The Gothic Journals (Comments)

[Manofevil]

The satanic chic I was refering to wasn't just in music. though it did seem like in those days every other metal band felt the need to churn out a satanic song. I'm not talking about the Rolling Stones "Sympathy for the Devil". I'm talking about pieces like Slayers "Seasons in the Abyss" and "Dead Skin Mask". I could give a long list of songs and the bands who played them because I had to listen to them every time I went on a boy scout campout. Half the guys in my troop were metalheads and they seemed to like that kind of song in particular. Now I am well aware that these songs were meant as nothing more than horror stories set to music rather like current rap is simply crime reports set to rhyme, however, as a resident of the american midwest. I remember well there being many different damaging cults being broken up around here in those days. It seemed like a new one every other month. The one that sticks out in my mind was a group up near Sioux City, Ia. which became famous for tapes of them playing Monopoly and praising Yahweh loudly and faithfully every time they got good roll of the dice. I've never looked at a game of Monopoly the same way since. It also seemed that every time you walked through a bookstore or drugstore, there was a whole rack of new horror novels with suitable cover art. Add to that the number of A- and B-list horror movies coming out every month and you have an atmosphere which spawned congressional hearings and national concern. Perhaps the most unfair part of it was the repution assigned to Dungeons and Dragons, which was then in its infancy. Because the game included characters which worshiped fictional gods of evil, it was seen as yet another satanic influence by the media and the authorties and stores which sold the materials were held in suspicion. Try telling that to a ten-year-old with Pokemon cards today. Hoy, this is all immaterial. Let's just say that I think the Red Death could easily hide its operations behind a group like The Sex Pistols (I am an anarchist! and I am an Anti-christ)

[High Priest Mikhal]

To me that's too obvious. Why hide in something that sets the powers-that-be on an inquisition? The Red Death is likely the one who stoked the fires of such paranoid hate rather than the one who created the material that was being scapegoated. Indeed, in the rules I mention how horror could be more than fiction--it could be a series of warnings. This makes more sense to me given the public backlash; distract the sheep while the real danger lurks unseen and also take down those who would oppose you all at once. After all, if a video game or comic has accurate information on how to fight back the darkness, the Red Death would be quick to squash it however it could. Namely in the form of outraged ignorance.

Ah, yes. I remember hearing stories about those cults. Remember that we are talking about human beings here. People can get fanatic over the dumbest things (check out the ban on katanas in the WotC Forums! It's a style of sword! Who could be so obsessed or opposed as to start a flame war and get the subject banned!?). We're sheep, we're people. We're sheeple!

[Manofevil]

Better yet, have it work both sides. It has promoters in the media companies looking for more talent to crank out scary stories, music, movies, and artwork perhaps with actual ancient rituals in them that foolish adolecents will be stupid enough to try out, and cultivate a few Jim Jones type characters hoping to spawn a few Jonestowns. That's got the Red Death written all over it. We could look at all that stuff I described as the Red Death figuring out how to manipulate pop culture. It could even feed your terrorism angle. It probably did in real life. Many of the religious leaders in the Middle East aren't shy about refering to America as The Great Satan and many of those movements gained most of their momentum in the eighties. I'd say we've gone someplace with this.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Now that is an excellent idea! Thanks, Manofevil.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Hmm, now I'm curious about what exactly happened at the Spencer Estate ...

[High Priest Mikhal]

Don't look for it too soon. In terms of progress I'm just past the first encounter with the Proto Tyrant in the RE 0 fiction. Also I've only got the template for the T-Virus zombie done; there are literally over two or three dozen individual creatures to map out and I'd really appreciate any help. If you have The Umbrella Archives sourcebook (it's for sale at any bookstore) that's what I'm working from--mostly.

Then there's the implications of Umbrella getting Las Plagas as told in RE 4. To date it seems like most T-Virus creatures can't be controlled without expensive technological means, while the Plagas allow for total telepathic control of the host. Imagine T-Virus creatures capable of being controlled like puppets with magic instead of limited control using expensive technological methods? Or what the T-Virus would do the Plagas itself? Obviously the latter isn't going to be written about for quite a while. Plus there's RE 5 in development, so the story continues...

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I've never seen any of those sourcebooks, probably because I didn't go looking for them.

Personally, if I were the kind of whackjob that wanted to remote control a zombie, I'd either use controlling spells from the get-go or else implant remote-controllable servos in its limbs. If you get a zombie near meat and it's already as hostile as RE zombies seem to be from what I've seen, the rest is automatic ...

