The Night World {RP}

[Miranda_]

1. This RP is for humans and Night Worlders. That means made vampires, born vampires (lamia), werewolves and shapeshifters. If you are unsure about anything, feel free to PM me. This RP is open to everyone.

2. Abide by the rules laid out in the stickies. That means no godmoding or Mary Sues, among other things.

3. Please obey the rules of this world, which are detailed in the plot explanation. Also, do not introduce any other types of vampire/shapeshifter. If you try and introduce either Meyerpires or Meyerwolves, you will be in trouble.

4. Please try to have an equal number of human and Night World characters; if there are too many of one faction, I may ask you to either change your character or introduce one from the other side.

5. There are no character forms; please describe your character in your opening paragraph.

The Night World isn't a place. It's all around us, a secret society of vampires, witches, shapeshifters and other creatures of darkness that live among us. They're beautiful and deadly and they could be anyone you know. Your boyf could be one, and so could your teacher. Even the town mayor, the police chief or the President. There's no way of telling, which makes it all the more dangerous. The Night World's laws say it's alright to hunt humans, to kill them, to toy with their hearts. However, there are two things they forbid; to let humans find out about the Night World, or to fall in love with them. The penalty for breaking these rules is death, tho there are those who manage to escape the penalty. It's still not something that Nightworlders want to risk and in any case, many Nightworlders despise humans. The laws are enforced by the Night World Council, which is made up of the elders of all the Night World groups; vampires, both made and lamia; witches and shapeshifters. All Night Worlders wear the symbol of a black flower, depending on species. This will identify them to other Night Worlders and can be worn as jewelry, clothing or as a decoration on accessories.

There is a belief in the Night World that two people are destined to be together, no matter how many years lie between their births. This is the soulmate principle, and your soulmate is your other half who you are connected with forever. Soulmates have a unique connection which means that once they meet, they will know each other instantly. Soulmates also have the ability to completely enter each other's mind, to know their soulmate from the inside out, to touch their very soul. When this occurs, their minds are forcibly opened to each other and they can explore their memories, thoughts, and feeling freely. Each person's mind is different; some very light, others, dark. Something has been happening recently; Night Worlders are finding human soulmates. This love is forbidden and can end in disaster for all concerned, but there are not many who can fight against the silver cord which connects each pair of soulmates to each other. The Council will kill any human and Night Worlder soulmate pairs if they find them, but then, the Council has other things on its mind at the moment.

A vigilante group which calls itself the New Order Of Night (NOON) has risen to try and take control. They wish to destroy the human world from within, by changing as many humans as they can rather than killing them, tho they will do this as a last resort if the human refuses to be turned and join them. NOON is run by three former Night Worlders, including the hybrid Nofret, who started NOON as revenge against the Night World Council who decreed that she was an abomination. Nofret is a vampire/shapeshifter hybrid and her parents were killed by the Council. She formed her own faction, which steadily grew in number due to its relaxed rules and kept in the shadows til it could realistically challenge the Council. Now, NOON is a force to be reckoned with, but its leaders prefer not to challenge the Council til their hand is forced. In the meantime, they do their damage around the areas where they live, turning humans with impunity and spreading their beliefs whereever they can find willing listeners. They also have allies on the council; Mordred Redfern, one of the oldest members of the oldest lamia family, is one. He sees nothing wrong with what NOON are doing and turns a blind eye.

The world is changing. Nothing is certain any more, whichever world you live in. Are you a human, going thru your daily life, unaware of the other world which exists alongside your own? There is still school to attend and various activities outside of school to keep your interest. You may yet be dragged into the other world, either willingly or otherwise. You may be a Night Worlder, in which case who's side are you on? You might find your soulmate in the human world, and will have the choice of keeping the laws of the Night World or giving in to the uncontrollable impulse to be one with your other half. The choice is in your hands.

Notes on the races.

The Night World species are vampires, both made and the ones born that way (lamia); witches, werewolves and shapeshifters. Humans exist in the regular world. The characteristics of the species are as follows; please stick to them.

Vampires.

Lamia can age, and stop their aging at any time. They can also have children. Made vampires stop aging at the point of being turned and can not have children. Both types of vampire can eat human food if they want, but must feed on blood at least once a day. Vampire cells are unable to carry oxygen and therefore, vampires must acquire human blood cells for them to breathe. Blood is also nutrition and power to vampires. Sunlight, garlic and crosses do not harm these vampires. Made vampires are created by exchanging blood with vampires while still human. No human over the age of twenty can be turned into a vampire; they just burn out after that age. Both lamia and made vampires have superhuman strength, speed, and agility and can have telepathic powers. The first vampire in existence, Maya, was originally a witch. In her quest for power and immortality, she became the first vampire by the use of powerful magic, which involved drinking the blood of infants. Maya bore a son, Red Fern, who became the ancestor of all lamia vampires. Despite the fact that the first vampire was a woman, vampires (particularly the lamia) are a very patriarchal society. Burning and wood will hurt vampires. The symbol for lamia is the black iris, which is also the name of a Night World club. The symbol for made vampires is a black rose.

