31 years ago, Princess Ryner set into motion a convoluted series of events meant to overthrow the Moonlight Council and eliminate all vampires permanently. It nearly succeeded but a critical part of her plan, Aaron Starag, turned against her and sided with the Sinnenodel led traditionalist faction. As such, she was forced to create Dawn Rising, a rebellion group that fractured the noble families, weakened the faith in the Moonlight Council, and energized a new generation of vampires and mages looking to make their marks on the world. The Council found themselves nearly dismantled and forced the hidden First vampires to reveal themselves.
Unfortunately, the return of the Lycans and the interference of the First disrupted the rebellion’s well laid traps and ultimately led to its failure. With the return of Bierro Eve, Sybil Sinnenodel launched a vicious attack on the Noila household that she later blamed on Ryner and leaned on the Miasma crisis that she played a major role in manufacturing in order to secure leadership of the remaining members of the Moonlight Council. Her changes didn’t stop there as she restructured the entirety of the government and thus, the Empire of the Dreaming Court was born with her as Empress.
Now, Dawn Rising is on its last legs. Shoved into a corner far on the edge of the world, the headquarters of the rebellion is well hidden from the seemingly omniscient Empress Sinnenodel and it’s minor factions scattered through the world have found themselves with a moment to catch their breath as the Empress and her forces reconsider how to best deal with the threat they pose. New supplies are flowing and there has been a rally of forces to their banners as the quality of life of mages and humans all begin to slip further and further from Treaty times.
The Empire of the Dreaming Court
Headed by the Empress Sybil Sinnenodel, the Empire is a true paradise for vampires. Most restrictions, including hunting humans, have vanished from law and punishment for most infractions against mages and humans are all but gone. Direct violence is highly improper, and maiming mages is still illegal simply because Sinnenodel tradition frowns upon acts of violence, but anything short of that isn’t directly outlawed. Laws for education and medical care of mages are still in effect but all human regulations are gone and many vampires have simply stopped supplying any at all.
The Dreaming Court itself is split into three tiers: The Empress, The Magistrates, and the Heralds. The Empress is of course, Sybil Sinnenodel who lounges upon a throne of silver and bones, bleached to catch the moonlight through large windows in her throne room. The Magistrates are the head of each family. Lady Immerila Marivaldi, Magistrate of Magic and Technology, has full jurisdiction over the development of new magical techniques, new technological innovations, and the blending of the two disciplines. Lord Bierro Eve, Magistrate of Information, is the Empress’s spymaster and is the overseer of all forms of communication through the Empire. Lord Pieron Astorio, Magistrate of War, is the general of the military forces of the Empire. Beneath them are the Heralds of the Court, led by Aaron Starag, who act as the voice of the Empress when she and her successor are otherwise preoccupied with other business.
Mages under the new regime have experienced some decline in quality of life but many aspects have stayed the same. There are fewer protections against physical injury and none against mental injury, although laws of possession and trade of mages have basically remained the same. The Empire has since instituted a requirement that all mages are documented with two generations removed included in the national register and fire and light mages are confiscated at the time of determination. It was highly recommended that those who were in possession of these affinities prior to the Mage Terrorist Reduction Proclamation voluntarily turn over their mages but the Empire has yet to demand it of them.
In addition to claiming all fire and light mages, the Mage Terrorist Reduction Proclamation grants the Empire authority to seize any and all mages who present prior to an Awakening ritual. These mages are indoctrinated into the inquisitor program, developing highly dangerous and powerful mages to serve at the behest of their vampiric masters as assassins, elite soldiers, and powerful bodyguards for the members of the Courts. Led by Grand inquisitors Maxwell Aldermann and Eloise Silva, Inquisitors who survived the brutal seven year training period came out the otherside powerful, cunning, and aggressive, far more powerful than other mages their age. Even some vampires fear the inquisitor program and have petitioned the Empress to discontinue and eliminate those trained in such ways.
This isn’t without due cause. Most Inquisitors are only held together through fear and a healthy dose of mental magic. A tiny lapse in control or destabilization of the mind magic matrix inside has led to large scale consequences. The Conflagration of Tinani Fortress is one such example. A stroke of luck for a desperate Dawn Rising member in the early days of the program led to an Inquisitor immediately succumbing to resonance and turning a sprawling fortress into a crater, killing everyone inside. Dawn Rising has yet to figure out how the now dead mage did it but the death of 15 vampires and 120 mages was enough to make vampires nervous.
The Six Tomes
As part of the rise of the Empire, Empress Sinnenodel officially unveiled The Six Tomes: strange institutions incorporating ruins of ages past that became the headquarters of the various departments of the Empire. These are run by a vampiric Warden and a mage Sage.
The First Tome oversees the governance of the Empire and focuses on keeping the gears of government running. It also controls the coin of the Empire. Warden: Zarina Sinnenodel, Sage: Nelkhan Mostriad.
The Second Tome oversees magical research and development, providing development and testing facilities to the top vampiric and mage researchers in the empire. Warden: Immerila Marivaldi; Sage: Madylnn Vazquez.
