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!

San Francisco, 2015

The Supernatural World of Darkness is spilling into the light in 2015, to their ruin.

The Second Inquisition threatens not only Kindred society, but the Garou Nation and Middle Kingdom as well. Sectarian fracturing and hostility are a common through line of each society from the Anarch Free State to the Gaian Septs and Courts of the Kuei-Jin. This splintering has revealed new footholds for Humanity to take and fight back. Multiple cities in Europe and the United States have been purged clean of Supernatural threat, and to visit them is certain death.

The Camarilla have had an impressive string of victories in recent years, thanks to the military campaign of Venture Leadership Jan Pieterzoon. City after city in the SouthEastern United States fell to Camarilla rule under his tenure. These victories were almost Pythic, with reports of heavy casualties and young neonates being thrown into the war revealing the urge to show material gains. Archons and their agents have even been reported to fight as "Black Knights" without fanfare or identification, just to hold key locations.

This precarious situation exploded into violence in 2012 with the defection of Theo Bell, his coterie, Clan Brujah, and Theo's Archon associates. The collective betrayal occurred at the Conclave of Prague and led to the violent Final Death of Pieterzoon and Hardestadt. The erasure of leadership within the Camarilla led to a decline in progress in the war, while it tore through morale and led to crisis. There are even rumors of the survival of Hardestadt.

Under pressure from the collective Camarilla Venture, Clan Brujah was expelled. Reports differ, with outright no quarter not being an uncommon treatment. The exodus has supercharged the numbers of angry Brujah into the Anarch Free State and to a lesser extent, the Sabbat. This course of events suited, or was even planned, by the Camarilla. The Convention of Throns quickly expired as a relevant treaty, with only the most powerful Free States being able to drive the Camarilla to negotiations.

The Anarch Free State is in a much better position than it was ten years ago. Los Angeles stands as a bastion of the Free State, with the entire west Coast benefitting from this presence. This growth has had no shortage of rumors either, with a Free State in Tunisia being suggested as thriving, and in search of ancient wisdom. The blowback from the Conclave of Prague has led to dozens of new Baronies, and a shoring up from old losses from the second Wan Kuei Invasion. This wedge of the New Promise Mandarinate has been notorious in west coast Free States, and rivals rarely ever find safe harbor in opposing ideological cities for long.

The Sabbat stumbles after the Fourth Sabbat Civil War. Their spiritual pillar, the Lasombra, have largely fled for the Camarilla. All but the eldest have become disillusioned with Noddism, or at the very least feel that this move benefits them the most. The eldest that remain turn their backs to all but their equals, and rumors of black swirl around them. None repeat their concerns too often.

Across all clans and sects, the neonates and fledglings have lost their faith. The Gehenna Crusades which led to the Civil War have proven exactly one thing. The Dark Father either isn't fucking real- or doesn't fucking care. The Noddist faithful struggle to explain away these inconsistencies, and the Cup is raised more often than ever before to enforce faithfulness. The Inquisition is similarly ill fated to handle the rising tide of heretics. Their foil, the Black Hand are hardly able to take advantage, becoming almost unable to function between ideological coups and sectarian self sabotage.

The Giovanni clan was not spared from grief either. Augustus is dead, or at least no longer active. Accounts differ on events and their conclusion. If there is any number that scares Giovanni most, it is 2028. The infamous Promise may perhaps die, or no longer be honored in the coming years, a short nap away for some kindred. The possible exposure, honorable to an ancient Promise or not, is driving many Capos to begin negotiations with the Camarilla 'early.' Whispers and speculations of an idea for a "United Clans of Death" get laughs and sneers as replies. But not always. This idea has more hold among the lower ranks of these clans, with lesser ceasefires and intelligence sharing being some more solid rumors in circulation.

The Garou Nation of San Francisco are no less plagued by the events threatening to rip apart the Litany, and one another. Home to two septs and a hive, the Triat is represented in whole, with the war between them raging at every scale. Bar fights escalate into Rage filled attacks, with many victims not even bearing the taint of that particular werewolves bitter enemy. Endron Corporation is a household name, and their personnel have official contracts with the city. The decay of the Bay area by the Hive of the Poisoned Shore is all but certain without intervention. The Sept of the Painted City is the closest to the contamination, due to having their Caerns well within the city walls. The Sept of the Amberglade is a short distance away, within the shrinking protection of natural defense.

These are the final nights.

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...