citrinas 2 - What is she actually like? How is she wrong about her self-opinion?
She has spent most of the year since her creator left doing her best to hide the fear... the terror at being alone, a rootless monster with few friends, toiling in loneliness for a cause that even the beneficiaries of will never truly love her for. She is only sometimes even willing to admit that fear, preferring it well-suppressed and smothered under her work. She clings to the cause of the worker not just because of why she was made, but because it gives her something to cling to, when the empty, lonely nights press in close. It has been too long, too many months since Alfonso or anyone helped her feel anything else.
[X] Rubedo 1 - What is her better nature? What are her moral failings? Where will she rise above what she is, and where will she fall?
[X] Provide an example of how she has risen above what she is.
One day, when working with the local Socialist Party outside a plant that had gone on strike, she left the rally well before it was over to help a sick worker home. She felt somewhat guilty for leaving, but she could not look away when the obviously sick father had to be helped to his home by he wife and children. She stayed with them for the rest of the day, running errands, cleaning, doing a host of vital-but-put-off repairs to their crumbling rowhouse, just... actually directly helping a worker. The family remains one of her few real friends. She felt better when she realized what she'd done, and shrugged off the irritated questions of the Party leaders on her return. Her compassion is not just for the cause, but the people in it, and she tries to remember that.
[X] Provide an example of how weakness of character has thwarted her.
She has worked with many Socialist and Communist groups... but the Cold War is looming, and this is becoming harder and harder to do. Even absent her Disquiet, suspicion and dark glances are increasing. She was offered a chance to be the lead speaker at a Socialist rally three months ago, her intelligence and dedication overcoming her uncanny nature for a moment... but she retreated, asking someone else to take her place at the lectern. Her fears, especially of another Promethean noticing her in so public a role, forced her to abdicate her cause then, and she has wondered if she has the courage of her convictions since.
[X] How does she feel about mortals? Does she try to mingle, does she avoid them, or does she try to watch them from a distance? Why does she want to become mortal and what does she think she'll do when she's mortal?
She mingles, but feels alone in the crowd. She wants to become mortal, badly. She wants to see the vindication of her cause and her work, but even more so, she wants to stop feeling alone and afraid, forced to move so often to avoid the Disquiet she spreads that she cannot lay down roots or make deep friendships. When she has finally become mortal... a life, peace, a home that is truly home, and not just another temporary refuge that falls apart just from her being there. She doesn't even care what her work will be, just that it will not be alone anymore.
The Revolutionary
[X] Nigredo 1 -Victoria is a Promethean, a corpse animated with new life by the divine fire of creation. But someone made her. Who made her, and what are her foundational memories of them? What did they want her for? A bride? A daughter? Was she just something they had to do for their own Pilgrimage to become human? How does she feel about that early period?
She was made as an assistant, a fellow Revolutionary. She still burns with the same fervor her creator gave her. The revolutionary vanguard, selfless slaves to the betterment of the masses, doomed to selflessly struggle for the rights of all until the day comes. She knows she is a slave, but that makes her no different than the millions of downtrodden workers who toil endlessly in the farms and factories of industry. She knows they will hate her, but that her cause is just, and at the end, even if they do not thank her, she will know she has worked for the good of all.
[X] Nigredo 2 -In the autumn of 1945, she left her creator behind (or they lost her trail, if she was running from them). Why did she split from them? Did she part on good terms or was it rather more vitriolic?
It was a bittersweet parting. The Disquiet had grown too strong. The police, MI5, someone was coming for them. Or for her creator, at least. They left an obvious trail to chase, leaving Victoria hidden, drawing off the chasers so that Victoria could remain in the UK and continue their work. She does not know where they have gone, and no attempts at contact have been answered.
[X] Albedo 1 -In early 1946, she met a mortal who changed her life in some way. Who were they? What did they mean to her?
Alfonso de Cristo, Italian Socialist, was the first true friend she'd had. He had not turned away from her when he saw through her illusions, telling her that her and her creator's dedication to the cause was worth more than any fears he might feel from her unnatural state. He taught her that it was possible to have true friends, and even lovers among the mortal world. Their relationship was not long, he had to flee the police himself, but he promised to return when he could, and she knew he was sincere. He gives her hope. Not just that he might come back, but that he might not be the only one who could see her as more than a monster.
[X] Albedo 2 - Late in 1946, something hurt her deeply. Was it emotional or physical? Were the things that hurt her humans, Pandorans, another Promethean or something stranger?
