The world of Aldania, much like our own in the early renaissance, is a troubled placed to live. The nations of the known world make war upon one another, as kings and emperors lay claim to thrones they do not sit upon. Some king’s choose not to attack each other but rather to subjugate smaller and independent Duchies. Bandits and mercenaries roam the land, in numbers to be small armies in their own right, changing towns and cities sums of gold or silver to not attack them.

As if this period of lawlessness and war wasn’t bad enough, supernatural problems plague the lands. In recent years, the number of full-fledged vampires has been rapidly increasing, along with the number of reported demonic activity. While the Church has never had legions of Vampire or Demon Hunters under her command but their numbers have never been anywhere near small. Still, they are overwhelmed but the sneer number of reports and the overlapping of incidents.

So it came, late in fall of the year 1002 A.S. that the large trade town of King’s March, the doorway to the Iron Peninsula, became infested with the undead. It was a good time for the vampires to appear, for the iron mines in the north (and the main sources of any trade for the whole area) had closed for the year. The harsh weather and chill along the northwestern costal line of the Atas continent, makes pulling iron from the earth, impossible.

It has been weeks since the last merchant wagons had rolled from the town, seeking to beat the early rains, which would turn the roads into bogs and it will be months before they dare venture back again. In fact, the only messages to leave King’s March after the departure merchants, was a pair of letters from the Bishop Rolland, of Saint Johann’s Cathedral.

The first letter was a plea to the Archpatriarch, to send someone to investigate a series of strange deaths in his town, along with a description of those dead. The details managed to perk the interest of Patriarch Gasparo Ricci, current leader of Defenders of Life (the name given to Demon Hunters, Vampire Hunters and Church Knights). He dispatched a team of Vampire Hunters to King’s March, under orders to find out what was happening and deal with what appeared to be the first signs of a vampirism infestation.

The second letter arrived before the hunters could have made it to King’s March. It simply stated that the Baron Hugues’s thief taker, had found that a local butcher was responsible for the deaths, using a small and thin knife that left wounds that were very hard to find. However, the mannerisms and the handwriting of the Bishop had a slight difference from the first letter.

With growing concern, Gasparo Ricci awaited the report of his hunters, which never came. No pigeons, no riders, no word. Becoming impatient, he sent a letter to DaCuchan Abbey, the current location of the closest Vampire Hunter team, along with a number of trainees, which contain orders to scout King’s March and not engage any threat there.

The Aldanian Lore

Time period
It is currently the third age of Aldania, the Age of Saints, which began one year before the death of the prophet and first saint, Saul the Blessed, during the peak of the Anorian Empire. The second period of time in Aldania was the Age of Men, which lasted from the creation of humans, three thousand years ago, until the coming of Saul. The time before, called the Age of Animals, which explains itself.

The races of the world
Humanity
The most numerous of all the races and the most divided. Split into nearly two dozen empires, kingdoms and duchies but almost united in their faith, mankind wages war upon itself for a number of reasons. Some fight for honor, other for their homeland and many for gold.
·The Anorians. The leftovers of a once mighty empire, barely hold on to a handful of mountain top fortress-cities. Like the members of the original tribe that birth a roman-like super nation, the current Anorians are fair of skin, raven haired, with strangely colored eyes, mostly gray or violet. These traits are strong and will show through anyone with Anorian blood in them. Before the fall of their empire, each Anorian legion had a special detachment for hunting vampires. Once their power was broken, small bands of Anorians still traveled the lands, hunting the undead and practicing their traditional religion, which lead to rumors of things along the lines of sacrificing babies to heathen gods and the Mountains Crusade. After the crusade, the Saulinitian Church employed them to continue to hunt vampires. They are the only ones permitted under church law to use crossbows and provide the vampire hunters with their signature weapon.

