Hi, gang,
First, I just want to say thanks for the feedback and enthusiasm you’ve shown thus far. Thanks to you, getting the word out on Mummy is starting to look like it might not be the Sisyphean task it otherwise could have been, and that is just as encouraging as it is appreciated.
After theme, the most pivotal element in storytelling (and thus, in Storytelling) is character. Who are these protagonists of ours? Of course, the wise-acre answer to that is, “They’re mummies!” But in this case, that’s not even entirely accurate. Without dropping in elements from any other Storytelling game, the world of Mummy is already chock-full of its own protagonists, antagonists and secondary players. It’s a cohesive, singular vision (or iteration, if you prefer) of the World of Darkness, and the choice of which role a player assumes in the setting depends on which framework the Storyteller establishes at the chronicle’s outset. In the default framework, for example, all the players are roleplaying not only mummies, but a particular category of mummies known colloquially as the “Arisen.”
Put simply, the Arisen are old as dirt. They lived out the meager span of their mortal lives long ago, but as the cliche’ goes, death was only the beginning for them. In the world of Mummy, the Arisen are the beneficiaries and victims of the most powerful magic ever unleashed by mortal hands — a process both sacred and occult that bound each Arisen soul to its own mortal remains… forever. Yes, the Arisen can die, allright, but not for long. It is their burden and their purpose to return, to arise like dark phoenixes from their own ashes to walk the living world once more. Immortality comes at a price, however, and to be Arisen is to strike a balancing act while crossing a tightrope through time, with only the emptiness of space below should one fall. Not only are the demands on such souls high to begin with, but the living world doesn’t make it any easier on them. Their mere presence is a violation to some, an opportunity for others, and along the way many of the souls with whom they interact threaten to push them off the rope, intentionally or otherwise. They are deathless, but know precious little of life. They are eternal, but must be so in a world that has moved on, and will keep moving on.
Until next time…
Senebti!
.. the implication being that there are mummies other than the Arisen who might conceivably be playable?
.. not that the Arisen don’t seem interesting as player characters; they very much do 🙂
“Their mere presence is a violation to some, an opportunity for others, and along the way many of the souls with whom they interact threaten to push them off the rope, intentionally or otherwise. ”
I really wonder what this means.
Definitely working to make sure that Mummy news(and blog links) get out to the different WoD-related bits of the interwebs and what not 🙂
A lot of goosebumps inducing stuff here. “Most powerful magic ever unleashed by mortal hands…”, different mummy types other than the Arisen, a very self contained world with protagonists, antagonists,etc, the tightrope it would seem of identity and being immortal in a mortal world. My guess is we’ll see some talk of the immortals from the end of the previous WoD book on the subject mentioned. I want to say I remember that they(I forget their name) mentioned as wanting to be tied in somewhat with Mummy.
I definitely hope that in addition to extensive Cult rules we see a hearty list of mortal groups that are allies/enemies of the Arisen.
Thanks, Cameron. And feel free to drop any links or trackbacks here in the comments. I check here regularly, of course, and I know a few of my writers do, too, and we don’t always catch everything that appears elsewhere. 🙂
Sin-eaters for one, are kinda touchy on the subject of death. People that find ways to become immortal are a common antagonist.
I could think of a few things that would want to take advantage of Immortality. The Tremer in oWoD were basically Mages who were looking for it and found vampires.
And that minor faction from the back of the Immortals book that uses magical weapons to harvest/steal immortality by permanently slaying immortals…
The idea of playing characters that are ‘old as dirt’ sounds really fun, and a great excuse to do multiple time period stories. Going from the classical period when you are still only a few hundred years old and dealing with young Roman vampires eager to expand the empire, to the Victorian era where there’s a sudden upsurge of Prometheans and that damn archeologist wont give you back your sarcophagus. Then suddenly its 2012 and you’re trying to work out why the mortals think your (very) old friends calender predicts the end of the world. And why they seem to be right.
So what makes them different from Prometheans and Sin-Eaters, other than the fact that they are human souls maintaining their own cycle of rebirth (And not a false-soul or a bound soul).
I’m super curious but hoping it isn’t derivative. 🙂
Well… Prometheans get one shot at resurrection (more if they take the Revivification Bestowment). Sin-Eaters aren’t eternal; if they die of old age, or die too many times, that’s it. The Arisen _are_ eternal.
Each splat’s take reflects where resurrection stands thematically in relation to them. For Prometheans, it’s a minor theme at best, reflecting their resilience. For Sin-Eaters, it represents a second chance. For the Arisen, it signifies they are truly eternal.
Further, the Prometheans aren’t the people they’re made from; they’re looking to become human, to be part of the world. The Sin-Eaters, by and large, embrace their second chance, throwing themselves into living again. The Arisen appear to be… detached from life somehow. (I suspect that mention of being bound to their mortal remains may be a clue as to why.)
Also, I feel like it can’t be overlooked: they’re *old*. Sin Eaters are generally people who died a few years ago. Prometheans are the newest it’s possible to be: they’re created fresh, like children in misshapen adult bodies.
The way the arisen are being described, they’re very, very old. A normal person, after living through thousands of years, is going to be a very, very different character than a fresh-created monster or a guy that died of dysentery in 2007,
This sounds so sweet,
I can only imagine how the Sin-Eaters, Immortals from the book of same name, and Lodge of Cerberus will re-act to these guys.
“Their mere presence is a violation to some, an opportunity for others, and along the way many of the souls with whom they interact threaten to push them off the rope, intentionally or otherwise. They are deathless, but know precious little of life. They are eternal, but must be so in a world that has moved on, and will keep moving on.”
Hmm, I *really* like this. Definitely painted a very evocative tableau 🙂
About CAS
Can’t wait to hear more, and of course to get my hands on the book once it’s out.
Also very much looking forward to how the Arisen and the Purified might interact and what they’ll know about each other.
New post up!
Eloquent and beautiful, keep up this type of workings, and this game is going to win some awards!
One of the great elements of the character creation process in Mummy 2nd Edition was choosing the the character’s original profession before they became a mummy (i.e. Soldier, Scribe, Priest, Pharaoh, etc.). Each profession had a brief summary of what that profession did in Ancient Egypt and a list of key Abilities. As a storyteller I found this really helped the players form a very rough outline and concept of who this character was before becoming a Mummy. In turn, this helped shape how the characters understood the modern/changing world around them and their place in it.
I hope that there will be an appendix that provides complete lists and descriptions of Abilities from major time periods (i.e. Ancient, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Victorian) so that storytellers can do flashback stories or even chronicles set in earlier time periods. The Memory Theme just screams for the ability to roleplay the events that lead to the conflicts and relationships of the Modern Nights. *I don’t think this would be so hard to do as the Ability lists were already made for the Dark Ages line, Mage Sorcerer’s Crusade and Victorian Vampire.
Also, to jump on the bandwagon of CameronW (and my earlier plea in the ‘Blog Topics’), I hope that there would be space for an entire appendix with detailed creation rules for Cultists. Much like ghouls are to Vampires, these are the mortal agents of the mummies that are tied up in their webs of conflict. Not only do their own desires/motivations, conflicts, moods, and themes be fleshed out, they deserve their own advantages (in Mummy 2nd Edition they could be given alchemy potions and relics, but why not hedge magic as sorcerers would be drawn to mummies like flies to honey and special Merits/Flaws). Most oWOD lines got some mortal ally splat book which could be used for creating detailed allies AND player characters. MtC is definitely begging for this!