Paridon Gazetteer

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Glad you like it, Cabby!

It would add a neat dimension, though, for him to be consulting with the spirit of an elder doppler. I'm not so sure about this being the focus of his curse. Tobias broke the mold when he reccomended that Sodo's curse be his paranoia. It's a theme that works well both with the character's background, and the realm itself.

I'm not looking to overturn a theme for Sodo that's already established, by any means; you're right, paranoia is already an excellent theme for Paridon, and for Sodo by extension. But there's no reason why the elder's corpse couldn't be a part of the larger theme of paranoia, maybe as a Dread Possibility. People who are raving paranoids generally get that way because have secrets they're frantic to hide, after all!

If Sodo'd initially started resurrecting his victim periodically, soon after he became a darklord -- probably to ensure he was impersonating the elder correctly, as dopps can't read each others' minds the way they can those of humans -- then he'd have been hiding the corpse, and his use of it, from others of his clan who still felt loyalty to the real elder. He'd be terrified that they'd discover the corpse and realize what he'd done, yet totally dependent on the elder's torture-compelled advice to maintain his own imposture as the "rightful clan leader". The fact he couldn't hold his own shape anymore would further feed his dread, as he'd become so very dependent on the rest of the clan's support: should they learn the truth, they could condemn Sodo to a fugitive's lonely death in the sewers merely by abandoning him, let alone actively trying to kill him! Not until the first-generation dopplegangers who'd known the real elder (who needs a name IMO) had all died off would this fear abate a little ... and by then, the Dark Powers had ensured he'd found even worse things to be paranoid over: traps, that he fears only the elder's advice can guide him around, even though keeping the body for perennial resurrection and interrogation remains a risk in itself.

And it's not the elder's spirit that I was thinking of, but the elder's actual body, restored to life, interrogated, and then murdered, over and over again, for generations. Even if it's loooong past the elder's natural lifespan, the DPs could ensure that Sodo's touch can always bring his former leader back, just as they keep Elise Mordenheim from dying and so forth. And if, as you say, it's critical that Sodo's "escape clause" be linked to his paranoia as well as his original crime, we could always say that the thing that scares him THE MOST -- more even than merely being murdered by his own clan -- is that his clan will find a way to not only oust him from power, but to restore the very elder he's been torturing for centuries to a position of leadership ... and then let the elder decide what's to be done with Sodo.



And incidentally, even if dopplegangers don't normally practice the same sorts of family lives as humanoids ... wouldn't it cap off the twisted nature of this Dread Possibility, and make it an ironic mirror-image to the Hive Queen's own circumstances to boot, if the elder in question just happened to be Sodo's father...?

[Pamela]

Well, Rotipher, guess you're going to have to submit that Dread Possibility...

Some questions on the Paridon government:

1) Do women have the vote in this city?

2) Have businessmen been given the vote, but are still unable to be nominated as Councillors themselves?

3)When Zherisia disappeared, how easy/hard do you think the combination of federal and municipal governments was? I've been thinking the feds took over, but at the next election, were kicked out by the local nobles not appreciating the invasion on their turf...

[Jasper]

Well, Rotipher, guess you're going to have to submit that Dread Possibility...

Some questions on the Paridon government:

1) Do women have the vote in this city?

2) Have businessmen been given the vote, but are still unable to be nominated as Councillors themselves?

3)When Zherisia disappeared, how easy/hard do you think the combination of federal and municipal governments was? I've been thinking the feds took over, but at the next election, were kicked out by the local nobles not appreciating the invasion on their turf...

I think Paridon runs on the golden rule- He who has the gold makes the rules.

Anyone, man or woman, who has the cash to spend can buy there way into a possition of power. The council have thier palms greased allmost daily by the businessmen, some even saving up for years to "buy" a luctrative contract or blacklist another competor.

The Council members themselves are just either the most wealthly (and able to buy thier way in) or a puppet bought by a group of businessmen to vote in thier favor.

[Undead Cabbage]

The noble rule may even be constitutional.

Chances are, women still don't have the vote. I'd argue that only property owning men can vote. Paridon has it's own form of elitism, and that's towards it's businessmen.

The law that businessmen cannot be counsil members may be an archaic one, waiting to be reformed (much like Sodo). I envision that the Council is there for the upper-business class' convenience, particularily those that are wealthy enough to live in Shadewell.

As opposed to the nobles kicking anyone out, what if a deal was made with the upper business classmen? The nobles must obviously see that the residents of Shadewell certainly have the power to remove them. I get the feeling that they would be concerned with making sure their leadership is beneficial to all property owning men.

These benefits, of course, would come not at the expense of the nobles themselves, but at the expense of those living in Blackchapel.

[Undead Cabbage]

I know we've discussed him to death already, but I've been thinking a little more on Sodo, and possibility something that can be applied to Dopplegangers in general.

Are we going to make the dopplers essentially like the perfect crime lords? In this case, Sodo would sort of be like your Mafiosa boss or Crime Overlord. Getting in Sodo's good graces is the way to go, but if you screw with him, he'll torture ya real good, and then he'll kill ya.

