Updated: 20 January 1999
CONCLUSION: Last Words?
Why the Masques?
In every European Citybook or City information, we saw that the position of the Camarilla Elders was somewhat instable. London suffered from the disappearance of Mithras, its Methuselah Prince. Berlin was two cities in one, with two Princes, one of them crazy with hate and wrath beyond tolerance.
With so little information about Vienna, and with the information that Paris had the greatests Elysiums in the world, our conclusion was that Villon had to be, like Louis ''Sun King'' the 14th, an absolute monarch, and had to have some kind of ''police'' (remember the Iron Mask, and the Lettre de Cachet which enabled the King to jail anyone for any -or no- reason?), and each of our Storytellers had created his own way to control the Kindred population and protect the Masquerade. The X-Files and Nikita's influence were important, too. We didn't believe the Kindred were too much outdated to not understand the workings of the Intelligence Services. After all, the USA were still indian territories that the European spys and intelligence agents were roaming the courts of the king and queens (For example, Beaumarchais, who was crucial in the help given by France to the U.S.A. in the Independance War)!
The Kindred had the possibility to follow the evolution of this kind of agency, as their potential to further intrigue were too much to be ignored, and as their functioning were so near their own. Add to this the fact that the European Kindred were already Elders when those agency were officialized, and so, had every way and anytime to take its control, then you have the french situation.
The creators of LUDIS INTERNATIONAL (unless I'm mistaken) created the idea of the Toreador Hegemony, so they had to have to power to enforce it, anyway. So the idea of the Kindred police was needed once more.
For me, the idea of the Veilleurs, sprung out from a french game review article, was to be the Police. But their occult Background would be too much, so when Yannick came out with his famous Ivan, and his friends, we soon concluded the Veilleur's and Ivan's sect's differences would lie in the occult for the first, and the Tradition and Edict enforcement for the second. Only the name remained to be found, and the temporary name, the ''Masques'', was decided, until a new and better could replace it. But since that time (a lot of time), no new name appeared, and the ''Masques'', with their welcome similitude with ''Masquerade'', stuck on.
So with the Masques and the Veilleurs, Villon had enough power to keep France a whole country, with the other french Princes under his law. If the U.S.A. is, for the Kindred, the country of opportunities and nevertheless the greatest source of power of the world, all the supernatural creatures (and even the simple mortals) fight among themselves to keep or increase their control over this country, thus maintaining a status quo. France is different.
France is Toreador.
It is not to say that the other supernaturals have no opportunities here. In fact, Villon's relation with some Faeries are written in most books, be it by the existence of his Childe, Violetta, half-Faerie (Toreador Justicar in the 1666 Blood & Fire, second part of the Giovanni Chronicles), or by the mention of Villon is some Changeling Book whose title I can't remember.
But try to fight, for control over humans, someone with so much dots it Dominate or Presence that your own powers are meaningless... The Lupines are dying, the Mages are no match and Paradox-plagued, the Wraiths are absent and the Faeries disappearing. Mummies are always too late, and Sorcerers are, simply put, weak. No one remains, but the Kindred Elders...
And the Wyrm, but it's another story...
![]() |
![]() |
© 2000 White Wolf, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2000 Black Widow Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. |
![]() |