A Foreword


In the course of play, and expansion, and much writing and rewriting, a number of changes have grown up between my troupe's chronicle and official WW canon. In order to make material from said chronicle at all intelligible, I find it needful to find and explain those changes.

Firstly, some political changes: Due to an initial and innocent misunderstanding that dates way, waaay back, my troupe has been playing in a game world where there are 49 Justicars. Not one, but SEVEN per clan, and so, typically, one from each clan on each continent, plus a seventh set of 'floaters' who are most senior and supervise the others. Any given Justicar is more or less autonomus, but we generally play them as having 'preferred stomping grounds' where other Justicars, especially of the same clan, will generally defer to their judgement of a situation. One might go elsewhere and meddle, but it won't be appreciated, and might result in a Conclave being called to decide which one overstepped his bounds, if they can't settle the matter between themselves.

Usually, two Justicars of the same clan won't settle too near each other, because they'd either be redundant or constantly stepping on each other's toes, and neither is likely to lead to re-election. They would want to be able to show their Councillor & clanmates a good track record, after all. A senior Justicar is usually the first & most powerful appointed in a given 13year election, and has the right to hassle the other Justicars of his clan as an 'internal policing' measure. Once again, if a junior is feeling seriously wronged, they may opt to call Conclave to get their Senior off their back. Junior Justicars are generally somewhat less powerful personally, and less widely respected and/or feared, but are independent, not Archons of the Senior Justicar. Only issues of survival (political or otherwise) dictate the Juniors' usual agreement with the Senior.

The Chronicle character Morgana DeVries is the junior Tremere Justicar for North America, and has split up the continent into seven geographic ranges; her own, and six others, one for each other Justicar of North America, with whom she occasionally squabbles, allies, ect. In more minor notes, we've made the Prince/Primogen structure a bit more fluid and flexible, and less obligatory. Not all cities will have a well-defined Primogen council, not all cities have a single definite Prince, but that's still the most common setup. Further, both Tremere and Toreador are known by the other clans to have a fairly intricate internal social ranking system, which other clans need not necessarily bother with. The Ventrue, especially, rather resent the perceived arrogance of the Tremere in doling out 'non-official' titles to their subordinates. (With the footnote, of course, that it helps to figure out who's most important, if you need a favor.)

Some historical changes: In this setting, the Salubri, Baali, and Tremere share a measure of common heritage, and this is mutually recognized. (Well, at least by the Salubri who know anything about their past, the Baali who care either way, and the Tremere old enough or sneaky enough to have found out the truth of the matter.) Further, the Salubri are the good guys. Saulot was generally a decent person, saintly, insightful, and self-sacrificing, and the Baali are his bastard childer by one renegade 4th gen, here dubbed Shaitain for ease of reference. We're scrapping the whole 'organ pit' thing. No Sabbat Salubri here. The Magus Tremere was a right selfish bastard, and that's not wholly surprising. Beyond that, there are more than seven Salubri. There are seven 8th generation Salubri, who have a scattering of supportive, mysterious, and/or torporous elders and an equal or even smaller number of younger lost or 'second' childer of 9th, 10th, or 11th generation here and there. Most of these lost souls have no idea who or what they are.

Next, some systemic changes: I have taken a fair bit of poetic license with Auspex, Obtenebration, Dominate, and Damonien especially. Generally speaking, I may not restrict my self to exact discipline powers if I feel that the power level is reasonable for the character in question and the application I have in mind is more thematically or dramatically appropriate. Also, once again, waaay back when I was learning this stuff, I got some of the levels jumbled, so I try to avoid naming precise powers for many characters, just to cover my ass.

Beyond that, I have done some terrible, terrible things to Obeah in attempts to make it work the way I think it should. A listing of the precise changes will be available shortly. Auspex and Dominate both have been treated as a bit more far-reaching and perhaps more problem-ridden than a strict interpretation might suggest, and Celerity has been generalized to allow for things like higher running speed over longer periods of time. I suggest chalking most of this stuff up to poetic licence. Also, there are several original Thaumaturgical rituals mentioned in the text, at various points. I'll have a link to full write-ups of those as soon as I actually have the time to write them up, period.


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