Witches.

Witches are closer to humans physically than the other Night World races and are a matriarchal society who can do magic. They trace their descent to an ancient tribe ruled by Hecate Witch-Queen, and later by her daughter Hellewise Hearth-Woman. All witches are considered to be 'daughters of Hellewise', although the Harman family are direct genetic descendants traced through the female line. Hellewise is the sister of Maya, who became the first vampire. Witch society is composed of 'Circles' to whom all witches belong. Those who take to heart Hellewise's bidding to 'harm none' belong to Circle Twilight, while Circle Midnight is made up of witches who practice darker magic. The Inner Circle is a coven of the nine most magically talented witches. The most important of these are the triad of the Maiden, Mother and Crone, positions which are held respectively by Aradia, The Maiden; Cybele, The Mother; and Grandma Harman, The Crone. All witches are answerable to the Inner Circle before the Night World council. Witches practice magic with the aid of herbs, gemstones, effigies and incantations, all of which may be used in a spell; they worship the Goddess in her many manifestations, celebrate Samhain, and probably other festivals on the Wheel of the Year. However their magic is innate and does not always require external aids, although these can accentuate their power. Human psychics in the series are "lost witches" who are unaware of their true descent. Burning and iron will hurt witches, and their symbol is the black dahlia.

(continued in next post)

[Miranda_]

Werewolves.

A werewolf is a subspecies of shapeshifter, so werewolves are allied with shapeshifters rather than other Night World races. Werewolves (sometimes called 'wolves or just wolves) can transform from human to wolf (and vice versa) at will and do not rely on the phases of the moon, tho these are important to werewolves in other ways. Werewolves are wolves that take human form, rather than the reverse. This means that they have animal instincts and urges, even in human form. There is no difference between those who are made and those who are born; werewolves can make other werewolves by biting them during full moon time. The bite is usually in the shoulder or arm, and the human will gradually change into a werewolf during the time the moon is full; by the time the moon begins to wane, the transformation is complete. This also applies to shapeshifter transformations. Unlike vampires, werewolves must kill every time they feed because they need to consume organs. Thus, Night World law states that werewolves can only kill and eat animals. In the Night World, werewolves and shapeshifters are treated as second-class citizens and are the victims of prejudice and racism. Burning and silver will hurt werewolves, and their symbol is the black foxglove.

Shapeshifters.

Shapeshifters had control of the world long before witches and vampires. Their leaders were known as "Dragons", beings that could change into the form of any animal as long as they have had physical contact to that animal. To kill a dragon you must take off all of its horns.The more horns it has the more powerful it is. Normally, shapeshifters can only change into one pre-determined animal form. The witches rose to power and put the dragons to sleep, except for the youngest one; the dragon princess who was only a child at the time. All of the ruling house of shapeshifters are descended from her. The descendants of the ruling house of Drache have the ability to choose what animal they will become, but this choice is permanent. Shapeshifters have to eat flesh every day but are not under the same restrictions as werewolves. A shapeshifter form can be any animal or bird form, but not insects or fish. Like werewolves, there is no difference between born and made shapeshifters and humans can be made into shapeshifters in the same way. A human turned by a shapeshifter will have the same shape as the one who turned them. Burning and silver will hurt shapeshifters, and their symbol is a black lily.

Humans.

Humans have been ruling the world since after the vampires, which is why members of the Night World must keep its existance a secret. Humans are unaware of the existance of the Night World, and believe that vampires etc are made up creatures. They read stories about Night World creatures and watch movies, which are full of inaccurate details. Hunters are humans who have found out about the Night World, and seek to destroy Night Worlders. They are constantly in danger from the Night World and must keep their faces covered while out hunting, and their identities secret. Old Souls are humans who have lived before. Humans are reincarnated several times, but will only remember their past lives if they are Awakened Old Souls.

~~~

The alarm clock shrilled out next to a bed that contained a sleeping form. A moment later, and a hand emerged under the bedclothes to switch it off. Then the boy who's hand it was sat up in bed, running his other hand thru his messy hair. School again; he thought briefly about not going, but gave up on that thought. After all, there was very little to do in the town, and especially in the collection of trailers where his pack had made their home. The locals tended to avoid this area, calling it a commune of weirdos and perhaps worse, which was just how the werewolf pack liked it. No-one had the authority to move them, and no-one would try, anyway. Dolph had dark blonde hair and blue eyes, and was about average height. About half an hour later, he had washed, dressed and was on his way to school. It was important that he attend; not doing so would attract attention, and Night Worlders seldom liked to do that. It was far easier to blend in with the humans and keep them in ignorance of the world that ran alongside theirs.

