a Sons of Ether barabbi/Progenitor barabbi Labyrinth
WARNING: This deals with some mature themes (Nazism, medical atrocities, etc.), which the author neither supports or encourages. Remember however, this is a Nephandi Labyrinth, and there is more to the Wyrm than messy murders. (Sorry if this seems patronizing, but it is better for me to warn everyone, then to disturb somebody).
In 1948, a Nazi Son of Ether named Hans Goeffels, began gathering corrupt scientists from the Nazi military and concentration camps, after a mysterious "benefactor" showed Hans the fall of the Third Reich. Hans gathered the Wyrm tainted Progenitors who experimented in human breeding to create a "master race," and the corrupt Sons of Ether working on making various weapons for the Germans. In order to sneak the the Nephandi technomancers away from the SS, Hans called upon his "benefactor" to create duplicates of the scientists to take their place. This act gained the attention of the Iron Circle, an ahriman that dealt with occult matters for Hitler, and caused Hans and his fellow escapees to be labeled as traitors. Clashes between the Iron Circle and the Phoenix Project still occur to this day.
The technomancers, grouped and led by Hans, fled Germany, went to hiding in various South American countries. All knew of the impending downfall of Nazi Germany, but could do little to stop it. Instead, they began working on a way to gain immortality, for they all agreed that if they could but gain life eternal, they would have all the time they could want to shape the world in their image. This idea never seemed insane to the Nazi fanatics, but they knew that they could never hope to achieve it while confined to the limits of this reality.
It was in 1952, in Argentina, that Hans revealed his benefactor as the to an assembly of the technomantic Nephandi. While they had seen Hans talking to a person wearing that they called the Dark Monk as a slight insult, they themselves had never had any dealings with it, only through Hans did they receive its instruction. The Dark Monk, so called because it always wore a black robe with the hood pulled down, revealed its true face to the assembled group. The racist mages gasped in terror at the monster that stood before them. Hans inwardly smiled, believing that his fellow Germans would never serve one who was not of Aryan blood, and that their loyalty to him was assured. A false thought he still holds true.
Immediately upon disrobing a shimmering portal appeared behind the Dark Monk, revealing an island surrounded by beautiful waters and dark stormy skies. Hans smiled proudly and said, "here my brothers is our promised land. Here is the palace of the Phoenix!" Within a matter of days the Nephandi had entered the seemingly deserted Horizon Realm and made it into their own. And the Dark Monk was happy that Its realm was once more aiding It on Its path to Ascension and dominance of Gaia.
Overseers Members: Dark Monk (?), Hans Goeffels (Master, Son of Ether barabbi)
Background: The Overseers jointly rule the Phoenix Project, with the Dark Monk giving orders to Hans, and Hans passing them on to either the Scientific Core or Acquisitions, as he sees fit. While Hans believes that his fellow Nazis hold loyalty to him alone, they are divided in their loyalties. This error will prove fatal to Hans when he makes his move to oust the Dark Monk.
Scientific Core Members: Adolf Schirach (Master, Progenitor barabbi), Gretchen Manheim (Master, Son of Ether barabbi), Ernst Mueller (Master, Progenitor barabbi), Peter Horton (Master, Son of Ether barabbi), Anna Goeffels (Master, Progenitor barabb i)
Background: The Scientific Core is responsible for conducting experiments into maintaining immortality. Adolf, a FACADE engineer, deals with Mind transferal to clones. Gretchen is developing a means to extract a human consciousness and transfer it to a robotic body. Ernst and Anna work together trying to find a biochemical or surgical procedure to stop cellular aging and decay (they're currently exploring tissue grafts from human embryos). And Peter is in charge of studying any interesting features possessed among other Awakened species (eg. resurrection among Mummies).
Acquisitions Members: Jack Hueller(Master, Iteration X barabbi), Alexia Peyetrovna (Master, Son of Ether barabbi), Harold (Master, Dreamspeaker barabbi)
Background: They get guinea pigs. Acquisitions is in charge of capturing live specimens of Kindred, Garou, Mummies, fomori, and anything else that is deemed needed by the Scientific Core. Acquisition members are all known for their knowledge of Awakened species, and for their abilities to wield magick offensively.
