Supernatural factions

Many supernatural “kinds”—wizards, vampires, faeries, etc.—are considered to belong to their own supernatural nation under the Unseelie Accords. (However, given the differences between the Vampire Courts, and the differences between the Summer and Winter Courts of Faerie, there are several separate “nations” of vampires and faeries.) Here’s a quick run-down of the major factions in play. (For further details on the nature of each of these types of beings, see **Entities of the Nevernever** and **What Goes Bump**).

### **Mortals**

Mortals aren’t a supernatural faction per se. But they are both prey and a threat (especially en masse) to many of the supernatural nations. While more-or-less clueless to the supernatural shenanigans happening around them, hordes of mortals roused to action can pose a danger. Calling mortal authorities into an arcane fracas is usually akin to calling in an airstrike.

After the Industrial Revolution, with the wide availability of steel weapons, guns, and ever more deadly technologies, the mortal threat has upgraded to “nuclear” (literally!). For the past three hundred years or so, supernatural folk have laid a bit lower than in the past. Unfortunately, opinions on the dangers of mortalkind seem to be changing.

#### **The Roman Catholic Church**

While many priests believe in the Devil, not many have accurate information on the Prince of Darkness. There are some who know a bit about the various Vampire Courts, but very few know anything about the Faerie Courts. The general attitude of clued-in people in the Church is that anyone involved with the supernatural is either evil or sliding that way, with few exceptions.

A scattering of Churchly people— priests, monks, nuns, affiliated laymen, and others—know and stand sentinel against the darkness. Few of them have any real skill with magic, but some have particular areas of knowledge, special skills, or personal alliances with supernatural factions. For example, the Knights of the Cross (though their calling comes from a higher source than any mortal religion) are strongly associated with a faction within the Catholic Church that provides what support it can for the Knights.

####  **The Fellowship of St. Giles**

The Fellowship of St. Giles is a refuge for the desperate, for people who have some kind of darkness within them (usually in the form of Red Court venom) that has begun to eat them away. All of them are trying to hold onto their humanity by turning that darkness back upon those who would harm mankind.

The Fellowship has developed magical tattoos to control their members’ hungers. These allow the half-vampiric members of the Fellowship to enjoy the advantages of their supernatural abilities while maintaining a modicum of control and choice. However, these tattoos aren’t perfect; extended use of supernatural abilities returns the member to the mercy of those monstrous hungers. For this reason, the Fellowship usually works in pairs or teams, keeping an eye on one another.

They have a particular hatred for the Red Court and will take any opportunity to strike back at them.

#### **The Venatori Umbrorum**

The Venatori Umbrorum are literally “hunters of the shadows.” Often characterized as “Masons with machine guns” or “Masons with flamethrowers,” this ancient secret brotherhood has extensive knowledge of academic (especially history and folklore), commercial, intelligence and counter-intelligence, financial, legal, and military issues. They possess an understanding of basic occult countermeasures. They are a larger organization than the Fellowship of St. Giles (possibly even larger than the White Council realizes). Unfortunately, they seem to lack powerful magical practitioners.

As allies of the White Council, they usually provide intel and analysis to the wizards

#### **Other Mortals**

Clued-in mortals, werewolves, scions, and hedge wizards all play fairly minor roles in the overall supernatural situation. Most often, they are simply food, targets, or obstacles to the larger and more powerful factions. Sorcerers are often catspaws and pawns for the darker supernatural nations and Freeholding Lords—sometimes even Outsiders. Sorcerers don’t usually have enough oomph to stir up “international” trouble on their own. Usually. On the other hand, necromancers (especially powerful ones) are individually a sort of “banana republic” in the overall supernatural nations schema. Given their power and undead legions, they cannot simply be controlled as sorcerers are. They are powerful loose cannons which must be jostled into position or squelched as quickly as possible, depending upon the aims and goals of the larger supernatural faction.

### **The White Council**

The White Council, comprised of wizards from all mortal nations, is a signatory of the Unseelie Accords and serves as the “supernatural nation” for all mortal wizardkind. The Senior Council (its governing body) ensures that most wizards in the world respect the Laws of Magic—and disposes of the ones who don’t (via its Wardens; see below).It maintains alliances with other occult groups like the Venatori Umbrorum, the Fellowship of St. Giles, and a few mystically inclined monasteries in Tibet and India.

Most wizards worthy of the name have come up through the traditional system: apprenticing with a White Council member, passing the trials of wizardry, and joining the Council themselves as full members.

A White Council member gets a vote in important deliberations and agrees to abide by the Council’s rules (including the Laws of Magic, see sidebar). A member is obliged to represent the White Council, if necessary.

Latin is spoken in White Council conclaves. All members attending a full meeting of the Council wear a robe with a stole that denotes their rank (no stole for apprentices, blue for junior wizards, red for senior ones, purple for Senior Council members).