My initial fear is that we don't one-up Malken. But when you think about it, we wouldn't be: Malken has no fear, Sodo has too much of it. Sodo, in his paranoia, would probably want everything to be VERY organized. Malken, on the other hand, is whimsical and gutsy. Malken will kill for the sake of killing, whereas Sodo will kill if he thinks someone is a threat, or is trying to screw him.

Sodo may even be constantly on the look out for Dopplers he can trust. Sort of like "Stay loyal to me, and you'll go far". Unfortunatley for Sodo, even if the dopplers are loyal to him, he'd always find SOME reason to think that he's being dooped. This would result in him turning on dopplers that are otherwise totally loyal to him.

Would it be fair to add a bit of drug trading with the dopplers? We've already brought up the idea of Narcotics in Paridon.

[Tobias Blackburn]

One thought I had on an "escape clause" has to do with Paranoia. Sodo flickers faster the more agitated he becomes. Even at his most clam he is consumed by paranoia and the fear that someone is plotting against him. If he ever let go of this paranoia and honestly trust it is likely that he would be able to hold his shape again.

[Undead Cabbage]

Question, exactly what happened to Edmund Bloodsworth in SoTK?

If he's still around, I might want to work with this character.

[Tobias Blackburn]

Question, exactly what happened to Edmund Bloodsworth in SoTK?

If he's still around, I might want to work with this character.

I doubt he's still around. If the Outsider party involved in the Hour of the Knife didn't get him, he had Sodo to deal with. Sodo would have taken it as a matter of pride to get his hands on Bloodsworth, and the other doppelgangers would have seen catching him as a chance to avoid getting caught by Sodo as he forcefully reasserted his control over the clans (likely with long, drawn out purges of anyone who was even distantly connected to Bloodsworth and his clan, and anyone who made even a light infraction over a certain period).

[Pamela]

Third and last time I edit this post, promise...I'll call dibs on indigenous peoples.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Question, exactly what happened to Edmund Bloodsworth in SoTK?

If he's still around, I might want to work with this character.

Sounds like a Dread Possibility waiting to happen! Perhaps Bloodsworth managed to trick the other dopplegangers into thinking he's dead, but is secretly hiding somewhere in Paridon -- perhaps even within one of the domain's more benign-seeming factions, that PCs might be inclined to ally with -- and scheming to get even.

That would be well in keeping with past Gazetteers' habit of keeping the more interesting old NPCs around as sidebars, so that DMs can use them if they see fit.

[William Blackmoor]

Bloodsworth might be still around, but the doppelganger who was impersonating him is most certainly not. After all another doppelganger might have taken his place. As for his connection to Bloody Jack, this could be Ravenlofts version of the "royal conspiracy"-theorie concerning Jack the Ripper.
"Sure, there were rumors, that Bloodsworth was a suspect in the killings 26 years ago, but his name has been cleared. Just a lowlife who look quite like him in the dark. And you shure don't believe in that dopp-story anymore, do you?"

[Tobias Blackburn]

I don't know if there would be a doppelganger who would want the job.

After 13 years of everyone believing in Doppelgangers and knowing that they were revealed at that party (and that Bloodsworth was one of them) the entire Bloodsworth line would be worth spit. There would be such a taint on the name that no one, not even human descendants would want to claim it.

Then there are those nobles who would have leapt on the chance to remove one of the other families from "circulation" as it were. I could see the city council seizing the property and destroying any holdings for parks and farms as a way of wiping the family out.

Finally, what Doppelganger in his right mind would want to be associated with an event or person that almost overthrew Sodo. Original Bloodsworth or not, Sodo would be keeping a close eye on him and its hard to picture many doppelgangers who want that kind of scrutiny from the boss.

EDIT: If the doppelganger who played Bloodsworth is alive, he's probably spent the last 13+ years in one of Sodo's hidden torture chambers, suffering for his crimes. Sodo is too paranoid to let him get away.

[Tobias Blackburn]

By the way, does anyone have any suggestions on when the modern sewers were built? Before the connection of Timor, I mean. I'm currently putting it as 400 years before the current setting date, but that might be too old. At the same time, the city was pretty much in its current state when it appeared 200 years ago.

[Pamela]

I have no idea either; as you mentioned, the city's been pretty much the same for 200 years. And since anything before that is 'false history' anyways, you can really put any date without anyone being able to question it that far anyway...


A couple of questions myself...What do Zherisians do for milk? Wouldn't milk be a luxury for the wealthy, since they don't have fridges to transport items? I could see imports of cheeses and cured/smoked meats for the commoners...but would there be any goats, for example?

[Jasper]

Before the invention of Parturization milk realy wasn't something that was used a drink. Those that used it for baking and other foods baught what they needed that morning and used it all up that day. The time between milking and baking was only a few hours.

After pasturization milk could be left out for much longer as all the bacteria that would spoil it were killed off. One could milk a cow in Oxford and have it in London before it even tasted stale.

Back to issue of milk in Paridon I think it would be a small nessesity that is kept up by the few farmers in the land. The bakers and resturants/Inns would only buy what the need at the time keeping the need level with the supply.

Every farm type animal kept by anyone in the city would have to be multipurpose and easy to keep like Sheep or Goats that can be used for wool, food and milking.