Fantasy ▐⋆⊱BRITANNICA LOST: Extended Lore

[Luxura]

Below you will find a library of Topics with additional information pertaining to
Characters & NPC's, Settings, and Plot.

Spoiler: Setting

Storyville
Nestled in the city is Storyville— an iconic red light district mere blocks from the famed French Quarter— which caters to anyone with enough coin, and to any need or desire of supernatural or tender mortal flesh. Templar influence is limited, as they have no governance in this region. Here you will find Le Repaire de Velours (The Velvet Lair)


The Bayou
Outside the city, far from the comforts and safety of civilities, is a place few men dare to go. From dark swamps thick with cypress trees to sun-kissed marshes playing host to herons and egrets, the Mississippi River Delta is a watery but eerie wonderland. The darkness here hold secrets deep. Riddled in folklore and twisted tales, it is hard to know what is truly real or fiction. Many dare not go where they cannot return from...


New Londontown
England's capital, and where the tale of war began. The cobblestones of this city have drank enough blood to be a breathing being. Yet, despite the burnings and slaughters, the city held strong, and was successful in purging itself of Supernaturals twice over. It is the central home of the Templars.


Eden
The name of the largest airship in existence. During the ten year period of The Red Oath the Templars constructed the first steam-powered flying ship the world has ever seen. Prone to malfunction, but nevertheless a deadly aerial power that is home to some of the top leaders of the Templar forces. It docks over New Londontown.

Spoiler: Characters & NPC's

Jack Fletcher
Extended Background
In the years following his rebirth, Jack found himself full of unanswered questions. The world was a dangerous place, and suddenly he was nearly untouchable. He hungered ravenously for blood and flesh nearly more than his own curiosity.
Turning his attention to the only place he knew he could find both, Jack was welcomed into the estate of the Leech King, Kestrel Paradin. There, he made himself a home in the large study where the walls were lined with literature, and the General at the time was willing to provide him with the information he needed. He discovered the loose history of their kind, the war that waged against the Beasts, and that Kestrel was far from a worthy leader.

The factions had been gathering, like clouds to a voracious storm. It had been said there were peace talks circulating, but no one was certain. All had received high summons from the vampire and werebeast leaders to present themselves in New Londontown in order to report back to their captain.
It was by happenstance that on that night Jack would have love at first sight, and it would be to the enemy.

Adelaide Piccolo. A woman petite in frame, pixie-like in features with pearly hair and porcelain skin. She was the fairest of women, a goddess, the farmer’s daughter. And the moment Jack met her in the filthy back alleyways of New Londontown he was cursed to love her for all time.
The two fell into a blissfully ignorant love affair, rampant and volatile; as if to pay homage to Romeo and Juliet. Their attraction was so magnetic they believed themselves to be a mated pair.

But the pair were doomed from the start. A vampire and a beast. The two were torn apart by the war they struggled to leave. Adelaide was promoted as General to the Midnight Jackal, and made to believe Jack did not love her; that the mate bond was a ruse by the vampires to lure beasts and kill them when vulnerable. She turned on him violently as they made to consummate their love. While Jack did manage to survive her attempt on his life, he was overwhelmingly heartbroken.

As Jack went into hiding, he saved the life of a tailor by the name of Bernardo Maverick from a group of thug vampires. Indebted to Jack, Bernardo offered to give him shelter from Adelaide’s pursuit. However, before they could even arrive at his tailor shop, Kestrel Paradin was murdered by his twin sister. The Jackal went into a bloodthirsty massacre, slaughtering everything in her path; sending the city into hiding, barricading themselves indoors for weeks to save themselves from her beastly rampage.

Those weeks hunkered down in Bernardo’s shop would build the foundations of their eventual friendship and love affair.
Jack, still heartbroken, would tempt fate and walk the streets during this time; all but asking for a release from his despair. One evening while walking along the pier he happened upon Adelaide’s corpse, bloated and blue in the Thames, caught under the boardwalk. Distressed from this horror, he developed a post-traumatic psychosis and locked himself away in Bernardo’s rooms. Haunted by her visage, he would attempt to leave his old life behind, going so far as to bleach out his hair from brunette to blonde and return to the war as a freedom fighter; despite all of Bernardo’s pleadings to forget the war and stay behind.
Bitterly, the tailor followed Jack, and the pair joined the fray only for the immortal army to be run out of New Londontown by the growing Templar Army.

