Big Apple Dead
Hey, Oblivion! Up yours!
The Dead remember. The Dead linger on, beyond the ken of mortal consciousness. Past the Shroud dwell the Restless Dead, wraiths and ghosts of fearsome disposition and unquenchable passions. They are the spirits of the deceased, locked into this world still for personal reasons and needs that must be fulfilled.
The Restless are scattered throughout the world and its reflecting Shadowlands. New York City is a great necropolis, a city of the dead, in the Shadowlands. For centuries now, Stygia has ruled at least Manhattan and kept it safe from the wrath of Maelstroms and spectres. But their autonomy is not untested, as the ranks of the Iron Kingdom’s rivals swell. It’s as if they sense a crack in the monolith of the Hierarchy here in the Big Apple. There is just too much diversity for the bureaucrats to handle, and soon Stygia lost control of most of the boroughs besides Manhattan. Though the necropolis is the seat of a Deathlord, that Stygian commander has been absent for some time. Nonetheless, many depend on the Anacreons left in charge of the Iron Kingdom’s Legionnaires, for the soul-chilling waters of the Tempest reflecting the rivers and bays and the Atlantic Ocean yield only terror.
There are thousands of wraiths in the New York City necropolis and surrounding area. Many are faltering, dimly emoting folks -- people who lingered as wraiths, but their passions and fetters are only barely impressive. Many of these wraiths unfortunately end up as Thralls. But there are several hundred wraiths who have a natural talent for the afterlife, who have passions and goals great enough to survive the pull of Oblivion. They are the leaders among this chaotic crowd of wraiths.
Skinlands
As with most of the Underworld, the Restless Dead of New York City have a mixed relationship with the Quick. In Manhattan, it is against the Dictum Mortuus to fraternize with the living, even spiritual mediums, and Stygia is able to enforce this law relatively well. The Giovanni vampires mind their manners once they’re out of their familiar territory of Little Italy. Beyond Manhattan, that’s another story. The Renegades and Heretics have to enforce their own safety when it comes to the Skinlands, and some do so less prudently than others.
Shadowlands
Many tall if crumbling, gothic haunts rise up in the necropolis of New York City. The shadows are long and Nihils are as common as manholes. Soul-green barrow-fires burn everywhere, crowds of faceless dead warming the Corpus of their hands over the flickering soul-flames in empty garbage cans. Shapeless refuse is blown by Tempestuous winds across the endless avenues of gray and black stone. Beyond the edge of the necropolitan boroughs, the dark rivers and bays sway opaquely over the writhing Tempest depths below. To leap into those dead waters could be the end of any ghost, for the Spectres lurking beneath just wait to ensnare a wraith and drag him down screaming to hell.
Special Events
Special events are annual (or more frequent) holidays or special ritual days that the main group or groups observe as a whole community. Attendance and participation is often expected of all members, and sometimes required.
Devil's Night
The ghosts of New York love to rabble-rouse, for just as Stygia hopes to reclaim the whole city, so do the Renegades and Heretics wish to conquer Manhattan. To that end, throughout the outer boroughs but most daringly into Manhattan past the legionnaires’ vigil, the non-Hierarchy wraiths (mainly Renegades) burn down Haunts and light the Shadowlands up with barrow-flame and Pyris on October 30th every year. Their goal is nothing short of fomenting chaos and weakening Stygian defenses.
“Without our Legions, the Restless of this necropolis would fold from the terrors of the Tempest.”
-- Silas Percival, Anacreon of the Citadel of Castle Clinton