~~~

In a house on the other side of town, a human boy was getting ready to walk to the school. Lee Sheppard yawned as he brushed his teeth after breakfast, then checked to make sure he had all his things before he left the house. His mother called out a goodbye as he walked thru the door, shutting it behind him. Lee was fairly tall and thin, with black hair and grey eyes. He was on the track team, but had little or no interest in other sports. Running was good enough, and it helped keep him in shape. Lee didn't have a girlf; however, there was one girl in his class who had something about her, something that made him want to get to know her. Her name was Miya and Lee had crushed on her for quite a while. Maybe soon he could ask her out; maybe it would be today that he'd get together the courage to do so.

~~~

In the middle of the town was what looked like to the unassuming eye as an old abandoned house. Rather a large house, almost a mansion. Its windows were boarded up; it was rumoured to belong to a guy who lived overseas. Certainly, no-one had ever seen him. The house was avoided by the locals just as certainly as they avoided the collection of trailers that were over on the far side of the town. A girl crossed the road and walked towards the building. She had long dark red hair and green eyes. She walked with the ease of a predator, taking long strides, and there was an inhuman look of beauty about her. She in fact did not look at all human, and she wasn't. Nofret was a hybrid, the result of a vampire and shapeshifter, and she was a rare creature. Tho hybrids did exist, there were hardly any of them in the world due to the Night World considering them abominations. Nofret didn't care a jot for the Night World; that was why she'd formed her own faction; the New Order Of Night. And that faction was growing day by day; Nofret smiled evilly as she unlocked the front door and let herself inside the house.

[Silent_Wolf]

Lopakhin pulled his wheeled suitcase along behind him as he left the airport, muttering about TSA and airport security and how he was getting quite tired of the patdowns. He made sure to do this well aways from the airport; people tended to make a scene if you b*tched about the TSA agents too much. He stopped at the curb to wait for his taxi, pulling his long gray-streaked black hair back into a ponytail. He needed to dye it again; he was stressing out far too much lately. "Now where am I supposed to meet her," he muttered, checking his phone. "... ugh." He wrinkled his nose delicately; he was supposed to meet with NOON and by extension Nofret, and he wasn't looking forward to it at all. He dealt primarily in cattle selling - as in actual cattle, cows and the sort, not humans. He didn't look down on feeding on humans - he just couldn't stand doing it himself and he had no idea why.

He wondered if maybe it was just the fact he was made and not born, at times, but that made little sense because few other mades seemed to have the same feelings about it. With a grunt, he picked up his suitcase to put it in the back of the taxi that pulled up, got in, and told the driver the address.

--------------------

Miya was sleeping in. Well, sort of. She was already at the school and was sleeping at one of the cafeteria tables. She rather enjoyed being able to sleep where-ever she wished and did it often, and she often slept like the dead even in the randomest, most uncomfortable looking places. She had little to fear, really - at least from humans who had no know-how. Miya was a lamia vampire and had been born during the colonial era of the United States, back when it had simply been a group of colonies on the brink of war. She remembered little of that time, or of the war; her family had fled the fighting and stayed in a strange house made of dirt. Though, once the war had ended, they'd returned to their well-off stature.

Though her family was affluent, Miya didn't act like it. She was a cheerleader - but also a huge theater geek and was currently assisting the drama teacher as an aid, having exhausted the regular classes. Her favorite subject was science, even though she'd been in the class hundreds of times by now, and her favorite branch of science was biology.

She was also quite into gothic fashion; though most of it was extremely uncomfortable to wear, she did love the gloves and long sleeves and corsets. In fact, that was her clothes for the day - a long-sleeve black sweater with thin leather gloves, a black corset, and slim black jeans. Goodness, it was black everything - even her hair, which was wavy to her shoulders. Her green eyes blinked open sleepily and stared at the clock on the wall. Ugh, it wasn't time for home room yet.

-----------------

Arik Roarke opened his bar early that day - though this was mostly to showcase the restaurant that was being added to it. He loved to cook and his daughter Jesie was going to handle the bar for him.

Now he just had to wait for customers.

... dammit. He yawned and rubbed his face, staring sleepily from behind the kitchen counter.

[spirit_queen]

Emily Rosewood sighed as she made her way to school. Great, I just LOVE being the new kid halfway through the school year, she thought sarcastically to herself. She shoved her way in to the old, half-decrepit high school and made her way toward the principle's office, following the signs hanging from the ceiling. Gym... no... caffeteria... no...

