Andrela
Plot Bunny
The World of Madness
The World of Madness is a major fusion of three fictional universes: H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk, and WhiteWolf's One World of Darkness.
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"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." - Call of Cthulhu.
"The sky ... was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." - Neuromancer.
"You're a big bad vampire. Hey, great, congrats. Now keep it to yourself." - Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.
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The World of Madness is a major fusion of three fictional universes: H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk, and WhiteWolf's One World of Darkness.
***
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." - Call of Cthulhu.
"The sky ... was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." - Neuromancer.
"You're a big bad vampire. Hey, great, congrats. Now keep it to yourself." - Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.
***
The human world and our role in it are an illusion.
Humanity is living inside a fragile bubble of perception, unaware of what lies behind the curtains or even of the curtains themselves, and our seeming dominance over the world is illusory and ephemeral.
Compared to the larger scheme of things, we aren't even worms, but rather part of the landscape, completely irrelevant and not worth attention. Our existence is most definitely either an accident, or perhaps a joke. The universe is purposeless, mechanical, and uncaring and human beings can never fully understand it with their limited faculties.
Now and then, individuals can, by accident or carelessness, catch a glimpse of, or even confront the ancient extraterrestrial entities or alien non-euclidean geometries. Because of the limitations of the human mind, these sights are so overwhelming that they can often drive a person insane.
The human society itself is not without problems either.
Apathy and isolation define the outlook. The dichotomy between rich and poor, influential and weak, powerful and powerless, is much more pronounced than in the real world. Decadence, cynicism and corruption are common.
Humanity seems less human every year, with body parts replaced by machines. Clothing and even skin are rented to advertisers to afford the basic standard of living.
Architecture is dominated by Gothic styling and fashion and personal style embrace Goth, Punk and fetishistic elements.
Innovation is both constant and absent - every new idea is gamed out before even the patents are registered. Diversity is everywhere, making it homogeneous. Crime is everywhere, making it publicly acceptable and even expected. It's a global culture of mass consumerism without context fueled by mega-corporations.
Of course, this is just as our hidden masters have planned.
Humans are unwitting victims or pawns of vast secret organizations of supernatural creatures. They have long ago dominated our governments and are behind all giant corporations.
Vampires, werewolves and wraiths (among others) struggle with internal factionalism and against other species in secret wars of intrigue for control of reality. The battles in these wars may last centuries, beyond the realization or comprehension of ordinary humans.
The societies of these dark beings are however ruled by some unwritten rules, which the clear majority obeys and forces upon others. The most important one is the Masquerade, that is the absolute prohibition against revealing supernatural occurrences to ordinary human beings.
Of course, there are factions, which don't like these rules very much. Among vampires there some who call for abolishing the Masquerade and openly ruling over mortal humans.
The highest authority in the vampire society is the Camarilla, a sect which calls itself the rightful government of all bloodsuckers. It enforces the Masquerade and severely punishes those who break the rules. For example, turning a human into a vampire without permission is punishable with death by decapitation.
However, despite their secret rule over the world, all these dark beings and creatures are nothing compared to the real state of affairs in the universe.
Ancient beings, older than our solar system, are waiting for the right moment to once more rise and rule over reality. Sleeping dead gods, extra-dimensional beings or other illogical things await their moment.
Among vampires and even ordinary humans there are secret cults and sects which await the return of these eldritch titans with impatience. They conduct strange rituals and rites supposed to speed up the destruction of the current life on Earth when from the skies descend horrifying gods and the lands will be bathed with blood.
There are of course organizations combating these cults, trying to prevent the end of the world. Dark Inquisitions, brutally murdering every cultist or devotee of forbidden beings.
The World of Madness is no place for heroes, but sometimes the villains cancel each other out.
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Some notes on the "Present" of the world.
Some notes on the "Present" of the world.
In 2043 a large group of Mages has achieved Ascension, which led to the arrival of something truly terrible in Chicago. The entire city was nuked immediately by other members of the Technocracy. Efforts to Ascend have weakened significantly after that.
In 2065 some Mages have learned that Vampires exist, this has led to Nuclear World War. Eventually the war ended with Mages agreeing to maintain the Masquerade in exchange for some benefits.
In 2070 a certain Cult was successful in summoning an Outer Being. A large part of South America is now the Forbidden Zone where reality has crumbled and unspeakable things walk the Earth.
In 2075 came the Yith Incident, where almost the entire population of Australia was mentally replaced by members of the Great Race. To maintain the Masquerade the continent was cut off from the rest of the world and only certain governments and Mega-Corps can communicate with it. The official version is that a plague killed everyone there.
It is now the year 2077. The world is ruled by a shaky alliance between Vampires and Mages. It is sometimes difficult to tell where the cybernetic ends and supernatural begins.
Vampires use cybernetic implants too. Tzimisce especially like to tinker with combining their flesh-shaping with cybernetics. Nosferatu heavily modify their bodies to look less monstrous. Malkavians sometimes go overboard, those wacky bastards. Vampire Mega-Corps have secret blood-draining farms.
The Deep Ones have gained a lot more power in the last few decades. They live in nuclear-powered cities at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. They interbreed with humans and are preparing for something. Only powerful and influential Vampires and Mages know they exist.
The Virtual Internet, or Cyberspace, has some places where few go. Seemingly corrupted for no reason, they can twist the minds of those who dare enter them. Sometimes nothing bad happens, but sometimes the people who leave these places come back changed. Not really insane, but not really all there. Their habits change, they act strangely or whisper words in strange languages. And a few weeks later the Dark Inquisition firebombs their homes.
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Any and all suggestions regarding this setting are appreciated.
