High Councilor Diacon
He is fat, kind, witty and against violence. The last person you would expect to be a vampire
Appearance
The first thing you see is that he is charismatic and handsome, armed with inhuman charm. He is quite fat and dressed in expensive clothing. He has blond hair, hazel eyes and pale skin and appears to be in his early twenties. He has impeccable manners and takes place in no form of physical exercise at all to give him the image of another lazy fatcat, that and his fake non-pointy incisors make him the last person you'd suspect of being a vampire.
History/Background
No one knows his real name. He was once a very high vampire noble, blooded by the Vampire Queen herself. He was her favorite and was announced her heir.
For before he was a Vampire he was a young ingenious general though he had never been a soldier, although he would of preferred to be a banker, or politician, or even the best chess player ever if organised chess did not exist. But his mind was made for war more so than politics and there was a war on. He soon rose to be the greatest general in all his country. However he rarely saw the horrors of the battle field. The rulers did not think his pathetic, weak mind could take it. He always had guards to protect him and he remained a thin weakling of a boy until there was an assignation attempt. He was 18 at the time but still knew nothing about combat, never seeing a battle. His guards were brushed away by a wave of death. The boy in a panic thought about death, death, death and when one of the assassins came to take him his thoughts included I do not want him to kill me.
The man died and later the Boy realised it was necromancy that had killed him. The men fled in fear of their lives and the boy ran away. In the chaos of guilt that followed two things occurred to him death was horrible and war along with it and that he had caused massive deaths by winning battles for his country. He left and vowed never to return.
In a month he went to riches to rags unable to survive, until he met a woman who understood him, who saw through the weak, malnourished, child of a man that could not look after himself. She saw a man that was a genius, had low self-esteem and who was caring and compassionate yet that could be ruthless when there was the need. Also he was quite handsome and she believed with work he could become man. That women was the Vampire Queen, the second she saw him she knew that he could become her heir. The rest as they say is history.
He was adopted and blooded thus becoming a member of the Queen's Vampire clan. They toughened him up and he became part of their family. What he lacked in physical strength he made up for with his genius and charisma. He learnt to deceive and trick as well as kill. He felt valued and of worth and his courage built up.
He gained the Queen's charisma and preferred to get others to do his dirty work through trickery. He is ruthless by the way but prefers to get power by politics and scheming that involve little bloodshed. He regards war as people selling their lives to their king. To this length he is quite passive and does not fake his numerous speeches that all violence is barbaric unless there is in defence (of course the Vampires see that all rulers ordering war claim that they are just defending their country). However it was when the Queen made him her heir that he saw how valued he was he would lead the Queen's clan after her death (if that ever happened) although he was a great general before he was not made aware of it. Now he was going to take the place of his mentor. The one person who believed in him, yet he felt unworthy and that he had done nothing to deserve the honour. If the queen had chosen a woman then that woman could become the next Queen of vampires as well as leader of the Queen's clan.
He decided to prove himself by defeating the feudal kings of the Land of the Dead. He would use all his skills in the field to become a king and repay the trust put in him by Queen.
And to do this he had to seem so human that even other vampires would not recognize the difference. He had to find a way to give up much of what makes him a vampire. So he joined the Order of Restraint passing all tests of resisting blood with ease. He learned to act like a human, and how socialize with them. Some thought of making him the leader of the order but he had more important goals in his sights like becoming king.
After a few years he left with the perfect disguise. He then started to eat to excess forcefully, (who ever heard of a fat Vampire) and plucked out his big teeth and replaced them with false ones.
With well practised charm he went to the city of Torin capital of the kingdom of the same name. It is under the complete control of Pama a seductive daughter of the vampire queen who is the king's wife (not Queen as you must be of royal lineage to be a king) as well as many vampire Councillors. In short the Vampires are taking over the city with espionage in the hope of converting it to the control of the Vampires giving them a base to take over the rest of the Land of the Dead. Vampires have spies in other states but Torin is where their main operations are stationed.
He was determined to be king within 5 year before the lack of ageing arouses suspicion in just a year he has become the High Councillor Diacon. He controls many of the legions of undercover vampires but at the same time is in a rivalry with his sister who controls a horde of seductive females. They plot to kill each other but have to do so silently. Everyone loves Diacon and is above suspicion, while the kings wife is extremly powerful.
