New Player Lore Guide

Welcome to The Final Nights!

Welcome! The World of Darkness is a sprawling collection of splatbooks, lore novels, video games, and all kinds of other storytelling methods. It can feel overwhelming at times to try to consume the series. To try to assist those new to the setting, we're developing a series of pages of condensed lore. This page is a short summary of our setting that will help new players understand the lore, and more importantly help them understand the ins and outs of their chosen splats. After reading this page, Splat Roleplay Expectations and the Making a Character in WoD, you'll have the foundation of knowledge to enjoy The Final Nights!

The World of Darkness

Earth in 2015, state of the mortal world

San Francisco, 2015

the game's location, state of the mortal world

Vampire: The Masquerade

Undead vampires locked in a hierarchical battle between their 'sires,' older vampires who bring new vampires into the world, and the 'kine,' the normal mortal people that surround them that they must feed on to survive. All the while maintaining their Humanity or sating their Beast.

Vampires are broadly broken up by Sect, Generation, Clans, and Age Status.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Known to most as Werewolves, Garou are individuals who have awakened a supernatural connection to Gaia, the life and spirit of the world, gaining the power to shift between human and wolf forms. Their awareness of Gaia's suffering as both humanity and nature are corrupted by "The Wyrm", along with the supernatural force of Rage within them, drive them to resist the Apocalypse as warriors of Gaia.

Central to Garou mythology are the three forces of the Wyld, Weaver, and Wyrm. The Wyld creates from shapeless material, the Weaver brings order and longevity to chaotic creation, and the Wyrm ensures everything eventually falls apart to be made anew by the Wyld - or at least, that's how it should be. Longer ago than even the oldest Garou tales go, the Wyrm went mad in the confines of the Weaver, and lost all restraint or goodness in its work. Ever since then, it has been a corruptive, destructive force that would drown out creation and order with decay.

Cheap fast-food from factory farms? Toxic plastic shells around acidic batteries, towering to the sky in landfills? To most Garou, these are the greatest signs of the Wyrm's corruption in human society. The Amberglade sept, living in a precious and untainted territory, is made up of those tribes who would typically rather minimise their exposure to such taint - while the sept of the Painted City is a stronghold within the city of San Francisco, where others strive to coexist with humanity. All the while, the Black Spiral Dancers - Garou who swear themselves to the Wyrm and embrace the Apocalypse - wage war in the dark and barter for souls in skyscrapers as valued partners of Pentex, Endron, and its many other subsidiaries.

Garou are aware of, and frequently involved with, the countless spirits of the world from the most renowned totems, like Rat, to the minor spirits that they can bargain with or coerce. The Garou are blessed by the great spirit Luna just as much as by Gaia, with the power to transform between the form of a wolf (lupus) and a human (homid) - though their blessing comes with a severe weakness to wounds inflicted by silver. They can also enter the crinos form, the war-form used in all-out battle. The crinos has great and terrible power, causing a delirious and memory-clouding fear (see Delirium below) in humans who witness it. Of course, in modern nights, it's harder than ever to escape the reach of cellhpone and surveillance cameras; taking on the crinos form is a dangerous choice... but always more dangerous for anyone in the vicinity, as keeping Rage in check during this state is not easier than in one's "natural" form.

Garou are born as Kinfolk: humans or wolves descended from werewolves. Most Kinfolk will never be Garou, but a few (and nobody is ever sure exactly who) undergo their First Change sometime during, or sometimes in the years after, puberty - almost always when overwhelmed or in grave danger. Almost every region in which Garou tread is monitored for the first sign that this change has taken place (which usually results in a great deal of blood and gore as the newly-transformed werewolf flies into a rage) at which point one or several Garou will hurry to the scene in an attempt to prevent further carnage and ensure the cub is brought to a sept that will educate them on their duties. Of course, many kinfolk know of their heritage, and were born into the sept. For those who aren't tracked down by warriors of Gaia, the Black Spiral Dancers also seek newly-transformed Garou who may be susceptibe to the path of the Wyrm...