An encounter with another Promethean. It did not go happily. They were mostly mad, driven, wild. Her hopeful early contacts quickly became a desperate flight, as the other tried to destroy her. She escaped and broke contact, but not without wounds that took weeks to heal, and a newfound fear of any new Promethean she does not know well first.
[X] Albedo 3- How is she fitting into the world? Is she poor or rich? If she has money, where does she acquire it? Does she try to work and seek gainful employment?
Not much. Her creator left some resources, and she has made some via work, but the life of the People's Vanguard is hardly one of vast wealth. She works not just to keep her sense of the workers and proletariat, but to keep from having to tap her small reserves as well.
[X] Citrinas 1 - What does she look like when her disfigurements are hidden? How does she dress? What does that say about how she tries to depict herself to the world?
She has an array of clothes of varying quality to blend in to many places, but usually dresses like a worker, as is only fitting. Her skin is slightly swarthy, features broad and Slavic, a mixture of southern Russia and the steppes. She tries to keep herself anchored in the world of the worker, always appearing slightly worn or dirty from productive work.
[X] Citrinas 2 -What kind of woman does Victoria believe herself to be? If you asked her to describe herself, what would she say she was like?
She is the People's Vanguard, tireless worker for the rights of Man and those crushed under the heel of the powerful and wealthy. She would almost happily call herself a slave, then explain she was a slave to the cause. It is literally her reason for being.
[X] Citrinas 2 - What is she actually like? How is she wrong about her self-opinion?
She has spent most of the year since her creator left doing her best to hide the fear... the terror at being alone, a rootless monster with few friends, toiling in loneliness for a cause that even the beneficiaries of will never truly love her for. She is only sometimes even willing to admit that fear, preferring it well-suppressed and smothered under her work. She clings to the cause of the worker not just because of why she was made, but because it gives her something to cling to, when the empty, lonely nights press in close. It has been too long, too many months since Alfonso or anyone helped her feel anything else.
[X] Rubedo 1 - What is her better nature? What are her moral failings? Where will she rise above what she is, and where will she fall?
[X] Provide an example of how she has risen above what she is.
One day, when working with the local Socialist Party outside a plant that had gone on strike, she left the rally well before it was over to help a sick worker home. She felt somewhat guilty for leaving, but she could not look away when the obviously sick father had to be helped to his home by he wife and children. She stayed with them for the rest of the day, running errands, cleaning, doing a host of vital-but-put-off repairs to their crumbling rowhouse, just... actually directly helping a worker. The family remains one of her few real friends. She felt better when she realized what she'd done, and shrugged off the irritated questions of the Party leaders on her return. Her compassion is not just for the cause, but the people in it, and she tries to remember that.
[X] Provide an example of how weakness of character has thwarted her.
She has worked with many Socialist and Communist groups... but the Cold War is looming, and this is becoming harder and harder to do. Even absent her Disquiet, suspicion and dark glances are increasing. She was offered a chance to be the lead speaker at a Socialist rally three months ago, her intelligence and dedication overcoming her uncanny nature for a moment... but she retreated, asking someone else to take her place at the lectern. Her fears, especially of another Promethean noticing her in so public a role, forced her to abdicate her cause then, and she has wondered if she has the courage of her convictions since.
[X] How does she feel about mortals? Does she try to mingle, does she avoid them, or does she try to watch them from a distance? Why does she want to become mortal and what does she think she'll do when she's mortal?
She mingles, but feels alone in the crowd. She wants to become mortal, badly. She wants to see the vindication of her cause and her work, but even more so, she wants to stop feeling alone and afraid, forced to move so often to avoid the Disquiet she spreads that she cannot lay down roots or make deep friendships. When she has finally become mortal... a life, peace, a home that is truly home, and not just another temporary refuge that falls apart just from her being there. She doesn't even care what her work will be, just that it will not be alone anymore.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
See, I've been trying to write up an entry for the Experiment, but the fundamental issue is that the established timeline completely skullfucks the story I'd come up: namely, Victoria sprinting full-tilt for the Western Front so she could fulfill her purpose as the Perfect Soldier, getting bogged down in German-occupied France, and trying to team up with the local French Resistance via dead drops and other indirect means (to avoid exposing herself to possible German spies among the resistance), initially to curry enough favor with them that they'd help her get past the blockades.
Then, all her plans get derailed by the arrival of a Centimanus who's convinced that the World Wars are a sign that humanity is taking the final steps on its age-old journey toward "perfection" (measured by him as the complete destruction of all order, possibly ending with the universe itself being dissolved into Flux) and starts trying to strengthen the Nazis' position in France - and thus prolong the war - by destroying Allied assets in the region. Cue a months-long struggle between the two of them, with the Hundred-Handed "visionary" breaking some of the harsh truths of the Promethean condition to Victoria in the most psychologically harmful way possible, trying to convince her of his own belief that the Created are meant to be heralds of disorder and destruction.
