World of Darkness: The Metaplot
This covers my approach to the World of Darkness and its overarching metaplot, both throughout the game universe and across individual games. This will not go into great detail regarding the Apocalypse/Gehenna campaign. Nor will I confirm every detail or even broad stroke of the game that I do accept as part of the metaplot. Instead, this serves primarily to note which parts of the established metaplot that I actually reject. Please note that this is still in the conversation of 1st/2nd/3rd editions of the World of Darkness games. Neither the “New World of Darkness”, nor 4th edition, nor 20th Anniversary, are even considered. Also, one will note that this selection largely rejects the Revised (3rd) edition and certain “core games” entirely. My metaplot hinges particularly on 2nd edition, with a few slivers of 1st or 3rd edition accepted, and my own ideas and changes to fill in the blanks or correct problematic plot areas.
Under each major section, minor sections will enumerate specific thoughts, ideas, and characteristics of this World of Darkness metaplot. In at least a few of the major sections, the minor sections will list specific Clans, Tribes, Traditions, and so forth, with the purpose of describing what is different about them in this particular campaign contra the canon materials.
The year is “time-locked” to 2012, one year before the Apocalypse/Gehenna/Long Winter/Armageddon/Sixth Age begins.
In all cases, this metaplot guide is meant to serve in addition to the extensive webbooks and guides produced for, by, and alongside the CoLA Troupe. The main link follows here:
Webbooks
Mage: The Ascension
Ascension War
The Ascension War continues full blast, with no one expecting any serious shift of balance of power. It continues to be a brutal conflict primarily between the Technocracy and Traditions. The conflict wages over access to Nodes and ley lines, sources of Tass, and Sleeper influence. The latter is primarily where the ideological war for the Consensus wages. However, it remains only part of the Ascension War, perhaps not even the most important part. Largely, the Awakened battle over resources (which is closer to 1st-edition). Neither side takes either the Marauders or Nephandi seriously except in the Void/Deep Umbra, where those two factions prove strongest, and where the battles overall are vaster, more pitched, and more fantastical.
Oracles
The Oracles (and Aswadim) do exist. As the books suggest, they have no real organization and mind their own personal affairs.
Horizon Realms & Chantries
All established realms and sites (such as Doisstep or the Waydown) continue to exist. Nothing has taken place that would destroy or seal off these places. The Avatar Storm has not happened, though it will when the Apocalypse begins. But as this campaign takes place prior to the Endtimes, Year of the Reckoning-related events are all largely rejected. All of the grand metaplot events of Revised Mage and Vampire are likewise rejected.
The Technocracy
The Union continues to exist and dominate as described in the Guide to the Technocracy. Only events related to Year of the Reckoning are rejected. Project: Invictus continues to progress, forcing Pentex on the defensive (see below).
Five Metal Dragons
The quasi-mystical Elemental Dragons described in Dragons of the East are rejected. Their names and bits of their written histories are incorporated into the synchronized East Asian branches of the five main Conventions (per the webbook link).
Virtual Adepts
The Digital Web, considered one of many “spirit” realms, continues to serve as this Tradition’s forte. It also appears to be infinite, even as the Tradition and others explore it. The Tradition, especially the Webheads faction, maintain a strong alliance (and often friendly rivalry) with the Random Interrupts, a camp of Glass Walker werewolves that specialize in the Web. This alliance between cabals and packs is simply referred to as the Pact, and numerous slang terms spring up from that name (e.g., Pactscape—not a web browser but a euphemism for shared data-packeting).
Euthanatos
The Euthanatos Tradition has two sects not listed in the books: the Shiryokosha (a small Phula sect out of Japan) and the Devasu (a Chakravanti sect). The Pomegranate Deme maintain a secret alliance with the Cabiri mummies. The Nagaraja vampire bloodline exists but the Tradition has no truck with them and treats them like any other vampires. There is no real “grudge” between the two (as there is between the Order of Hermes and Clan Tremere).
Order of Hermes
House Flambeau breaks down into numerous sub-Houses specializing in various kinds of raw elemental force. Ex Miscellanea includes only the following minor Houses: Criamon, Diedne, Hong Lei, Jerbiton, Merinita, and Skopos. Thig was subsumed into House Verditius. House Janissary still serves its purpose and has not been overrun by barrabi or spies. The Order of Hermes continues to think of itself as the flagship Tradition and dominates the hegemony of shared terminology, cosmology, and knowledge in general.
Akashic Brotherhood
So numerous are the sects that the Revised Tradition book’s attempt to catalogue the prerequisites in Ability scores and other Traits is futile. However, the spirit of that effort is kept and personalized by not only sect but also (especially) mentor/school. (In other words, as part of an Akashic Brother’s personal paradigm, achieving higher Trait scores is part of the process, but which Traits should be decided distinctly though consistently.) Additionally, the Li-Hai accommodate traditions of martial prowess through Do beyond East Asia. The Roda d’Oro already recognizes European traditions. The Kalunga sect represents Doists from Africa and their diaspora relatives in the Americas.
Sons of Ether
The Sons of Ether are a wide and varied Tradition still. But the Ethernauts are a much larger faction than they used to be and the Tradition, and Council overall, continues to fund and present resources to this faction. The Ethernauts lead the way in building a fleet to explore and defend Tradition interests in the Deep Umbra/Void, including Shard Realms (other planets in the solar system). Consequently, the Ethernauts find themselves at the vanguard of the Ascension War, more important than even the Virtual Adepts on the Digital Web. (To put it another way, it really is more about the hardware than software.)
