Post by Disparagingtheboot on Aug 13, 2016 19:01:51 GMT -5
In the highest and lowest circles of the world, it is spoken of with excitement and curiosity. No one can ever tell for sure who will be chosen for it. Invitations go out by unknown means, always finding those who they are meant for. These people, chosen for their power, their ability to entertain a crowd, and an unknown host of any other factors, are given an in depth explanation of the event and its rules, and are offered a contract. This contract is magically binding, and can only be signed by someone truly willing. One cannot be forced to sign it. The tournament accepts only those who are truly committed.
It does not have a regular schedule, though no fewer than two years always pass between tournaments. It has no set location: it always seems to be held on an island, though the island always seems to exist only for the tournament.
The audience is selected through an equally arcane process. When a new tournament is announced, gold-bordered tickets are distributed to markets, dealers, and brokers around the world, for the wealthiest and most powerful to snatch up as fast as they can.
Silver-bordered tickets are distributed as well, but to a far more varied clientele. They appear inside candy wrappers, in the mail, lying in the street, falling from the sky, on windshields, and so on. Upon touching it, one instantly knows what it is for and how valuable it is.
A third type of ticket is distributed as well. These have perfectly mirrored borders, and work only for the person who finds them (though it's widely speculated that the tournament organizers make sure these tickets are found by specific people). If the recipient in any way attempts to give the ticket away or remove it from their possession, it simply melts into nothingness in an instant.
Gambling is one of the main attractions of the tournament, second only to fighting (and more important to quite a few). Massive amounts of money change hands, as do precious items, contacts, weapons, bonds, real estate, and so on. But things far stranger and more valuable are wagered as well. Pretty much anything can be placed on the betting table: souls, blood, information, ancient magical artifacts of all kinds, lost and horrific secrets, dreams, memories, entire phantasmal realms, and so on. All gambling must be made using a Wager Token, handed out freely by event staff. A Wager Token makes any bet made on it magically binding.
Battles are won when one party surrenders, falls and does not rise after a count of ten, or dies. There's no such thing as a ring-out: the arena is surrounded by an invisible spherical field that prevents anyone and anything from entering or leaving during a match. This field protects the contestants from interference, and also keeps the spectators save from stray bullets or bursts of energy discharged in the ring. The field also blocks mental effects, going in or out. This includes passive auras of influence. The audience will not be effected by Disquiet from Promethean fighters or the Wake of a Leviathan.
The tournament is staffed by uniformed personnel of a variety of appearances, who are somehow enchanted to be impossible to influence or read via supernatural means. When asked about the deeper purposes of the tournament, they never stray from the party line. "The only purpose of the tournament is to entertain and excite." They say without fail.
Contestant examples:
- Jack-in-Irons: A Changeling Ogre still kept by his captors, who enters the arena shackled and chained. One wonders how he fits into the "contestants must be willing" rule. In fact, he's totally devoted to the contest. He signed a contract with his captors that for every battle he wins, they'll release one of their captives. If he wins the tournament, he can choose who they release. They say his captors have someone or several someones truly precious to him, and he's gonna keep fighting until he frees them and finally freed himself. When he began, he tried not to hurt his opponents too badly or kill them. It's a wonder he made it through his first match with that approach. Now, he shows no mercy when he fights, driven to berserker extremes by his purpose and his long-repressed fury.
- Gamma, The Heavens Torn Apart: Decades ago, this Zeka began the long and arduous journey to become human. They failed. In the endless days and nights they spent contemplating their odyssey, they began to wonder. Why did they want to become human? What benefit did it have for them? Was it really that great to have a driver's license and work nine to five and have children and die? Gamma wasn't good at being human, but Gamma was good at fighting. Gamma was good at killing, too, but to them that was second to the sheer thrill of fighting. So Gamma decided to abandon humanity forever, and start a new Pilgrimage: the quest to be really really good at punching things hard. It was only a matter of time before Gamma got the letter. It was the happiest day of their life.
- Thera Lincoln: Everyone who's watched Thera can tell that the organizers don't just pick for raw power. Sure, Thera's super strong and could probably reduce a few Abrams tanks to slag with a little effort, but what she really brings to the tournament is style. The vivacious rockabilly Sin-Eater roars up to the ring in either a custom Harley or her Keystone, a phantasmal retro muscle car. Guitars wail all around her as she leaps into the ring, posing and strutting like Elvis for the fans, while her Geist, the Highway Star, basks in the adulation as much as she does. And when she fights, she always pulls out crowd pleasing moves, creating towering infernos and Hollywood-worthy explosions with the Pyre-Flame key and sprouting blades and gun barrels from her body with the Industrial key. One of her favorite tricks is to summon parts of her Keystone separately- using the car's bumpers as armor or summoning its wheels on her legs and using them to skate around the ring.