Emily was an extremely curvy sort of girl with a large chest. Her hair was a mess of black ringlets tumbling down her back. That day she wore a red long-sleeved tee-shirt and a pair of dark-wash skinny jeans, and she knew she looked great. The jeans hugged every curve, but the fabric was stiff enough that it didn't exaggerate any pudge. The long-sleeved tee was loose around the belly but strained at the bust, thus making her waist look absolutely tiny.

She'd gotten herself expelled form the last school... but what did those people expect her to do when those idiot jocks tried to get in her pants? Just let them treat her like an object to be won? Hell no! She'd kicked them all where the sun don't shine... and a few other fights later, she was expelled. Forced to go to this school.

~
The young teen girl with the carefully pleated hair came to a decision; she was going to join Circle Twilight. She was a short girl with dark skin and was "full-figured", meaning that she had a little extra curve to her body than was desirable.
Melody Richard was a shy, sweet sort of girl. Despite this, it had been a tough decision on what circle she ought to join; she felt pressure to go into Circle Midnight, as most of the rest of her family -excepting her grandmother- were in Circle Midnight. But at long last, Melody figured out that following her own heart was more important than conforming to anyone else's desires...
Now, if only she could convince her mother of that.

~
He had such striking yellow eyes. A true golden color, sparkling, electric, metallic. Those eyes were the only thing distinctive about him, however; the rest of him was small-boned, and his hair was a simple short cut and reddish-brown in color. His face was thin, most people would say "fox-like".

They'd have no idea how right they were. Farron was a fox shapeshifter, and a member of NOON.

He found the large, abandoned house easily enough; it was a bit conspicuous, what with the locals all avoiding it as though it were haunted. Hell, he'd even hear a few rumors about such a thing...

Humans are fools, he thought to himself as she went for the house.

[Miranda_]

Dolph walked into the school building, his senses on alert. The school was mainly full of humans but there were a few other Night Worlders who attended. Some vampires, more shapeshifters and witches, and of course the other werewolves from the trailer park, tho none were in his year. A witch taught Biology and ran the Nature Club after school. But it was mainly a school full of humans, or vermin as Dolph tended to think of them. He didn't like humans at all, considering them weak and shortlived, and wished that Night World law didn't forbid hunting them.

Lee went to homeroom early for a change; he usually just got in there with only seconds to spare. He wondered if there were any new kids; sometimes there were one or two. Despite the fact that the school was untidy and discrepit, Lee liked it as it wasn't too big a school and generally he got on with most people. There were a few exceptions, of course; in his class, there was Dolph, who Lee had never really liked. He came from a trashy trailer park, with other weirdos, and he himself was weird, so Lee avoided him.

[Silent_Wolf]

Miya grabbed an apple on her way to homeroom, taking a bite out of it with a satisfying crunching sound. She quite disliked the feeling of apple peel between her teeth, though, and spent much of her walk to homeroom trying to get it out from between a canine and the molar next to it. "Ow. Ow. Ow." She stepped into class and sat in her usual seat, pulling a script out of her bag to read.

--

Lopak dialed Nofret's number and listened to his phone ring. If or when she picked it up, he said, "I'm in town. Please remind me why you have a hovel for a home."

[Miranda_]

Dolph came into homeroom and sat in his usual seat. He yawned; he'd stayed up late hunting the night before. The trailer park backed on to a forest, which in turn backed on to a nature reserve, so there was a wide range for the 'wolves to hunt. The school Nature Club occasionally took walks in the reserve in the early evening, so the best time to hunt was after dark. Sometimes Dolph hunted with other members of his pack, or just with his mother, or alone.

Nofret picked up her ringing phone as soon as she got inside. "Secrecy, darling," she replied, a visible smirk in her voice. "The vermin of the town avoid the place, and it therefore attracts no attention."

[Silent_Wolf]

"That in itself is rather risky." He looked out the window of the taxi cab; the driver was a shapeshifter so he was perfectly fine discussing this on the phone. "It's only a small matter of whether or not you'll get caught."

Miya looked up when Dolph came in. "Hello." As with most vampires, she didn't exactly look at werewolves with any measure of respect, but she was at best polite with them.

[Miranda_]

"It doesn't matter if we do," Nofret said with a small frown audible in her words. "We're powerful enough to challenge the Council, and they know full well we are."

Dolph in return, like a lot of 'wolves and shapeshifters, didn't think much of vampires. But he wasn't about to be rude to them unless they started it. So he returned Miya's greeting.

[Silent_Wolf]

Miya went back to reading her script. It was Moulin Rouge! and was her favorite musical.

Lopak sighed. "I worry about that often. I'm pulling up now." He hung up as the car came to a stop, and he paid the cabbie, climbed out and took his bag out of the trunk before heading up to the door of the house and knocking.