On ships, the Beasts and Vampires that survived the first Templar exodus sailed to Spain. A truce between Beast and Vampire formed, only so that they could make their way up the coasts and countryside of Spain into Paris, where they would catch voyage back into New Londontown again. During this escapade, Jack would surrender himself to servitude to Ataraxia Niliho, Kestrel’s sister and the new Queen of Vampires. Despite Kestrel’s return, Jack gravitated to the Paradin Sister for her cool and level-headed leadership.

While roaming the countryside, the troupe commandeered a traveling carnival and used it to hide their identities from the Templars. They picked up a few vagabonds along the way, but one was of particular interest.
Amelia Archibeque, a vampiress that came to Jack claiming to be his long lost sister. She weaved to him the tale of his true parentage, how his father was a thief and vagabond, leaving his mother to raise him alone with her older daughter. When she became ill, she gave them both to the orphanage; Jack was only an infant, and Amelia ran away… though always watching him from afar.
Thrilled, albeit weary, about having a sister Jack attempted to have a relationship with her. She was coy, manipulative, and dangerous with him and his life multiple times… but Jack was so desperate to have a family again that he ignored her tendencies. Bernardo, however, could not just turn a blind eye to her and believed Jack to be naive. He would prove correct when, one evening, Amelia attempted to tempt Jack away from the war by leaving with her. When Jack refused to leave Bernardo, she threatened to tell everyone about his love affair with the enemy. Having heard the whole thing, the tailor shot her dead between the eyes, and shattered her clockwork heart with bullets.

Unfortunately, this act would be enough to trigger Jack’s psychosis beyond repair. After he buried her corpse in the Spanish forests, Jack would lose himself to temptation and otherworldly spirits, and attempt to take his own life. Bernardo, exhausted of Jack’s trauma and defeated; though thankful Jack did not succeed in his own end; was finished and ended their relationship.

As the troupe entered Paris, they found the city a haven for Vampires, a city void of significant mortal life and starving. Ataraxia and Noora Jokelainen, the werebeast General, believed it was necessary to have Kestrel taken out of the picture. He was dangerous, and both believed he held too tight a hold over Mercia with their mate bond. Jack came to Ataraxia to offer himself to her service, but the plans thankfully fell through. Instead of battling for his life, Jack met Bernardo at Notre Dame cathedral and fought for his love.
Bernardo challenged Jack to a duel, something he had been preparing for in secret as a way to best the vampire and show he was capable of holding his own, that he didn’t need Jack to fight for him anymore. That they were equals.
The tailor came out the winner, and the pair reconciled their passions for one another. It would be their last night in Paris and the war, defecting in the shadows to Venice in the days to follow.


Maeve Donovan
Extended Background
Maeve escaped the city after the death of her beloved friend Abigail. In the decades to follow she blended into human society and kept her nature hidden, except for when the moon would rise high into fullness. She spent the years alone, threatened by the weight of her past. Most of this time she travelled, never staying any place for very long, and she liked it that way. It gave her time to grieve and to face the changes of the world around her, especially after the disappearance of the sun. It would be three centuries she lived like this, if only to stay alive.

When the Raven decided to return to Londontown, it had changed dramatically from the city she had known in her youth. Vampires ran the streets like the rats in the sewers, and Werebeasts did all they could to keep them at bay. This was her understanding until her first encounter with the Werebeast queen whose presence she had always felt,but never acknowledged. Far from the warrior needed, Maeve’s life was forever altered when she saw the Midnight Jackal slaying her enemies. The blonde became obsessed with becoming a fighter that could earn the right to her life, and not continue running from it. The people she met helped to train her to fight and to kill vampires, sharing what they knew to get the job done. In becoming part of a pack of the city, she learned that life was kill or be killed, and to get to the top of pack life you had to fight your way there, claw and fang.

