Mayfair Witches (Conatains Spoilers)

[Style]

I recently finished up the Mayfair Witches trilogy from Ann Rice, and I found some interesting concepts within that could be stolen for a frpg. Note, the discussion below contains spoilers.

Family of Witches haunted by a spirit/demon
You have a family that is haunted by an entity. From generation to generation, the entity teaches sorcery to the female members. It aids the family, helping them become rich and powerful, but in many ways it is a curse. You could have the entity's goal be the same as Lasher's, to gain physical form, or something completely different, but the entity would most definitely have its own goals that didn't always correspond with the goals of the family.


Taltos
The taltos are a race of long lived giants that have some genetic compatibility with humans. The taltos could be used as the giant kings that the Stygians conquered (and bred with, leading to their tall stature). There could be just a handful of them still alive, mascarading as humans. Or there could be an isolated tribe of them, still living deep in the Pictish Wilderness, erecting great stone circles for their dancing and mating rituals.

Little People
Small, mishappen humanoids that can pass for human dwarves. They live in the wild, eat humans, are quite wicked, and are responsible for much folklore (fairies, leprechauns, elves, etc). You could have them genetically compatible with the Taltos, as they are in the Rice books, or unrelated.

For my money, a mishapen hunchback dwarf is pretty darn creepy. Now surround them in mystery and legend, make them murderous thieves, skulking in the shadows, stealing human babies to eat their flesh and burn their fat in sinister rituals, and I'm sold. There needs to be some of these in my game. Soon.

Talamasca
Now this is the one that I think could have the most potential, but at the same time is the most difficult to pull off. The Talamasca is a secretive organization of scholars who are dedicated to learning everything there is to know about the occult. They are very much a neutral organization. They watch, learn, and record. They do NOT interfere. They are led by a super secretive council of elders. No one even knows who the eldars are.

There are a ton of good story lines you could build around this. One that I like is straight out of the trilogy. Normally the organization doesn't interfere, they are only there to learn, but recently that has changed. Someone with an agenda is intercepting the communications with the elders, or hell, since no one knows who they are, they could have simply replaced the elders. Or another variation on this, the "councel" of elders is really just one person who is very long lived (through sorcery, or maybe they are a taltos or vampire) who's goal for the organization is very long term. They've kept them in gather information mode up until now, but the time has come for the next part of their plan.

There are problems with this concept. My goal is to have my Conan game be a bit more lovecraftian than the norm, and there are definitely things about that man is not meant to know. If you learn something man was not meant to know, it pretty much ruins your life. So how do you handle the Talamasca in a lovecraftian world? How could an organization survive learning these secrets, without falling into ruin? Or what if the PCs want to join? How do you handle the wealth of knowledge they would then have access to?

There are solutions to these problems, I'm sure. Maybe the Talamasca is quite new, and doesn't know anywhere close to everything? A group of scholars has just started this brother hood, and could enlist the PCs to investigate weird happening for them?

Opinion of the Trilogy
I thought I would close with a brief opinion on the books themselves. While there were some interesting concepts that stimulated my brain and inspired me to write this post, overall the books were just an ok read. Book 1 was actually pretty good, but books 2 and 3 fell far short of the first. And it's not like you can just read book 1 and stop. It ends in a cliff hanger. To be honest, the only reason I even finished book 3 was b/c I felt like I'd gone this far, I may as well finish.

If you've not read an Ann Rice book before, let me tell you that she writes a blend of historical fiction, horror, and fantasy. Here stories usually take place both in the present and the past. The parts of the Mayfair Witches tales that took place in the past were all very good. The present story line, however, was not very good, and the present story line is the real story line of the tales. When the books would lapse into the past, it was just to put into context what was happening in the modern story line.

If you want to give Ann Rice a try, I'd go with Servant of the Bones (which is phenomenal) or the first few Vampire Chronicles books. The Mayfair witches series is far from her best work.

 

[Aholibamah]

I hear you about the books--the concepts are interesting but at times the characters are very annoying.

About the Talamasca: I'd place them within a network of sophisticated cities, and give them so much information and no more. They might not know of the truly awful horrors, might know more about serpent folk or the like. The one cautionary note is this: pcs may find them a little frustrating because they have information but don't distribute it or make use of it. The way to get around this is to have them be maybe monastics or religious in some fashion, and perhaps imply a greater air of mystery if they are encountered. If on the other hand you want player Talamasca then have lots of levels of mystery and knowledge.

 

[Style]

Right, that was one of the things I was thinking. If a player was admitted into the Talamasca, by no means would they be given full access to their vast libraries. In fact, they'd probably only be given knowledge on a need to know basis. This would be information on whatever assignment the Talamasca had given them, and even then, it might not be ALL the information surrounding the given task, just what their superiors think is needed.

This also solve the problem of the PCs capturing a member of the Talamasca and torturing them for everything they know. They would only know so much.

If you're going to have the Talamasca in your game, I think it would work best if the PCs were NOT members, just like the main characters in the Rice books were not members.

In a similar fashion, you wouldn't want to have the Talamasca have a master library were all their records were kept. You would want to divide the knowledge across many secret safe houses, so that if the PCs (or anyone really) tried to seize one they wouldn't have all the organization's findings at their disposal.

 

[Krushnak]

So how do you handle the Talamasca in a lovecraftian world? How could an organization survive learning these secrets, without falling into ruin? Or what if the PCs want to join? How do you handle the wealth of knowledge they would then have access to?

Well they are a large organisation so not every member knows all of what the total organisation knows, only the 'elders' know the whole picture so it provides some safety for it's members. or you could have them all horribly mad or drugged up or practicing lots of meditation to keep their minds clear of all the horrors and truths that they know, or even hypno-therapy to deny the things that are just to bad to deal with.

 

[Style]

or you could have them all horribly mad or drugged up or practicing lots of meditation to keep their minds clear of all the horrors and truths that they know, or even hypno-therapy to deny the things that are just to bad to deal with.

lol. :twisted:

 

[Aholibamah]

Regarding the witches themselves, I'd suggest that they would fit the setting really. They're basically a somewhat decadent, doom ridden and rich family who are not big on obvious titles but have a lot of influence and wealth. I'd place them in someplace like Ophir, Corinthia or Koth and give them important estates and villas in very civilized but remote areas.

You could even mirror the first novel's plot as an introduction; have an heir or heiress about to come into their own who requires an entourage or escort that is at least financially loyal, only to have the intrigues unveil themselves.