Re: Breed Book Rokea Download Yahoo
Morris Betoch
Hengeyokai - and in fact 90% of the Year of the Terrible Racist Asian - is pretty bad. I plan to cover Kindred of the East at some point because of it, which is worse than Hengeyokai. In the meantime, have another update today because I'm bored and may not get a chance to update tomorrow.
Blood-Dimmed Tides: Somewhere along the line, something went very wrong.
Okay. We're starting from the top: the Arctic Ocean. Much like Antarctica, we are told, it is replete with occult significance. Mages thinks of the waters as a place where the spirit world is close to the surface and is largely untapped. Rumors of Nephandi in sunken Fortresses of Solitude beneath the water and ice. The Wendigo think there's a severed Wyrm talon beneath the Arctic silt at the North Pole, and that monsters and Banes guard it. The Sabbat talk about vampires occasionally heading to the north pole for no apparent reason. Spectres sail in iceships through the Shadowlands of the Arctic, as if patrolling. Maybe it has something to do with the magical evil that controls Russia and Siveria, maybe the Gauntlet and Shroud are weak here. Maybe the original children of Lilith are sleeping there anre are now awakening. Okay, sure, that's actually not that bad.
On to the Atlantic! Which is subdivided into areas. So first, the Sargasso Sea! The Sargasso Sea is, for those not in the know, an area that is full of sargassum weed, slow currents and little wind. In the World of Darkness, there is little in the Sargasso Sea that is alive - even the Rorqual do not visit. In the Shadowlands, however, there are many ghost ships, trapped by the power of the Sargasso. Almost all are Spectres now, powerful and dangerous ghosts. The Bermuda Triangle comes next - and yes, the Sargasso Sea is in the Triangle. The Gauntlet is also very low there - sometimes dropping even to 1, so low that things might blunder across it by accident. The Mediterranean Sea is full of Lasombra sailors, while the Aegean Sea is full of Black Furies. There are many merfolk in the Mediterranean, too! There's also Followers of Set and Assamites trying to make a play for the Mediterranean shipping industry because...it's nearby, I guess? The local Rokea are also annoyed with humans - the Rokea always are, but these are especially so - and are engaging in guerrilla raids of beaches to eat random families. And vampires, because they hate vampires, too. Moving on to the Baltic Sea, we learn that it's full of pollution ...and that about a third of it hasn't been able to be accessed by supernaturals since 1992, when Baba Yaga raised the Shadow Curtain. They just can't cross it - boats carrying them lose power, swimmers are attacked by frost-spirits. There aren't many swimmers anyway - few Rokea, and only a few fairies. All selkies. The Umbra is full of water-spirit Banes, too. Basically the Baltic sucks, and you can't fix it. The Caribbean is full of vampires! No reason why - they're just there. There's also some Rokea and Mokole (werelizards) around too, and merfolk living in the "coral city of Qryll". In the Underworld, there are many, many wraiths, thanks to the piracy that was so rampant here in centuries past. They are based out of the Necropolis of Port Royal.
The Indian Ocean! We head first to the Persian Gulf. During the Gulf War, unidentified parties caused a ton of oil spills and so it's really,m really, really polluted. The merfolk and Rokea are gone, and it's full of Banes and fomori. Off to Australia's coast, the Rokea are the main powers. They are buddies with the Mokole, and hate all non-shapeshifters. Also most werewolves. The Chulorvia have not yet spread to the Great Barrier Reef, but Pentex is messing around there. No, we haven't a clue what a Chulorvia is.
The Pacific Ocean! Yeah, that was the entire Indian Ocean section. Anyway. We start with the Sea of Japan, which is under control of the shen , who are the Asian shapeshifters. Mostly, that's Same-Bito, which are the Asian Rokea. In the Underworld, it is guarded by the Heike ghost crabmen . There is also a Grotto at the bottom of the sea which is a gateway to the Dragon Kingdom of Umi. Westerners are not at all welcome in the Sea of Japan without representatives of the Dragon Kingdom; neither are Western ghosts welcome in the Asian waters of the Underworld. This is normal for the World of Darkness, Asian supernaturals are generally dicks. The Phillipine Sea is next, which...is also mostly claimed by the shen . They're dicks, like I said. A bunch of normal vampires are trying to infiltrate the local ports to learn more about the Kuei-jin, the magical Asian vampires. We'll get to Kindred of the East, and trust me, they're really fucking stupid. Even the guy who wrote this book thought this was weird - he had to write normal vampires for the bottom of the ocean, but Asia? Asia's got entirely different vampires. Anyway, moving on. The Mariana Trench is the world's most powerful Grotto. It is also a place of interest for the Technocracy's Earth Frontier Divison, who have been exploring since the 60s, and a few cabals of Tradition mages, who think it is tied to the Umbral Realm called the Chasm (or the Abyss, by werewolves). There may or may not be abandoned alien cities or giant monsters there, or possibly there are just hallucinations. The Technocrats have also had to deal with at least one giant squid attack.