Victoria doesn't handle it well, especially as her Wasteland starts to ravage the land and a few of her older contacts start succumbing to Disquiet: her self-image as a Glorious British Soldier fractures under the weight of her enemy's constant psychological warfare, and when she finally brings him down, it's because she had a psychotic break and tore him apart with her bare hands - at the low, low cost of multiple human hostages getting eaten alive by the Freak's pet Pandorans, several of whom were either Resistance members or relatives of the same.
She retreats into the wilderness about two weeks before the Allies crush the Vichy government, seeking to escape the mess she'd made. Cue the game starting shortly after her return to civilization, with Victoria struggling to hold onto her nationalist/idealist beliefs and find a new cause to follow, while haunted by the fear that her failure back in Paris is damning proof that she doesn't deserve to be treated as anything more than a monster.
... Could we roll back her creation by ~1 year or so?
Then, all her plans get derailed by the arrival of a Centimanus who's convinced that the World Wars are a sign that humanity is taking the final steps on its age-old journey toward "perfection" (measured by him as the complete destruction of all order, possibly ending with the universe itself being dissolved into Flux) and starts trying to strengthen the Nazis' position in France - and thus prolong the war - by destroying Allied assets in the region. Cue a months-long struggle between the two of them, with the Hundred-Handed "visionary" breaking some of the harsh truths of the Promethean condition to Victoria in the most psychologically harmful way possible, trying to convince her of his own belief that the Created are meant to be heralds of disorder and destruction.
Victoria doesn't handle it well, especially as her Wasteland starts to ravage the land and a few of her older contacts start succumbing to Disquiet: her self-image as a Glorious British Soldier fractures under the weight of her enemy's constant psychological warfare, and when she finally brings him down, it's because she had a psychotic break and tore him apart with her bare hands - at the low, low cost of multiple human hostages getting eaten alive by the Freak's pet Pandorans, several of whom were either Resistance members or relatives of the same.
She retreats into the wilderness about two weeks before the Allies crush the Vichy government, seeking to escape the mess she'd made. Cue the game starting shortly after her return to civilization, with Victoria struggling to hold onto her nationalist/idealist beliefs and find a new cause to follow, while haunted by the fear that her failure back in Paris is damning proof that she doesn't deserve to be treated as anything more than a monster.
... Could we roll back her creation by ~1 year or so?
deadcrystal
Slaaneshi Cultist
- Location
- The Warp
Well I don't think I've ever seen any Promethean fiction so I'm kind of interested in this. Still thinking re: the vote, but...
I like The Experiment for the interesting things First of Her Line brings up.
Not...actually a fan of either of the two Galatean options.
The Willing Participant is an neat one as well, because she isn't that person. She isn't even a person.
And I like both of the Tammuz options.
idk yet.
If anyone can convince me of the opportunities of one origin over the other I'd be interested in seeing the arguments.
I like The Experiment for the interesting things First of Her Line brings up.
Not...actually a fan of either of the two Galatean options.
The Willing Participant is an neat one as well, because she isn't that person. She isn't even a person.
And I like both of the Tammuz options.
idk yet.
If anyone can convince me of the opportunities of one origin over the other I'd be interested in seeing the arguments.
No, I'm afraid not.
See, one of the thematic elements I've chosen to go for is the fact that, despite she looks like an adult, she missed the entire war. She's exploring a world where everyone else has been through something that she missed. She has to pretend she lived through something that everyone else takes as given.
(Also, if she wasn't made on VE Day, she wouldn't be Victoria any more)
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
I can see why that might be an interesting narrative hook to go through. Thing is, every last one of the potential characters offered here are going to have the exact same problem. None of them experienced the war either. That narrative hook's staying no matter who we choose.
The problem is that without at least some encounter with the War, it doesn't feel like the Experiment has anything that makes it an interesting choice. I'm not arguing that she should have been a Golden Age superhero, or something: the Victoria I wrote up was basically a self-righteous urban terrorist who killed the wives and children of Nazi officers 'for the cause'.
Then she had the underlying psychological paradigm she had such faith in properly tested, and when she reached the end of her rope? Instead of rising up like the heroic paragon she was so sure her creators had made, she just exploded with rage and hatred. When the hostages started dying, she knew it was happening, and in that moment, she legitimately didn't care, because hurting the enemy felt better than saving innocent lives would. The Centimanus basically won the moral argument right then and there, and Victoria knows that.
