by Sara Beaman
Seraglio - the traditional name for a group of mortals kept by a revenant as vessels for blood. In modern times the exact nature of the seraglio varies considerably from instance to instance. Some seraglios are functionally businesses, providing their vessels to any revenant who can pay. In practice, such business are against the Sanguine Consensus, although they occur illicitly regardless. The vessels in such business may be well cared for by a Coventinian healer, or they may be routinely disposed of and replaced; given the illicit nature of such seraglios, the latter method is more common. Other seraglios are maintained privately by individual revenants. These facilities may include redlisted who are employed by the revenant, or normal mortals who are kept in the facility against their will.
Schuster, Desmond - Revenant (Warden). Desmond is the former president of the Watchers of the Americas. At some point in the recent past, Desmond became concerned about the safety of Mnemosyne’s physical remains, due to Julian Radcliffe’s increasingly unstable personality. He had the remains moved to the Watcher facility in Red Hook, a location under his de facto political control. Shortly thereafter, Desmond himself suffered some sort of emotional or mental trauma which caused him to become irrational and to view Mnemosyne’s continued existence as an unacceptable threat. He reassigned anyone at the Red Hook facility who he determined would be a danger to this plan. Later, convinced that a double agent remained among his ranks, he murdered every revenant still present at the facility. As Red Hook was a teaching center for new Wardens, these were primarily trainees and instructors. When Adam Radcliffe and his companions came to Red Hook in order to return Mnemosyne’s head to Desmond’s care, Desmond ambushed them and attempted to take the head - and Adam’s blood, needed to open Mnemosyne’s sarcophagus - by force. Haruko Schuster and Adam were disabled in the ensuing fight. Katherine Avery was able to utilize Mnemosyne’s head to seize control of a pack of ghouls, which she directed to murder Desmond.
Schuster, Haruko - Revenant (Warden). Haruko is the initiate of Desmond Schuster’s ‘sister’, Jennifer Schuster, and the former Watcher of Atlanta. Haruko had an extended relationship with Desmond for several years, but as of 2010 the relationship had ended. Haruko also had a brief romantic liaison with Adam Radcliffe, during a mission from Desmond to steal Adam’s card for accessing Mnemosyne’s Sepulcher. She accompanied Adam on his mission to recover Mnemosyne’s head from Mirabel, during which she was severely injured twice - once by a Coventinian named Gabriel, who beat her into a coma, and once by Aya Markham, who drove a pickaxe through her eye.
Somniac - see Dream.
SpiraCom - see Spira Communications.
Spira Communications - a global media conglomerate operated by CEO and President Mirabel Radcliffe, known colloquially as SpiraCom. SpiraCom is heavily entangled with the Watchers of the Americas and the International Coalition of Watchers; the Watcher organizations rely upon the company to prevent mortals from discovering the existence of revenants. SpiraCom accomplishes this by disseminating low-level Compulsions and memory edits within its media. Mirabel composes and disseminates these manifestations via a powerful meta-artifact or manifestation she maintains in the SpiraCom HQ in Atlanta. Publicly, SpiraCom is a reputable company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, routinely ranked in the top 100 global corporate enterprises in terms of profitability.
Strain - a specific branch of revenant blood-magic. The use of strains is semi-instinctive; all revenants can manifest their strains reflexively to some degree. Most revenants choose to continually hone their manifested abilities through practice, training and experimentation. Some revenants learn how to combine their strains in order to create new types of manifestations. Aside from the progenitors, each revenant is imbued with three strains--no more, no less. These powers are fixed; they cannot be removed, added to, or exchanged for others. The only revenants to whom this rule does not seem to apply are Julian and Mirabel Radcliffe.