- Chapel Perilous: Chapel, her real name long since either forgotten or abandoned, has a genuine claim on being one of the oldest vampires around. Despite this distinction, however, all who have met her describe her as remarkably lively, affable, and genuinely friendly. The ancient Khaibit, who remembers the early days of Egypt (and those bandaged weirdos who always blundered around making trouble), still attends to her ancient duty of fighting beings from the realms beyond. She does plenty of Strix hunting when she's out of the ring, but she also does plenty of jet-skiing, archaeology, hang-gliding, yachting, mountain climbing, chess-playing, Devotion-developing, letter-writing, movie-watching, video gaming, language learning, and pretty much anything else that captures her interest. This, she believes, is the secret to handling the Kindred condition: by keeping herself as occupied and entertained as possible, and can stave off both the Beast and the even more fearsome foe of Ennui.
Rumors:
- The reason why everything stays contained in the ring? The barrier isn't just a barrier. It sucks in anything that hits and pulls it down into storage tanks under the arena. Imagine how much supernatural energy has been stored here over the centuries the tournament has been in operation. What are they collecting it for?
- There's no one entity running the show, no one supernatural explanation. The tournament is managed by a large team of supernatural beings of every kind working together.
- The organizers have such seemingly limitless resources because of "Patrons"- incredibly wealthy and powerful individuals who sign contracts pledging regular grants of money and resources to the tournament, as well as a guarantee they'll help maintain it. What do they get from it, besides great seats? I dunno, maybe they just like the idea.
- There's a selection list and a waitlist, right? If someone who's been selected declines or can't make it, they choose a waitlisted person. Now, here's the part they keep quiet. If someone on the waitlist kills someone on the selected list, that person gets their spot.
- The organization that runs the tournament doesn't just run this one event. They run countless competitions and games around the world and beyond, ranging from smaller gladiator matches to races to high stakes gambling. To join, the applicant must sign a magically binding contract to put aside all personal agendas and work only to make the world a more exciting and entertaining place. Though one wonders, is that restricted to regulated events? Does this group ever meddle in the affairs of the world to make things more "interesting"?
- You're overthinking this, man. There's no deep sinister purpose. They really are running this thing just for fun. Don't believe me? Hey, if you had a bunch of money and power, wouldn't you wanna throw a big party and get a bunch of monsters together and watch them fight?
Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas for rumors or contestants?
It does not have a regular schedule, though no fewer than two years always pass between tournaments. It has no set location: it always seems to be held on an island, though the island always seems to exist only for the tournament.
The audience is selected through an equally arcane process. When a new tournament is announced, gold-bordered tickets are distributed to markets, dealers, and brokers around the world, for the wealthiest and most powerful to snatch up as fast as they can.
Silver-bordered tickets are distributed as well, but to a far more varied clientele. They appear inside candy wrappers, in the mail, lying in the street, falling from the sky, on windshields, and so on. Upon touching it, one instantly knows what it is for and how valuable it is.
A third type of ticket is distributed as well. These have perfectly mirrored borders, and work only for the person who finds them (though it's widely speculated that the tournament organizers make sure these tickets are found by specific people). If the recipient in any way attempts to give the ticket away or remove it from their possession, it simply melts into nothingness in an instant.
Gambling is one of the main attractions of the tournament, second only to fighting (and more important to quite a few). Massive amounts of money change hands, as do precious items, contacts, weapons, bonds, real estate, and so on. But things far stranger and more valuable are wagered as well. Pretty much anything can be placed on the betting table: souls, blood, information, ancient magical artifacts of all kinds, lost and horrific secrets, dreams, memories, entire phantasmal realms, and so on. All gambling must be made using a Wager Token, handed out freely by event staff. A Wager Token makes any bet made on it magically binding.
Battles are won when one party surrenders, falls and does not rise after a count of ten, or dies. There's no such thing as a ring-out: the arena is surrounded by an invisible spherical field that prevents anyone and anything from entering or leaving during a match. This field protects the contestants from interference, and also keeps the spectators save from stray bullets or bursts of energy discharged in the ring. The field also blocks mental effects, going in or out. This includes passive auras of influence. The audience will not be effected by Disquiet from Promethean fighters or the Wake of a Leviathan.
The tournament is staffed by uniformed personnel of a variety of appearances, who are somehow enchanted to be impossible to influence or read via supernatural means. When asked about the deeper purposes of the tournament, they never stray from the party line. "The only purpose of the tournament is to entertain and excite." They say without fail.
