[WOD] [Banestorm] Yrth of Darkness: Rage Across Yttaria

[davidtmoore]

Okay, thought exercise that may develop into a campaign.

The premise is fairly straightforward: the Earth of the Banestorm setting is the Earth of World of Darkness (original, not reboot), and the Banestorm brought much of our world's weirdness to Yrth with it.

I've got some ideas, but I wanted to shake the forumbrain first.

So some initial thoughts:

Rage Across Yttaria

- Yrth has its own world-spirit equivalent to Gaia, called The Eternal. It also has its own Triat, which to distinguish it from Earth's Triat shall be called Dragon, Spider and Wolf. According to the Yrth shapeshifters' myths, Dragon created the Elves, Spider created the Dwarves and Wolf created the Orcs.

- On Earth, the Weaver tried to trap the Wyrm (to stop the cycle of destruction and rebirth), leading to the Wyrm's corruption and the current situation. On Yrth, Dragon tried to kill Wolf (to stop destructive chaos), causing Wolf to lash back and leading to the Banestorm.

- Yrth has its own spirits, its own native shapeshifters (certainly elven werewolves) and its own Umbra; human Garou are intruders. They don't have the benefit of existing pacts with the spirits, and have to bargain or trade where once they could have appealed to Gaia and the Lunes.

- Halflings, Goblins, Reptile Men, Giants(!) and so on all come from worlds with their own spirits and shapeshifters as well.

- The current state of play is essentially a cold war, with the human shapeshifters among the most numerous on Yrth, but at a disadvantage in the spirit world, and shapeshifters of the Elder Races in decline but with the spirits on their sides. Other shapeshifters mostly pick sides between these two.

- The Banestorm is a gigantic umbral storm, which makes Stepping Sideways hugely dangerous, and travel out of the Penumbra more so. There are umbral realms specific to Yrth, and may be paths through the Umbra back to Earth, but none who go looking for them ever come back.

So what's happened? Which Tribes and Breeds are where? What types of shapeshifter exist among the Elder Races and outsiders?

[Bruno]

The Yrth native wildlife is notable for having a lot of the South American and Australian marsupial wildlife still surviving (tree tippers are giant ground sloths, there are marsupial wolves, etc). I think Earthly garou would be pretty darn shook up to find the Bunyip tribe alive and well and represented on Yrth, albeit as elves.

But there could just as easily be Earth Bunyip too, as well as Croatoan and actual White Howlers. I'm not sure I'd go that route myself because I'm oversaturated on all the "Last Of The White Howlers" characters I had to deal with in the 90s (along with violet-eyed kinfolk with silver hair - there's a factory stamping those out somewhere).

[Flyndaran]

Ouch, thanks for reminding me of that weird violet eyed children are the next step in evolution fad nonsense of the 90s.
(I had violet eyes for the first month or so after birth. Then blue then as a toddler they went brown.)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Bruno

...
But there could just as easily be Earth Bunyip too, as well as Croatoan and actual White Howlers. I'm not sure I'd go that route myself because I'm oversaturated on all the "Last Of The White Howlers" characters I had to deal with in the 90s (along with violet-eyed kinfolk with silver hair - there's a factory stamping those out somewhere).

You could have last of one of the common tribes. Banestorms are often fickle and odd, so maybe for some unknown reason only a very few of X were lifted to Yrth.

[davidtmoore]

Originally Posted by Bruno

The Yrth native wildlife is notable for having a lot of the South American and Australian marsupial wildlife still surviving (tree tippers are giant ground sloths, there are marsupial wolves, etc). I think Earthly garou would be pretty darn shook up to find the Bunyip tribe alive and well and represented on Yrth, albeit as elves.

Ooh, I like that. Bunyips, weremegatheria, Mokole, Anansi (especially among the Dwarves). Are Changing Breeds race-specific, or are they spread across all three Elder Races?

Originally Posted by Bruno

But there could just as easily be Earth Bunyip too, as well as Croatoan and actual White Howlers. I'm not sure I'd go that route myself because I'm oversaturated on all the "Last Of The White Howlers" characters I had to deal with in the 90s (along with violet-eyed kinfolk with silver hair - there's a factory stamping those out somewhere).

Fortunately not White Howlers, they disappeared in 200 AD. Croatoan possibly, they'd be post-Banestorm.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Bruno

(along with violet-eyed kinfolk with silver hair - there's a factory stamping those out somewhere).

Huh. I didn't know GRRM played WoD (the rather magical and special Valyrians have violet eyes and silver/white hair).

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Ouch, thanks for reminding me of that weird violet eyed children are the next step in evolution fad nonsense of the 90s.

... that's not how evolution works.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Anders

... that's not how evolution works.

It's how people who have read too many comic books think evolution works, which is enough to get a silly fad started. At least they weren't into killing or enslaving anyone who fell too far from their ideal.