The raven woman would eventually accomplish this feat in combat with the General of the Werebeasts in front of an audience of beasts and leeches alike shortly after the first exodus from London. Although it was a loss, it was a stark reminder of what blind ambition could accomplish. She was named Lieutenant of the Werebeasts, and served her General and Queen well across the European continent. However, the many attempts to best their enemies would also fail, and as such the Queen and her commanders would leave. In the process Maeve would best the General in a match, thus allowing the woman to resign from the position to follow her instincts elsewhere. Maeve would follow Mercia, until one night she left without a trace.

When the queen disappeared, Maeve boldly took her place as the General of the Werebeasts with fervor. She maintained Mercia’s will by way of reminding her people of the Red Oath and the deal struck between the sovereigns of the races. However, she was aware her former superior officer was leading a rebellion against those who agree with the Oath. With that on the horizon, Maeve cautioned that all beasts were to remain loyal to their queen, because any who defected to the rebellion or stood against her would be slaughtered without hesitation.

Maeve firmly believed the Werebeast queen was still alive, and made it her private mission to ensure her people believed it as well. Before returning to Londontown, she began to spread rumors about Mercia’s location as she roamed all over the world in search of her. This even lead to a difficult trip back to her homeland in hopes the queen made a pilgrimage back. Though the latter was no where to be found, it was here that Maeve let go of the ghosts of her past, and laid their memorabilia into the ground. After the trip, she moved back to Londontown to survey the shadow the Templars had cast over the city.


Mercia Addison - The Midnight Jackal
NPC
Mercia Addison’s early history is awash with mystery. What is known is she was born in the fourteenth century to her parents and with a single sibling. They were what was left of a rare breed of Werebeast, said to be descended from the Jackals of the Ancient Egyptian world. This small family called the emerald bluffs of Ireland home for several centuries until the first vampires were made, and the Sun disappeared without a trace.

Mercia, who had been away from home for several months, would find her family slaughtered by the creatures who rampaged the night with their bloodlust. They were treated with all the dignity afforded to livestock at the chopping block. It was in finding this horrific scene that the Queen of the Beasts was born. Filled with an unquenchable passion for vengeance and rage, Mercia would destroy every vampire that crossed her path, lick clean their blood from her claws, and continue her warpath. Beasts rallied to her side, at last led out of the darkness and away from cowering before the leeches which sought their lifeblood. They had a powerful, merciless commander and they were all too happy to follow her call.

In an effort to fight the monsters that destroyed her family, in turn, Mercia became one herself.

It wasn’t long before a King would rise among the vampires that would seek The Midnight Jackal out to bring her to an end. However, they found the game of fighting and combating each other too thrilling for them to ever bring the other to their end. Instead, the games became more challenging and fatal for those around them. When Kestrel’s twin sister, Ataraxia, came for him he was unprepared for her blade. Kestrel would fall, and Mercia’s sanity went with him. For weeks she haunted her den, seeking to appease a rotting head of the King, but finally she would come to when the Templars first attacked.

The First Great Massacre of Londontown would send Werebeast and Vampire alike running to escape the city. Mercia and Ataraxia-- the newly crowned Queen-- would make the first accord between the races as a best chance to survive. During their voyage from England to Spain, Mercia would also discover that the King- by some wayward miracle- had cheated death and come for his Mate. The accord would continue from Spain into France, but would come crashing down after Ataraxia would attempt to murder her brother, again, with the assistance of Mercia’s General at the time, Noora.

Shortly after, the Red Oath was struck with assistance from the Mephisto King, the four sovereigns would attempt to reclaim London. The attempt was hardly worth the price as hundreds would die so a few could slowly, but surely sneak through the cracks of the city. Mercia was not one of them. Instead she had set her sights on seeking out a mysterious prize that she believed would turn the tides against the Templars, and would abandon her latest of Generals-- Maeve-- to do it.

Mercia never returned to London. Her Mate would truly die, which would come with an inevitability.

