He who fights with monsters should look to it
that he himself does not become a monster.
And when you gaze long into an abyss
the abyss also gazes into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
"Beyond Good and Evil" (1886)
Post-op, cybernetic implant surgery...
Post-op, cybernetic implant surgery...TL;DR Summary:
- Near future, year 2026
- Vampires exist, as they have for a long, long time, ageless and hard to kill and thus fancy themselves apex predators who use their resources and influence to ensure that they cannot be assailed by common humanity.
- The Vigil has also existed from ancient times in a variety of forms, collecting information as best it could against Vampires, though it found few successes in hunting them. They have, instead in secret, cultivated the wealth and resources necessary to eventually confront vampires when the opportunity arose. Vampires have long since dismissed the Vigil as being a passive organization and a non-threat, as a second-rate illuminati that focuses on economic interests and corporate affairs. They never bothered to crush the Vigil.
- Through the course of the 20th and early 21st century, the Vigil has been content to continue this policy of appearing harmless, even as it took to the bleeding edge of technological research; a combination of extensive corporate espionage and sponsored research and development have yielded considerable leaps forward in a variety of technological fields. The Vampires, in their arrogance, do not realize that the plan is to advance to a point where they can level the playing field against vampires and fight them toe to toe.
- The recruits are your characters -- they have a variety of skills, backgrounds and reasons for associating with the Vigil; some are maimed veterans that want the implants and all the possibilities they offer, others have lost friends, family and lovers to the vampires. They are willing to undergo the dehumanizing and dangerous process of cybernetic implantation.
- These characters are sent forth, armed with the best equipment their very rich patrons can provide as a kill-team; their orders are to assassinate vampires, preserving their secrecy as much as possible, but killing vampires is the priority.
- Oh, and the first operation will be killing an Edward Cullen type. How cool is that?
- Specifics of technology will be discussed, but I have a general idea of where I want to draw the line.
- Inspirations; Movies - Munich, Blade Runner, Blade, The Lost Boys, Escape from New York. Books - the works of William Gibson, Dracula and Twilight, at least for the idea of killing an Edward Cullen type first. :)
- I know purists hate this, but, "High" Casual standards.
In Character Info:
Vampires have styled themselves the apex predators, the ones that take the predator that kills all the other life on Earth, and have fallen into this pattern of considering humanity prey. Some of them try to view humanity as a threat, but the oldest, the ones in charge, are set in their ways and sometimes have a hard time adapting to the idea of humans advancing beyond the means of the time that they were made into a vampire, a time when they were rampant over the earth. Hunters have come and hunters have gone, but with limited means to do damage to the Eternal, their name for themselves.
Organizations too, have come and gone, hunters trying to eradicate vampires under the auspices of the church and some kings, but they have failed, largely due to the inability to match the vampires unparalleled strength and speed, the natural abilities that make them the predator and humans the prey.
One organization has watched and waited, understanding that until the day arrived that they were able to match these strengths and perhaps overcome them the fell rule of the Eternal from the shadows would continue unabated. Through the long centuries, members lived and died, compiling and securing information on their enemies, but not moving against them hastily. They invested assets wisely, cultivated research and learning, worked with a slow purpose and a goal that spanned many lifetimes of effort, waiting for when science would allow them to match or even outmatch the vampires.
Now, in 2026, that reckoning has come.
Out of Character Info
The characters are essentially a team of hunters enhanced with cybernetics that are hunting vampires; the cybernetics are still a prototype phase, but they work and the enhancements are considerable in their performance and scary in their implications -- the characters are giving up their humanity to fight the inhuman, and that Niezstchean element of the RP should not be forgotten. They are more like what they fight than they wish to admit.
Characters are selected for many reasons, but they boil down to the basic imperatives of 'skills' and 'motivation.' Vampires are more visceral and are not, generally, creatures of training and self-discipline. While a few are brought into the fold for their skills, they are more often picked by their masters out of some sort of lust, and so there are quite a few artist and beautiful people types among the vampires. The Vigil, by contrast, looked at their recruits carefully for the skillset and mentality of those they are enhancing to fight the vampires -- they can build the body, after all.
Therefore, the characters are picked for what's in their heads; not just military types, but sharp investigators, cyberwarfare and hacking experts and people that can move easily through most places and speak the native languages. The implants enhance these abilities, but the characters quickly come to realize that the implants give them a fighting chance, but they do not assure victory. Only creative thinking and their skills can do that.
All the same, for a variety of reasons ranging from wanting revenge to desiring the ability to walk again without a wheelchair or even an idealistic desire to free humanity of this scourge, the characters signed on for the long haul, with their flesh and blood as down payment.