Werewolves
In the age of men, it was said that the goddess Mativia, queen of the night skies, looked upon Aldania and was dismayed to find the vampires using her realm to prey upon humanity. Being of neutrality, she turned to her most loyal followers and gifted them with the power of transformation, so that they might travel by light of the full moon as wolves and protect travelers.
Now, a werewolf is not an anti-vampire in anyway. Like the men they were birthed from, they have urges to protect people but can chose to ignore them. In fact, there have been events in the past even werewolves have protected vampires, as they fled the wrath of the hunters.
On nights of the full moon, a werewolf must transform into a wolf but may do so upon any night but the new moon. Along with the human and animal forms they take, there is a third form, taken uncontrollably in moments of life or death, of the half-beast. This halfway point between man and wolf is their most powerful, with increased strength and near immortality but is coupled with a berserker’s wild rage. A werewolf in any form as a greater sense of smell then mortal men and are the only ones to be able to detect bloodlings from the order of rot that comes from them.
There are four ways to kill a werewolf. The first is to burn them with fire. The second is to behead them. The third and forth are intermingled, for both wolfsbane and silver are deadly toxic.
Unlike Earth myth, one cannot be bitten by a werewolf and become one. A werewolf is born a werewolf from the genes of their werewolf parent (either parent will produce a werewolf. Human man + werewolf woman = werewolf child and werewolf man + human woman = werewolf child)
The Church considers werewolves to be monsters, which could be saved from damnation. However, this rather vague stance has allowed the ignorant population (often whipped up by priests) to decimate their numbers because of fear. This has driven most werewolves to seek shelter with the Anorians (helping to fuel the Mountains Crusades) and gain a tolerance within their society. With a good deal of interbreeding, many of the werewolf population appear in their human form to be just another Anorian but many will mark themselves apart by wearing a baggy red cap.

Undead
Theses poor wretches or vile monsters, are the product of an ancient evil, that is whispered to predate God. They have several subtypes, each one more pitiable or more terrible then the last.

·Ghoul. These sad monstrosities are the result of a vampireic feeding, were the victim is completely drain of blood and was no longer a virgin. They are transformed into cannibalistic shells, feeling no pain nor pleasure or mercy, only hunger. Their strength is nearly quadrupled and a lack of blood leaves only damage to the brain, spinal cord or fire as the only options to kill them with. They can only understand and attempt to obey only the simplest of commands.

·Zombie. A sadder fate then become a ghoul, is to become a zombie. To create one, a vampire simply needs to continually (once every few days) feed from a human but keep from draining their bodies of blood. This will enslaves the human to the vampire’s will. A zombie gains no extra abilities and is just as venerable as the average human. Not technically undead but close enough.

·Bloodling. When a vampire drains a virgin of blood, the curse they all indulge in is transferred instantly to the victim, changing them mentally, as well as starting a twenty-year physical change. On the night of a new moon, they will arise from the grave (or simply from the feeding, should it take place during the new moon) and join the ranks of the undead. A bloodling is very hard to tell from a living human, save for the scent of rot too faint for a human to detect, as they look healthy and can still stand the sunlight (a tolerance that decreases every year). They only need to feed once a moon cycle but cannot create more vampires or zombie slaves, just bestial ghouls.

·Vampire. After twenty years, a bloodling matures into a vampire. They stop ageing and their skin pales. The sun turns from causing simple (if very painful and debilitating) sunburns to actual threat to their existence. If exposed to sunlight, the flesh of a vampire will start to smolder, burst into flames and crumble into ash. With this maturing, comes power. A vampire is stronger then the average human, can make impossible leaps unharmed and develops a hypnotic gaze to lull prey to them. They also can create ghouls, zombies, bloodlings and must feed every week.

·Elder Vampire. After five hundred years of unlife (from date of maturing from bloodling) a vampire has lived long enough to be counted one of the vampire elders. With this new rank, come new powers. Were they could once make impossible leaps, now a vampire elder could simply lift themselves into the air or spurt wings or even transform into a large bat for longer distances. Their fingernails also grow as hard as steel and they gain the ability to grow them at will and rapidly to lengths of nearly two feet. These talons become formidable hand-to-hand weapons.

·Vampire Lord. Such creatures are supposed to be vastly powerful and gifted with strange powers, or at least so soon vanquished vampires and their elder’s claim it. There is no evidence for their existence in Church or Anorian archives.