The Third Tome oversees education and controls the dissemination of academic knowledge. Most of it’s space is dedicated to massive, well secured vaults that act as private libraries for the Empress and those in her favor. Warden: Nintrella Sinnenodel; Sage: Derek Dickson.
The Fourth Tome oversees communication and censorship in the empire. This Tome has the most active employees and all forms of communication are expected to run through it. Warden: Eris Samuel; Sage: Valerie Devi.
Although it is known they exist, the operations of the Fifth and Sixth Tomes are confidential and details on them, including their Wardens and Sages, have not been made public.
The Marivaldis
Although a significant portion of the Marivaldis defected, a handful of families remained loyal to the Council rather than their Lord. Those families have been granted status above the others who have returned and their influence and lands grew as the previous members were stripped of their estates, mages, and money. It is easy to see who was part of the Empire since its conception; returning Marivaldis were made to take a branding as part of their identity for one century as a mark of their shame and proof of their penance in the face of the Empress’s mercy.
Of course, not all is well within the family. With so many Marivaldis loyal to her, it was a shock to find the Empress elevate Immerila to Lady Marivaldi despite her lack of involvement in the situation. There are rumors and whispers that suggest she is the plaything of the Empress and she’ll be discarded soon enough while others suggest she used strange knowledge learned on her travels to bewitch the Empress. In any case, Immerila has proved to be a difficult opponent in both the audience hall and on the battlefield, unafraid to show off her unnatural magic to cow her family into submission. There is a burning resentment from some but it isn’t powerful enough to overcome the fear and the truth that the family is flourishing under her direction.
Eves
Of all the families, the Eves handled the schism in their ranks the best. The conflict and chaos had already existed, hidden beneath a thin veneer of direction, and the rebellion simply allowed them to discard the falsehood. The traditionalist faction was already posed to support the Council and the modernists were already ready to turn their backs so everything fell into place surprisingly quickly for the struggling family. This family found an eager delight in killing their dishonorable members, taking out years of pent up aggression on the opposite side of themselves, and found themselves with fewer members than any other family early in the war.
With the return of Beirro, the family snapped back into shape in a startling amount of time. Beirro hunted his family in the Dawn Rising and the Empire in equal measures, quickly and efficiently killing those he found lacking. Rumors have it he spared a number of Dawn Rising members despite being enemies and when he went hunting for a specific person, there was never collateral damage. Beirro makes most of the vampires outside the Eves nervous as they can never be sure they understand his motives and those who feel the same in the family have learned to keep their mouths shut and their reactions muted.
Astorios
The Astorios thrived in this wartime world. Violence had always been the family’s calling card and the 5 long centuries of peace wore heavily on the Astorios. With the younger generation unable to truly experience the glory of death defying risks, many of the others believed them soft and weak, leaving the younger Astorios unable to advance within the family. The family turned to illegal fighting rings and underground fight clubs to sate the itch that ran in their veins and it did the trick… for a while.
Behind the scenes of combat, Lord Peiron granted his family “permission” to defect. Even if Peiron was no longer interested in joining the fight directly, he of all the family could feel the pull to war and he challenged them to prove themselves on the field of war so that they could move through the family, earn their status, and come out stronger for the experience. He hasn’t even kept it quiet; though he doesn’t flaunt that he is actively ignoring his defectors, he has said that if the Empire can’t handle a few young vampires, then the Empire shouldn’t exist at all.
Not everyone is satisfied with this nonchalant attitude though. Rumors have it the Inquisitors are planning a move to bring the Lord of the Astorios to heel and others are actively killing defectors before they manage to make it to Dawn Rising territory.
Dawn Rising
The rebellion group Dawn Rising has managed to stay a thorn in the Empire’s side despite having been brought to its knees. Once a sprawling rebellion with 26 territories under its control and the power to rival any noble family independently, Dawn Rising has been reduced to a headquarters, two storehouses, and four relay stations with barely 160 members. Pitched battles against Empire forces have been reduced to strategic, guerilla tactic assaults against weak points in the Empire’s defense in hopes they can gain some sort of foothold. Unfortunately, they’ve failed to gain any sort of ground in years and they fight tooth and nail for what little they still control.
Tasked with running Dawn Rising once her vampire partner was killed, Lilie Dionne maintains her council of advisors, Quartermaster Joshua Abian and War Master Vivian Talimara, at an ancient fortress deep within the Noila ancestral territory after reaching out to potential allies in hope for additional assistance. Vintri Noila was the only one to respond and offered his home as a base of operations even though it’s quite out of the way. In order to maintain their secrecy, few and far between know how to actually access it. Even those who teleport between the relay points and headquarters teleport to a remote location and are teleported there by an authorized agent.
The four remaining relay stations, Caeli, Illitas, Aegis, and Malvov, serve as the primary base of operations and housing for the vast majority of the members of Dawn Rising, acting as launching pads for strike operations and safe houses for the injured, weary, and freed. Each is operated by a Station Commander and maintained by a Station Supplier and Head Technician. Relay stations are intended to house up to 100 people and are either disguised as normal buildings, are built as an underground network, or a mix of both. Wards and protective spells litter the area around them in order to keep passing curiosities from discovering their network.
