Winds of change sweep across a continent on the verge of evolution. An Empire has fallen, a plague has devastated the land, but none of this is enough to prevent the steady march of progress. Italy becomes a center for cultural development and learning and even sees the advent of structures such as banking - naturally becoming a focal point of forward-facing vampiric interest. Religious institutions are split, and scholars flee the shifting lines of kingdoms rising and falling. There is no better time to seize power, and leave your mark on these rapidly changing times. For most of the human population caught up in these ancient power struggles, they are none the wiser.
For a tiny, select few, the story could not be more different.
The Dawn of a New Age
Our story is set in the year 1454 - slap bang in the center of a period of extreme upheaval that spans the length and breadth of Europe. It is the beginning of the early Renaissance - the next century will see science and culture boom in unprecedented fashion. By this time, the traditional feudal institutions have broken down, and those of lower birth find themselves able to elevate their positions from trade and economics.
The fall of the great Byzantine Empire shook the continent but a year before the events of this game - leading to an exodus of vampires further west. Many might see this gathering of kindred (and discovery or such abnormal mortals) as an opportune to recoup power, or at least a sign that change could reap some benefits.
The Hundred Years’ War has also just ended, with the French emerging victorious in 1453. British vampires and humans will have experienced the subsequent turmoil in England as these events lead up to the War of the Roses in subsequent decades.
There was even a foreboding lunar eclipse - visible during the siege of Constantinople itself, in an eerie parallel to the eclipse that led to the births of the many strangely gifted mortals that find themselves under Claudius Giovanni’s care today.
If you’re less familiar with the era, we recommend this page we made:
One major way in which our setting differs from established historical records is the period of the Black Death. In this world, the plague did not end until 1385, and the catastrophic death toll was not only slightly worse, but spread over a period of 30 or so years. This leads to even greater destabilisation of institutions throughout Europe - pushing this hunger for change ever harder. It is a creeping, insidious disease that kills slower, but the suffering exacted on the populations of Europe is no less disastrous. On Friday, 17th of November 1385, you were born (yes, you are a Scorpio). This means that by the time our game begins, you are technically 69 years old.
Humans born with gifts of the Black Sun age at a different rate to normal humans - in such a way that even Giovanni’s researchers have been unable to explain. Some reach a certain point and then find their aging slows to a snail’s pace - many affected mortals might appear to be in their 20s or even younger. It does not happen quite the same way for everyone - to the point that Giovanni’s dungeons are filled with mortals that look to be of varying ages despite their common birth date. Consider how this might have influenced the way mundane kind treat you - as you remained youthful and strong whilst they peaked and began to wither.
Further below is a list of archetypal lifestyles that a gifted human such as yourself might have experienced. It should help with muse or brainstorming a character.
It’s Your Life
In Giovanni: The Last Supper you are invited to create a human character of your own. Throw ideas to us across Facebook - it’s usually best to give us your early thoughts before falling heavily in love with a concept and writing reams of backstory, just in case it doesn’t sit well with the World of Darkness, and because we often need to make adjustments to fit a character organically and realistically into the world. (Please note, you don’t need to write reams of backstory, short and sweet is usually better. We can add depth as we go.)
Pull both primary organisers into a private message with you. We are Orion and Sable. Here are our Facebook pages, add us as friends:
If you don’t have Facebook, just hit the icon down in the footer for our game email address. Please leave 48 hours for a response. We will find you <3 It can be as vague as “Help! I love the idea of playing a noble but I don’t know, really…?” Or a fully fledged concept with a solid idea of your birthplace, nationality, family life and career, etc. Really, just reach out to us, we love hearing from you. This is what we are here for. Work your way through this page, it should give you a firmer grasp of what you could potentially play.
It’s best to first craft a character who doesn’t have any powers - this is what their intended life could have been.
Then give them a power and ruin it.
Social Class
Despite the breaking of certain socioeconomic backgrounds, life was still dramatically different between class thresholds. Consider the origins of your human character - their early life will have played a huge part in how their powers were received and how they treat their peers today. Not only this, but it might make it easier for them to break into the tight social structures of vampire society - so co-existing with these monsters might be just a little more bearable.
The Upper Class
The nobility of Western Europe enjoyed a position of privilege alien to the vast majority of the population. That being said, the rise of the Renaissance saw aristocracy losing a lot of the social-economic privileges they had held due to the growing importance of the merchant classes. In some cases, rich city merchants could rise to become more influential than a nobleman born of an aristocratic bloodline - something completely new after the feudal castes of the Middle Ages.
