Entry: Our Guardian Devils

[Jason Petrasko]

Name: Our Lonesome Escorts of Mercy
Time: 3 sessions of 3 hours max.
Ingredients: Ancient, Glass, and Emotion

Since the first man looked up at the stars and dreamt the first dream, there has been a great divide. The earthly world of what is on one side, and the starry night sky of what could be on the other. Spanning the distance inbetween is darkness. Not a nice darkness, but a virulent kind of darkness that rips the very goodness out of you. Reaching for the stars, trying with all your heart to cross the divide, one can be lost. The teeth of darkness knaws at your heart, and you make it to the otherside, but are no longer yourself- just an empty shell. Without the heart you find you are lost and alone in your dream, and nothing really matters. At least, this is what would happen, if our lonesome escorts of mercy didn't fight back the darkness...

The first such lonesome escort of mercy pre-dates recorded history, for they are an ancient role needed to balance the darkness and dream that surrounds us. Many names have been given to these special people over the ages, but in the victorian era we are concerned with- devils is most popular. Our story takes place shortly after the rise and fall of one such devil, known in the world of men as Ardmuth Pinkleton. In the world of darkness and dream, Ardmuth had a stately figure with deep eyes of black that reflected an ancient sky. This earned him the name 'Father Sky' is those circles. This is all a footnote to the important matter of his untimely demise (you'd be surprised just how often that is the end of a devil) which left behind his life's work: The ancient book of devils. Before Ardmuth, the job of a devil was heresay and learned at happenstance, there was no set of guidelines or rules to follow. After the his passing the book of devils passed into dream, where it was found quickly by others. It did not take long for the work to become popular among the devils at large, since it granted both power and structure to their existence.

How does one become a devil? For surely as the sky is blue, each devil was a normal man or woman once.

- The path to becoming a devil requires a descent into despair first, a mind-numbing despair inflicted by the loss of a dream. The death of a loved one, the loss of hope, or any such cause can send someone down the path. Once there, most people recover, most people get the help they need from others and come back to the world of warmth. But sometimes the darkness takes an interest. It may sense weakness, or perhaps simply feels a touch of pity for the despair that is crushing the heart of the victim. Regardless, sometimes the darkness whispers to the despairing heart and makes promises it can't keep.
- The darkness is tricky and tells the victim what they want to hear, and oh! it will cost so little! During this second step, while the darkness whispers into the heart of the victim, the body begins to die from some terrible affliction, some plague of chance. Many just choose to die and fade into the darkness whole, which is giving in, and letting the darkness have the heart. Some though, and these are the ones we care about, find a spark of life within that can't be extinguished. These are the ones that become devils.
- The fire within becomes a voice, and if they listen it tells them the ancient way of freeing the heart from it's mortal coil. The victim reaches into and through the darkness, drawing forth vessel of hope- a glass which will from then forth purify and contain their beating heart of flame. In the blink of an eye they become a devil, and awake in perfect health holding the vessel of hope before them. As they stare into their heart glass and it's colorful flames, a sanctuary is dreamed into existance for them. This is a place of their childhood heart, a place of dream and darkness which only they can reach. It lies behind every door, but only for them and those they once loved or hated. The victim reaches a surreal peace without emotion, a vantage point from which they can see through the darkness and into the dream. They are greater devil, and experience emotion only through their lessers...
- This act sends waves of dream and darkness through the broken heart strings, sympathy passes to those who mattered to the victim and they too are drawn into this new existence, becoming devils themselves in a similar fashion except their heart strings are still intact. These lesser devils are still quite human and connected to the world. They feel the emotions that the greater devil can't, and through the ancient ties of the magic that brought them down in the first place, allow the greater devil to experience them.

A new cadre of devils is born, a new force against the teeth of darkness that seek to corrupt those that dream. The fury of the greater devil is fettered and controlled by the lesser devils, and together they use their powers against those that spread the teeth of darkness...

[Jason Petrasko]

Time: 3 Sessions of 3 Hours

The strings of heart and ancient magic that hold the cadre together are fragile at the start. They must endure the first three storms if they are to last. If enough of them break and are lost during these storms of passion, the cadre will sink into darkness and never return. If they can endure, the cadre will pass beyond and into the dream.

[Graham Walmsley]

Jason,

This is a superb setting. How are the mechanics coming along? I'm interested to know exactly what happens during play: what do the characters do? What do the players do?

Graham

[Jason Petrasko]

Graham,

The mechanics are looking interesting indeed. Here are some tidbits I'll throw out there:

- The characters are decoupled from the players. The cadre is created by the group at large, and then one player becomes the voice of darkness while the others play emotions. When your emotion is in control of a character, you control that character. There is of course some battling for control on occasion, an internal war of how a certain character feels.

- All around the cadre are dreamers, plagued by the darkness. Helping them is not the conflict or the center of play, but a foil to get them (characters) involved in a passionate way. The real conflict stems from: Can you (character) deal with life as a devil? What is worth living for when your whole life has been stripped away?

As I'm more certain later today on the specifics, I'll post them.

[kenjib]

Those tidbits sound really promising. The players playing emotions sound really interesting and I'm looking forward to more.

Just to make sure I understand though, in your setting the devils are agents that battle against darkness (darkness being defined as something that strips away your goodness and your ability to feel). Their being called "devils" is due to misunderstanding and the Victorian trend toward an unhealthy suppression of emotion. The devils are then kind of symbolic of the tail end of the romantic movement, including the likes of Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Keats*. Do I read it correctly?

One final note - when I hear Pinkleton and Victorian era, I immediately think of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the US. Is this an intentional allusion?

* Though I know that they were almost all already dead by the time of Victoria...

[Jason Petrasko]

[Jason Petrasko]

Budding PDF is born!

[Jason Petrasko]

PDF updated. 14 pages @ about 200kb.

*whew* I was starting to sweat it, but now it is all coming together. Once I determined how the cracking glass worked mechanically, and how the world of clay and fog relate, everything is coming together clearly

[Jason Petrasko]

Final update: 29 pages at ~300kb.

Submitted. *wipes sweat from forehead*