Topic: An almost Castlevania Roleplay (my bits of it anyway)

[Lumi Kløvstad]

So, my friends and I on IMVU run a roleplay universe which is a very Buffy/Grimm/Supernatural-esque role play universe with a very complex canon from over seven years of play. It revolves around the Harker family from Bram Stoker's novel (but mostly their descendants) having taken up vampire slaying after Jonathan and Mina were terrorized in 1898.

I am responsible for about a third of it, having played well over a dozen characters over the run of the story, all feeding into a huge knot of plotlines that very lovingly rip off Castlevania, both classic and Lords of Shadow.

Having come to realize that it (being my parts) is very much an alternate universe fanfic on its own, I thought I'd post the gist here.

First off, my major players.


Carmilla
In this canon, Carmilla is a former reverend mother who was turned in the early eleventh century. She is the vampire who deposed Walter Bernhard and became the new Dark Lord of the Vampires via "Klingon Promotion". Eventually slain in battle in 2011 by a HUGE army of modern day soldiers who effectively leveled her homeland of Styria, Austria in order to do it. Her human persona is remembered as "Saint Mircalla" by the Catholic Church in recognition of her good deeds and contributions to the Church.

Dracula
Here, he begins as Mathias Cronqvist, much as he does in Lament of Innocence. His story follows Castlevania canon fairly closely until Bram Stoker's novel, at which point he's pretty much dead for good. A frequent recurring plot is his "family" of House Dracul trying to resurrect him (and subsequently failing for varying reasons). Has been resurrected once in the RP in 2012, and did a LOT of damage before the heroes finally took him down. With his (second) death, the mantle of Dark Lord of the Vampires is once again without a holder.

The Lord of the Necromancers
Probably the biggest Greater Scope Villain in the role play, he's appeared in person exactly once and his numerous schemes directly affect pretty much everything that goes on in the story. If there's a high level villain in the story, expect them to somehow connect to this guy even if they don't realize it themselves. Was once a high ranking soldier in the service of the Church who knew Saint Mircalla personally, his human name has been lost to history, and his supernatural self has not deigned to take a name, preferring to be known by his title. Essentially the same magnificent bastard that Zobek is in the Lords of Shadow saga, just even more cautious and dangerously genre savvy.

La Komtess Claudia Chanoix Von Steirmark de Hapsburg-Lorraine
My current main character, Claudia is Carmilla's longtime lover and confidant... and her heir. The current Countess of Styria, and Baroness of Chanoix (a fictional province in France) is a member of the old Imperial house of Hapsburg-Lorraine, and serves as equal parts ally and antagonist to the Harker family. Unswervingly loyal to Carmilla (probably one of her few minions who were), everything she does revolves around reviving the Dark Lord Carmilla, and destroying both the Lord of the Necromancers and House Dracul. In addition to "standard" Stoker-esque vampire powers, she can control blood in numerous inventive and horrifically cruel ways.

Julius Belmont
The last of the pure-blooded Belmont family, Julius was for years a trusted ally and mentor to Medri, the current heir to the Harker family. A powerful and experienced vampire hunter who tangled with Carmilla in 2011 (but did not strike the killing blow), Julius was respected by all, even his enemies. Was married to Yura Vernandes and had a daughter, Heidi, but both Yura and Julius were swiftly eliminated by Dracula in 2012 in a surprise attack, leaving the famed Belmont clan without a direct heir. In addition, the Vampire Killer whip was taken by Dracula's minions, and remains lost.

Yura Vernandes
The Line of the Harkers counterpart to Yoko Belnades (with a slightly more Eastern European given name and adaptation of the "Fernandez" surname), Yura was a skilled chemist and highly knowledgeable resource for the Harkers to consult, although her magical skill under the pressures of battle left much to be desired. Like Julius, she was killed by Dracula in a surprise attack shortly after his resurrection. Unlike Julius, Dracula transformed her into a Succubus to demoralize the Harker family and their allies. In a brief moment of hard won self-control Yura chose to commit suicide, electing to die as herself, rather than continue living as the monster Dracula had forcibly changed her into.