Magickal ratings:
Berlin House: This is one of two earthly aspects the Project members possess. The Berlin House is used as a simple place to unwind, and get away from their work for a while, but due to their highly competitive nature they seldom take advantage of it facilities. The Berlin House is located on the outskirts of Berlin, and consists of a walled-in estate, a three story mansion, and an olympic level indoor gymnasium. It has every luxury a person could desire. Despite the Project's Nazi origins, no evidence of their political beliefs are present due to their declining Nazi fervor and German laws which they fear would bring them unwanted attention.
Training Camp: What the Berlin House lacks in Nazi paraphenalia, the New Reich Training Camp (as it is some what secretly know) makes up for ten fold. It is here that Hans trains and recruits (and occasionally experiments upon) Neo-Nazis. Located in a small town in Louisiana, the camp is protected by local police and citizens, who are all either members or sympathizers with "the cause". New recruits are flown in from around the world, and trained in military and terrorist tactics, while being even more indoctrinated with Nazi propaganda (via devices create by the Sons). The camp is hidden in a valley on a stretch of the town mayor's property, covered with camouflage nets to prevent aerial detection. Automatic weapons, over-zealous "soldiers," and a large grouping of fellow believers (and willing volunteers) provide Hans and his allies a power base for more mundane and direct actions on Earth.
Purpose: The Phoenix Project, as directed by Hans, is dedicated to establishing immortality in order to establish an eternal reich on Earth, with Hans as leader. Or so Hans believes. In actuality, ALL of the technomancers desire to rule the world in one form or another. And the Dark Monk uses the Phoenix Project to....
Chantry Inhabitants: Besides the various Wyrm creatures found in the sea, there are numerous Garou, Kindred, and fomori, all "lobotomized" and turned into guards. Also of note is a mentally undamaged Mummy the Project keeps as a subject of study/experimentation (under heavy restraint of course). And some mages have begun to see fleeting images form and disperse within the storm clouds.
Internal Structure and Relations: All mages seem to cooperate and work together towards the goals of immortality and a fourth reich, goals which Hans based the Labyrinth upon. Over the years the mages have largely lost their exterior Nazi trappings, keeping only the beliefs and prejudices within themselves. While all claim loyalty to Hans and the Dark Monk, their true loyalties are not so fixed. Jack Ernst and Anna all support Hans, and work with him to overthrow the Monk, while Harold, Peter and Aldof either serve or work with the Dark Monk. The rest plot how best to gain power for themselves.
External Relations: While not xenophobic (yet), the members of the Phoenix Project realize that they are wanted worldwide as war criminals, enemies of humanity, servants of the Wyrm, and traitors to Nazism. Combined with the fact that their goals of immortality and world rule conflict with everyone, the Project members do their best to keep their existence a secret. In fact, the Acquisitions members all change their appearances and behavior patterns (using Life and Mind magicks) each time they leave the realm, and revert to normal on their return. A process all the mages repeat as well.
Status and Reputation: Being all but unknown, the Labyrinth has low ratings in both even among fellow Wyrm constructs.
Allies and Enemies: In addition to the Neo-Nazis at the training camp for mundane needs, the Dark Monk can call upon a few Wyrm spirits of great power to assist it.
Just as the secrecy of the Project allows it few allies, it possess few enemies as well. As it is only the Iron Circle and a cabal of Euthanatos work to destroy it, along with attacks from strange Nephandi creatures. If the Project were better known it would surely have more enemies.
Research Capabilities: An excellent (if somewhat dated) collection of mundane books and equipment were taken by the Project members upon their defection from Nazi Germany. Over the decades the Nazis have added a few articles of magickal significance (mainly in the spheres of Matter and Life) to the millennia old collection of the Dark Monk. Some of the Dark Monk's magickal treasures and tomes are of indecipherable use to the technomancers (and almost any other mage as well).