Surveillance - Strain (Warden). The Surveillance strain enables a Warden to passively detect any revenants within a given range, primarily defined by the Warden’s age and skill with the strain. Most Wardens can manage a range of a few hundred meters. If the Warden is within close proximity of an individual and able to focus on them, Surveillance can also determine whether they are subject to any persistent strains, such as Persona, Compulsion, or Mutation. With skill and persistent observation, the Warden can derive additional information about such afflictions. Finally, if the Warden imbibes a sample of a revenant’s blood, they can attempt to determine a significant number of things about that revenant: what strains they possess, whether they have recently imbibed the blood of another revenant, and who their benefactor might be. Not all of this information is available to every Warden, but particularly skillful Wardens may derive it from blood samples accurately and consistently. Possessive noun: none.
Telepath - see Telepathy.
Telepathy - Strain (Mnemonic). Telepathy is a passive sensory strain. While a Telepath can focus their senses on a particular individual to try and get more detail or deeper thoughts, for the most part the strain picks up the thoughts of any sentient being nearby. The experience of a Telepath varies from individual to individual; most revenants experience the thoughts of those around them as a sort of radio broadcast, something in their peripheral senses that they can choose to focus on and ‘listen’ to. Others pick up surface emotions and physical sensations most predominately. Particularly empathic Telepaths may be able to feel in their own bodies the emotions and sensations others are experiencing. Telepathy can be defended against by nearly any revenant. Those with Telepathy can often learn to produce a sort of ‘shield’ over their thoughts, preventing easy access via the strain itself. Other revenants - and, theoretically, mortals - can learn to defend against the strain by articulating their thoughts in obtuse ways, such as a personal code or foreign language unknown to the Telepath, or by focusing their surface thoughts on something irrelevant to the Telepath, such as a video game or movie. Possessive noun: Telepath.
Thalian - a revenant member of the Line of Thalia. Thalia was an initiate of both Mnemosyne and Himeros, and her progeny are thus gifted with a mixed set of strains: Clairsentience and Illusion from Mnemosyne, Persona from Himeros. Thalia died at some point in the early C.E. The circumstances of her demise are unknown, but the common legends regarding her unlife suggest that the progenitors viewed her as something of a curiosity or joke, most probably because they provided her with the somewhat overlapping strains of Illusion and Persona, and Clairsentience so that she would always be aware of those who were laughing at her. Some of this legend most likely derives from the the peculiar innate capacity all Thalians possess: the ability to determine if their ‘act’ is being believed by those who are observing them. Thus, a Thalian who is in a Persona, and pretending to be someone they are not, can gain an innate sense of whether or not their observers are buying it. This capacity extends to other areas of communication as well, such as salesmanship or theater arts. Withering: a Thalian who is denied blood becomes utterly laughable, their every attempt at performance, impersonation or subterfuge meeting with scorn and derision.
Vessel - a traditional term for a mortal upon whom a revenant is feeding, or a regular or preferred target of a revenant or revenants.
Warden - a revenant member of the Wardens. It is unclear if the Wardens are a House or a Line. Their official propaganda is vague on the subject of origins, though, until the modern era, they claimed a progenitor named Apollo was responsible for their existence. Despite this claim, most revenants believe the Wardens are a Line. While their three strains - Warding, Sealing and Surveillance - are completely unique amongst revenant-kind, every Warden possesses these same strains, indicating that they were created artificially by the progenitors. That having been said, the Wardens are peculiar. Their innate knack is a so-called Level 10 personal personal Ward, capable of annihilating any manifestation projected at their mind or spirit. This personal Ward prevents them from using many artifacts unless th
ey focus on doing so actively; while this focus is not difficult to maintain, it is somewhat irritating, like crossing one’s eyes just slightly and holding them that way. Additionally, the innate Ward does not protect their bodies from harm by external forces; objects thrown by a powerful Coventinian will still do them considerable damage. It is also worth noting that Illusions appear to be an odd weak spot within the purview of the Ward - Illusions disrupt reality as it is perceived by anyone, in some way, and therefore a personal Ward is not an effective defense against them (although the Warden could use their strain to dispel the illusion altogether, with some effort). The Wardens are the founders of the body which has become the International Coalition of Watchers, and account for over eighty percent of its membership. Withering: a Warden denied blood loses all ability to manifest, although their personal Ward remains active.