[High Priest Mikhal]

Part of the MotRD 1998 mythology is that the pseudo-scientific origins of T-Virus zombies--in fact, any T- or G-Virus creature--makes them impossible to control using magic. This is partially due to the fact that the creatures aren't really alive or undead, save Crimson Heads. The creatures dwell in an area between life and undeath--though zombies are close enough to undead that they're susceptible to turning and effects that do extra damage to undead. They just receive bonuses on any Fort or Will saves to resist such and have a whopping +5 Turn Resistance (after all modifiers are added up).

Hunters and other "living" creatures can be controlled using electronics and chemicals, and even mundane training. But by their origins they're immune to controlling magic. Telekinetic effects would work, but nothing else. The use of technological controls is also a part of the official RE lore; the Tyrants have "genetic limiters" that keep the Virus in check until the controller is disabled and they rapidly mutate into stronger, more fearsome creatures.

And then there's the trouble Umbrella--with Wesker back at the helm--took to get a sample of Las Plagas in RE 4. Why would they want a creature that completely controls its host if not to hybridize it with the T- and G-Viruses? Since Las Plagas are borne of the Red Death, they are susceptible to magical control (witness Saddler's control over anyone infected). As I see it this would render the resulting creatures with the same strengths and resistances as the T-Virus, but still able to be controlled magically via the Plagas. And since the Plagas are controlled only though very specific means (a Plagas Adept PrC, what Saddler was) they're immune to other spellcasters. In short, the ultimate weapons that only they can control.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

It's opponents like these that make me yearn for tactical nukes and balefire ...

[High Priest Mikhal]

Okay, kids! I'm officially past the Resident Evil fiction in the journals (the full stories will be posted as they are finished--in Word docs) and now begins one of the nuttier phases. I need ideas for strange events to go on around the world during the year 1999 that are really the activities of dark qabals and other loonies in service of the Red Death. The premise is that the Red Death feeds on fear as much as magic; a populace that isn't afraid of everything that goes bump in the night is a very poor source of power. So it plans on causing some of the hysteria of doomsayers (Y2K, the Apocalypse, etc.) to seemingly come true to try and create enough fear to refuel itself and invoke a massive ritual that really will mean the end of the world.

The wrinkle is that, in the end, neither side really wins. The Red Death does regain some lost power and influence, but the ritual fails when the good guys disrupt things at the eleventh hour. And no, factual events after the year 2000 will largely not be caused by the Red Death; many of these things are human in origin. To say that some universal force of evil is behind it all is to detract from how truly evil humans can be.

[Manofevil]

I remember a case in, I think, 2001 (pre 9-11) about a mass grave of bodies found in north-eastern Africa all of whom were discovered to be the victims of a millenium apocalypse cult. The leader apparently had them all conviced that the world was going to end at precisely midnight on Dec 31, 1999. Millenium paranoia of this kind was apparantly a worldwide phenomenon. Cults of this kind were actually commonplace all around the world, though not necessarily as deadly. Sounds like something you could use.

[High Priest Mikhal]

I'd like to say I'm shocked, but I'm too jaded for that. This is something I can definitely use, in addition to other Millennium Hysteria. If anyone has any more, I'd love to hear it.

Additional: If anyone has any ideas for bizarre, supernatural events don't look related, in addition to simple human nature like cults and crazies, I'm very open to suggestions. I was thinking of strange gatherings at places considered places of power by traditional lore, strange events that no human could have (scientifically) done, even manifestations of localized and largely unknown urban legends appropriate to cities and states, even countries (the screaming skulls of Britain, anyone?). Nothing cohesive to a larger story; it's supposed to appear as random events that have nothing in common.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Thanks to Gleemax's mucking up the official boards, all future posts to this series will be a Cafe de Nuit exclusive. Unless they sort the worlds out again. Sheesh!

[Tykus]

Hey, HPM, I made it! Now for the question that has been bugging after reading your latest post: What's with the video games?! First Resident Evil and now Silent Hill? Not that I'm complaining, I'm just trying to figure out if there's an unhealthy obsession in there.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Why, yes. I do have an unhealthy obsession.

Seriously, RE and SH are just two major sources of inspiration. Besides, it was thanks to RE that I even began this project (I was playing RE REMake when I had the idea that the T-Virus was powered by negative energy, so it would be possible it exists on modern Gothic Earth, and so on and so on). I also wanted an excuse to explore events in the games--to dissect the stories and get a closer look at things man isn't meant to know.

One of my next stories--actually, one included in the next few posts--is an exploration of a previously undiscovered lair of Madame Delphine LaLaurie and the sick--and I do mean SICK--things she was into. For an idea, I suggest renting The St. Francisville Experiment. I think it's a work of fiction like Blair Witch was, but I could be wrong. And it is accurate on numerous points about Madame. Be warned. I'm going to be as graphic as the FoS will let me be.