In the field of transhumanistic studies, lifeform alteration, and immortality research there is no other area more suited to the task. Acquisitions also seizes any items, living or otherwise, that the Project requests, including various magickal and mundane things (although magickal items are targeted only if deemed of utmost use and necessity).
Nodes: None known, and the Dark Monk will keep it that way. Hans is desperately trying to, secretly, discover the location of the Nodes that supply this realm. All attempts at tracking the leylines away from the pillar tops to their respective Nodes has failed, and Hans would give anything to know not only where the Nodes are, but how the Dark Monk hid them so well.
Stories: The main theme of stories involving the Labyrinth would be of struggle; not (necessarily) the struggle one finds in the middle of combat however. The mages of the Project struggle to find a path to immortality, against each other, and to keep their secrecy. The guardians of the realm would struggle against all those who try to invade, and the prisoners will struggle to escape.
The mood of the Labyrinth could best be described as revulsion. All "visitors" to the island are revolted by the inhabitants and their inevitable fate. Some among the technomancers themselves have become disturbed by the depths of the experiments (due to resonance), as well as to the nature of their backing. And the Dark Monk...?
STR-2 DEX-3 STA-3 CHA-2 MAN-2 APP-1 PER-4 INT-2 WIT-4Talents: Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Awareness 5, Brawl 3, Dodge 3, Intimidation 3, Subterfuge 4
Skills: Firearms 3, Meditation 4, Melee 2, Stealth 4, Survival 4
Knowledges: Cosmology 5, Enigmas 4, Kindred Lore 3, Garou Lore 3, Faerie Lore 3, Wyrm Lore 5, Wraith Lore 4, Occult 5
Backgrounds: Arcane 3, Avatar 2, Dream 4
Willpower: 8
Arete: 6
Spheres:
Image: About 5'8", Hans weighs a measly 138 lbs. He has blonde hair, blue eyes, and a very fair complexion. He looks to be about 30 years old and frequently dresses as if he is about to go on an outdoors expedition or a hunting trip (which he usually is). It should be noted that Harold is not naturally blonde haired, or blue eyed, or even caucasian. The Dark Monk, using Life and Prime magicks, managed to change Harold's ethnicity and altered his life pattern so that the change was undetectable.
Roleplaying Notes: A new reich will never happen, but you must convince the others that it is your goal on life. You secretly despise the Nazis, and everything that they stand for, but your mentor desires you to play this foolish game. So, you transfer your zeal to serve your mentor to serving Hans and his dupes, while knowing who really pulls the strings of the show. Just go along and obey them, but not for much longer.
Anna Goeffels (Progenitor barabbi)
STR-5 DEX-5 STA-5 CHA-1 MAN-2 APP-5 PER-2 INT-5 WIT-2Talents: Alertness 4, Athletics 5, Brawl 3, Dodge 5, Intimidation 4, Intuition 3
Skills: Etiquette 2, Leadership 4, Melee 4 (fencing), Research 5, Technology 4
Knowledges: Computer 2, Culture 2, Genetics 5, Linguistics 1 (German, English), Medicine 5, Science 5
Backgrounds: Avatar 4, Allies 3 (genetically cloned Kodiak bears she keeps as pets), Destiny 3
Willpower: 7
Arete:5
Spheres:
Image: Anna is the perfect image of a Nazi woman, combined with the frame of a gold medal athlete. She has genetically altered herself to look fit and healthy, while adding extremely beautiful looks. The end result being that her body is capable of doing more than its structure would suggest. She looks 21, despite being born in 1947, and tends to dress in lab coats and pants.
Roleplaying Notes: Hans is paving the way for you and you must prove yourself worthy. Remember two things though: Nazis are the dominant race, and women are the dominant sex. Always prepare for the day when you and your father (the only man worth anything) will rule the world together. You must also try to keep your sympathy towards those you use, and your true feelings for Hans a secret; if either were revealed you would be ashamed to stay in the project.