Contestant examples:
- Jack-in-Irons: A Changeling Ogre still kept by his captors, who enters the arena shackled and chained. One wonders how he fits into the "contestants must be willing" rule. In fact, he's totally devoted to the contest. He signed a contract with his captors that for every battle he wins, they'll release one of their captives. If he wins the tournament, he can choose who they release. They say his captors have someone or several someones truly precious to him, and he's gonna keep fighting until he frees them and finally freed himself. When he began, he tried not to hurt his opponents too badly or kill them. It's a wonder he made it through his first match with that approach. Now, he shows no mercy when he fights, driven to berserker extremes by his purpose and his long-repressed fury.
- Gamma, The Heavens Torn Apart: Decades ago, this Zeka began the long and arduous journey to become human. They failed. In the endless days and nights they spent contemplating their odyssey, they began to wonder. Why did they want to become human? What benefit did it have for them? Was it really that great to have a driver's license and work nine to five and have children and die? Gamma wasn't good at being human, but Gamma was good at fighting. Gamma was good at killing, too, but to them that was second to the sheer thrill of fighting. So Gamma decided to abandon humanity forever, and start a new Pilgrimage: the quest to be really really good at punching things hard. It was only a matter of time before Gamma got the letter. It was the happiest day of their life.
- Thera Lincoln: Everyone who's watched Thera can tell that the organizers don't just pick for raw power. Sure, Thera's super strong and could probably reduce a few Abrams tanks to slag with a little effort, but what she really brings to the tournament is style. The vivacious rockabilly Sin-Eater roars up to the ring in either a custom Harley or her Keystone, a phantasmal retro muscle car. Guitars wail all around her as she leaps into the ring, posing and strutting like Elvis for the fans, while her Geist, the Highway Star, basks in the adulation as much as she does. And when she fights, she always pulls out crowd pleasing moves, creating towering infernos and Hollywood-worthy explosions with the Pyre-Flame key and sprouting blades and gun barrels from her body with the Industrial key. One of her favorite tricks is to summon parts of her Keystone separately- using the car's bumpers as armor or summoning its wheels on her legs and using them to skate around the ring.
- Chapel Perilous: Chapel, her real name long since either forgotten or abandoned, has a genuine claim on being one of the oldest vampires around. Despite this distinction, however, all who have met her describe her as remarkably lively, affable, and genuinely friendly. The ancient Khaibit, who remembers the early days of Egypt (and those bandaged weirdos who always blundered around making trouble), still attends to her ancient duty of fighting beings from the realms beyond. She does plenty of Strix hunting when she's out of the ring, but she also does plenty of jet-skiing, archaeology, hang-gliding, yachting, mountain climbing, chess-playing, Devotion-developing, letter-writing, movie-watching, video gaming, language learning, and pretty much anything else that captures her interest. This, she believes, is the secret to handling the Kindred condition: by keeping herself as occupied and entertained as possible, and can stave off both the Beast and the even more fearsome foe of Ennui.
Rumors:
- The reason why everything stays contained in the ring? The barrier isn't just a barrier. It sucks in anything that hits and pulls it down into storage tanks under the arena. Imagine how much supernatural energy has been stored here over the centuries the tournament has been in operation. What are they collecting it for?
- There's no one entity running the show, no one supernatural explanation. The tournament is managed by a large team of supernatural beings of every kind working together.
- The organizers have such seemingly limitless resources because of "Patrons"- incredibly wealthy and powerful individuals who sign contracts pledging regular grants of money and resources to the tournament, as well as a guarantee they'll help maintain it. What do they get from it, besides great seats? I dunno, maybe they just like the idea.
- There's a selection list and a waitlist, right? If someone who's been selected declines or can't make it, they choose a waitlisted person. Now, here's the part they keep quiet. If someone on the waitlist kills someone on the selected list, that person gets their spot.
- The organization that runs the tournament doesn't just run this one event. They run countless competitions and games around the world and beyond, ranging from smaller gladiator matches to races to high stakes gambling. To join, the applicant must sign a magically binding contract to put aside all personal agendas and work only to make the world a more exciting and entertaining place. Though one wonders, is that restricted to regulated events? Does this group ever meddle in the affairs of the world to make things more "interesting"?
- You're overthinking this, man. There's no deep sinister purpose. They really are running this thing just for fun. Don't believe me? Hey, if you had a bunch of money and power, wouldn't you wanna throw a big party and get a bunch of monsters together and watch them fight?
Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas for rumors or contestants?