The end of her life is just as trifled with mystery as the beginning. What is known is that the Werebeasts of the world who were closeby, old enough, or bonded to her felt the great queen’s passing, and only one person knew what she had been seeking: Bjorn Thorburn.


Kestrel Paradin - The Leech King
NPC
Kestrel Paradin was born about six hundred years ago to a family of aristocrats of London, shortly before the sun would disappear and vampires were created. He and his twin sister, Ataraxia, were orphaned at eight years old and sent to an orphanage. Kestrel was passed up for adoption, but his bookish sister was adopted by a strange man, leaving him alone to fend for himself. He was despised by other children for his haughty nature and polished mannerisms, and kept to himself. However that would change when he learned how to utilize his charms to manipulate the other children, or strike fear into them. It was in these years the monster later immortalized was born.

He was forced out of the orphanage at age sixteen, penniless and homeless, and was forced to learn how to live life on the streets. Again, he would use his charms and manipulative skills to extort his way through his years to keep himself alive. At twenty-eight when a vampire crossed his path that was all to willing to turn him immortal after he made promises of eternal love. However, as soon as the procedure was done he would kill her, the first as an immortal.

His cleverness and charm would be his key to rising through the powers that be of the vampire horde and claim the role of “King” after a century and a half. He built an empire on absolute and undisputed power and control, until it was challenged by another sovereign of another race.

Mercia Addison, the Midnight Jackal and Queen of the Werebeasts, would rise to power and challenge Kestrel. However, the first time they would meet, Kestrel felt the need to possess the woman of graceful ferocity and merciless noble purpose. Theirs was a twisted, horrible courtship, filled with death and revival-- his own included.

When the Midnight Jackal disappeared, it would destroy the Vampire King utterly. He would seek her out, following rumors to find her. But he would fail and the trail ran cold. When it did, he returned to their old stomping grounds. He fell into self-loathing and depression, became obsessed with losing himself to drug-induced peace. His empire would crumble until the walls came falling down. The Four Points, the den he created, was attacked twice and Kestrel fell. He was killed, never to be revived by some miracle, and the Beast Queen perished in turn.


Henry Fitzroy - The Mephisto King
NPC
Prince Henry Alexander Fitzroy was born the youngest of 4 siblings, and an identical twin to his elder brother Philip. Henry was the quiet, reserved child in comparison to his brothers and sister. Although, he was always the child to ask questions, curious,
and sometimes stubborn until he had the answers he desired. He was a Child of the Dark Age, the name given to the generations born in the darkness created by the supernaturals stopping mortal time. This, pared with his inquisitive nature, made him a suitable candidate for constant suppression from his elders. He knew and understood the constant threat of the Beast and Vampire kinds, yet his governing rulers did nothing to eradicate their presence in their country. They told him stories of the glorious sun, but spent more energy silencing him than regaining it.

In his adulthood, Henry sought the council of the Church, but they were little support to his unyielding desire to bring peace and prosperity back to the world. He began to become crazed as his family did nothing to save their people while they became food for the immortals under the Leech King and Midnight Jackal. The Templars, as they called themselves, welcomed a member of the royal family with open arms, and Henry soon became invested in the research and design of a weapon that could finally erase the threat of supernaturals from the Earth. He worked closely beside Dr. Stein von Faustus in his creation of the first real immortal threat produced by the mortal race. Little did he know the weapon would ultimately change his mind, his body, and his destiny…