The story you'd tell there is about what amounts to a child soldier trying to rebuild her self-image and build a functional system of internal morality, all while being haunted by the belief that right now, she really is just a hypocritical monster that enjoys killing. And just like your option, she didn't fight in the war either, because she got so worked up chasing after the Centimanus that by the time he was gone, she wasn't in any shape to keep fighting and the conflict was basically already over.
Unfortunately, the only two options I can see for a "soldier Promethean" who was apparently created as some sort of retarded victory lap for the WW2 British government is either a malfunctioning Terminator that instinctively maims people when surprised (in which case the zeal and fire of the Frankenstein Lineage is going completely to waste, and they should probably be an Osiran or a Tammuz or something), or a Promethean Hiroo Onoda who still thinks the war is going on... somehow, while they're really just slaughtering random Germans and Italians (in which case we either roleplay as TF2's Soldier and go on wacky manslaughter misadventures, or things get really dark, really uncomfortable, and every vote is desperately struggling to have us not be a borderline serial killer anymore. I don't think you'd be okay with writing the former). What were you picturing? Because I can't think of anything good for the Experiment within the established framework.
... but the Experiment isn't a soldier. If that was the point, she'd be "The Soldier". Conceptually she's part of the core Frankenstein's Monster concept, stripped of much of the rest of the Promethean setting. She was made on a remote Scottish laboratory, she rampaged and broke free on the day she was "born", and swam to shore. Now she's loose, and while the project that made her is officially shut down, it never officially existed in the first place which means that "officially" doesn't count for much. Hell, "Hunted by the Military" was one of her explicit keywords.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Strypgia
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
... Then I guess there was never any reason to bother with it in the first place. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't seem to have a coherent structure to it - it sounds like you wanted to have a "first of the line", Victor-in-his-laboratory thing, decided it should be a military project, then completely shut down all of the plot threads the average writer would get from "product of a secret WWII military experiment to create super-soldiers" for deeply personal reasons.
I don't suppose I could try rewriting it as the product of a poorly-supervised "experimental research" team in... fuck it, I don't know, Il Duche's Italy, maybe, to avoid the stereotype of Nazi mad science? Some idiotic plan to make an elite squad of living weapons that they thought would somehow let them turn the tide, which ended up with - let's say two or three successes who scattered while their Pandoran "siblings" murdered the research team? Instead of "perfect physical specimens", have the bonus be that all of the products of the experiment, Created and Mockery alike, share thoughts and memories while at rest, providing Victoria with a tiny leg up on her Pilgrimage as she absorbs insight from her Promethean siblings and giving her borderline XCOM squadsight when she and her fellows work in close proximity, while the problem is that she's also hooked up to at least one Sublimatus and a number of hungry Torch-Born, who can instinctively sense her presence? Write up something where the big event in her past involved a temporary alliance with one of the other 'successes' to deal with a jumped-up mafioso who managed to track down records of the original experiment and wanted his very own pet super-soldier? Maybe have one of the siblings succumb to Centimanus from exposure to the thoughts of their Pandorans/Sublimati "siblings", and try to convince the rest to follow suit?
I'm sorry, but I'm just trying to cudgel this into something I could write. After my Promethean homebrew was flatly ignored back in the General WW Discussion thread, I'd been working to try and come up with something for this, and...
Because the point is that it's a failed experiment. It took too long, it's too late, and the only reason they managed to successfully make a Promethean was that they had the right mix of insanity, frustration, obsession and a refusal to give up when it's sensible.
It wouldn't have worked if they'd just had Victor Frankenstein's notes. You can't make a Promethean by following formulae. It's madmen in a Scottish castle messing around with the bastardised offspring of Victorian theories, medieval alchemy and 1940s Big Science. They knew for a fact that there had to be a way to make it work, because they knew it had to be possible, but it just wouldn't work.
And then when it finally works, they're too late and the war's over, their success escapes, and they've just got a failed monster captive - and their superiors won't understand. Not unless they can recapture the success.
"The Experiment" is about the classic Frankenstein experience of being an escaped lab monster. It's the sort of thing that shows up in genre movies all the time. Of course the military is involved, given the timeline. It's not about being Promethean Captain America.
That would no doubt be an interesting game, but it's not this game. Victoria was made on VE Day, and that's a fundamental conceit.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
I kind of know that. It's Demiurge 101. You need to get sufficiently far out of your gourd that you punch a hole in the universe and grasp hold of the Divine Fire out of sheer NEED for it to work.