Nobility often found themselves patrons of the arts and sciences, with close links to the church. This is particularly true of Italian aristocracy around this time. Life was entrenched with the politics of land ownership and influence - no doubt you’ve heard of the Borgias scandals as aristocrats scuffle to place their own airs in positions of strength and control. Due to this, most marriages were arranged for political or social gain.
It was important to prove your piety and devotion to God too - channeling wealth into elaborate works or art or sculpture was common. That is not to say Nobles did not engage in frivolous activities; they most certainly did. Activities such as hunting and hawking were exemplary pastimes of the aristocracy. Younger members of the household might practise martial skills and of course Greek, Latin and more with private tutors.
The Middle Class
This period saw the rise of many merchant families - earning great wealth through trade and commerce rather than by virtue of a bloodline or true status as nobility. Offspring of such families would have access to decent education, and well as a variety of hobbies and cultural disciplines. It should be noted that both men and women were often granted education - as women frequently found themselves handling issues of finance and running family estates in the absence of fathers or brothers.
Many such families controlled assets such as vineyards, silk farms or other crops. Whilst they would frequently supervise important events such as harvests and the pressing of grapes, this work was usually done by peasants of the lower class. Mass was to be attended regularly, as was the fashion with most regardless of class.
Some luxuries such as embroidery were available mostly to the upper classes- so these skills would often have to be learned by the household themselves if they wished to partake in opulent fashions. Whilst the house would have a number of servants to carry out menial chores, men and women of middle class would still partake in activities such as doing their own shopping or visiting acquaintances nearby on foot - you could say that they possessed a little more freedom than their upper class counterparts.
The Working Class
In my father's house there are many mansions. The first rests securely upon thick walls of stone. The second rises in high walls of coloured glass. But there is also a third great manor - one of thatched roofs and daubed walls that whistle in the wind. A great hall resounding with the commotion of pigs and chickens. A gallery decked in banners of onion and garlic.
Crammed into every corner of this grand estate live the teeming masses of the once-named peasantry. For some, life is a daily struggle. Hard labour, famine, pestilence and warfare and even darker predators prey on the mortals of the lowest class, and the vampires who have to feed on them are as subject to the rhythms and whirls of the same forces; they have to adapt with each disruption in this difficult world.
There are two inescapable truths for the poorest of mortals - they labour and they die. The term peasantry may be becoming a dying term, used most often by vampires now (see below), but these low-born mortals carry the burden of toil and impending death with them always, so much so it is said to carry over into the taste of their blood. Haunting reminders assail their ears from each Church song, hymn and story. Unsettling images leap from their paintings, sculpture and even the architecture itself.
It is impossible for the poor to even conceive of a life without toil. It is, in fact, as unimaginable to most as the thought of a life without death.
But beneath this patina of toil and mortality, something larger than life occasionally peeks through, catches the light. An unshakable determination, an irrefutable practicality and even a humble nobility dwells within these souls - strengths capable of defying even diabolical designs.
Getting down to this core of precious metal may take a bit of work but, as any good with can tell you, "Rub a penny long enough and it will shine."
Peasants typically made up the majority of the labour force in Europe - particularly through agriculture. By the Renaissance, the term ‘peasant’ was becoming a little looser (due to the loss of the feudal system), so typically refers to the population of rural areas where smallholders farmed much of the land. Most of this land belonged to members of the aristocracy, or was presided over by a bishop of the church.
This system was steadily changing by the 15th century - and the ‘open field system’ would be broken down to see far more cases of individuals owning their own land. You could easily own your own farm though and still be poor - agricultural work was difficult and dangerous, and such an occupation would keep you from gaining any real social standing.
Marriages were however, somewhat more free than those of the upper classes, so there’s that. The church would often be the center of the community and villages could be rife with superstition before the advent of widespread literacy arrives much later. In the wake of the Black Death, the populations of many Western European countries were slashed by more than a third - meaning more land was available and there was a distinct shortage of workers. It was this that contributed to the changes in the land ownership system, allowing the working to class to gain a little more agency.
But Storyteller, I’m Special!