As leader of the Stein Project, Hal's finest creation and prized subject was the resurrection of Kestrel Paradin after his death at the hands of the Red Death, Ataraxia Nihilo (sister and nemesis). Though supposed to be a drone, Kestrel was of too sound a mind and soul to be tamed, and escaped under Hal's watch. Kestrel's rebirth was the creation of a more powerful immortal race that would become known not as Steins, but as Mephisto. In order to kill his new creation, Hal knew then that he needed to become his enemy. Sacrificing his brother for a host, and his mortality for a metal heart, the last of his humility died when he awoke in decayed skin. Dr. Faustus saw his efforts surpassed in Henry’s determination, his dream come to fruition beyond his original comprehension, and his life come to an end by his own creation.
Hal and his core court of Mephisto followed Kestrel to the city of Paris, where there they joined the vampire ranks, cloaked as their own enemies with hope to bring them down from within. And they did for a time. His Apothecary poisoned many to their
deaths. He even revealed himself to the Jackal to gain an edge in the destruction of all vampires. But there was an itch to return to New Londontown, and far too much bad blood. Hal's ego couldn't wait, and he revealed himself and his Mephisto to the ranks of vampires and beasts alike, knowing that upon their return to his city's shores his Stein army would be greater than the other factions... What he hadn't accounted for was the citizens of his city enlisting en mass to the call of the Templars. So much had the mortal threat grown that their reveal was far too premature, and the Red Oath was reluctantly signed under Hal's hand as well.

The rank stench of death in New Londontown did well to hide them among the ranks of the vampires that overpopulate the streets. What enthusiasm he had before the Oath had been lost as the Leech King failed to present himself as a suitable
opponent; and the Templars were too many in numbers to take down alone. With Kestrel in disorderly sorts and Mercia missing, the Mephisto King developed a disturbing case of defeat.
He entrusted his right-hand, Rosemary Unsworth, to oversee operations, but she would ultimately be his murderer when his judgement was blind.


Rosemary Unsworth - Mother Mary
NPC
Rosemary Unsworth was a respected woman in her youth. An aristocrat by blood, she was not only rich in assets, but also rich in smarts. Miss Rosemary studied well in academia under a private girls college. Her family wanted her to attend a nunnery but she had done so well in sciences she won awards for her progress in biology with her thesis. Her birthright carried her through many opportunities for advancements.

She married a doctor and together they began a business together in pharmaceuticals. Her husband would take house calls and write prescriptions, while Rosemary imported exotic remedies and manufactured new ones. Her store, "Mother Mary's Apothecary" was the most well-known and highly regarded in all of London, and they flourished happily. So happily, in fact, that Rosemary soon gave birth to a little girl, and the pair brought in a nursemaid to assist the couple as they worked. Aida was a beautiful young woman, with dark chocolate skin and stunning heritage from the West Indies. Polite, doting, but quiet. Jacob, her husband, liked her very much and their daughter seemed to do well, but something about the woman always put Rosemary on edge...

Minor complications during childbirth led to a small bout of illness after the birth. She recovered well enough with her knowledge and with her husband's aid... but it were as if a switch was triggered, and changes were evident in her mannerisms and
concepts of reality. Rosemary began to study heavily into the dark arts, witchcraft, voodoo, and often would begin experimental techniques for different ailments that involved volunteers... and one evening, even their own infant daughter. The experiment did not bode well, and the child passed, leaving the family empty and broken for many years.

With the deterioration of New Londontown, vampires and were beasts fighting in the streets day in and day out, many people were dying. Some were beginning to come to them looking for cures, believing that they may be a beast or vampire and
didn't know it. The psychosis of New Londontown had become as plagued as the war... Rosemary felt it about time to invest. She persuaded her husband to join her in become vampires in order to further their research. Unknown to her, the Templars had been interested in Miss Rosemary for some time, and once hearing through the grapevine about her transformation, Dr. Faustus approached her with an offer to partner with them. That partnership led to hybrid experimentation, serums affecting powers of the supernatural, and even the transformations themselves.

After years of suspected infidelity, she caught her husband and nurse made in the throws of passion. As an act of revenge, she he asked her husband to sample a working serum she was proposing for Faustus for his newest Stein project. Unfortunately, the concoction was too much for him, and sent him into a blinding, uncontrollable rage. He murdered Aida, Rosemary, and then ended his own life upon coming out of the side effects. Time passed before their bodies were discovered and brought back to the Templar lairs. By this time, much had changed, and prodigy Henry Fitzroy was now the master Mephisto, and Faustus was dead. Devastated by the loss of Miss Unsworth, having strongly admired her work, he attempted to revive the woman, and succeeded. The Apothecary was revived within the body of her former nursemaid, much to her initial dismay. With Henry's generous praise, she found it easily to fall into his Mephisto ranks, finding nothing more pleasing than inflicting her pain upon others.