Oh, and then there's Project: Deepwater. Project: Deepwater is an undersea Technocrat arcology in the Pacific Ocean that is manned in concert with Endron (a Pentex-run oil company). They are officially performing research, they have been heavily compromised and tainted by Chulorviosis. Which is...not explained at all. Also, it's a huge source of Banality, because they do science there. And imagination hates science , so this is killing off the merfolk of the local coral city Xinqux at a rate of about one merfolk per week. The Rokea are planning an assault on the arcology, too, which has cut off the Rorqual from the Trench's Grotto.
We also get a sidebar on Atlantis! The book intentionally does not talk about Atlantis outside this sidebar, ever, because they don't want to kill the mystique. They then ponder that perhaps Atlantis' true form lies in the Dreaming, made by human imagination. And, of course:
Turns out I did have some time today. Might have more time later, we'll see. Either way!
Blood-Dimmed Tides: Is the Prince of Kansas City really going to believe that the Toreador primogen was consumed by piranha?
So, what are the vampires doing in the ocean? Well, a few Gangrel have headed into the waters otl ive out their lives. They're pretty good at it, apparently. Some Nosferatu also live underwater, mostly in sewage pipes. I never really understood why Nosferatu like to smell like shit as well as looking like shit, but that's bog-standard for them. They mention that some Nosferatu have trained hideous ghoul-crabs and ghoul-sharks. There is also a rumor a Tremere chantry under the Atlantic ocean, using Thaumaturgy to...do stuff. The Sabbat, meanwhile, think that there are Antediluvians down there. A bunch of Mexican Sabbat packs are searching the seas for them. Also, for no clear reason, some vampires whose Humanity or Path hits zero head calmly into the ocean rather than going crazy and savage. Because...the author thought it'd be cool. These guys never get mentioned again; you can listen to the interview to find out why. (The idea of all vampires who go crazy from low Humanity going under the sea to become alien vampire cultists isn't cool, it's dumb, but hey! It might have been better than Kindred of the East!)
Werewolves! The Bone Gnawers are the sailors of the wolf tribes. They are the best, most experienced werewolf sailors. The Glass Walkers can do okay on modern naval craft but are still not as good as them. The Get tend to respect this, because all Get are vikings. All of them . The Rokea, meanwhile, have no clear idea what the War of Rage was, having spent all their time underwater being sharks. They don't like land-dwellers in general, though, so the fact that the werewolves never tried to genocide them doesn't help.
Mages! The Order of Hermes maintains a yacht that has been, technically, in existence since the 13th century: the Verditious, though it's been remade a lot. The Sons of Ether have their own yacht, Ahab's Ghost. The Cult of Ecstasy have some idiots who plan to go skinny-dipping in the Arctic and then the Carribbean or something "for the experience", and the Akashics of Okinawa have some kind of special ocean magic kung fu. Also there are a bunch of Polynesian ocean wizards, the Kopa Loei, who I assume are in some other supplement. The Technocrats are funding Project: Deepwater and a fleet of research and attack submarines (the attack part is so they can destroy Etherite submarines). Also, the Syndicate is shipping drugs on boats. And apparently Nephandi are "notorious for their adaptation to the ocean depths."
Wraiths! The Shadowlands of the ocean are a hair's breadth away from the Tempest, and it's easy to cross over. The Shroud's low, too - and that's why there's so many ghost ship legends. The law against crossing it is pretty lax at sea, as well. The Hierarchy (that's the fascist ghost government, you knew there was one) have turned the Lusitania into a battleship. There are a ton of ghost pirates at Port Royal, and Carribbean ghosts are famous for their sailing expertise.
Changelings! Okay. There's the merfolk as the main ocean changelings. The eshu like boats a little but mostly it's the merfolk. The merfolk are being destroyed by Project: Deepwater, because of the Banality. Again: this is an underwater arcology and research station manned by guys who literally do science magic . Later in the book we will hear about their fishmen. These guys are destroying the merfolk with the concentrated energy of lack of imagination . God damn, this is almost as bad as the time I tried to read Autumn People. But no, no, I can hold it in, I can wait until the merfolk section. Okay. Some pooka have aquatic shapes, but the mer despise these creatures and they never truly fit in.