You certainly are. After all, this is a story set within the World of Darkness where unseen forces stalk the safe harbours of human habitation, and supernatural entities influence the sculpting of nations. Whilst it is useful to be aware of the general nature of 15th century life and the historical events therein, it is not essential to be an expert - we certainly don’t proclaim to be.
Besides, you’re not like other mortals, are you? You have lived your life with an extraordinary gift - or debilitating curse depending on your experience. This has set your existence apart from that of other humans - to the point you could almost consider yourself a unique supernatural creature.
As mentioned further above, humans born with gifts of the Black Sun age at a different rate to normal humans - in such a way that even Giovanni’s researchers have been unable to explain.
Below is a list of eleven archetypal lifestyles that a gifted human such as yourself might have experienced.
You do not have to pick one of these if you have strong feelings for your character - but they might help as a template or building blocks for your mortal’s unique story prior to your incarceration at the lavish estate of Claudius Giovanni. Feel free to build upon these or change details to suit your human!
Human Archetypes
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Aristocrat’s Pet
Your powers are either scholarly, elegant or useful in some way which appeals to those of the upper classes. Whether you were born into riches or not, you were whisked away from your home once the true nature of your powers had been witnessed by other people. You perform your abilities at the behest of some provincial lord or noble court, treated either as a precious guest or exotic pet.
Perhaps you have been passed around several noble households; bought, traded or stolen by those who desire your unique talents. You might hate this life; of being regarded as a curio or source of entertainment for the rich and powerful - or you might have embraced it; performing with all of your heart in the hopes of achieving fame and fortune. Machiavellian politics and social charm come to you more easily than most, but on the other hand you’ve never experienced true independence.
***
Community Leader
You have found that your strange abilities frighten some, but they are useful enough that they have helped your local community several times. You are from a small, poor home - but that’s a good thing. Anywhere important or wealthy would have seen the eyes of the Church or the nobility swing in your direction, and most likely you would have been taken away as a heretic or an object of study. You are regarded as a wise leader - maybe your abilities saved a life, or are the type that can root out lies and deceptions.
Maybe you are the pastor of a small village church and truly believe in ideals of kindness and using your powers to good ends. You might otherwise have a more unofficial position, but be a valued member of the community nonetheless. A midwife, hunter or farmer could employ several of the human powers to good use to help those around them. It might be that the only reason you do this is for protection should people ever come looking for you, but you have created for yourself a benevolent throng of mortals nonetheless.
***
Famed Criminal
It’s hard to carve out a place for yourself in a world this cruel. You turned to more dubious means at a young age - finding your skills gave you the edge necessary to get ahead. Perhaps you were a simple extortionist, using powers of mental manipulation to swindle richer souls. You could have been a smuggler, a thief or just a thug that used your power to take advantage of the weakness in others.
Whatever path you took, your deeds were clearly a cut above those of a regular bandit. Even though you might not have led his lifestyle for long, it’s hard not to draw attention to yourself when you resort to using your gift. Maybe it’s the only life you could lead that helped distract you from the horrors attached to your power. Perhaps they rendered you so cold and lifeless inside that any hit of adrenaline finally made you come alive.
***
Feral Child
Your powers manifested at a young age, and they were of the sort that humans find either terrifying or highly undesirable. Perhaps your mother was accused of fornicating with a devil, some even say you are some cursed fae child and the true human baby was swapped out at birth. You could have been rich or poor, but either way you were chased out of your family home, or taken to a remote patch of woodland and abandoned.
Since then, you have learned to survive on the fringes of civilization - stealing food to survive and sheltering in animal barns or condemned buildings. Maybe you use your powers to help you get by, or perhaps you are too afraid to use them; they are what makes others look at you with horror, after all. You are scrappy and a survivor, but most likely lack any sort of social graces or refined appearance.
***
Forsaken Nobility
Once, you might have been the heir to a house of great standing. A blood-line of true nobility; not one of these merchant gentry pretenders. Your life began to fracture around you as your powers grew, until the point it was impossible for your family or the church to ignore them any longer. Soon, your deeds were a stain on your family’s reputation - whether you meant to be difficult or not.
Under pressure from other nobles, the church or simply out of their own disgust for you, they decided the family was better off with you out of the picture. Maybe they tried to have you murdered quietly, some time when you were away from the family estate. They might have framed you for a crime, or even faked your death and begged you to run before the church came for you. Whatever transpired, you are now alone, cut off from your family and wandering from place to place with only the ghost of your former potential by your side.