The White Council is governed by the Senior Council: seven wizards of age, skill, power, and knowledge. The leader of the Senior Council (and thus the entire White Council) is called “the Merlin.” They set policy by majority vote (usually of the entire membership of the White Council, but a Senior Council member can restrict matters to a closed vote of just the Senior Council).

#### **Wardens**

The Wardens are the guardians (and often executioners) of the White Council. They are responsible for policing both the White Council and the magical community outside it. A Warden is expected to protect mortals in his area, be vigilant against supernatural threats in his region, represent the Council in matters of diplomacy, aid and assist other wizards who require aid and protection, and—when required—strike out at the enemies of the Council. Think of them as “magic cops.”

All Wardens are battle-capable wizards of high skill and power. Warden security protocols compose some of the best magical countermeasures in the world. They are trained in the use of wardhounds in this work, and they also have access to voluminous—if sometimes incomplete and out-of-date—dossiers on various supernatural “high-rollers.”

Their tokens of office are a plain grey cloak and a special sword—both serve as a sign of their authority. Furthermore, a Warden’s Sword is a puissant and useful enchanted weapon. Subject to the Senior Council, they have their own captain and are structured under regional commanders. Regional commanders are in charge of security and operations for a large area.

### **The Knights of the Cross**

The Knights of the Cross were founded to counter the Fallen angels who make up the Order of the Blackened Denarius. They protect the freedom of the mortal soul. To that end, they aid any mortals under the oppression of dark forces and try to help those people win freedom from the darkness.

When a Knight meets a Denarian, he is supposed to offer the Denarian a chance to surrender his coin and repent. If the Denarian hands over his coin and asks for mercy, the Knight has to accept this and let him go, giving him a chance at repentance. (While this seems like an easy out, to be fair, there *have* been cases where this has worked and the ex-Denarian has genuinely repented).

If the Denarian says no, then it’s time for a bit of the old choppy-choppy, slashy-slashy. While primarily founded to thwart the Denarians, the Knights are usually willing to tackle other evils, should it be God’s will— “winning free of the oppression of dark forces” covers a lot of ground (thus, the Knights’ “dealings” with the various Vampire Courts).

Knights of the Cross are often Christians of some stripe, but a virtuous and faithful heart is more important than conscious belief in a theistic faith. After all, God believes in *them*, whether or not they believe in Him in any particular way.

There are three Knights of the Cross at most, and sometimes there are fewer. Their tokens and their burdens are their three Swords: *Amoracchius* (a broadsword), *Fidelacchius* (a katana), and *Esperacchius* (a saber), each incorporating one of the three nails that pierced Christ’s hands and feet on the cross.

The Knights are quite simply and purely Good Guys. They do the right thing, and they risk their lives to do it. Armed only with a Holy Sword, (divine?) serendipity, some mild support from the Catholic Church (and, arguably, the angelic hosts of Heaven), and God’s blessing, they face down the forces of Hell, dragons, ghosts, the Vampire Courts, and anyone else who requires it.

### **Vampires**

The Vampire Courts are perhaps the most pervasive, widespread groups of monsters out there. Fortunately for the other supernatural factions, they’re riddled with infighting and discord, frequently feuding with each other, and they require rigid levels of protocol and diplomacy in order to function *at all.*

In practice, the Black Court is drastically understrength when compared to the White and Red Courts (this can be directly blamed on the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula). The potency of the Jade Court is unknown—a wild card in the deck.

The White and Red Courts hold a lot of power in the modern world. The White Court has infiltrated the media (in particular, pornography and fashion), while the Red Court has worked its fingers into politics and finance. The complicated rivalries that divide each Court mean that a Red Court vampire who’s currently up against a White Court foe can often find a White Court rival who’s prepared to make a temporary alliance against this mutual enemy—and vice versa, of course. This tends to benefit the rest of the supernatural world, as the Vampire Courts tend to keep each other’s numbers down.

#### **The Black Court**

Black Court vampires have all the vulnerabilities that are described in Dracula: holy items, holy water, garlic, fire, running water, and so on. And pretty much *everyone* knows it. This has left Black Court vampires rather thin on the ground. The ones who have survived are the old, powerful Ruhks, who have the intelligence and the capabilities to avoid public attention and protect themselves from other supernaturals. The infrastructure of Black Court vampires is unknown. It may be that, post-Dracula,they are too fragmented to have any hierarchy at all. Their relations with the other Courts are tenuous, as the other Courts have them at a disadvantage and *know* it. Black Court vampires feed much faster than the Reds or Whites do and tend to “use up” the local mortal population; this causes frequent territory disputes among the Courts.

The Black Court often uses “Renfields”— humans who have had their wills broken and then been bodily fortified by black magic—to act as bodyguards, minions, and cannon-fodder.