However, the major concern right now is supplies. Food, medicine, and clothing are in high demand all across the resistance and every day people get a little bit more desperate. Thankfully, a turn in Illitas’s luck has allowed them to strike a telling blow against the Empire in their area, recovering farms that were once under the rebellion’s control and opening up some of their old secret routes that became too dangerous with Empire occupation. It greatly boosted morale at the promise for the future but doesn’t solve the problem in the short term.
The Social Dynamic of Dawn Rising
In the early days of Dawn Rising, Ryner made it clear that leadership was based on ability, not class, age, or any other determining factor. They were the underdogs. Dawn Rising didn’t have the luxury of putting inefficient leaders in positions simply to soothe egos. A number of mages outranked vampires immediately and while it ruffled more than a few feathers, the desperation and importance of the task at hand put the conflict on hold.
In the meantime, the ever looming question of feeding had to be answered fast. It was counterproductive to have all mages feeding vampires directly so Dawn Rising required mages to donate a bottle of blood to their relay station. This allowed the stations to maintain a rotation of members who were on active duty, keeping those who donated blood recently out of front line conflict while recovering.
Now, there are rumors vampires in the rebellion aren’t quite as satisfied with this arraignment as they seemed to be. With new blood entering, there are some in the stations questioning if Lilie is strong enough to keep these new vampires in line.
Magic
Magic has largely remained unchanged, typically presenting at 18 through the Awakening ritual and being ushered into a mage institution where they are sold off at the institution’s will, and is split into two categories: Affinity and Arcane.
Affinity magic is the mage’s natural magical ability. Affinities express themselves as a fundamental force or element of nature: fire, water, earth, air, gravity, lava, etc. they are further broken down into Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Conditional affinities that change how casting and interactions between mage and magic work. These are magics that need nothing more than some concentration and the will to make it happen.
Arcane magic is magic that is stripped of affinities and used to form new spells to an end affinity magic may not be able to reach. They require a pattern and an incantation to strip and structure the mage’s magic to the spell, creating effects that range from darkvision to shield to color changing charms to telepathy. Arcane magic is generally more versatile than Affinity magic at the cost of separating yourself from your magic. For this reason, Primary affinities with a close, intimate connection to their magic often find themselves struggling to use arcane magic and develop their skills with it much slower than other grades of Affinities.
Miasma
Although there have been a number of breakthroughs in magical research by the Empire, it can all be traced back to a single source: Miasma. Composed of a gaseous, sweet altered aether, the Empire manufactured Miasma to counter the Lycan threat. Aggressively toxic to the lycan system, it was deployed over a significant portion of battlefields in order to use its beneficial side effect. Mages who fought in the Miasma fields found their ability to cast affinity magic much greater and, through a little bit of finessing, could blend their affinity and arcane magic together in ways never done before.
However, the skirmishes with Dawn Rising became more and more dangerous to the Empire’s vampiric forces and they developed a second strain of Miasma that was a hard, large pill. This was a concentrated dose of Miasma that would allow them to keep the advantage for themselves, rather than allowing Dawn Rising to turn their advantage against them. And although Dawn rising attempted to get their hands on the product, it wasn’t nearly enough to even the playing field.
However, the side effects of the original strain soon started showing. Vampires became erratic and violent, entering horrible feeding frenzies in which they couldn’t differentiate between friend or foe and just consumed wholeheartedly. Mages began to experience severe disruptions in their magic, to the point that they would experience dissonance even when they weren’t casting. The second strand showed the same effects but faster and worse. As mages became ticking time bombs and vampires struggled to keep their composure, Miasma was decreed illegal and its production stopped.
However, the truth was miasma was continued to be produced behind the scenes. Dawn Rising has managed to dismantle a number of these facilities but with their members spread so thin, it was impossible to get a real count on how many factories are still in production.
Where Our Story Begins
One of the least besieged relay stations, Caeli was built beneath a two-storied bakery that operated during the early years of the war. The owners have since died and the bakery shut down, leaving the additional space for Dawn Rising to occupy. No one has been in a rush to reoccupy the building, the little town it once served all abandoned, mostly in part to the Miasma Dead Zone barely two miles down the road.
Relay Station Caeil once boasted a group of 90 but now clung to its existence with only 28 members. With its severely depleted numbers, the relay station leadership has pulled back from most operations, focusing on reconnaissance. It’s in part of their efforts that Relay Station Illitas was able to overcome the Empire in their territory, strategies fueled by Caeli intel, and this has not gone unnoticed.
Caeli now finds itself in a precarious situation. Empire forces have established a citadel in Caeli’s territory, but all intel indicates Caeli’s location hasn’t been compromised. Although many at the station have voiced their interest in relocating, Commander Ryan Agreve has instead sent for assistance from Headquarters. The Commander has yet to reveal his position to the members of the relay station and everyone is waiting with bated breath, even as new blood enters the scene.
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