***
Hidden Talent
Yours was one of those powers that is only triggered by other supernatural creatures, so remained completely dormant from the majority of your life. Perhaps there were inklings of something different about you - and people undoubtedly gossiped about your hardy constitution and long life - but there was nothing to overtly get you in trouble with the church or see you accused of witchcraft.
It was with great shock and distress that the Giovanni vampires appeared one day at your doorstep (or at least the day servants sent to fetch you). You were hauled away from your loved ones, your friends, your old life. You still do not fully understand what is going on, but you do at least understand there is something about you that these people value, and you have been subjected to many tests to discover what exactly it is.
***
Merchant Arbiter
You are a member of the merchant middle class, a new class of human amid a world of shifting politics. You’ve worked hard throughout your life; you understand figures and several languages in order to do business across country borders. You lack the pedigree of a true noble, but you’ve never let this hold you back. Your abilities were probably slower to manifest than others - in order to afford you this much time undisturbed to excel.
Once they did come to you, your power began to unravel your carefully constructed life. Your reputation was scarred by odd incidents, and you watched trade deals and carefully planned deals go sour, falling apart as others tried to distance themselves from you. Now, trapped in the dungeons of an ancient vampire estate, perhaps you can find new opportunities to elevate yourself once more.
***
Stolen Ghoul
The treacherous world of vampires is no stranger to you. Long before you were acquired by the Giovanni, you were the “ghoul” of another vampire of lesser power and influence. (A ghoul is a mortal bound to a vampire by the vampire’s blood.) They had realised you possessed a strange power decades before the Giovanni began their search for these anomalous humans. They took you away from whatever home you knew, and fed you their vitae; rendering you bound to them.
Your life from this point was one of secrecy and travelling by moonlight. Your master kept you quiet - it seemed that your existence was not something they wished others to know. Over time you worked out that they were not supposed to have taken you. They were all but hiding from their own clan, and so received no assistance when the Giovanni came to take you away. This past has given you a head-start when it comes to your understanding of kindred politics, clans and general hierarchy.
***
Suspected Witch
Your powers were too overt or obviously supernatural in nature to be brushed under the rug. You went through early life facing pointed fingers and whispers behind your back - you were probably bullied by other children and scorned by adults for your ‘otherness’. Your parents most likely tried to cover up your powers when you were very young, but in all likelihood you were disowned as soon as you could fend for yourself.
One day, the pointed fingers drew the eye of the church, and those more powerful. Your treatment was terrible - you may have been tortured and violently interrogated. After all, most witch accusations were usually about land disputes or the greed of fellow neighbours - this time they actually found someone with “infernal” abilities. It could have been one of many fates that was handed to you; death by stoning, being burnt alive or simply a hanging. All you know is that you were taken away the night before your would-be death, and brought to a strange house filled with others of your kin. In essence, the vampires might have saved you.
***
Vengeful Serf
Life can be brutal for those crushed under the foot of an extremely classist society - even if change is slowly gripping the continent. You are from the poorest of backgrounds; your education is minimal and your family life chaotic. Your parents perished from the plague, your mother soon after you were born; you never met your father. Perhaps you were raised by an extended family - but there were just too many mouths to feed.
As a child, the poorest became the whipping boys for the local elite. Relentlessly harried and bullied by a local provincial lord with unjust taxes and cruel punishments, your powers first manifested as you stood against this tyrant. A price was placed on your head of course, and you would most likely have been caught and almost executed for your crimes (and devil-spawned powers) if the Giovanni had not come for you. You still hate the upper classes with a passion, and highly resent your newfound incarceration.
***
Zealot
Many other humans gifted with these strange abnormalities have given up any hope of reaching Heaven - not you. Your powers must have aligned with the church’s narrow band of acceptance, to the point that you flourished within the institution. You believe that your personal ‘gifts’ could only be granted by God. If they have unpleasant side effects, surely that is just part of the plan that you have yet to decipher.
You were taken against your will from your congregation, to be placed in a den of sin amongst many mortals who are most definitely touched by the devil. To make matters worse, you are surrounded by actual monsters, all intent on using your God-given talents for evil. Whether you were a priest, a choir boy, nun or simply someone raised and sheltered by the church (they saw your powers and confinement was the best option) - this place is surely only a few steps from Hell itself.