Premise
2005; New Orleans is struck by Hurricane Katrina. Considered the fifth worst natural disaster in the history of the United States, the hurricane claimed over a thousand lives, and caused over $81 billion dollars in damage. Reconstruction of the beloved port city would take years.
The vampires of the New Orleans coven - survivors of Queen Akasha's attempted genocide - were scattered. Some remained together, others traveled alone, but all were removed from the city that had become their home.
Present day; a few of the older vampires have returned to N.O. in an attempt to help with reconstruction. One such vampire is Marius de Romanus, posing as a man of wealth and leisure. He buys up properties, fixing them up and renting them to mortals. He also opens a book store and an art gallery, using both of these as a means by which to stay updated with the current day. He provides shelter for new vampires in the area, and seeks to recreate the city as it once was.
Slowly, the other vampires are returning as well, some through letters sent by Marius, some simply to see what has become of the city.
And some are drawn back by rumor. A myth that has been around for over 700 years speaks of a myriad of objects that can restore a vampire from monster to something closer to human. There has been little proof for this myth, and so many discount it - yet its telling persists. A local museum showing may offer more answers.
You are here, in New Orleans. Be you mortal or immortal (or something else entirely), you are welcome to join us in our quest - should it be for redemption, for immortality, or something else, we do not know. Each has their own motivation, each their own demons. Join us and find the truth.
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Alchemy - the process by which things are studied, destroyed, and rebuilt into new and more fashionable forms. Those who practice this science strive to turn iron into gold and to seek the Philosopher's Stone, which promises immortality to the holder. Not all, however, made these goals their magnum opus.
In 1395, in a hamlet in England, an alchemist became a vampire. At first he gloried in his new strength, thinking that he would have all of time to perfect his craft and finally achieve that which he and his colleagues desired. But the act of nightly killing to survive took its toll, and the alchemist fell into despair.
Instead of consigning himself to flame or sun, he turned to alchemy, crafting seven objects with which to 'cure' himself of his malady; for he still was obsessed by the idea of immortality, but could not abide the weaknesses that came with it. The objects were of an everyday sort - rings, necklaces, a hairpin - thus easily hidden about his person and for three hundred years this man decided his own path instead of being dictated to by a bloodthirsty spirit.
But the objects had terrifying side-effects that drove the alchemist mad. He had no more living family, nor friends, nor anyone who knew him at all - he had no desire to give his curse to another, and thus he had no fledglings. Yet rumors of this man, and his wondrous creations, abounded through the mouths of both the dead and the living. Most counted it solely as myth, a mad man given to spinning tales in his old age.
The alchemist went mad, driven to insanity, lust, greed, and a thousand other curses worse than his vampirism; some say those aspects were hidden within him, while others claim the objects inspired such things. One day, he went out into the sun, removed the ring that allowed him to wake and walk in the daylight, and let himself burn to ash in the middle of the town square. No one speaks of that day, except to say that the devil came and took what belonged to him.
The objects were gathered up and sold; they have traveled about the world for years. Some found their way into the hands of the immortals once more, as they were meant to (some say the objects themselves even decide their own paths) - and these that did drove their wearers into fits and spells, each object different. Those that have discovered the objects' true powers have named them accordingly.
The date is the present day - the place, New Orleans, Louisiana. The Mother of all vampires is dead, her power and reign passed on to another. The vampires who were present for the Mother's genocide of her children have pressed on with their immortality. The older immortals are aware of these myths, but most do not believe.