#### **The Red Court**

The members of the Red Court are inhuman creatures inside human shells; their true form is a thing of warped flesh and twisted bone. While they can maintain a pleasant and even beautiful human appearance, under stress they show their real nature: half-bat monsters drooling black venom and stretching out long angular limbs to seize their victims.

The Red Court has great influence in international finance and politics; they manipulate mortals through their narcotic venom, in addition to mundane bribes and influence. The core of the Red Court power is based in South America and they have strongholds throughout that continent. They treat mortals as livestock, addicting entire communities to their venom. Various aristocratic bloodlines advise and intrigue with (and against) the ruler of the Red Court, the Red King. The high nobles of the Court are very powerful and very inhuman. A few of these aristocrats maintain a semblance of civilized behavior through strict personal codes of honor—but most of them don’t, instead reveling in their power. It is unknown what language the Red Court uses in their councils, but either Spanish or Portugese would be apt.

#### **The White Court**

The White Court are psychic vampires; they live off the emotions of others, so much so that they can drain other people to death. They can feed off of various different emotions, using that energy to empower their supernatural abilities. White Court vampirism is hereditary as opposed to infectious.

There are a number of Houses in the White Court jockeying for power and status—Raith, Skavis, and Malvora are the most powerful. Lord Raith is the current White King. In conclave, White Court members speak ancient Etruscan. Though the Houses are divided in their opinions on how the White Court should respond to the Vampire War, the White King has called for diplomacy. This, of course, has led to even more internal division.

### **Faeries**

The Faerie fall into two rough divisions—the Summer Court (the Seelie) and the Winter Court (the Unseelie)—though there are various wyld powers in between these factions. Neither major Court is absolutely “good” or “evil.” Trying to assign each a moral stance vis-à-vis mortal perspectives is just dumb.

Each Court has three rulers: the Queen Who Was (the Mother), the Queen Who Is (the Queen), and the Queen Who Is To Come (the Lady). The Mother holds vast power, but she is mysteriously beholden to the natural order, and she thus takes little active role in the ruling of the Court. The Queen holds massive power and uses it to *rule*. The Lady holds the smallest portion of power (still a great amount, to mortal minds), but she also has the most freedom of action, the closest access to the mortal world, and the most ability to act independently. Some of the fae prefer hanging out in the mortal world to spending their lives in the Nevernever. Even the Sidhe (see below) visit the mortal world on occasion, but they don’t spend much of their time there. This may be because humanity offers various fleshly pleasures (such as pizza), or because the fae in question *needs* to interact with humanity or nature in order to fulfill its purpose.

#### **Sidhe**

Among the faerie, Sidhe is a state of being that is somewhat political and somewhat biological. A Sidhe has all of the abilities of its faerie type, raised to greater heights of power. The Sidhe are the aristocracy of Faerie, and that mindset must be considered when dealing with them, regardless of which Court—or no Court—they are associated with.

#### **Sidhe Knights**

Sidhe Knights, the champions of the Courts, ensure the balance between the Courts of Faerie. While the Faerie Queens cannot kill anyone who isn’t attached to their Court through birthright or bargain, the Knights *can*. The Knights can also act in affairs not directly related to Faerie, making them the primary outlet of the Faerie Courts for intrigue in the mortal world. This relative freedom is, of course, enabled by the fact that Sidhe Knights *must* be mortal—i.e., human.

### **The Order of the Blackened Denarius**

The Order of the Blackened Denarius is composed of Fallen angels bound to thirty silver coins. These coins, said to be Judas Iscariot’s payment for betraying Christ, permit the Denarians to possess mortal hosts. Denarians are old, powerful, and *very* dangerous entities. They have rampaged across two millennia of history, opposed only by the Knights of the Cross .

The Denarians are led by Nicodemus Archleone. Nicodemus has possession of those denarii neither currently in use nor captured by the Knights of the Cross, and he passes them on to suitable targets for corruption. It is suspected that his long term plans involve bringing about the Apocalypse. Interestingly, not all the Denarians share his patience, resulting in tension within the group as some of them pursue goals with a quicker payoff.

### **Freeholding Lords**

Under the Unseelie Accords, powerful individuals are permitted to be signatories. These are the Freeholding Lords. Dragons, scions, and even old gods fill the ranks of the Freeholding Lords. In the view of the supernatural nations, they are arcane “city-states.”

### **Outsiders and Old Ones**

We know very little of the Outsiders and the Old Ones.

What is known is that the Outsiders are minions of the Old Ones. Both come from outside our universal reality, from beyond the limits of Creation, from beyond the Outer Gates. Outsiders are creatures of utter chaos and nihilism. They are dedicated to ending all thought and order. Their only goal is returning the universe to the void.