It should be noted that there are several ways to kill vampires. The two surest and preferred methods are to either expose the vampire to sunlight or to completely burn the body. It is said that removing the head will cause the body to rot away within a year but a hunter will never take a chance at leaving a vampire like that. Holy water will act as acid to the flesh of a vampire, causing wounds that wont heal and if it gets into the brain cavity, will slay the monster by devouring the mind. The touch of the Saint’s Cross will cause the monsters to burn but only in a small area. Piercing the heart with a wooden stake, silver tipped crossbow bolt/arrow, sword or taking off the head will paralyze vampires into a death-like state and is not a final solution (save in the case of head removal, which remains untested). Should the stake/bolt/arrow/sword be removed or head placed back upon the neck, the vampire will return to unlife.


The Saulinitian Church

The founder

Sual the Blessed

The disciples

Bemossed (BE-moe-said) the Wise

Gideon the Strong

Isabella the Wayfinder

The story of Sual

Sual was the last son of a dying tribe, out in the southern deserts. When the last of his people was taken by old age, the young man traveled for sixty and one days to reach the coast of the Serpent Sea. There he boarded a fishing boat and was ferried across to the southern shores of Marquez. It was there, that he stood in the market of the regional Imperial capital and proclaimed that the god Nysare, worshipped as king of the gods, was the only god and all others were lesser servant beings to his greatness. This, of course, upset the local priests, especially those in service to the other gods and they called upon the governor Capito to have this heretic arrested.

Capito, whom enjoyed ruling one of the most peaceful and richest providences in the Empire, ordered the Legionaries to seize Sual and send the man to mines. It was by great luck that Sual was able to escape the city and flee into the mountains, where he became lost. Nysare looked kindly upon his chosen and sent to him aid, in the form of a local woman, named Isabella, who knew the pathways of the mountains.

As the pair fled before the Anorians, they met with a two men in a wooded valley. The first was a scholar named Bemossed, whom was a teacher for noble children, who had decided to travel for a time to reflect on the world and had gotten trapped under a fallen oak. The second was a very large man named Gideon, who felled trees in the local area.

Gideon wrapped his arms around the thickest part of the oak (which his arms only reach half way round) and lifted the tree, which stood hundreds of feet in length from the trapped teacher. Once the tree was gone, Sual laid healing hands upon Bemossed and saved his life.

As the healing ended, storm clouds covered the sky and all of them followed Gideon to his home, for supper and a night’s sleep. The next morning, the storm had passed and three of the four were set to depart. Bemossed had vowed to accompany Sual until he was repaid for his kindness. As the trio looked to the road, they saw the Anorian banner in the distance, coming towards them. Before they could even run, the mighty woodcutter gathered all of them in his arms and hid the chosen one and companions in his root cellar.

When the legion arrived, its commander asked Gideon if he had seen the outlaws and the woodcutter denied knowing anything. The legion was about to depart, when one of the legionaries found one of the scrolls that Sual had been handing out in the market place. The Anorians became very angry with Gideon and put the man to question, offered him silver to give the outlaws up and finally blinded him with hot pokers.

After the legion took it’s leave, Sual rushed from the cellar, finding the brave woodcutter feeling his way towards the house. Laying his hands upon Gideon, the Chosen restored his eyes, healed his hurts and took pain from his friend. Afterwards, all four headed deeper into the mountains.

Twenty years later, the message of Sual had been spread across the providence and beyond into the Anorian Empire. It was then, as the populace was restless, that the Anorians caught up with Sual. They captured him in the early morn, seizing the inn where he was staying. Without waiting for judge, they beat Sual with the flats of their swords and concreted a gibbet, of a single vertical stake, mounted with a pair of beams to form a V at the top, to which Sual’s hands were nailed. To the middle of the stake they attached a long beam and nailed his feet to the ends of it, before raising the gibbet into the air.

As they beat Bemossed and Gideon in a hollow behind their leader, the spirit of Sual left his body and appeared in the sky, confronting a being of darkness, known as The Great Evil, which was formed by three terrible demons; Behemoth the Dominator, Shaitan the Soulcatcher and Damion the Shifter. Four hours they battled, as all gathered below watched, bewitched by the sight.