Heidi Vernandes
The daughter of Julius and Yura (and was out of the country during Dracula's attack), Heidi is the last known survivor of both the Vernandes family and the Belmont family following the (offscreen) passing of Cardinal Simon Belmont V in 2012 (due to old age). Heidi is a powerful necromancer, on the run from the Lord of the Necromancers who greatly desires her power to be in his service. Heidi is brash, angry, and nontrusting, and is a wanted fugitive from INTERPOL for numerous crimes including grave robbery (in truth done by the Lord of the Necromancers to push her closer to him). Seeks the Vampire Killer whip of her father to do away with the Dark Lord once and for all, but in a horrid miscalculation, acquired the Dark Pain whip instead, which morphed her into an undead creature upon taking hold of it. Continues to seek the true Vampire Killer, even though she surmises that to use it would likely kill her. She is also being tracked by Claudia Chanoix, who believes that Heidi has the power to conduct the ritual to resurrect Carmilla.

Renon
A friendly, affable demonic gentleman from the pits of Hell, Renon appears periodically in the story peddling everything from information and gossip to Deus Ex Machinas, the latter of which are often passed up by the heroes for one reason or another. Renon has no real stake in either side's victory, but prefers to sell to the heroes as they tend to pay better on account of being more desperate.


So, this whole thing started with me playing Carmilla, and bringing a few details from her Castlevania portrayal to mix with the original novella, and she was treated as something of a neutral character, not on anybody's side. Over time, she began to clash on ideological levels with various "heroic" characters (who were, admittedly, assholes). Eventually, a series of misunderstandings (and manipulations by the Lord of the Necromancers, who happily fanned the flames) took the cold war hot, and Styria was flattened (and Carmilla with it).

Carmilla eventually returned to the RP, resurrected by Dracula's followers (as a warm up to the real thing, figuring they'd use Carmilla as a guinea pig). This time she was far more villainous in her capacity in the story, and was eventually put down by the Harkers again, and she remains deceased.

During the Battle of Styria arc, I'd introduced Julius Belmont as one of the chief heroic characters, not wanting Carmilla to look heroic when opposed by such bloodthirsty sociopathic anti-heroes as she was at the time. Hence, Julius was thrown in as a kind of "see what I did there?" reference character who I really didn't expect to show up again. Cardinal Simon Belmont V is a character I introduced alongside Julius, but he was never actually seen or directly interacted with by any of the characters.

But, people really liked my portrayal of Julius, so I had the character stay on, adding in Yura Vernandes as a sort of spousal foil for him to keep him from getting two dimensional.

In 2012 the RP leader and I decided to do a plotline where Dracula came back, and I realized that Julius, as a proper seasoned veteran Belmont, would make overcoming Dracula too easy for the heroes (as there were FAR more heroic characters than villains, and many of the heroes were quite powerful). So Julius had to go, and I made Dracula have a moment where he realized that if he allowed the Bemont of the story to live, his own chances of success plummet, and therefore uses stealth and overwhelming force to catch Julius at a vulnerable moment and destroy him.

The Dracula Arc ended up finishing in a glorious "Last Charge of the Light Brigade" sequence where Dracula and his minions manage to kill almost 90% of the established heroes (both for dramatic and practical narrative reasons), leaving the heroes much weaker (and less overpowered) before finally being taken down, which was also an Author Protest on my part at how easily he seems to go down in the games despite being portrayed as this big terrifying villain who absolutely must be stopped. Afterwards, Castlevania references in the story vanished for a couple of years outside of an occasional spoken reference to Julius, Carmilla, or Dracula.

As of this year, Claudia Chanoix was introduced (her surname being taken from an old fan mistranslation of "Shanoa" during the lead up to Order of Ecclesia), and she brings Carmilla's influence back into the story in a BIG way, manipulating both heroes and villains alike into serving her purpose of resurrecting Carmilla and eliminating Carmilla's enemies. Through Claudia, we finally get a good look at Carmilla's personality, and she's revealed to be not quite as antagonistic as she's been often portrayed by me; most of the time, she just wants to be left alone, lashing out when she isn't (in a classic case of "nice job breaking it, hero"). Carmilla is even revealed, in flashbacks, to have helped the Belmont and Harker families in the early twentieth century, and financially sponsored organizations like Ecclesia in an effort to keep the world turning with some semblance of order. In addition, the character of Heidi Vernandes was introduced to keep the Belmont lineage in play, but with an inexperienced, untrained, anti-heroic twist.

As to whether Claudia will succeed in bringing back Carmilla, or whether Heidi succeeds in destroying the Lord of the Necromancers, or if Dracula comes back.... time will tell.

Those scenes have yet to be played.

[X]

It revolves around the Harker family from Bram Stoker's novel (but mostly their descendants) having taken up vampire slaying after Jonathan and Mina were terrorized in 1898.

Don't you mean 1897?

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Don't you mean 1897?