Hans Goeffels (Son of Ether barabbi)
STR-3 DEX-2 STA-4 CHA-4 MAN-4 APP-2 PER-3 INT-5 WIT-4Talents: Alertness 5, Athletics 3, Awareness 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 4, Expression 5, Intimidation 5, Subterfuge 5
Skills: Etiquette 3, Firearms 3, Leadership 5, Meditation 3, Melee 3, Research 3, Stealth 2, Survival 2, Technology 5
Knowledges: Computer 3, Cosmology 3, Culture 3, Enigmas 2, Linguistics 5, Occult 5, Science 5, Wraith Lore 2, Wyrm Lore 2
Backgrounds: Avatar 4, Arcane 3, Destiny 4, Dream 2, Allies 2 (camp director and Berlin House owner)
Willpower: 9
Arete: 8
Spheres:
With the loss of World War I and the humiliation of Germany, Hans felt only anger and rage. Seeking somewhere to focus this blind hatred, Hans tried by focusing on weapons development. He would make sure that Germany would never lose another war. Hans became interested in Hitler, who also held similar views and gave Hans a scapegoat to blame for his brother's death. Hans gained the attention of the Germans and raised in their ranks as a weapons designer. The concentration camps turned him against Hitler, not due to their inhumanity, as much as their "waste". Hans believed that living slaves were much more useful than rotting corpses.
It was also at that this time, early in 1943, that Hans began to believe that he, and not Hitler, should be the founder of the thousand year reich, or even an Eternal Reich! A belief that would eventually lead to a failed assassination attempt against Hitler a few months later. Hans kept working on V-2 rockets, atom bombs, and even space vehicle designs until he met the Dark Monk, and changed the path his life would take.
Image: Hans is a tall (6' 5"), handsome man, with a very powerful presence, made more so due to his age (seemingly 63 years). Hans has a thick head of silver-grey hair, and keeps a clean-shaven face. He typically dresses in loose-fitting shirts a nd slacks.
Roleplaying Notes: You have seen too many things. Too many inept leaders ruling their inept peoples. It is your responsibility to rule them with an iron hand, for the soft touch they currently receive is preparing them for their downfall. You must save them, and many will try to stop you, and many will suffer under your reign, but those who resist and suffer and not one of the "ubermen," and what happens to them is of no concern.
Then the nightmares started, and with them, the dreams which became his only joy. He dreamed he was in the foulest reaches of some bizarre hell, struggling to escape from its pits and cities. He dreamed the wind lifted him and carried him to new heights. He met people in these dreams; some tried to help him and some tried to hurt him, but they all seemed so real and they all kept returning.
Dee reflected on these dreams in the waking world, and found them much more appealing then anything in reality. In his dreams he could control reality, shaping things to fit his needs, and in them he found a true love. Dee began to wish he could spend forever just dreaming, exploring the bizarre vistas that exist both within and without from his mind. It was as his love was trying to help him open the door that would permanently sever his link to the waking world that tragedy struck.
One night, while dreaming, Dee tried to shatter the link, which would kill himself, but failed. Instead, the dreamscape collapsed for a moment, killing his love, an event Dee blamed on himself and which sent him into a nervous breakdown. Immediately, three figures appeared within the dream, trying to control the raging ma ge, whose Orphan Avatar had just awoken. Dee's first act upon Awakening was to sense the Avatar's within the other mages and absorb them into his own. He immediately woke up.
The next weeks were spent in futile attempts to recreate the love he had destroyed, and come to grips with his newfound abilities. He found his power growing with every dream he had, until suddenly, he stopped dreaming altogether. In the waking world h e could hear the spirits of the night and wind speak to him when was alone and on the verge of suicide. But even their caring words would not sway him.
The pills had been taken a few hours before, followed by a last meal from Hardee's which he ate in seclusion. Dee didn't know if he could find or recreate his love, but he knew that even if he would dream again, and that alone would more than make up for the cost of his death. As he slept he had found himself flying into a dense cloud of grey, faster and faster, until he could hear his heart beating and his heavy breathing from his slumbering body. Faster and faster came the breaths and the beats, and he closed his eyes in fear.
