- See also A World of Darkness Second Edition
A World of Darkness, also known as A World of Darkness: The Promised Lands, is a sourcebook that gives an overview of key locations in the World of Darkness of Vampire: The Masquerade.
Summary
From the White Wolf catalog:
- Where Light Fears to Tread...
- Throughout the world mortals walk, believing themselves safe in the light of civilization. But what happens when the darkness does not recede but stays, refusing to yield to the penetrating rays of light?
- How Can There be Hope?
- Voodoo cults in the Caribbean, lost tribes in the Middle East, hidden castles of Europe and geomancy in the boardrooms of Hong Kong. Everywhere the shadows flicker, but here they rule. From the Americas to Asia, from Ireland to Jordan, there are those places where the light of reason and hope has never intruded. And here even the forces of night may meet their end.
- A World of Darkness includes:
- Details on some of the Earth's darkest sites, from the notorious Vampire Club in San Francisco to the lost Valley of Kings in Jordan, design for use with any game in the Storytelling series;
- Expanded information on the Vampires of Asia;
- Source material on the mysterious Inconnu, the hidden sect of ancient power.
Contents
Introduction
The British Isles
Europe by Night
Hunedora Castle
Jordan
Hong Kong
Gaki
Haiti
The Vampire Club
Background Information
Some of the information in this book was overwritten with later material:
- Mithras, who rests in torpor here, is diablerized in A World of Darkness Second Edition, and "Queen" Anne Bowesley formally succeeds him as Prince of London.
- Dr. John Dee and Aleister Crowley both appear here as Kindred; a Malkavian appears in London by Night who believes himself to be both individuals, suggesting that one or both of them might have never actually been Embraced.
- Don Caravelli, the Brujah elder who masterminds the Mafia, is never referenced again (outside of the presumably non-canonical Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy), and the Brujah clan's association with organized crime is overshadowed by the Giovanni clan's mob ties in later editions of the game.
- Baba Yaga is killed by a Nictuku in Nights of Prophecy.
- The background material surrounding the Inconnu of Hunedoara Castle was largely overhauled in Lair of the Hidden.
- Talaq, the Assamite-turned-mortal "Prince" of Petra, is revealed to have been forced out of Jordan in Mummy: The Resurrection Rulebook.
- With the transition of Hong Kong from British to Chinese governance, many of the Western Kindred (including Robert Pedder, the "Taipan" of Hong Kong) were expelled from the city.
- The Gaki "clan" was retconned into a Japanese faction of Kuei-jin in the Kindred of the East Rulebook.
- The "Cats" who appear in the Gaki chapter are never referenced again (Besides Dark Alliance: Vancouver as the "Neko"), and may possibly have been made redundant with the introduction of the Bastet werecats in the Werewolf Players Guide, or the Nyan in Land of Eight Million Dreams. Their concept seems to be derived from the nekomata from Japanese folk tales.
- Vannevar Thomas, Prince of San Francisco, is revealed to have been forced out of the city by his Ventrue clanmates in San Francisco by Night.
Memorable Quotes
(...)
Characters
- Robert Pedder - "Taipan" of Hong Kong
- George Robinson - pro-Communist Brujah
- Subitai - Primogen of Hong Kong
- Hoteph - Ventrue
- Andy - Caitiff Anarch
- Rutherfurd - Anarch
- Milesius - Prince of Ulster, Vampire
- Blake - Nosferatu
- Aine (Black Annis, Gentle Annie) - Nosferatu
- Noisavair - Nosferatu
- Mithras
- John Dee ('Doctor', 'Master') - Tremere
- Anne Bowesley ('Lady Anne') - Ventrue, Queen of London
- Aleister Crowley ('The Great Beast') - Malkavian
- Lianna (Leanan) - Toreador
- Zaroff - Caitiff
- Don Caravelli - Brujah
- Guillaume - Brujah
- Louhi - Malkavian
- Francois Villon - Toreador
- Baba Yaga - Nosferatu
- Vlad - Tzimisce, Inconnu
- Cret - Ventrue
- Bahomet - Demon, Hunedoara Castle
- Talaq -
- Khalid - Nosferatu
- Maimonides - Mage ally to Talaq
- Gerald - Malkavian
- Chen - Nosferatu
- Tom - Vampire
- Carlos - Vampire
- Lin Jun - Anarch, Toreador
- Kwan Sze - Anarch
- Mai Lai - Anarch
- Will - Anarch
- Gordon Smith - Malkavian
- Baron - Toreador
- Aleksandra - Tremere
- Beatrix Bijou - Tremere
- Franklin Reece - Tremere
- Gwyedd - Gangrel
- Virginia Brown - Brujah
- Lars Thorwald - Gangrel
- Veronique d'Orleans - Brujah
- Cassius - Nosferatu, Inconnu
- T'o Ngoh - Ghost
- Heike Yusuke Saburo - Gaki
- Ezuli - Follower of Set
- Ogwon - Follower of Set
- Vannevar Thomas
- Endymion -Toreador
- Lodin - Venture
- Sebastian Melmoth - Toreador
- Tex R. Cainen (Carson Longbaugh) - Toreador
- Alice Babylon - Toreador
- Michelle Stevens - Ghoul
Terminology
(...)
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