[delo]

One issue I have with the creative arts is that there are often too many ideas to explore fully in conceptual and narrative media. So I'm just going to throw my extra ideas out here and let the community run with them if anyone is interested. If anyone would like any more information on a particular topic, or would like to collaborate in any way on these ideas, please let me know ;-)

(I've started a new forum at the Delopolis Web Project for this stuff, so please remember to cross-post at pub72.ezboard.com/fthedelopoliswebprojectfrm2 if you have any ideas or concepts you'd like to share)

Here's the first idea:
It is the far future. Humanity has spread out across the galaxy using the 'aether lens' (what we would know through contemporary sci-fi as a 'gravity drive', 'black hole drive', or 'space-fold technology'), and has brought civilization to most of the spinward arm of the Milky Way. However, as mankind spreads towards the edges of the galaxy, human civilzation begins to lose contact with many of its outermost colonies. The causes are unknown, and search and rescue missions sent to uncover the source of the losses also disappear in turn. The source is uncovered when a spinward Catholic colony is attacked and successfully defended. . . the aggressors are vampires!

Humanity turns to the Catholic sects for defense (the many original ideologies of the Catholic Church having secretly exterminated Earth's vampires at the turn of the nineteenth century AD), and over time human space is ruled under the hegemony of a unified Holy Empire. But despite the great power of the Holy Empire, the edges of civilzation are slowly and insidiously eaten away by the galaxy's vampires. The Church commissions a new priesthood to turn the tide of battle, the Ordo Exsanguis. . . the Bloodless Order.

The Bloodless Order is founded on the belief that the ancient technologies of artificial intelligence are actually a means to create vessels for the souls of 'avenging angels'. Each 'vessel', including ai hardware, software, and cybernetics/robotics, is handcrafted by the lay brotherhood of the order out of reliquary silver and blessed mechanical components. A new 'father' in the Bloodless Order is taken before the Pontiff and awakened, where it reveals its holy name and is blessed and commanded by the Pope. Monks in the Bloodless Order work alone or in teams to root out the thralls of the vampires and exterminate their vampire overlords. They are the perfect match for the vampires, in that they are as strong and fast as their supernatural enemy, and the nature of their inteligence makes them immune to the psychic will of the enemy. The Bloodless Order's only weakness is that their numbers are few.

The vampires are similar to vampires we're familiar with in contempory fiction, with a few key differences. They are not naturally immortal; as a vampire slowly but naturally ages, its becomes physically weaker, and its mental and psychic faculties become more powerful. Vampire society is divided into separate castes, pure vampires, halfbreed vampires, feral vampires, and thralls. A vampire may only become a pure vampire when another pure vampire surrenders all its blood to a halfbreed. A halfbreed is created by another pure or halfbreed using its 'communion' fangs (the sharpened teeth set next to the 'feeding' canines) which commingle the vampire's blood with its prey's. Feral vampires slowly lose their intelligence and become instinctual hunters that will run prey to extinction, usually ending in their own death by starvation (they are frequently used by Vampire masters as shock troops on planets the vampires wish to cleanse of enemy warriors). Thralls are human agents mesmerized by vampires; they are frequently used to spread the vampire taint across a new world, or as headmen on vampire 'herd' planets. All vampires fear or may be killed by the usual weapons and agents. . . a chemical compound found in garlic causes extreme irritation, as does 'holy water', serious wounds may only be inflicted by reliquary silver, they may only be killed by the destruction of the heart or brain, or light tuned within the frequency of Earth's sun. They fear the signs and symbols of Catholicism, but the range and symptoms of these effects are unclear. . .

I may elaborate on this idea if any of the details or story ideas become clearer in the future.

delo

[burn0ut]

hey delo, i like it. im goina try n do somethin this week ;D

[delo]

had a little time today to work up a rough concept of a monk in the ordo exsanguis. . . this is samael in prayer stasis. for color reference, the detailed bits (hands, forearms, joint-guards, et cetera) and the head are wrought silver, the crosses are blood red, and the loosely-shaded areas are bone white. the head projects a holographic halo tuned to solar frequencies. when in action, members of the order wear black and red habits for investigations and ceremonial battle gear (helmet and supplemental armor) for combat.

delo