Then he could hear nothing. Nothing except the roar of the winds around him. He opened his eyes to see the grey turn into a swirling maelstrom of shapes and colors, almost all of which were beyond his ability to describe. And then he felt it, the changing of his body. He screamed in ecstasy/anguish as the pleasure/pain of having his flesh turned became too much for him to bear. He sought a release, any escape, and saw a patch of greyness (the one he entered through) ahead. He struggled against the thing he would later call the Flux, and found himself in the grey clouds once again.
He now knew that he was a living dream, the soul of once-living mage, and opened a gateway to Earth just by thinking about it. He was startled when the first thing he saw was a group of men wearing nothing but leathers and wielding spears. He was startled because he had meant to return to Chicago, and ended up in some alternate world. It would take weeks for Dee to eventually realize and accept that he had gone over ten thousand years back in time to primitive Europe.
Dee found that creating a body was no problem, but it always would evolve into a humanoid mass of tendons ands muscles. So Dee took to wearing a black robe, and concentrated on only altering those parts of him that would be visible to the majority of humanity. He spent centuries developing his magicks, particularly learning how to manipulate the energies within all things. He also studied how to manipulate time (which he would never master), abandoning the world of his dreams for this world, once he could more easily manipulate it. But even though he may have abandoned his dreams, he still held onto the memories of his love.
He encountered early Garou, and learned of their Caerns, sites of power. The Garou welcomed him as a brother, until he revealed his true form, when they labeled him a minion of the Wyrm. Dee was hurt and fled into what would be known as middle East, using his magick to defend himself. As society grew, Dee watched and wanted to establish himself as a benevolent God. It was at this time that Dee encountered the first of the Kindred.
Dee could sense the seemingly endless amount of power the undead possessed, and knew of their appetites. Fortunately, they seemed to prefer living in their cities than venturing to the collection of small tribes which the Dark One, as Dee came to be known as, protected. Until one day when tragedy struck.
A Kindred, which the Dark One would come to believe to be the founder of the Gangrel clan, found the Dark One and his collection of tribes. Gangrel, sensing the power inherent in the Dark One, desired to honor him by Embracing him as the second of clan Gangrel. Gangrel, succumbing to her predatorial urges, decided to stalk the mage before Embracing him. A stalking which the Dark One took as a prelude to an attack (which it more or less was).
The Dark One took the offensive, surrounded by dozens of his followers, and struck Gangrel with a bolt of sunlight. The battle raged on, as Gangrel, angered by the assault, summoned the animals to kill the mage and his followers as she fed off the blood of the fallen on the edges. In the end, only the Dark One and a score of his strongest warriors were standing against Gangrel, pumped up with the vitae in her veins. The Dark One, seeing how Gangrel consumed the life of others for strength and remembering what he had done so long ago, drained his followers of their souls.
His strength renewed, the Dark One pressed the attack against Gangrel yet again, and caused her to flee into the night, back to city Caine. As the Dark One, fearing reprisal, fled from the area, Gangrel told Caine of the mage and his black robes. Caine warned all citizens of the city to beware the Dark One who stole the souls of the living, and the kine kept that belief after the fall of the first city, and spread the fear of the adversary who ate souls into their religions.
The Dark One travelled throughout Asia, and watched as the Chinese empire grew, and with it the Asian vampires, descendants of Caine he assumed. Fearing more conflict with the Kindred, the Dark One returned back to Europe, and settled in Rome during the age of Augustus Caesar. While in Rome, the Dark One eventually met, and befriended, a Brujah who taught him much about the Kindred. The Brujah was fascinated that the Dark One had fought and beaten a Antediluvian, and the Dark One, in turn, was relieved that not all Kindred were as powerful as the one he had fought.
The Dark One began accumulating magickal treasures as well, trading with the Ventrue and Malkavian rulers for magickal tomes and talismans. He knew that Rome was meant to fall anyway, was he evil for being a tool to destroy a vast civilization and plunge Europe into a centuries-long Dark Ages? Was he? He decided that he would chose his own destiny, using what he had to work with. That, like many other decisions, would return to haunt him.
As he accumulated magickal knowledge from by Kindred and merged it with scrying done into the future, the Dark One discovered the possibility that he could create and rule a dimension, a dimension where he could find a way to recreate his lost love.
