The Quevari

[Shadow]

I'm looking to feature the Quevari in some upcoming adventures. The party has already had a run-in with them. They stopped at a Quevari village on the way to Dementlieu. There they recieved healing, a warm meal, and lodging for free. The pary was impressed by (and a little suspicious of) the pacifistic folks who tended to their wounds, fed and clothed them wanting nothing in return. However, during the night of the full moon they witnessed the transformation of the Quevari into bloodthirsty cannibals. One of the characters failed his horror save. (He is now afraid to go anywhere near small farming villages, and is paranoid about friendly pacifisctic folk.) With such a great game session and role-playing moments I decided to have an entire plot involving the Quevari.
In the original Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium and the 3e Denizens of Darkness they seemed like a sort of throwaway monster/race. (I don't remember any published adventures featuring them.) However, with a cool backstory, I can develop a plot arc around them. So I need to come up with some background information to flesh out the race.
What is responsible for their involuntary transformation during the bloodmoon? I decided that for my campaign that it will be some sort of a generational curse. But, what did their ancestors do to merit the curse? Who cursed them?
How do the Quevari block out all memories of the their cannibalistic phase under the bloodmoon? I mean, what do they do when they wake up every month after the full moon to find several of their friends and neighbors slaughtered? (I assume they would kill each other during the time of the bloodmoon since they become cannibals.) Are they aware of their nature, but keep silent about it ("It is a time we do not speak of") or are they able completely block out all the memories of the bloodmoon?

[Willowhugger]

The Quevari are actually quite aware of it I think and just choose to try and treat it with a "Cone of Silence." The neighbors they kill, rape, and so forth aren't done randomly but in exaggerrated anger over things in their day to day lives (oddly but not during the Blood Moon)

In my games, the Quevari were created by a High Priest of Ezra who proclaimed that he could remove all the evil of the soul through drinking from a massive cauldron. Most of the villagers believed him and did so, becoming unnaturally good.

In truth, all their emotions of evil are suppressed into those days and soon they killed all the villagers who didn't before anyone knew. The Quevari treat the "curse" as a small price to pay for 27 days of perfect peace.

[Jennifer]

Hi Shadow,
I have never done anything with the quevari myself, but they have great potential. I think that they lead extremely peaceful lives uring the month and during the Blood Moon they let out all their frustrations for problems they endured during the rest of the month.
If that is the case, they probably do not feel the need to hide their behaviour. To them it is completely normal and natural, instead of festering resentment, unresolved anger, alcoholism, fights and all the other ways in which normal people deal with their frustrations, they settle it all in a few nights.
So there would be no need to block their memories, they would probably revel in their extreme honesty. You might even mix in some sort of existentialist outlook. They do what they want, and are completely in touch with their innermost wishes. And therefore they have none of the problems that more repressed people experience for repressing their socalled bad impulses.


Jennifer

[ScS of the Fraternity]

This reminds me of that Star Trek episode with the Festival - where all the mind controleld villagers run riot in the streets at the appointed time, then go back to normal at the strike of dawn. Perhaps the Quevari view it as the same system. They love peace but they obey the will of their God, who commands them to do evil at the Blood Moon. To them its a matter of obediance - they act evil because they are ordered to be evil. Perhaps there's some regret, but they push it aside because they know they must obey the will of their god.

[Jasper]

Now that I think about it the Quevari seem to be based on the short story "The lottery" by Shirley Jackson.

In the story a village of seemingly normal modern day people hold a sacrifice once a year to assure that God will keep them free from Sin for another year.

For 364 days a year they live the perfict 50's style Pleasantville. The kind of people who will invite you off the street for a sandwitch, a glass of homemade lemonaid and some good old fasioned chit chat about the local sports team. There is no violence, no drama, all the good "Christian" values are kept up .

On the 365th day however the entire town runs a lottery. One white slip of paper is placed in the box for every male head of a household minus one who places in a slip with a black X. Every male family head then draws a single slip and all are opened similtaniously.

The unfortunate soul who pulled the X is drug out into the center square and a single large rock is given to every man, woman and child in the village. Even to the person own family.
The village then shows its evil snarling side as it visiously lets out the anger and fustration of the year into a orgy of viloence, stoning this person untill dead.
Afterwords the body is removed and the town goes back to "normal" for another year. The lottery is not mentioned again untill the next fatefulll day.

The Quevari take this idea in a slighlty diffrent direction. Why make the sacrfice out of your own village when there are sinners and consorts of evil just over the hill in the next village.....

[Charney]

All of these variants are good ideas and I think quevaris should be as diverse as that. To use the creatures more then once without them becoming boring, I think it would be a good idea that all quevaris communities be a variation on the theme.

Quevaris from Borca could indeed run this kind of lottery Jasper described.


Another village would be actually cursed à la Dr. Jeckyl/Hide.

Etc.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Odd as it might seem, I couldn't help but picture Ned Flanders from "The Simpsons" while I was reading this thread: specifically, the episode where this too-good-to-be-true character finally cracked, and viciously chewed out everyone who'd been getting on his nerves. We later learn that Ned's "okely-dokely" gibberish is a sign that he's repressing anger, as he'd done since childhood; when his barriers finally broke, his years of anger at the Simpson family poured out, far more nastily than Ned's own immediate circumstances warranted.

Perhaps a quevari could have a comparable expression or mannerism, which other quevari recognize as a clear sign they should back off and let them calm down internally, but outsiders don't know to heed. That might explain why the race hasn't destroyed itself: they avoid antagonizing each other during their "repressed days", and so don't usually build up enough aggression to kill each other outright during the Blood Moon. But if you're an ignorant outsider who kept right on pestering them even after they'd given their "okely-dokely"-equivalent sign, watch out!

[Fernando VI]

....The Quevari take this idea in a slighlty diffrent direction. Why make the sacrfice out of your own village when there are sinners and consorts of evil just over the hill in the next village.....

I really like this Idea. Picture this. Some Centuries ago, The Quevari started to punish all kinds of sinners with torture and death. (kinda Witch Hunt). Maybe a ritual to finally eliminate all traces of evil of this folk, went terribly wrong (DP perhaps or their former Deity).

IImagine a setting where they know of their "condition" and totally aware of it during the Blood Moon, go on a frenzy rage to eliminate evil of the world.