As the fourth hour ended, Sual threw down the Great Evil upon the hollow and his power was broken for a time, but it was too late. His mortal body was too weak and it failed the chosen one. Both spirit and body ascended into the heavens, as the Anorians and the less faithful fled. It was then that Isabella appeared, riding from the south, where she had been acquiring a boat to take all of them to the coast. Bemossed and Gideon crawled from the hollow, freeing themselves from their bonds.

With anger in their voices, they decried Isabella for betraying them to the Anorians and for witchcraft, as it was plain that she had summoned The Great Evil, while her masters weakened the savior of all their souls. As the other follows of Sual picked up rocks or fallen spears, she fled.

With his death, the followers of Sual rose up in rebellion, setting the entire Empire ablaze with civil war

Religious orders

The Bemossedouins

Theses men and women are the ordinary members of the clergy. Found in every town, city and village, serving as the spiritual leaders to the masses, either as church pastors, vicars or bishops. They are also to be found cloistered away in abbeys and monasteries. From their ranks (or added to them), come the candidates to join the various orders of warrior monks, better known as the Church Knights.

The Gideonian Friars

A male only order, the Friars are spend a good portion of their time, training in wrestling or other marshal arts, so that they might be able to defend themselves on the field of battle, as they are assigned to accompany the Church Knights, rogue Demon Hunters and the teams of Vampire Hunters. Although one might consider them to be useful in battle, such in not their main purpose. Their greatest calling is that knowledge. The record everything their charges say and do, keeping great tomes of such writing until their death, where the tomes are then stored in the great church archives.

The Daughters of Isabella

After Isabella was accused of heresy and witchcraft, she fled, never to be heard of again. Years later, a group of women appeared, calling themselves the Daughters of Isabella, with a select few abbeys sitting at the bases of the mountain strongholds of the Anorians. Secretive and selective of their members, rumors began to fly, claiming that the Sisters (as they called each other) practiced demon worship and black magic. At the beginning of the Mountains Crusade, the holy armies attacked the Witches, driving them into the arms of the pagan Anorians. At the war’s end, the Archpatriarch declared that they had converted the pagans to the true faith, declared them innocent of all charges and attached a Sister to every team of Vampire Hunters. However the rumors among the Bemossedouins that they still practice magic. In public, the Sisters deny it, the Hunters threaten anyone to say something like that and the Friars refuse to say anything, as they know the power of knowledge and how to protect secretes

The Vampire Hunters

After the end of the Mountains Crusade, the warriors attached to the Anorian legions to hunt vampires were placed under the command of the Church, as part of the Defenders of Life. As part of the treaty, teams of hunters were to always be lead by some of Anorian blood. Over the years, the number of hunters to a team has worked out to be; a Hunt Master, leader of the team, a Pointer, the second in command, two to six Hunters, a Gideonian friar and a Sister from the Daughters of Isabella.

King's March



King’s March is lays at the mouth of the Iron Peninsula (which also is the narrowest part of the peninsula), on the northwestern coast and serves as the primary trade hub for the iron mines in north. A massive stone wall, with many gates to allow merchant trains through, stands on the southern edge of the town. Following the wall is a maze of roads and warehouses. Beyond those, is a great market place, with an open field in the middle and things like blacksmiths, glass smiths and other such craftsmen. North of the market, is the Baron’s Keep, the guard’s barracks and fortress-like cathedral. North of those are the homes of wealthy merchants and craftsmen. To the west are the housing of the common men, with slums on the east



Characters.

I am looking for people to play the veteran team of hunters, the rookies and maybe a Church Knight or Demon Hunter

Hunter Master- Irish Wolf
Pointer- Ghaarme
Hunter-
Hunter-
Hunter-
Gideonian Friar- Shiva
Sister- Machina Ex Deus
Rookie-
Rookie-
Rookie-
Rookie-
Rookie-
Rookie-
Novice Friar-
Novice Sister- Kurokiku