long time ago, I've started a brainstorming thread in the subject of "Ancient Bloodlines" like fan-book- which had a lot of good ideas but a lot of it wasn't really developed. Lately, I have started to ponder again in the subject, and I've thought to myself why not to try again? Anyway, I've decided that this time I'll take a more practical approach and suggest one Era per time unit (a week maybe? I have tests you know), and see what I can think about hunters during that Era and hear what other people has to say about it (I think we should go chronically, something possible mostly thanks to Second Chance's hard work about CofD's timeline), and while most of the focus should be about existing/future/unchosen Eras and similar historical setting books, if someone feels inspired for a new timeline or something feel free to suggest it (I should have a complete list of fan suggested Eras somewhere. I'll check if someone is interested)
full list of ideas per Era
Anyway, let's start from, well the start- Sundered World.
Like everyone know, that Era has a Mage-Werewolf focus, although there have been more than few suggestions for other gamelines. It has, after all, one of the richer Crossover sidebars, which includes a lot of potential- from primordial vampires and chthonic Bound and up to alchemist potters and the Shaniatu far in the south. Hunters are also mentioned in the sidebar, but only as a passing reference, as one of the possible people who stand against ravaging beasts. Now, in many ways, Sundered World is the darkest Dark Era in the book- there are very few points of light, when the very theme of the book is "do as the Wise say, or you are dead". In a way, that should put the hunters in the shadow of the Wise- they are the protectors of their community, after all. They are the ones who know what the community needs to do if it wish to survive. Death is at every corner, and only the Wise can protect the People. There is not other way.
But there is. Challenging the status que of the overreaching darkness is part of their theme. This may be humanity's darkest time, but it also should be the time when those lone candles shine the brightest. In this time, when people has to follow thousands of taboos and obey their gods and Wise without second guest, those who dare to rise against the order and act on their own for what they think as "right", those who dare to leave the warm embrace of the fire and search the wilderness for new wonders and threats, the ones who risk their very life by acting outside their community in order to protect their community are the hunters of the Era- few points in the darkness, but they shine more brightly than any other.
Such lifestyle means that most potential hunter should either be traders or, well, hunters- although the fact that any person could take on the Vigil is one of the game's themes (well, other than the Wise). The Era itself should also put a lot of emphasis around 1st Tier game- most of those early hunters would end up as cultural heroes, people who with of without help of the Wise and the gods defeated the many terrors of the ancient world. Those hunters you play in that Era may end up as the origin for stories like Hercules, Gilgamesh, Durga... and Marduk.
So, just from the top of my head, here are some ideas for potential "hunter types"- the most common ones should be, like I've said before, the hunters. Those people know the wilderness the best, and they also know how to track down and hunt different monsters. They cult-like structure allows them to preserve many traditions and stories, allowing them to maintain a certain amount of information about the different demons and gods of the time. Traders should also have a certain amount of information, and in that time knowing in which paths one should walk and in which he should not in critical if you wish to survive. Other than that, you also have the regular Joe kind of hunters who have just stumbled upon a monster and actually killed it, like the kind of people described in the sidebar who are simply strong willed enough to recognize a Beast and kill it (although pre-modern Heroes may be indistinguishable from them, and who knows how should they operate in that time). Finally, the last "hunter option" which I can think about are some sort of guardians to the Wise- mortal men and women who serve them as hands and legs and swear to give their life in order to protect them. Ironically, those "cancer cells" would be the most accepted hunters in that Era.
Now, while I've said that it should be a 1st Tier Era, let's try to muse about some higher Tiers, and if we already do so than let's go all extreme and think about something which is, practically, unthinkable- a conspiracy. Now, I know that an organization in the standards of modern conspiracy is unthinkable, but I also believe that Tiers should be a subjective terms- when all of your world revolves around the River, the Forest, the Mountain and the Sea, a "3rd Tier organization" should simply be a group which is able to operate through the many small Vinca communities, and I already thought about a candidate- the Nibiru (or, as they call themselves, as the Wolf-Hunter Cult), which I've also included a sidebar for them about that Era. That group was developed as being the "first", and the thought was making them show up in the Neolithic. As someone has noticed, their Endowments are similar in many ways with what Heroes do, which should work as the hero-hunter mix of the time. As you could imagine, they would work inside the hunter-cults of the time, worshiping Father Wolf and the Nine Firstborn who gave them their blessings- plus, they could be awesome to use as the wolf masked dancers of that culture. Finally, the fact they target both spirits and witches makes them as a good foe in that Era, with a good reason for attacking and objecting the Wise, unlike most of the other People (they go through the wilderness and find the dead corpses of the gods, understanding who is the one responsible to the acts), turning them into permanent outsiders and a good foil for any "temple guardian" who side with the Wise.
