The Council of Night

[Martian]

THE PLOT

There are things that go bump in the night. Since before humanity has existed, there have been creatures of utter horror, twisted things that should not exist. For untold millenniums, these beings have operated in the shadows, preying on humankind, all the while making it seem like they didn’t exist.

It is only within the last few centuries that these monsters began to come together. Initiated by a young Count turned Vampire, named Dracula, this unification of monster kind started with just like species. Vampire with Vampire, Werewolf with Werewolf. But Count Dracula had a grander vision, one of supernatural creatures manipulating the human world from the shadows. It is with this in mind that he formed the Council of Night.

Comprised of leaders from many different supernatural communities, the Council of Night ruled over all monsters, creating laws and treaties to abide under. This authoritative power was maintained by Dracula. Called the Prince of Darkness by some, Dracula held much sway over all the different monsters. It was only with him as the head that the Council of Night could exist.

The only problem is that Count Dracula disappeared a week ago. However, only a few key members of the Council of Night are aware of this. Called by Dracula to attend a meeting at his castle, these Council members would suddenly find themselves in charge of the Council of Night. However, without the power of Count Dracula to cement their rule, can these creatures maintain control over all the other monsters?

PLAYER ROLE

So each player will be playing a supernatural creature, or otherwise horror type character, who is a member of the Council of Night. While this was initially inspired by the old Universal Monster Movies, I am opening this up to a wider array of monsters. Pretty much anything that has been in a horror movie and is able to have advanced thought and speech, would fit.

It was also probably fit better if your character had a way of hiding amongst humans. Whether this be magic, shape-shifting, invisibility, or other means, they will need to blend in as this is set in modern day.

NOTES

So this is actually based on a RP I was in briefly several years back. I have since lost the link to it and I’ve even forgotten who ran it. However, it did pop up back into my mind a few days ago, as I’ve been in a major horror kick. I do remember that in the previous iteration that I was playing Graf Orlok from Nosferatu, a character I’ll still play for this.

This will be a love letter to all the classic monster films of any classic era, ranging all the way from the 1920s to the 1980s. Basically if you’ve ever wanted to play the villain, the horrible thing killing everyone, this is your game.

So is anyone interested in a modern day horror thriller, starring the classic movie monsters? There will be action, conspiracies, and of course, horror. Will you try and find Count Dracula, or will you try and seize power in his absence? And what will become of the Council of Night?

If this sounds fun, please let me know. Also I’m open to any questions about the setting or acceptable characters.

[Sadie]

Caught my interest

[DELETEDUSER007]

Consider me interested, but I am curious as to the specific limits of the creatures we can play. Could I go with a Nyarlathotep or Hastur or even Azathoth type eldritch figure? A sort of progenitor/ruler of all eldritch abominations, or even just an eldritch entity in general?

[Martian]

@Sailorsadie
Glad that you’re interested. Do you have any character concept in mind or at least what kind of monster you want to be?

@Havoccultist
Glad that you also have an interest in this. While I’m not super familiar with all the beings of the Cthulhu mythos, out of the three mentioned, I believe Nyarlathotep would probably work the best, or you could create an original eldritch being. The only problem with these kind of characters is that they exist on cosmic level and might not have any real stake in what is going on on Earth. But if you reworked Nyarlathotep a little bit, maybe toning down his powers, I could see him as a member of the Council of Night.

[DELETEDUSER007]

@Sailorsadie
Glad that you’re interested. Do you have any character concept in mind or at least what kind of monster you want to be?

@Havoccultist
Glad that you also have an interest in this. While I’m not super familiar with all the beings of the Cthulhu mythos, out of the three mentioned, I believe Nyarlathotep would probably work the best, or you could create an original eldritch being. The only problem with these kind of characters is that they exist on cosmic level and might not have any real stake in what is going on on Earth. But if you reworked Nyarlathotep a little bit, maybe toning down his powers, I could see him as a member of the Council of Night.

@Martian

Given that at most what I know of Nyar consists of shapeshifting troll who uses magic to cause chaos, I don't think that should be too hard lol. Sure he is much greater than that power wise, but a toned down version like that should work well enough I think. I could also make a custom eldritch entity as you mentioned, which would be easier since I only really see it affecting things on a planetary level at most. Although even then that'd be through gradual influence and a kind of infectious madness as its influences spreads or it awakens, etc., rather than all at once.

I will note that Hastur is a strictly planetbound being as well from what I can tell, at least so far as his influence goes. Sure he spreads it via the Yellow Sign, but he is confined to Carcosa from what I know, and has been stuck there ever since he (possibly) landed on and corrupted it ages ago. I say possibly because like all things Mythos or Yog-Sothery related, it's left rather vague. For more info on him specifically, there's this: lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Hastur

Because of this he might work better, as I can play him more as an eldritch royalty type deal instead of a strictly cosmic entity.

[Martian]

@Havoccultist
I actually did read the Lovecraft wiki pages for all three characters you had mentioned, just to make sure they were who I was thinking of. As for Hastur, from what I understand about him I don't think he's a god fit for this. However, that is not to say that he won't be in this RP, as (SPOILERS) I was planning some Lovecraft related stuff for this RP.

So I would say either go with the toned down Nyarlathotep or the original eldritch being you mentioned.

[DELETEDUSER007]

@Havoccultist
I actually did read the Lovecraft wiki pages for all three characters you had mentioned, just to make sure they were who I was thinking of. As for Hastur, from what I understand about him I don't think he's a god fit for this. However, that is not to say that he won't be in this RP, as (SPOILERS) I was planning some Lovecraft related stuff for this RP.

So I would say either go with the toned down Nyarlathotep or the original eldritch being you mentioned.

