Bloodbeat Chronicle Repository
Daywalker Chronicle
Anatomy of an ApocalypseDuring the drive home from the hotel on Monday, Puck and I started discussing the Daywalker storyline. Puck started asking me "what did this really mean?" and "how were we supposed to figure out that?" So then I started remembering the answers I'd come up with when I saw the Prophecy for the first time and asked myself those same questions… and I thought, gee, wouldn't it be amusing to show everyone my God Notes. How it All Began…Remember back in November of 1999, when we held the "storybuilding" meeting for this chronicle? Yes, that is when the group as a whole decided "Hey, we want our primary storyline to be The Apocalypse!" The group also decided on the Treasure Hunt aspect, so we went with an Egyptian theme so that our props could be cool. Phoenix and Morgan were chosen to be our Prophets, and the Daywalker Chronicle was born. It wasn't until October of 2000 that I finally managed to sit Phoenix and Morgan down to write the damn Prophecy. And was I sorry once I had! A few months later even they didn't know what it meant! So, with the gathering fast approaching I took up the task of transforming a poetically ambiguous prophecy into a set of practical instructions for bringing about the end OR rebirth of the world. Just to refresh your memories, here's the Prophecy in it's original form: When the last vessel of life is filled with sand and the four pillars are broken. It is written thus: See what I mean? Sheesh! Not exactly a clear formula, eh? My original idea was to cut the prophecy up into pieces and give parts of it to different characters, then when someone managed to assemble the pieces, they would know how to perform the rite. Well, as you can see, THAT method wasn't going to work. So what I did instead was give the complete Prophecy text to several characters, then attempted to come up with additional material as clues to what the Prophecy was actually talking about. First order of business was to define each of the foreign words and concepts. Luckily by this time Morgan had gone back through his notes and come up with explanations for some of it. But, because Morgan was playing the False Prophet, I had to figure out what all these obscure references "really" meant. Let us now go through the Prophecy line by line… There will be Omens and PortentsWhen the last vessel of life is filled with sand and the four pillars are broken. It is written thus: I decided, and found out later that it was Phoenix's and Morgan's original intent, that this line be a sort of signpost identifying that the time for the performing of the Rite was approaching. Being such, it didn't really need to make sense, just be ominous. I pretty much decided that it had something to do with the fact that the Pharaohs were dead and their sacred rites were no longer observed. "Last vessel of life" could be referring to the bodies or mummies of the Pharaohs, or to canopic jars. The "filled with sand" part gave me the inspiration for putting the burnt organs in the jars as part of the overall spell. I decided the "four pillars are broken" was a reference to Nut's limbs holding up the sky, definitely an apocalyptical portent. Hence the "havoc" notes the I ended up passing around. It could have also been referring to the four sons of Horus or the four canopic jars, but it took Puck long enough to make the damn things that I didn't want them getting broken. Who Had This Info:Well…. It wasn't really vital stuff so mostly if you had read any of the material on Egyptian mythology, you'd get the basic idea. Trista, The Egyptian and Molder had complete sets of these materials. Mallory, Rafe and Hikaru had bits and pieces.What the Fuck is the Aku?The Aku is desecrated on the gate of Ra's domain and so will that Shesu-Heru weep. The "Aku" was a sticking point for me until just about the last minute. I could find absolutely no references to the "Aku" in my books or notes or even on the internet. Finally, the Friday before the game Phoenix managed to find the reference in the huge stack of material from the Egyptian Stuff meeting we'd had months before.
Okay, since blood is such an integral part of the whole vampire thing, I decided that this was referring to the thing in a vampire's blood that makes them a vampire. It's the divine remnant passed through the bloodlines that makes vampires powerful supernatural beings instead of just animate corpses. I knew that nobody would figure that part out, so I hoped that just knowing that "Aku" was referring to blood would be enough. Who Had This Info:The Egyptian, of course, and Rafe, and also, anyone who had the handouts from the Egyptian Stuff meeting has a chance of figuring it out.
This one I just sort of ignored, hoping one of you would come up with a good idea. When someone latched onto the idea that the blood parasite infection of the vampire bloodline was a "desecration"… we were golden. Who Had This Info:Nobody, since I hadn't figured out what it should mean, either. But one of you eventually came up with a good idea, so I stole it. So there. Ha.
