MONDAY, JULY 19 Les vampires de la Nouvelle-Orléans – This week, we're exploring the inhabitants of Vampire: The Requiem's "signature city," New Orleans. The Big Easy crawls with nearly 100 Kindred on any given night, though only about 60 of them reside within the city itself. The Crescent City is also home to over fifteen sites of Elysium, most of them in the city's historic French Quarter. Players of the Vampire: The Requiem free introductory games already know some of these Kindred and will meet them all (and more) in the continuing installments of the Danse de la Mort preview chronicle. Clan: Ventrue Among the Kindred, the name of Augusto Vidal has come to be synonymous with two things: the city of New Orleans and the determination of Ventrue superiority. Few cities in the New World can claim so many trials and tribulations as can New Orleans, yet Vidal has endured them all. He is the first and only Prince the region has ever recognized, and as a result, he has come to be seen as something of an icon among young clan members across the United States and beyond. A soldier and nobleman in life, Vidal began his Requiem shortly after the death of his wealthy Andalusian wife. An ancestor of hers appeared to him and, in a single violent night, ushered him into the Danse Macabre. The childe of a powerful elder, Vidal had only reflected status. Not only this, but his sire subjected him to endless tests of loyalty to both family, country, and clan. The last of these tests came during the Seven Years War, when Vidal's sire bade him to go to New Orleans to represent Spanish power to the native French. Vidal saw this as a chance for freedom and accepted, knowing it would cut the leash connecting his throat to his sire's hand. Throughout his reign, Prince Vidal has done whatever was necessary to keep his hands firmly gripped on the reins of power in New Orleans. His disapproval of the mystic art of vodoun is well known to most Kindred, but this impatience has grown feverish of late. His crackdown on the rising numbers of Kindred within his domain has led many to question the Prince's motives (and some his sanity). Many believe, and rightly so, that he is simply running out of time. Vidal must take his rest soon, and with no immediate heir apparent, many wonder what he will leave behind. (Illustration of Vidal by Travis Ingam.) |