Initially against their involvement in The Red Oath, the Apothecary spent most of her time assisting in production of a larger Mephisto army from within their stronghold. She has developed a stronger and longer-lasting serum, and deadlier poisons for their warfare. As the acting General to Henry's war, Rosemary continued to be his right hand while stroking his ego in her left. Despite her King's agenda to uphold the order of Beast and Mortal, she hold a jealous grudge over all supernatural beings and was glad that the Jackal had not resurfaced. When Henry's judgement fell too far, playing with her werebeast competitor, Lolita Snow, she had him assassinated. His death came on the eve of The Red Oath's reunion, and without the Jackal it began to unravel at the seams.

When the Templars took Four Points, and the city began to burn, Rosemary cut her losses in the fight. Always looking out for herself, she surrendered herself and her knowledge to the Templar cause. Her serum and knowledge of the Mephisto race was priceless to them, and she was willing to give it to them in exchange for her life. It is rumored she is still alive, housed in their Eden stronghold...

Spoiler: Story

Spoiler: Races

Mephisto
The deadly offspring of a scientist gone mad. A deranged Templar who sought to create a monster capable of battling the immortal monsters who wrecked havoc across Europe.. His name: Dr. F. Stein von Faustus. He named his creatures...the Mephisto. Devil spawn. Rotting killers and fiends.
A butchery of fated love. One slain to provide the other with enhanced vampiric capabilities. The process consists of a templar-made-vampire & their mate. The mate bond allows the soul of the vampire to remain in this world while the vampire's mate is murdered. The mate's body experimented on. Enhanced. Then, the clockwork heart is placed inside the mate's body. Living inside the dead
body of one's beloved. A carefully concocted Serum is needed to keep the rot at bay, sustaining their life where blood cannot.
Their leader, Henry Fitzroy, continued their creation in secret after murdering his mentor, Dr. Faustus. Upon Hal's own demise the Mephisto army was left to his confidant, Rosemary Unsworth. When the Midnight Jackal and Leech King were defeated, and the sun returned, Rosemary surrendered the Mephisto to the Templars. While much of the army no longer exists, the occasional specimen was drafted into the Templar ranks or kept alive for experimentation on future projects.
Jack Fletcher, the first and only one of his kind, is an anomaly of this race; a vampire not created by Templar means and mated to a werebeast. He is hunted for his rarity.


Blood Sisters & The 84th Legion
The Blood Sisters and 84th Legion are two divisions of the Templar army, established following the Battle of Four Points in New Londontown's Cheapside district.

Under the helm of Holly Wilshire, the Blood Sisters are an elite group of female warriors whose mission is purely to cleanse the world of all Supernatural beings. They are unbending champions of faith and law. Each member carries the alias of one of God's Archangels.
Well-trained and heavily armored, these women are likely to have had body modifications in order to be able to withstand a chance against their immortal foes. Valor and dedication radiate from these crusaders, reaffirming the very reality that they defend.
They are known on sight as they don more traditional, medieval-like armour, and use classical weapons such as swords, maces and towering shields.
Blood Sisters dominate the battlefields through sheer purpose. The support of the heavenly light of God, and the sanctity of their quest lend them wrath. A Sister overfull with wrath is a dangerous adversary indeed.

To balance the fury of these warrior women, the 84th Legion was created to support their fight. A division focused on science and technology first, and battle skills thereafter. This male-dominate group are masters of technology and science, often creating their own body modifications, mecha-suits of steam and iron, or mastering chemical warfare.
But be warned, these men are led by The Patriarch, a soul who knows no limits. Many under his guiding hand are feral combatants who are crazed by power and glory.
Their suits are modernized in craft, and carry incredible power, backed by combined steam and electrical technology. As new discoveries come, modifications are made. They fight with what weapons they choose, and often fight dirty. Provoking their prey is not above them, as they do not share the same empowered valor of their Sisters.

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