This one could have meant several things… sunrise, sunset, birth or turning. I decided that sunrise made the most sense to me. You guys decided on Sunset instead, which ended up giving us a great build-up of tension as the end of game approached. Who Had This Info:Well, I pretty much thought that this one was a no-brainer, so I didn't specifically give the answer to anyone. Pick a time, any time! And you did, no worries. That brings us to the "…and so will that Shesu-Heru weep" motif thing. More on this later as it relates to the overall structure of the Rite. The additional clue for this line was the "first" hieroglyphics passage: I speak here of what will be. In the last days, when the last Pharaoh has passed the portal to Khert-Ntchr, when the last sentinel is released from bondage, when the sacred organs have turned to dust, when the Shesu-Heru mourn the loss of the Day and the four rites are enacted. The blessed soul which animates the Khat and resides in the temple of the Sah will be torn from it's seat. It's substance will be drained away and turned to dust under Re's gaze. I included stuff similar to the Prophecy's intro as a hint that this was the "first" of the passages. What is says, basically, is that when all the shit has hit the fan and it looks like the end of the world is near, the part of the vampire soul which provides the animating force (Aku/the blood) to power the full spiritual being (Khat) and resides in the physical body (Sah), must be removed and destroyed by sunlight. My intention was that the appropriate vampire would have to be bled dry then left to have his body and blood turned to ashes by the light of the sun. In the end Hikaru asked Amaterasu for guidance and I had to make a split second decision, so she told him… um, uh, you must sacrifice the source of the blood disease. Yeah, that's it! Who Had This Info:The Egyptian and Rafe both had copies of the hieroglyphics for the first segment. The characters who could translate heiroglyphics were The Egyptian, Trista, Mallory and Molder. Dendera Tourist ServiceThe last daughter of Dendera takes life in anger and so will that Shesu-Heru weep.
Wow. You guys really had trouble with this one!
Well, it turns out that Dendera is a city in Greece with a really famous temple associated with Hathor. Hathor, you remember from the Egyptian Mythology article, was the prosperity Goddess who was sent by Re to murder humanity. She transformed into Sehkmet and went on a killing spree. Yes, I must admit, to some degree this was an "out of game" hint. I let the Selena/Sehkmet connection just sort of lay there, niggling at the backs of your minds. (Evil Me Now, this is where we get into the overall style of interpreting the Prophecy. The Prophecy was not just a set of instructions for a single rite; like "do this, then do that, then do the other". Instead, it was a series of omens pointing to the things that would need to happen if the Prophecy was to come to fruition; as in "make sure this happens, then make sure that comes about, then manipulate someone into doing this." See the distinction? The original intent was to have events in the Prophecy occur over the whole weekend, with characters periodically disappearing and the resulting weird shit being found afterwards, not as one big organ donation at the end.
So the whole thing with this line was that Sabine, last in the lineage of female rulers of a truly benevolent House, needed to be goaded into committing outright murder. Who Had This Info:The Egyptian, Molder, Trista, Hikaru and Mallory all had the article mentioning Hathor. Kris and David had told me that they'd done research on each of the unfamiliar terms in the Prophecy, so I assumed they'd found the same reference to Dendera that I had (since it was the only one I could find). Molder and a few other characters had been told that Sabine believed that her lineage to be that of Guardian Angels, not blood-sucking fiends. Also, the "Traditions of the Vampire Lineages" article that was send to everyone in the game explained in detail House Aureolus's view on vampirism. The additional clue for this line was the "second" hieroglyphics passage: Hathor the Mother guards us and preserves us. We offer to her praise and love, and sing to her the hymns of awakening. She builds for us a house strong enough to last the ages. In her embrace we will live the righteous life and uphold her values. We will hold her to our hearts and walk the blessed path. And should the dark days of terror return, should we lose our sight and let the rage of Sekhmet consume us, we will redeem ourselves. Beloved Horus will send his son Duamutefla to retrieve the sacred remnant of our error and restore harmony to the Earth. And here is where all that is laid out clearly and the connection to Hathor/Sehkmet is made explicit. It identifies the followers of Hathor as being "good". It also hints that someone "good" will perform an evil act. This is also where we get a reference to putting something in a canopic jar, Duamutefla being the name not only of one of the four sons of Horus, but also the label for the canopic jar which holds the stomach. Who Had This Info:The Egyptian and Molder both had the hieroglyphics for this segment. Again, The Egyptian, Trista, Mallory and Molder could all translate hieroglyphics. Theodore (Delirium) had the falcon jar, which still contained his stomach. Avatar of AnubisAnubis's voice announces judgement and the river's froth runs crimson and so will that Shesu-Heru weep. I got the impression that this one was the easiest for everyone to figure out. Having an embodiment of Anubis walking around was a bit of a hint.
