Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="DreadPirateMurphy" data-source="post: 4769926" data-attributes="member: 20715">The HiddenVampires do not exist.  Oh, sure, undead exist, of the mindless sort.  Most people of Ka think about undead the way a 21st century Earthling thinks about cancer-causing toxic waste – hazardous, but not especially horrifying as long as it isn’t in your own backyard.  Stay away from shadow and from necromancy, and you’ll be all right.  Legends about vampires are mostly distortions of actual events, including accounts of unusual diseases or insane serial killers.The vampires have worked very hard to make sure that this is the popular perception.  In actual fact, a group of immortal and powerful creatures, corrupted by direct exposure to shadow, have taken up roles of importance in almost every human society.  They have taken two approaches to maintain their place.The first is that they do what they can to hide evidence.  People who know are dismissed as eccentrics and crazies.  Vampires who get out of control are put down for the good of the whole.  While demonic cults exist, they are not as common as people perceive, largely because they’re a favorite scapegoat used by vampires to explain odd events.  Vampires as a rule almost never engage in the necromantic arts.  Nothing blows your cover as an undead abomination as quickly as commonly hanging around other undead abominations.The second has been the creation of a race of servants.  These servants serve as messengers, household staff, guardians, and food.  These servants are halflings.  To the outside world, halflings are common servants of the aristocracy.  They are backed by power, and they are naturally good at avoiding attention and moving unseen.  Not all halflings are aware of the truth.  The True Clans continue to serve the vampires and know the secret, but over the centuries many halflings have left service or been exiled and have lost knowledge of the truth.  These groups tend to wander in a nomadic fashion, though some settle.  These Outside Clans would mostly be horrified to learn of their origins.</blockquote>

Verification