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The Nevernever has well...never been a nice place. It is not the place of faerie tales as we hear them as children. Sure sprites and things belong in such a place, as well as the billy goats Gruff...but there are things, darker things in this place. The mothers, queens, and ladies of the nevernever are vicious beings. Beings of trickery and misguiding. Never trust a fae they always tell us. They never can lie, but half truths are what they do. Twisting words, forcing us to bend to their will...This is the true nature of the faerie courts.

As we come into this troubled land the court of winter, Unseelie, is preparing to take its place as the shift of seasons begins. Soon darkness and cold will rule where summer and warmth once held place. This is always a time of bloodshed and fear amongst the nevernever, as one must die for another to take its place...


Meanwhile the human wizards rage war against the vampire scourge. Each threatening to end one another, the Fae watch placidly, they know that the wizards will come to them, strike deals with them, only for a taste of faerie power. A deal with a faerie is as good as writing away your soul to the devil you become theirs, they twist and bend you to their will. Who will fall for such trickery? Sometimes it is the most obvious candidate, sometimes the least. Of course both courts are in search of a new champion, one of mortal blood who can take upon them faerie power and do to the queen's biding.

So we begin our story in the courts of cold and warmth as preparations for the shift of power begin...

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The White Court is one of the Vampire Courts. White Court vampires are the most human-like of the Vampire Courts. They feed off the emotions and life force of their prey.


White Court vampires are born to their vampiric state, rather than being created (as is the case with Black and Red Court). They are for all intents and purposes human until their vampirism manifests sometime around the age of their maturity. As with the Red Court, their first feeding (with its subsequent and almost inevitable kill) usually marks their full transformation. However, under specific circumstances, individuals descended from White Court vampires may curtail their transformation into vampires; see Blood Rites.

There are different Houses within the White Court, each comprising a close-knit family. There is much in-fighting between the Houses, but House Raith is considered to be the most powerful, with Lord Raith acting as King of the White Court. The Houses are mainly distinguished by their choice of emotion to feed upon, but this has been represented as a strong preference rather than a restriction.

Those of House Raith are sexual predators, using their supernatural good looks and psychic aura to attract both men and women. During intercourse, or any direct physical contact where emotions like lust are heightened, they feed off their prey. Victims of the feedings of House Raith grow to enjoy the experience and become bonded to their predator like a drug addiction.

House Malvora's members feed off fear. Most prefer very strong fear such as that of being in a potentially deadly situation, but some (such as Thomas's cousin Madrigal) satisfy themselves with smaller scares like those created by horror and slasher movies, of which Madrigal was a writer and director.

The vampires of House Skavis feed off despair, preferring to drive a victim into the depths of depression and in many cases driving them to suicide.

The White Court is not endowed with as much physical strength as the Red or Black courts under normal circumstances; usually, their physical performance levels (standing jump heights, endurance and so on) are slightly better than those an ordinary human of equivalent size and health, but they can channel unused emotional energy as fuel for performance boosts of limited duration. On the other hand, they make up for it by having far fewer vulnerabilities. Sunlight and symbols of faith do not harm them at all (Thomas feels "uneasy" at the thought of entering a church, but this is possibly due more to his own guilt than any objective vulnerability, as he was in fact able to enter the church). Their power derives from an internal demonic essence they call the "Hunger" which acts like a battery. If they refrain from feeding for too long, the "Hunger" drives them into a frenzy where they must feed (almost always killing their victims), and can drive them permanently insane. When needed, they tap this store of energy to augment their strength, speed, resilience, and healing ability far beyond normal; while doing this, they radiate waves of cold (possibly an illusory reaction of normal humans to their energy sink), their skin whitens, and their eyes turn an unnatural silver. White Court vampire blood is pinkish instead of red.

