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Other Setting Resources:
- The Story So Far - A quick listing of major events so far in our game.
- Noteworthy NPCs - A list of NPCs everyone knows something about.
- The Greater World - A who's who of the kindred outside the local area.
¶ Asheville Vampire: Chronicle 1
Asheville Vampire: Chronicle 1 is a game about monsters attempting to adapt to find something human in an environment that begs them to be anything but. It is a Camarilla game exploring the dark potential of a domain that was once Sabbat, and while still harbouring sympathies and old customs, is trying to be something better. While the game features many Sabbat elements as traditions from the past, the game is focused on growing past them, and the goal is not a return to the Sabbat, and characters focused in this direction may find themselves at odds with the zeitgeist of the chronicle.
In an effort to explore the deeply human pathos of attempting to move past tradition and overcome trauma and find new ways, despite the beasts both outside and within. As such, the game is expected to explore themes of:
Isolation, independence, desperation, guilt, hypocrisy, charades, self-denial, judgement, and ambition.
Note on Lines & Veils: We are aware that many darker subjects can be upsetting to players, particularly when they have past experience that are related. The game employs a concept of lines: subjects that are not to be included as major plot points, and veils: subjects to not be described in detail. While there are some general topics placed under lines and veils (self-harm, sexual assault, violence against minors), the setting of World of Darkness--and particularly a former Sabbat setting--is rife with darker themes, including violence, coercion, torture, guilt, and religious trauma (as much of the Sabbat iconography is pulled from Catholic trappings). While we will genuinely do our best to accommodate any lines and veils you have, some of these ideas are baked into the setting.
¶
Greater Asheville is our mountain town, but Larger and Darker.
Everything you know, from Chicken Alley to the tunnels underneath Wall Street exists, and more. To support a game of 50+ vampires, our city needs to be bigger, darker and grimmer.
An example of this is the Grove Arcade in our world was never completed due to rising construction costs at the start of the great depression, remaining at its four floor height. In our fictional version of Asheville in World of Darkness, it was completed becoming the city's largest skyscraper, as well as a crowning achievement for E.W Grove.
Greater Asheville is far darker and far more ominous than our Asheville. Welcome to Greater Asheville By Night.
¶ Feeding Territories
Each clan is designated part of the city, via the grace of the Prince, which it is allowed to use for hunting. There is an expectation that a clan will protect their feeding territory, defend it from breaches of the masquerade, and keep unacknowledged kindred from feeding there. There can be consequences for clans that do not patrol their feeding territory: other nightfolk, or even hunters, could move in undetected, providing trouble both politically and physically to those clan members.
In our game, the Primogen Council makes recommendations to the Prince as to how to allocate territory. If a clan does not perform their duties, or is otherwise out of favor, the Prince could decrease their holdings, while the Prince could also expand a clan's holdings as a reward for service or loyalty. To represent this, we've split the city into a numbered grid. This will allow the Primogen Council to discuss changes at a simpler level than actual street names and borders, abstracting the details to let people get back into the game. You can see the Feeding Territory map on the /setting/feeding-grounds page.
¶ Notable Locations
¶ Elysia: The Basilica of St. Lawrence
The classical Elysium of the domain, the Basilica of St. Lawrence has the largest free standing dome on the east coast and impressive catacombs that run much deeper than mortals know.
¶ Elysia: The North Carolina Arboretum
Named in 2001 as the domain's second Arboretum, it hosts the most complete regional collection of indigenous flora, and the formal gardens are sacred ground of Elysia. It also, just beside this, has an arena where kindred are encouraged by the courtesies of the domain to settle things the old fashioned way if the need arises.
¶ The Biltmore Estate
A reminder of the Ventrue control once dominant in the region, the Biltmore House was the domain of enemy of the tyrant Evander, former petty Prince of the region. In whatever treaty Tallula has negotiated with the wolves, it's a no-go-zone. Nobody is to touch the Biltmore House, and for the past hundred years, it has allegedly been free of kindred influence.
¶ The Grove Arcade
A common meeting place at “gathers at the Basilica Elysium" for those who would like to be in attendance but should perhaps not set foot on Elysia lest their darker histories from the domain's years in the Sabbat foul sacred ground.
¶ The Grove Park Inn
The sprawling personal domain of Keeper of Elysium, E.W. Grove. It is well noted that Grove would like to have the ornate building replace the Elysia at Arboretum.
¶ Grove House
The only notable place named after Grove but not owned by Grove, the Grove House was originally a YWCA but now hosts a number of kindred owned nightlife services and is a public meeting space controlled by her Majesty, Prince Tallula Donegan.
¶ Mars Hill University
Just outside the domain, the Brujah oligarch Schaefer is well known to lord over the town of Mars Hill from its university. An Anarch who sat on the sidelines during the domain shift, it's a well known fact that Mars Hill University hosts a library that would not survive the culture and moral standards of the Tower.