After his death in the 1700's, Rafe's ghost was summoned to inhabit a statue of Anubis by some Egyptian cultists. Not only was his spirit placed as the animating force of the statue, but because of the beliefs of the cultists, he also, when in his statue form, became the living Avatar of the God Anubis on Earth. Making him the "voice" of Anubis. Who Had This Info:Rafe knew that he was an Avatar of Anubis. Mallory, Trista and Hikaru had all seen him manifest as such in a historical interaction.
With all the bad shit I was throwing into Rafe's history, he was bound to develop a vendetta against someone, and gosh, Hikaru just fit the bill perfectly. By killing Rafe's pack-sister Marina, Hikaru became the individual whose wrongdoing would be proclaimed. It didn't hurt that it was an "unwise" act of Hikarus's back in the 1700's that eventually led to Marina's attack on him. Who Had This Info:Rafe, Mallory, Trista and Hikaru all were involved in the Marina incident. Trista in particular was up in arms about the silver garou-killing knife Hikaru used on Marina.
I really like this part… it spoke to me, and what it said was LOTS OF BLOOD. Yes, this part of the ritual was definitely supposed to involve someone bleeding, A LOT. Who Had This Info:We're vampires. We have a thing for blood. Duh. The additional clue for this line was the "third" hieroglyphics passage: It torments me by night and by day. It lingers and demands. It goads me to reveal it's secrets, to tell it's story. Here I write, not my words, but the words of my shadow, my demon. It whispers of the day when the Opener of the Way will manifest in glorious black night and label the killer and jailer of innocent souls. The Avatar will seek out and bring down the Restless One who hunts the wicked and slays the blameless. And he will bleed, and bleed, and bleed until his river has run dry. And then Imseti will take his liver within the sacred vessel and all his ambitions will be as ash. He is the third who will fall. His is the third redemption that heralds the death and rebirth of us all. There. It is done. It will let me rest now. It will draw back into the murky night and leave my mind empty of thoughts not my own. This passage reiterated the involvement of Anubis (the "Opener of the Way"). The connection to Hikaru was firmly established, IF someone managed to find out that Hikaru was holding Marina's soul captive in a lantern ("killer and jailer of innocent souls"). I'm really proud of the "Restless One who hunts the wicked and slays the blameless" part, just in case anyone found out about Hikaru being a 2000 year old immortal demon hunter who often didn't check to make sure a creature was evil before killing it. The bleeding reference was a hint at how to actually kill an immortal (since the donators of the organs were all supposed to die as part of the Rite)… bleed him of all life essence; reducing his Brawn, Blood and Psyche Pools to zero. And here we have a very specific reference to placing the liver of the wrongdoer in a canopic jar. This passage also stated that this was the third "event" that would occur in the bringing about of the Prophecy. Who Had This Info:Only Hikaru knew that he was holding Marina's soul captive, but Trista, Mallory, Sabine and The Egyptian all had the magical means of finding out. Rafe and The Egyptian both knew of Hikaru's history as an immortal hunter of evil. Only Hikaru knew the whole story, and he apparently wasn't inclined to share. Rafe was in possession of the Imseti jar (human/liver) and Hikaru had this hieroglyphics passage. Tit for TatIsis's tat is undone during the night of the tear drop and so will that Shesu-Heru weep.
The meaning for this one was pretty difficult to decide on because Morgan and Phoenix had different interpretations. I ended up going with the most metaphoric meaning, which was of Isis's tate (or braid) being the weaving of Fate of all mankind. Who Had This Info:Trista, Molder and The Egyptian all had the article which mentioned this meaning for Isis's tat.
With Isis's tat meaning Fate, Fate being undone meant the end of the world.