@Martian

Will do.

[Sadie]

@Martian I am wanting to either go with shapeshifter or skinwalker.

[WhiteAngel25]

@Martian I’m interested! Would a kitsune be an option? Otherwise I have a few other ideas like a mummy or possibly a dark fae.

[Qia]

This seems interesting o.o If I apply, I'm thinking of either doing a banshee or a vengeful spirit (that can take human form). :D

[Martian]

@Sailorsadie
I’m assuming by shape-shifter that you mean a werewolf or other similar creature, which would be perfectly acceptable. Also a skinwalker is a creature I don’t see too often in a RP, and as such I would be totally down for having it in this RP.

@WhiteAngel25
So I would totally love a mummy being in this RP as the original premise for it was the classic movie monsters in modern day. The dark fae would also work. I’m hesitant about the Kitsune as I don’t know a lot about them and I’m wondering if they fit in the horror archetype. However, if you could explain how they fit in amongst the other monsters, I’ll probably allow you to play a Kitsune.

@Qia
Glad that another person is interested. I don’t have a problem with either a banshee or other spirit of some kind, as I think it would be cool to have a character that can become intangible.

As for anyone else reading this, we are still welcoming players. There are plenty of monster types available. If you like the classic monsters, there’s still Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolfman, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon available. Or if you like more modern stuff you could be a Demon, an alien stranded on Earth, or even the Antichrist (which I remember being a character in the original iteration of this RP). Or you could be something completely different. Pretty much if it’s a monster that doesn’t have god like power and would be interested in what’s going on on Earth, they would probably fit.

[shagranoz]

How would a lich who wants to protect humans from rogue monsters go over. Sort of a pro-human creature, if that makes any sense?

[Martian]

@shagranoz
So a lich as a monster would be fine. As for being pro-human, how far do you want to take that? Like all members of the Council of Night would be alright with humans being eaten by monsters, but perhaps your character is for just taking what is needed, like only messing with humans when necessary.

If that's not what you meant, I'm not sure your character would work as a member of the Council. Perhaps we can tweak it a little bit so that it works.

[DELETEDUSER007]

I have an addition to that Nyarlathotep idea. You know how he's a messenger for the Outer Gods, the whole heart and soul thing aside? Well I was thinking that he could be a representative or agent of sorts for the eldritch community as a whole in this RP. Like their senator on the Council so to speak. Furthermore, if you wanted to maintain his cosmic nature but keep the power levels on the lower end of the scale, I could also just say that he goes about his business on Earth or wherever we are using one of his less powerful avatars. That way he can not only have weaknesses, say to things like Elder Signs if you want to bring those into the mix, but also abide by a code of conduct laid out by Dracula possibly. We could also say that the stars aren't right so he has to send tiny fragments or avatars of himself, thus explaining his limited power.

I mean it's what he does in Mythos canon already anyways, so I could see that working here as well. But I can write him just as easily without the above idea as I can with it. Either way is fine by me. Just thought I'd spitball some ways to make that category of creature work while also giving potential in-universe reasoning for it.

[shagranoz]

That's fine. Only taking the bare minimum, and if there's a nonlethal way to feed, that gets priority. Like Thomas from the Dresden Files, if you're familiar.

[WhiteAngel25]

@MartianSome tales speak of kitsune with even greater powers, able to bend time and space, drive people mad, or take fantastic shapes such as an incredibly tall tree or a second moon in the sky. Other kitsune have characteristics reminiscent of vampires or succubi, and feed on the life or spirit of human beings, generally through mature physical contact.

[Sadie]

@Martian Skinwalker it is then.

[Eviledd1984]

@Martian

I am interested in joining this roleplay, would an undead serial killer ala Jason Voorhees be acceptable? If not I was thinking of a playing a awaken mummy or perhaps a monster like The Thing.

[Martian]

@Havoccultist
I’m cool with having Nyarlathotep be a representative for the other Elder beings, basically their small window into what is going on on Earth. Also I’m totally down for you playing a weaker Avatar as it would mean that you are closer in power scale to the other members of the Council of Night.

@shagranoz
It will be interesting to have a human advocate on the Council. Also I have not read any of the Dresden Files, though it is on my ever increasing list of books to get around to reading.

@WhiteAngel25
So, you’ve convinced me, Kitsunes are monsters. So I was thinking perhaps we tone down the whole time and space bending, and focus more on the madness inducing and feeding on human’s energy. Also if you want, you could make your character the representative for all Yokai, as no one else seems to want to play a Yokai.

@Sailorsadie
I’ve only ever played a Skinwalker once before, and the RP didn’t last long. So I’m really interested to see your take on it.

@Eviledd1984
While having a character like Jason Voorhees would be interesting, I have to ask why he would care about being on the Council of Night? Like Jason mostly just goes about killing people without saying a world, so I doubt he cares much for the politics of all monsters.

However, if you just want to keep the undead serial killer angle, but drop Jason’s personality, you could have someone, maybe Freddy Krueger like, who has a big personality and maybe runs something like a serial killer organization. Like if all the various supernatural serial killers from movies formed a union, you would be head of the union.

Or if you want to try your other two ideas, we could do that. Like I said earlier, a mummy would be perfectly fine as the original premise for this RP was the classic monsters in modern day. I was also hoping someone would play an alien, hence why I added the sci-fi tag to the thread. So the Thing could work, if we tweak it a little. Perhaps they are on the Council waiting until there is a way to get off Earth. Or maybe it’s just settled into a feeding pattern and is on the Council just to maintain its share of the human stock.

Hopefully that makes sense to you.

[WhiteAngel25]

@Martian That sounds good to me!