He started by finding Garou caerns, and, with Kindred support, stealing the Caerns from their Lupine defenders and claiming them as Nodes. Once the Dark One had enough Caerns, he began building his Horizon Realm, the Palace of the Phoenix, where his love would be reborn. But as the Roman Empire fell, his Kindred allies turned on him, thinking him to be the cause of their downfall. The Garou also sought him for raping their sacred lands, and early mages also sought him not only becuase of his numerous thefts, but also to gain his collection.
With his numerous enemies, the Dark One had to hide his realm and himself or else have to fend off a seemingly endless number of enemies. He chose to hide. He knew that his realm could be traced by following the ley lines that led from his Nodes either by following the energy or by sensing through (what he scryed as being called) Correspondence. So, he looked far ahead into the future, to a point where mankind no longer existed, and transported the Nodes to that time, while keeping the ley lines intact.
And there he went to try and recreate his love.
Over the centuries, he faced off against strange, demonic creatures who entered his realm, and the occasional mage or two. In response to these attacks he filled the sea around his island with bizarre, twisted creatures of his own, while strengthening the shell around the realm. This proved well for centuries, until the Dark One acknowledged a flaw in his use of time magicks. He could not see beyond vague details of his own "lifetime", or the period of time between his birth and Awakening. He used his knowledge of history to get him by, and scrying into future events that weren't directly related to his life.
He needed to know if he would succeed, he had to find out if all his effort were in vain or not. And, at that moment of self doubt, a being calling itself Jonathan Harker arrived. Jonathan managed to sneak past the guardians of the sea and approached the Dark Monk (as the Dark One, once Dee, liked to think of himself). Before the Dark Monk struck the Nephandi down, Jonathan offered to answer the Dark Monk's burning question and others, and the Dark Monk would not lose any part of soul or have any Wyrm invasion on his soul by accepting Jonathan's offer. But there would be an "unset" price to pay for every answer.
The Dark Monk, in a moment of extreme hubris, accepted. Jonathan told the Dark Monk he would indeed find his lost love, but that he would need to steal the Avatar of an immortal mage to do so. Jonathan also told the Dark Monk that he (the Dark Monk) was such an immortal mage. Three facts, three bills to pay. Jonathan laughed and said, "the first price is that you shall never know your own time, the second is the Wyrm shall invade your realm unchallenged, and the third..." and Jonathan smiled before he disappeared.
The Dark Monk realized that this was why he could never foresee his own destiny. But the second part had him worried, not nearly as much as the unpaid third however.
As the months passed, the Dark Monk saw his creatures become more violent, and felt as the dark skies he once held so dear became filled with darker things. And he knew that soon the Nephandi would come. But just as in Rome, he believed that he could choose his own destiny, and so he set out to chose the Nephandi that would invade his realm, leading him to Hans and his Nazis.
The Dark Monk (Dreamspeaker/Orphan)
STR-7 DEX-6 STA-8 CHA-3 MAN-5 APP-0/3 PER-5 INT-6 WIT-5Talents: (assume all at 5, except where noted) Awareness 6, Intuition 6
Skills: (assume all at 5, except where noted) Firearms 2, Meditation 7
Knowledges: (assume all at 5, except where noted) Cosmology 3, Enigmas 6
Backgrounds: Arcane 5, Avatar 8, Dream 6
Willpower: 10
Arete: 9
Spheres:
Image: The Dark Monk no longer even tries to look normal. Imagine a humanoid form made of muscle and tendons, without any evidence of sensory organs, that seems to be able to bend in weird places (eg. three knees on each leg), standing about eight feet tall, and always wearing a black robe.
Roleplaying Notes: Better the devil you know than the one you don't. Besides you'll be doing the world a favor by keeping your "eyes" on these Nephandi. Once one of 'em gets lucky, drain his Avatar and get rid of the rest, the messy way. Even stupid little Harold. Just be careful, don't let yourself be corrupted and don't forget the third price to pay. Soon, you will hold her again.