So- what kind of ideas/suggestions do you have for that dark, dark Era?
full list of ideas per Era
Anyway, let's start from, well the start- Sundered World.
Like everyone know, that Era has a Mage-Werewolf focus, although there have been more than few suggestions for other gamelines. It has, after all, one of the richer Crossover sidebars, which includes a lot of potential- from primordial vampires and chthonic Bound and up to alchemist potters and the Shaniatu far in the south. Hunters are also mentioned in the sidebar, but only as a passing reference, as one of the possible people who stand against ravaging beasts. Now, in many ways, Sundered World is the darkest Dark Era in the book- there are very few points of light, when the very theme of the book is "do as the Wise say, or you are dead". In a way, that should put the hunters in the shadow of the Wise- they are the protectors of their community, after all. They are the ones who know what the community needs to do if it wish to survive. Death is at every corner, and only the Wise can protect the People. There is not other way.
But there is. Challenging the status que of the overreaching darkness is part of their theme. This may be humanity's darkest time, but it also should be the time when those lone candles shine the brightest. In this time, when people has to follow thousands of taboos and obey their gods and Wise without second guest, those who dare to rise against the order and act on their own for what they think as "right", those who dare to leave the warm embrace of the fire and search the wilderness for new wonders and threats, the ones who risk their very life by acting outside their community in order to protect their community are the hunters of the Era- few points in the darkness, but they shine more brightly than any other.
Such lifestyle means that most potential hunter should either be traders or, well, hunters- although the fact that any person could take on the Vigil is one of the game's themes (well, other than the Wise). The Era itself should also put a lot of emphasis around 1st Tier game- most of those early hunters would end up as cultural heroes, people who with of without help of the Wise and the gods defeated the many terrors of the ancient world. Those hunters you play in that Era may end up as the origin for stories like Hercules, Gilgamesh, Durga... and Marduk.
So, just from the top of my head, here are some ideas for potential "hunter types"- the most common ones should be, like I've said before, the hunters. Those people know the wilderness the best, and they also know how to track down and hunt different monsters. They cult-like structure allows them to preserve many traditions and stories, allowing them to maintain a certain amount of information about the different demons and gods of the time. Traders should also have a certain amount of information, and in that time knowing in which paths one should walk and in which he should not in critical if you wish to survive. Other than that, you also have the regular Joe kind of hunters who have just stumbled upon a monster and actually killed it, like the kind of people described in the sidebar who are simply strong willed enough to recognize a Beast and kill it (although pre-modern Heroes may be indistinguishable from them, and who knows how should they operate in that time). Finally, the last "hunter option" which I can think about are some sort of guardians to the Wise- mortal men and women who serve them as hands and legs and swear to give their life in order to protect them. Ironically, those "cancer cells" would be the most accepted hunters in that Era.
Now, while I've said that it should be a 1st Tier Era, let's try to muse about some higher Tiers, and if we already do so than let's go all extreme and think about something which is, practically, unthinkable- a conspiracy. Now, I know that an organization in the standards of modern conspiracy is unthinkable, but I also believe that Tiers should be a subjective terms- when all of your world revolves around the River, the Forest, the Mountain and the Sea, a "3rd Tier organization" should simply be a group which is able to operate through the many small Vinca communities, and I already thought about a candidate- the Nibiru (or, as they call themselves, as the Wolf-Hunter Cult), which I've also included a sidebar for them about that Era. That group was developed as being the "first", and the thought was making them show up in the Neolithic. As someone has noticed, their Endowments are similar in many ways with what Heroes do, which should work as the hero-hunter mix of the time. As you could imagine, they would work inside the hunter-cults of the time, worshiping Father Wolf and the Nine Firstborn who gave them their blessings- plus, they could be awesome to use as the wolf masked dancers of that culture. Finally, the fact they target both spirits and witches makes them as a good foe in that Era, with a good reason for attacking and objecting the Wise, unlike most of the other People (they go through the wilderness and find the dead corpses of the gods, understanding who is the one responsible to the acts), turning them into permanent outsiders and a good foil for any "temple guardian" who side with the Wise.
So- what kind of ideas/suggestions do you have for that dark, dark Era?
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