Their largest weakness is true love: people who are, or have recently been, in real, affectionate and sacrificial love are highly resistant to White Court control, and can even physically burn and blister vampire skin. Also, White Court vampires are born, not turned like Red and Black Court vampires; if the offspring of a White Court falls in love with someone that feels the same way before feeding for the first time, the love can destroy the demonic side before it can manifest allowing the person to live a normal, mortal life.

Unlike the other courts, the White Court prefers to avoid direct confrontation. They are a court of schemers and prefer to stab each other in the back in exquisitely detailed plots to impress the others in the Court, to the extent that direct confrontation is looked down upon and socially damaging. At the moment Thomas's father is, in name only, the King of the White Court. In reality, Thomas's older sister Lara is in charge, pulling the strings from the background to keep up appearances.

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Red Court

The Red Court is one of the Vampire Courts. Red Court vampires are non-human creatures, disguising themselves as humans; they prey on humans and drink their blood. The Red Court is highly organized in a feudalistic system with a King, termed the Red King, at the top, followed by Dukes and other ranks.

Description

The Red Court of Vampires are less human-like than the White Court. Instead they are slimy bat-like creatures hidden behind incredibly sensuous human costumes (made of an outer skin). They use these costumes to trick their prey into being more comfortable and to hide in plain sight. They are incredibly strong and fast, and can shake off any injury quickly. The Red Court is vulnerable to sunlight and to having their bellies cut open, which can spill the blood they have drunk and eventually kill them. Their saliva contains a potent magical narcotic which gives the prey a euphoric feeling and is highly addictive, allowing the Red Court to control their victims rather easily. The narcotic lowers the victim's inhibitions while dulling the pain of the vampire's bite. Addicted humans have been shown to go to great lengths to protect their vampiric masters, and willingly provide information from the mortal community as needed.

Transformation of others

The Red Court is also capable of transforming ordinary humans into vampires in a two-step process: the human is first infected with the vampiric thirst for blood (gaining supernatural speed, strength and endurance in the process) and then completes the change into the demonic form upon killing a human victim in their first feeding. Infected humans with sufficient strength of will have been known to refrain from feeding for an indefinite length of time (magical bonds, regular exposure to sunlight, and avoiding physical intimacy all help), but no cure has yet been found for the "half-vampire" infected state. It is intimated that the Faerie Queens, or a being of similar power, could cure, or rather completely destroy, the vampiric infection with a magic known as an Unraveling (see Summer Knight). Their hunger for blood makes controlling their emotions very difficult, and when in a situation where emotions run high (such as during a fight or when engaged in physical intimacy), it is much easier for them to lose control.

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Black Court

The Black Court is one of the Vampire Courts. Black Court vampires are the 'classic' vampire variety: undead humans preying on live ones to drink their blood.

The Black Court comprises the most well-known kind of vampire, the reanimated bloodthirsty corpses popularized by Bram Stoker's Dracula. In fact, in the Dresdenverse, the publication of that book at the behest of the White Court is believed to be the primary cause of the Court's downfall, as Stoker supposedly published the book as a "how-to" manual to hunt the Black Court. Black Court vampires still inhabit the human bodies that they lived in before they were turned into vampires, with the only difference being their bodies rotting like zombies in the time that they have been undead. Black Court vampires possess all the classic strengths and weaknesses of Stoker's Dracula: they can lift and throw cars with one hand and crash through concrete walls without harm; but must sleep in their native soil and fear garlic and objects of faith. Sunlight, while deadly to younger members of the Black Court, is merely an inconvenience to older members, weakening them significantly, as in Stoker's novel. Mavra, an ancient Black Court vampire, has demonstrated the ability to use magic in the same way wizards do. The Black Court is currently the smallest and (politically) weakest of the Courts, although those few who survived the purges caused by Stoker's book are among the strongest and most cunning monsters in the world by virtue of sheer Darwinian necessity.

-Finished OOC graphics, put up Lore.
-put up story
-put up profiles
-profile thread
-main thread made, plus graphics.