My disagreement with the Experiment as written is that there's no actual hook for me to dig into without ignoring a significant portion of it. Having the military be responsible, as opposed to, say, a small band of MENSA people who got really obsessive over helping the war effort AND proving their pet theories about Lamarck right, doesn't actually add anything to the Experiment other than making sure her enemies will be unusually well-armed and well-connected. You could totally replace it with the MENSA people rendering down a "defective" sibling of ours to make clones that they send out after us and get similar results.
Hence why the thrust of my post was about "hey, could I do this altered version, where we largely ditch the military aspect in favor of something that I see potential in, and thus can actually write a vote for?" Please answer my question, because I'd really like if I could actually take part in your "narrative chargen" instead of voting for clean-as-the-driven-snow RomCom Commie Girl out of sheer resignation and praying the character improves as we play.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
I'm trying to picture what sort of cartoon has Victoria the Lonesome Socialist Golem in the cast, and just going @_@.
What strikes you as cartoonish? I'm not exactly averse to altering it.
Okay, glimpse behind the curtain here.
A rogue, officially shut-down branch of the British military with their hands on the character's sublimatus "twin brother", Frankenstein's notes, and very clear potential to become a Hunter-esque conspiracy based out of a remote Scottish castle is basically the point of this background. All these backgrounds - all of them - come with these kinds of major plot-hooks part of them. Every single background has a "disadvantage" similar in scale to it. Yes, this one has the military, but the others are all just as "bad". Because the point of these backgrounds is to provide plot hooks and story-overarching recurring villains.
That's why the Willing Participant is blundering through the world when there's a powerful cult which the previous occupant of her body was a part of that thinks she's the same woman. That's why the Computer worked at Bletchley Park and so there's an arrest warrant out for her because the previous inhabitant of her body knew things the government really, really doesn't want getting out. That's why the Angel-Touched is a little mad and is doomed to be caught up in weird Pyros phenomena. That's why the Foreigner is hunted by something from overseas that got her creator fleeing it to England. That's why the Latter-Day Bride is caught up in the entire Frankenstein's Monster and the Bride plot, and that means the Bride will be looking for her - and Verney is an asshole too.
I'd also like to point out that your idea of having MENSA involved has the fundamental problem that... uh, MENSA isn't set up until 1946.
So, sure. You can totally make whatever background you want for a Frankenstein, as long as it obeys the rules of:
- Made on VE Day
- Comes with significant plot attachment.
- "Feels" right (which is, unfortunately, very vague)
(I must confess, I don't really understand your issue with the Experiment or why you think it's shutting off plot hooks, when the entire point is that they're a dieselpunk Hammer Horror kinda thing on the run from the military, so I'm kind of having problems grasping what you want.)
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
Can't speak for @Broken25, but I guess what cheesed my onions a bit was that I felt like her "moral failing" was a bit weaksauce. Like, my idea was a Victoria reeling after her (equally-unsavory, to be honest) nationalistic pride and hubris was brutally torn down; she had her Heart of Darkness, and she failed, and now she's going after the New Dawn with both hands because she's terrified of her inner wrath/lack of discipline and thinks Humanity is the only way she can feel like a good person and not a blood-soaked maniac playing pretend.
To me, that prompt should have been a chance to give Victoria a bit of a Byronic twist, establish some dark inner failing or desire that could destroy her. Mind you, the more I type, the more I'm kind of okay with your writeup, since that bit about her wussing out of a speech implies her 'fear' threatens her own idealism, which works.
I guess it's just that I was really looking forward to this, so I sat down and came up with this whole neat idea for the Experiment as a deconstruction of the whole "nationalist supersoldier" thing, and had all these cool little beats to show off and a growing idea of what the character would be like...
And then it turned out I'd built all this off a faulty assumption, and everything after that was me getting stuck on the story I'd already written and trying to come up with some way to salvage it, for fear that otherwise I'd just end up staring at a blank post box and not come up with anything at all.
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- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
If you can cook up an improved version, I'm fine to integrate it. I was trying to shoot for something like 'After the attack by the other Promethean, her personal fears are undercutting her ideals when she has to venture in any sort of public arena, and she knows it'.
Something that Victoria in Strypes version is doing is also engaging in Hybris and closes her eyes to it. Where she goes there will be problems as she knows about disquiet. And as the past shows revolutions have a tendency for infighting so her presence in the cause, is hurting the cause if she helps it sucessfully.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Which is the option that lets us have the corpse of The Boss?