Warding - Strain (Warden). Warding permits Wardens to establish a functional perimeter of defenses through which no manifestations can penetrate. Additionally, wards may be layered over an entire area, preventing the use of any strains within their boundaries. Wards can be made permanent via the use of the Warden’s blood. Wards on frequently mobile objects are difficult to maintain. All wards are classified on a scale ranging from levels 1 to 9. These levels indicate the difficulty manifestations will have in penetrating the ward in question, and also how restrictive the wards are in terms of manifestations within their boundaries. Levels 1 through 5 are perimeter-only, meaning that they only shield the area from manifestations, but do not restrict the use of manifestations within their boundaries. Levels 6 through 8 are increasingly more restrictive on manifestations within their boundaries, shutting down passive strains first and causing active strains to become increasingly more difficult. At level 9, all artifacts within the area cease functioning. More powerful wards are more obvious to revenants nearby, particularly those with passive observational strains, who perceive the warded area as a black hole or void in their senses. Possessive noun: none.
Watchers - the colloquial name for an international organization of revenants dedicated to the construction of a lawful, democratic society of the revenants worldwide. This organization has gone by many official names over the years: The Society of Watchers, the Watcher Confederacy, and, most recently, the International Coalition of Watchers. All revenants in areas controlled by the Watchers must register their existence, strains, benefactor and primary place of residence with the Watcher government in that region. Unless a revenant becomes an active member of the Watchers, they do not receive any vote or other say in Watcher affairs or governing. While the Watchers were founded by the Wardens - and to this day Wardens are the vast majority of its members - any revenant may apply for membership in the Watchers, and a substantial number do so, as there are numerous perks to being a member of the organization. First and foremost, the Watchers manage bloodbanks within every major metropolitan area, explicitly for revenants who serve as active Watchers, or Watchers who have retired in good standing. This serves to help alleviate the difficulty Wardens have in feeding. Members also receive a job, and a commensurate paycheck, along with a housing stipend and the ability to vote in the legislative branch of their regional organization. Members may also run for election to various offices, depending on which regional branch they belong to. Currently, there are six Watcher regional branches, following the naming convention “The Watchers of
Watchers of the Americas - the most powerful of the regional branches of the Watchers and, recently, the de facto dictator of all decisions made by the International Coalition of Watchers. The Watchers of the Americas are a nominally democratic organization. Every member votes in the Legislature, ratifying changes made to the Sanguine Consensus. A President serves, in theory, to execute the will of the Legislature; the Legislature is organized by a Speaker. In 1893, a Warden named Christopher Carlyle won election to the Presidency, an office he has held without interruption for more than one hundred years. For most of that period, Carlyle was content to allow Watcher operations to proceed largely as they had in the past, but in recent years he has centralized all power to his office, placed one of his lieutenants into the role of Speaker of the Legislature, and maneuvered himself into a dictatorial position over the International Coalition of Watchers.
Weiss, Jessica - one of Adam Radcliffe’s many former lovers. According to Julian Radcliffe, she broke up with Adam and has been out of contact for some time.
Wild Strain - a traditional name for a strain that a revenant’s benefactor did not possess. Most initiates of benefactors who are ‘close’ to their progenitor receive their benefactor's three strains unchanged. Each subsequent ‘generation’ from the progenitor increases the chance of a wild strain occurring, but no initiate ever has less than two of the same strains as their benefactor. The only exception in recorded history is Mirabel Radcliffe, a fact which is known to a scant handful of people.
the Withering - traditional name for the crippling weakness that a lack of blood inflicts on every revenant. Each House and Line possess a unique debilitating condition that will affect them if their body expends all of its available blood. See the individual House and Line entries for more specific details.