Progenitors
As noted, the Elemental Dragons presented in Dragons of the East are rejected, including the Zi Guang. However, this does not mean that the East Asian Technocrats, with their own rich, diverse, and unique approaches to modern science, did not bring their own secrets to the Union. An example would be the Physical Energy Regulators (PERs) who specialize in acupuncture and related disciplines (including multi-systemic studies such as so-called “muscle memory”). Though considered “holistic” (and therefore suspect) in the West, such medicine has established empirical validity that many stodgy Western scientists simply have a hard time accepting. But that is changing and the PERs are leading the way.
(Note: this is true in real life. It has only been since the late 90s that such science has gained validated grounds in Western journals of science and medicine, but it’s there now and deserves recognition in-game, at least among the Subtle Thunders.)
Crafts
All Crafts described in the Book of Crafts and Dragons of the East exist as they did in 2nd edition (separate and independent). That includes Hollow Ones, Ahl-i-Batin, Taftani, Sisters of Hippolyta, Militia Christi (Knights Templar), Wu-Keng, Wu Lung, Wu Neng (most just call themselves Wu), Solificati, Bata’a, Kopa Loei, Hem-Ka Sobk, Ngoma, Toc Faan, Tai Hoi Li, Sons of Tengri, Five Rings Gama, Thousand Canes Society, and the Go Kamisori Gama. The Go Kamisori Gama as described in the Dragons of the East are rejected (for being lame rip-offs from Robocop 3), especially since that depiction has nothing in common with earlier notes in Year of the Lotus canon. (The linked webbook prefers the earlier canon and expands upon that version.) In addition, many hedge mage societies (see below) also effectively double as Crafts, as they rarely differentiate between sorcerers and true mages.
Most of these Crafts maintain independence because they’re either isolated from Sleeper society and the Ascension War, have dark Infernalist connections, maintain good relationships with similar Tradition mages (e.g., the Bata’a get on with Dreamspeakers and Ta Kiti Euthanatos), or pursue specific crusades even if the exposure could destroy them. For example, the Sons of Tengri have at least one Awakened descendant of and successor to Genghis Khan at work in the world, while the Knights Templar pursue the prophecies of the Book of Revelations. A few Crafts stay independent simply because they have the power to do so. For example, the Ahl-i-Batin (nearly a full Tradition in its own right) maintain a chokehold on the Consensus in many parts of the Middle East, and the Go Kamisori Gama are well-hidden and lethal operatives. Meanwhile, of course, the Hollow Ones occupy the tenth seat on the Council of Traditions.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Rage Across the World
The War of the Amazon still rages. Russia is still under the terrible auspices of the Baba Yaga and her dark minions. The Endless Storm and Black Tooth still run rampant across sub-Saharan Africa. None of these flashpoints have been resolved yet, though multiple plots against Black Tooth and the Baba Yaga are underway. Coalitions and alliances, often not only multi-Fera but with allies among humans, mages, spirits, and even changelings, form to overcome these terrible enemies. (Of course, this is the Gothic-Punk World of Darkness. Heroes always show up too little, too late.)
Mongoose’s Paws & Owl’s Breath
The multi-Fera pack, Mongoose’s Paws, officially dissolved after its heroic raid into Malfeas itself. However, a second and more ambitious effort has begun with Owl directly overseeing its guidance, with the plan to represent every surviving Changing Breed. The Owl’s Breath pack bonds in the last days before the Apocalypse and it will hopefully do some good for Gaia and each other. The Ahadi as presented in its current form is rejected, though such coalitions are likely to form in flashpoints like the Amazon, Africa, and Russia after those dire enemies or threats are resolved. (See below for more information on Pentex and the Wyrm.)
Lost Tribes
The Croatan, Bunyip, and White Howlers are still all gone. Really, really gone. Their Kinfolk, too, subsumed into other tribes for the most part (Uktena for the Croatan and Bunyip, Fianna for the Howlers). Sorry, kids: William Wallace’s direct descendant/White Howler Kinfolk is likely a tumor-covered mutant baby in the bottom of a Black Spiral Dancer hive destined to be eaten by Ferectoi larva, not your Gary Stu tragic hero.
Shadow Lords/Hakken Clans
Much as the Silver Fangs boast noble houses, so do the Shadow Lord voivoides and Hakken daimio command their own prestigious families. The Lords prefer to meet the Silver Fangs on their own ground and have formed extensive families swearing loyalty to powerful aristocratic wolf-princes. In the Balkans, House Black Tempest (Crenaoluja) holds sway. The reputed homeland of the Shadow Lords in Hungary and Romania boast the powerful old houses, House Wyrm Impaler (Balasulita) and House Blood Dancer (Vertancos). Northeastern Europe are among the mightiest of Lords, contending as they do with Silver Fangs to the east and Get of Fenris to the west. Those houses are Icestorm (Lodburza) and Darkwood (Ciemlas).
Meanwhile, the Hakken clans are entirely based out of Japan even though many Hakken hearken from other parts of the region. The Taigetsu, Osa, and Kogaku favor the ancient estates in the rural countryside of Japan. The Kyokin, Suinichi, and Zokusho prefer living closer to cities, for they’ve thrown in their lot with modernized zaibatsu corporations. Finally, the Joseki is thought to control yakuza syndicates.
Other Fera
(See the webbooks link for expansive information on several of the Changing Breeds, especially the Ajaba.) It’s worth noting here, since it doesn’t merit an entire webpage, that the Corax do, in fact, differentiate themselves. These bloodlines (called Rooks) are mainly cultural and social, as wereravens in each area of the globe do, after all, reflect their local humans’ beliefs and customs—not to mention unique histories. Those Rooks are Badb (European/white American Corax), Yehl (Native American Corax), Makunguru (African Corax), and Tengu (East Asian Corax).
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