The night of the tear drop was really a specific festival to Isis which was held in June. THAT meaning didn't really help much, so I made up a new meaning and put it in one of the articles about the Prophecy. Who Had This Info:Trista, The Egyptian and Molder all had the article with the accurate interpretation of this line. Also, the dark moon was the only significant celestial event occurring over the weekend. The additional clue for this line was the "fourth" hieroglyphics passage: All know that Isis desired the thrown of the heavens for her beloved son Horus. She connived and schemed and threatened man and god to unseat Sutekh from his rightful place as Re's heir. And though Horus has claimed the glory of the day, when the last days arrive and the Shadow shows itself in the night, all the Mother of Light's ambitions will be shorn and frayed. And in the darkest night the Queen Mother of the Dark Ones will appear and be known. Qebehsenuef will descend on sweeping wings and strike at her eyes and consume her intestines, but the efforts of the Shesu-Heru will end in defeat. For when the bindings of flesh are torn asunder her Khaibit will be freed to join with Sutekh and their glory will be greater than even the Light of Life. Their fire will cleanse even the most wicked. Death will forever be banished and the righteous will rejoice in His triumph. This passage rephrases what is stated in this line of the Prophecy. It identifies when this part of the Rite is supposed to take place, on the night that the "Shadow shows itself in the night" (the dark moon). The Mother of Light is Isis, whose symbol is the full or crescent moon. Darkest night is another reference to the night of the dark moon. Now, here comes the hard part… Queen Mother of the Dark Ones is actually referring to the wife of the Pharaoh who was used as a spell component during the original performance of the Rite which transformed the Pharaoh God into a vampire. Ever since, her soul has been bouncing around, waiting to be used in the Rite which would restore the Pharaoh's Godhood. The Khabit (part of the soul) of the Queen Mother had been attached to D before she was turned, and currently was residing within Trista's body. So, with that figured out, it's easy enough to see that the body of the person holding the Khabit of the Queen Mother must be blinded, disemboweled and killed, so that the Khabit could be freed to be used in the Rite. Who Had This Info:Oh boy, it was all there in front of you, but no one put it all together. First, Rafe and Noah were both aware that Saturday was the night of the dark moon. Again, the article which said that the night of the tear drop was the night of the dark moon was held by Trista, The Egyptian and Molder. Matthew analyzed D's blood and found the "residue" of a strange spiritual presence. Trista, The Egyptian and Hikaru all had spells that could have found out about the remnant of the Queen Mother's soul attached to D. The Egyptian, Hikaru and Rafe all had spells or other powers which could have discovered the presence of the Queen Mother's Khabit in Trista if they had investigated her Snake Shaman problem. The Egyptian knew of the Pharaoh's wife's involvement in the original Rite, BECAUSE HE WAS THERE. Cry BabiesNow we will move on to the biggest stumper of them all… the Shesu-Heru weeping motif. …and so will that Shesu-Heru weep. It appears in almost every damn line of the Prophecy, it MUST be important! Not really, but it did give me an excuse to use canopic jars.
This was a hint built in by the authors that there were to be four main parts to the fruition of the Prophecy. It was this motif that inspired me to add the "put someone's organ in a canopic jar" parts to the overall Rite. Who Had This Info:Rafe and Theodore (Delirium) were both given the names of the sons of Horus and the organs associated with each jar prior to the game, but they didn't have a copy of it in their packets so they apparently forgot all about it. Also, this data was presumably "common knowledge" to anyone who cared to look it up. The Egyptian and Theodore both had the Rite overview handout which laid out the basic structure of the Rite, which included references to the canopic jars being filled with the ashes of the appropriate organ. Putting it all TogetherNow, let us move on to the overall structure of the Rite. Who Had This Info:Before I even describe it, here's who knew what to do… The Egyptian and Theodore (Delirium) both had a handout in which the basic structure of the Rite was detailed. Why? Because they had both performed it or a variation of it previously. Trista had observed the results of similar rites, but had not taken part in this specific ritual. For the initial procedure the four canopic jars had to be purified. The Egyptian, Molder, Hikaru and Trista all had purification spells that would have worked in their spellbooks. Also, the Eye of Horus amulet needed to be enchanted. The Egyptian, Molder, Hikaru and Matthew all had spells which could have been used to enchant the amulet. The big sticking point with this step was that the "correct" iris needed to be inserted in to the eye of the amulet. There were three choices: Original Iris: This Iris was cracked and clouded, having been damaged in the original performance of the Rite. Using this Iris pretty much guaranteed that the Rite would be a dud. Reproduction Iris: This Iris was made by Mallory and as such (Mallory isn't a cleric) was not associated with a deity. The purpose of the Iris was to provide the "power source" for the transformation. To work, it needed to be fueled by a deity. Eye of Tezcatlipoca: This was the only Iris that would actually make something significant happen. For the Rite to "work" a deity with a substantial and active belief base needed to be invoked. Trista, Rafe and Mallory were all aware of the hidden society of vamps and werejaguars living in Mexico and worshipping Tezcatlipoca. Depending on which aspect of Tezcatlipoca was summoned, the result would be "good" or "bad" for all of vampire kind. For the remainder of the Rite, here's the summary from my God Notes: Daywalker Rite - There are four segments to the Daywalker Rite, each associated with a portion of the Prophecy, each a separate ritual.