After he gains power he will use his influence to spread the power of the vampires across the land of the dead.
However he and his sister know that the one true way to get power is my marrying each other after they kill the king. Their combined influence would make them unstoppable. But even vampires have morals.
Special Equipment
None, but he can get any kind of servants to take care of his enemies.
Roleplaying Notes
Also please note that the ideas from my posts on the land of the dead can be used for other campaigns. Lord Diacon and the order of restraint can be moved to any campaign involving vampires. However the following general story line could be applied if you feel I have not provided adequate information.
The PC's should be made to believe Diacon is above suspicion and he is best used in a vampire hunting game where the heroes are hunting the master of the ring of vampires. He is easy to defeat and his only real advantage in a battle is his power of deception. So the challenge should be finding out who he really is.
1. The players come to Torin to hunt down the leader of the many vampires that are known to inhabit Torin.
2. They are misled by Diacon who uses them to take down Pama. This will be quite a hard part of the mission.
3. Use whatever way you like to reveal the true identity of Diacon and then let the heroes do their thing, but Diacon will have turned all of Torin against them through deceit (They killed the king not me!)
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? Responses (5)
Necromancer, A couple of things...
First, make sure to link members to their organizations, so put 2165 (Order of Restraint) in all of these. Keep linking the land of undead in the free-text.
Second: This post follows the rules of punctuation, capitalizaion, and spelling, better than your first one. Might I suggest you run your posts through a word processor with spell and grammar check before you post? It will help your writing be clearer.
Third: The flow of your story description is a little halting. Okay, a lot halting.
Might I suggest you outline your posts, determining what is important and has to be includes vs additional fluff, before you post. By setting the points up ahead of time, you can put them in an order that makes more sense... you can then "fill it in" as you write.
Forth: Related to above, Your posts needs to tell us nearly everything about the subject.To be complete, your post needs to answer; "Who is involved?", "What is happening (and where and when)?" and "How and why things occur?". If it is an item or setting then include: What is the item/place? and What can it do?
Details are not as important as completeness. Read your post. Is there anything that someone (who doesn't know your campaign and the backstory) might have a question about? If you find such a question, edit the write up and include the answer to that question. Keep reading your post until you have answered every question (including ones that seem really stupid... there are a lot of really stupid people out there).
Fifth: The Gold Standard
If your post could not be part of a published fantasy novel, it needs work. That is what you should aim for.
If your item/ npc/ plot/ setting is not as well described and developed as something you would find in a published fantasy novel (excluding most DnD licensed novels), then it is not equal to the gold standard and needs work.
This standard is really not that hard to meet. New members often meet it on their first or second try. You do not need to be a professional writer, you just need to put a little effort into doing it right.
Updated: making it more complete
Just so you know, The Order of Restraint ( http://www.strolen.com/content.php?node=2165 ) has been moved to your 'work space', It needs significant updating to meet the standards of the site. You have done a good job working on the improvements on this one, (though it could use some more). I assume you will turn your attention to the Order of Restraint soon.
Moon's advice is sound, and it helps for everyone to read it, no matter how long we've been here. Never hurts to brush up on the basics as it were. Now, it's time for me to add my two cents on the matter.
Vampire basics - how is that Diacon can eat, as common usage vampires cannot ingest food, and certainly couldn't gain weight. Pama is mentioned as the daughter of the Vampire Queen, can vampires reproduce, or was she born prior to the vampire queen becoming one of the undead? Basically, how dead are your vampires? On a side note, how prevalent are vampires in Torin?
Diacon is interesting in that he has infiltraited human society to the point of becoming a fat, supple, soft court functionary. What is there about him that sets him apart from the others of the court, and from the other ranks of vampiredom?
My own half cent. Instead of tearing his teeth out forcible how about just filing them down? It causes a tad less pain and he wouldn't have to fool around with weird dentures.
And what do you mean vampires have morals? I know quite a few humans who wouldn't be adverse to marrying their sister (if no-one besides them knew they wee related) if it would give them even a little bit more power. It's not like they would hold each other to he whole 'no cheating on me' deal in this case because it would be a marriage of convience/power games instead of love.