1897-1898.

And I have to admit, part of this is me being edgy from being tired, but I love how I post this long and detailed thing that took two hours to put into words... and you nitpick a date.

It's so... WELSH.

[X]

Nothing personal bro. As for the Welsh part Both my Dad's Grandparents were from England so I guess that's partly true 

[Lumi Kløvstad]

As for the Welsh part Both my Dad's Grandparents were from England so I guess that's partly true 

I KNEW IT.

Anyway, what do you think of the actual, you know, post?

[X]

I KNEW IT.

LOL! But I also have Russian/European mix in me as well--and going further back in time--Mongolian 

This is on my mother's side of the family of course.

Reading your roleplay CV is interesting from what I've gathered. I've got a question about this;

La Komtess Claudia Chanoix Von Steirmark de Hapsburg-Lorraine

Is that her entire name?? Jesus! I could never begin to pronounce this properly, let alone at all! Good thing it's fictional or I'd be in trouble for insulting nobility.

In addition, the Vampire Killer whip was taken by Dracula's minions, and remains lost.

This has me scratching my head a little. I don't see how Dracula's minions could touch the Vampirekiller without dying. The whip's very nature negates evil. Anything that is related to evil would be harmed from coming into contact with it.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Reading your roleplay CV is interesting from what I've gathered. I've got a question about this;

Is that her entire name?? Jesus! I could never begin to pronounce this properly, let alone at all! Good thing it's fictional or I'd be in trouble for insulting nobility.

Oh, her full heraldry is a doozy. The SHORT version is Das Komtess Claudia Von Steirmark, Baronnesse de Chanoix, de Maison Hapsburg-Lorraine, meaning "The Countess Claudia of the Styrian Provinces, Baroness of Chanoix, of the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine". The mixed writings of her two noble titles (she used to have more in the 'good old days') reflect her German and French holdings respectively. Technically, "Countess" should be rendered as "Graf" (the equivalent rank in Imperial German peerage), but as "Countess" is accepted in both French and German peerages, "Komtess" is the most appropriate rendering that communicates her rank most effectively to people from both peerages.

I attached a WMA file with the proper pronunciation. Or I would have, but after converting it to every file the forum lists as allowed, it doesn't allow any of them despite the file being the correct size.

Technically, this should be appended with a list of her other properties, holdings, and notable deeds, but it would be a VERY long list as she's almost 400 years old by the 1940's (her first canonical appearance in the story).

After an initial introduction, she will simply accept "Countess", "My Lady" (properly enunciated), or "Your Grace" as proper shorthands.

As the oldest surviving member of the Hapsburg family (and also therefore the closest in relation to a formerly sitting emperor), if the German Imperial Throne still existed, she'd pretty much be coronated on the spot. Which she finds amusing, because in life, she was a distant fifth cousin to the Emperor whose only shot at progression was a well placed marriage... which she secured via civil contract with Carmilla. Now that all the direct lines of succession are effectively burned out and diluted by mingling with "lesser families", she's the most direct heir in existence.

Too bad the Imperial Throne stopped being a thing after World War 1.

This has me scratching my head a little. I don't see how Dracula's minions could touch the Vampirekiller without dying. The whip's very nature negates evil. Anything that is related to evil would be harmed from coming into contact with it.

Dracula is a clever and persuasive man, and not all his minions are evil at heart.

[X]

In other words he'd have other humans under his influence, steal the Vampirekiller for him. Got it    That's about the only way it could be done I think.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

That's something this role play has in abundance: villainous characters who are good people.

For instance, Claudia fits that mold very well. I've never been shy in broadcasting her villain status, but she's definitely trying to accomplish something noble, and not even for her own personal glory or fame. She doesn't want to rule the world or make anyone suffer-- she wants an orderly society, and to someone with her era's sensibilities, a strong centralized Imperial leadership is the best way to make that happen.

Dracula would have just needed to convince someone to serve him THAT way-- use their moral sensibilities to make them do something they'd otherwise be morally opposed to.

Hilariously, when someone tried to convince Claudia of the benefits of a republic or democracy, she immediately fired a shot back by pointing out how "no one in your world can even agree upon the arming of the peasantry or gentry. Tell your Congress that fire makes smoke and they shall spend the rest of time arguing about the color of the smoke." She's seen modern politics at play, and remains thoroughly unenthused by it, and would have sided with Dracula herself had her personal loyalty to Carmilla not have been so strong (Carmilla and Dracula are arch enemies in this telling).