Pretty complicated, eh? Can you see now why I expected this game to be a bloodbath? And isn't it amusing that after a twelve page explanation, you still don't know what the Rite was supposed to actually do. Heh, heh. Oh, alright… I'll tell. But first! Since nobody knew what the Rite was supposed to do, why did so many people want to cast it? Because it was one of their Goals, of course! MolderMolder was the founder of the Brotherhood of the Dead. Before he was turned, he bought into the whole Egyptian "when you die you go on to the afterlife" thing, so becoming an undead fiend really annoyed him. Being a vampire means you're dead, but you're stuck here on earth, prevented from moving on to the next stage of existence. The overall goal of the Brotherhood was to eventually help all "undead" creatures to achieve full deadness. Over years of study of the death and ascension rites of different cultures, Molder determined that the Daywalker Prophecy and Rite were a method of destroying all of the undead all at once. Therefore, Molder's primary goal for the weekend was: Bring about the fruition of the Daywalker Prophecy and the performance of the Daywalker Rite, in a manner that causes the destruction of all vampires. HikaruHikaru was an ancient demon hunter empowered by the goddess Amaterasu. It was his primary mission in life to find a way to destroy all "evil" creatures. He spent centuries searching for a way to implement his ultimate goal. In the Daywalker Prophecy and Rite he found what he thought might be the method he was searching for. Being a servitor of Amaterasu, the goddess of Light, the whole "cleansed by Re's fire" thing suited his thinking perfectly. It was his hope, because of the apocalyptic language of the Prophecy, that the performance of the Rite would cleanse the world of all "evil". Therefore, Hikaru's primary goal for the weekend was: Decipher the Daywalker Prophecy and learn how to perform the rite which will supposedly destroy all vampires. TristaTrista, as an archeologist and a scholar, was interested in the Daywalker Prophecy and Rite. It was not an actual goal of hers to perform the Rite, but simply to figure out what the silly thing was all about. She, of all the characters, probably had the highest chance of getting a "good" (i.e. cleansing vampire-kind and restoring them to a divine state) outcome from performing the Rite because of her experience with the renewal and ascension rites of other cultures. RafeRafe had no goals associated with the Daywalker Prophecy or Rite. He was just going along in case the Rite really would destroy all vampires, which would certainly make the decision about Tyrantship easier. Heh, heh. MallorySo everyone wants to perform the Rite, isn't there anyone around to prevent them? Why yes! That's what our Justicar is for! To thwart the dastardly hunters and do-gooders who want to either destroy or "cleanse" (yeah, right) us all! And thwart them he did! Huzzah! (slither, slither) The EgyptianBack in days gone past the Gods of man were actual sit-on-the-throne, fling around thunderbolts, make nuggie with nubile maidens kind of Gods. They had bodies and they lived as truly divine monarchs over mankind. In Egypt a particularly ill-fated high priest noticed that, hey, the Gods of other lands are petty and cruel! And that made him think… (his first mistake) what if the only reason that our God is good and just is because he's just a nice guy? And "what if" our next Pharaoh is just as big of a jerk as the Gods of the Greeks or Mesopetamians? And so our intrepid priest decided to DO SOMETHING about it. Uh oh. And so our high priest developed a ritual to "purify" the Pharaoh, cleansing him of humanity, so that he might be purely divine, and thus purely "Good". The priest and his like-minded compatriots performed the great purification rite! And did it succeed? Yes! It succeeded in entirely purging the God-Pharaoh of all humanity, leaving him, yes, PURE EVIL. The first vampire of indo-european lineage was born. The high priest, pretty thoroughly made dead by the Pharaoh after the rite, spent the next several millennia moping about in the shadowlands, haunting scholars and mages, dropping hints as to how to "right" his great and terrible wrong.
The Daywalker Rite was the ultimate compilation of the hints seeded by the ghost of the high priest. The intent of the Rite was to restore the Pharaoh's humanity and restore him to full divinity. Now, the fact that the bloodline of the Pharaoh has now split off into a practically infinite number of individual vampires… well, he hadn't really allowed for that. Um, just cast it and see what happens! What's it going to do? Make things worse? And if we didn't perform the Rite were we all going to turn into blood-hungry beasts and consume mankind? Uh, no, we already are blood-hungry beasts consuming mankind. The point of the ritual was to change us back into Gods. And yes, the final indignity… The Egyptian was the ghost of the high priest in possession of an immortal body. So, next time you grow weary of your existence as an undead fiend, you know who to blame. |
Questions? Comments? Oaths of Fealty?