We get a sidebar now on the Undersea Triat. Which may or may not be the normal Triat. They are: The Fish Bearer, whom the merfolk call the Fish Father, Vatea, and the Rokea call Kun, the Mother of Fishes. It supposedly can take any form it wants. So long as it's a fish, anyway. The Fish Bearer is, at least according to the Rokea book, roughly equivalent to the Wyld, but the Rokea themselves believe that Kun doesn't care at all about anything that is 'Unsea' which is their word for land. The Rokea book contradicts the entire Werewolf cosmology, of course, but it's such a fun book full of retarded idiocy that I can't hate it. I feel that way about a lot of oWerewolf. Anyway. The Wyrm-analogue is the Tentacled One, called Qyrl by the Rokea and Dagon by the merfolk. The Tentacled One is the patron of jellyfish, octopi and squids. It is alsocalled the Kraken. It hates the Fish Bearer. The last of the three is the Shelled One, who is the underwater Weaver. The Rokea call her C'et, and she is the patron of crustaceans. The merfolk don't care about her. She doesn't do much, at least in this sidebar.
Oh, and right now Pentex is aiding Project: Deepwater and acting as the major corrupting influence; the Technocrats there are honestly just trying to do their job and be magic scientists. But Mr. Klieg, Pentex's Project Coordinator For Oceanic Pursuits, is a Chulorviah Enfolded and is acting to corrupt the project. Klieg also likes ot hire on other Chulorviah. Pentex has some other interests - a fishing company that is decidedly dolphin-unsafe, a whaling firm and that sort of thing. Mr. Klieg is trying to kill all the Rorqual, you see, and also Pentex are Captain Planet villains.
Hunters...don't do much underwater, though the Asian group Strike Force Zero (yes, Asian - all of Asia is one fucking country, didn't you know?) are on the trail of Project: Deepwater. That's it for the Hunters.
The Umbra is full of water spirits and fish spirits. The fish spirits are called Apsarae because...proper nouns! Average ocean Gauntlet is 5, dropping to 2 or 1 in Grottoes. Apsarae are unique to the ocean, and are split into two camps. The Boned, who are fish and serve the Fish Bearer, and the Unboned, who are mollusks, lobsters, octopi and so on and serve either the Tentacled One or the Shelled One. They are somewhat more unified than normal Umbral spirits.
The Shadowlands are kind of neat in the ocean because water is solid to them . They can walk on it. They can't go underwater. Waves can trip them but they can't be pulled down. It's not easy to walk on water, of course, becuase of all the waves. Also the Tempest is really easy to wander into by accident. They do have boats, though, and plent of them. They trade in valuable cargo...which I assume is mostly souls, because ghosts have rather little in the way of material needs.
And back to Project: Deepwater! It was started in 1910 by the Void Engineers, but got its funding slashed massively because the NWO and Syndicate didn't like it. Enter Mr. Klieg of Premium Oil, who seems to have a copy of their plans already somehow. He offers them money and a deal to launch Deepwater. Later on, Premium Oil becomes Pentex. Construction starts in the 30s, and finishes in the late 50s. The local changelings and Rokea try to fight off the technocrats but after a few problems Mr. Klieg starts supplying a new type of guard: the Genetically Enhanced Nautical Enforcement Specialists. Or GENGS. (Actually GENES, but the book has a huge editing error.) These are also known as Sharks. And they're...undetailed here. Anyway, by the early 60s Deepwater brings in a few Pentex execs and researchers as well as the Technocrats living down there; Syndicate and NWO members, however, are not welcome. There is an epidemic in the early 80s of dizziness, fatigue, nausea and skin conditions; Mr. Klieg keeps the project from being shut down. The Technocrats are trying to solve the problem, but whenever they get close, the research (and sometimes the researcher discovering it) mysteriously vanishes. They plan to open Deepwater to the public by 2010 as cheap, comfortable undersea housing. Which it can actually do, if it weren't for the disease issues. And if it weren't corrupt and a breeding ground for the Chulorviah. Who again are completely undetailed here . It is all Pentex's fault, the Technocrats are not bad guys here. Except insofar as they've cut off access to the Mariana Trench Grotto by accident. The Rokea believe the project is Qyrl's attempt at vengeance for some reason, and the Merfolk believe the same about Dagon. They are planning to attack it, possibly with surface aid if the mer can stop whining long enough to ask for it.
Next time: The Vampire from the Black Lagoon!
Also, yes, do oChangeling. oChangeling is fucking terrible. (Also I want to do Gypsies myself. Yes, it is basically entirely my god, this is racist but it does it in so many ways! Plus there's a little bit of other stuff, primarily in the vein of 'my god, this is stupid.')